“Not as I will, but as thou wilt.”— Matthew 26:39
The apostle Paul, writing concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, says, “Through he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.” He who, as God, knew all things, had to learn obedience, in the time of his humiliation. He, who is in himself Wisdom Incarnate, did himself condescend to enter the school of suffering: there we learn that important lesson of the Christian life, obedience to the will of God; and here, in Gethsemane’s garden, you can see the Divine Scholar going forth to practice his lesson. He had been all his lifetime learning it, and now he has to learn it for the last time in his agony and bloody sweat, and in his terrible death upon the cross. Now is he to discover the utmost, depths of suffering, and to attain to the height of the knowledge of obedience. See how well he has learned his lesson; note how complete and ripe a scholar he is. He has attained to the very highest class in that school; and, in the immediate respect of death, can say to his Father, “Not as I will, but as thou wilt.”
The object of this discourse is to commend to you the blessed example of our Lord Jesus Christ, and, as God the Holy Spirit shall help me, to urge you to be made like unto, your glorious Head, and yourselves to learn, by all the daily providences with which God is pleased to surround you, this lesson of resignation to the will of God, and of making an entire surrender to him.
I have been struck lately, in reading works by some writers who belong to the Romish Church, with the marvelous love which they have towards the Lord Jesus Christ. I did think, at one time, that it could not be possible for any to be saved in that church; but, often, after I have risen from reading the books of those holy men, and have felt myself to be quite a dwarf by their side, I have said, “Yes, despite their errors, these men must have been taught of the Holy Spirit. Notwithstanding all the evils of which they have drunk so deeply, I am quite certain that they must have had fellowship with Jesus, or else they could not have written as they did.” Such writers are few and far between; but, still, there is a remnant according to, the election of grace even in the midst of that apostate church.
Looking at a book by one of them, the other day, I met with this remarkable expression, “Shall that body, which has a thorn-crowned Head, have delicate, pain-fearing members? God forbid!” That remark went straight to my heart at once. I thought how often the children of God shun pain, reproach, and rebuke, and think it to be a strange thing when some fiery trial happens to them. If they would but recollect that their Head had to sweat as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground, and that their Head was crowned with thorns, it would not seem strange to them that the members of his mystical body also have to suffer. If Christ had been some delicate person, if our glorious Head had been reposing upon the soft pillow of ease, then might we, who are the members of his Church, have expected to go through this world with joy and comfort; but if he must be bathed in his own blood, if the thorns must pierce his temples, if his lips must be parched, and if his mouth must be dried up like a furnace, shall we escape suffering and agony? Is Christ to have a head of brass and hands of gold? Is his head to be as if it glowed in the furnace, and are not we to glow in the furnace, too? Must he pass through seas of suffering, and shall we—
“Be carried to the skies,
On flowery beds of ease”?
Ah! No! We must be conformed unto our Lord in his humiliation if we would be made like him also in his glory.
So, brethren and sisters, I have to discourse to you upon this lesson, which some of us have begun to learn, but of which as yet we know so little, — this lesson of saying, “Not as I will, but as thou wilt.” First, let me explain the meaning of this prayer; then, urge you, by certain reasons, to make this your constant cry; next, show what will be the happy effect of its being the paramount desire of your spirits; and we will conclude with a practical enquiry, —what can bring us to this blessed condition?
I. First, then, WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS PRAYER? “Not as I will, but as thou wilt.”
I shall not address myself to those Christians who are but as dwarfs, who know little about the things of the kingdom. I will speak rather to those who do business in the deep waters of communion, who know what it is to pillow their heads upon the bosom of Jesus, to walk with God as Enoch did, and to talk with him as Abraham did. My dear brethren, only such as you can understand this prayer in all its length and breadth. Your brother, who as yet scarcely knows the meaning of the word communion, may pray thus in some feeble measure; yet it is not to be expected that he should discern all the spiritual teaching that there is in these words of our Lord; but to you who are Christ-taught, you who have become ripe scholars in the school of Christ, to you I may speak as unto wise men, —judge ye what I say.
If you and I mean this prayer, and do not use it as a mere form of words, but mean it in all its fullness, we must, be prepared for this kind of experience. Sometimes, when we are in the midst of the most active service, when we are diligently serving God both with our hands and our heart, and when success is crowning all our labors, the Lord will lay us aside, take us right away from the vineyard, stud thrust us into the furnace. Just, at the very time when the church seems to need us most, and when the world’s necessities are most of all appealing to us, and when our hearts are full of love towards Christ and towards our fellow-creatures, it will often happen that, just then, God will strike us down with sickness, or remove us from our sphere of activity. But if we really mean this prayer, we must be prepared to say: “Not as I will, but as thou wilt.” This is not easy, for does not the Holy Spirit himself teach us to long after active service for our Savior? Does he not, when he gives us love towards our fellow-men, constrain us, as it were, to make their salvation our meat and our drink? When he is actively at work within our hearts, do we not feel as if we could not live without serving God? Do we not then feel that, to labor for the Lord is our highest rest, and that toil for Jesus is our sweetest pleasure? Does it not then seem most trying to our ardent spirit to be compelled to drink the cup of sickness, and to be incapable of doing anything actively for God? The preacher is seeing men converted and his ministry successful; but, on a sudden, he, is compelled to cease from preaching; or the Sunday-school teacher has, by the grace of God, been the means of bringing his class into an interesting and hopeful condition; yet, just when the class, needs his presence most, he is smitten down, so that he, cannot, go on with his work. Ah! Then it is that the spirit finds it hard to say, “Not as I will, but as thou wilt.” But if we adopt this prayer, this is what it means; that we should be prepared to suffer instead of to serve, and should be as willing to lie in the trenches as to scale the walls, and as willing to be laid aside in the King’s hospital as to be fighting in the midst of the rank and the of the King’s army. This is hard to flesh and blood, but we must do it if we present this petition.
If we really mean this prayer, there will be a second trial for us. Sometimes, God will demand of us that we fallout in unpropitious fields; he will set his children to plough the rock and to cast their bread upon the waters. He will send his Ezekiel to prophesy in a valley full of dry bones, and his Jonah to carry his message to Nineveh. He will give his servants strange work to do, —work which seems as if it never could be successful, or bring honor either to God or to themselves. I doubt not that there are some ministers, who toil and labor with all their might, yet who see but little fruit. Far away in the dark places of heathendom, there are men who have been telling for years with scarcely a convert to cheer them; and here, too, in England, there are men who are preaching, in all sincerity and faithfulness, the Word of the Lord, yet they do not see souls converted. They know that they are unto God a sweet savor of Christ, both in them that perish, and in them that are saved.
Our hearts are, I trust, so full of the Spirit prompting us to cry, like Rachel, “Give me children, or I die;” that we cannot rest content without seeing the success of our labors. Yet the Master, in effect, says to us, “No, I tell you to continue to toil for me, though I give you no fruit for your labor; you are to keep on ploughing this rock, simply because I tell you to do it.” Ah! then, brethren, it is hard to say, “Not my will but thine be done.” But we must say it; we must feel that we are ready to forego even the joy of harvest, and the glory of success, if God wills it.
At other times, God will remove his people, from positions of honorable service, to other offices that are far inferior in the minds of men. I think that I should feel it hard if I had to be banished from my large congregation, and from my thousands of hearers, to a small village where I could only preach the gospel to a little company of people; yet I am sure that, if I entered fully into the spirit of our Lord’s words, —“Not as I will, but as thou wilt,”—I should be quite as ready to be there as to be, here. I have heard that, among the Jesuits, such is the extraordinary obedience which they are compelled to pay to their superiors that, on one occasion, there was a president of one of their colleges, who had written some of the most learned books in any language, a man of the highest talents, and the superior of the order took a freak into his head, for some reason, to send him straight, away from the country where he was to Bath, to stand there in the street for a year, and sweep the crossing, and the man did it. He was compelled to do it; his vow obliged him to do anything that he was told to do. Now, in a spiritual sense, this is hard to perform; but, nevertheless, it is a Christian’s duty.
We remember the saying of a good man that the angels in heaven are so completely given up to obedience to God that, if there should be two works to do, ruling an empire and sweeping a crossing, neither of the two angels, who might be selected to go on these two errands, would have any choice in the matter, they would just leave it with their Lord to decide which part they were to fulfill. You may perhaps, be called from the charge of the services in a place of worship, to become one of the humblest members in another church; you may be taken from a place of much honor, and put in the very lowest ranks of the army; are you willing to submit to that kind of treatment? Your flesh and blood say, “Lord, if I may still serve, in thine army, let; me be a captain; or, at least, let me be a sergeant, or a corporal. If I may help to draw thy chariot, let me be the leading horse, let me run first in the team, let me wear the gay ribbons.” But, God may say to you, “I have put thee there in the thick of the battle, now I will place thee behind; I have given thee vigor and strength to fight with great success, now I will make thee tarry by the stuff; I have, done with thee in the prominent position, now I will use thee somewhere else.” But if we can only pray this prayer, “Not as I will, but as thou wilt,” we shall be ready to serve, God anywhere and everywhere, so long as we know that we are doing his will.
But there is another trial which we shall all have to endure in our measure, which wilt prove whether we understand by this prayer what, Christ meant by it. Sometimes, in the service of Christ, we must be prepared to endure the loss of reputation, of honor, and even, of character itself. I remember, when I first, came to London to preach the Word, I thought that I could bear anything for Christ; but I found myself shamefully slandered, all manner of falsehoods were uttered concerning me, and in agony I fell on my time before God, and cried unto him. I felt as though that was a thing I could not bear; my character was very dear to me, and I could not endure to have such false things said about me. Then this thought came to me, “You must give up all to Christ, you must, surrender everything for him, character, reputation, sad all that you have; and if it is the Lord’s will, you shall be reckoned the vilest, of the vile, so long as you can still continue to serve him, and yea’ character is really pure, you need not fear. If it is your Master’s will that you shall be trampled and spit upon by all the wicked men in the world, you must simply bear it, and say, ‘Not as I will, but; as thou wilt.’” And I remember then how I rose from my knees, and sang to myself that verse,—
“If on my face, for thy clear name,
Shame and reproaches be,
All hail reproach, and welcome shame.
If thou remember me.”
“But how hard it was,” you say, “for you to suffer the loss of character, and to have evil things spoken against you falsely for Christ’s name’s sake!” And what was the reason why it was so hard? Why, it was just because, I had not fully learnt how to pray this prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ, —and I am afraid that I have not completely learnt it yet. It is a very delightful thing to have even our enemies speaking well of us, to go through this world with such holiness of Character that men who pour scorn upon all religion cannot find fault with us; but it is an equally glorious thing for us to be set in the pillory of shame, to be pelted by every passer-by, to be the song of the, drunkard, to be the by-word of the swearer, when we do not deserve it, and to endure all this for Christ’s sake. This is trite heroism; this is the meaning of the prayer of our text.
Again, some of you have at times thought, “Oh, if the Master will only be pleased to open a door for me where I may be, the means of doing some good! How glad I should be if I could have either more wealth, or more influence, or more knowledge, or more talents, with which I might serve him better.” You have prayed about the matter, and thought about it, and you have said, “If I could only get into such-and-such a position, how excellently should I be able to serve God!” You have seen your Master give to some of his servants ten talents, but he has giver you only one; you have gone on your knees, and asked him to be good enough to trust you with two, and he has refused it. Or, you have had two and you have asked him to let you have ten; and he has said, “No, I will give you two talents and no more.” But, you say, “Is it not a laudable desire, that I should seek to do more good?” Certainly; trade with your talents, multiply them if you can. But, suppose you have no power of utterance, suppose you have no opportunities of serving God, or even suppose the sphere of your influence is limited, what then? Why, you are to say “Lord, I hoped it was thy will that I might have a wider sphere, but if it is not, although I long to serve thee on a larger some, I will be quite content to glorify thee in my present narrower sphere, for I feel that here is an opportunity for the trial of my faith and resignation, and again I say, ‘Not as I will, but as thou wilt.’”
Christian men, are you prepared heartily to pray this prayer? I fear there is not a single individual amongst us who could pray it in all its fullness of meaning. Perhaps you may go as far as I have already gone; but if God should take you at your word, and say, “My will is that your wife should be smitten with a fatal illness, and, like a fading lily, droop and die before your eyes; that your children should be caught up to my loving bosom in heaven; that your house should be burned with fire; that you should be left penniless, a pauper dependent on the charity of others; it is my will that you should cross the sea; that you should go to distant lands, and endure unheard-of hardships; it is my will that, at last, your bones should lie bleaching on the desert sand in some foreign clime.” Are you willing to endure, all this for Christ? Remember that you have not attained unto the full meaning of this prayer until you have said, “Yes” to all that it means; and, until you can go to the uttermost lengths to which God’s providence may go, you have not gone to the full extent of the resignation in this cry of our Lord.
Many of the early Christians, I think, did know this prayer by heart; it is wonderful how willing they were to do anything and be anything for Christ. They had got this idea into their heads, that they were not to live, to themselves; and they had it also in their hearts; and they believed that, to be martyred, was the highest honor they could possibly wish for. Consequently, if they were brought to the tribunals of the judges, they never ran away from their persecutors; they almost courted death, for they thought it was the highest privilege that they could possibly have if they might be torn in pieces by the lions in the arena, or be decapitated with the sword. Now, if we also could but get that idea into our hearts, with what courage would it gird us, how fully might we then serve God, and how patiently might we endure persecution if we had but learn the meaning of this prayer, “Not as I will, but as thou wilt.”
II. In the second place, I AM TO TRY TO GIVE YOU SOME REASONS WHY IT WILL BE BEST FOR US ALL TO SEEK TO HAVE THE HOLY SPIRIT WITHIN US, SO THAT WE MAY BE BROUGHT INTO THIS FRAME OF MIND AND HEART.
And the first reason is because it is simply a matter of right. God ought to have his way at all times, and I ought not to have mine whenever it is contrary to his. If ever my will is at cross-purposes to the will of the Supreme, it is but right that mine should yield, to his. If I could have my own way, —if such a poor, feeble creature as I am could thwart the Omnipotent Creator, it would be wrong for me to do it. What! Hath he made me, and shall he not do as he wills, with me? Is he like the potter, and am I but as the clay, and shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, “Why hast thou made me thus.” No, my Lord, it is but right that thou shouldest do what thou pleasest with me, for I am thine; —thine, for thou hast made me; —thine, for thou hast bought me with thy blood. If I am a jewel purchased with the precious blood of Jesus, then he, may cut me into what shape, he pleases, he may polish me as he chooses, he may let me lie in the darkness of the casket, or let me glitter in his hand or in his diadem; in fact, he may do with me just as he wills, for I am his; and so long as I know that he does it, I must say, “Whatever he does is right; my will shall not be in opposition to his will.”
But, again, this is not only a matter of right, it is a matter of wisdom with us. Depend upon it, dear brethren, if we, could have our own will, it would often be the worst thing in the world for us. But to let God have his way with us, even if it were in our power to thwart him, would be an act of wisdom on our part. What do I desire when I wish to have my own will? I desire my own happiness; well, when I shall get it far more easily if I let God have his will. For the will of God is both for his own glory and my happiness. So, however much I may think that my own will would tend to my comfort and happiness, I may rest assured that God’s will would be infinitely more profitable to me than my own; and that, although God’s will may seem to make it dark and dreary for me at the time, yet, from seeming evil he will bring forth good, such as never could have been produced from that supposed good after which my weak and feeble judgment, is so apt to run.
But, again, suppose it were possible for us to have our own will, would it not be an infringement of that loving reliance which Christ may well ask at our hands, that we should trust him? Are we not saved by trusting our Lord Jesus Christ? Has not faith in Christ been the means of saving me from sin and hell? Then, surely I must not run away from this rule when I come into positions of trial and difficulty. If faith has been superior to sin, through the blood of Christ, it will certainly be superior to trial, through the almighty arm of Christ. Did I not tell him, when I first came to him that I would trust no one but him? Did I not declare, that all my other confidence were burst and broken, and scattered to the winds; and did I not ask that he would permit me to put my trust in him alone; and shall I, after that, play the traitor? Shall I now set up some other object in which to place my trust? Oh, no! My love to Jesus, my gratitude to him for his condescension in accepting my faith, binds me henceforth to trust, to him, and to him alone.
We often lose the force of a truth by not making it palpable to our own mind; let us try to make this one so. Imagine the Lord Jesus to be visibly present in this pulpit; suppose that he looks down upon one of you, and says, “My child, thy will and mine do not, just now, agree; thou desirest such-and-such a thing, but I say, ‘Nay, thou must not have it;’ now, my child, which will is to prevail, mine or thine?” Suppose you were to reply, “Lord, I must have my will.” Do you not think he would look at you with eyes of infinite sadness and pity, and say to you, “What! Did I give up my will for thee, and wilt thou not give up thy will for me? Did I surrender all I had, even my life, for thy sake, and dost thou say, thou self-willed child, ‘I must have these things according to my will, and contrary to thy wish and purpose, O my Savior?”
Surely, you could not talk like that; rather, I think I see you instantly falling on your knees, and saying, “Lord, Jesus, forgive, me for ever harboring such evil thoughts; no, my Lord, even if thy will be hard, I will think it pleasant if it be bitter, I will believe that the bitterest draught is sweet. Let me but see thee dying on the cross for me, let me only know that thou lovest me, and wherever thou shalt put me, I will be in heaven as long as I can feel that it is thy will that is being done with me. I will be perfectly content to be just wherever thou choosest me to be, and to suffer whatever thou choosest, for me to endure.” Yes, dear friends, it would show a sad want of that love which we owe to Christ, and of that gratitude which he deserves, if we were once to set our wills up in opposition to his. Therefore, again, beloved, for love’s sake, for wisdom’s sake, for right’s sake, I beseech you ask the Holy Spirit to teach you this prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to impart to you its blessed meaning.
III. I notice, in the next place, THE EFFECT OF TRULY SAYING AND FEELING, “NOT AS I WILL, BUT AS THOU WILT.”
The first effect is constant happiness. If you would find out the cause of most of your sorrows, dig at the root of your self- will; for that is where it lies. When your heart is wholly sanctified unto God, and your will is entirely subdued to him, the bitter becomes sweet, pain is changed to pleasure, and suffering is turned into joy. It is not possible for that man’s mind to be disturbed whose will is wholly resigned to the will of God.
“Well,” says one, “that is a very startling statement—” and another says,” I have really sought to have my will resigned to God’s will, yet; I am disturbed.” Yes, and that is simply because, though you have sought, like all the rest of us, you have not yet attained to full resignation to the will of the Lord. But when once you have attained to it, —I fear you never will in this life—then shall you be free from everything that shall cause you sorrow or discomposure of mind.
Another blessed effect of this prayer if it is truly presented, is, that, it will give a man holy courage and bravery. If my mind is wholly resigned to God’s will what have I to fear in all the world? It is with me then as it was with Polycarp; when the Roman emperor threatened that he would banish him he said, “Thou canst not, for the whole world is my Father’s, house, and thou canst not banish me from it.” “But I will slay thee,” said the emperor. “Nay, thou canst not, for my life is hid with Christ in God.” “I will take away all thy treasures.” “Nay, thou canst not; for I have nothing that thou knowest of my treasure is in heaven, and my heart, is there also.” “But I will drive thee away from men, and thou shalt have no friend left.” “Nay, that thou canst not do, for I have a Friend in heaven from whom thou canst not separate me; I defy thee, for there is nothing that thou canst do unto me.” And so can the Christian always say, if once his will agrees with God’s will; he may defy all men, and defy hell itself, for he will be able to say, “Nothing can happen to me that is contrary to the will of God; and if it be his will, it is my will, too; if it pleases God, it pleases me. God has been pleased to give me part of his will, so I am satisfied with whatever he sends.”
Man is after all, only the second cause of our sorrows. A persecutor says, perhaps, to a child of God, “I can afflict thee.” “Nay, thou canst not, for thou art dependent on the first Great Cause, and he and I are agreed.” Ah! dear friends, there is nothing that makes men such cowards as having wills contrary to the will of God; but, when we resign ourselves wholly into the hands of God, what, have we to fear? The thing that made Jacob a coward was, that he was not, resigned to God’s will when Esau came to meet him.
God had foretold that the elder of the two sons of Isaac should serve the younger; Jacob’s business was to believe that, and to go boldly forward with his wives and children, and not to bow down before Esau, but to say, “The promise is, the elder shall serve the younger; I am not going to bow down to you; it is your place to fall prostrate before me.” But poor Jacob said, “Perhaps it is God’s will that Esau should conquer me and smite the mothers and their children; but my will is that it shall not be so.” The contest is well pictured at the ford Jabbok; but if Jacob had not disbelieved God’s promise, he would newer have bowed himself to the earth seven times before his brother Esau. In the holy majesty of his faith, then would have said, “Esau, my brother, thou canst do me no hurt; for thou canst do nothing contrary to the will of God. Thou canst do nothing contrary to, his decree, and I will be pleased with whatsoever it is.”
So, this resignation to God’s will give, first, joy in the heart, and then it gives fearless courage; and yet another thing follows from it. As some as anyone truly says, “Not as I will, but as thou wilt,” this resolve tends to make every duty light, every trial easy, every tribulation sweet. We should never feel it to be a hard thing to serve God; yet there are many people, who, if they do a little thing for the Lord, think so much of it; and if there is ever a great thing to be done, you have, first, to plead very hard to get them to do it; and when they do it, very often it is done so badly that you are half sorry you ever asked them to do it. A great many people make very much out of what is really very little. They take one good action which they have performed, and they hammer it out till it becomes as thin as gold leaf, and then they think they may cover a whole week: with that one good deed. The seven days shall all be glorified by an action which only takes five minutes to perform; it shall be quite enough, they even think, for all time to come.
But the Christian, whose will is conformed to God’s will, says, “My Lord, is there anything else for me to do? Then, I will gladly do it. Does it involve want of rest? I will do it. Does it involve loss of time in my business? Does it involve me, sometimes, in toil and fatigue? Lord, it shall be done, if it is thy will; for thy will and mine are in complete agreement. If it is possible, I will do it; and I will count all things but loss that I may win Christ, and be found in him, rejoicing in his righteousness, and not in mine own.”
IV. There are many other sweet and blessed effects which this resignations would produce; but I must close by observing that THE ONLY WAY IN WHICH THIS SPIRIT CAN BE ATTAINED IS BY THE UNCTION OF THE HOLY ONE, the outpouring and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.
You may try to subdue your own self, but you will never do it alone. You may labor, by self-denial, to keep down your ambition; but you will find that it takes another shape, and grows by that wherewith you thought to poison it. You may seek to concentrate all the love of your soul on Christ, and in the very act, you will find self creeping in. I am sometimes astonished, —and yet not astonished when I know the evil of my own heart, —when I look within myself, and find how impure my motive is at the very moment when I thought it was most pure; and I expect it is the some with you, dear friends. You perform a good action, —some almsgiving to the poor, perhaps. You say, “I will do it very quietly.”
Someone speaks of it, and you say at once, “I wish you had not spoken of that; I do not like to hear anyone talk of what I have done; it hurts me.” Perhaps it is only your pride that makes you say that it hurts you; for some folk make their modesty to be their pride; it is, in fact, their secret pride that they are doing good, and that people do not know it. They glory in that supposed secrecy; and by its coming out they feel that their modesty is spoilt, and they are afraid that people will say, “Ah, you see that it is known what they do; they do not really do their good deeds in secret.” So that even our modesty may be our pride; and what some people think their pride may happen to be the will of God, and may be real modesty. It is very hard work to give up our own will; but it is possible, and that is one of the lessons we should learn from this text, “Not as I will, but as thou wilt.”
Again, if there is anybody of whom you are a little envious, —perhaps a minister who takes a little of the gloss off you by preaching better than you do, or a Sunday-school teacher who is more successful in his work, —make that particular person the object of your most constant prayer, and endeavor as much as lies in you to increase that person’s popularity and success. Someone asks, “But you cannot bring human nature up to that point, can you, —to try and exalt one’s own rival?” My dear friends, you will never know the full meaning of this prayer till you have tried to do this, and actually sought to honor your rival more than yourself; that is the true spirit of the gospel, “in honor preferring one another.” I have sometimes found it hard work, I must confess; but I have schooled myself down to it.
Can this be done? Yes, John the Baptist did it; he said of Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” If you had asked John whether he wished to increase, he would have said, “Well, I should like to have more disciples; still, if it is the Lord’s will, I am quite content to go down, and that Christ should go up.”
How important, therefore, it is for us to learn how we may attain to this state of acquiescence with our heavenly Father’s will! I have given you the reasons for it, but how can it be done? Only by the operation of the Spirit of God. As for flesh and blood, they will not help you in the least, they will go just the other way; and when you think that, surely, you have got flesh and blood under control, you will find that they have got the upper hand of you just when you thought you were conquering them. Pray the Holy Spirit to abide with you, to dwell in you, to baptize you, to immerse you in his sacred influence, to cover you, to bury, you in his sublime power; and so, and only so, when you are completely immersed in the Spirit, and steeped, as it were, in the crimson sea of the Savior’s blood, shall you be made fully to realize the meaning of this great prayer, “Not as I will, but as thou wilt.”
“Lord, not self, but Christ; not my own glory, but thy glory; not my aggrandizement, but thine; nay, not even my success, but thy success; not the prosperity of my own church, or my own self, but the prosperity of thy church, the increase of thy glory, —let all that be done as thou wilt, not as I will.”
How different, this is from everything connected with the world! I have tried to take, you up to a very high elevation; and if you have been abide to get up there, or even to pant to get up there, how striking has the contrast been between this spirit and the spirit of the worldling! I shall not say anything to those of you who are unconverted, except this. Learn how contrary you are to what God would have you be, and what you must be, ere you can enter the kingdom, of heaven. You know that you could not say, “Let God have his will,” and you know also that you could not humble yourself to become as a little child. This shows your deep depravity; so, may the Holy Spirit renew you, for you have need of renewing, that you may be made a new creature, in Christ Jesus! May he sanctify you wholly, spirit, soul, and body, and at last present you, faultless, before the throne of God, for his dear name’s sake! Amen.
Delivered at New Park Street Chapel, in 1859.
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