Speaking for God

J. Elder Cumming describes the life hidden with Christ in God (the exchanged life). The following is taken from Keswick's Authentic Voice edited by Herbert F. Stevenson:

"The change from a Christian life that is unrestful, self-seeking, occasionally victorious, and occasionally cast down, is a most remarkable change for every man who has really experienced it; and I know that I speak in the hearing of many who can testify that they were Christians for years and years, but that until they came to a crisis in their life and passed through that crisis, to know of the unspeakable peace and power of God in their soul, they had no practical knowledge of the things that are spoken of here. I am sure there are many who are prepared solemnly and thankfully to testify that there is a great difference, an unspeakable difference, between the lives that men have lived as Christians in days gone by, and the lives that Christians are permitted to live by the power of Christ.

"Then I should like to say once more, that there is such a definite experience in the Christian life as being filled and possessed by the Holy Spirit of God; that it is possible to live as a Christian without being possessed and filled by the Spirit of God; but that after having passed into a certain definite state—however it is passed into, consciously or not—there is such an experience as the New Testament over and over again describes as being filled with the Spirit of God, which makes a remarkable difference to the man who has known it; and that that is the experience we are needing? We all ask for the Holy Spirit, and until that Spirit of God so fills us, God cannot use us as He would like to do.

"One word of caution I should like to give, and it is this. It does not seem to me to be possible for a man to be filled with the Spirit of God, until God has first cleansed the man. If you say, How far cleansed? I repeat in a sentence, what has been often said: we teach no sinlessness here. We have known no sinless man. We find in the record of the Church, and in the record of God’s Book, no story of a sinless man save Jesus Christ. Understand that this is our firm position, which we defend as faithfully as any. But, on the other hand, how far the holiness of the soul may go, under the power, and the presence, and the teaching of Christ, I dare not say. I have seen no limit on God’s part. We are not straitened in Him. Alas, alas, we are straitened in ourselves.

"And may I add one word? I know the humbling experience, and you know, brethren, the humbling experience, through which God leads men to higher and deeper blessing. We must kiss the dust before it is possible for God to fill us with His Holy Spirit; and if we are willing to kiss that dust which is at Jesus’ feet, then God undertakes to keep, and fill, and bless us. Are we willing to take that place? We have sung that hymn which always seems to me to be so solemn—'Oh! to be nothing, nothing.' I know not what your experience is, but I know mine has been that while one seeks honestly and sincerely to sing that hymn, yet when men treat us as if we were nothing, there is a certain movement within the soul. We ask to be nothing before God, and also to be nothing before men. Are we quite willing that God should take us at our word? Is there one of us who would feel no pang for a moment, if God took him at his word, as he sang that hymn, or offered that prayer? But it is a true prayer, and a needful prayer, and a blessed prayer, all the same. 'Oh, to be nothing, nothing.' And I believe the only way that can be done is when Christ fills the soul of the man who welcomes Him and His indwelling; when Christ so fills the soul of that man and shows him the face of God, that he abhors himself in dust and ashes."