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The God of Jacob · Israel: A Prince with God

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Chapter sixteen of Israel A Prince with God by F. B. Meyer.
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This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by Marianne, Chapter sixteen,
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The God of Jacob Psalm forty six. With all thy heart, with
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all thy soul and mind, Thou must love Him and his behest, embrace
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all other loves with which the world doth blind, weak fancies and strup affections.
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Base Thou must renounce and utterly displace, and give thyself unto Him,
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full and free, that full and freely gave himself to thee Spencer. It
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is very comforting to discover in how many parts of scripture God calls himself the
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God of Jacob. He seems to take special delight in the title which links
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his holy nature with one who, so far from giving promise of saintship,
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was naturally one of the meanest of men. We should not have been surprised
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to find speaking of himself as the God of Israel the Prince. But it
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is as startling as it is reassuring to find him speaking of himself still more
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often as the God of Jacob. But as we notice the careful reiteration of
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the designation, especially in the psalms of David and the prophecies of Isaiah.
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We learn this priceless lesson, that He has not changed since he took Jacob
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in hand, that he feels towards such characters now as he did when he
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began his gracious work of renewal in that poor cramped heart, and that he
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is ready to do as much for all who are conscious of being equally worthless
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by nature, and who are willing to put themselves into His gracious hands which
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reach down from heaven to earth, molding men. There is little doubt that
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God would do as much for all the readers of these lines, if only
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they were willing. And it is the object of this closing appeal to urge
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my readers to let Him have his gracious way with them. As we have
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studied together Jacob's life and character, have you not been keenly conscious of similarities
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between him and yourself? You too may be cunning, crafty, and deceitful.
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Or you may be prone to outbursts of ungovernable temper, or you may
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be cursed by unholy desires that honeycomb your better nature. Or you may be
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constantly brought into captivity to some tyranneous sin. Now there is no need for
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this to be your hapless lot for one moment longer, if only you will
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hand yourself over to the mighty God of Jacob. At the door of a
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mission hall in a low and degraded neighborhood, a Christian man one evening was
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inviting the passers by to go into the service which was about to commence.
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But my coat is in rags, replied a wretched looking man. That is
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no matter, was the answer. There's a man inside without a coat at
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all. It was quite enough to remove all further hesitation, and he entered,
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forgive the simple illustration by which I wish to press home my meaning on
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those who may question, if their nature is not too ignoble and their evil
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habits too confirmed for them to entertain the hope of saintliness, your case is
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not hopeless. If God could make a prince of Jacob, he can do
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as much for any one. It is hardly possible for one of us to
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be more hopeless than Jacob was to begin with. And the same Lord who
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was so rich in mercy to him will be as rich to all them that
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call upon him. In truth, one cultivate a holy ambition. There is
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no tendency of the unrenewed heart more subtle or dangerous than ambition. By this
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sin fell the angels. And yet if it is properly curbed and kept,
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ambition plays a useful part among the motive forces of human life. It is
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a bad sign when a lad or a man has no desire to prove his
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position and get on. In all likelihood, he will always lie with the
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rest of the rabble at the bottom of the hill, without the desire or
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power to stir. And it is well to cultivate a holy ambition, to
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be all that God can make us, to grasp all the possibilities that lie
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within the reach of faith, and to apprehend that for which we have been
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apprehended of Christ. Jesus such an ambition fired the heart of the apostle when
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he said, not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect,
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But I follow after, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching
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forth into those things which are before. I pressed toward the mark for the
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prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus Philippians, Chapter three,
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verses twelve to fourteen. Does not this stir you Do not be content to
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be always a jacob. Do not settle down to life long slavery beneath your
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merciless oppressors. Do not suppose that you must always be what you have been.
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The arrows are beyond thee make for them. This holy ambition may be
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aroused by the study of Christian biography. Every time you read or hear of
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God's grace being magnified in some beautiful and noble life, thank him. Let
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your own ideal be raised, and ask him to do as much for you.
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But there is nothing which will quicken this sacred spark into a flame.
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So soon as the devout study of the Bible. There are such wonderful openings
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up of the possibilities of Christian living and being. In almost every paragraph,
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constant familiarity may have rubbed them bright and smooth like some well worn coin.
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But if only we will let the Holy Ghost recut them for us, we
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shall be perfectly astonished. And as one after another, these ideals of God's
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own heart open our gaze. Let us entreat him to fulfill in us the
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good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power. Let this
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be deeply engraven on your heart as the sacred page is turned, that every
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promise is for you, and that God is able to do exceeding abundantly above
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all that you can ask or think, And then look up to Him and
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claim that he should do as he has said. Two, make a complete
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surrender to God. Before God will commence his gracious work on a human spirit,
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it must be entirely surrendered to him. The key of every room and
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closet and cupboard in the being must be put in his hands. Every province
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of the life must be placed under his government. There must be no keeping
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back, no reserve to withhold one thing even the least will vitiate the whole
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transaction and leave a foothold for the self life, from which it will speedily
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spread back throughout the whole nature. Who would take a house recently infected by
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small pox unless the whole of it were thrown freely open to the officers of
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health? Who would pretend to viz a friend involved in financial difficulties unless the
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whole of his liabilities were freely disclosed. Who would prescribe for a disease unless
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the patient told all the symptoms and entirely gave up all other means of cure,
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and so God will not undertake the case of any poor child of his
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unless there be first a complete and entire surrender of the whole being to his
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gentle healing work. Some time ago, as I was passing down one of
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the poorest streets of Leicester, I remarked a notice in the window of a
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most dilapidated shop, the trade of which had for some time past been ebbing
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away. The notice was to the following effect, the shop will shortly be
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opened under entirely new management. As I stood for a moment there, it
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seemed as if the whole building put on a kind of hopeful smile, as
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much as to say, I am so glad that I am to be put
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under an entirely fresh management. Several days afterwards, as I passed that way
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again, I found a small army of whitewashers and papers at work. And
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on the next occasion the change in management was evident to the most casual eye,
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for the whole place had a clean, sweet look about it, which
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was quite attractive. Now this is just what you require you with the Jacob
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nature, you have been trying to manage yourself all too long. A change
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is evidently needed. But it must be complete. There must be nothing left
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of yourself at all. Everything must be absolutely surrendered to that mighty God of
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Jacob, whom the Psalmist made his refuge, and who is able to take
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bankrupt souls and make them heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Why
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should you not make that surrender? Now? Instances crowd upon my pen,
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eagerly asking mention of those who have entered into experiences of undreamt of blessing through
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the straight gait of entire surrender. But I forbear to give them here.
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It is enough to point the way and leave to all to enter the golden
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land. Who will when you come to the point of self surrender. It
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is highly probable that some one thing will suggest itself to your mind, which
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it is very difficult to transfer from your control to that of the Lord Jesus.
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You would so much prefer to retain it under your own management. You
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are not quite sure whether he may not introduce some sweeping and painful changes.
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You stand in dread as the lad before he throws himself into the buoyant waves.
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But such fears are most unworthy of our loving Master. He will take
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away nothing which it will do us no harm to keep. He never amputates
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a limb without using some anodyne to lessen the pain, without injuring the health.
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He will never give us one thrill of anguish from which it would be
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possible to save us. Do not be afraid of giving all up to the
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lovely will of Him who is love, and who will not break the bruised
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reed or quench the smoking flax. If your child were to say, I
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am going to give my life over to your ordering, do all you will,
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would you begin to make him miserable? Would you not rejoice in the
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opportunity of arresting him in courses which were harming him? Would you not gladly
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embrace the opportunity of filling him with joys that he could never have realized for
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himself? And your heavenly Father will not do less for you only trust him
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withal And should there be things in your life which you find it hard to
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abandon, dear as right eye or hand or foot, involving the happiness of
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others as well as your own, tell God that you give them over to
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him, and that you are willing to have his will done. If he
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will only bring it to pass in his own good way and time. And
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if you cannot say as much as that, tell him that you are willing
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to be made willing hand over your will to him, though it seemed to
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be as a piece of cold, hard iron, Sure that he can soften
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and weld it into the pattern on which he has set his heart. My
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will from day to day, bend it with thine, and take away all
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that now makes it hard to say thy will be done. There is even
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a more excellent way than any which is within the reach of the feeblest hand,
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and that is to ask the Lord to come into your life to take
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that which you do not feel able to give. The only matter of which
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you need be careful is your willingness that he should have all. If that
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is assured, the rest may be safely left to his gracious arrangement. Directly
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you are willing the doors opened to him, and he instantly takes full possession.
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Three, be careful not to thwart God's good workmanship. Of course,
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there is a sense in which we cannot resist or impede the execution of his
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sovereign will. He doeth as he will amongst the armies of Heaven and the
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inhabitants of earth. And yet on the other hand, we may hinder and
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counter work His loving purposes. How often would I, but ye would not
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let us be on the guard against this disastrous resistance, and be ever on
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the alert to work out that which God is working in us, both to
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will and to do. Once the prophet Jeremiah Jeremiah chapter eighteen was led to
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go down into the valley where the potter was at work molding clay on a
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wheel. And as he stood by to watch the skillful manipulation of the clay,
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the prophet had of course no idea what pattern was in the designer's mind,
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though probably it was one of the noblest conception and destined for some royal
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or special purpose. And so beneath those rapid revolutions of the wheel the ideal
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began to take shape. Then suddenly the clay was taken from the wheel with
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an exclamation of disappointment, and the design was foiled and spoilt. Why because
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the potter was wanting in skill, No, but because the clay refused to
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take on the shape which he had designed. His work was therefore marred on
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the wheel, and he was compelled to make of that clay some inferior vessel
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from that which he had intended. It might have served a noble purpose in
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the royal household, or even in the temple service, but it was now
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fashioned into a coarser form for some mean purpose in a peasant's home. The
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lesson was meant for Israel, but it will serve for us. Speaking after
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the manner of men, May we not say that when God created us a
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new in Christ Jesus, he conceived a noble ideal after the pattern of which
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we might have been conformed. And if we had only yielded to him more
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completely, that ideal would long ago have revealed itself in our experience. But
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alas we have not always been plastic in his hands, we have not obeyed
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the promptings of his spirit. We have quenched and grieved him, and we
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are far different to day from what we might have been, and from what
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God intended to become. Shall we not confess this with tears and shame?
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Shall we not take unto us words and turn to Him saying, now,
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O Lord, we are the clay, and thou art potter, we are
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all the work of thy hands. Be not wroth, very sore. And
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if a man purify himself from the sins which have hindered the divine workman,
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he shall yet become a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the Master's
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use, and prepared unto every good work. I do not deny that God
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will fulfill his purpose in us, even though we hinder him. But it
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will be carried through, as it was in the case of Jacob. At
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a terrible expenditure of agony and the shriveling of the sinew of our strength,
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the yoke will have to be borne and the long furrows cut. And if
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the unaccustomed heifer prove resistive, its struggles will only chafe sores about its neck,
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but it will ultimately be broken in on the whole. Therefore, it
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is always better to take the yoke of the divine purpose offered by our Lord
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as his take my yoke, And remember a yoke is for two. Our
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Lord yokes himself at our side and paces by us, step by step,
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doing for us what Simon the Sirenian once did for him on the way to
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Golgotha. Four. Seek the fullness of the spirit that spirit dwelt in Israel,
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as the sun flushes the topmost summits of the Alps with a roseate glow,
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long before it bathes the valleys in its meridian light. But in this
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blessed dispensation he is given not to saints and prophets only, but to all,
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to sons and daughters, to old men and children, to servants and
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handmaidens. The promise is to you and your children, and to all that
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are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call acts
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Chapter two, verse thirty nine. And it is only as we receive this
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sacred gift in all its fullness, that we can hope to attain to the
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royal standard of the israel life. That blessed spirit is the spirit of the
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Sun, the spirit of the one royal man that ever walked the world.
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And if we would have his nature, we must have his spirit, not
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in drops, but in rivers, not as a zephyr breath, but as
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a rushing, mighty wind. This is the dying need of the Christian Church.
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In this country. We have learning rhetoric, fashion, wealth, splendid
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buildings, and superb machinery, but we are powerless for lack of the power
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which can only be obtained through the fullness of the Spirit. Of what use
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is a train of sumptuous pullman cars without an engine, throbbing with the power
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of steam. We have too largely forgotten the exhortation be filled with the Spirit.
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We have thought that the fullness of the Spirit was a specialty for the
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Apostolic age instead of being for all time. And thus the majority of Christians
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are living on the other side of Pentecost. We can never be what we
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might be until we have got back to the Apostolic theory and practice in respect
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to this all essential matter. Oh, that God in these last days would
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raise up some fire torched tongue to do for this neglected doctrine what Luther did
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for justification by faith. In the meantime, seek this blessed filling. It
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is only possible to emptied hearts. But just so soon as a vacuum has
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been created by the act of entire surrender, there will be an instantaneous feeling
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by the Holy Ghost in answer to expectant desire and eager faith. For the
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Holy Ghost longs to enter the human heart, resembling in this the air which
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is ever seeking to enter our homes by every keyhole, crack and aperture.
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Do not wait to feel that you have him. Be sure that you do
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possess his fullness. If only you have made room for him and go on
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acting in the strength of His mighty power, so shall you be and Israel
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and have power with God and man. The words, of course, apply
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only to those who by faith have become the justified children of God. If
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any who are not assured of this have read thus far, let them now
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make complete abandonment of themselves to the Son of God, to be saved by
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his death and life, just as he will. This is the first essential
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step towards royalty to as many as receive him. To them, he gives
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the right to become children of God, even to as many as believe on
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his name. John Chapter one, verse twelve. Life is no child's play
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to those who enter into God's purposes and in whom He is fulfilling his sublime
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ideals. But with the dying Kingsley, we are sure that all is right
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and well, since all is under law. When the discipline is over,
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we shall be more than satisfied with the result. And taking our stand amongst
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the Prince of the Royal Blood we shall ascribe eternal glory to him who loved
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us in spite of all, and washed us from our sins in his own
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blood, and out of Jacob's made us kings unto God. End of Chapter
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sixteen and end of Israel A Prince with God by F. B. Meyer,
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Read by Marian Spiegel, Elmhurst, Illinois, October twenty twenty three,