I WILL take it for granted, Christian reader, that you desire to be “a vessel... meet for the Master’s use.”
Can anyone be so regardless of the claims of the Lord, so utterly selfish, as not to feel that
“Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands his soul, his life, his all”?
Surely no truly redeemed soul but must be conscious of this demand and long to fulfill it, so that if you have no such feeling and desire, you may well question whether you are a Christian at all.
But the desire being there, it must be granted that there are hindrances to its being realized. The vessel may be of “silver,” but there is more or less “dross” present preventing its being meet for the Master’s use, or at least, its usefulness may be much impaired thereby.
“Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer.” What a precious yet searching text! (Prov. 25:4).
To be a vessel for the Lord in this world where He was rejected—a vessel in which He may be displayed in grace and in truth, and in which He may be glorified. What an honor! What a privilege! What a blessed opportunity of reciprocating love on our part! Oh! to get rid of the dross then, that the vessel may indeed be fit for the great Refiner.
The normal way of refining is by the Word, — “the washing of water by the Word,” and well for us if the blessed Refiner has not to use other means.
When the refiner puts the crucible full of silver on the fire, he watches it; removing the dross as it shows itself, till he sees his own face clearly reflected in the bright metal. How apt an illustration of the work and object of our blessed Lord as He deals with His own, in order to see His image reflected in the vessels of His grace.
We can bless Him for every way in which He deals with us for such an object, hover painful the process, but if our ears and hearts were more open to His Word how much of suffering might we be saved!
Every exhortation, every example, in the Word, whether positive, in the inculcation of good, or negative, in directing away from evil, are directed towards the discovery and purging out of the dross. By the Scriptures the man of God is “furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim. 3:16, 17).
When you read the Scriptures, then, be careful to be doers of the Word, and not readers only. By the Scriptures we discover what is unsuited to the Lord in and about us, and, obeying them, they become the active, cleansing power of our souls and lives.
Let us not shrink from their scrutiny. Let us invite their searchlight upon our motives, words, and actions, and they will search to the very springs of our moral being (Heb. 4:12, 13). Thus the silver will be refined. The dross will be apparent to us in its worthlessness, and we shall be enabled to judge it as a hindrance and purge it out that we—spirit, soul and body—may be each a vessel for the gracious, worthy Refiner.
In His grace He counts us as silver—precious, because redeemed at such a price. Then, as precious to Him, let the sense of His desire to have us as vessels to His praise, vessels for His own use, inspire us to earnest care that in each of us His desire may be fulfilled. Let His love constrain us to live not to ourselves but to Him who died for us, and rose again, so that when He comes we may not be ashamed before Him.
P. L. HARRIS.