THE FULLNESS OF CAPABILITY.

Many view it as a severe strain upon our feeble nature when God demands all the affections of the heart, all the thoughts of the mind, all the sensibilities of the soul, and all the volitions of the strength. God not only demands that we be religious, but entirely religious; that we not only be holy, but universally holy; that we not only serve Him, but nobody and no thing except Him. This seems to be very ex acting, and yet infinite mercy is expressed in this excessive demand. The more completely we are devoted to Jesus in thought, word and act, the easier that devotion becomes. A ship under full sail and speed can be steered and managed with twice the ease that one can under half speed. It is much easier to take a full breath than to take a short half breath. It is partial service that makes painful service; it is half devotion that makes hard devotion. David reached a point in his devotion to God, when he arose at midnight to have a season of prayer and praise. The chariot wheels of his soul rolled forward more smoothly then than at any past period.

He who fashioned every atom and capability of our nature, knows that in order to render our service delightful and easy, He must in very kindness to us demand every capability of our being. But nothing can bring out the fullness of our capability except the being "filled with the Spirit." Inasmuch as God formed us for Himself we never reach our true self till we are completely united to God. It is the fullness of the Spirit that brings out the full capabilities of the creature. When the believer is filled with the Holy Spirit, two results are secured; first, the dross of inward sin is burned away, and secondly, all the faculties and latent capacities of the soul are wondrously opened and intensified in Divine service. Our faculties, like the sails of a ship, need to be cleansed from rust and mildew, then hoisted, unfurled, and filled up to their measure with the gales of the Eternal Spirit.

Thousands of believers, who are truly the servants of God, are yet almost totally ignorant of their religious capabilities. Your capabilities for endurance, for faith, for vividness of spiritual understanding, for witnessing, for praying, for self-sacrifice, for intensity of love, for victory over trial, for courage and gentleness, for steady zeal and tireless work, — you will never know, nor ever dream of your capabilities in these things, till you are filled with the Spirit, and continue to get filled up to your measure.

When we are filled with the Spirit, we then have the capability to do or bear anything that God wants us to.

Oh! what an enormous waste of capacity is lying unknown and idle in the Church. Often the very things that Christians shrink from, saying they can not do or suffer such things, are the very things they will gladly do and bear, when under the mighty baptism of the Holy Spirit.

We do not know the virtue of the soil, nor the latent seeds buried in it, except by the fiery baptism of summer sunshine.

Throughout the length of Christendom, you will hear ministers substituting culture for the Holy Spirit. On every hand, even from Methodist preachers, you can hear this. "I am trying to educate my members to give money, trying to educate the people to pray in public or testify in class, trying to educate the young converts to speak and work for Jesus," etc. What foolishness in God's eyes is this man-made wisdom.

If preachers who are vainly trying to educate their people into God's service, would only lead them by faith into the sanctifying baptism of the Spirit, they would see to their glad amazement that the Holy Spirit would resurrect and inflame the latent capacities of the various church- members more in one week than all their poor education could do in a lifetime. What would be thought of a farmer who should attempt, by rake culture, to cause the latent seed to sprout, instead of giving it sunshine; and yet the man that tries to bring out the religious capacities of the soul by culture, instead of by the Holy Spirit, is just like such a farmer.

How many tame, dry, formal preachers there are in the land, who just barely creep along with dull sermons, little, dry prayer-meetings, no revivals under their ministry; some can not preach except they crawl on a manuscript; others must have some elocutionist teach them how to talk for God. Has God made a mistake in calling men to preach? No. All these preachers possess vast, latent, undreamt-of capabilities of victory, power and zeal, if they were only fully sanctified and baptized with fire. No preacher ever needs to creep over pulpit manuscript, or learn the art of elocution after he gets entirely sanctified. Oh! how the baptism of fire takes hold of the great deep of the soul and lifts it be yond crutches and babyhood. Many believers are like those Alps on whose northern sides the sunshine has never fallen, and the deep ravines of whose natures have never known their possibilities of fruit.

To be filled with the Spirit, to be drinking every day deeper and yet deeper of the nature of God, this will purify, adorn and expand every God-given capability of man.

What unction in preaching, what sweetness of song, what glowing testimony, what fervency of prayer, what generosity of giving, what heavenly thinking, what patience in sorrow, what stretches of faith, what heroism of toil, what penetration of vision, what diligence of application, are brought into exercise by the fullness of the Spirit! It brings the soul into the very California of religion, and brings every gold mine of capacity into the coin of service.