GET OUT OF THE CUTTING PLACE.
By H. B. Sevey
"It cut me terribly, and I can't stand it. It was so unjust. They knew better, and there was not a bit of truth in it. It was only told to stir me up and make me fret." Yes, that may be all true; but they did just what they wanted to, and the devil rejoices to see you all stirred up and out of patience. Now, dear children, let me tell you that there is a better place for you. Have the body of sin destroyed, and your life hid in Christ by being dead unto sin; then what now cuts you so will not be felt. A dead man does not feel the knife. "Ye have put off the old man, and put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him." The new man's life is in Christ, crucified to the world, "kept by the power of God through faith." "Yes," you say, "that will do for some. They can be kept, but I can't." Why not? Isn't the power of God sufficient? "Yes," you say, "but I do not believe." Yes, there is the trouble. We are kept through faith by the power of God, not by our own strength. Is not the power of God all you need? Is not he that is in you stronger than the world? Is not his strength made perfect in weakness? Did he not say to Paul that his grace was all he needed? Paul could say, "I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me." Can't he keep us so we may not feel the thrusts and fiery darts of the devil, so as to give way to our natural propensities? Yes, praise the Lord. Let the knife cut, we can be still, and we can rejoice and be exceeding glad, because our names are written in heaven. To be dead unto sin, and alive unto God, is just where our blessed Saviour wants us to be, and where we must be to be translated when Jesus comes. If not there, submit at once; lay all on the altar; let it remain until sanctified, body, soul, and spirit.—H. B. Sevey, in World's Crisis.