I am bound to take every position in which the grace of Christ has set me, and my weakness is exposed in not taking that position. The position is the verification of Christ’s power, and in taking it and maintaining it, I am acknowledging Him, even though thereby my own infirmities are more openly disclosed. Holding the position proves that I have possession and enjoyment in it, though I may fail to prove to others my title or fitness for such a position. Thus the position itself affords me strength to value and to keep it. If I know that my position is “heavenly,” is it not power to be heavenly, to take the position of being so? I am entitled to it through grace, and I own my title (it being a true one). My soul adopts heavenliness as its right, and in a way I could not expect if I were only looking for such a position.
When once we are impressed with the copiousness of Christ’s work and what grace is, we take up the position, as we have light. We are taught instinctively that it is a moral error to surrender it, for undoubtedly it is a return to nature. We are, however, constantly allowing the question of fitness to mar our enjoyment, but it is grace that puts us there, and while we own Christ and His work, we enjoy the effect of it. Our eye rests on the goodness of the Giver, and not on the unworthiness of the receiver. Our labor is not to make ourselves fit for that expression of grace, but to walk worthy of the vocation.
Let a soul refuse to acknowledge the vocation as his, and his action, however sincere, must be legal and coerced. Another hindrance is the tendency to measure ourselves with the difficulties in the path, and not to look at Him who puts us there. This is sure evidence of a want of true energy, and we say, “There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets” (Prov. 26:1313The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets. (Proverbs 26:13)). Difficulties in the way always occur to those who have no heart to encounter them. Thus Israel lost Canaan, and the giants and the cities walled up to heaven shut out the goodness and majesty of God. But what was the language of one who would hold his position? “The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey” (Num. 14:7-87And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. 8If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. (Numbers 14:7‑8)). Caleb held the position, and he had the power of it, and when years afterward he laid low the giants and cities, he had the full fruition of it.
Present Testimony, Vol. 6 (adapted)