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Andrew Murray
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 A Ministry dedicated to preserving the truth and accuracy of the infallible Word of God. |
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| General William Booth: Purity of Heart | |
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Back to Great Works Index >> Purity of Heart
PREFACE
They do not, of course, profess to treat this great subject with anything like
completeness, nor do I make any claim for them to literary elegance or power;
and yet, if they are used at all, they must go as they are, for I have no opportunity
to properly revise them. TABLE OF CONTENTS PURITY AND LOVE
Romans 6:22 -- But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God,
ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
My Dear Comrades,
But is it not the same in Great Britain, America, Australia, and in every other part
of the world to which these Letters will come? Is it not so in your Corps? -- nay,
is it not so with every individual Soldier who reads these words?
Now, as I have explained to you before, by Red-hot Religion I mean hearts made
hot with love for God, for Comrades, for perishing souls, for noble work, and for
every other good thing possible to men or women on earth or in Heaven.
I mean hearts made hot with holy love, such love as will compel us to toil and
sacrifice for the welfare of the object cared for. Such love as will make its
possessor the servant of those beloved, and exercise a self-denying mastery over
the heart that experiences it. Such love will be like our Master's. For "herein is
love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us."
Look at the Mother's love. Does it not make her sacrifice time, comfort, and
health for her child?
Look at the Patriot's love. Does it not compel him to turn his back on home,
family, business, to fight and die for his country?
And so Hot love in the Salvationist will make him lay health, time, goods, and all
he possesses at the Feet of his Lord, and there use all in blessing and saving the
souls of men.
Now it is this spirit of Love which makes this blessed heat in the souls of men and
women. As the Devil lights and feeds the fires of malice, ambition, selfishness,
pride, lust, and the other evils that encourage and strengthen souls in their warfare
with God, and carries them down the broad way to destruction, so the fierce heat
of Pure Love, created and maintained by the Holy Spirit, makes the Salvationist
watch and pray, toil and talk and suffer, careless of what it costs him in doing so,
if he can thereby gain the blessed object on which his heart is set.
But the Holy Spirit only dwells, in all His mastering power and burning zeal, in
souls that have been cleansed from evil; so that if you are resolved to spend your
life in blessing and saving men, and fighting for your Lord, you must have a Pure
Heart.
A Pure Heart will make you a blessing to those around you, and that not merely as
a result of what you do, but from the fact of what you are. People will, no doubt,
be drawn to love Christ, and seek Salvation, and fight for The Army by what you
say and sing. Your appeals and your prayers will all affect them; but if, in
addition, you possess this treasure they will also be led to God and Holiness and
Heaven by what they see you are.
A Pure Heart, as we have seen, makes a good life. Goodness is attractive; men
respect it, and are drawn to it, for what it is in itself. Even if they are themselves
the slaves of what is bad and devilish, they cannot help admiring what is Holy and
Divine. And if this is the case with the slaves of sin and vice, it will be a thousand
times more so with those around you who have already been captivated by the
charms of Holiness. To such hearts, your life, if governed and inspired by Pure
Love, will be a constant source of light, and strength, and consolation.
This is what we call Influence. It is something that is always going on. It is like
the fragrance of a rose. You take the flower and place it in the middle of a room,
and day and night it will send forth a sweet smell to all around. You have not to
do anything at it, or with it. You need not wave it about, or pass it from one to
another. It will spread abroad its pleasant perfume quite apart from any
movement.
So it is with the Soldier who enjoys Purity of Heart, and lives in harmony with the
experience. A holy influence will be going out from him all the time, not only
from what he says and does, but from what he is himself.
You feel the power, and the sweetness, and the genuineness of his spirit and
devotion. And when you hear his testimony, or listen to his prayers, or hear his
pleading with sinners, you feel this blessed influence proceeding from him
wherever you find him.
As you look into his eyes, and shake his hand, or sit by his side, it will be there.
When you see him in the furnace of affliction, or stand by his dying bed, or follow
him to the grave; nay, long after he has passed from mortal sight, this influence
will continue to flow out to you. For years to come, a sight of his photograph or
the bare mention of his name, will warm your heart, strengthen your courage,
sustain your faith, and increase your love for all that is Christlike and true. Why is
this, my Comrades? It is because you believed he was a Holy man. You admired
his self-sacrificing life. You felt that he had a Pure Heart.
There is another inducement which should lead you to seek a Pure Heart, and that
is, because it will bring you into the possession of a good hope. This is a precious
treasure. To feel that whatever clouds may darken the sky, or whatever sorrows
may sweep over your soul, there is good ground for anticipating peace, and joy
and victory in the future, must be a precious and desirable thing.
A Soldier who knows that he sincerely loves God, and that he is living in
obedience to Him, has an inward assurance that God will care for him, whatever
troubles may arise. Whereas one who feels that he has malice, hatred, pride, love
of the world, and other wrongs hidden away in his secret soul, and who knows
that he is daily neglecting his duty to his family or to himself, to his Corps, or the
poor sinners around him, can no more have a bright hope that God is going to
make him a happy future, than the sinners can expect that they are going to have
Heaven at the end of a sinful life. He may hope for it, but it will be like the hope
of the hypocrite, certain to be destroyed.
But when the soul has the witness of the Spirit and of a consistent life, to the
possession of inward Purity, it can look forward with confidence to victory over
every foe, deliverance out of every sorrow, and in the end, glory and honor,
immortality and eternal life.
Have these blessed experiences any charm for you, my Comrades? Let me review
them. I think they are entrancing.
1. There is the Holy Life that will always be the outcome of a Holy Heart. If the
fountain spring is pure, the flowing waters of daily life and action will be pure
also.
2. There is the peace of God that passeth all under standing, which is ever
associated with inward Holiness. "The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it
cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt." Any evil left in the soul must
make trouble. Purity and Peace are bound together by God Himself.
3. There is the presence and the indwelling of God as a flame of Holy Love,
which is the strength and spirit of Holiness. This is the Fiery Baptism which burns
up hatred, and grudges, and self-seeking, and self-will, and purifies all our
motives and affections.
4. There is the useful life and the Holy Example that flow from a Pure Heart,
which will not only speak in favor of God and Holiness while you live, but shall
go on influencing the world long after you have passed to your reward in the
skies.
5. There is a blooming hope of the future and the brightness of your crown in
Eternity. The realization of all this glorious experience, my Comrades, hangs on
your possession of a Pure Heart. These are only some of the inestimable blessings
that flow out of this eternal spring of purity and power. Have you got this
treasure? If so, Hallelujah! If not, I want you to go down and Seek it now.
Yours affectionately,
"Love surpassing understanding, |
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