MR. H. F. BOWKER. REV. C. A. FOX.

REV. E. H. HOPKINS, M.A. REV. HANDLEY C. G. MOULE, M.A.

Wednesday Afternoon, June 24th, 1885.

NUMEROUS company assembled in the large hall on Wednesday afternoon to consider this subject. After the singing of hymn No. 37

"Jesus, Thine all-victorious love

Shed in my soul abroad,"

Prayer was presented by Rev. H. W. WEBB-PEPLOE, and the following address was given by the Chairman,

Mr. H. F. BOWKER.

Having read 1 John xv. 11, 12; John v. 26; and John xv. 5 (last clause), he proceeded:

The subject of Conference is the service of Christ, and we propose this afternoon to say some words upon this aspect of it; viz., that Christ's life must be manifested as the source of strength and power; nay, that Christ Himself must manifest His life in everyone who takes upon himself to serve Him. In the first passage I have quoted we read that "God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." Then the

Son of God has not parted with His life, neither has He so communicated it to us as that we are separated from Him; or, indeed, that we have anything at all except in union with Him. He maintains it in all its glory. He tells us in the second passage I read, "As the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself." In what sense given to the Son? He was eternal, co-existent with God the Father, and wanted no life imparted to Him. But when He took upon Himself the form of a servant, in order that the life forfeited by man might be restored, that life could only be restored in one way; that way, as you know, was by the Son of God Himself becoming incarnate, and undertaking the manifestation of that life, imparting it to all who believe in Him. So we stand in the presence of this great fact, that inasmuch as it was impossible for Christ to part with His life, so it is equally impossible for any one of us to lose ours.

Vain

This life, then, is the gift of Christ. Have we all received it? Are we conscious of it? Do we know that we possess it? These questions lie at the threshold of all service. will be our attempts to serve, if we have not this life. But if it be ours, it is because we have been to Christ, because a distinct transaction has taken place between Christ and us. And now that He has imparted to me His life, I am in union with Him for ever. All the consequences of this union it is impossible now for the human mind fully to fathom. I doubt whether we shall ever fully fathom them; they will occupy our attention through the eternal ages.

The first thought I want to present to you is, that this life is the gift of Christ. A trite truth, you will say. But have we grasped it with such firm tenacity as that no temptation, besetment, difficulty, perplexity or sorrow to which we are subject can ever, in the least degree, overshadow it in our minds?

The next thought is: If we have this life, how is it to be maintained? It is by the truth instrumentally, but through the agency and power of the Holy Ghost. In our loose way of talking we mingle phrases which should not be mingled at all. There is only One Great Doer in the universe ; He is the Agent in everything. And may I say in passing that God never parts with His power? To suppose such a thing possible is to suppose that God has abnegated His position and stepped down from His throne. He never parts with it;

but He ministers all the power that is needed for the exercise of the gifts He bestows on each of us. If we allow the thought to take possession of us, that He parts with His power, we are sure to get into a quagmire of difficulty, if not into a gulf of despair.

The third thought is indicated to us by the passage in John XV., where Christ says, "Without Me ye can do nothing." And we do not believe it. Perhaps you think that in saying this I am casting stones at the people of God. If any such thought were to possess me, like stones thrown upward, they would fall on my own head. But I say advisedly, as the result of much observation, much experience, and much thought, that we do not believe that statement of Christ. To believe it means that we live upon it. It is this half-hearted belief and feeble reception of it that causes the weakness of the Church, and of ourselves as individual Christians. What we truly believe God has done for us, we shall, to the utmost of the power that God gives to us, endeavour to carry out in practice.

What then does our Lord mean? Does He mean that this life which we receive from Him is sufficient to lead us onward through all the conflicts and battles and difficulties of life? Then, if we fail, are we to say that it is because sometimes we must fail? Is that the teaching of the Word of God? We heard this morning, in ringing tones of power, that, if we fail, there is no necessity for failing, because the provision that God has made is all-sufficient. God has made provision all along the line for every need that can possibly be experienced by any believing child of God, if only the conditions are maintained; viz., that we are wholly given up to Christ and wholly trusting in Him. Let us accept the conditions, and the power comes.

Let me state briefly two or three things as to the way in which this life is manifested. First in conflict. We hear much about conflict, and some of us have been accused of teaching that there is no conflict in the life of the consecrated Christian. We teach no such thing. We teach that conflict will have to be maintained all along the line; but observe that everything depends upon the place in which the battle is to be fought, and the conditions under which the conflict is to be undertaken. If we are abiding in Christ, He has, on our behalf, conquered every foe. The great enemy, death, He has overcome. Satan, He has defeated. The world, He has overcome. Self-Christ had no self to overcome, in the sense in which we have to overcome it.

But, as our representative, He had to conquer through discipline, and He "learned obedience by the things which He suffered." He had to conquer temptation and difficulty, and He overcame them. In all these aspects of conflict Christ is the conqueror, and Christ alone. It is only as I abide in Him, and have fellowship with Him, and am conscious of my union with Him, and my dependence on Him alone, that this conflict can be successfully undertaken, and that I can be used by Him to overcome and defeat the tempter.

Another thing we have to remember in the manifestation of this life is obedience. There are many Christians who trouble themselves much about certain things in relation to obedience that they need not trouble themselves about. It is not so much to the outward form of service that God looks as to the heart. If He sees that our heart is bent upon keeping His commandments, and that all the precepts He has given are precious to us, then, as we abide in Christ, is the power to obey given with every step we take; and there is no power elsewhere. Discipline, obedience, experience, will be useful only as they drive us back to our stronghold, which is Christ.

Then there is the manifestation of this life in the pathway of service. Who can grasp the length and breadth and depth and height of this? Conflict and obedience are themselves a part of service. There are many forms of service to be rendered on every side. When Paul would strengthen the hands of the Ephesians in his remarkable epistle, which I commend to you as an exhaustive study of this great subject, you remember he prays, in chap. iii., "that Christ may dwell in your hearts." What is our view of that? Christ dwells in the heart of every consecrated believer who is wholly given up to Him. But in what way is this indwelling manifested? Through the power of faith. Christ dwells not in our hearts, as some have said, in the way that Paul spoke of the Corinthian believers as dwelling in his heart. There is a reality, a personal indwelling which becomes a conscious thing, because Christ is there to cleanse and to keep the heart clean. He is there to keep the heart in all its waywardness, and its tendencies to wander, to be the supreme object of its thought, of its imagination, of its regard. You remember how the apostle finishes his "That ye prayer: may be filled with all the fulness of God." Not that we may be filled with the fulness of omnipotence-that is not possible -but that we may be filled into the fulness of God.

We are

taken away from that self of ours, and launched into the ocean of the fulness of God. Are we satisfied with our position? Then let us rejoice and be glad; for we know then that we have fellowship with God, that Christ is our Friend, that the Holy Ghost ministers to us, and that all our needs will be supplied.

The next address was given by the

Rev. C. A. FOX.

The service of Christ is indeed simply this: Obedience to the will of God. It may be in suffering; it may be in silence; it may be in adverse circumstances; it may be in poverty; it may be in reproach; but it may be also in the foremost places of the field. Wheresoever Christ places us, there is the place of service. God grant that each of us may serve Him just where we are, and with what we have got; for we have the Holy Ghost with us, and Jesus our own Saviour.

The service which we render may be merely acquiescenceif it is a real acquiescence-in the will of God. "Even so, Father," may be true service, when we consider anything that God has done for us. "Yea, Lord," may be true service, when God proposes to do for us anything further. If Christ puts us in the dust, and keeps us in the dust, let us humbly and even joyfully take our place and say, Yes, Lord." But there is one thing that we may say to Christ once, and only once, in our life; we may say, "I will not." When He gives us leave to go forth, as was given to the bond-servant of old, we can say, "Nay, I love my Master; I will not go out free." Let us each say that to-day; let us each be consecrated to-day-nailed to the door-post by the pierced ear, ready henceforth to hear the will of God, and obey the voice of God.

Before the cross Jesus called us to Him, "Come." We came to Him, and we found rest. After the resurrection He uses the word "Go." And we must go, lest we should not keep Him with us. "Lo, I am with you alway!" if ye go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. But there is this word also: He not only says "Go," but "Let go." This is needful for every child of God. Have you "let go" yet— let go all that is human, all earthly resources, all trust in anything of this life? Have you let go the shore, and are you launched forth with Jesus? Have you gone forth with Him on

very