THE ROAD TO ROYALTY

"And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." I John 5:4.

It is one thing to get saved and filled with the Spirit, or sanctified; it is quite another to keep this experience throughout life. It is equally important to say the least, for what will it profit a man if he does not "be faithful unto death," or the Lord's coming?

Now if the devil finds he cannot possess you, then he will oppress, depress, repress, compress and suppress you in every way he possibly can. But there is victory for you every step of the way, by God's grace. The application of the following rules to everyday life will doubtless bring gracious spiritual dividends.

1. Keep Prayed Up. "Men ought always to pray and not to faint," Luke 18:1. Some folk pray a little, but apparently faint before the answer comes! Paul exhorted to "Pray without ceasing," I Thess. 5:17. To practice this would guarantee against spiritual fainting.

No one ever went down in defeat who kept prayed up. It is said that Paderewski, once world-famous pianist, one time remarked, "When I miss my practice one day I notice it. When I miss it two or three days, my friends notice it, and when I miss it a week, the world notices it." What was true of his practice on the piano is true of our prayers; our friends and the world know when we miss them.

Regular, systematic seasons of secret prayer are of the greatest value in living the victorious life. Both David and Daniel "prayed three times a day," and they made success. It would be a good plan to adopt their method if possible.

2. Read Your Bible Daily. Feed on it. Do not stop at a nibble now and then. Read it daily, at least some portion, and a chapter a day is not a bad rule. Memorize many passages dear to you and be able to quote them. Thus you will be fortified against wrong doctrines, and the very devil himself will find you invulnerable.

3. Keep Your Eyes Upon Jesus. "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith," Heb. 12:2. Never mind what the world says, look to Jesus. Do not be led astray following every new fad in religion that comes into your community; keep looking to Jesus.

When Peter saw the boisterous waves about him, he began to sink. That sentence speaks volumes! As long as he looked at Jesus he walked the rough waves apparently without difficulty, but when he looked at surrounding circumstances, he began sinking. Do not look at circumstances, look to Jesus. "Grace enters into circumstances, but circumstances never enter into grace" is a wonderful consolation.

4. Seek Divine Guidance. Never make any important step in life without first seeking to know God's wills in regards to the matter. You will find that the will of God is not something to be feared or dreaded; it will not crush from life all that is worth while, but will, rather, fill it with real meaning. The poet has said:

Like a bird that's found its nest,

So my soul has found sweet rest,

In the center of the Will of God.

The promises relative to Divine guidance are just as true as any other promises in the Word. You have every right to claim them for your very own. How many heartaches could have been avoided, how many wrecked lives been useful, if only the will of God had been sought in time.

Human knowledge cannot reach out into the tomorrows to see what they contain. There is no skill at our disposal to predict what will come on the tomorrows. But we can place our hand in the hand of Him who knows all about all the tomorrows and rest assured that He will guide over every step of the untried ways.

The world is ever seeking for security. The best security that can be known is to seek always to do His will. He has promised to guide us, and we will do well to seek His guidance in all our life's problems and undertakings. Many have gone ahead without knowing His will and made a failure, and others, because of discouragements have made ship-wreck of their faith.

"Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass," Psa. 37:5. Here is the recipe for spiritual guidance. When we really obey the first part of this verse respecting our lives, we may depend upon God to do the last part of it for us. In other words, when we are fully committed to God along any line, He becomes responsible for us and the outcome of the things we have placed in His hands. To feel that one is divinely led is a most gracious solace in the times of supreme testings, either in one's personal life, social relations or field of Christian labor.

5. Obey the Checks of the Spirit. The Holy Ghost is ever faithful. When we are about to do or say something out of Divine order, He will gently check us. Here is the first place a person begins to lose out in his Christian experience - when he disregards the checks of the Spirit. St. Paul exhorts us to "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." To break this seal by grieving Him, failing to come back quickly to rectify the matter, is to pave the way for spiritual disaster.

Upon feeling that one has grieved the Spirit, he should immediately go to God in prayer, even if it be but to drop his head and pray silently while surrounded by others, asking Him to have mercy upon him and help him not to further grieve the Spirit by a negligent attitude towards his mistake or blunder.

Sometimes people mistake the check of the Spirit for the "rebuke" of the Spirit. Then Satan sets up a storm of false condemnation and tries to defeat the soul by making him feel that he has sinned, when in reality the blessed Spirit was only checking him lest he should sin. We should distinguish between His checks and His rebukes. This is a good rule: His checks precede any wrong doing, warning us; His rebukes follow our misdeeds, revealing our wrongs. But even then it is not to cast us off that He rebukes, but that we may see the error and correct it. We are to "despise not the chastenings of the Lord," but rather to profit by them.

6. Confess Your Faults. "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another that ye may be healed," James 5:16. To deny our faults and try to blame others is only to make things worse for ourselves.

John Wesley said: "Be always ready to own any fault you have been in. If you have at any time thought, spoken or acted wrong, be not backward to acknowledge it." Unwillingness to confess your faults is dangerous to the soul. It will bring you into a sour, self-reliant, critical, cynical state, and you will lose that sweet, tender, victorious Spirit.

7. Check Up on Yourself. It is good to take inventory of one's spiritual stock occasionally. David advised, "Commune with your own heart," Psa. 4:4. St. Paul admonished, "Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith," II Cor. 13:5. By comparing the present stock of spiritual commodities with that of other days, one can tell what kind of progress he is making, and whether the asset or liability side of the ledger of religious life is heavier or lighter than formerly. But above all, measure by the Word of God, as it is the only sure rule. You are likely to run into all sorts of difficulties if you measure by other folk's standards or lives. St. Paul warned that those who practiced this were not wise. II Cor. 10:12.

In making this check up, do not probe your experience to pieces trying to remodel it after someone's you read of or heard given. This is a mistake, and sometimes in the last degree it can be fatal to Christian experience. Everyone should profit by the experiences of other deep Christians. There is scarcely a more profitable study than that of the biographies of godly people. There is, however, one thing which one should ever keep in mind: we are not to seek the experiences of others, however great and glorious they have been. If in reading and listening to others, together with searching your Bible, you are convinced that you do not have the experience, either of salvation or of entire sanctification, do not hesitate to go humbly to God in prayer, asking for the clear assuring witness to your own experience. If you wait upon God, He will give it to you when all conditions are met. But avoid this: seeking an experience like you read or heard about, as to demonstrations or other manifestations. God purposes to give you an experience which will suit your individual need. His witness to your heart of that experience is sufficient for you, and in accepting this and living in keeping with it you can best glorify Him. So long as we seek another's experience we are not wholly glorifying Christ, but rather tend to lean to someone else. Even if you see that you must retract your profession and seek the experience you have already claimed, take St. Paul's advice, and "Cast not away therefore your confidence which hath great recompense of reward," Heb. 10:35. Do not allow yourself to get into darkness by looking at the negative side, but look positively to Christ for victory as He has promised it to you.

8. Keep a Tender Conscience. Cautiously avoid becoming hard-hearted. We are admonished to "weep with them that weep." If one keeps a tender conscience it will not be so hard for God to talk to him. The Holy Ghost can very easily make impressions upon a tender heart and conscience. By keeping tender and gentle in spirit one will not be likely to stray far from the path of right. It is a great safe-guard against spiritual loss.

9. Keep Looking Heavenward. Nothing gives a soul such courage to be faithful as an occasional glimpse into that glorious beyond which awaits the redeemed. Keep your eyes in that direction. Be ever on the outlook for the Saviour's return. When one lives in this atmosphere it is easier to keep victory.

10. Finally, fellow pilgrims, let us above all else, "Be faithful unto death." Not he who started well, nor he who shone brightly in other days, but he that "endureth unto the end shall be saved."

The road to royalty, the victorious Christian way of life, is sometimes beset with difficulties; sometimes thorns pierce the travelers' feet, and ofttimes stones of hindrance are lying near by. But thank God, we do not have to stop for a thorn-bruise nor go out of our way to strike stumbling stones! The center of the way is safe for those who are "watching unto prayer," and walking "circumspectly in the world."

Let us be faithful. The Old Ship Zion, on which we are booked to sail, will soon be coming. It is only a short journey across the storm-tossed channel to the serene, golden harbor of the glory land where we shall anchor to the shores of eternal peace and joy. We shall then step ashore upon the evergreen hills of paradise and be forever with our blessed Lord who loved us so, and that innumerable company of loved ones. O happy prospect of that wonderful land where,

"O'er all those wide, extended plains,
Shines one eternal day;
Here God the Son forever reigns,
And scatters night away."