by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 2 - The Starting-Place of the Testimony in Every Nation

In chapter one our particular emphasis was upon the nature of "The Testimony of Jesus," which, in a word, is this; that the great objective and historic fact that Jesus was risen from among the dead and was in the place of supreme sovereignty and glory; which fact had been manifested by many infallible proofs, had also a subjective counterpart within the "witnesses." That same Lord Jesus had become an inward reality by the Holy Spirit, and the nature of the manifestation of that inward fact was a life, "eternal life," resurrection life, life triumphant over death, Divine life in all its energy, spontaneousness, might, persistence, holiness, and fruitfulness; the life which the Lord Jesus is in Person. (1 John 1:2, 5:9-13,20, R.V.; Acts 1:8,22, 2:32,36, 3:15, 4:33, 5:30,32, 10:40-42, 13:30,37; Rom.1:4, R.V.) The testimony to the Person of Jesus is the power of His life in and through His "members" by the Holy Spirit.

Our present course will be to show something more of what this means in experience and service, especially in connection with the age-purpose of a witness to the nations. If comparisons and contrasts are made and disorders pointed out, it is not in a spirit of criticism, far less of censoriousness. Neither is it want of appreciation of or esteem for the work being so honestly and sacrificially done. God forbid that any word of ours should bring a blight upon any activity which counts even a little for Him. We have a burden, a sometimes overwhelming burden, and the acuteness is occasioned by both comparative and complete ineffectiveness; to say nothing of the confusion, and manifest misconception of Divine ends and methods so widely existent. It is the more immediate, direct, and absolute spiritual effectiveness that governs the pursuance of this subject.

Let us again state the main and all-inclusive basis and background of all true and victorious life and service. It is the revelation of the Person of Christ Crucified in the Godhead and in the throne of absolute sovereignty, and this objective fact becoming by the Holy Spirit a power in the life and a passion in the heart.

It is the effect of this that lies behind all that great record of conquests in many regions through many instruments. This goes behind all advocacy of foreign or any other missions and makes such advocacy unnecessary. Not that advocacy has been fruitless, for God has come through it; but its strenuousness and its costliness are the marks of spiritual decline and the characteristics of a system which speaks of a bondage in which the Lord is involved. We shall best explain what we mean if we illustrate from history.

Some Notable Examples.

We have before us the records of movements and men that have been especially effectual and fruitful in the world testimony of the Lord Jesus.

Here is the amazing story of those great days of Moravian missions. In the first twenty years they actually sent out more missionaries than the whole Protestant Church had done in two hundred years. Of the closed lands entered, the sufferings gladly endured, the range covered, the lives lived and laid down, the grace of God manifested, it stirs wonder and shame to read. Someone has said that "if members of the Protestant churches went out as missionaries in corresponding numbers there would be a force of 400,000 foreign workers, which is vastly more than the number estimated as necessary to achieve the evangelisation of the world."

Only for want of space do we reluctantly refrain from giving pages from this tremendous story; but what lay behind it?

In the first place the Cross had been deeply wrought into the very being of this people. Their country was made a field of blood by massacre. They were driven from their homes. From three million to one million population they were reduced by persecution. Indeed it sometimes appeared as if they would be entirely extinguished. Out of this fire of affliction there arose a company purified by the fire and with another fire burning in their bones. It was the fire of a passionate love for the Lord Jesus. The meetings of these brethren when later possible breathe the atmosphere of "The upper room." Covenants were made that self in all its forms should be entirely banished; self-will, self-love, self-interest, self-seeking. To be poor in spirit would be their quest, and everyone would give himself to be taught by the Holy Spirit. A prayer-watch was set up which should burn day and night, and in relays an entire twenty-four hours was occupied in seeking the Lord. "To win for the Lamb that was slain the reward of His sufferings," was their adopted motto. All this is its own argument. Here a deep inwrought work of the Cross issued in a mighty personal love for the Lord Jesus. Personal considerations were lost, and no persuasion was necessary. Shall we not say the truth when we say that souls languish by the million in darkness and death for want of a deep baptism of the Church - a company of saved ones - into the passion and love of God in Christ.

If the China Inland Mission is a monument to anything as to God's methods, it is supremely such to the living reality of union with Christ. With all his vision and passion for inland China, it is well known that as he went from place to place addressing gatherings of Christians in this and other countries, Mr. Hudson Taylor said very little about China, often nothing at all. He poured out his spiritual message to bring the Lord's people to the fuller knowledge of what their union with Him meant. The central and supreme thing in this fellowship with the Lord was the universal efficacy of Prayer.

Listen to him: "In the study of that Divine Word I learned that to obtain successful workers, not elaborate appeals for help, but earnest prayer to God.... and the deepening of the spiritual life of the Church, so that men should be unable to stay at home, were what was needed."

Were we to put the inner history of this work - the original spiritual background - into a few words we should say that it was not by organisation, advocacy, propaganda, appeals, or advertisement; but a man with a deep knowledge of God born of the Cross being deeply inwrought, with a living spiritual message for the Lord's people as to their fullest life in Him and the practical outworking of such a life through prayer. Mr. Hudson Taylor was no teacher in the sense of presenting truth in a systematised form. He was not one of the great Bible teachers in the generally accepted sense of that term. His was a message which immediately led to two issues. One, the relationship of the believer to the Lord, and then the practical outworking of that in prayer and other forms of service to bring the gospel to those who had no chance of receiving it only by such special endeavour to reach them. Mr. Hudson Taylor's life (and we must therefore think that the history of the mission) turned at a given point upon a deeper realisation of what oneness with the Lord really means. This is revealed in a letter to his sister which is printed in the second volume of his "Life."

Not only in Africa by means of the South Africa General Mission with its 115 white, and nearly 300 African missionaries, bearing testimony in a dozen languages or dialects, including a much blessed work among 100,000 Indians, but in all parts of the world the ministry of Dr. Andrew Murray has been wondrously rich in its fruits. Not, again, by advocacy or propaganda, but purely by spiritual teaching, a ministry almost exclusively to the Lord's people, a message concerning practical holiness, the ministry of intercession, and the power of the Holy Spirit, has this fruit been born.

We could add at great length to the evidence, pointing to the influence of such lives, and the power of the movement for "the deepening of spiritual life"; pages from the missionary issues of "Keswick's" great men and messages in those early days; pages from that monumental "history" of the C.M.S. by Dr. Eugene Stock.

The Basic Reality.

The evidence is overwhelming that from "Pentecost" onward the basis of the fullest, richest, and most effectual world-testimony of Jesus is "a holiness movement from heaven," a heart-changing, life-revolutionising, whole-being-captivation realisation of Who Jesus is and What Jesus is; the first as to His Sovereignty in the Throne of Deity, and the second as to His sovereignty in the life on all points. To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to be filled with Holiness, Love, Humility, Joy, and a passion for securing unto the "Beloved" the fruit of His travail in every nation. No "spiritual" movement, convention, teaching, is valid without the hall-mark of spontaneous concern for the eternal well-being of others. Far too often intensive movements result in morbid introspection. There is nothing more paralysing than this. The reaction from this is just as perilous. Enthusiasm, interest, high spirits, "personality," education, enterprise, harnessed to a more or less dated "decision for Christ" are frequently the points of emphasis in this reaction.

The cost to a New Testament convert was too great to permit of anything superficial or merely a matter of romance or enthusiasm. The balance must be of a very real and deep knowledge of the Lord and an ardent passion for His satisfaction in the nations.

What Pentecost Was.

We have failed far too terribly to realise exactly what "Pentecost" really was. The cumulative and external effects have obscured the deeper elements. We have interpreted it in terms of activity, signs, waves of emotion, excitability, &c.

Our supreme need is to know just exactly what the "Baptism of the Holy Spirit" is. All-inclusively it is The enthronement of the Lord Jesus as absolute Sovereign without reservation or rival in the entire life in all its interests and activities. Within this compass there are numerous specific things just one or two of which we may point out.

Firstly "The Baptism of the Holy Spirit," is a baptism into the holiness of the Lord. Pentecost was a holiness movement from heaven. This was the significance of the terrible incident with Ananias and Sapphira. It is a baptism with fire, which must be interpreted primarily, not as zest, but as sanctification. This holiness of the Lord established by the Holy Spirit has to be carried into every phase and department of life; spirit, mind, body; relationships, transactions, methods, means. Doubtfulness, questionableness, equivocation, and such-like elements are a contradiction and an antagonism to the Spirit of Holiness. It is unfortunate that it should be necessary to even mention this in the realm of the work of the Lord, but that necessity is laid upon us.

Secondly, the "Baptism of the Holy Spirit" is a baptism into the Love of Christ. This is another element in the "Fire." It need hardly be said that this love is something more and other than temperamental, large-nature, natural warm-heartedness, generosity, sentiment and nice words. It is love which "suffers long, envies not, knows no jealousy, makes no parade, gives itself no airs, is not puffed tip, never rejoices in self-vindication when opponents are proved wrong, is always slow to expose, always eager to believe the best, never seeks its own ends or interests." This love knows how to be abased, to have its interests crossed, to be set aside, to be outshone, to persist when forsaken; and much more. Only the Holy Spirit can impart and maintain this love.

Thirdly, the "Baptism of the Holy Spirit" is the baptism into the war of the ages. Not into a religious playground or sports field, but into the grim, terrific, bloody conflict with "Principalities and Powers," &c.

Immediately upon His baptism the Spirit came upon our Lord and He was there and then brought by the act of the Spirit into awful contact with the leader of the opposing hierarchy. So it was with the Church. So it is with every one baptised into Christ. Thank God, the victory has been secured and the issue settled at Calvary, but the fight continues. It will take the mighty energising of the Spirit of the Lord of Hosts - "Strengthened with all might by His Spirit into the inner man" - in all the efficacy of the Precious Blood to accomplish the deepest work of God in this age. There will be times when we are not able to work, or preach, or do anything but "stand and withstand." Many are contented while they can be active and do something. This can be a real snare. It is spiritual vitality which counts, not much business. We will break off here for the time being, but will just append a paragraph from the story of Uganda which carries its own significance.

A Typical Instance.

In the early days of the Church in Uganda a boy who had been baptised came to Pilkington and told him of his failure to be true to Christ in the pathetic words, "I sin as much as ever I did." Pilkington was cut to the quick, and the desire for fresh spiritual power was deepened in his heart. Shortly afterwards he went apart on to one of the islands in the Victoria Nyanza that he might wait upon God and receive fresh power from Him. His prayers were answered, and later he could write to Bishop Tucker, "I want to tell you that we (mission and people) are in the midst of a time of great blessing. God has enabled several of us to see that for a long time past we have been working in our own strength, and that consequently there has been no power in our lives, and very little blessing. We have, however, been brought to see that the command 'be filled with the Spirit' is as much laid upon us as upon the Ephesians, and that power for effectual service is placed at our disposal if we will but appropriate it. I cannot tell you the difference it has made to us in our lives as well as in our work. Now we are full of joy, whereas a little while ago (I am speaking of myself in this) the depression was almost unbearable. As for our work God is now using us, and a wonderful wave of blessing is passing over the land."




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