Help Heavenward

Chapter 10: The Swelling of the Jordan

“How wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?”—Jer. 12:5

We remarked in an earlier part of this work that the history of the children of Israel was strikingly illustrative, if not designedly typical, of God’s spiritual Israel. And although, as in all illustrative and typical teaching of the Bible, we should bear in mind the marked ascendancy of the truth typified above the type, the thing symbolized above the symbol, yet there are always points of analogy and assimilation strictly true, impressively instructive, and strikingly beautiful, which it is our wisdom to study and apply. The emancipation of God’s people from the iron furnace of Egypt, their march across the desert, their passage over Jordan, and their final settlement in the land of Canaan, are indisputable points of agreement, and present at one glance the moral map of the Christian’s pilgrimage and journey from earth to heaven. And yet, as we gaze upon the two pictures, and contrast Pharaoh with Satan, the curse with Egypt, the wilderness with the heavenly pilgrimage, Jordan with death, Canaan with heaven, and Moses with Christ, we feel the force of the truth, how impotent is all material and earthly imagery to illustrate things spiritual and heavenly. We select, however, from these interesting points of history one only as illustrating an important and solemn stage in the believer’s journey—the passage of the children of Israel over Jordan. The Church has for ages been wont to consider, and not improperly, this event as foreshadowing the Christian’s departure to glory by death, while with it has been blended the most solemn, tender, and holy thoughts, feelings, and anticipations that ever found a home in the believer’s heart. Approaching the end of this volume, we feel there would be wanting an essential link in the chain of helps heavenward were we to omit gathering around the closing scene of the believer’s life those appropriate instructions, soothings, and hopes essential to the succouring of the soul in so solemn and momentous a stage of its history. Doubtless to the eye of the children of Israel, as they stood upon its banks surveying the promised land beyond it, the intervention of Jordan was an object of gloom and terror. And as its waters, dark and cold, rose and swelled and broke in mournful cadence at their feet, as if in anticipation chanting the sad requiem of their death, we can easily imagine the question arising in many a sinking heart—“How shall I do in the swelling of this Jordan?” Ah! how many who bend in sadness and trembling over these pages, to whose sick-chamber or dying-bed they will travel, are resolving in their anxious breasts the question—“How shall I be able to meet death? how pass over this swelling flood? how may I meet this last, this latest, this most terrible crisis of my being?” Be still, these fears! hush these doubts, child of God! while we endeavour to shew how you shall fearlessly, safely, and triumphantly pass through the swelling of Jordan, and reach your heavenly home at last.

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It will be acknowledged by every spiritual and reflecting mind that the tendencies of the age are not the most favourable to the calm, solemn, holy duty of self-communion. We are fallen upon times of great religious, as well as worldly activity and excitement. So strong and rushing, indeed, is the tide, that there exists a fearful and fatal liability in those who profess to walk with God, as did Noah and Enoch, to neglect entirely one of the most essential and effectual helps heavenward—the due, faithful, and constant examination of the spiritual state and condition of their own hearts.

With everything but themselves the great mass of human beings by whom we are surrounded are in the closest communion.

It is of the utmost moment, then, that the saint of God should be kept in perpetual remembrance of this sacred duty of self-communion: its neglect entails immense spiritual deterioration and loss; its observance will, more than all other engagements—for it stimulates to activity all others—effectually advance the soul in its heavenward course.

Does this sound familiar of our day? It obviously was in Winslow’s time but perhaps we may be so bold as to say it is of epidemic levels in ours! So many things, even good and noble things, become our distraction day and evening. We can become so concumed with the most mundane of subjects without even knowing our attention has been drawn away. Perhaps in no other country than ours (USA) is this epidemic more prelevent due to the overwhelming amount of distractions available at our fingertips. Television, the internet, shopping, books, news, gadgets, and friends have so much influence and sway of out time that before we know it, our entire day is spent and that sinking feeling of its absence of the Lord’s presence presses in while we lie on our beds. Neglecting the scriptures, prayer, and self communion will lead to a slow, choaking death for the believer.

Now, from here begins to lay out his argument in bullet format, as he is so prone to do, to detail the manner in which we might combat this lack of self communion.

1) Know Your True Spiritual State Before God

In the first place, my beloved reader, commune with your own heart, to know its true spiritual state as before God.

The questions, then, which we must weigh are—Have I passed from death unto life? Has my heart been convinced of sin? Am I a subject of the new birth? and from a state of insensibility to objects, and feelings, and hopes that are spiritual, eternal, and divine, have I been quickened by the regenerating Spirit to walk with God, and before the world, in newness of life? These are personal and serious questions, which must not, which cannot, be evaded without imperilling all that is most dear and precious to your everlasting well-being.

First and foremost, let’s not forget the obvious! Let us not assume the obvious! We must search our souls to see if we do truly share in the gift of the regenerating action of the Holy Spirit and are now indeed truly new creatures in Christ. We must not search for shear perfection and complete and perfect sanctification, but we must look for the precious fruits that grow from the branches of trees planted by the Gardener of our souls. Do we now have new affections? Do we desire to be holy? Do we thirst after Christ and His word?

2) Know The Existence and Condition of the Love of God in Your Own Heart.

Commune with yourself to ascertain the existence and condition of the love of God in your heart.

What is the warmth and vigour and ardour of your affections? Do you so love God in Christ as, under its constraining influence, to do what He commands, to yield what He asks, to go where He bids, to hate what He hates, and to love what He loves; yea, to embrace Him with an affection simple, single, and supreme, oblivious, if need be, of every other claimant, and satisfied, if so He willed it, with Him alone? Oh, what is the state of your love to Jesus—frigid, selfish, inconstant; or, glowing, self-denying, fixed?

Your love to Christ will never increase by feeding upon itself. You must light your torch of affection at the altar of Calvary. You must go there, and learn and believe what the love of Jesus is to you: the vastness of that love,—the self-sacrifice of that love,—how that love of Christ laboured and wept, bled, suffered, and died for you.

Sit not down, then, in vain regrets that your love to God in Christ is so frigid, so fickle, so dubious; go and muse upon the reality, the greatness, the present intercession of the Saviour’s love to you, and if love can inspire love, then methinks that, while you muse, the fire will burn, and your soul shall be all in flame with love to God.

Winslow isn’t all sunshine and roses and at times he will back you into a corner, sit you down, and ask you some very hard, revealing, and even painful questions. During pilgrimage, our affections towards the Savior can grow cold and disconnected. We are a fickle and most pitiful lot indeed and we need constant reminding from the word and from the gospel to keep our souls aflame for our Jesus. We need to be honest with ourselves and face this problem face on. We will, this side of glory, have to struggle with this most embarrassing and even humiliating of subjects. But! Thanks be to God, His grace is ever extended toward us and the gospel is always open to welcome us back from our sheepish and wandering ways! “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it” is the heart cry of all of His children and we are not alone in this fight! If you find your affections cold, share it with a fellow believer. You will be surprised to find you are not unique!

3) Know Your Own Heart as to its Views and Feelings towards the Lord Jesus.

The great question, which decides so much is, “What think you of Christ?” Is it with you a reality that Christ died for sinners? Do you fully credit the promise by which God has engaged to accept through His sacrifice and intercession all who believe in His name? Do you believe Him to be divine, accept His obedience as justifying, and His death as sacrificial? Has it pleased God to reveal His Son in you? Is He precious to your heart? And do you receive Him, trust in Him, follow Him, and hope to be with Him for ever, as all your salvation and all your desire?

Do I love Jesus? Is He the object of my supreme admiration and delight? Is He the chosen, the preferred, the supreme Being of my warmest affection? Is He precious to my soul? And am I trusting believingly, and exclusively, and without mental reservation, as a sinner utterly undone, self-abhorred, and self-condemned, to His atoning sacrifice?

You think of your sinfulness, your unworthiness, of the taint and flaw and unloveliness of all you are doing, of your faint love, of your weak faith, of your doubtful sincerity, and then you shrink from the thought of claiming an interest in Christ, and resign yourself to the conviction that your salvation is an utter impossibility—that you are not, and never will be, saved! But to take a closer view of the matter. Upon what ground do you base this hesitation and justify this self-exemption from the great salvation? It is not for your worth that you are saved, but for Christ’s worth. It is not on the ground of your personal merit that you are justified, but on the ground of Christ’s merit alone. It is not upon the plea of your fitness, your tears, your confessions, your prayers, your duties, that God forgives and accepts you, but simply and exclusively upon the one plea of the Saviour’s sacrifice.

The great work is all done—it is not to be done. It is complete, finished, accepted, sealed. And you, as a lost sinner, without holiness, without strength, without one plea that springs from what you are, have nothing to do. Believe, and you are saved. Believing is not doing, it is not meriting, it is TRUSTING—it is the simple exercise of a faith in Christ which God gives, and which the Holy Ghost produces in the heart; so that your salvation, from beginning to end, is entirely out of yourself, in another.

And still you ask, “What then must I DO to be saved?” Do! I answer—NOTHING! All is done, completely and for ever done! Blessed, O thrice blessed be God! Christ has done it all—paid it all—endured it all—suffered it all—finished it all—leaving you, O sin-burdened, anxious, trembling, hesitating soul, nothing to do, and only to believe. Will not this suffice? Will you demur a moment longer to commit yourself to Christ, to lay your soul on Jesus, to accept the salvation, the heaven, the crown, the eternal life He proffers you as the free bestowments of His grace? Your sins, countless as the stars, are no barrier to your salvation if you but believe in Jesus. Your transgressions, deep as scarlet and as crimson, shall not be of too deep a dye if you but plunge into the fountain of Christ’s blood. His delight, His glory is to receive sinners—to receive you. And the moment you cease to give over doing, and begin only to believe, from that moment your soul rests from its labour, you enter into peace, and are for ever saved!

Sorry for huge amount of quoted text, but there was just so much to cover in this one. Essentially, Winslow is saying this I think. This Christ you believe in, who is He to you and what is He capable of to you? Is He an all forgiving Christ who is capable of forgiving all of your sin? Is He a Christ who needs your 10% to fulfill His 90% of work accomplished on your behalf? Is He a Christ worthy of your time, mind, and resources? Is He a Christ worth your souls delight and love? Winslow will pepper you with questions like these and in this repetitive manner to penetrate any callousness that may have formed on your heart to drive his point as a hammer and nail into your soul. Are you beginning to see how he works in his writings? So what say you personally of this One called the Christ? More tough questions.

4) Know the Ruling Principles of Your Actions.

What is the ruling principle of your heart? Have you examined yourself to know? Beware of self-treachery, the most easy and the most fatal of all species of deception. There are many deceitful things in the world. The wind is deceitful, the ocean is deceitful, the creature is deceitful, but the human “heart is deceitful above all things,” and in nothing, probably, more so than in the principles and motives which govern and sway it.

But, retreating to my chamber, let me, in solitude, self-scrutiny, and prayer, commune with my own heart. Laying bare, as with the deepest incision of the knife, its spiritual anatomy before God.

Keeps getting tougher, doesn’t it? Here Winslow is asking us to search ourselves in the quiet of our closet that we may know the over ruling motivation that lies behind all things done by us for God. Many times, I fear, we set to do such and such a thing in the right spirit and for the glory of God, but it can soon become tainted by the desire to be seen of men and for our efforts to be applauded openly. As scripture says, the heart is a truly deceptive thing! Who can know it? God does!

5) Know the Heavenly Tendencies of Your Own Heart.

Commune with your own heart, and ascertain its heavenly tendencies,—whether the shadows of time or the realities of eternity have the ascendancy. Let no child of God deem such a scrutiny needless. The Word of God is replete with exhortations to the Church to set its affections on things above and not on the earth; to seek first the kingdom of God; to have its conversation in heaven. Encompassed as we are by earth, blinded by objects of sense, weighed down by human cares and anxieties, we need to be watchful against their secular influence upon our minds. It is good, therefore, to retire to our chamber and examine the spiritual barometer of the soul, to adjust the balance of the affections, and to see that divine and eternal realities are obtaining a growing ascendancy and pre-eminence.

This is one of my favorites. The heavenly tendencies of our souls! What a blessed gift it is to have our affections and minds re directed by teh Holy Spirit to dwell far far above our current stations that we may, in essence, be right there in the very presence of God! Of all of the gifts given to the children of light, this indeed is one of the richest and most fulfilling! Search your hearts to see if your mind is indeed frequently taken up into the heavenly places and dwells where no eye can see and no imagination can fathom.

6) Know Your Own Heart as to its Real and Habitual Fellowship with God.

Commune with your own heart as to its real and habitual fellowship with God. Do we pray? What is the character of our prayers? Do we pray in the Spirit? Is our prayer communion? Do we walk with God as a Father, and with Christ as our best Friend? And is the throne of grace the sweetest, holiest, dearest spot to us on earth? For the want of this honest communion with our heart, there is often an essential defect in our communion with the heart of Jesus. Our hearts grow so cold that we are insensible to the warmth of His. There is so little self-examination touching prayer, that our devotions glide into a cold, abstract formality, and petitions and supplications which should be as swift arrows shot from the bow of faith entering into the presence of God, congeal in icicles upon our lips.

We need to ask ourselves if we are truly praying with a broken and contrite heart or if we have slipped into a state of just going through the motions. Has our devotional time in the word grown cold for an extended period of time? Am I relying on my own efforts and strength to carry out this life that God has intended that we live in the strength of His Spirit? Again, all tough questions, but they are much needed questions if we are to live a fruitful Christian life and if we expect to finish well!

7) Know Your Progress in the Divine Life.

Commune with your own heart as to your progress in the divine life. It is impossible to know correctly the distance we are on our heavenward way, the stages we have travelled, the points we have reached, without self-communion. The mariner examines his ocean-chart, the traveller the milestones of the road, to mark the progress he has made homewards; how much more necessary this for the voyager to eternity, for the traveller to the heavenly Zion!

As he states beforehand, are we making progress in our spiritual pilgrimage? Are we currently moving forward or are we standing still? I think we will all agree that it takes little effort on our part to suddenly find ourselves in some bypath meadow that we had no idea we were even in! For example, we may be making sweet progress mining the depths of some particular doctrine such as the atonement or the holy Trinity and at some point, without us even being aware of it, we find our feet wandering down some path of error! Oh how we might then bewale ourselves for being so slothful to see how cumbersome we were in handling the word of God! We must constantly keep a watchful eye on our path to make sure it is leading towards our heavenly city.

8) Know the State of Your Heart Touching the Spirit of Thanksgiving and Praise.

Commune with your own heart to ascertain its state touching the existence and exercise of the spirit of thanksgiving and praise. There is scarcely any part of our religious experience that receives less attention and insight than this. And in consequence of its neglect, we lose much personal holiness, and God much glory.

We are so absorbed by the trials and discouragements of the Christian pilgrimage as to overlook its blessings and its helps.

I have exhorted you, beloved reader, to cultivate self-communion as to the matter of prayer; with equal point and earnestness do I exhort you to this holy duty as to the matter of praise. There exists a serious defect in the Christianity, a sad lack in the religious experience of many of the Lord’s people touching this holy exercise.

I am always to be in a thankful, praiseful spirit for all the dispensations of His providence and grace. What a holy state will my soul then be in! What happiness will it ensure to my heart, and what a revenue of glory will accrue to God! How will it lighten my burdens, soothe my cares, heal the chaffings of sorrow, and shed gleams of sunshine upon many a lonely, dreary stage of my journey. I am too little praiseful. I am looking only to the crossing of my will, to the disappointment of my hopes, to the foil of my plans, to what my Father sees fit to restrain and withhold, and not to the mercies and blessings, bright as the stars which glow and chime above me, and numerous as the sands of the ocean upon which in pensive sadness I tread; therefore it is that while those stars chant His praise, and those sands speak His goodness and power, I alone am silent!

Thanksgiving and praise can be tough to give in seasons of a particular trial or affliction, but we must understand that it is our heavenly Father working behind the scenes to use this time to mature and consecrate us all the more in our heavenly walk. Search yourself to see if you murmur more that you give thanks to a God who has given His that you might truly live and be made right with Him. Check your attitude frequently throughout the day to see if you are in a place where your heart wants to say “it’s not fair” or “why me” and quiet your soul enough to understand that this trial does not come to you by accident and that it sent to you directly from the hand of your Father to mold you more and more, from faith to faith, into the image and likeness of His one and only Son who gave Himself for you! When viewed in that light, your murmuring will be turned into praise!

9) Know with Certainty your Possession of Heart Religion.

If, my beloved reader, there is one caution which I would urge with deeper emphasis of meaning and solemnity of spirit than another, it is this—be not satisfied without the clearest evidence of the personal possession of HEART-RELIGION. In nothing does there exist a greater tendency, a more easy road to fatal self-destruction than in this. The substitutes for heart-religion are so many and subtle, that without the closest scrutiny and the most rigid analysis of religious feeling and action, we may be betrayed, unsuspectingly to ourselves, into the gravest error.

Examine yourself by these tests: Do I know that my sins are pardoned through Christ? Have I peace with God in Jesus? Am I living in the enjoyment of the Spirit of adoption? Have I in my soul the happiness, the joy, the consolation, the hope which heart-religion imparts? Or—solemn thought!—am I endeavouring to quiet my conscience, to stifle self-reflection, to divert my thoughts from my unsatisfactory, unhappy condition and state of mind by the religious substitutes and subterfuges with which the present age so profusely abounds, and which, with those who are ensnared by them, pass for real spiritual life? Oh, commune faithfully with your own heart touching this matter!

Not much to say here because he mostly touched on this way back in number one. But perhaps it needs to be stated again. Do you posses that true heart religion or is your religion all external and flash? Hard questions again, but they need to be asked!

10) Directions as to the Manner in which Self Communion is to be Engaged.

A. Seek earnestly the aid of the Holy Spirit

He alone can enable us to unlock the wards, to unravel the mystery, and to penetrate into the vailed depths of our own heart. We need the knowledge, the grace, the love of the Spirit in a task so purely spiritual as this. Let us, then, betake ourselves to the Holy Ghost, invoke His power, supplicate His grace, and seek His renewed anointing.

B. Blend communion with Christ with self-communion

Let converse with your own heart be in unison with converse with the heart of God. Endeavour to realize that in this sacred engagement God is with you, His thoughts towards you thoughts of peace, and the feelings of His heart the warm pulsations of His love. Associate all views of yourself with this view of God: that whatever discoveries you arrive at of waywardness and folly, idolatry and sin,—however dark and humiliating the inward picture,—not a frown of displeasure shall glance from His eye, nor a word of reproach breathe from His lips. Oh, do you think that He will join in your self-accusation? that because you loathe, and abhor, and condemn yourself, He will likewise loathe, abhor, and condemn you? Never.

C. Commune with your own heart, looking fully to the cross of Christ

Without this, self-examination may induce the spirit of bondage. It should never be entered upon but upon the principles, and in the spirit of the gospel. It is only as we deal closely with the Atonement, we can deal closely with sin. It is only as we deal faithfully with the blood, that we can deal faithfully with our own hearts. Overwhelming were the revelations of a rigid self-scrutiny but for the hold faith maintains of the sacrifice of Christ—the close, realizing apprehension it has of the cross of Jesus. You must commune with Christ’s heart and your own heart at the same moment! Looking at Jesus in the face, you will be enabled to look your sins in the face; and as your love to Him deepens, so will deepen your sin and self-abhorrence. As has been beautifully remarked, “for one look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ;” no dark discovery will then sink you to despair.

11) Blessings that result from this habit of self-communion.

A. It will help to keep you acquainted with the true state of your soul.

B. It will keep you whole nights upon your watch-tower, and the foe shall not surprise you

C. It will increasingly deepen the conviction of your individuality

D. You will have less time and still less inclination to examine and judge your fellows

E. It will greatly conduce to growth in personal holiness

F. It will also promote true humility

G. It will lead to self-acquaintance

H. How precious will Jesus grow with growing self-communion

To conclude, we will end with a bit of prose:

“And what am I? My soul awake,
And an impartial survey take;
Does no dark sign, no ground of fear,
In practice or in heart appear?

“What image does my spirit bear?
Is Jesus form’d and living there?
Say, do His lineaments divine
In thought, in word, and action shine?

“Searcher of hearts! oh, search me still;
The secrets of my soul reveal;
My fears remove, let me appear
To God and my own conscience clear!

“Scatter the clouds which o’er my head
Thick glooms of dubious terrors spread;
Lead me into celestial day,
And to myself myself display.

“May I at that blest world arrive
Where Christ through all my soul shall live,
And give full proof that He is there,
Without one gloomy doubt or fear!”

Next Week

Please read Chapter 9: Backsliders Returning to be due on March 21!