(Continued from page 54.)

Mr. McC. tells us the secret to "our heart-longings for the fulness of the Spirit being satisfied" is "surrender," and he calls surrender "consecration." It will be necessary to consider his thoughts about "consecration," to see how far they are scriptural.

Now my point is that when we believe, the whole word of God is given to us. It is all ours-all for us. At the same time the divine Spirit is given to us to dwell in us, and He dwells in us with all the fulness He has. As we give Him our ear, submit to Him, obey His voice, we grow, but it is growing in what is already pure. We grow in the knowledge of the truth that has been given to us, in the sense of the grace of which we are the subjects, and of the love of which we are the happy objects; in the apprehension of our sanctification and consecration ; in the knowledge of the God to whom we have been brought and with whom we have to do, and of Christ whom He has given to us to be our portion, and with whom He has linked us in blessing and inheritance. We grow, too, in the sense of obedience, of submission, of surrender. We increase in faith, in. trust, in hope. All this is by the Word, by increasing in the Word. This is the scriptural idea of growth. We will turn now to see what Mr. McC.'s idea seems to be.

We have seen that he teaches that the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us at conversion, yet He is in us " only as a trickling stream," not as a fountain of abundant supply. Between conversion and surrender, while the Spirit is in us, we do not have His fulness. He does not say we do not apprehend His fulness, but, "because we have not His fulness " (see page 38, " The Threefold Secret"). To have the Spirit's fulness there is a "secret" to be learned, and this secret is " surrender." Does he mean there was no surrender at conversion ? His doctrine really implies this. But he speaks of surrendering "our sins" at conversion:-so the principle of surrender is present even at conversion. With him, however, surrender after conversion is not growth in surrender, is not the principle of surrender enlarging in the soul, but a new and distinct thing. He constantly contrasts the surrender at conversion, (which he calls the surrender of "our sins," as we have seen, and speaks of as " for the forgiveness of our sins," or "salvation") with the later surrender (which he calls the " surrender of our lives") with which he connects having the fulness of the Spirit. In his system surrender at conversion is not the definite submission of the soul to the claims of Christ, and then learning more and more the extent of those claims. It is not the definite taking Christ to be Master and Lord, and then learning more and more what that mastership and lordship means. Manifestly his idea of growth is that Of accretion ! A certain kind of surrender is present at conversion, another kind of surrender is added afterwards. But this, as we have seen, is not the scriptural idea.

But we must consider some further statements. On page 48 of "The Threefold Secret" we read:

" Thus the absolute yielding of our lives to God is the first great step after conversion urged in His Word."

Now we have seen that Mr. McC. connects with this "first great step after conversion" the having the fulness of the Spirit. On page 91 he says:

"How needful that he " (the child of God) "should press on to learn that final secret of abiding in Christ which alone can teach him how these ' breaks' in communion shall become fewer and fewer, until at last he has learned to walk in the Spirit, and reaches the glad consummation where ' the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.'"

Then one who has the fulness of the Spirit as " God's response" to his surrender or his consecration of himself to God, may still have "breaks" in his "communion." What is this, after all, but " the trickling stream " ? " The first great step after conversion," elsewhere spoken of as "the first great step of the walk in the Spirit" (" Surrendered Life," page 13), has been taken, and yet there is no change from previous conditions! On this same page 13 he says :

"Without this" (the first great step) "we may, and do, have times of blessing, in so far as we trust and obey God in the acts of our daily life, and thus carry out the principle of obedience involved in our surrender."

How we can "carry out the principle of obedience involved in surrender" before we have surrendered is not explained. The " principle of obedience " is "involved" in the " first great step after conversion."This " first great step," he tells us, " puts us under the control of the Spirit."Now we may, and do, to a certain extent, before we take this step, act as if we had already taken it! Are we under the control of the Spirit while we so act ?If so, what puts us under His control ?If it is considered that we are not yet under His control, then we have times of blessing apart from the control of the Spirit! Can this be true ?Whatever way we look at it, we are involved in difficulties that are irreconcilable with the theory. It is plain it is the theory that is at fault. Scripture is self-consistent.

But again, there are "breaks in communion" before the "first great step" of "surrender" is taken, and there are "breaks in communion" after. Before " surrender" the "fulness of the Spirit" is not possessed, but it is after! Do we have the "fulness of the Spirit" during these breaks ? The theory, as developed by our author breaks down again here. Indeed, it breaks down every where. The principle of growth by accretion, somehow does not seem to be growth really. For some reason, not at all accounted for, it is not true that through consecration " our whole life can be brought into perfect alignment with God's will" and "become a constant joy to ourselves."

But Mr. McC. will say, It is "needful to press on" "learn" another secret-a "final" secret-the secret
"abiding in Christ." This, he assures us, will teach us how the "breaks in communion become fewer and fewer." It is then still the "trickling stream," more or less, only there is slow, gradual improvement. The reader will confess, surely, to much disappointment here. We naturally anticipated we were being shown a stage of experience in which the promised life of "constant joy" is an actual realization, but, alas! it is not so. Instead of this, we are told that what we are to expect is a gradual improvement. There may be some comfort in this, but not much. We wonder how long it will be before this slowly improving stage will end in the longed-for blessing. Mr. McC., it seems, is not able to tell us. He tells us that these "breaks" become "fewer and fewer, until at last" we learn "to walk in the Spirit," and reach "the glad consummation." How eagerly we listen for what is to follow, fully expecting to be told that now we have got to the "fountain" of unremitting flow, that the life of "constant joy" is at last our blessing! But does he tell us this? Reader, he does not. Why? Does he shrink' from the pretentious claim. Does he feel it is too much to assert ? Well, whatever holds him back from the bold declaration that logically and consistently he should make here, we do not know. The "glad consummation" is a condition in which " the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." This is all that Mr. McC. is prepared to say. His system once more breaks down. Not only is it utterly unscriptural, but his own statement of his doctrine lacks consistency. His arguments are not harmonious. One destroys another. In this way it is manifest his system is not of God.

But if we compare it with Scripture, it is clearly antagonistic to it. This we have already seen in looking at several of its features. It antagonizes the scriptural doctrine that the Holy Spirit is in us from the first of His being in us with all His fulness. It opposes what the word of God affirms, that all believers now have life in them as life " more abundant."It ignores altogether the teaching of Scripture that it is God who sanctifies and consecrates us. It conflicts with the word of God as to the time when sanctification and consecration take place. It insists on our accepting as consecration what never once is called that in Scripture. It also falsifies the scriptural representation of what worship is, and it entirely fails in the setting forth of scriptural ideas of growth. And now we have to add that it represents what Scripture asserts to be the blessing of every one who is in Christ, to be a blessing only attained at the end of a course of struggle to learn the "secrets" of surrender and abiding. According to the quotation we have taken from page 91 of "The Threefold Secret," until the " final secret" is learned, there has been no walking in the Spirit and no enjoyment of deliverance from the law of sin and death during a period more or less long, in which there have been "times of blessing" and numerous seasons of communion notwithstanding the frequent "breaks;" "until at last he has learned to walk in the Spirit"!When does the walk in the Spirit begin? When does the Spirit's leadership commence? Does not Rom. 8:9 assure every believer that he is in the Spirit? Mr. McC. teaches that the Spirit is in the believer from his conversion. The apostle uses in this verse the fact of the indwelling Spirit as proof that the believer is in the Spirit. If it be said that is standing, not state, I answer there is a state attaching to the standing, or connected with it. With the Spirit this state is always fully realized. He is never short of it. The measure in which we are entering into it is the fruit of His work in us. If it be asked, Can we ever reach His measure ? The answer is, He " is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think." Yet while this is ever true, we may be assured that by His working in us our measure enlarges. There is growth in the understanding and enjoyment of the state that is connected with our standing. With the Spirit, state is always real and perfect. It is only as being in Him that we can in any measure realize it-realize what it is.

If the Spirit's measure is ever greater than ours, if He " is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think," is it possible, then, for us to reach such a measure of the enjoyment of what the Spirit enjoys perfectly that we ourselves are fully satisfied ? Surely not. To be. content with the measure we have attained is to ignore the fact that the Spirit is able to enlarge our measure.

The believer indeed is free from the law of sin and death. Christ has set him free. His apprehension and enjoyment of the deliverance that is his may not be very deep, but as being in Christ the blessing is his. It is true there may be many an outburst of the flesh, which Mr. McC. allows is still in him. These outbursts will emphasize the truth that " in the flesh there is no good thing." The final result of all the exercise these fleshly outbursts give occasion for, will be a deepening in the soul of the deliverance and liberty the believer has as being in Christ. There is growth in the apprehension of
"the liberty wherewith Christ has set us free." There is growth in the sense of what the power of the Spirit is, and thus also growth in the ability to " stand fast in the liberty." It is not getting more power, but learning better what the power is we already have.

The difference between Mr. McC.'s system and the truth of Scripture may be put strikingly thus:His teaching occupies souls with themselves ; while the doctrine of Scripture occupies them with Christ. In his system attention is drawn to the idea of how to attain, but the word of God fixes our attention on what God has given in Christ. C. Crain.

(To be continued.)