Preserved Blameless

The following wise counsel (especially the last point) is from A. B. Simpson's book Wholly Sanctified:

". . . if we would be preserved blameless:

"1. Let us expect to be preserved. If we go out anticipating failure we will have it; or, at least, we will never know certainly but that the next temptation we meet is the one in which we are to fall; and as the chain is never stronger than its weakest link, we will be sure to fall. It is the reputation of an army that secures its victory; it is the quickening assurance that it has never been defeated that carries it irresistibly against the foe.

"2. Let us also expect to be tempted. Most persons, after a step of faith, are looking for sunny skies and unruffled seas, and when they meet a storm and tempest they are filled with astonishment and perplexity. But this is just what we must expect to meet if we have received anything of the Lord.

"The best token of His presence is the adversary's defiance, and the more real our blessing, the more certainly will it be challenged. It is a good thing to go out looking for the worst, and if it comes we are not surprised; while if our path be smooth and our way be unopposed, it is all the more delightful, because it comes as a glad surprise.

"But let us entirely understand what we mean by temptation. You, especially, who have stepped out with the assurance that you have died to self and sin, may be greatly amazed to find yourself assailed with a tempest of thoughts and feelings that seem to come wholly from within, and you will be impelled to say, 'Why, I thought I was dead, but I seem to be alive.' This, beloved, is the time to remember that temptation has power to penetrate our inmost being with thoughts and feelings that seem to be our own, but are really the instigations of the evil one [italics added].

"'We wrestle with principalities and powers'; that is to say, they entwine themselves around us as wrestlers do about the limbs of their opponents, until they seem to be a part of ourselves [italics added]. This is the essence of temptation, and we are almost constrained to conclude that the evil is within ourselves, and that we are not cleansed and sanctified as we had believed. Do not wonder if you are assailed with temptation that comes to you in the most subtle forms, the most insinuating feelings, the most plausible insinuations, and apparently through your inmost being and nature.

"3. Remember that temptation is not sin unless it be accompanied with the consent of your will. There may seem to be even the inclination, and yet the real choice of your spirit is fixed immovably against it; and God regards it simply as a solicitation, and credits you with an obedience all the more pleasing to Him, because the temptation was so strong.

"We little know how evil can find access to a pure nature, and seem to incorporate itself with our thoughts and feelings, while at the same time we resist and overcome it, and remain as pure as the sea-fowl that emerges from the water without a single drop remaining upon its burnished wing, or as the harp string, which may be struck by a rude and clumsy hand and gives forth a discordant sound, not from any defect of the harp, but because of the hand that touches it [italics added]. Let but the master's hand play upon it and it is a fountain of melody and a chord of exquisite delight.

"Now, the truth is that these inner thoughts and suggestions of evil do not spring from our own spirit at all if truly sanctified, but are the voices of the tempter, and we must learn to discriminate between his suggestions and our choices, and declare: 'I do not accept; I do not consent; I am not responsible; I will not sin; I reckon myself still dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ.'

"There is a most beautiful incident related in the annals of the early Church, by Mrs. Jamieson, of a holy and exceedingly beautiful maiden in Antioch who became the object of the sinful passion of a heathen nobleman. Unable to win her affection, he employed a magician to throw over her a fatal spell and win her in the toils of his snare.

"The magician himself became enamored of the fair girl, and sold himself to the devil on condition that he should be given power to captivate her with unholy passion. And so he began to apply all his arts, and throw over her mind the fascinating spell of his own imaginations. Suddenly the poor girl found herself, like a charmed bird, possessed by feelings and apparently by passions to which she had always been a stranger. Her pure heart was horrified by constant visions from which her whole being recoiled, and yet it seemed to her that she must herself be polluted and degraded; and she began to lose all hope and to stand on the verge of a despair which was impelling her to throw herself away in hopeless abandonment to the power which possessed her.

"In this condition of mind she went to see her bishop, and it is recorded that the good man, with quick discernment, immediately pointed out to her that these influences and feelings were not from her own heart at all, but spells from the will of another, and that their only power consisted in her fears and her recognition of them as her own; and if she would stand firm in her will, refusing in the name of the Lord to acknowledge them as her thoughts, and disdaining either to fear them or for a moment to consent to them, their power would be wholly broken.

"Unutterably comforted by this wise counsel, she returned to her home and set her face, in the strength of Christ, against these allurements of evil, and immediately she found them broken; and soon after the magician himself became conscious that his power was ended, came to her in deep contrition, confessing his sin, and asking her forgiveness and her prayers, and, it is said, afterwards yielded himself to the Lord, convicted by the triumph of the grace of Christ through a pure and trusting will.

"This little incident tells the whole story. Let us never reckon any temptation to be our own sin, but stand steadfast in our purpose, and God will give us the victory.

4. Let us therefore continually reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, detach our spirit from every evil thing that touches it, tell the devil that these are his children, not ours, that he lays at our doors, refuse to acknowledge any relationship with them, keep the hatches down when the billows sweep the deck, and sail on not fearing the worst as long as they do not get into the hold of our little vessel; and as we reckon, Christ will reckon, and make the reckoning true for us.

5. But above all our reckonings respecting ourselves let us reckon Christ to be in us and recognize Him as the indwelling Life and Keeper of our spirit, soul and body. It is a great principle that where we recognize God, there God will meet us. Recognize Him in the heavens, He will meet us in the heavens; recognize Him by our side and He will speak to us from beside us; recognize Him in our inmost heart and He will meet us there. Let us meet Him as an abiding presence. Let us trust Him as a faithful Keeper. Let us set the Lord always before us, and say with the Psalmist: 'Because he is at my right hand, therefore I will not be moved.'

6. If we desire to be preserved blameless let us abide in the love of Christ. Let us persuade ourselves that He loves us infinitely and perfectly, and that He delights in us continually, and is wholly committed to us to carry us through and fulfil in us all the good pleasure of His will. Let us not think that we must squeeze from Him, by hard constraint and persuasion, the blessings which our faith compels, but that He has set His heart on our highest good, and that He is working out for us, in His loving purpose, all that we can receive of blessing.

"Relaxing like John, in His bosom, let us each reckon ourselves to be the disciple whom Jesus loved, and, like Enoch, let us claim by faith the testimony that we please God, and looking up with confidence we will find His responsive smile and benediction. The true secret of pleasing God is to trust Him, to believe in His love to us, to be guileless children, and to count ourselves beloved of God.

7. If we desired to be preserved blameless, let us remember that God's will for us is not a hard and impossible task but a reasonable, practicable and gentle standard, and that He is not continually frowning upon us because we cannot reach some astonishing height, or imitate some prodigy of martyrdom and service, but He expects of us a simple, faithful life in the quiet sphere which He has assigned to us; and that we are truly blameless in His sight when we are following, moment by moment, His perfect will in life's duties as they meet us. He adapts the standard of duty according to our circumstances and ability. The parent expects less of the lisping child than the teacher does of the older student or the employer does of the full-grown man.

"God knows our strength and capacity, and His will is adapted to our growth, and His 'yoke is easy and his burden light.' Therefore, let us not accuse ourselves because we have not yet reached some ideal that, by and by, we will have attained to.

"Are we meeting His will today and saying 'yes' to His claims as the moments pass? Then, indeed, we are blameless in His sight. At the same time, let us not allow this comfort to allure us to a false extreme. If, on the other hand, God is pressing us forward by His Spirit to higher reaches, let us not be content with less, for we will not be blameless unless we press forward, that we may apprehend all for which we are apprehended of Christ Jesus.

"With many of us, God is not finding fault for actual disobedience, perhaps, but for shortcoming and a too easy contentment with past attainments. The great question is, Are we obedient to the voice of His Spirit as He calls us onward, step by step?

8. Implicit obedience to every voice of God and every conviction of duty is essential to a blameless life. One moment's hesitation to obey, one act of wilful disobedience, will plunge us into darkness, and withdraw His conscious presence from the heart, and leave the soul disarmed and exposed to temptation and sin.

"They that have become wholly sanctified have given up the right of self-will and disobedience forever, and it is not to be thought of even for a moment that we should hesitate to say 'yes' to His every voice. True, we may not know His voice at all times, but in such cases He will always give us time. But when we are convicted of His will and convinced of His way for us, there is no alternative but obedience or a fearful fall and a complete loss of the divine communion.

9. If we desired to be preserved blameless we must preserve ceaseless communion with God, and abide in the spirit of prayer and fellowship through the Holy Spirit, for thus alone will we be led out into all the steppings of His will and kept blameless and fully obedient. The interruption of our communion for an hour might lose a step, and that lost step might lead us from the pathway of His perfect will and the fellowship of His presence for days to come, or, at least, leave us a step behind, and therefore not blameless.

10. Further, if we desire to be kept, we must maintain a quiet spirit, free from the turmoil and agitation of anxious care and inward strife, and still enough to always hear His voice. 'The peace of God will garrison your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ.' This is the soul's defense if we desired to be preserved blameless; therefore let the peace of God rule in your hearts, and regard with apprehension and alarm even a moment's interruption of your quietness and inward rest.

11. If we desire to be kept we must jealously guard our hearts and thoughts, and not feel ourselves at liberty to drift into the current of all the imaginations that are ever ready to sweep through the brain, and the idle words in which even Christian people are always ready to involve us.

"If you are walking closely with God, and watching for His voice you will be quickly conscious of a constraint, a weight upon your mind, a repression upon your heart, a deep tender sense of God's anxiety for His child--the mother calling her little birdlings to her soft wing from the place of peril. Truly 'He that keeps his mouth, keeps his soul.' These outward gates are places of danger, and the path of safety is a hidden one.

12. If we desire to be preserved blameless we must not live by long intervals, but by the breath and by the moment. Each instant must be dedicated and presented to God, a ceaseless sacrifice, and each breath must be poured into His bosom and received back from His being.

13. If we desire to be preserved blameless we must learn to recover instantly from failure by frank confession and prompt faith and re-committal. It is possible to catch ourselves before we have really fallen, and God does not count it a fall if we do not yield to it.

"Unseen hands are ever near to bear us up. even when we dash our foot against a stone; the remedy is found even before the danger has become effectual. There is provision for every failure in the blessed promise, 'If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.'

"There is something higher and better than this, namely, the grace that is able to keep us from stumbling, and check us even before the fall is accomplished. So He is willing to keep us even as the apple of the eye, reminded of the danger before it has become fatal, and instinctively closing the eyelids against its intrusion.

14. Finally, let us remember that the whole spirit, soul and body must be trained to abide in Christ. The life He gives us is not a self-contained endowment but a link of dependence, and every part of our being must continually draw its replenishment and nurture from our living Head, and thus be preserved blameless unto the Coming of our Lord JESUS CHRIST."