The lives of people are so complicated today that they defy any easy solution. The problems of men simply gnaw at their hearts until sudden sickness or even death overtakes them. Highly educated men too have not learnt to overcome these emotions and passions which run away with their better sense and ruin their families. Has God got a solution for our problems or is He only a sentimental emblem, a picture to hang on your wall? The Living God has categorically told us: “Come unto Me and I will give you rest.” This is a promise to you and to me. Either this promise is true or it is one of the greatest falsehoods ever uttered. But let’s be careful now for He who uttered these words, the Lord Jesus, is the one in whom there is no shadow of turning. The Bible says of Jesus: “Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth” (1 Peter 2:22). So it’s He, the Saviour, the sinless One, who spoke these words of invitation and promise: “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

Within my own personal knowledge, I have seen and met thousands and thousands of people who tasted these words of the Lord Jesus and found them true. They went to Jesus, when all seemed lost, when their little world was blown to bits, when they knew there was no hope for them, and they found Him to be true—He gave them rest.

Among this number of men and women, young and old, who had found peace, rest and forgiveness in Jesus, were men whom their loved ones had given up as incorrigible, irretrievably lost and even those who had been on the verge of suicide.

“Come unto Me, all ye that suffer under your heavy load of sin and guilt, and I will give you rest.” The call is to all who are sorrowful and shaken by repeated shocks, the nervously exhausted, the weak in body and mind, and the despairing. “Come unto Me.” The Saviour is calling you.

Once a college student wrote to me: “I have committed every conceivable sin. Is there hope for me?” He had indulged in sexual perversions which had left him weak and distraught. He seemed to despair that he was too far gone. I wrote: “Yes, there is hope for you, when you repent.” The Lord Jesus touched this boy and peace and forgiveness of sins was given him.

I begin to wonder if some people are really serious in undertaking pilgrimages of all sorts. Some go to Bethlehem for Christmas. A place, however sacred, cannot meet your deepest soul-needs. It’s “A Person” you need—the Saviour Jesus who beckons you, saying, “Come unto Me.”

People want a formula, a sentence or two of magical words which will do the trick and bring relief, or they ask for a charm, a relic or talisman, which they may wear round their arm or neck to give them a sense of security. They are prepared in their distress to make costly offerings, to win the favour of some mythical person or even some self-styled godman. They are even prepared to join a church, as they would a club, in the fond hope that they may solve their problems.

No, my friend, it’s to a person you must go; you must go to the Saviour who loves you and welcomes you, saying, “Come unto Me.”

Some time ago, I received a letter from a young man who wrote saying that he had divorced his wife and was looking round to find a suitable girl to marry. His marriage broke down completely. His wife seemed to have no room at all for Jesus. From the continual tension, both of them had suffered nervous breakdowns too. I wrote him: “No, God is able to bring your wife back to you. The Lord Jesus does not want any man to marry when his wife is still alive. It counts to adultery. Keep the door open for your wife to come back.” He paid heed to my words. He began to seek cleansing and deliverance from his sins and the powers of darkness and also to rebuild his broken home.

The Lord heard our prayer. This week it was such a joy to me to hear from that young man that he had married again the wife he had divorced, and that they were now living together. This family is living in the heart of Europe, where marriage bonds have become very weak and where the flesh seems to reign supreme. Now he wants me to go and preach in some of the towns in his area.

It’s the Lord Jesus who has built the home of these young people, who had become nervous wrecks by not making Jesus the centre of their home. The words of Jesus are not vain words. “Come unto Me, and I will give you rest.” How true are those words!

No one can give rest to a man deep in his soul—not even your father and mother. Only Jesus. He has the power to give you that deep settled rest as He has the power to forgive your sins.

Without your knowing it, there is a guilt complex in you. The unforgiven sins in your life set up a disturbance and restlessness in your subconscious mind. Guilt in the sub-conscious mind soon produces disease and such diseases overwhelm you as doctor and psychiatrist cannot help.

“Come unto Me, and I will give you rest” is no soothing formula, which just sounds refreshingly religious at a distance. You need this rest and I. In fact, life without this sweet rest and peace is not worth living—it’s a hollow, painful, boring existence. “I will give you rest” is a promise which does appear to be too good to be true but, notwithstanding, it is real. Millions have tasted this peace and rest which Jesus gives, and you too, my dear reader, must taste Him.

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1).

We are asked to present our bodies a living sacrifice, which is holy and acceptable before God.

This would be a reasonable service to Him. This sounds almost too high a standard. A living sacrifice itself seems very high, and then it is to be holy and an acceptable sacrifice! When a man attains this standard, he would of necessity be a supernatural being. The supernatural element cannot be taken away from Christianity. Christian life does not depend on just the faculties of the human mind but on the faculties of the spirit. When God works on the spirit of a man, his soul is regenerated. God prepared the cross—a snake on a pole—to lift man to the supernatural level. The healing power flowed from that hanging thing to the bodies of the people (of Israel who were dying of snake-bite in the wilderness). Something supernatural occurred in them. That power killed the deadly poison flowing in their veins, and they lived. To be a holy personality while living among men is impossible. But Christ was holy. He took on Himself the vile, poisonous, vengeful nature of man and died on the cross. When Christ became sin for us, the snake represented Him well. Christ became sin for us! When with faith we look at Him, there flows a grace into us that makes us holy. The sin in us goes to the cross, and the virtue from there flows into us. God’s nature flows into the human body through the cross.

The Christian religion has its supernatural aspect. It is a God-conceived religion. God puts into man a higher wisdom and power, which the world does not know. Those who can take a spiritual glimpse of the cross get an understanding of the love of God. They also receive a measure of His sanctifying power. We can go to God only through the cross. We cannot go direct. The high standard of service described by St. Paul in Romans chapter 12:1 is expected of man because God has made it possible for him. Therefore St. Paul preached of “the living sacrifice.” The cross has the power to make you die—to make you experience the death of Christ.

In the case of Lazarus, he died and came to life. Nothing in the world would be of value to him anymore, because he had gone through death and been in the grave. He would be completely detached from the world. Detachment from worldly possessions brings us to a different plane in our spiritual life. The death of self marks another level in our spiritual life. These are great miracles. Our churches are ruined by self-centered men. All activities are directed and controlled by and for the ego. The cross helps to bring us into detachment from the world. When Christ died, the supernatural power of God came into operation and raised Him up. Ephesians 1:19-20: “[T]he exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places.” God’s great power was manifested not at the creation, but when He raised Jesus from the dead. When you look at the cross, that same great power works death in you. It requires a supernatural power to put “SELF” to death in a man. If you want to go to higher regions of spiritual life, you have to go through this experience of dying to self through the cross. Isaac was as good as dead when he was laid on the altar. Would any other submission seem difficult to him after that?

God said, “Isaac, do not go to Egypt.” He said, “Alright! Lord, I will not go.” God said, “Isaac, do not quarrel with those who are unjustly taking possession of your wells. It was your labour, but never mind.” Isaac just let the wells go. He did not find it difficult. There is no special attachment to anything when you come to this place. If you ask how this is possible, it is through the great power God has provided to lift you. If you go to an airport and, pointing to an airliner, you ask the pilot, “How can you make this heavy body rise above the earth and fly in a definite direction?”, what will he say? “It is not I who do it. Those who have constructed the plane have made it possible for it to [rise] and be steered in the direction required.” God, who has provided the sacrifice of His son on the cross for us, has made a way for us to rise to those higher regions where offering a living sacrifice is possible. Life is very pleasant on that plane. You are not afraid of death. Where is fear anymore? God who has called you is faithful, and He has sacrificed His only Son so that this divine power may be made available to change vile man into a holy being.

We have sadhus in India who seek detachment from the world. They deny themselves many things and go away into the forests to meditate far away from human habitation. That way, they find no real deliverance from the love of the world. They have no victory over sin and no concept of holiness. You may live under a tree denying yourself the comfort of a furnished house. But that is not a great sacrifice. Dying to self and living a holy life defines a new level of sacrifice altogether. There you will have marvellous achievements. There, raising the dead, cleansing lepers, stilling a storm will be nothing to you.

Do what the Lord has entrusted to you honestly, sincerely, and live a holy life just where you are. God has power to lift you to higher regions of spiritual life.

—N. Daniel

Annie Johnson was born in 1866 in New Jersey, America, but lost both parents as a young child. Before the death of her father, both she and her sister were adopted by the Flints, a Christian couple. At the age of eight, God’s Spirit so operated upon her young heart that she was brought to saving faith in Christ during a revival meeting.

After her schooling, Annie began to teach but arthritis showed itself early in the second year of working. She eventually gave up her work and three years of increasing helplessness followed. Both adopted parents died within a few months of each other and Annie and her sister were left alone again. They had little money. Then she received the verdict that she would be a helpless invalid—and yet, from that place of being “shut in”, Annie blessed thousands by writing poems.

Annie stated that her poems were born of others’ need and not from her own need, but the crises that she faced helped her to write for their comfort and help. She “sang her sweetest song” to the weary pilgrim on life’s journey, suffering for over forty years. Below is an extract from her poem on “The Court of the King”. With a “staff that had failed” in her need and a “lamp that was smoking and dim”, the pilgrim, “too weary to pray”, “too heavy-hearted to sing”, “faint with the toils of the way” came to the “court of the King”:

“Long did I kneel in His court,
            And walk in his garden so fair;
            All I had lost or had lacked
            I found in His treasuries there;

Oil to replenish my lamp,

His kindness a crown for my head,

For the staff that had wounded my hand

The rod of His mercy instead.”

The pilgrim departed with a garment of praises, sandals of peace, and joy for mourning, making the spirit to sing; “girded with gladness and strength,” she wrote, “I passed from the court of the King.”

One of her most popular writings was based on three Bible promises: “He giveth more grace” (James 4:6), “He increaseth strength” (Isaiah 40:29) and “Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied” (Jude 2).

                “He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater,
                He sendeth more strength when the labours increase;
                To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,
                To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.

                When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
                When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
                When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,
                Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

                His love has no limit, His grace has no measure,
                His power no boundary known unto men;
                For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,
                He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.”

Annie Johnson Flint believed in and exemplified the “deeper” or “higher life”, believing that Christians should go ever on into God’s truth experimentally. “Let Us Go On” expresses this, as seen in these two verses below. In 1932 she passed away, having been a vessel of God that held and poured out rivers of living water from Christ.

If the Christ who was buried had stayed in the tomb

He had only known defeat;

But the Way of the Cross never stops at the Cross,

And the Way of the Tomb leads on,

To victorious grace in the heavenly place.

So, let us go on with our Lord

To the fulness of God He has bought,

Unsearchable riches of glory and good

Exceeding our uttermost thought;

Let us grow up into Christ,

Claiming His life and its powers,—

—See Rowland V. Bingham, The making of the beautiful

Starting as a sinner

Amanda Berry Smith was born into slavery in 1837 in America but purchased out of it in answer to prayer. One night in 1856, when she was living in Colombia, Pennsylvania, a revival started at a nearby church. She could hear the singing from where she lived but did not mean to go forward to the altar to pray. So she prayed and struggled day after day, week after week, trying to find light and peace, but she constantly came up against her will although God showed her that she was a dreadful sinner.

At last, one night, the singing was so beautiful that she felt drawn to go into the church. Though Amanda went in with no intention of going forward to the altar, all at once she found herself down the aisle and halfway up to it. 

There at the altar, Amanda threw herself down and began to pray with all her might: “O, Lord, have mercy on me! O, Lord, have mercy on me! O, Lord, save me.” Finally a stillness came over her. The meeting closed and Amanda went home, but without instruction, she was left in the dark.

Praying once more

A few days later, Amanda took a job with another family in the month of January. She prayed incessantly for light and peace. “O, how I prayed, fasted and prayed,” she later wrote, “read my Bible and prayed, prayed to the moon, prayed to the sun, prayed to the stars. I was so ignorant. … The Devil told me I was such a sinner God would not convert me.” He told her that she was such a sinner God would not hear her.

On one occasion while Amanda was praying, she got desperate. A suit for which she had been saving up came before her so she told the Lord that if he would remove the burden on her heart she should never get one of those things. All at once a quiet peace came into her heart. Yet still there was darkness in her soul.

One day in March, Amanda thought it was all over. The Devil seemed to say, “You have prayed to be converted.”

“Yes,” replied Amanda.

“You have been sincere.”

“Yes.”

“You have been in earnest.”

“Yes.”

“You have read your Bible, and you have fasted, and you really want to be converted.”

“Yes, Lord, Thou knowest it; Thou knowest my heart, I really want to be converted.”

Then Satan said, “Well, if God were going to convert you He would have done it long ago; He does His work quick, and with all your sincerity God has not converted you.”

“Yes, that is so.”

“You might as well give it up, then,” said he, “it is no use, He won't hear you.”

“Well, I guess I will just give it up. I suppose I will be damned and I might as well submit to my fate.” Just then a voice whispered to Amanda clearly, and said, “Pray once more.” And in an instant she said, “I will.” Then another voice said, “Don't you do it.”

“Yes, I will.”

Amanda made a resolution: “I will pray once more, and if there is any such thing as salvation, I am determined to have it this afternoon or die.”

In her desperation, she went down into the cellar and got on her knees as she had done so many times before. “O Lord,” she prayed, “have mercy on my soul, I don't know how else to pray.” A voice said to her, “That is just what you said before.”

“O, Lord, if Thou wilt only please to have mercy on my soul I will serve Thee the longest day I live.”

The Devil said, “You might just as well stop, you said that before.”

“O, Lord if Thou wilt only convert my soul and make me truly sensible of it, for I want to know surely that I am converted, I will serve Thee the longest day I live.”

“Yes,” the Devil said, “you said that before and God has not done it, and you might as well stop.”

What a conflict! The darkness seemed to gather around Amanda, and in her desperation she looked up and said, “O, Lord, I have come down here to die, and I must have salvation this afternoon or death. If you send me to hell I will go, but convert my soul.” Then she looked up and said, “O, Lord, if thou wilt only please to help me if ever I backslide don’t ever let me see thy face in peace.” Amanda waited. When she did not hear the old suggestion that had been following her, “That is just what you said before,” she prayed the same words twice more.

Amanda then seemed to get to the end of everything. In her desperation she looked up and said, “O, Lord, if Thou wilt help me I will believe Thee,” and in the act of telling God she would, she did. Peace and joy flooded her soul! The burden rolled away; she felt it when it left her, and a flood of light and joy swept through her soul such as she had never known before. Her prayers had been answered. She was new!

Obtaining the Spirit’s witness

One morning not long after, Amanda was singing an old hymn and her soul was filled! Just then the Devil began to trouble her and claim that she had no evidence of having been converted.

“Evidence, evidence, what is that?” Then Amanda thought, I wonder if that is not what the old people used to call the witness of the Spirit. “Well,” she said, “I won't sing, I won't pray until I get the witness.” So she began and God helped her to hold this point. She said, “Lord I believe Thou hast converted my soul, but the Devil says I have no evidence. Now, Lord, give me the evidence,” and she prayed a whole week. Every now and then the joy would spring up in her heart, the burden was all gone, she had no sadness, she could not cry as she had before, and she did not understand it, and so she kept on pleading, “Lord, I believe Thou hast converted me, but give me the evidence, so clear and definite that the Devil will never trouble me on that line again.” God heard her prayer.

“This witness of God's spirit to my conversion,” she continued, “has been what has held me amid all the storms of temptation and trial that I have passed through. O what an anchor it has been at time of storm. Hallelujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. Ye shall know if ye follow on to know the Lord. Amen. Amen.”

—Amanda Smith, An Autobiography