What is to be done if a Christian sins? The apostle John gives the answer:"If we confess our sins,
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John
1:9). Confession is the means by which the conscience is to be kept clear.

God has been perfectly satisfied as to all the believer’s sins in the cross of Christ. Our sins can
never come into God’s presence inasmuch as Christ, who bore them all and put them away, is
there instead. But if we sin, the conscience will feel it, for the Holy Spirit will make us feel it. He
cannot allow so much as a single foolish thought to pass unjudged. Our sin cannot affect God’s
thoughts about us, but it can, and does, affect our thoughts about Him. It cannot hide the Advocate
from God’s view, but it can hide Him from ours. It cannot affect our relationship with God, but
it can very seriously affect our enjoyment thereof. God has already judged our sins in the Person
of Christ, and in the act of confession, we judge ourselves. This is essential to divine forgiveness
and restoration. The very smallest unconfessed, unjudged sin on the conscience will entirely mar
our communion with God. By confession the conscience is cleared, our communion is restored,
and our thoughts concerning God and our relationship to Him are set straight.

There is a great difference between confession and praying for forgiveness. It is much easier to
ask in a general way for the forgiveness of our sins, than to confess those sins. Confession
involves self-judgment; asking for forgiveness may not, and in itself does not. By merely asking
for forgiveness, we tend to lessen the sense of the evil; we may be thinking we are not completely
to blame. Or we may be motivated by a desire to escape the consequences of the sin, rather than
by an abhorrence of the sin itself. God wants us not only to dread the consequences of sin, but to
hate the thing itself, because of its hatefulness in His sight. If it were possible for us, when we
commit sin, to be forgiven merely for the asking, our sense of sin, and our shrinking from it,
would not be nearly so intense; and as a consequence, our estimate of the fellowship with which
we are blessed would not be nearly so high. The effect of all this upon our spiritual condition, and
also upon our whole character and practical career, must be obvious to every experienced
Christian.

(From "Sin in the Flesh and Sin on the Conscience" in Miscellaneous Writings, Vol. 2)

It was a windy and rough day on the water. My dad and I went out in my boat fishing, quite far
from land. Having taken one "drop" at some shoals we were about to return home. Upon starting
the engine we found we had lost the propeller.

There we were, night coming on, in rough weather, and no propeller. I looked to the Lord that
we might find it. We then sculled into the wind to where we thought we stopped last. Dad looked
in the waterglass. There, about twenty feet down on the bottom, was the propeller! We hooked
it up with the grapnel and using a piece of lead and a nail to hold it on we were able to get back
to land.

I have found that we can look to the Lord both in great difficulties as this was and in small things
such as getting a tight nut loose. He is our resource in all things.

George Muller, the "father" and friend of several thousand orphans in his lifetime, once took an
ocean voyage from Liverpool to Quebec. As they neared Newfoundland on a Wednesday, the fog
was so thick that very slow progress was being made. Mr. Muller went to the captain.

"Captain," said he, "I have come to tell you that I must be in Quebec on Saturday afternoon."

"It is impossible," replied the captain.

"Very well, then," spoke Muller calmly, "if your ship cannot take me, God will find some other
means of locomotion to take me. I have never broken an engagement in fifty-seven years."

"I would willingly help you, but how can 1? I am helpless."

"Let us go down to the chart room and pray," suggested Muller.

The captain eyed Muller as though wondering what lunatic asylum this man could have come
from. He then asked Mr. Muller, "Do you know how dense this fog is?"

"No," he replied, "my eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God who controls
every circumstance of my life."

Muller knelt down and prayed one of the simplest of prayers. When he finished, the captain was
about to pray, but Muller put his hand on his shoulder and told him not to pray. "First," he told
the captain, "you do not believe God will do it; and second, I believe He has done it, so there is
no need whatever for you to pray about it."

The captain looked at his passenger mystified. Mr. Muller went on, "I have known my Lord for
fifty-seven years and there has never been a single day that I have failed to gain an audience with
Him. If you will get up now and open the door, you will find the fog is gone."

The captain got up and opened the door. The fog was gone! George Muller was in Quebec for his
engagement on Saturday afternoon.

The Song of Solomon has been called the book of communion. We have that beautifully set forth
in the first seven verses of the second chapter. The bride and the bridegroom are conversing
together. We delight to speak with those whom we love. One of the wonderful things about love
is that when someone has really filled the vision of your soul, you do not feel that any time that
is taken up communing with him is wasted. Here then you have the lovers out in the country
together and she exclaims, for it is evidently she who speaks in verse one, "I am the rose of
Sharon, and the lily of the valleys." Generally we apply those words to the blessed Lord; we speak
of Him as the Rose of Sharon. We sing sometimes, "He’s the Lily of the Valley, the Bright and
Morning Star." It is perfectly right and proper to apply all these delightful figures to Him, for we
cannot find any figure that speaks of that which is beautiful and of good report that cannot
properly be applied to the Lord. But the wonderful thing is that He has put His own beauty upon
His people. And so here the bride is looking up into the face of the bridegroom saying, "I am the
rose [really the narcissus, a blood-red flower] of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys" _ the lily that
thrives in the hidden place, not in the town, not in the heat and bustle of the city, but out on the
cool countryside, in the quiet field. Does it not speak of the soul’s separation to Christ Himself?

It is when we draw apart from the things of the world, apart to Himself, that we really thrive and
grow in grace and become beautiful in His sight. I am afraid that many of us do not develop
spiritually as we should, because of the fact that we know so little of this heart-separation to
Himself. One of the great griefs that comes to the heart of many a one who is seeking to lead
others oh in the ways of Christ, is to know the influence that the world has upon them after they
are converted to God. How often the question comes from young Christians, "Must I give up this
and must I give up that if I am going to live a consistent Christian life?" And the things that they
speak of with such apparent yearning are mere trifles after all as compared with communion with
Him. Must I give up eating sawdust in order to enjoy a good dinner? Who would talk like that?
Must I give up the pleasures of the world in order that I may have communion with Christ? It is
easy to let them all go if the soul is enraptured with Him; and when you get to know Him better,
when you learn to enjoy communion with Him, you will find yourself turning the question around.
So when the world says, "Won’t you participate with us in this doubtful pleasure or in this unholy
thing?" your answer will be, "Must I give up so much to come down to that level? Must I give
up communion with Him? Must I give up the enjoyment of His Word? Must I give up fellowship
with His people in order to go in the ways of the world?"

Dear young Christian, do not think of it as giving up anything to go apart with Him and enjoy His
blessed fellowship. It is then the separated soul looks into His face and says, "I am like the
narcissus of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys," and He at once responds, "As the lily among
thorns, so is my love among the daughters."

"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God
of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them
which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God" (2 Cor.
1:3, 4).

What strikes one here is that the apostle begins the opposite way from that in which most would
begin. If we had anything to relate as he had, we should have started with our troubles and
pressures, and gone on perhaps to tell of the comfort and consolation ministered by God to us. But
the apostle begins with the source of all comfort:"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies." Thus he begins at the fountain head, and not at the stream;
he comes down to the stream, "that we may be able to comfort." He did not go up to God from
that, but from God Himself he came down, to the comfort he ministered. It makes an immense
difference at what end we begin. We find broken hearts in this world. Who can bind them up but
God Himself? But we must take care not to make our need the measure of His comfort; if you
make your troubles, or sorrows, or difficulties the measure of God’s grace and mercy, you
severely limit the store of goodness that is in Him.

There was only One_the blessed Lord_who had unmeasured trouble and sorrow here. To us,
all sorrow is measured out, either God-given, or God-permitted. He puts on us only what He sees
needful for us. There is no temptation, but that which is common to man. God will not suffer us
to be tempted above what we are able. He knows exactly what the vessel is able to bear. He puts
the right amount on it, and then places His own blessed strength under it, and so helps us to carry
it. All goes under His hand. No amount of God-given consolation in the midst of the troubles we
pass through could ever be the measure of what is in God’s heart. So the apostle breaks out with
"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" who is the source of it all.

Paul is allowed to pass through all he speaks of here in order that he might be able to minister it
to others. The servant is passed through many an exercise and difficulty, many a pressure and
trial, often not so much for himself as for those he would serve under Christ. God produces in the
servant that character which it is His object to develop by means of his service. He puts the
servant in the stocks, as it were, that he may be able to come forth and say, "I have tasted the
mercy and comfort of God."

We never can get sympathy from others while they themselves are in the same circumstances.
When they have passed through them, they fitted to help and comfort us. How often in trouble
people claim to be shut up to themselves. They think none can understand. But after any one has
passed through it, he can draw near to those in sorrow and tell them of the comfort wherewith he
has been comforted.

There must be school time in God’s family, and everything must be fully tested and proved. If we
are walking with God, are we not conscious of how little we are able to help one another? Painful
it is to see how well able we appear to be to find the weak points in one another. To tell a man
he is at the bottom of a deep ditch is one thing, but it is quite another to be able through grace to

take him out of it. We must know the hand and heart of God and His sustaining power for
ourselves, and then we can meet others in their varied circumstances; and like a skillful physician,
we shall know the relative value of each medicine and be able to apply it. The physician must go
to school in order to learn; and so must we walk this great hospital of suffering, that is, this
present world, and taste the balm of consolation ourselves before we can commend it to others.

God was thinking of the Corinthians, and therefore He says as it were, I will take my servant and
pass him through the heights and depths, through every variety of circumstance (2 Cor. ii)- For
what purpose? In order that I may display in him the power of Christ, and in order that the same
power may go out through him and reach the Corinthians. Paul is afflicted for the sake of the
Corinthians. This makes the position of the servant of Christ very solemn_the servant ought to
be ready for everything. Some act as if they thought they could carry the world before them; they
are applauded, made much of. This is the world’s notion. However, the thought in Scripture of
a servant is one who suffers, not one who reigns; one who goes through pressure and difficulty,
evil report and good report (2 Cor. 6). He ought to be one who has such a hold upon God and
who has God so before him that he can say, "Here am 1, send me," content to be placed in the
furnace, that out of a broken heart he may be able to minister the consolations of God.

Was it said to Paul, "I will show him how great things he must do?" No, but what he must suffer
for My name’s sake (Acts 9:16). It is not only a man’s gift or his words which God takes up, but
He takes up a man’s person and puts him into every sort of up and down so that he may be able
to stand by the afflicted ones and say, "This was my comfort in my sorrow." It is a lonely, quiet,
unnoticed, and unknown path, but one of most precious blessing-. When a person has lost his
reputation, his good name (not only in the world, but even among the saints), when a person is
in the shade, in the deeps with Christ, it is an opportunity to see how near Christ can come to him.
"At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me:I pray God that it may not
be laid to their charge" (2 Tim. 4:16). Paul was absolutely alone but he had not a bitter thought
about one of them who forsook him.

Rather, Paul fully proved what God was:"Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me, and
strengthened me" (verse 17).

May the Lord graciously incline our hearts by His Spirit to accept His own blessed perfect ways
with each one of us, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake!

(From Christ:His People’s Portion and Object.)

We must never lose sight of the grand fact that we are converted to the service of God. The
outcome of the life which we possess must ever take the form of service to the living and true
God. In our unconverted days we worshiped idols and served various lusts and pleasures. Now,
on the contrary, we worship God in the Spirit, and we are called to serve Him with all our
ransomed powers. We have turned to God and have found in Him our perfect rest and satisfaction.
There is not a single thing we need, for time and eternity, that we cannot find in our most gracious
God and Father. He has treasured up in Christ, the Son of His love, all that can satisfy the desires
of the new life in us. It is our privilege to have Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith, and to be
so rooted and grounded in love as to be able to comprehend with all the saints "what is the
breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth
knowledge," that we may be filled with all the fulness of God (Eph. 3:17-19).

Thus filled, satisfied, and strengthened, we are called to dedicate ourselves, spirit, soul, and body,
to the service of Christ_to be always abounding in the work of the Lord. We should have nothing
else to do in this world. Whatever cannot be done as service to Christ ought not to be done at all.
It is our sweet privilege to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus and to the glory of God.
We sometimes hear people speak of "a secular calling" as contrasted to a "sacred" one. We
question the correctness of such a distinction. Paul served the Lord both in making tents and
planting churches. All that a Christian does ought to be sacred because it is done as service to
God. If this were borne in mind, it would enable us to connect the very simplest duties of daily
life with the Lord Himself, and to bring Him into them in such a way as to impart a holy dignity
and interest to all that we have to do from morning till night. In this way, instead of finding the
duties of our calling a hindrance to our communion with God, we should actually make them an
occasion of waiting on Him for wisdom and grace to discharge them aright, so that His holy name
might be glorified in the most minute details of practical life.

It is most blessed for us to know that our God graciously condescends to connect His name and
His glory with the most commonplace duties that can devolve upon us in our ordinary domestic
life. It is this which imparts dignity, interest, and freshness to every little act, from morning till
night. "Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men" (Col. 3:23). Here lies
the precious secret of the whole matter. It is not working for wages, but serving the Lord and
looking to Him to receive the reward of the inheritance.

Oh, that all this were more fully realized among us! What moral elevation it would give to the
entire Christian life! What a triumphant answer it would furnish to the unbeliever! The most
learned arguments are not so convincing as an earnest, devoted, holy, happy, self-sacrificing
Christian life.

(From "Conversion:What Is It?" in Miscellaneous Writings, Vol. 4,.)

"There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into His rest, he also
hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His" (Heb. 4:9,10).

We should especially observe that it is the rest of God which is spoken of here. This enables us
to understand the happiness and perfection of the rest. God must rest in that which satisfies His
heart. This was the case in creation_all was very good. But God, in His perfect love, is also
satisfied with us_His redeemed people_and we will possess a heavenly portion in the blessing
which we shall have in His own presence, in perfect holiness and perfect light. Accordingly, all
the toilsome work of faith, the exercise of faith in the wilderness, the warfare, the good works
practiced there, labor of every kind will cease. Not only shall we be delivered from the power of
indwelling sin, but all the efforts and all the troubles of the new man will cease as well. We are
already set free from the law of sin; in the coming day our spiritual exercise for God will cease.
We shall rest from our works performed in service for Him. We have already rested from our
works with regard to justification, and therefore in that sense we now have rest in our consciences.
But that is not the subject here_it is the Christian’s rest from all his works. God rested from His
works_assuredly good ones_ and so shall we also then with Him.

We are now in the wilderness; we also wrestle with wicked spirits in heavenly places. But a
blessed rest remains for us, in which our hearts will repose in the presence of God, where nothing
will trouble the perfection of our rest, where God will rest in the perfection of the blessing He has
bestowed on His people.

(From Synopsis of the Books of the Bible.)

"For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his
sight:but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Seeing
then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us
hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling
of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Heb. 4:12-15).

The apostle sets before us the instrument which God employs to judge the unbelief and all the
workings of the heart which tend to lead the believer into departure from the position of faith, and
which tend to hide God from him by inducing him to satisfy his flesh and to seek for rest in the
wilderness.

To the believer who is upright in heart this judgment is of great value, for it is that which enables
him to discern all that has a tendency to hinder his progress or make him slacken his steps. It is
the Word of God which, as the revelation of God, and the expression of what He is and of what
His will is in all circumstances that surround us, judges everything in the heart which is not of
Him. It is more penetrating than a two-edged sword. Living and energetic, it separates all that is
most intimately linked together in our hearts and minds. Whenever nature _ the "soul" and its
feelings _ mingles with that which is spiritual, it brings the edge of the sword of the living truth
of God between the two, and judges the hidden movements of the heart respecting them. It
discerns all the thoughts and intentions of the heart. But it has another character:Coming from
God, it brings us into His presence; and all those things which it forces us to discover, it sets in
our conscience before the eye of God Himself. Nothing is hidden; all is naked and manifested to
the eye of Him with whom we have to do.

Such is the true help, the mighty instrument of God to judge everything in us that would hinder
us from pursuing our course through the wilderness with joy. What a precious instrument this is:
solemn and serious in its operation, but of priceless and infinite blessing in its effects and
consequences.

It is an instrument which, in its operation, does not allow "the desires of the flesh and of the
mind" liberty to act; which does not permit the heart to deceive itself; but which procures us
strength, and places us without any consciousness of evil in the presence of God, to pursue our
course with joy and spiritual energy.

But there is another help, one of a different character, to aid us in our passage through the
wilderness. We have a High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God.
He has in all things been tempted like ourselves, sin apart; so that He can sympathize with our
infirmities. Christ of course had no evil desires. He was tempted in every way, but apart from sin.
Sin had no part in it at all. But I do not wish for sympathy with the sin that is in me; I detest it;
I wish it to be mortified_judged unsparingly. This the Word does. For my weakness and my
difficulties I seek sympathy; and I find it in the priesthood of Jesus. It is not necessary, in order

to sympathize with me, that a person should feel at the same moment that which I am feeling_
rather the contrary. If I am suffering pain, I am not in a condition to think as much of another’s
pain. But in order to sympathize with him I must have a nature capable of appreciating his pain.

Thus it is with Jesus when exercising His priesthood. He is in every sense beyond the reach of
pain and trial, but He is Man. Not only has He the human nature which in time suffered grief, but
He experienced the trials a saint has to go through more fully than any of us has. Thus His heart,
free and full of love, can entirely sympathize with us, according to His experience of ill, and
according to the glorious liberty which He now has to provide and care for us. This encourages
us to hold fast our profession in spite of the difficulties that beset our path; for Jesus concerns
Himself about those difficulties according to His own knowledge and experience of what they are,
and according to the power of His grace. (From Synopsis of the Books of the Bible.)

We shall not lose the Holy Spirit when we are raised again. This, perhaps, is a simple truth, but
one which makes us feel how great will be our capacity for happiness in that state. In this present
life, a great portion of our spiritual strength is employed to enable us to walk in integrity, in spite
of the flesh and the temptations of the enemy. But in our resurrection life, neither the flesh nor
the devil will exist. All the power of the Spirit in us will then be employed in rendering us fit for
the infinite happiness we shall find there. We shall enjoy it all according to the strength of the
Spirit.