wers kept for His _use_.

In this they will probably find far higher development than in any other
sort of use. I know cases in which the effect of real consecration on
mere mental development has been obvious and surprising to all around.
Yet it is only a confirmation of what I believe to be a great principle,
viz. that _the Lord makes the most of whatever is unreservedly
surrendered to Him_. There will always be plenty of waste in what we try
to cut out for ourselves. But He wastes no material!

Chapter IX.
Our Wills kept for Jesus.

_'Keep my will, oh, keep it Thine,_
_For it is no longer mine.'_

Perhaps there is no point in which expectation has been so limited by
experience as this. We believe God is able to do for us just so much as
He has already done, and no more. We take it for granted a line must be
drawn somewhere; and so we choose to draw it where experience ends, and
faith would have to begin. Even if we have trusted and proved Him as to
keeping our members and our minds, faith fails when we would go deeper
and say, 'Keep my will!' And yet the only reason we have to give is, that
though we have asked Him to take our will, we do not exactly find that it
is altogether His, but that self-will crops up again and again. And
whatever flaw there might be in this argument, we think the matter is
quite settled by the fact that some whom we rightly esteem, and who are
far better than ourselves, have the same experience, and do not even seem
to think it right to hope for anything better. That is conclusive! And
the result of this, as of every other faithless conclusion, is either
discouragement and depression, or, still worse, acquiescence in an
unyielded will, as something that can't be helped.

Now let us turn from our thoughts to God's thoughts. Verily, they are not
as ours! He says He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we
ask or think. Apply this here. We ask Him to take our wills and make them
His. Does He or does He not mean what He says? and if He does, should we
not trust Him to do this thing that we have asked and longed for, and not
less but more? 'Is _anything_ too hard for the Lord?' 'Hath He said, and
shall He not do it?' and if He gives us faith to believe that we have the
petition that we desired of Him, and with it the unspeakable rest of
leaning our will wholly upon His love, what ground have we for imagining
t