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THE KING'S BUSINESS
You ask, “Ho you think it is well for me to read and try to understand these deeper spiritual books of men like Dr. Gordon and Dr. Murray . or had I better just read my Bible with such helps as I need to understand it?” To this would say, in your present state of mind, I think you had better stick to your Bible. I do not think the books of Gordon and Murray would be helpful to you. Indeed, I do not think that too much reading of them is good for any one; I think a great many people are neglecting the Bible to read de votional books and harping on one narrow line and so get more harm than good. You say, “Shall I wait for the witness of the Spirit before I try to present Christ as a Saviour to others ?” No, !be sure that you have received the Lord Jesus, and, therefore, believe that you have eternal life, and that your sins are forgiven, and that you are a child of God, because God says so, and go and witness to others for Jesus and some day you will find that you have the witness of the Spirit. It may dawn upon you gradually, or come like a burst, but the ground of our assurance is not primarily the witness of the Spirit, but God’s own written Word. I find I have omitted a part of your let ter, where you speak about “trying to love God.” My advice is to stop trying to love God; simply keep dwelling upon His love to you. We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). Read over and over again the passages that tell youvof His love to you (such passages as Isaiah 53: 5; John 3:16). Ask God to make them real to you, and upon God’s wondrous grace to you, and the first thing you know you will find you are loving God without trying. Sincerely yours, R. A. T orrey .
ask.me to tell you what qualifications one needs for a foreign missionary. I will not bother about going into them; for it is evident God does not want you now to go as a foreign missionary, so it is not neces sary to go into it now. I will say frankly, however, that I don’t think you have them anyway. You ask what it means to say, “All for Jesus.” It means simply that you give all your powers to Him and are ready to go where He tells you to go, to do what He tells you to do, and to be what He tells you to be. Of course it involves your being willing to leave husband and child and go out into the world with nothing to do if that were His will, but it is not His will, and Jesus would not have you do this. Indeed, He tells you not to do it in His Word, and doing His will does not mean for a moment that we are to choose the hardest thing and decide because the thing is the hardest that it is His will; the hardest thing is not His will, though His will may sometimes be a hard thing. You say, “How can I appropriate Christ’s prom ises if I feel that such a thing is God’s will and yet cannot do it?” Anything you “cannot do” is not God’s will. He is not a hard Master, certainly not an utterly unreasonable Master (M att 11:30). You ask if you have interpreted the words about Esau right in thinking that perhaps you have sold your spiritual ¡birth right for the pottage of life, and that there is no place for repentance. You certainly have not interpreted them right. Your case does not bear the slightest resemblance to Esau’s. Esau sold his birthright deliber ately and intentionally for a mess of pot tage. You have done nothing of the kind; even though you made a mistake in inter preting God’s will, you were not deliberate ly and knowingly selling your salvation for the sake of getting a husband.
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