"I MUST say that I never have had so close and satisfactory a view of the gospel salvation, as when I have been led to contemplate it in the light of a simple offer on the one side, and a simple acceptance on the other." -Thomas Chalmers. "FULL consecration may in one sense be the act of a moment and in another the work of a lifetime. It must be complete to be real, and yet, if real it is always incomplete; a point of rest, and yet a perpetual progression. Suppose you make over a piece of ground to another person. From the moment of giving the title deed, it is no longer your possession; it is entirely his. But his practical occupation of it may not appear all at once. There may be waste land which he will take into cultivation only by degrees. Just so it is with our lives. The transaction of, so to speak, making them over to God is definite and complete. But then begins the practical development of consecration." -Frances Ridley Havergal. III. CONVERSION AND CONSECRATION. HESE two facts in our spiritual history TH seem to us to be often strangely confounded. We make a radical distinction between them. In conversion we receive; in consecration we give; in the one we accept eternal life from God; in the other we offer up ourselves in self-surrender to God; in the one we appropriate the work of Christ done for us, in the other we fulfil the work of the Spirit in us. Inquirers are not infrequently counselled to give their hearts to Christ, or to consecrate themselves to the Lord. We would not be over-critical with what is well meant; but really this is not the Gospel. The good news of grace is that God hath given to us eternal life and redemption through His Son, and that in order to be saved the sinner has naught to do but to accept it. Indeed why should one be asked to give, when he has nothing acceptable to bring ? "It is more blessed to give than to receive;" and the Lord who is alone worthy takes this highest beatitude for Himself, and puts the whole race of unrenewed sinners into the position of helpless and dependent receivers.* "For God so loved the As many as received world, that he gave his only | Him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God." (John 1: 12.) begotten Son." (John 3: 16.) "The gift of God is eternal life." (Rom. 6: 23.) "Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it." (Eph. 5: 25.) "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." (Rev. 22: 17.) 66 "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord." (Col. 2 : 6.) But having received the gift of God and been made a partaker of His converting grace, then and therefore the divine obligation for service begins to press upon us. The Lord becomes an asker as soon as we have become recipients. "As ye * "The gospel of the grace of God does not consist in pressing the duty defined by the words 'Give your heart to Christ,' although that is often unwisely urged upon inquirers after salvation as though it were the gospel. The true gospel is, 'Accept the free gift of salvation from wrath and sin by receiving Jesus Himself and all the benefits he purchased with his blood." -William Reid; Blood of Jesus. p. 22. |