AUGUSTA C. BAINBRIDGE by Augusta C. Bainbridge

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 22, 1903

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 29, No. 16.

AUGUSTA C. BAINBRIDGE

By Augusta C. Bainbridge

GOD’S PREPARATION FOR SERVICE. NO. 3.

Flesh.

While it is true that we may accept the theory of death to self and life in Christ, yet it must be experimentally learned, if we would enjoy its power.

Have we a knowledge of self? God, who made man, says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” Jer. 17:9. He knows it, and we can know it only by faith in His Word. Can we accept that—I for my heart, you for yours? Do we accept it? We may pray for the Spirit’s searching, as in Ps. 139:23, but unless we continually apply the Word to our lives, we shall be expecting some good thing of ourselves.

Having already settled it that self, of itself, can not act differently in the future from what it has in the past, we know it is now just what it always has been. In Romans 7 we read of a man who tried to live a righteous life by obedience to the law. How did it end?—He found, as you and I have found, that the things he hated were the things he was constantly doing, and by these repeated experiments his faith at last grasped the situation, “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh), dwelleth no good thing.” Verse 18. This is a blessed conclusion to reach.

Human beings reach it, either by living in God’s presence in constant communion with Him, and letting His Spirit fill them with His fulness, as Isaiah did (Isa. 6:5); or in the presence of Satan, in disobedience and defeat, as David did, thus allowing the flesh to assert its own corruption, and drag us through the mire of iniquity and sin, the same blessed Spirit following us with warnings, reproofs, and invitations, bringing us, as it did him, back to the Lord by the way of Psalm 51. In David’s fall, we may learn that in the carnal nature, whatever one’s profession or past experience, “dwelleth no good thing.” Only one way can any human heart look for good, and that

is unto God. Until we learn that, we shall always be believing in ourselves; but when we have practically bowed to this truth, we are done with ourselves. This may take years of repeated effort on every trait of our character, or it may be accomplished in less time. “According to your faith be it unto you.” And faith co-operates with God. While learning, we may, through unwatchfulness, or by the force of old habits, be betrayed into sin, but we need not stay there. Out! out! at once, and away to Calvary! each experience making more sure to us the blessed Word of God. For instance, some of us may not see truth in its beauty, and have formed a careless habit of misstating or exaggerating facts. Just the moment an expression not in harmony with truth has escaped our lips, let us confess and correct it, saying, “I was wrong; it is really so and so.” That will take courage, but it will help to keep our peace abiding. So sin does not deceive us, we have learned our lesson. Rom. 5:12.

Let us each, then, accept God’s testimony against ourselves, and, learning this truth in our own experience, form the habit of taking God’s part against ourselves (our carnal nature), which is really for our new nature (Christ), and we shall find that a new day of grace and gladness, constantly in His presence, has dawned upon us.