Adventures in the Far West | Page 5

because your
clearest reason and most mature judgment tells you that such is best.
From now on, instead of willing to do your own will, you are going to
submit to God's will; for the most blessed thing in the world is the will
of God.
Just here is where you may be tempted to draw back; for something
may whisper, "Why, if you abandon yourself what will become of you?
Maybe God would require of you something very hard for you to do. Is
it not dangerous thus to yield?"
To illustrate this, suppose you are the mother or father of a boy. Like
all boys, yours has given you more or less trouble by wanting his own
way. There has been more or less of a battle of wills, his will against
your will. You feel, and rightly, that your experience gives you a better
idea of what is good for him than his experience gives. Suppose he

were to come to you tomorrow and say: "From now on, Mother, I will
do anything you want me to. I abandon my way and will for your way
and will."
What would you do in that case? Would you make up your mind that
now is a good time to put hardships upon him and make life as
miserable as you can for him? "Indeed not," you would indignantly say.
Well, then, can the great God, who is love, take advantage of His
children and, when they give all to Him, lay heavy and grievous
burdens on them because He can? Just as you, when your boy yielded,
would love him all the more and do all you could to make life pleasant
even if there were some hard things in it, so God seeks to lighten the
load His consecrated children must bear. To abandon yourself to God is
an act of highest intelligence and wisdom.
"Surrender" implies the cessation of rebellion. Of course the sinner, to
be converted, must surrender, and does surrender. And you have
already surrendered in that way. Yet there is a self-life or a self-will
that shrinks more or less from the will of God until we enter the Canaan
of entire sanctification. This rebellion takes on the form of refusing or
objecting to some of the Lord's ways with us. For instance, we may feel
a call to special service--to the ministry, or to the missionary service, or
to personal work--and we may have mapped out an entirely different
life for ourselves and ate to submit to God's leadings.
Surrender of the will is a part of the consecration. There can be no inner
soul-rest so long as our wills pull us one way and God's will pulls us
another. When Jesus said His yoke is easy and His burden light He
meant it is easy if we pull with Him, not against Him. How can two
walk together except they be agreed? Then lay your will down; or,
rather, actively, enthusiastically, delightedly will that God's will be
done in and with you.
"Lay all on the altar" is a favorite expression with many teachers of full
salvation and the victorious life. The figure comes from the sacrifices
made under Moses' law. Every Israelite had to offer sacrifices. The
main thing about the sacrifice was, whether sheep, goat, lamb, dove, or

something else, it had to be a perfect, unblemished sacrifice. God
would not accept any lame, maimed, blemished, or otherwise marred
sacrifice. It had to be the best of its kind. After it was brought to the
priest and dedicated to the Lord, it was laid on the altar and consumed.
It was the Lord's. The one offering it had no more to say about it
whatever.
Then on God's altar you should lay all--time, talents, earthly goods,
soul, body, and will. Once when Abraham had made a sacrifice, birds
came to steal it. Abraham was careful to drive away the birds. A
beautiful figure is found in Abraham's action. We might say that after
you have laid all on God's altar you may need to guard the offering; for
the birds of self-will, pride, unbelief, and evil desire may carry off your
sacrifice.
"Die" is a favorite expression with other teachers of perfect holiness--
die to self; die out to God; die to all but Jesus. The figure is full of vital
meaning. Mrs. Cleaveland, in her delightful poem on the river of death,
pictures the clergymen of various denominations as losing all their
distinguishing marks as they cross the river, and over on the other shore
not one can be told from another so far as sectarian peculiarities are
concerned. This is even true of entire consecration, or crossing the
Jordan into Canaan; for in Canaan there is a delightful absence