Today being Father's Day, in order to stir up our remembrance of our faithful Church fathers, I'm reposting a blog and an update (slightly edited) which I posted yesterday at my sister site, tent of meeting (http://tent_of_meeting.xanga.com).

Through their faith, though they died, they still speak ~ Heb. 11:4... May God's Spirit give us ears to hear, so we might take heed to this great cloud of witnesses and run with endurance the race set before us (Heb. 12:1)!

Our fathers prevailed with God in prayer ~ turn the heart of the fathers to us! (Malachi 4:5-6)

Earlier this year, as I read "John Elias: Life, Letters and Essays" by Edward Morgan (revised & republished by Banner of Truth, 1973), I found my heart resonated with the heart of the publishers, whose words were written 40 years ago this month:

Without doubt the following pages contain much information which has long been in accessible and practically unknown. If it not, however, a concern merely for the recovery of historical knowledge which is responsible for this reprint. Speaking once of how the Welsh fathers of the eighteenth century had prevailed with God in prayer, and been remarkable for their spiritual usefulness, Elias said, 'It is a consolation to us that the sword and arms they so skilfully used, are in our hands:  may the Lord enable us to handle them!' The supreme value of this volume we judge to be the way in which it reminds us what are the 'sword and arms' of the Church. May God use these pages to further a recovery of the light and power of the gospel at a time when contentment with small things has blighted us all!

The Publishers

June, 1973

As I read through the book, I discovered the words attributed to Elias were an incorrect citation on the part of the publishers –– though indeed it is true that Elias looked back to the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist fathers of the previous century. Those words were actually part of a letter some of Elias' brothers in Christ had written to him to express their appreciation to him, as they met at Montgomeryshire for an Association Meeting of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Connexion. At that time, in April 1841, Elias was at home under great physical affliction (it was just over a month before he would pass into the Glory everlasting). In their "letter of condolence" to Elias, these men requested Elias' prayers on their behalf as they desired to be equipped with God's power to skillfully use the "sword and arms" as did the fathers... (p. 179-180):

April 30, 1841...

Dear brother, we entreat your prayers for ourselves, that the God of Israel may abide with us. Our fathers prevailed with God in prayer, and were remarkable for spiritual gifts; we are no more grasshoppers in comparison to them. But it is a consolation to us that the sword and arms they so skillfully used, are in our hands:  may the Lord enable us to handle them.

John Elias (1774 -1841) and the other Welsh Calvinistic ministers looked back to the fathers (including William Williams (Pantycelyn), Daniel Rowland, Thomas Charles, Griffith Jones, etc.) because of their remarkable "spiritual usefulness." The 18th century fathers had "skillfully used" the "sword and arms," and these 19th century men men were diligently seeking the Lord for the power He alone could provide, knowing the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. They longed to walk in the ways of the fathers –– to be workers approved and unashamed, and to prove they had not received the grace of God in vain.

I suspect by "sword and arms" these men were referring to Aaron and Hur holding up Moses' arms during the battle against Amalek, while Joshua and his chosen men fought and defeated Amalek with the sword (Exodus 17:8-16). My friends, we are in need not only a return to Word of God but also a return to prayer to God –– not only a return to the sword but to the arms! We have been experiencing some resurgence of Reformed preaching for which I am thankful –– but my question is this:  where is the resurgence in importunate prayer... where are the raised arms?

"What influence the rod of Moses had upon the battle (11): When Moses held up his hand in prayer (so the Chaldee explains it) Israel prevailed, but, when he let down his hand from prayer, Amalek prevailed. To convince Israel that the hand of Moses (with whom they had just now been chiding) contributed more to their safety than their own hands, his rod than their sword, the success rises and falls as Moses lifts up or lets down his hands. It seems, the scale wavered for some time, before it turned on Israel's side. Even the best cause must expect disappointments as an alloy to its successes; though the battle be the Lord's, Amalek may prevail for a time. The reason was, Moses let down his hands. Note, The church's cause is, commonly, more or less successful according as the church's friends are more or less strong in faith and fervent in prayer."

Many of you may be familiar with the following verses in Malachi 4 –– the concluding words of the Old Testament –– after which there was silence for 400 years...

5  Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.  6  And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction. (ESV)

5  Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: 6  And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. (KJV)

In his message "Chief Cause for Decay in the Church" on Malachi 4:1-6, Iain Murray explains that though on first reading we might interpret these verses as a prophecy and a promise of "Gospel unity restored to families –– yet the Gospel often divides families." He went on to clarify that the Biblical meaning of the word "fathers" goes beyond that of the parents of the previous generation to "more remote ancestors" (see Romans 9:5). Murray explained that turning of hearts in this way:

The hearts which the fathers of the Old Testament possessed in the best and the brightest days of Israel, the hearts of the fathers, piety, would be found again in another generation. The piety and the devotion of the fathers –– this would be rekindled and it would reappear in the children. That is the meaning of the verse. He shall turn, he shall restore, He shall bring back the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers.

So it is expounded in Luke 1:17 –– the Holy Spirit renders it: "He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just." That is to say, hearts which are by nature disobedient – for these hearts will be restored the wisdom, the piety, the grace which was in the fathers. This then was the promise of the verse.

In his commentary on Malachi (included in "The Prophets of the Restoration, or Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi: a New Translation with Notes"), Thomas V. Moore (1818-1871) expounds the passage similarly (see pp. 405-407, or pp. 176-178 in Banner of Truth's "A Commentary on Haggai and Malachi," reprinted 1960 & 1968):

The expression, "return the heart of the fathers to the sons, and the heart of the sons to the fathers," has usually been explained to mean the restoration of domestic harmony among the people. But this is a very meagre sense of words that close up the utterances of God to his people for twelve generations. Want of domestic concord was not one of the sins charged upon the people, and its removal would hardly be the great work assigned to the Elijah messenger. The meaning is suggested in the words of the angel to Zacharias, in Luke 1:16, 17; where, instead of the clause, "the heart of the sons to the fathers," is put, "the disobedient to the wisdom of the just." This paraphrase indicates that the hearts of the devoted ancestors were to live again in the obedience of their repentant posterity, and that the backslidden sons were to be restored to the piety of their fathers. The piety of the fathers had been referred to repeatedly before, (see 1:2; 2:5, 6; 3:4,) and the promise is, that this piety should live again in the children, under the Elijah call to repentance; and it is threatened, that if this is not the result, the land shall be laid under the terrible herem. This was  a devotion to destruction, such as was done to the Canaanites by the judicial act of God. As these guilty nations were cut off because of their sins, so should the people who had taken their place on the soil of the land of promise, or those who in turn would take their place on the covenants of promise, if they imitated their sinful example. This was fulfilled five hundred years afterward, when the chosen people were finally rejected, and the awful blood was upon them and their children, according to their own imprecation. And to this hour, the soil that was wet with that blood lies under the terrible herem, and will so continue, until that Elijah call that shall bring back the heart of David, of Isaiah, and of Nathaniel to their exiled posterity, enabling them to see him whom they have pierced, and to cry, "My Lord and my God." And by the same principle of interpretation that we have applied to the previous verse, do we extend this warning to every age of the Church, and find in it the germ of the solemn admonition of Paul in discussing the same subject, (Rom. 11:20, 21,)  "Be not high-minded, but fear; for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed, lest he also spare not thee." (HT: http://archive.org/stream/prophetsofrestor00moor/prophetsofrestor00moor_djvu.txt for the text.)

I wasn't familiar with the Hebrew word herem or cherem, so I looked it up in Strong's Concordance... "physical (as shutting in) a net (either literally or figuratively); usually a doomed object; abstr. extermination:--(ac-)curse(-d, -d thing), dedicated thing, things which should have been utterly destroyed, (appointed to) utter destruction, devoted (thing)."

May God turn the hearts of the fathers to us, and give us ears to hear, and impart to us a holy fear, that we might tremble at His Word and be shaken out of our sinful presumption, and repent and humble ourselves, that we might take heed to this grave warning, so we might cast off any and all fleshly means and scatter them as unclean things! ("There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.... In the fear of the LORD one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge. The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death." ~ Prov. 14:12, 25-26)... so we might zealously embrace, jealously guard, and skillfully use God's own supernatural provision for His Church:  the sword and arms!

And by the same principle of interpretation that we have applied to the previous verse, do we extend this warning to every age of the Church, and find in it the germ of the solemn admonition of Paul in discussing the same subject, (Rom. 11:20, 21,)  "Be not high-minded, but fear; for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed, lest he also spare not thee."

Just over four years ago, in March 2009, I began tent of meeting. In the years prior to that time, I'd begun to see things seemed awry and amiss in some way in the Church, and that somehow we were falling short of what God intended, but it was all pretty vague to me... At first I began to look into emergent/missional theology as a solution. But then, all glory to God, I was set right, as I purchased Martyn Lloyd-Jones' (the Doctor's) commentary on First John ("Life in Christ"). Through reading the Doctor's words there and elsewhere, I was enabled to begin to go back to the Word of God (to Whom can we go?!) to see God's diagnosis and God's solution for God's Church, which is found in Acts 6:4:  But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. Or, as the 19th century Welsh Calvinistic fathers put it:  "the sword and arms" of the Church. (Please see my posts here and here for more on that.)

In regard to myself, over the past few years, God has given me a burden to pray for the Church to be reformed and revived, and He has continued to increase that burden. I recently wrote that "I am ten thousand times more convinced, if possible, or I would say I am ten thousand times ten thousand times more convinced of the vital necessity for us to be praying for revival than I was when I first started this blog four years ago." Part of my journey has been chronicled on this site. And, along with that burden, in spite of many temptations to despair and to quit, God has been faithful to sustain me and to work in me both the desire and the ability to pray for the Church to be reformed and revived ~ Phil. 2:12-14; Heb. 13:20-21. I still feel I am a tyro in prayer (that word "tyro" one ML-J used quite often). I don't believe I have really prayed through the power of the Holy Spirit and prevailed in prayer like Jacob more than a dozen times in my life –– but like Elijah, I have sometimes been surprised to find that in praying, the Holy Dove has descended, and I have prayed! Isaiah 26:12; Psalm 118:23; Psalm 115:1!

Both the Bible and Church history provide us with a plumb line by which we ought to judge ourselves. Studying the Bible as well as studying Church history are wholly necessary to the Church's spiritual health and welfare. It's far too easy for us to discard the Bible, and it's also far too easy for us to discard the rich heritage of Church history. It's too easy for us to engage in what C.S. Lewis called "chronological snobbery," –– to think that we in the 21st century are so far advanced that the Bible and our God-fearing fathers have nothing at all to teach us. Scripture has some very strong words for people with such attitudes:

Hosea 5
10  The princes of Judah have become
like those who move the landmark;
upon them I will pour out
my wrath like water.
11  Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment,
because he was determined to go after filth.
12  But I am like a moth to Ephraim,
and like dry rot to the house of Judah.

My friends, are we but grasshoppers compared with the fathers? Are we not in a day of small things? Has not our contentment with small things blighted us?

Along with the publishers of the Elias book, my prayer is that God may be pleased to use the pages of my blog (as well as my prayers) to remind us of the vital necessity of using the "sword and arms of the Church'"; "to further a recovery of the light and power of the gospel at a time when contentment with small things has blighted us all!;" and to strengthen us in faith and stir us up in fervent prayer...

Or, in the words of Malachi:  may God be gracious to us and turn the hearts of the fathers to the children!

Or, as Iain Murray put it:  may God restore to us "the wisdom, the piety and the grace that was in the fathers," that the hearts of the fathers for the sword and arms would appear in us, that our hearts here in the 21st century would be rekindled to treasure and to skillfully use the sword and arms, and prevail with God in prayer as the fathers did, that the Word of the Lord might speed ahead and be glorified throughout all the nations to the praise, honor, and glory of God!

"Prayers and pains through faith in Christ will do anything." ~ John Eliot

All that said, by way of update, if you're not a member of the Xanga community, you may not have heard that the Xanga Team recently announced plans to go to a paid blogging platform, and with that, there is a possibility that Xanga may be shutting down for good after July 15 if they don't get adequate funding. (You can read more about that here - link.) I'm hoping to be able to continue my blogging on both my tent of meeting and my naphtali_deer sites here on Xanga, but if not, I wanted to give you a heads-up. At this point I do have a blog as a place-holder on WordPress:  http://naphtalideer.wordpress.com. If you're already on WordPress, if you'd like to, you can add my site to your subscriptions there.

Or, you can add my WordPress blog to your reader of choice by using the RSS feed:

feed://naphtalideer.wordpress.com/feed/   

Or, if you'd like to receive e-mail updates from my WordPress site, you can sign up with Blogtrottr, using the button below:

At this point, I'm not expecting to do much of anything on my WP site until closer to the July 15 date. If Xanga does end up shutting down, Lord willing, I'm hoping to open up another site on WP devoted to carrying over my tent of meeting site there, but the name "tentofmeeting" was already taken there (Grr!), so I'm waiting on that. My naphtalideer.wordpress.com site will be a place of contact no matter what, because even if Xanga does continue, there will be some downtime to get things ported over to the new system here, so I'll be providing updates through my WordPress site. I'll be periodically repeating this announcement on my blog here in the coming month.

As I've considered this time of transition, there have been times I've sinned as I've taken my eyes off Jesus, and I've become distressed and worried; and I've continued to be tempted to feel the same way... but as I look back over my blogging years here at Xanga, and look ahead not knowing how things will look in just a month, all I can say is that I'm thankful to God for the opportunity He has given me here, and that it has been a privilege and blessing be able to blog here –– but first and foremost I am thankful that God unconditionally set His love upon me in Christ and chose me to be His child before time began, and has written my name in heaven! ~ Luke 10:20.

Yours in Christ, seeking your joy, for the reviving of Christ's Church, for the joy of the nations, for the joy and glory and renown of God Himself,

Karen

You can read more about tent of meeting in the following posts...

• Naphtali News: the Ministry of the Word & Prayer
• About this blog - why "tent of meeting"?
• Silent Night - Not! ~ "Prayer also will be made for Him continually" ... day and night

Photo credits (both {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:VictoryOLord.JPG

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Albrecht_Dürer_-_Bearded_Saint_in_a_Forest,_c._1516_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated (or marked ESV) are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Luke 24:49  And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high...

Acts 1:4  And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. 5  For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

Today is the celebration of Pentecost Sunday, the day on which the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled His word to send the promise of the Father –– the day when He baptized His people with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Though the Church's understanding was lacking and deficient in some ways at that time, e.g. - her query to Jesus as to whether He was going to restore the Kingdom to Israel at that time (Acts 1:6) –– (and it's all too tempting for us to point fingers at them, isn't it?) –– yet these first century saints had a knowledge that many of us lack today... they were fully persuaded that without power from above, they could do nothing!

The early Church had been clearly impressed with the vital necessity to tarry in Jerusalem just as Jesus commanded. They had been humbled; they had been brought to see and to own their total insufficiency, and accordingly their need to receive the gift of the promised Holy Spirit. For those ten days between Jesus' Ascension and Pentecost, the 120 were in one accord in prayer and supplication:  the Bride of Christ was "leaning upon her Beloved!"

Even though some of these disciples had had intimate fellowship with Jesus, even though many of them had walked with Jesus and learned from Him and of Him for a period of three years, yet each and every one of them had come to understand they were ill-equipped for the commission Christ had given them – to go and make disciples of all nations. Therefore, they fully obeyed Jesus' command to wait:  they did tarry in Jerusalem, and they did continue in prayer (imagine a ten-day round-the-clock prayer meeting at your church?!) –– until the blessing was poured out –– until they were baptized with the blessed Holy Spirit.

O! that we in the Church today might have a Spirit-imparted sense of our total insufficiency and our poverty and our need to receive the outpouring of the Spirit as did they, so we might persevere with one accord in prayer and supplication as did they!  Luke 11:13 "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

Martyn Lloyd-Jones reminds us:

"There is only one sense in which what happened on the day of Pentecost cannot be repeated and that is simply that it did happen to be the first of a series. And, of course, you cannot repeat the first. But the fact that you cannot repeat the first does not mean for a moment that what happened on the first occasion cannot happen again. And every revival of religion, I say, is really a repetition of what happened on the day of Pentecost. It is really almost incredible that people should go on saying that what happened at Pentecost was once and for all."

~ from Chapter 16 (What Happens in Revival) in "Revival" (Wheaton: Crossway, 1987), 199-200.

The following is an excerpt from George Smeaton's "The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit" (orig. published 1882, second edition 1889; Fourth Banner of Truth Trust reprint 1997), pages 287-290...

As to the peculiar mode of praying, we may say that in every season of general awakening the Christian community waits just as they waited for the effusion of the Spirit, with one accord in prayer and supplication, in the interval between the Ascension and Pentecost. No other course has been prescribed; and the Church of the present has all the warrant she ever had to wait, expect, and, pray. The first disciples waited in the youthfulness of simple hope, not for a spirit which they had not, but for more of the Spirit which they had; and Christianity has not outlived itself.  Ten days they waited with one accord in prayer, when of a sudden the Spirit came to give them spiritual eyes to apprehend divine things as they never knew them before, and to impart a joy which no man could take from them. It was prayer IN THE SPIRIT (Eph. vi. 18), and prayer FOR THE SPIRIT, the great promise of the Father. But the prayer which brought down the Holy Ghost was not that style of petition which ceases if it is not heard at once or if the heart is out of tune. The prayer which prevails with Him who gives the Spirit is that which will not let go without the blessing. When the spirit of extraordinary supplication is poured out from on high,––when an ardent desire is cherished for the Holy Ghost,––when the Church asks according to God’s riches in glory, and expects such great things as God’s promises warrant and Christ’s merits can procure, the time to favour Zion, the set time, is come (Ps. cii. 16-18).  When we look at the prayers in Scripture, we find that God’s glory, the Church’s growth and welfare, her holiness and progress, were ever higher in the thoughts and breathings of the saints than personal considerations (Ps. lxvii. 1-7). And if we are animated with any other frame of mind, it is not prayer taught by the Spirit, nor offered up in the name of Christ (Isa. lxii. 1-7).

The praying attitude of the Church in the first days after the Ascension, when the disciples waited for the Spirit, should be the Church's attitude still. I need not refer to the copious references of the apostles to the urgent duty of praying in the Spirit and praying for the Spirit, nor shall I refer at large to the habits of all true labourers, such as Luther, Welsh, Whitefield, and others, in proof of the great truth that prayer is the main work of a ministry.  And no more mischievous and misleading theory could be propounded, nor any one more dishonouring to the Holy Spirit, than the principle adopted by the Plymouth Brethren, that because the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost, the Church has no need, and no warrant, to pray any more for the effusion of the Spirit of God. On the contrary, the more the Church asks the Spirit ¹ and waits for His communication, the more she receives. ²  The prayer of faith in one incessant cry comes up from the earth in support of the efforts put forth for the conversion of a people ready to perish. This prayer goes before and follows after all the calls to repentance. The company of labourers associated together in such work, come to feel as they proceed that they are encircled with a mighty power, and have an authority not their own. The interest taken in the work of advancing the Redeemer’s Kingdom thus has much of a personal concern, and is far elevated above the vague and pointless efforts of mere official routine.

The apostles, in their various Epistles, when referring to their own unceasing exercise of prayer, hold up the mirror to others; and never do men more realize than in a time of revival that in all their previous career they have been scarcely half-awake. In such a time the conviction is borne home upon them that no fitful exercise of prayer will avail to obtain the blessing. And their purpose, as they seek to take the kingdom by force, is to do violence to the lethargy and disinclination of nature, and to act as the Lord's remembrancers, who keep not silence and give Him no rest, till He establish Jerusalem and make her a praise in the earth.

____________

¹ As I do not deem it proper to exceed the limits of the required six lectures; I would take occasion to direct attention to the great work of [John] OWEN, The Work of the Holy Ghost in Prayer, and also to [William] GURNALL'S discussion of the same theme in The Christian in Complete Armour.

² A remarkable passage on prayer, and on working by the power of prayer, occurs in [John] Foster's essay on the application of the epithet “Romantic:" [in Essays in a Series of Letters, published in 1826] “I am convinced,” says he, “that every man who, amidst his serious projects, is apprised of his dependence on God, as completely as that dependence is a fact, will be impelled to prey, and anxious to induce his serious friends to pray, almost every hour. He will as little without it promise himself any noble success, as a mariner would expect to reach a distant coast by having his sails spread in a stagnation of air. I have intimated my fear that it is visionary to expect any unusual success in the human administration of religion unless there are unusual omens; now a most emphatical spirit of prayer would be such an omen; and the individual who should solemnly determine to try its last possible efficacy, might probably find himself becoming a much more prevailing agent in his little sphere. And  if the whole, or the greater number of the disciples of Christianity were, with an earnest, unalterable determination of each to combine that heaven should not withhold one single influence, which the very utmost of conspiring and persevering supplication would obtain, it would be the sign that a revolution of the world was at hand."

Instead of following the latest worldly trends, instead of implementing 21st century solutions, and instead of leaning upon our own power, let us give due glory and honor to the Godhead by returning to the Scripture, by returning to the apostolic doctrine, and by returning to the apostolic practice of full reliance upon the Holy Spirit of God by prevailing in prayer and not letting go until we receive the blessing of the Holy Spirit pouring down from on high in reviving fire!

Let us repent and return to the Lord with weeping, and seek the Lord of hosts and entreat the Lord, and wrestle with Him in unceasing prayer and wait for our God, that He might pour down His favor upon us –– to pour out His Holy Spirit upon us –– just as He did for the saints of old... because, as George Smeaton reminds us, "no other course has been prescribed."

The mirror is being held up to us today, my brothers and sisters... May God have mercy upon us, and may the Spirit give us an ear to hear what these examples in the Bible and throughout Church history have to say to us today, so we might be found faithful in prayer along with the great cloud of remembrancers... for we have the warrant "to wait, expect, and, pray" for more of the Holy Spirit.

Luke 18:1  And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; 2  Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: 3  And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. 4  And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; 5  Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. 6  And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. 7  And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? 8  I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

Hosea 12
3  In the womb he [Jacob] took his brother by the heel,
and in his manhood he strove with God.
4  He strove with the angel and prevailed;
he wept and sought his favor.
He met God at Bethel,
and there God spoke with us—
5  the LORD, the God of hosts,
the LORD is his memorial name:
6  “So you, by the help of your God, return,
hold fast to love and justice,
and wait continually for your God.”
(ESV)

Acts 1
14  These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication,
with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren...

Acts 2
1  And when the day of Pentecost was fully come,
they were all with one accord in one place.
2  And suddenly there came a sound from heaven
as of a rushing mighty wind,
and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
3  And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire,
and it sat upon each of them.
4  And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,
and began to speak with other tongues,
as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Related posts...

• The Day of Pentecost ... the first of a series (Martyn Lloyd-Jones on revival)
• Naphtali News: the Ministry of the Word & Prayer (see the second portion on prayer)
• Here I stand & from here I cast (devoted to prayer & the ministry of the Word)
• Revival resources, etc.
• More revival resources: opportunity and eyes to see the ruins, a burden from God
• Silent Night ~ Not!
• 492 years later: You say you want a reformation? (my theses and a call to prayer)
• the lost treasures of Christianity & the call to pray for revival (Bible reading: Ezra 1)
• postcards from England: "The Burden for Revival" (ML-J)
• Postcards from England: Do you care?
• postcards from England: are we excited over a dead fish and a car wreck?
• an advent of a different sort for the "glorious progress of the work of God"
• Are you storming heaven – or are you sleeping?
• Prayer & Revival in Ireland (R.A. Torrey) & Livingstone in Africa: Are we in our closets?
• "It is a dark night on the church, the depth of winter ..." ~ John Elias
• Why not pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit?
• Phinehas's wife: the mother who opened her mouth with wisdom
• "Brother, we are only half awake" ~ Legh Richmond

Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Emphasis mine.

Photo credits:

Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jacob_Wrestling_with_the_Angel.jpg / {{PD-Art|PD-old-75}}
Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:El_Greco_006.jpg  / CC BY-SA 3.0

Work found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Line_of_young_people_at_a_commencement_ceremony.jpg / PD

We're in the midst of graduation season now, and earlier today our youngest son graduated from college. As I was "grazing" once again through "John Elias: Life, Letters and Essays" (e.g. - see my recent posts here, here & here), I reread a letter which Elias (1774-1841) had written to his son John when John was around 18 years of age. I thought it was a fitting letter for my son and for the rest of the 2013 graduates... as well as a necessary exhortation to the rest of us (no matter our age or our stage in life) –– because as Christians, each and every one of us is prone to wander, we are too easily distracted, lured away from, and lose sight of that knowledge which is to be treasured, sought and savored, and that knowledge which leads us to the highest felicity . . .

   A letter was written by Elias to his son at school on education; it shows his mind on that important subject fully and distinctly, especially as to its value. It is the following:

Llanfechell 14 August 1819

I hope that thou now beginnest to take pleasure in thy learning. This is thy harvest, and if thou shouldest neglect this, thy treasure-house will be empty, as long as thou livest, of the greatest worldly wealth, that is, learning! What are gold and silver, houses and land, without knowledge? Nothing! Man is like the brute beast, without education. A person that is unlearned, cannot well enjoy the pleasures that human nature is capable of, especially under the influence of religion. Learning is very important, inasmuch as it teaches the mind to delight in true knowledge, and in making greater attainments in it; - to view the excellencies of others and to follow them, being never satisfied till we acquire them, - to observe the faults of others, and to flee from them. I have said a little respecting the value of learning, being sensible of my own deficiency in that respect. I think if I had to make a choice, whether to have all India, or Sir William Jones's learning, I should prefer the latter.

   It is not in an easy, careless manner that we can get learning, understanding, and knowledge; no, it must be by labour, industry, and toil. It is necessary 'to cry after knowledge, and lift up the voice for understanding - to seek her as silver, and to search for her as for hid treasure' (Proverbs 2.3, 4). We are not to be disheartened and cast down, in not succeeding to obtain knowledge of things at the commencement; it is the work of time. It is not at once that flowers, animals, or mankind, arrive at full maturity; they grow gradually, and that by having a nourishment and support: so learning and knowledge; it is not at once and quickly they are attained, but by application, labour, and hard study. It is true that many a person wishes to be a scholar, and learned, but may not like the pains that are necessary to attain that end, and never enjoys what he desires. How true it is, 'the desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour. But the hand of the diligent maketh rich‚' (Proverbs 10.4; 21.25).

   Having spoken thus of the value of human learning and knowledge, I must say that there are more excellent attainments; the teachings of the Holy Ghost, and the knowledge of Christ and the Father. The Spirit has been promised, to teach us all things respecting Christ. It is the anointing of the Holy One, that is, Jesus: he teacheth us the knowledge of all things as they are, enabling us to know God, ourselves, and the Mediator; he instructs us how to live godly, to acquire every virtue and excellency, to hate the evil and to flee from it, to die happy, and to obtain eternal felicity. Every knowledge in comparison of that of Christ, is but loss and dung; to know him is everlasting life.

   My dear son, be not disheartened as to the attainment of this knowledge: Christ, the great Prophet, makes the simple wise unto salvation. He is a kind teacher to those that are willing to learn of him, though slowly. It is not all at once that he instructs his disciples, but gives them line upon line, and precept upon precept; a little here and a little there, and that very patiently. So be thou diligent and constant in his school, sitting at his feet, to receive the words that drop from his lips.

~ Excerpt from:  "John Elias: Life, Letters and Essays" by Edward Morgan (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1973, revised edition published in one volume), 63-65, boldface mine.

John Baillie includes the following letter of the Scottish minister W.H. Hewitson (1812-1850) as evidence of Hewitson's "earnestly ... continu[ing] to 'lay hold on eternal life,'" and in it, we're charged to do likewise –– to use our time here wisely, ever-mindful that "this is our time of education for heaven."

Linlithgow, March 20, 1848.

"My Dear Mother,

   "I received father's letter before leaving Edinburgh. Yesterday I communicated in Mr Baillie's church, but did no ministerial work whatever. The season was to me a very refreshing one, and the Lord was sensibly present; the Lord was at His table. Always when I go to the church seeking Christ himself there, and, as it were, to keep tryst with Him—always when I go expressly for the purpose of meeting Christ, and having intercourse with Him,—I experience sweetness in the ordinances of His house, and have reason to return with the voice of thanksgiving. We fail of being blessed in family worship and in public worship, if we do not seek, while so engaged, to meet with Jesus, and to enjoy His Word and fellowship in the exercise of faith and love. It is Christ in the Word, and in all the ordinances of worship, that makes them refreshing and quickening to our souls. Religion is not a form, but a life; and it is not a solitary, friendless life, but a life of intercourse and company-keeping with God in Christ. To be religious, is to be the friends of God—to realise a sense of His presence, love, and favour—to acknowledge Him as a living Person who is always near us, always ready to bless us, and always looking to us for a living obedience.

   "This is our time of education for heaven — these are our school-days; and, alas! how many, who profess to believe, and to look for eternal life, neglect their soul's education, and play the truant's part, instead of attending the school of God! Time is near its end—eternity is at the door. O to be ready—all ready! For many will mourn and weep, when the time to make ready is past for ever!

   "Next Sabbath, God willing, I shall be in the pulpit myself. Till the house be ready, I go into lodgings. I intend to leave Edinburgh on Friday or Saturday, and afterwards remain with my people. My health is not worse —strength returning, but slowly.—With love to dear father and all the rest, I am, my dear mother, your very affectionate son,

"W. H. Hewitson."

Excerpt from:  "Memoir of the Rev. W.H. Hewitson: late minister of the Free Church of Scotland at Dirleton" by the Rev. John Baillie, 4th edition, 1853, 309-310, boldface mine. (HT for the text: http://books.google.com/books?id=bRVMAAAAYAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s)

Holy Spirit, enlighten the eyes of our understanding to the excellency and surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ! Strengthen us, pour out upon us grace upon grace, that we might fight the good fight of faith and earnestly continue to lay hold of eternal life.

May we show ourselves to be genuine professors, and be diligent to make our calling and election sure. May we not be stagnant, sluggish, and sleeping, may we not play the truant's part, but rather may we be awake and alert and make ourselves ready –– all ready! –– attending the school of God –– looking carefully and walking circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, understanding that the Lord's will for us is to know Him (because every knowledge in comparison of that of Christ, is but loss and dung; to know Him is everlasting life!) –– and redeeming the time, pressing on to know Him and to look for and to lay hold of eternal life: –– to be diligent and constant in His school, to make every effort to sit at His feet, to receive the words that drip from His lips, to educate our souls, to take full advantage of the blessed means God provides –– (O! He is a kind teacher to those who are willing to learn of Him!).

Our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, we acknowledge we cannot obtain or understand one ounce of spiritual truth apart from it being given to us from above. O! Send to us the gift of Your Holy Spirit to teach us line upon line, and precept upon precept; a little here and a little there (will you not give the Holy Spirit to those who ask You?!), so we might be growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, because the days are evil, and to know Him is everlasting life and blessing! –– and not to know Him is everlasting death and cursing! To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen! (~ See Ephesians 1:16-22; Philippians 3; I Tim. 6:11-16; Ephesians 5:14-17; II Peter 3:18; II Peter 1:1-11; Deuteronomy 30:15-20.)