SUNDAY READING

Taranaki Daily News, 29 November 1930, Page 14 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING

By

REV. A. H. COLLINS

THE SECRET OF' SPIRITUAL POWER

“And H© said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.”—Mark IX, 29.

When these nine dejected apostles I came to the Master inquiring . the se- p cret of their failure, the answer they received was not the reply they had expected. If they had tried to. explain the reason to themselves, they would probably have attributed the cause to s some revival of demoniacal activity, or t to the absence of Peter, James and a John, the most active and gifted mem- f bers of the apostolate, or perhaps, to the s absence of Christ Himself, or possibly to some bungling in their use of the C new and strange gift of divine heal- s ing. But the Master’s i reply ignored t alf such surface reasons, and straight r as a shaft of light passed to some- f thing deeper.- Their impotence lay.nei- c ther°in the renewal of the evil spirit’s s power, nor m the reduction of then own t numbers, nor in their imperfect meth- t ods of working, but in themselves alone, i They had failed because they had c not been confident of success. They had s worked with a vague hope that they i might cast the demon cut; but thb i Master knew that they lacked “the faith i ' that laughs at impossibilities,’’ and that 1 such faith as they once possessed had c oozed away, because they neglected the 1 only means by which it could be main- 1 tained in full vigour—prayer and fast- s ing—and that the lost powers, could < be° recovered only by a return to the < spirit and method of Jesus. “Why. could s not we cast him out?” That was the t question, and to get Christ s ; full an- j ewer you . must combine the. .accounts e given in Matthew’s and in Mark’s gos„ ,i pel. “Why could not we cast him out?” i ‘"Because of your unbelief.” “This kind 4 can come forth by nothing but by i prayers and fasting.” -I THE HIGHEST FORM OF POWER, j i Summarising this degp reply the 1 truth may be stated this way: (1) Mir- i aclee; of hearing demand force for their i working. ('2) Spiritual force is the i highest° form of power. (3) Faith *8 . the highest of all soul force. But (4), 1 faith needs cherishing by communion i with' God, which is prayer, and dis- : cipline of the body, which, is fasting. Living apart from God is living apart from Omnipotence. Indulgence of any < kind drains away the forces of the soul, (to) Earnest and sincere love of men is . the secret of power to help them. If the apostles had made this sufferer’s sorrow their own; if they had fasted, as for their own' trouble, and if they had prayed, as for their“'own mercy, their love, would have believed and triumphed. We can in some measure relieve every sorrow that we share, and we cannot really help in any other way. When we fast—that is abstain from whatever clogs the soul —and when we pray not" as a kind of devotional pastime, but as contact with the grace that freshens and renews our spiritual life —w© shall fulfil the condition of success. _ From what I have said you will see . that the text. touches these two vital principles: first, the subtle danger of ■ the insensible loss of spiritual power; and, secondly, secret means of preserv- . ing freshness and vigour of soul. It is of° these two principles I want to speak. LOSS OF SPIRITUAL POWER. The fact to give us pause is this, that these nine dispirited men had suffered a loss of spiritual power, and yet had never suspected it! Moral vitality had drained away; but it had drained away so secretly that they weie not aware of it. It was not until, like Sqmson, they rose to pull down the works of darkness, that they discovered that they had been shorn of strength. Outwardly and to all seeming they were the same men, but to the eye that reads th© inner secrets of every life, they were not the same. They were shrunken shadows of their former selves. It was not that their task was different; it was not that their communion, “Preach the gospel, heal the sick, cast' out devils,” had, been withdrawn; it was not that their iesaurces were' exhausted, but they had suffered deterioration of soul. It is tom of a slow-witted lad that when he saw a corpse for the first time, he tried to make it stand erect,\and after several failures he gave up, in despair, saying, “Something is wanting within.’ It is that something'wanting within that accounts for our impotence to stand up against the powers of evil. EATING OUT THE STRENGTH. Years ago the whole of the magnificent, roofing of Saint Paul’s, Rome,’had ■ to be taken down hnd renewed,, at enormous cost, because of dry rot in. the timber. Silently and mysteriously the very fibre and tissue of the wood had been eaten opt, and a calamity, as dreadful as fire or earthquake, was averted only by prompt action. Scientific, men investigated, and by means of microscope k and chemicals discovered the cause of • premature decay. They found not only ’ the fungi but the spore and seed of th*? ’ fungi.' Silent, as creeping paralysis, this j. malign vegetable. growth had eaten out the strength of the -timber and left it a , mere shell- . t Something like that happens m eharacter. Our chief dangers are not external 5 to ourselves. It is in our spiritual, life, as in our homes, not only do ‘thieves ' break through and steal,” but the “moth > and rust corrupt.”'. The fibre of the will, - conscience, heart, is eaten away secret- ’ iy.' We.go on with the routine of daily t lifs in a mechanical fashion, and it is not until some sudden temptation comes, or some emergency arises, that we wake to the discovery that we no longer possess the faith, the courage, the resolu--3 ti-on, of bygone years. There has been s no swift and violent assault made upon 7 us; but it has been as When a moth t fretteth a garment,

TIVO EXPLANATIONS. One wonders whether these nine men reviewed past events in the> light of Christ’s revealing word. If so, it would not be difficult to find something that might explain their loss of power. I can’t dwell on them, but let me name two. There is that ineffably pitiful story of personal rivalry between them as to which should be greatest in the kingdom. .Twelve men, who called Jesus Master and Lord, so lost to decency that they could debate that paltry- question. And there is that other unlovely story of how they wished to silence a man who cast out devils because he walked not with them. They could not for the life of them heal this lunatic lad, yet they wanted to stop the man who did such things in an unorthodox way! How could such men hope to succeed? No, it was not that these men were ■few and poor, or that the evil spirits were a host. The cause lay deeper, and was more personal. And our failures are not due to defective organisation, or

changed modern conditions; for we have a gospel that can never grow old. We have a changeless Lord, and we have an abiding Spirit of Power. We have all the resources the apostles ever had, and the first step back to power, is that each one shall find his way .back to Jesus Christ ,in an humble and teachable spirit, asking, Have I been ambitious? Have I been uncharitable? Have I been prayerful, self-denying, and believing? THE COMPLETE ANSWER. For the Master’s answer lies in nutshell. There is nothing involved or mysterious, and once given you feel the answer covered all the facts. Prayer, fasting, faith, these are the perennial sorces of spiritual power. 1. Calm, habitual fellowship with God in order to learn His will, catch His spirit and follow His method. The elec-tro-magnet is a piece of soft iron, like a horse shoe, around which is coiled a fine wire. Through that wire passes a current of electricity. As this current sweeps round the helices which. hold the nerveless, pulseless iron, it imparts to the iron a strange power —a power to which it is an utter stranger till the current comes. ’Without it, the horse shoe cannot lift a pound of metal. But when that outside power pulses.through its startled pores it will lift 3500 times its own weight, so mighty is the strength this external force imparts. Our cold, dead hearts lie weak and nerveless before the burdens and conflicts of life. We have no' impulse or energy. The smallest effort is too great. Then we put ourselves within the influence of prayer. IVe kneel before God and wrap our-selves-around with the currents of spiritual force, and as these heavenly powers pass and repass through _ our being, stimulating our irresolute wills androusour affections, we find the fulfilment of that ancient _ promise, “Hegiveth power to the faint and to them that have no ‘might He increaseth ..strength. . . 2. Fasting, by which we mean discipline of the bodily powers; abstinence, not so much from food, as from habits and associations which, though innocent in themselves, yet produce a dimness to truth and a weakening of the commanding sense of duty. 3. Faith, the power that brings distant things near, the unseen real, the spiritual regret; faith in. God, faith in man, faith in truth. But haven’t we these? Yes and no. These men learned the lesson and became the heroes of the Cross.