CONSECRATION | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 25, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 33.

CONSECRATION.

CONSECRATION is the act of separating from a common to a sacred use, or of devoting a person or thing to the service and worship of God. The vessels of the temple and the priests among the Israelites were consecrated or devoted to God and his service. Christians, also, by profession, are consecrated to God, and Paul speaks of vessels "sanctified, and meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work."

Entire conversion embraces three things—being, doing, suffering. We must be willing to be, to do, and to suffer all that God requires. This embraces friends, reputation, property, and time. It covers body, mind, and soul. These are to be used when, where, as God requires, and only as he requires. When the people of Collotia were about to surrender to Rome, the question was asked, "Do you deliver up yourselves, the Collotine people, your city, your fields, your water, your bounds, your temples, your utensils, all things that are yours, both human and divine, into the hands of the Roman people?" And when they replied, "We deliver up all," they were received. This incident affords a striking illustration of our entire consecration to God.

And the measure of our consecration is the measure of our work. This is manifest, for the work expresses and confesses the motive, whether it be love or duty. What is the difference between prison labor and that done outside the walls? Critical judges of artisan work declare that they can tell instantly the work of a bondman from that of a freeman. The motive appears in every stitch. It would be strange if Christian work did not follow the same rule. Our Lord gives the principle when he says, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." And Peter and John testified to it when they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Jesus. So also the early Christians took joyfully the spoiling of their goods; they renounced the very avocation in which they were skilled, they counted not their lives dear unto themselves. There was no limit to their consecration, and its freeness and fullness evidenced the spontaneity of their love.

So every Christian workman in the measure of his enthusiasm and energy determines in what degree he is controlled by the love of Christ. And it is not a wrong judgment of our fellow-Christians to declare that listless lives, consecration which is spasmodic and dependent upon pressure or excitement, are not the expressions of Christly motive. Duty may do for a day, but love alone can govern a life. And if we are weary in well doing, would it not be well for us to question our works as to their motive, to trace up their narrowing streams of influence, and see from what fountain they spring?

We must remember ever the parable of our Lord, and that searching saying, "Ye did it

not unto Me." If we are laboring these months and years as galley-slaves, driven by the scourge of duty, and not constrained by the love of Christ, it is no wonder that we fail and are weary. If we have been counting our charities as so many compensations for our sins, our life must indeed be joyless. Our successful efforts are crowns of thankfulness we cast at Jesus's feet. They are our heart's way of telling to all men how precious his complete salvation is to us.—Illustrated Christian Weekly.