Chapter 52

SOME OF SHELHAMER'S SAYINGS

     If you want to fight your own battles, God will give you the job, but you will have a hard job of it.

     Tell me what you think, and I will tell you what you will do if you have a chance and fear no detection.

     Does your horse, dog, or child ever look at you as much as to say, "I wonder if you are really sanctified?"

     Do you condemn in others what you find in yourself? Would you bear from others what they have borne from you?

     No amount of good works can atone for a bad spirit. Plainness, aggressiveness, or radical ideas can never atone for an unsanctified tongue.

     The very fact that you occasionally speak lightly of those who have injured you, or did not fully agree with you, proves that in your heart you have not freely forgiven them.

     When your husband becomes so self-willed and set in his ways that you are afraid to reprove him, and inquire into his affairs, you can safely set it down he is backslidden.

     When your wife becomes so sensitive and peevish that you are afraid to cross her for fear she will pout and complain for half a day or more, you can safely set it down she is backslidden.

     Holiness will fix you up so that you will not lean forward when you are noticed and praised, nor will you lean backward when you are slighted and contradicted. Do you possess it?

     It is easier to say nothing, or too much, than to know just when to stop. It is easier to fast entirely than to abstain from eating more than necessary. It is easier to give reproof than to take it.

     Do you know of any person who has two hats, or suits -- a plain one to wear to common meetings, and a more stylish one for places abroad? This is what they call "whipping the devil around the stump."

     The fact that sudden interruptions, inconveniences and disappointments frustrate and worry you is still proof that you are not wholly detached from earthly pleasures and surroundings.

     "What a man is largely depends upon what he does when he has nothing else to do." Yea, and I might add, what he is largely depends upon what he thinks when nobody is looking at him.

     If you are all the Lord's and the work that you are interested in is all the Lord's, and all that you ever expect to be, or have, is all the Lord's in advance, then why should you ever worry or have an anxious care as to the outcome?

     Depth of experience is not to be measured by the amount of hallelujahs and shouts while in meeting and when everything is favorable, but by the power to endure with unwearied patience all that God can permit, or men and devils inflict.

     It is simply impossible to give a sharp, sarcastic answer, or manifest an independent spirit, until there has first been a disunion of spirit within. Long before a person acts touchy outwardly he has been nursing a sore feeling inwardly.

     Have you gotten to the place where you can be imposed upon? Holiness will do this for you. You will let God defend you and your opinions rather than hold out for your point or rights and thus accomplish your end at the expense of grieving the Spirit.

     Rejoice not because you are opposed or set at naught but rather rejoice because God's wondrous grace saves you from feeling the least tinge of bitterness toward those who do it; they may consider it their duty to oppose you on some point of belief or practice.

     How to be on intimate terms with Jesus: Get alone in secret, and after you have talked your heart out, then ask Him to speak freely and tell you whatsoever He thinks, yea, whatsoever He fears, concerning you and your heart. Carnality cannot bear such intimacy very long.

     Do you deal just as openly and honestly with the ignorant and inexperienced as you do with an old customer who is sharp and likely to detect an error? Do you give just as good weights and measures when no one sees you as when the purchaser is standing watching you?

     Have you the clear witness that the Blood makes your heart so clean that the Omniscient gaze can scan you through and through and find nothing more that He sees ought to be removed? It is your privilege to have just such a definite assurance to heart cleansing. Hallelujah!

     God takes the initial step in our salvation. If you will furnish the "Yes," He will furnish the "Grace." If you will furnish the willingness, He will furnish the ability. After all, it is about two-thirds divinity and one third humanity. Cheap on your part.

     Don't complain! Everything is better than you deserve! You have more friends than you deserve, more to eat and wear than you deserve. Thousands would be glad to trade places with you. Thank God, then, that you are out of the asylum, the penitentiary and hell.

     Thoughts are bigger than words. "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he." Yes, this is the real man. He is no better than his thoughts. Long before he is known as a good man or a rascal, he has been thinking along that line. Watch your thoughts! You can control them now; later they will largely control you.

     True manliness implies courtesy, gentleness and thoughtfulness, and this will produce in the minds of the most intimate friends, including the wife, a high regard and appreciation for your presence. You can depend upon it that there is something wrong when there is lack of appreciation on either side of the house.

     Does a timidity steal over your spirit when you are about to make a decision? Something that is not willing to wait and let the thing be tested? Something that is afraid of God's decisions? Such a feeling should be sufficient proof that you are taking things in your own hands and are about to get out of Divine order.

     One of the places where spiritual decline first begins is in not insisting upon getting clear through to God in secret prayer. It is so easy to rest on a form, and the thought that you surpass the generality of professed Christians in zeal and devotion, and yet with all this to have lost the bullet-like, penetrating power to pray things to pass.

     The sin of omission always precedes the sin of commission. It is impossible to yield to sin on any line until there has first been a letting down, or a disregarding of some plain duty. It is the sin of omission which unnerves the soul, and makes it possible to take the next step and do that which beforehand you would not have dared to do.

     Are you quite sure that every cent that has ever come into your hands has been gotten righteously? Are you sure you have been wholly free from false pretension and appropriation otherwise than you gave the impression in order to obtain money? The judgment will settle some of these and many other questions, if they are not rightly settled here.

     If God holds you to a certain line of eating, dressing, having pictures taken, or keeping the Sabbath, do it silently, but do not think you are called to compel others to do the same. If you feel you must tell your convictions, do it meekly, and if they are of God He will carry them home and rivet them on hearts. "Hast thou faith? Have it to thyself before God."

     As a rule nothing turns out the way you anticipate. If you are troubled with fearful forebodings about a temporal or spiritual difficulty quite often you are happily surprised at the way it turns out. On the other hand when you become too self-confident and satisfied with your own doings, you need not be surprised if you receive many rebuffs and humiliations. The better plan is to keep humble, and then God will not be compelled to humble you.

     Is your eye always single to the glory of God? REFLECT! In every letter, in every transaction, in all your conversation, in your private and public devotions? In short, do you do everything just as naturally and sincerely as if you were a thousand miles away from any living creature and no eye but the Omniscient gazed upon you? This is what it means to be without guile.

     Why should I envy another man? God delights to honor and use him more than me, perhaps it is because God sees he is more faithful and worthy of the trust given him than L Besides this, there is enough slander and criticism hurled at him from others to make him feel that he pays a high price for his God-honored position, without my acting so fiendish as to make the pressure against him still greater. Merciful God, save me from anything so diabolical!

     What is the standard of your joy? 'hat is it that affords you the most pleasure? What is it that you look forward to with the most delight? Is it eating, sleeping talking, making money, becoming famous, or some lower form of sensual gratification? Just to the extent that you find consolation in anything but God, you become an idolater and worship the creature more than the Creator. "Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth."

     How to know that you are living in the Spirit: (1) There is no reluctance to duty. (2) There is no spirit of hurry and boisterousness. (3) There is no wideness, nor following sudden impressions. (4) There is no strained feeling in trying to do something you are not able to do (5) There is no uneasiness about you, so as to render yourself and others uncomfortable. (6) On the other hand, there is no dryness and lack of power. (7) There is no stiffness or formality. (8) You do not become nervous so as to appear sensitive and touchy. (9) Consequently you are not irritable and hard to please. (10) Glory, hallelujah! Mind your own business and it will be easy living for God. "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."