 Prefaces in the Introduction of Godliness. 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. Godliness by Catherine Booth. Publishers' Preface. In giving this volume to our American readers, we are assured that we are doing a special favor to all the lovers of Christianity and earnest. Aggressive Christianity from the same talented author has met with unusual favor and has been the means of much good. We are confident that the present volume is in all respects equal to the former and that no one can read it without great spiritual profit. The Introduction by Dr. Daniel Steele is a forcible presentation of the main doctrines of the book and is creditable to the head and heart of the writer, an accommodation which all intelligent readers will highly esteem. Our object in publishing these sermons is that their perusal may kindle a flame of revival in the hearts of believers, which may result in many turning unto the Lord. MacDonald and Gale, Boston, Massachusetts. Authors' Preface. In presenting another volume of reports of my addresses, I have only to repeat what I have said with respect to similar books before. Read for the sake of getting more light and more blessing to your soul, and you will, I trust, partake of the good which many have professed to receive at the West End services wherein most of these words were first spoken. I am well aware that in such imperfect reports of, for the most part, extemporaneous utterances, often most hurdly corrected, there may be found abundant ground for criticism. But if this book may be the means of leading only a few souls to devote themselves more fully to God and to the salvation of man, I shall be more than compensated for any unfriendly criticism with which it may meet. I have not sought to please any but the Lord, and to His fatherly lovingkindness I commend both the book and its readers. Catherine Booth, London, November 10, 1881. Introduction. The sermons of Mrs. Booth already republished under the title of Aggressive Christianity came to American Christians as a tonic to their weakness and a stimulant to their inertness. The sermons in the present volume are a much needed prophylactic, a safeguard against several practical errors in dealing with souls, errors which lead them into Egyptian darkness instead of the marvelous light. The sermon on repentance is a most faithful showing up of spurious repentance. The veins substitute for a downright abandonment of every form of sin and right about facing towards the Lord. In directness and point it is a model for earnest revival preaching, rather for all preaching to unsaved souls outside the church or within it. All of these will be found in some subterfuge which must be ruthlessly torn down before it will be abandoned for the cleft rock. The sermon on saving faith is next in order. The disastrous consequences of what, for the want of a better description, may be styled an antinomian faith, an unrepented ascent of the intellect to the historic facts of the Gospel which too many evangelists and other religious teachers are calling saving faith, are clearly set forth and plainly labeled poison. This spurious trust in Christ following a superficial repentance which has never felt the desperate sinfulness and real misery of sin has furnished our churches with a numerous class of members, aptly described by the Prophet Micah, quote, the sin of Israel is great and unrepented of, yet they will lean on the Lord and say, is not the Lord among us? We are convinced that much of the work of the faithful and pungent preacher who preaches with his eye fixed on the great white throne and the descending judge is to dislodge professors from their imaginary trust in a Savior who does not save them and probe deeply their hearts festering with sin which have been hastily pronounced healed, slightly healed. Many of us have unconsciously said to awakened souls, only believe. Before we have thrust the heart through and through with the sword of God's law. We have dismissed God's school master. The law like the slave charged with the task of leading the boy to school and of committing him to the teacher, we have thought to be too harsh and severe for our sentimental age and have unwisely discharged and have assumed its office of a pedagogos to Christ. And we have missed the way and misled a priceless soul. God have mercy on us and give us humility as he gave appalls to be set right by an anointed woman. After her timely correction of erroneous teachings on faith, Mrs. Booth proceeds poony knife in hand to cut away from the tree of modern Christianity the poisonous fungus of asperious charity. Before sermons on charity are four beacons set on the rocks of counterfeit Christian love. She sets forth several infallible tests by which genuine love may be distinguished from the devil's base imitation. Like the epistles of St. John, these sermons are full of touchstones for testing love, that golden principle of the Christian life. It would be very profitable for all professors of that perfect love which casteth out all tormenting fear to apply unflinchingly these touchstones to themselves. They may find the word perfection taking on a meaning deeper, broader and higher than they had ever before conceived. Why should not our conception of Christian perfection steadily grow with the increase of our knowledge of God and His holy law? The sermon on the conditions of effectual prayer we commend to all Christians and to all seekers of Christ who are mourning because their prayers do not prevail with God. In the clear light of this sermon they will find that the difficulty lies either in the lack of fellowship with Jesus Christ or of obedience to His commands or in the absence from their hearts of the interceding spirit or in defective faith. In the discussion of these hindrances to prayer the preacher lays open the heart and with a skillful spiritual surgery searches it to the very bottom the incisiveness of her style, her courage in plain dealing with her hearers tearing off the masks of sin and selfishness the various guises in which these masquerade in many Christian hearts and obstruct their access to the throne of grace remind us of Dr. Finney's unsparing exposure and condemnation of these foes to Christian holiness and of John Wesley's cutting up by the roots sin and believers. In this sermon Mrs. Booth turns her attention to another phase of faith and of practical error in the guidance of souls to Christ. Her views on this vexed question are not extreme but philosophical and scriptural. She teaches that God has made the bestowment of salvation simultaneous with the exercise of faith and that telling a person to believe he is saved before he is saved is telling him to believe a lie but she insists that the act of faith is put forth with the special aid of the Holy Spirit giving an assurance that the blessing sought will be granted. This assurance or earnest given by the spirit comes the basis on which the final act of faith rests namely, I believe that I receive. This corresponds with William Taylor's divine quote, ascertainment of the fact of the sinner's surrender to God and his acceptance of Christ, unquote, before justification. Footnote, election of grace pages 38 to 42 in footnote. Both teachers agree with Wesley's analysis of faith which teaches that the fourth and last step, he doth it, can be taken only by the special enabling power of the Holy Spirit. Footnote, sermons, patience, section 13 scripture, way of salvation, section 17 and Whedon on Mark 11, 24. End footnote. All three locate the divine efficiency before the declaration. I believe that I receive or have received the divine change within the consciousness. They all insist that saving faith is not a mere humanly, moral exercise, but that power to believe with the heart descends from God and that it must be waited for in prayer and that it becomes in the believer a series of supernatural and spiritual acts, a habit of soul, at once the seed and the fruit of the divine life-stirring, uniting in itself the characters of penitent humility, self renunciation, simple trust, and absolute obedience grounded in love. These teachers magnify the divine element in faith. We look in vain in their writings for any such direction to a penitent as this. Believe that you are saved because God says so in his word, but rather believe that you are saved when you hear his spirit crying, Abba, Father, in your heart. Many modern teachers fall into the error of treating saving faith as an unaided intellectual act to be performed at will at any time. It is rather a spiritual act possible only when prompted by the Holy Spirit who incites to faith only when he sees true repentance and a hearty surrender to God. Then the spirit reveals Christ and assists him in the refutation of the high predestinary doctrine that faith is an irresistible grace sovereignly bestowed upon the elect. There is greater danger of falling into the opposite error called Pallagianism, which makes saving faith an exercise which the natural man is competent to put forth without the help of the Holy Spirit. The real guilt of unbelief lies in that voluntary indifference towards Christ and impenitence of heart in which the Holy Spirit cannot inspire saving faith. In our introduction to aggressive Christianity we advertised on behalf of the American Churches a universal want, enthusiasm. In her brief Exeter Hall address, Mrs. Booth discloses the source of the supply. Holiness is the wellspring of enthusiasm. Hence it is not a spring fresh it, but an overflowing river of power in all its possessors, and notably in the Salvation Army bearing the unchurched masses of England on its boozing. A holy enthusiasm is contagious and conquering. We cannot touch the people with the icicle of logic, but they will not fail to bow to the scepter of glowing and joyful love. Few men can reason, all can feel it. Enthusiasm and full salvation like the Siamese twins cannot be separated and eliminated. The error of the modern pulpit is that of the blacksmith hammering cold steel, a faint impression, and huge labor. The baptism of fire softening our assemblies would lighten the preacher's toil and multiply its productiveness. The four addresses on holiness are horritory rather than argumentative or exegetical. They are spiritual cyclones. It is difficult to see how any Christian has these impassioned appeals to make what Joseph Cook calls, quote, an affectionate total irreversible, eternal self-surrender to Jesus Christ as both Savior and Lord, unquote. In order to attain that, quote, perfect similarity of feeling with God, unquote, wherein evangelical perfection consists. It gives me great pleasure to have some humble part in echoing across the screen these glowing utterances from the lips of this modern Deborah, the Christian prophetess raised up by God for the deliverance of his people from captivity to worldliness and religious apathy. Would God that all the Lord's people, men and women, were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them? Shall we, the Spirit's course restrain or quench whom he will inspire? Blow, as he lists, the Spirit's choice of instruments we bless. We will, if Christ be preached, rejoice and wish the word success. Daniel Steele, Reading, Massachusetts, November 23rd, 1883. In the Prephesies and Introduction Chapter 1 of Godliness This is a Libor Vox recording, or Libor Vox recording, so within the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LiborVox.org Recording by Elaine Conway England. Godliness by Catherine Booth, Chapter 1, Repentance And saying, Repente for the kingdom of heaven is at hand Matthew 3, 2. At that time, Jesus began to preach and to say Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand Matthew 4, 17. Were upon O King Agrippa I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision, but shewed first unto them of Damascus and Jerusalem and throughout all the coasts of Judea and then to the Gentiles that they should repent to God and who works meat for repentance A. C. T. S. X. X. V. 1. 19. 20 In the mouths of three witnesses John the Baptist, Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul, this word shall be established, namely that repentance is an indispensable condition of entering the kingdom of God. People in Henry are all at sea over this subject as though insisting that repentance were an arbitrary arrangement on the part of God I believe God has made human salvation as easy as the Almighty Infinite mind could make it, but there is a necessity in the case that we should repent and turn to God It is just as necessary that my feelings be changed and brought to repentance towards God as it is that the wicked, disobedient boy should have his feelings brought back into harmony with his father before he can be forgiven Precisely the same laws of mind are brought into action in both cases and there is the same necessity in both. If there is any father here who has a prodigal son, I ask how is it that you are not reconciled to your son? You love him, love him intensely Probably you are more conscious of your love for him than for any other of your children Your heart yearns over him every day You pray for him night and day You dream of him by night Your bowels yearn over your son And you say with David Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son Why are you not reconciled? Why not pat him on the head or stroke his face My dear lad, I am well pleased with you I love you complacently I give you my approbation Why are you always reproving him? Why are you obliged to hold him at arm's length? Why can you not live on amical terms with him? Why can you not have him come in and out and live with you on the same terms as the affectionate, obedient daughter? Oh, you say, the case is different I cannot It is not I would not, but I cannot Before that can possibly be The boy's feelings must be changed towards me He is at all with me He has mistaken notions of me He thinks I am hard and cruel and exacting and severe I have done all a father could do but he sees things differently to what they are He has harboured these hard feelings against me until he hates me and will go on in defiance of my will You say, it is a necessity that as a wise and righteous father I must insist on a change in him I cannot receive him as a son till he comes to my feet He must confess his sin and ask me to forgive him Then oh, how gladly will my fatherly affection gush out How I should run to meet him and to put my arms around his neck But there is a cannot in the case Just so It is not that he does not love you, sinner It is not that the great benevolent heart of God has not as it were wept tears of blood over you It is not that he would not put his loving arms around you this moment if you would only come to his feet and confess you were wrong and seek his pardon But otherwise he may not He cannot The laws of his universe are against him doing so The good it may be of millions of immortal beings is involved He dare not and he cannot until there is a change of mind in you You must repent Except ye repent Ye shall all likewise perish Well, if repentance be an indispensable condition of salvation I will just glance at it for a moment and try to find out what repentance really is and oh how full of confusion the world and the judge are upon this subject I say it because I know it by converse with hundreds of people May the Holy Spirit help us Well, first repentance is not really conviction of sin Oh, if it only were What a different world we should have tonight thousands on whose hearts God's spirit has done his office by convincing them of sin I'm afraid we should be perfectly alarmed astounded, confounded if we had any conception of the multitudes whom God has convinced of sin as he did a gripper and fessed us Oh, I could not tell you the numbers of people who in our anxious meetings have grasped my mind, my hand and said oh would I give to feel as I once felt there was a time fifteen or seventeen or twenty years ago and so on when I was so deeply convinced of sin that I could scarcely sleep or eat that I could find no rest but instead of going on till I found peace I got diverted cooled down and now I feel as hard as a stone I'm afraid there are tens of thousands in this condition once convinced of sin there are thousands of others who are convinced now they say yes it is true what the minister says I know I ought to lay down the weapons of my warfare against God I know I ought to cut off this right hand and pluck out this right eye they are convinced of sin but they go no further that is not repentance they live this week as they did last there is no response to the spirit they resist the Holy Ghost neither is repentance me sorrow for sin I have seen people weep bitterly and writhe and struggle but yet hug on to their idols and in vain you try to shape from them oh if Jesus Christ would have saved them with those idols they would have no objection at all if they could have got through the straight gate with this one particular idol they would have gone through long since but to part with that that is another thing such people will weep like your stubborn child when you want him to do something which he does not want to do he will cry and when you apply the rod he will cry harder but he will not yield when he yields he becomes a penitent but until he does he is merely a convicted sinner when God applies the rod of his spirit the rod of his providence the rod of his word sinners will cry and wince and whine and make you believe they are praying and want to be saved but all the while they are holding their necks as stiff as iron they will not submit the moment they submit they become true penitents and get saved there is no mistake more common than for people to suppose they are penitents when they are not there are some of you in this condition I know I am afraid you are quite mistaken you are not penitents God is true though every man should be a liar and if you had sought as you say you have and perhaps think you have if you had been sincere and honest with God you would have been saved years ago oh my God the Holy Spirit helped you to come out and be honest that is what God wants that you be honest oh says he why cover ye my altar with tears and bring your vain oblations just be honest I will be honest with you and bless you but while you come before me and weep and profess and bring the halt and the maimed and the blind a curse be upon you he looks at you afar off be honest repentance is not me sorrow for sin you may be ever so sorry and all the way down to death be hugging onto some forbidden possession as was the young ruler that is not repentance neither is repentance a promise that you will forsake sin in the future oh if it were there would be many penitents here tonight there is scarcity a poor drunkard that does not promise in his own mind or to his poor wife or somebody that he will forsake his cups there is scarcity any kind of a sinner that does not continually promise that he will give up his sin and serve God but he does not do it then what is repentance repentance is simply renouncing sin turning round from darkness to light from the power of Satan unto God this is giving up sin in your heart in purpose, in intention, in desire resolving that you will give up every evil thing and do it now of course this involves sorrow for how will any sane man turn himself round from a given cause into another if he does not repent having taken that cause it implies also hatred of sin he hates the cause he formerly took and turns round from it he is like the prodigal when he sat in the swineyard amongst the husks and the filth he fully resolved and at last he acts he went and that was the test of his penitence he might have sat resolving and promising till now if he had lived as long but he would never have got the father's kiss the father's welcome if he had not started but he went he left the filth, the swineyard the husks he trampled them under his feet he left the citizen of that country and gave up all his subterfuges made excuses and went to father honestly and said I have sinned which implies a great deal more in his language then than it does in ours now I have sinned against heaven and before thee and then comes the proof of his submission I am no more worthy to be called thy son make me as one of thy hired servants put me in a stable or set me to clean the boots so that I can be in thy family and have thy smile that is repentance Jesus Christ's own beautiful illustration of true repentance have you done that? have you forsaken the accursed thing? have you cut off that particular thing which the Holy Spirit has revealed to you? is the bud, the hindrance that keeps you out of the kingdom you know what it is and you will never get saved until you renounce it submission is a test of penitence my child may be willing to do a hundred and fifty other things but if he is not willing to submit on the one point of controversy he is a rebel and remains one until he yields now here is just the difference between asperious and in real repentance I'm afraid we have thousands in our churches who had asperious repentance they were convinced of sin they were sorry for it they wanted to live a better life God in a sort of general way but they skipped over the real point of controversy with God they hid it from their pastor perhaps and from the deacons and from the people who talked with them now I say Abraham might have been willing to have given up every other thing that he possessed but if he had not been willing to give up Isaac all ours would have been useless it is your Isaac God wants he have got an Isaac just as the young ruler had his possessions you have got something that you are holding on to that the Holy Spirit says you must let go and you say I can't very well then you must stop outside the kingdom I beseech you do not deceive yourselves by supposing that you repent for you do not but oh my dear friends let me beseech you to repent the apostle says knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men and this is I believe the greatest work of the ministry to do what? to persuade men to submit we are constantly talking to thousands of people who know just what God wants of them we cannot bring many of them any new light on New Gospel they know all about it they used to tell me that so often that I had longed for a congregation of heathen which I have fan since then consequently when they hear the Gospel like the publicans and sinners of old they go into the kingdom while such as some of you who are the natural children of the kingdom are shut out because when they hear they receive and submit and obey while you stand outside and hold onto your idols and reason and quibble and reject my dear friends let me persuade you to trample underfoot that idol tear down that refuge of lies and to come to God honestly and say Lord here I am to be a servant to be nothing to do anything to suffer anything I know I shall be happier with thy smile and thy blessing that all these evil things now make me without thee when you come to a full surrender my friends you will get what you have been seeking some of you for years but then another difficulty comes in and people say have not the power to repent oh yes you have that is a grand mistake you have the power or God would not command it you can repent you can this moment lift up your eyes to heaven and say with a prodigal father I have sinned and I renounce my sin you may not be able to weep God nowhere requires or commands that but you are able this very moment to renounce sin in purpose, in resolution, in intention mind don't confine the renouncing of the sin with the power of saving yourself from it if you renounce it Jesus will come and save you from it like the man with a withered hand Jesus intended to heal that man where was the power to come from to heal him from Jesus of course the benevolence the love that prompted that healing or came from Jesus but Jesus wanted a condition what was it? the response of the man's will and so he said stretch full thy hand if he had been like some of you he would have said what an unreasonable command you know I cannot do it I cannot some of you say that but I say you can and you will have to do it or you will be lost what did Jesus want? he wanted that I will Lord inside the man with response of his will he wanted him to say yes Lord and the moment he said that Jesus supplied strength and he stretched it forth and you know what happened don't look forward and say I shall not have strength that is not your matter that is his he will hold you up when you once commit yourself to him now then say I will never mind what you suffer it shall be done he will pour in the oil and balm his glorious blessed presence will do more for you in one hour than all your struggling praying and wrestling have done all these weary years he will lift you up out of the pit you are in the mine now and the more you struggle but he will lift you out of it and put your feet on the rock and then you will stand firm stretch out your withered hand whatever it may be say I will Lord you have the power and mind you have the obligation which is universal and immediate God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent and to believe the gospel what a tyrant he must be if he commands that and yet he knows you have not the power now do you repent mind the old snare not do you weep the feeling will come after the surrender now do not say I do not feel enough do you feel enough to be willing to forsake your sin that is the point any soul who does not repent enough to forsake your sin is not a penitent at all when you repent enough that moment your repentance is sincere and you may take hold of Jesus with a firm grasp you have a right to appropriate the promise then it is look and live believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved will you come to that point now don't begin making an excuse now all men everywhere now oh my friend if you have done that ten years ago you have been accumulating sin condemnation and wrath ever since God commanded you these ten years to repent and believe the gospel and here you are yet how many somans have you heard invitations rejected how many blessed persuasion and reasoning of the Holy Spirit have you resisted how much of the grace of God have you received in vain I tremble to think what an accumulated of abused privilege lost opportunity and wasted influence such people will have to give an account of talk about how the weight of this will be hell enough you don't seem to think anything of the way you treat God oh people are very much awake to any evil they do to their fellow men they can much more easily see the sin of ruining or injuring their neighbors and injuring the great God but he says do you not see the awful weight of condemnation that comes upon you for putting off rejecting resisting facilitating halting what he says now now he has had a right to every breath you have drawn to all your influence every hour of every day of all your years is it not time you ended that controversy you may do with you as he did with such people once before swear in his wrath that you shall not enter into his rest are you not provoking him as they provoked him oh my friend be persuaded now to repent that your sin go away and come to the feet of Jesus for your own sake be persuaded for the peace the joy the power the glory the gladness of living a life of consecration to God and service to your fellow men yield and most of all for the love he bears you submit a great rough man stricken down said to my husband a few weeks ago when he looked up to the place where other people were being saved Mr. Booth I would not go there for a hundred pounds my husband whispered will you go there for love and after a minute's hesitation the man brushing the great tears away rose up and followed him will you go there for love Jesus the great love wherewith he loved you and gave himself for you will you for the great yearning with which your father has been following you will these years for his love's sake will you come go down at his feet and submit the Lord help you Amen End of chapter 1 Chapter 2 of Godliness this is a Libra Volts recording or Libra Volts recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibraVox.org recording by Elaine Conway England Godliness by Catherine Booth Chapter 2 Saving Faith and brought them out and said Sirs what must I do to be saved and they said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house acts 1630 31 this is one of the most abused texts in the Bible and one which perhaps has been made to do quite as much work for the devil as forgot let every Satan present asking faith for the light of the Holy Ghost while we try rightly to apply it let us inquire who are to believe when are they to believe how are they to believe one who are to believe to whom does the Holy Spirit say believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved now mark I answer not to all sinners indiscriminately and here is a grand mistake in a great deal of the teaching of this age that these words are rested from their explanatory connection and from the numbers of other texts bearing on the same subject and held up independently of all the conditions which must ever and did ever in the mind and practice of the Apostles accompany them indeed it has only been within the last 60 or 70 years that this new gospel has sprung into existence preaching indiscriminately to unawakened unconverted sinners believe on the Lord Jesus Christ it seems to me that great inquiry has been done to the cause of Christ but thus wrongly dividing the word of truth to say nothing of the unphilosophical character of such a cause for how can an unawakened unconvicted unrepentant sinner believe as soon as might Satan believe it is an utter impossibility thousands of these people say I do believe my dear son only a little time ago on the top of an omnibus was speaking to a man who was the worst relicca and using very improper language trying to show him the danger of his evil wicked cause as a transgressor of the law of God oh said the man it is not by works it is by faith and I believe as much as you do yes said my son but what do you believe oh he said I believe in Jesus Christ and of course I shall be saved that is a sample of thousands I'm meeting with them daily they believe there was such a man as Jesus and that he died for sinners and for them but as to the exercise of saving faith they know no more about it than a gripper or phoenix as his manifest they come to die for then these great people are wringing their hands tearing their hair and sending for Christians to come and pray with them if they had believed why all this alarm and concern on the approach of death they were only believers of the head and not of the heart that is they were but theoretical believers in the fact recorded in this book but not believers in the scriptural sense or their faith would have saved them to maintain that it is useless and unphilosophical as it is unscriptable to preach only believe to such characters and to Christians have not done their duty and have not discharged their responsibility to these souls when they have told them that Jesus died for them and that they are to believe in him they have a much harder work to do and that is to open their eyes to a sense of their danger and to make them by the power of the spirit realize the dreadful truth that they are sinners that they are sick and they will run to the physician the eyes of the soul must be open to such a realization of sin and such an apprehension of the consequences of sin as shall lead to an earnest desire to be saved from sin God's great means of doing this is the law as a schoolmaster to receive Christ as their salvation there is not one case in the New Testament in which the apostles urged souls to believe or in which a soul is narrated as believing in which we have not good grounds to believe that these preparatory depth of conviction and repentance have been taken the only one was that of Simon the sorcerer he was as numbers of people are in great religious movements carried away by the influence of the meeting and the example of those around him and professed to believe doubtless he did credit the fact that Jesus died on the cross he received the facts of Christianity into his mind and in that sense he became a believer in the same sense that tens of thousands are in these days and he was baptized but when the testing point came as to whose interests were paramount with him his own all gods then he manifested the true state of the case as the apostle said I see thy heart is not right with God and nobody has converted whose heart is not right with God that is the test if Simon had been converted his heart would have been right with God and he would not have supposed the Holy Ghost could have been brought for money and Paul added for I perceive that thou art still in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of equity and what further did he say to him therefore at once believe no he did not therefore repent and pray God perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee repent first and then believe and to get this wickedness forgiven so we get a double lesson in the same passage this Simon was the only person we have any record of as believing where there is not in the passage of self taken with the context a reasonable and rational evidence that these preparatory steps, conviction and repentance were taken before the teaching of faith all the exercise and confession of faith Simon had this faith of the head but not of the heart and therefore it ended in defeat and despair some have written me this week that they have believed they had been persuaded into a profession of faith but no fruits followed ah it was not the faith of the heart it was the faith of the head like that of Simon's and it left you worse than it found you and you have been groping and grovelling ever since but I do not think that was real faith and that therefore real faith has failed but be encouraged to begin again and repent try the real thing for Satan always gets the counterfeit therefore don't go down into despair because the wrong kind of faith did not succeed that shall not make the real faith of God of none effect God forbid look at one or two other cases the three thousand in a day surely this is a scriptural illustration surely no one will call that anti-gospel or legal what was the first work Peter did he drove the knife of God's convincing truth into their hearts and made them cry out he awoke them to the truth of their almost lost and damned condition to they said what must we do to be saved they were so concerned they were so pricked in their hearts their eyes were so open to the terrible consequences of their sin that they cried aloud before the vast multitude men and brethren what must we do to be saved he convinced them of sin and thus followed the order of God again the eunuch is often quoted as an illustration of faith but what state of mind was he in was he a careless unconvicted sinner there he was an Ethiopian a heathen but where had he been to Jerusalem to worship the true and living God in the best where he knew as far as he understood what was he doing when Philip found him he was not content with the mere worship of the temple whistling a worldly tune on his way back he was searching the scriptures he was honestly seeking after God and the Holy Ghost always knows where such souls are and he said to Philip go join thyself to that chariot there is a man seeking after me there is a man whose heart is honestly set on finding me go and preach Christ and tell them to believe that man would have sacrificed or done or lost anything for salvation and as soon as Philip expanded the way of faith he received it of course as all such souls will Saul on his way to Damascus is another instance Jesus Christ was a preacher there and surely he would not be mistaken his philosophy was signed where did he begin what did he say to Saul he saw there an honest hearted man Saul was sincere so far as he understood and if in any case there needed to be the immediate reception of Christ by faith it was in his but the Lord Jesus Christ did not say one word about the faith Saul Saul why persecutist Thammy telling the bandages of deception off his eyes and letting him see the wickedness of his conduct and Paul said what art thou Lord he repeated the accusation he did not come in with the oil of comfort he did not plaster the wound up and make it whole in a moment but he said I am Jesus of Nazareth whom thou persecutist he ran the knife in again and opened Paul's eyes wider and his wounds wider too and sent him bleeding on to Damascus where he was three days before he got the healing he had to send for a poor human instrument and he had to hear and obey his words before the scales fell from his eyes and before the pardon of his sins was pronounced and the Holy Ghost came into his soul I wonder what Paul was doing those three days not singing songs or thanksgiving and praise that had to come oh what do you think he was doing neither ate nor drank he was in the dark what was he doing no doubt he was praying no doubt he was seeking after this Christ who had spoken to him in the way no doubt he was looking with horror upon his past life and abduing forever his accursed antagonism to Jesus Christ and his gospel of course he was bringing forth fruits meat for repentance according to the divine order Acts 26 and then came Ananias and preached Christ unto him and he believed unto salvation and the scales fell off and his mouth was filled with praise and thanksgiving to God Cornelius is another instance but what was the state of his mind and heart we know that he feared God and wrought righteousness as far as he was able he gave alms to the people and prayed day and night that is more than some of you ever did who live in the gospel times you never prayed all night about your souls no wonder if you should lose them not half a night come some of you but Cornelius did he was seeking God he honestly wanted to know him he was willing at all costs to do his will consequently the Lord sent him the glorious message of the revelation of Jesus Christ I might go on multiplying instances but I must stop we have said enough to show who are to believe truly penitent sinners and they only this text is a repenting enlightened convicted sinner is to a repenting enlightened convicted sinner enlightened convinced and so wretched that you cannot sleep you do repent you are the very people then to whom this text comes believe you are just in the condition of the jailer believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and now let us look what state of mind the jailer was in we see from the whole narrative how his eyes had been opened the earthquake had done that some people need an earthquake before they get their eyes opened and it has to be allowed one too the jailer's eyes were opened and he made the best use of his time he was lashing their backs a little while before talk about his change here was a change says what must I do to be saved I'm ready to do anything only tell me what and when a soul comes to that state of mind he has nothing more to do but to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ he came in trembling and went down on his knees and washed their stripes when you get to that state of mind you will soon get saved you have nothing more to do but to believe you will find it easy work then too when is a sinner to believe when he repents here again I'm going to answer some of your letters I'm afraid I do not realize my sins sufficiently I have no particular agony on account of sin but I do see my whole life to have been one huge error and sin there is nothing more common than for souls to delude themselves on this point of feeling that gentleman confines feeling with conviction he thinks because he has not this extreme agony which some have therefore he's not sufficiently convinced while the Holy Ghost has opened his eyes to see that his whole life has been one huge error and sin he's convinced that it has been all sin not one isolated sin here and there abstracted from his life but such a perception of his true character that he sees his whole life to have been sin surely my friend you are convinced what else but the Holy Ghost could have shown you that now the truly repentant soul first sees sin secondly he hates sin thirdly he renounces sin now let me try you by each of these tests don't let Satan deceive you to make you believe the exercises of your own mind face the facts and when you have come to a conclusion don't allow him to raise a controversy but stick to your facts and go on from them or you will never get saved Satan is an accuser of the brethren and I suppose of the sisters too I will be as honest and as searching with you as I possibly can I will not spare the probe and when we have probed and found the truth stand on it for Christ's sake and don't let it go from under your feet because Satan will try to cheat you out of your common sense conscience and convictions you see sin an entirely unawakened soul does not see sin that is in its true character in its heinousness in its consequences he admits that all people are sinners oh yes but he does not see the deadly damning character of sin he does not see what an evil and bitter thing sin is in itself now the Holy Ghost alone can open the soul's eyes to see this without him or my preaching or any other preaching if they were permitted to preach might go on to all eternity and it would never convince of sin if you see sin it is the Holy Ghost who has opened your eyes praise him and take encouragement my friend if God has thus far dealt with you and opened your eyes to see the character and consequences of sin does it not augur well that he decides also to save you from it he has opened your eyes in order may anoint them with and cause you to see light in his light now have you got thus far you have told me that your life has been one great sin others say one particular form of sin whatever it is if you are convinced of sin it is the Holy Ghost who has convinced you therefore thank God and take courage thus far further the true panitent hates sin that is his feelings towards sin they are different to what they were in the past there was a time when you could commit sin almost without notice without concern people do not realise a great change that has taken place in them in this respect they are brought gradually to it translate yourself back into your unawakened state how do you live then the very things that now cause you such distress you practice every day they gave you no concern the things that horrify you now in the very thought of temptation to them you then were daily practicing without compunction you had no hatred too no dread of sin you were willing bond slaves of Satan now you are his unwilling slave then you ran towards sin now he has to drive you and when you fall it is against your will you hate sin now mind this is not being saved from it this is not saying you have power to save yourself from it in fact this is the very difficulty personified by the apostle when representing the ineffectual struggles of a convicted sinner the things you would not those you do and the things you would those you have not the power to do nevertheless you desire to do them there is the difference once you did not desire to do them and perhaps those you did were a pack of hypocrites in your estimation now you feel quite differently and you struggle and strive and pray and watch some of you have told me so and yet you say I am again and again overcome cause you are because you are not saved yet but don't you see you desire to be you hate the sin which enthralls you you struggle against it overcome half so frequently perhaps as you were before people do not see what a great deal they owed to be to the convincing and preventing power of the Holy Spirit helping their infirmity even now to cut off and pluck out the right hand and the right eye and bringing them up in a waiting attitude before God like Cornelius and the eunuch you my bearers, hearers some of you are following after God you are longing for deliverance a striving against sin take another illustration I don't mean that the soul has power to save itself from its internal maladies that you will get when Jesus Christ saves you but I mean this here is a soul convinced of sin here is a man who is daily addicted to drink he is a drunkard he becomes convinced of sin rather than the spirit of God says will you give up the cup then commences the struggle now the question is are you to teach that man he is to go on drinking and expect God to save him are you to keep putting before him faith and telling him never mind your cup but believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved or are you telling him you must put away your sin pluck out that right eye renounce that drink forever in your heart in your purpose in your will and until you do you cannot exercise faith on the Lord Jesus here is another person addicted to lying he when he is convinced of sin sets a watch over his lips that he may not offend of his mouth and he does not succeed in so guarding himself or the Holy Spirit so helps him to guard himself that he does not lie as he used he is overcome now and then because he has not yet found the power but he is resolutely as his will is concerned cutting off this outward sin and waiting in the way of obedience before deliverance and salvation who is a servant systematically robs his musters till he goes to a religious meeting and is convinced now the Lord says you must cut off that dishonesty you cannot come to this meeting night after night pretending to want to be saved while you are going on every day robbing your master you must cut off that right hand and give up that pilfering and resolve that you will make restitution and wait for me in the way of bringing forth fruits meet for repentance so you see what I mean now you are just here some of you know you are if you are addicted to an evil habit it is just the same Jesus Christ wants you to force wear that habit in your will, determination and purpose you have not the power to deliver yourself from it you may struggle as some of you tell me you are doing but it overcomes you and down you go he knows all about that but he approves of the struggle and the effort and the watchfulness and the determination and when he saves you he will give you the power and then you will stand and not fall but he will hold you up now you know that you go thus far and you know that at this moment if you had the power in yourself to extinguish the force of that evil habit over you forever you would do it without another moment's hesitation you say yes I would indeed would God I had the power that is repentance that is genuine repentance now what you cannot do for yourself he meets you just where you stand and says I will do it for you I will break the power of that habit I will deliver you out of the hands of the enemy I will save you out of that bondage only throw your arm of faith around me and I will lift you up and I will inspire you with my spirit you shall stand in me and by me and what you are now struggling to do for yourself I will do for you then you have not got this thus far that you hate sin yes I have you have said it in your letters to me and there are others saying it who have not written to me yes you are saying I desire to be saved from it I would save myself this very instant if I could and to never sin again would you is not that repentance what else is it thank you suppose you had a disobedient and rebellious son if he had been living irrespective of your law and will wasting your money and trampling under foot your commandments suppose he comes back he sees the error of his course his eyes are opened perhaps by affliction perhaps by want and thousand other things at any rate he sees it he comes home and says father what a fool I have been how wicked I have been I see it all now I did not see it when I was doing it I see my evil course my sins that made you mourn and turned your hair grey oh how I hate it all I repent in dust and ashes father I forsake it all I come home to you would you say my son you have not repented enough go be gone wait till you feel it more no your paternal heart will go out in love and forgiveness and you would put the kiss of your reconciling love upon his cheek even so there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth it's there as there would be joy in that family circle over the return of that wandering child but suppose that lad were to come and say father I do thus repent I do thus forsake my sins but there are some companions who will follow me so closely that I am afraid I shall again fall under their power and there are some habits so terrible that I am afraid they will again conquer let me then be always by your side you must strengthen me what would you say do not say then come in my son sit by me live with me and I will shield you I would deliver you thou shalt never cross the threshold without me I will live with you I will hold you up and as far as a human being could shield another you would shield your son he would never lack your sympathy or your strength day or night your heavenly father lacks neither sympathy or strength may never sleeps his arm never tires and you have only to go and lay your helpless weakness on his almighty strength by this one desperate leap of faith and he will hold you up even though there were a legion of devils around you lastly you renounce your sins that is in will, purpose and determination you say I never wish to grieve him again you sing it and you feel it I never want to grieve him anymore and if you could only live without grieving him you would not much mind even it were in hell itself is not that penitence you know it is you renounce sin you do not say Lord Jesus save me with his right hand with his right eye Lord Jesus save me with those forbidden things hanging about my skirts no you say Lord Jesus save me out of them make me clean that is penitence you see it you hate it you renounce it now then believe on the Lord Jesus Christ oh Holy Spirit reveal the simple way of faith you say how am I to believe some despairing soul ask me this in large letters how am I to believe and to trust the self to him out to the altar she trusts him with herself she believes in him she makes a contract and goes home and lives as if it were true that is faith how do you trust your physician when you are sick as you lay in repose or anguish upon your bed you trust him with your case you commit yourself to him you believe in his skill and obey his orders trust and obey and expect that it is going to be with you according to his word instead of this the faith of many people is like that of a person afflicted with some grievous malady a friend tells him of a wonderful physician who has cured hundreds of such cases and gives him abundant evidence that this doctor is able and willing to cure him if he will only commit himself to his treatment the sick man may thoroughly believe in a testimony of his friend about this physician and yet for some secret reason he may refuse to put himself into his hands now there are numbers like that which is as Christ they believe he could cure the malady of sin on certain conditions they believe he is no respecter of persons they believe he has done it for hundreds as bad as they and yet there is some reason why they do not trust him now what you want is to give your case into his hands and say Lord Jesus I come as thou hast bid me confessing and forsaking sin if I could I would jump out of it now and forever thou knowest I come renouncing it but not having power to save myself from it and now Lord Jesus thou hast said him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out I do come thou dost not cast me out thou dost take me thou dost receive me blessed Holy Father I give myself to thee I put my sins upon the glorious sacrifice of thy Son thou hast said thou wilt receive me and pardon me for his sake now I roll the guilty burden on his bleeding body and I believe thy promise I trust thee to be as good as thy word that is faith all said a dear lady I do not feel it no you must trust first Mark not believe you are saved but believe that he does now save you watch things so ever ye desire when you pray believe that he receive them and he shall have them that is the law of faith believe that he receive it before you feel it God shall be true and every man or devil he contradicts him a liar throw your arms around the crucified take fast hold of the hand of the Son of God put your poor guilty soul right at the foot of his cross and say a dost receive a dust pardon a dust cleanse and keep using the language of faith I have seen numbers of souls stuck into liberty precious words in the first person he was wounded for my transgressions he was bruised for my iniquities the chastisement of my peace who laid upon him and by his stripes I am healed keep using the language of faith all the way home tonight go into your closet and say I am determined to be saved if there is any such thing as salvation resolve that if you perish you will perish in that room at the foot of the cross suing for pardon and you will get it I have never known a soul come to this who did not soon get saved get into the lifeboat put off from the old stranded wreck of your own righteousness or your own efforts step right into the lifeboat of his broken bleeding body take fast hold and resolve that you will never let go get into your soul and you shall know of a truth that you have passed from death and to life the Lord help you Amen End of Chapter 2 Chapter 3 of Godfulness this is a LibriVolks recording or LibriVolks recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVolks.org Recording by Elaine Conway England Godfulness by Catherine Booth Chapter 3 Charity and now a by-the-faith hope charity these three but the greatest of these is charity 1 Corinthians 13 it must be a precious thing to be greater than faith and greater than hope it must indeed be precious in proportion as things are valuable and precious amongst men so much trouble and risk will human speculators take to counterfeit them I suppose that in no department of roguery in this roguish world has there been more time and ingenuity expended than in making counterfeit money especially banknotes just as wicked men have tried to imitate the most valuable of human productions for their own profit so the devil has been trying to counterfeit God's most precious things from the beginning and to produce something so like them that mankind at last should not see the difference and perhaps in no direction has he been so successful as in producing a spurious charity I almost think he has got it to perfection in these days I don't think he can very well improve on the present copy this charity this love is God's most precious treasure it is dearer to his heart than all the vast domains of his universe dearer than all the glorious beings he has created so much so that when some of the highest spirits amongst the angelic bands violated this love he held them from the highest heaven to the nethermost hell why not because he did not value those wonderful beings but because he valued this love more because he saw that it was more important to the well-being of his universe to maintain the harmony of love in heaven and save those spirits who had allowed selfishness to interfere with it so our Lord says I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven the day is coming when he will behold all the dire progeny of this first rebellion fall also haste happy day but let us look for a few minutes at this precious beautiful charity let us try first to define it what is it first it is divine it must be shared abroad in the heart by the holy ghost in vain do we look for this heavenly plant amongst the unrenewed children of men it grows not on the corrupt soil of human nature it springs only where the plows share of true patience has broken up the fallow ground of the heart and where faith in a crucified saviour has purified it and where the blessed holy spirit has taken permanent possession it is the love of God not only love to God but like God from God and fixed on the same objects and ends which he loves it is a divine implantation by the holy ghost perhaps some of you are saying then it is useless for me to try to cultivate it because I have not got it exactly you may cut and prune and water forever but you can never cultivate that which is not planted your first work is to get this love shared abroad in your heart it is one of the delusions of this age that human nature only wants pruning, improving developing and it come out right no, every plant which my heavenly father had not planted shall be rooted up if you want this divine love you must break up the fallow grounds of your hearts and invite the heavenly husband to come and sow it shared it abroad in your soul secondly I want you to note that this love is a divine principle in contra distinction to the mere love of instinct all men have love as an instinct mere natural love towards those whom they like or who do well for them if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye do not even publicans the same wicked men love one another from mere natural affinity as the tiger loves its cubs there is great confusion amongst professors of religion on this subject there feel sentiments of pity and generosity towards their fellow men and they may even give their goods to feed the poor and yet not have a spark of divine charity in their hearts Saul after God departed from him was not holy destitute or generous feeling respecting his family and kingdom dives in hell had some pity for his brethren but neither of them had a spark of this divine charity mind you are not deceived millions are let us note one or two points of this curious and divine charity utterly and forever diverge disagree in nature first spurious charity is selfish is never exercised but to gratify some selfish principle in human nature thousands of motives inspire it too many to enumerate but we will glance at two or three reread in the context that a man might give his goods to feed the poor and yet be destitute of true charity now what an anomaly but we have wonderful illustrations such a thing is possible first a man may do this to support and carry out a favourite system of intellectual belief for which he has become enamoured just as men become absorbed in politics or in what they consider the good of their nation so that they will even go to the canon's mouth to promote it a man may do it in order to merit eternal life Paul did this when he went back to establish his own righteousness he tells us afterwards that self was the mainspring of all his zeal it was all his own exultation there was no divine love he was an utterly un-renewed Christ-less and selfish man at the very time he was doing this or it may be in the third place to gratify a naturally generous disposition I used to say to a generous friend of mine when he was talking in a confidential way about his giving and the delight it gave him attributing it to divine grace I used to put my hand on his and say hold my friend I'm not so sure it is all grace you like giving better than other people do receiving look out that you do not lose your reward do not take in the trouble to see what you give to don't give your money to every scheme that comes across you remember that you are answerable to God for your wealth and that God will demand of you how you have bestowed your goods that is true charity that takes the trouble to investigate relative claims and tries to find out the best channels in which to give for God's glory and the salvation of men don't you put down your generosity to the Holy Ghost if it is not of that kind for you will never receive a bit of interest for it here or hereafter not a fraction a false charity begins in self and ends on earth here is a mark for you to distinguish between it and God's charity the devil's charity always contemplates the earthy part of man in a superior degree to the spiritual part and here it exactly crosses and contradicts the divine charity which always contemplates man and the entirety of his being and always gives the first importance to the soul we have plenty of spurious charity in these days the other day when I took up a so called religious print and saw some fulsome things it had been saying about a certain individual lately dead I thought really would one ever imagine this were a Christian paper in a Christian country there is not the slightest recognition of a soul no reference to the man's spiritual condition or his future state here are one or two of the most ordinary human qualifications seized on and made the most of to make it out that he was something beyond his fellows but as to any recognition of a soul or of a God who will judge him of a heaven or hell I think oh people say when speaking of Godless and even wicked men you must be charitable you must not judge Satan does not care how much of this one sided charity there is the more the better for his purpose it will make people all the more comfortable in their sins and to get them all the more easily down to hell my friends are you more concerned about relieving temple distress you may know where your charity comes from don't misrepresent me and say that I teach all of one and none of the other God forbid for if any man hath his worlds good and see his brother have need and shatth up his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him but on the other side if he sees him spiritually famishing dying for want of the bread of life how dwelleth the love of Christ in him if he does not minister to this special destitution I know that real Christianity cares for body and soul bless God it does but always mind that it sets the soul first I know the master fed the multitude but before that he had them with him three days trying to save their souls and when they got hungry in the process then he made them sit down and fed their bodies he always looked after the soul first and so does everyone possessed of divine charity why? because divine charity has opened his eyes he realises the value of souls he sees them famishing he sees them being damned but he cannot help himself his desire to save them rushes out of him like a torrent he beholds them and has compassion on them try your charity by this mark do you contemplate the dying famishing half damned souls of your fellow men do you look abroad on the state of the world on the state of the church do you think about it do you go into your closet and spread it before the Lord as Hezekiah and Jeremiah and Hosea did do you look at it and tell it over and weep over it and pray and cry and weep over it try yourselves my brethren my sisters by this mark divine charity is always revolving around that great problem of infinite love what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul oh I can never get it out of my ears or away from my heart oh how I see the emptiness what does it matter if a man dies in the workhouse if he dies on a dual step covered with wounds like Lazarus what does it matter if his soul is saved it is your creed as much as mine that the soul is immortal and that the death of the body is only its introduction if it be saved to a glorious future of everlasting felicity progress and holiness does the child remember how he used to cry over his lessons when he becomes a man does he remember all the little difficulties of his school days when he is inheriting the fruits of them just so 10,000 times as important will be all our sufferings trials and griefs here if we save our souls and the souls of others this divine charity makes everything else observant to the salvation of souls and everything else to save and bless the inner and spiritual man do you remember on one occasion when the master had fed the multitudes and when they came to him again to be fed he said you seek me not because you saw the miracles but because you did eat of the loaves and were filled you would have said quite right the people want to be fed they are hungry hear the divine lament that comes out in these words that they were so spiritually obtuse that they valued their earthly bread more than the heavenly give them as much temple bread as you like but mind you give them the spiritual bread first for this is characteristic of true charity have you got this charity every soul knows whether it has or not people are so unphilosophical in religion they talk about not knowing but you can find out in two minutes whether you love God or yourself best tell me that woman does not know whether she loves her husband or a self best nonsense what is the proof she seeks to please him and is willing to sacrifice herself for him in fact merges her interests altogether in his do you love God best are you willing to forgo your interests and to seek his have you this divine charity born of heaven tending to heaven if not my friend resolve you will have it now begin to cry mightily to God for the Holy Spirit to shed it abroad in your heart give up your quibblings and reasonings and go down at the foot of the cross and ask him come lord and break up this poor wicked heart and shed this beautiful pure divine charity abroad in it and then you will not henceforth seek your own but the things that are Jesus Christ end of chapter 3 chapter 4 of godliness this is a labour box recording all labour box recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit labourbox.org godliness by Catherine Booth charity and rebuke and now abideth faith hope charity these three but the greatest of these is charity 1 Corinthians 13 13 the second main point of difference between a true and a false charity we want to remark is divine charity is not only consistent with but it very often necessitates reproof and rebuke by its possessor it renders it incumbent on those who possess it to reprove and rebuke whatever is evil whatever does not tend to the highest interests of its object this charity conforms in this as in everything else to its divine model as many as I love I rebuke and chase him when necessary for the good of its object for he doth not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men any more than a father willingly chastises a disobedient child but if he be a wise father it will do it because he loves it just so the possessor of this divine charity can afford to rebuke and reprove sin wherever he finds it it will not suffer sin upon his neighbor but will in any wise reprove him and strive to win him to the right we will just turn to a beautiful illustration there are many if we had time to go into them this divine charity in the heart and life of the very apostle who wrote this 13th of Corinthians we cannot get wrong because it is Paul himself Galatians 2, 11-15 but when Peter was come to Antioch I withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed for before that certain came from James he did eat with the Gentiles but when they were come he separated himself fearing them which were of the circumcision and the other Jews dissembled likewise with him in so much that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation but when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel I said unto Peter before them all well done Paul noble, gloriously courageous charity that cannot go and mutter behind Peter's back and stab him in the dark I said unto Peter before them all, if thou being a Jew live us after the manner of the Gentiles and not as do the Jews why compel us thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews we who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles you want a characteristic of true charity now listen to it would be exceedingly painful to Paul thus publicly to rebuke Peter they loved one another for we find Peter long after this in one of his epistles calling Paul our beloved brother Paul they loved one another Paul understood the claims of true charity for he wrote this 13th of Corinthians if he loved Peter and if he understood the claims of true charity why did he thus openly rebuke Peter why did he inflict upon himself the pain of doing it faithfulness to Peter himself faithfulness to the truth faithfulness to Jesus Christ demanded it therefore he sacrificed his own personal feelings and inflicted this pain upon himself rather than allow Peter to go wrong the Romans to be misled and the Jews to be carried away with worldly policy Paul said himself to rebuke Peter in the presence of all play as it very often does with the minority nearly all the influence was on the side of the circumcision they were the most influential of the brethren and Paul said himself against all this influence in his rebuke of Peter why because faithfulness to the truth demanded it and divine charity is first pure there is a greater example still in our Lord himself in the master whose whole soul was love whose life was one sacrifice for the good of his creatures and yet how faithfully he reproved his own when they aired from the truth and how fearlessly he exposed and announced the shallowness and hypocrisy of those who profess to love God and yet contradicted this profession in their lives how fearlessly he reproved sin everywhere he said to his disciples on one occasion you know not what manner of spirit you are of for the man is not come to destroy men's lives but to save them as if he had said you ought to have learned this before now on another occasion he said are ye also yet without understanding and again get thee behind me sainton without savor is not the things that it be of God that was divine charity that was faithful love that dared to rebuke rather than let the object of it do wrong and sin against God and again when he goes to the hypocrites and Pharisees he says ye say ye are the children of Abraham it was as difficult for Jesus Christ to confute the professors of his day as it is for his ambassadors to confute the professors of this day who are living inconsistently with their professions he said ye say that ye are the children of Abraham if ye were the children of Abraham listen to me or if ye were the children of God ye would believe in me for I came out from God no ye are the children of your father the devil and his works ye do and yet his divine heart was full to breaking of love and broke itself on the cross for them and prayed father forgive them for they know not what they do oh that your charity and mine might not lack this of the divine likeness would to God there were more of this faithful loving charity that dares to reprove sin and to rebuke its brother instead of the false charity that fawns on a man to his face and goes behind him and stabs him in the back do you suppose that the great mass of the professors of this generation think one another to be right take almost any given church do you suppose that the great mass of the members of that church and their hearts that their fellow members brothers and sisters and church communion are living consistently I don't mean in things only but in heart that they are living really godly lives alas witness what they say behind each other's backs they believe no such thing they know perfectly well it is not so and they take care to tell other people so and yet there is not one in a thousand of them ever went privately with his brother and took lovingly hold of his hand and reproved him for his sinful and back sliding conduct what would be thought of any woman who were to go after being to church the day before and ask for a private interview with missus and when alone with her with tears in her eyes and deep earnestness in her voice were to say dear missus I have come to see you on a very painful errand but will you suffer a word of pain from one so unworthy and weak as I feel myself to be and yet I trust one who has the spirit of god which urges me to come to you will you allow me to say that I was much pained with your attitude to church yesterday it seemed to me that your mind was not at all occupied with the solemnity of the service but seemed to be occupied in criticizing the person's dress in the seat opposite to you and I did not help noticing that when you got outside the doors you began to laugh and talk in a way quite incompatible with the service you had been attending if she were to say dear missus I have not mentioned this to a soul not even to my husband but I have come to tell it to you let us go down before the lord and ask him for the holy spirit that he may show you how wrong you are and how you are sliding away from the love of god may the thought what would be said of such conduct if everybody who sees sin upon his neighbor would do that if he would take the lord's council and go and see his brother alone and tell him his fault how many would be saved from back sliding and how many a disgraceful split and controversy in churches might be saved but where are the people who will do it I don't mean there are not many god forbid I know there are speaking comparatively whereas the man who will inflict pain upon himself for that is the point if it were a pleasant duty he would do it easily enough but it is a painful duty he does not like to screw himself up to it whereas the man that will do it rather than suffer his brother to go to sleep in his sin and rather than the precious cause of Christ shall be disgraced and injured where are the saints who will go in meekness and in love I try to reclaim the one who has erred I hope you know a great many I'm sorry to say I know only a few if you know many I am very glad and the more you know the better I am pleased if you are one of these that is one at all events if every Christian would have this sort of charity what a change would soon come about that is what the church wants people who can afford to rebuke and re-prove because they don't care what men think of them who are sad only on pleasing their lord and master and doing his will have you got this charity that seeketh not her own what a contrast between Saul and Paul did you ever think about it what does he say I went about to establish my own righteousness that was his inspiring motive that was the spring of his action before he got true charity not that he cared for the kingdom of God but he cared for his own honor and exaltation and wanted to stand well with his nation then contrast him when he becomes Paul what does he say for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren my kinsmen according to the flesh there is charity if you like these were the very people with whom he had been so anxious to stand well and whose good word he wanted but when the Holy Ghost had come and Paul had got the divine charity and got his eyes open to see their devilish and lost condition he so weeps over them that he says I have a great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren my kinsmen according to the flesh there is a contrast he does not care now what they think of him he is going about trying to open their eyes to see that they are not the children of Abraham but the children of the devil that they are going to the bottomless pit and that unless they turn round and seek the God of their fathers they must perish self is lost sight of altogether now Paul's heart and soul and the efforts are set on the salvation of men if they choose to praise him he takes it as a matter of course if they choose to condemn him he takes that as a matter of course too he is seeking the kingdom and however men treat him the kingdom he seeks right on to martyrdom he runs the gauntlet of their direst hate and malice that he may open their eyes and turn them from saint into God and from sin to righteousness self is lost sight of it is not Paul now it is Christ and his kingdom false charity is the opposite of this it is most concerned about what people think of him not how they treat his professed lord the professor of false charity cannot afford to reprove anybody oh dear no he would faint at the very idea and he calls people hard and legal and sensorious who dare to do it poor sneaking coward but he will not be afraid to stab a man behind his back the speech of this false charity betrayeth it it the earth with its lips honey is on its tongue but the poison of asps is underneath beware of it even when it professes to commend a brother or neighbor it rolls up its sanctimonious eyes and always puts a butt in one of the devil's butts oh he is a good man but yes I have a great esteem for him only there is such and such a thing oh it is very divine the devil can see the garb of light when it answers his purpose oh the fair reputations that this slime of the serpent has trailed over oh the influence for good that this venom of the devil has poisoned and ruined for it has been truly said there is no virtue so white that back wounding columny will not strike even in God's perfect man those who are watching and seeking to betray can find something on which to ground their accusations I say mind which charity you have got true charity rejoices not in iniquity are you conscious in your soul of a feeling of triumph when anybody that you don't like happens to fall on some evil thing if you have look out the devil has got hold of you do you rejoice in iniquity when it happens to an enemy if so woe be to you get that venom out God won't have it in heaven one man with that venom in him would damn paradise love your enemies love them bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you that he may be the children of your father which is in heaven now my brother my sister try yourself we shall meet again and you will find that these are imaginary vagaries that I have been talking of they are realities though these great realities of our Christianity are seldom preached in these days but they are here and there is no truth in you if you have not got the charity which hates evil as evil and which will reproof it and root it out and have it cured here again false charity is the very antipodes of the divine it does not care much about righteousness quietness is its bow ideal of all that is lovely and excellent it says let us be quiet you must not disturb the peace of the church it cries peace peace when there is no peace it says we cannot help these evils every man must look after himself we are not responsible for our neighbor it knows very often that there are continents of dirt underneath things and systems and men which it chooses to patronize but then it is covered up and so it says let it alone we cannot have a smudge let it alone peace peace nevermind righteousness the church must be supported if the money does come out of the dried up vitals of drunkards and harlots nevermind we must have it nevermind if our songs are mixed with the shrieks of widows and orphans and damned sing away sing away and drown their voices nevermind we cannot have it looked into and rooted out and pulled up peace we must have peace and they call you as Ahab did Elijah the disturber of Israel if you dare to touch the sore place and exhibit their putrefying wounds and bruises and when you say to them the law of life is do unto others as you would they should do unto you they impudently turn upon you and say but we are not expected to be perfect in this life and so they throw a thicker covering over the filth and on it goes this is the devil's charity and the more the better for his purpose but the charity and the wisdom which is from above is first pure and then peaceable would be an everlasting warfare in the company with that which is fair and true and good then I would walk in harmony with that which is hollow and rotten and vile and destined for the bottomless pit the Lord help you to make the same choice End of chapter 4