Chapter 13

He will keep what thus He sought, Safely guard the dearly bought; Cherish that which He did choose, Always love and never lose.

I know what some of us are thinking. 'Yes; I see it all plainly enough in theory, but in practice I find I am not kept. Self goes over to the other camp again and again. If is not all for Jesus, though I have asked and wished for it to be so.' Dear friends, the 'all' must be sealed with 'only.' Are you willing to be '_only_' for Jesus? You have not given 'all' to Jesus while you are not quite ready to be '_only_' for Him. And it is no use to talk about 'ever' while we have not settled the 'only' and the 'all.' You cannot be 'for Him,' in the full and blessed sense, while you are partly 'for' anything or any one else. For 'the Lord hath _set apart_ him that is godly for Himself.' You see, the 'for Himself' hinges upon the 'set apart.' There is no consecration without separation. If you are mourning over want of realized consecration, will you look humbly and sincerely into _this_ point? 'A garden _enclosed_ is my sister, my spouse,' saith the Heavenly Bridegroom.

Set apart for Jesus! Is not this enough, Though the desert prospect Open wild and rough? Set apart for His delight, Chosen for His holy pleasure, Sealed to be His special treasure! Could we choose a nobler joy?--and would we, if we might?[footnote: _Loyal Responses_, p. 11.]

But yielding, by His grace, to this blessed setting apart for Himself, 'The Lord shall _establish_ thee an holy people unto Himself, as He hath sworn unto thee.' Can there be a stronger promise? Just obey and trust His word _now_, and yield yourselves _now_ unto God, 'that He may establish thee _to-day_ for a people unto Himself.' Commit the keeping of your souls to Him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator, being persuaded that He is able to keep that which you commit to Him.

Now, Lord, I give myself to Thee, I would be wholly Thine, As Thou hast given Thyself to me, And Thou art wholly mine; O take me, seal me for Thine own, Thine altogether, Thine alone.

Here comes in once more that immeasurably important subject of our influence. For it is not what we say or do, so much as what we _are_, that influences others. We have heard this, and very likely repeated it again and again, but have we seen it to be inevitably linked with the great question of this chapter? I do not know anything which, thoughtfully considered, makes us realize more vividly the need and the importance of our whole selves being kept for Jesus. Any part not wholly committed, and not wholly kept, must hinder and neutralize the real influence for Him of all the rest. If we ourselves are kept all for Jesus, then our influence will be all kept for Him too. If not, then, however much we may wish and talk and try, we cannot throw our full weight into the right scale. And just in so far as it is not in the one scale, it must be in the other; weighing against the little which we have tried to put in the right one, and making the short weight still shorter.

So large a proportion of it is entirely involuntary, while yet the responsibility of it is so enormous, that our helplessness comes out in exceptionally strong relief, while our past debt in this matter is simply incalculable. Are we feeling this a little? getting just a glimpse, down the misty defiles of memory, of the neutral influence, the wasted influence, the mistaken influence, the actually wrong influence which has marked the ineffaceable although untraceable course? And all the while we owed Him all that influence! It _ought_ to have been all for Him! We have nothing to say. But what has our Lord to say? 'I forgave thee all _that_ debt!'

Then, after that forgiveness which must come first, there comes a thought of great comfort in our freshly felt helplessness, rising out of the very thing that makes us realize this helplessness. Just _because_ our influence is to such a great extent involuntary and unconscious, we may rest assured that if we ourselves are truly kept for Jesus, this will be, as a quite natural result, kept for Him also. It cannot be otherwise, for as is the fountain, so will be the flow; as the spring, so the action; as the impulse, so the communicated motion. Thus there may be, and in simple trust there will be, a quiet rest about it, a relief from all sense of strain and effort, a fulfilling of the words, 'For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His.' It will not be a matter of _trying_ to have good influence, but just of _having_ it, as naturally and constantly as the magnetized bar.

Another encouraging thought should follow. Of ourselves we may have but little weight, no particular talents or position or anything else to put into the scale; but let us remember that again and again God has shown that the influence of a very average life, when once really consecrated to Him, may outweigh that of almost any number of merely professing Christians. Such lives are like Gideon's three hundred, carrying not even the ordinary weapons of war, but only trumpets and lamps and empty pitchers, by whom the Lord wrought great deliverance, while He did not use the others at all. For He hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.

Should not all this be additional motive for desiring that our _whole_ selves should be taken and kept?

I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever. Therefore we may rejoicingly say 'ever' as well as 'only' and 'all for Thee!' For the Lord is our Keeper, and He is the Almighty and the Everlasting God, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He will never change His mind about keeping us, and no man is able to pluck us out of His hand. Neither will Christ let us pluck ourselves out of His hand, for He says, 'Thou _shalt_ abide for Me many days.' And He that keepeth us will not slumber. Once having undertaken His vineyard, He will keep it night and day, till all the days and nights are over, and we know the full meaning of the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time, unto which we are kept by His power.

And then, for ever for Him! passing from the gracious keeping by faith for this little while, to the glorious keeping in His presence for all eternity! For ever fulfilling the object for which He formed us and chose us, we showing forth His praise, and He showing the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us in the ages to come! _He for us, and we for Him for ever!_ Oh, how little we can grasp this! Yet this is the fruition of being 'kept for Jesus!'

Set apart for ever For Himself alone! Now we see our calling Gloriously shown. Owning, with no secret dread, This our holy separation, Now the crown of consecration[footnote: Num. vi. 7.] Of the Lord our God shall rest upon our willing head.