Rest from Desire

How many persons are the subjugated slaves of those inordinate appetites, which have their origin in our physical nature! How many are not merely agitated, but consumed, as it were, by the desire of accumulating property! How general and strong is the desire of reputation! Many, in whom other desires are perhaps comparatively feeble, spend anxious days and toilsome nights in seeking for power. But the truly holy person, whose great and only desire is that the will of the Lord may be done, has no desire of these things, or of any other things, except so far as God may see fit to inspire them. And all desires which harmonize with God's arrangements, and have their origin in a divine inspiration, are peaceful and happy.

"Love, pure love," says Mr. Fletcher, in some remarks addressed to Christians professing holiness, "is satisfied with the supreme good, with God. Beware, then, of desiring  anything but Him. Now you desire nothing else. Every other desire is driven out; see that none enter in again. Keep thyself pure; let your eye remain single, and your whole body shall remain full of light. Admit no desire of pleasing food, or any other pleasure of sense; no desire of pleasing the eye or the imagination; no desire of money, of praise, or esteem; of happiness in any creature. You may bring these desires back; but you need not. You may feel them no more. Oh, stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free!"

This passage, written by a man of deep religious experience, clearly involves and sanctions the doctrine that holy souls rest from all desires, except such as are from a divine source. There are, then, two classes of desires; — those which are the product of a fallen and unsanctified nature, and those which are from God. Agitation and sorrow always attend the one class. True peace, the peace of Christ and of angels, is the characteristic of the other.

And we proceed now to say, that the ground of difference between them is this: Desires which are from God are attended with faith; and those which are not from him are without faith. The man of the world is full of desires; but being constantly in doubt whether his desires will be accomplished or not, he is constantly the subject of agitation and grief. But the holy man, being the subject of those desires only which God has inspired within him, cannot doubt that God, who is never disappointed, will fulfill them in his own time and way.  Having  thus two facts in his mental experience at the same time, namely, desire and a belief in the fulfillment of desire, the element of uneasiness, which is involved in the wants of the one, is annulled by the pleasure which is involved in the supply or fullness of the other. In other words, faith stops the cravings of desire, by being itself the "substance" or fulfillment of its object; so that constant desire, supposing it to be constantly existing, is changed into constancy of fruition, constancy of peace.

— edited from A Treatise on Divine Union (1851) Part 8, Chapter 3.

The Voyage

"When thou  passest through the waters, I'll be with thee; and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee."  Isaiah xliii. 2.

Fair stream, embosomed in yon pleasant vale,
That in thy quiet beauty sweep'st along!
How oft I skimmed thee with my slender sail,
How oft I poured upon thy banks my song!
'Twas then I marked the autumn's blushing leaves
Sink, wafted slowly in the quiet air;
Thy silver wave the roseate gift receives,
And hastes its treasure to the deep to bear.
So man shall pass, borne on the stream of time,
A moment seen, and seen, alas, no more.
Dark is the wave; and distant is the clime;
But lift, in strength divine, the struggling oar;
And then, thou wanderer of life's troubled sea,
Nor angry storm, nor rocks, nor wave, shall injure thee.

— American Cottage Life (1850) XXX.

Light in Goshen

"And Moses stretched forth his hand towards heaven;  and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt, three days. They saw not one another, neither rose any from his ploce for three days; but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings." Exodus x. 22, 23.

In ancient times, when God in anger came,
And troubled Egypt with his mighty hand,
The rayless sun withdrew his midday flame,
And clouds and darkness filled the sightless land,
But there was light in Goshen.  On it lay,
On  pleasant hill and vale, and flower and tree,
The moon's resplendent beam, the sunlight's ray,
The free stars, singing in their liberty.
Thus is it now. God's people walk in light,
With changeless day to cheer them and to guide;
But o'er the godless throng reigns Egypt's night,
The sun and moon and stars their radiance hide,
'Tis God, whose glorious light is never dim,
Illuminates the host, that faithful follow him.

— American Cottage Life (1850) XXIX.

Walking with God in the Order of Providence

We may lay it down as a great principle in the practical doctrines of holiness, that a soul, wholly devoted to God, will always endeavor to move calmly, yet firmly and exactly, in the blessed order of the divine providences. Neither prematurely and excitedly hastening in advance, nor yet sluggishly and carelessly lagging behind.

And this truth, be it ever remembered, is one of the leading elementary conceptions, embraced in the great and glorious idea of walking with God. It is noticed by writers on philosophical subjects, that some sorts of motion are pleasant and beautiful to the beholder, while others are not so. And they assert further, that objects in motion are thus beautiful, (for instance, a winding stream or a ship under gentle sail,) partly at least, because they are in harmony with the laws of our own mental movement. But where the outward motion, which we are contemplating is accelerated beyond a certain degree of rapidity, so as to be out of correspondence with the natural movement of our own minds, it at once ceases to be pleasant and beautiful and becomes painful. And so, on the other hand, when the motion becomes unusually sluggish and tardy so as to fall in the rear of the movement of our own minds and retard it, it then also loses its character of beauty. And it is somewhat similar in relation to the providences of, God. When the inward operation of the holy soul keeps in exact correspondence with the progress of God's providences, moving in time and place just where he moves, then all is orderly and divinely beautiful. But when, through unfaithfulness to God's grace, we are jostled out of the divine order, either by going in advance through precipitancy, or falling in the rear through worldly sloth, we are no longer conscious of this divine harmony and beauty. Under such circumstances we necessarily lose, in a considerable degree, the sense of God's presence and favor; and wandering in our own position and out of the divine position, we experience but little else than darkness and sorrow.

— edited from The Interior or Hidden Life (2nd edition, 1844). Part 3, Chapter 2.

Walk in God's Order

He, who would walk with God, must walk in God's order. God not only requires us to obey and serve him; but to obey and serve him in his own time and way. In the eye of God voluntary disobedience in the manner of the thing, is the same as disobedience in the thing itself. If therefore in order to walk with God, we must walk in God's order and must operate with him in his own time and way, it will be necessary for us to subdue our natural eagerness and impetuosity of spirit.

Again, this doctrine is totally opposed to the indulgence of an inactive and sluggish spirit. He, who is seriously disposed to meet every movement of God's providence in the fulfillment of every known duty, will find no time, to be idly and uselessly thrown away. Every moment, as it comes, brings with it its appropriate instructions, and calls for its appropriate duties. It does not always call for outward action; but it calls for something to be done. It does not always, nor does it ever, call for a feverish and unreflecting excitement; but on the other hand, it never approves a listless and unprofitable inactivity. Nevertheless every moment brings its duty, although not always to be fulfilled in the same manner. That duty may be outward action: or it may be inward retirement and conversation with God. It may relate to the improvement of others; or it may have relation to the instruction and improvement of ourselves. It may call us to open and aggressive assaults upon the strong holds of sin; or to the secrecy of the closet and the sacredness of private supplication.

— edited from The Interior of Hidden Life (2nd edition, 1844) Part 3, Chapter 2.

The Spiritual Mind and the Providential World

I have sometimes thought, that there is a similitude or analogy between the natural mind and the spiritual mind, in relation to the subject now under consideration. The natural mind, (that is to say, the perceptive and reflective ability, which is naturally given us,) is adapted in its operations and results to the natural world around us. The ability, which we possess of realizing in ourselves the various auditory, visual, and tactual sensations and perceptions would be of no avail, would be practically useless, without the corresponding sounds, colors, and forms of the external world. The mind, therefore, in some of its important operations, and the external world, are precisely and admirably fitted to go together. They are practically the mutual correspondences and counterparts of each other. And it seems to be essentially the same with the spiritual mind, that is to say, with the mind enlightened and guided by the influences of the Holy Spirit. The mind is divinely inspired, in the first instance, with thoughts and views, which may be considered as conditionally instructive and binding upon us; but which can be drawn out of this state of conditionality, and be made positively clear and binding, only in connection with those various outward events, which the divine providence is continually developing. As instruments of music will not give utterance to their beautiful sounds, till they are touched and swept by an outward hand, so the inward inspiration of the Holy Ghost is, to some extent latent, in the mind, and is not susceptible of being distinctly analyzed and heard in its responses to the spiritual ear, until it receives its interpretation from the outward application  of providential events. In other words, as the natural mind and the natural or outward world are mutually and reciprocally adapted, so also the spiritual mind and the  providential world are mutually correspondences  and counterparts of each other.

Accordingly although a person may be fully conscious of the presence of the Holy Spirit operating upon and guiding his mind; still it remains a great truth, that it is a guidance, which in some important sense may be regarded as dependent on those prospective developments, which still remain in God's mysterious keeping. Hence as the interpretation of the inward suggestions of the Holy Spirit exists, in so great a degree, in the correspondent facts and aspects of outward providences, it becomes every one, as has already been intimated, and especially every one, who is seeking to live a truly devoted and holy life, to keep an eye humbly but conscientiously watchful, upon all providential events! As in the expressions which have already been quoted, he should "nourish himself with the daily  providences of God."

— edited from The Interior or Hidden Life (2nd edition, 1844) Part 3, Chapter 2.

Finding the Mind of God in Providence

The presence and agency of God, in his providences, is not an accidental thing; but is a result, which has reference to the divine wisdom and choice. What ever takes place, with the exception of sin, is not only a portion in the great series of events; but takes place in accordance with the well considered and divinely ordered arrangement or plan of things, Accordingly every thing, which takes place, indicates, all things considered, the mind of God in that particular thing. And hence we may be said to reach, through the divine providences, a portion of the divine mind; and to become acquainted with it. We do not mean to say, that we possess, in respect to that particular thing, the whole of the divine wisdom; but we undoubtedly possess a portion of it, which is unspeakably valuable.  To some extent certainly, it can always be said, that God reveals himself. That is to say, he reveals his mind and will.

We proceed to remark again, and in connection with what has been said, that the providences of God are, to a considerable extent, the interpreters of the mind of the Holy Spirit. The mind of God, as it is disclosed in his providences, and the mind of the Holy Spirit, as it reveals itself in the soul are one; and consequently in their different developments from time to time can never be at variance, but will always be in harmony with each other. And not only this, they have a relation to each other, which is mutually and positively illuminative. They throw light, the one upon the other. Certain it is that the mind of the Spirit, in all cases of mere practical action and duty, cannot, as a general thing, be clearly and definitely ascertained, except in connection with providential dispensations. Such dispensations are the outward light, which corresponds to and throws a reflex illumination upon the inward light. And this is so general a law of the divine operation, that persons, who are truly led by the Spirit of God, are generally and perhaps always found to keep an open eye upon the divine providences, as important and true interpreters of the inward spiritual leadings.

And accordingly we find the following expressions in the Life of Madame Guyon. "My soul could not incline itself on the one side or the other, since that another will had taken the place of its own; but only nourished itself with the daily providences of God." And again, "the order of divine providence makes the whole rule and conduct of a soul entirely devoted to God. While it faithfully gives itself up thereto, it will do all things right and well, and will have every thing it wants, without its own care; because God, in whom it confides, makes it every moment do what he requires. God loves what is of his own order."

Hardly any thing, in the conduct of the divine life in the soul, is more important than thus to keep an open and faithful eye upon the arrangements of divine providence. Until the divine intimations within are cleared up and illustrated by the subsequent openings of Providence, it seems to me to be the duty of Christians to remain in the attitude of patient expectation, and of humble and quiet faith. It is true, we may already be possessed of the inward voice, the declarations of the Spirit in the soul. But these inward intimations, taken by themselves,  may, in many cases, be very obscure. And so long as we do not satisfactorily know the information involved in them and the issues to which they lead, it is obviously a duty to keep looking upward, in a childlike simplicity and faith, for those further developments, which the openings of Divine Providence may impart.

— edited from The Interior or Hidden Life (2nd edition, 1844) Part 3, Chapter 2.