The Tupelo journal., 1903-02-20
more alone with Jesus than was she.

t
comfort and our encouragement. The
soul always alone with Jesus when it is
desiring and seeking His presence.
Alone with Jesus always means, first
OF all, revealed sin. Look at yourself
in the mirror of human comparisons
and you are not conscious of the sin
fulness of the human heart and life.
Look at yourself in the mirror Of the
perfect righteousness of Christ Jesus
and you Immediately become conscious
OF sin. Alone with Jesus always brings
one face to face with his real sell. The
publican who went up into the temple
to pray had been alone with God and
had caught a vision of his real self,
and came crying: "God, be merciful
to me a sinner" Until the soul gets
alone with Jesus, sin always looks
black n hideous on other people,
but it seems very slight and quite ex-
cusable when it is a personal matter.
The human heart knows how to use
the whitewash brush, and is not at all
sparing of the whitewash as it tries
to cover over the black, unsightly
marks of sin marring it's purity.
When | came home the other night
L noticed tear stains on the face Of
my little ~ive-year-old. Taking her
in my arms sought to find the cause
of them. What has my little girl been
crying about?" Mamma sent me up
stairs" ''Why did send you
upstairs?" Baby brother had my
pencil" And was that what mamma
sent you upstairs for; because brother
had your pencil?" "Well, you know,
ellis because he bites the lead off"
But what did mamma send you up
stairs for?" l asked again. The little
head dropped, and the little tongue
stammered out what it had been try
ing to cover up: II grabbed the pencil
away from brother" The little heart
had been trying to cover up and excuse
its fault, and the human heart is al
ways trying to do that. God declares
that the 'heart is deceitful above all
things and desperately wicked" and it
is as natural for it to use the white
/ wash brush of excuse and human COM
parison, as it is for the human heart
to err.
There is a natural aversion to being
alone with Jesus. 1t makes one feel
so uncomfortable if he is clinging to
sin. 1t results in one of two things:
Either the SOU run away from Jesus
as it rejects His claim upon it, or the
cry is the same as escaped from the
lips of Peter on the shore of Lake
Galilee: depart from me; for l am
a sinful man, o Lord" And when this
cry is wrung from the heart conscious
of sin because it is in the presence
of Jesus, He never departs. but draws
so close as to cover up the sin spots
with His nail-pierced hands, and pre-
pares the heart for His service.
Alone with Jesus means prepare
ton for service. Preparation for
Christian service can be obtained no.
where else but in the presence of
Jesus. The reason there is so little
manifest power and real results in
preaching, in Sabbath school teaching,
in hand to hand work, is that prepara-
ton has not been made while alone
with Jesus. The servant of Jesus
Christ must be long in his prayer and
his testimony when alone with Jesus
if he would be ready with the short,
quick, telling prayer and testimony
when the opportunity for service
comes. The disciples who had been
unable to administer to the needs of
the fathers only son who was pos
sessed with a devil we're troubled by
their failure and asked Jesus the rea-
son. He replied: This kind can come
forth by nothing but by prayer and
fasting" And the lack of prayer and
fasting in the presence of Jesus is the
reason for every failure in Christian
work. Ten days fasting and prayer
preceded the day of Pentecost. After
the long preparation the power was
received which enabled the disciples
to so testify for Jesus on that WON
derful day as to win thousands of con-
verts.
AtlAntioch while the disciples were
ministering before the Lord and fast
ihS nv WIN PANPui III L uuI III
Barnabas for their wonderful mission
airy tour. And after long preparation
the Spirit thrust them forth to the
successful work. Every great revival,
every great missionary effort. has had
as its foundation the prayer and fast
ing of those whose hearts were bur-
dened and who got alone with Jesus.
Alone with Jesus mean increased
responsibility. Jesus made no men.
ton to the woman as she left Hispres-
ence as to past sins, but said: go, and
sin no more" The past was written.
She had to leave it with Jesus. He
alone could blot it out. And we have
to leave our past with Jesus. we can
do nothing with it ourselves. He alone
can provide for it. But the woman had
the future before her, and so have we.
Because she had been alone with Jesus
there was new light in her life as to
what sin really was, and a new re-
s~ponsibility upon her to live a pure life.
Because we have met Jesus and been
alone with Him puts upon us a life
long obligation to live as in His pres
ence always. 1t is an awful thing to
meet Jesus alone and then to go out
and resume the old life and the old
sins. Alone with Jesus should mean
rising to a higher plane of living each
time; it should mean less of self and.
more of God. I watch the potter at
work and each time the clay comes in
touch with the whirling wheel a