THE heat of the furnace was like the sevenfold-heated furnace of Nebuchadnezzar. Through the great air shafts there came a mighty, rushing wind, and it fanned the furnace flames into a fury. Tongues of fire darted through the great mass of limestone and coke and iron ore. Men were unloading into this fiery furnace a kind of rock in which they said were gold and silver. I picked up a glittering piece of ore, and thought I saw gold, but the guide said it was pyrites of iron. "It is not all gold that glitters."
Then we went below, to the base of the furnace. The mighty, rushing wind had fanned the furnace fires to smelting heat, and the coke, and the limestone, and the iron, and the quartz, and the copper, and the gold, and the silver were all a molten sea.
And then I saw a wonder. There were two outlets on different sides of the furnace. From the larger one there flowed a great fiery stream. They told me it was the limestone and coke and iron and quartz. From the smaller opening there ran forth a little stream of precious metals. Substances which had dwelt together for ages in the bosom of the earth, now ran away from each other with a haste that seemed to voice a mutual hate.
The little particles of precious metals that had been scattered through the ore and imprisoned in their rocky cells for centuries now ran together and embraced each other with a speed and sparkle that looked akin to joy. This was the miners' harvest-time.
As I thought upon the fiery furnace, which men call a smelter, and saw how easily they could separate the precious metal from the base, I remembered the precious children of God who are mingled with the base in the church and the world, and I sighed and said, "O, for a Divine Smelter!"
Then the Lord spake through His Word and said: "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire; whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Matt. 3:11, 12. "Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me; and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in; behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap; and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness." Mal. 3:1-3.
The Holy Spirit is the Lord's smelting furnace. In it He separates the precious from the base. It purifies the gold and causes it to shine forth in all its heavenly luster, while it burns up the hypocritical glitter of the dross.
These furnace fires were kindled on the day of Pentecost when the mighty, rushing wind came to the "upper room," followed by the tongues of fire. Into this furnace there was cast the new-born church of Jesus Christ; but the dross had already been burned out, and the pure gold only shone the brighter amid the glare of the furnace fires. Then the Lord cast into the furnace the Jewish Church, with its priesthood of pomp and pride, and then the whole Gentile world, with its tinsel and show. The mighty, rushing wind continued to blow, and the tongues of fire continued to burn, until the whole was a molten sea, and the pure was separated from the vile, and under God's furnace fires the world was separated into but two elements,—the precious and the base, martyrs and murderers.
I picked up a glittering piece of ore
This was God's early harvest-time, the first-fruits of the great last-day harvest. O, that the church had kept the furnace fires burning at smelting heat! But they were allowed to cool, and the precious and the base are to-day mingled in a mighty mass, awaiting the furnace fires which the Holy Ghost has again begun to fan to smelting heat.
Yes, it has begun. There is a movement toward the "upper room" among those who sigh and cry for all the abominations which are done in the midst of a backslidden church. There is a crying to God for "power from on high." There is a baptizing of the Holy Ghost. There is a running together of the "free gold,"—of those in whom the purging fires are burning, and from whose faces the Lord has wiped the wrinkling dross of sin. A nucleus is forming, like the nucleus that formed on the day of Pentecost. And soon again the whole church and the world will be in the baptistry of God's burning presence, in his latter-day furnace. Forth from its purifying flames will come the church of God, tho only a remnant, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
I said the furnace fires had begun to burn. How do I know?—Because I have felt the flame. And I am seeing thousands of men and women in the church to which I belong cast themselves into the purifying furnace of God's Holy Spirit; and I have seen the great Refiner of silver wipe from their darkened faces the wrinkling dross of sin, and leave them shining with holy consecration. And this holy shining is throwing its search-light upon those who are base and vile within the church, and they can not endure the glory; for the separating-time has come, because the Holy Ghost has come; "but who may abide the day of His coming?"
These two elements can not long dwell together under the smelting power of the Holy Spirit. They do not belong together. One is the tried gold of faith; the other is base unbelief; and, under the baptismal fires of the Holy Spirit, the man of faith will flee from the Babylon of unbelief, even as Lot fled from Sodom.
It was after the service. For ten days we had been in the purifying furnace. We had just prayed for the Holy Spirit for witnessing power. I shook hands with a minister and his wife, members of another denomination, who were present at the service. After expressing their sympathy with the work of the meeting, the wife asked with earnest frankness, "Do your people live this?" and, again, "Are all your people receiving the Spirit thus?" When told that the work was going from conference to conference like a prairie fire, she answered, "I am so glad." Then she explained her joy: "In yonder church there is a faithful mother in Israel who protests against the worldward drift of her church. She refuses to share its pride and worldly pleasure.
God is blessing her with His Spirit. Over in that other church there is a man of God. He is a living rebuke to his backslidden church, and God is blessing him with His Spirit. But there ought to be a whole church somewhere baptized with the Holy Ghost."
These words burned into my soul. True, there ought to be a whole church somewhere baptized with the Holy Ghost. This is one of many heart cries from the imprisoned gold. And God will answer that cry. There will be a baptized church; yes, a visible church. The Lord left a visible baptized church when He went away, and He declared that the gates of hell should not prevail against that church; and they will not. When He returns, He will find a visible church baptized with the Holy Ghost, without spot or wrinkle, awaiting His return.
AND THEN I SAW A WONDER
There is an ever-increasing procession leading toward the "upper room." Reader, are you one of them? And just as the precious metals obeyed the divine law and left the lighter, baser metal, and ran together, so the gold that is mixed with the base in church and world, under the smelting heat of the Holy Ghost will yet hear the voice of God from heaven, saying: "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen. . . . Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities."
The furnace fires have begun to burn. God's latter-day harvest will soon be gathered. Reader, are you in the furnace? Are you being baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire? Are you willing to be cleansed? If so, get into the furnace. "Receive ye the Holy Ghost."
BELIEVING UNTO LIFE.
HOW are all men born by nature? "Born of the flesh;" subject to death. John 3:6; Rom. 5:12.
2. What will those do who are born of the flesh? They do "the works of the flesh." Gal. 5:19-21. "Because the carnal mind [the mind of the flesh] is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Rom. 8:7.
3. How alone can man do the work of God? "Ye must be born from above." John 3:3, margin. "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God." Verse 5. "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." John 1:12.
4. What does faith in Christ bring to the sinner? Righteousness and life. "Even the righteousness of God which is by faith." Rom. 3:22. "In the way of righteousness is life." Prov. 12:28.
THE HARVEST OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AND LIFE
By G. E. Fifield
By G. E. Fifield, South Lancaster, Mass.
OURS the seed-time. God alone
Beholds the seed of what is sown;
Beyond our vision, weak and dim,
The harvest-time is hid with Him.
—J. G. Whittier.
In the spiritual realm there is never a famine so complete as to prevent a harvest. Nothing is surer than that for every sowing there shall come a reaping. What that reaping shall be depends on the sowing. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
Character is not a manufactured article, it is rather a true growth from a living germ. Even God can not by arbitrary fiat create righteousness, without reference to the free will of the person in whom it is to exist. If this were possible, doubtless the loving Father would at the very beginning have peopled the whole universe with final and ultimate righteousness, and so never have run the risk of sin, with all its resulting misery and death. As it was, all morally accountable beings came originally from the Creator’s hands, beautiful, pure, and innocent.
In the fertile soil of their hearts the Creator sowed the good seeds of love and truth; for saith Jesus, “He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man.” Uncorrupted and unhindered, this good seed would have rapidly developed into a perfect and progressive righteousness, that in due time would have placed all God’s children beyond the power of temptation, and therefore beyond the danger of sin and death.
How sin first entered the pure heart of the covering cherub, will perhaps forever remain the original question of the mystery of iniquity. It is, however, certain that it did enter there, and that he and his angels sowed its baneful tares of hatred and lust in the heart of the father and mother of our race.
Earth’s terrible harvest of misery and of death is the fearful result of that sowing. But, praise be to God, the Creator did not desert His handiwork when thus corrupted. From the foundation of the world, He, the divine Seed, gave Himself for our salvation. Forsaking the joy and peace of His heavenly life, He identified Himself with all our needs and all our sorrows, so that in all our afflictions He was afflicted. He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The divine seed of His spotless life of love and truth was sown, even unto death, in the soil of sinning, suffering human hearts. While incarnate as Jesus of Nazareth, He was only doing openly, and in visible form, what He is doing now, and what He has been doing all the time since the sinning earth needed a Saviour. He was sowing the seed of His divine life in human hearts. Not only then, but now, and ever, so near humanity He comes that no life, tho hardened by sin and hedged around by evil, can fully escape that sowing; for His life is the light of men,—“the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” In the judgment day no man can bring good and sufficient excuse for not having on the robe of righteousness, for the seed of that living garment has been sown in every heart.
But we too must have part with Christ, both in the sowing and the harvest, for it is to us that Paul speaks when he says, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” How can this be? What is the seed that we must sow? and what shall the harvest be?
A seed is simply an embryo of a future glorified life, surrounded by possibilities for development. This is scientifically true. But Christ has put within us each the embryo of His own divine life. He has also surrounded that embryotic life with the possibilities and opportunities of development, so that we are without excuse. Each human being here, therefore, is a seed. This is true of the poorest and meanest, for “He lighteth every man,”—he puts the life germ into all. It is true even of the best, for “now are we the sons of God, but it doth not yet appear what we shall be.” The best man is only an undeveloped seed, an embryo of future glory beyond our ken.
Therefore, as our wills are free, and our lives are but seeds, it is for us to do the sowing. If we will, we may sow to the flesh until the poisonous weeds of passion and lust choke out the divine life; and we then, having sown to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption.
We may refuse to sow our lives at all, in the effort to keep them for ourselves, either for the here or for the hereafter. But “whoso saveth his life shall lose it.” “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.”
"THE REAPERS ARE THE ANGELS."
When we accept Christ as our personal Saviour, “know ye not we are baptized into His death?” We take upon ourselves the pledge to sow our lives as He hath sown His. But, praise to His holy name, we have the promise, “If we have been planted [or sown] together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.” If our lives are only truly yielded up to be sown, He will attend to the harvest of righteousness and life. “Our God is a Sun and a Shield.” The sunshine of His love will warm the germinating seed. The Spirit will water it; yea, saith the Spirit, “I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.”
Do you shrink from the world’s hatred and scorn? Remember that His life was sown in dishonor—yea, even crucified between thieves—and the promise to us is, if our life be sown in dishonor, it shall be raised in glory. Are our talents and our opportunities so small that in our weakness we feel we have no life to be given, no seed to be sown? Remember, if it be sown in weakness it is raised in power. The Lord gives to every seed, if it only be sown, a body that pleases Him, and to every seed its own body.
When the harvest of righteousness and life is complete, there will be no glorified character over there that is not the true development of a life germ implanted in some soul down here.
Ah, who can tell how great and glorious the harvest will be? Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man that full glory. Each soul whose life has been truly sown, shall reap God’s own ideal for him, of righteousness and life eternal; and as high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are God’s thoughts and ideals above our own. Each trial borne uncomplainingly, each loving service sweetly rendered, even tho it be but the giving a cup of cold water in His name, is a sowing of the life, which shall not fail of its harvest of joy. If we realized this, how often our murmuring would cease! If the husbandman forgot about the harvest, and thought only of the seed-time when he was casting his wealth away, would not life seem to him all labor and all loss, with no adequate returns, no compensating joy? So here, if we lose sight of the harvest, and think only of the present sowing, what wonder we complain of the injustice and the ingratitude of life?
But the harvest shall make just all these apparent injustices of the seed-time. Whenever our lives have been sown in love, not even Satan himself can rob us of the harvest of joy. Jesus’ life went out in utter apparent defeat, in ignominy and shame. But it was truly sown, and we read, “He shall see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied.” This will be true at last of every life which, instead of being kept for self, has been truly sown. When the harvest comes, we shall be satisfied.
“They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.”
Christ’s righteousness in us is, therefore, but the development, according to the laws of spiritual growth, of the germ of the divine life implanted in the soul. It is ours, by our free wills, to yield that seed to Him, learning always to pray, “Not my will, but Thine be done.” This prayer must be the expression of the soul’s inmost longing, as well in the Gethsemane depths as on the transfiguration heights of life, for we must never raise our wills to resist His.
If we thus yield our lives to be sown, Infinite Wisdom and Immortal Love are pledged that each life shall be surrounded by the circumstances best adapted to its growth. We may wonder now at the way we are led. We may sometimes be tempted even to doubt that Love is leading, and almost dream that we are but drifting on life’s ocean, the plaything of its winds and currents. But when the harvest has been gathered in, and we have reached the harvest home, and stand with the King transfigured on life’s mountain-top, then we shall see and know that we have been led all the way just as we would have chosen for ourselves had we too known all.
God is the Fountain of life. The divine law is the law of life, and all its commandments are righteousness. So with Christ’s righteousness wrought out in a human soul, there comes eternal life. “He that hath the Son hath everlasting life.” Sin and death can not be separated. They are cause and effect.18
So also righteousness and life are inseparable. The harvest of one is the reaping of the other. That which groweth up within us from this sowing to the Spirit, is the eternal life which we shall live forevermore.
The full glory of this harvest in any life "doth not yet appear;" how then can we for a moment fittingly speak of the full glory of this harvest in all—the glory of the Reaper backed by the shining heavenly host, even their transcendent glory outshone by Him, and dimmed to the faint luster of a sun-illuminated cloud! The mighty trumpet shall wake the righteous dead to immortal life. "The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." Too good to be true it will seem at first. Almost we shall fancy it to be a dream. "When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongues with singing."
The mighty host of the righteous, redeemed to immortal life, united with their Lord and the heavenly host, ascending to the heavenly city, shall chant, "Open the everlasting gates," and shall enter the mansions prepared for those that love Him.
There will be no complaining with the harvest. Jesus will be satisfied; all will be satisfied when they awake in His likeness.
Dear hearts, sometimes tortured by doubt here in this seed-time world, where can you sow with such assurance as this, since "the harvest-time is hid with Him"?
4. In what does the sowing and growth of the good seed result?
"The good seed are the children of the kingdom." Matt. 13:38.
5. Who sows the evil seed?
"His enemy came and sowed;" "the enemy that sowed them is the devil." Verses 25, 39.
6. What is the evil seed called? and in what does it result?
"His enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat." "The tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil." Verses 25, 38, 39.
7. Will the evil be rooted out from among the good?
"Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them." Verse 29.
8. How long will these two classes exist together?
"Let both grow together until the harvest." Verse 30.
9. What is the harvest?
"The harvest is the end of the world [age]." Verse 39.
10. Who are the reapers?
"The reapers are the angels." Same verse.
11. What became of those represented by the tares?
"As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." Verses 40-42.
12. How will it be with "the children of the kingdom"?
"Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." Verse 43.
