on Complete

_'Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your reasonable service.'_ (Romans xii. 1.)

Surely, amongst those who love God and desire His Kingdom to come,
there can be no difference of opinion with regard to the duty of
whole-hearted consecration to the service of God.

The rightness of God's claims is beyond dispute among His own people;
and so it ought to be recognized as our absolute duty to yield fully to
those claims. The feeling of every professed servant of Christ ought to
be, nay, surely is, 'I am not my own; I am bought with a price: I
should "therefore glorify God in my body and soul, which are God's"'.

Whilst, however, in so many words all this is acknowledged, when it
comes to practically facing the question, with its personal
responsibility, how few there are who respond to the claims of the
Master, rendering Him that out-and-out devotion of which we hear and
speak.

Of a consecration that consists in attending Holiness Meetings, singing
hymns, and uniting in prayers full of the most sublime sentiment, we
have an abundance. With eyes closed and hands upraised, many vow that
henceforth they will live, not unto themselves, but unto Him who died
for them, and rose again; but when the Meetings are over, the
surroundings changed, and the actual duty presents itself, how much of
this consecration is found to be mere sentiment, for 'as the early
cloud and morning dew' so it passeth!

1. Now, let it be understood that _real consecration is a practical
thing_. I have a saying, which cannot be repeated too often--'that
which I give away I no longer have'. If we can only persuade people to
recognize that truth, and make their consecration on these lines,
something practical will follow.

Men like to say, 'I am the Lord's!' but when the Lord wants to make
practical use of His own, Oh, what backwardness to obey! What slowness
of speech on the part of the tongue that was professedly given to the
Lord! What weariness of body will sometimes be found when that body is
demanded by the Master for some special service! A dumb devil seems to
take possession of the tongue, and the fear of man brings a snare, and
all this often results in a shameful compromise. The fact is, much of
the popular consecration means, 'Everything in general and nothing in
particular'--mere words, clouds without water, leaves without
fruit--and the world is little better for the vows that have