HOW TO KEEP THE BLESSING Part 10

The wisdom of the fathers

HOW TO KEEP THE BLESSING???Part 10

Live moment by moment. "If we would be preserved blameless we must live not by long intervals, but by the breath and by the moment. Each instant must be dedicated and presented to God, a ceaseless sacrifice, and each breath be poured into his bosom and received back from his being. We must also learn to recover instantly from failure by frank confession and prompt faith and recommittal. It is possible to catch ourselves before we have really fallen, and God does not count it a fall if we do not yield to it. Unseen hands are ever near to bear us up even when we dash our foot against a stone."?

Says Bishop Foster: "Acquire the habit of living by the minute. Let it not be supposed that you are not to act for the future, but act by the minute. Take care of this moment now, while you have it, and the next when it comes; you will not then neglect any. You can live this minute without sin! Is it not so? (By the help of God) do it, then. Never mind what is before you. (With the help of Jesus) do not sin now. When each successive minute comes do likewise. If you will do this you will not sin at all. Days are made up of minutes; if each one is sinless the day will be so.?

Now try this. Nothing is easier; nothing is more wise. Live by the minute. Carry on your business, trade, labor, study, plan for the future by the minute. Trust in God now; do God's will now; do not offend God now. If you will observe this simple rule you will not fail."?

I find this illustration in my note book, taken from A. B. Earle: "A great merchant in New York City, with several thousand clerks, and doing an immense amount of business, was exceedingly happy in Jesus. He was a Methodist, and had received the sanctifying Holy Ghost. Some thought he was a hypocrite on the ground that no one could do so much business and yet live so near Jesus as he appeared to do. A number formed themselves into a committee to go to his business house and watch him, that they might find some fault with his Christian life. When the clock struck he said to all who were with him, 'Excuse me a minute,' and he would go into a little private office, and then come back and go on with his business. The clock struck again and the act was repeated. They finally asked him what it meant. He told them that he went into that room for a word of prayer each hour. He prayed: 'I thank thee, O God, that thou hast kept me another hour without sin; now give me grace for the next hour.'?

'Brethren, I serve God by the hour.' Jesus sweetly kept him. That constant keeping of Christ, that constant 'abiding in him,' is sanctification. 'Whosoever abides in him sins not.' It is implied in all these directions not that your efforts efficiently keep you, but instrumentally. They are the conditions on the human side. You employ the means, the sanctifying Saviour does the constant keeping. You work and he works in you to will and to do. You watch and pray and believe, and you "are kept by the power of God through faith."

(from "Holiness and Power" by Aaron Merritt Hills)