Phineas F. Bresee - A Prince In Israel - Media Sabda Org

and finds His basis of operations, He will surely do what Jesus has promised, that is, He shall
convince of sin. All other methods or ways are evidently humanly devised plans and methods, and
whatever they accomplish in the way of social or club life, they will fail of doing the divine work
of salvation. Praying in the Holy Ghost, preaching and testifying in the power of the Holy Ghost, are
God's way of doing His work, and can not be defeated by environments or conditions. What every
cluster of people must have, whet her small or large, what every individual heart must have, is the
baptism of Jesus with the Holy Ghost. 'Then shall I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall
be converted unto thee."'
In the issue of the Nazarene Messenger of March 3, 1904, there appears an editorial by Dr. Bresee,
on the subject of Reliability, which is characteristic of the man. It is as follows: "The Lord lays great
and emphatic stress on the abiding qualities. The roots of a tree are supposed to be as long, taken as
a whole, and to carry as much material, as the trunk and limbs. It is their fixedness and strength
which gives stability to the tree, and enables it to sway in the tempest and stand erect when the storm
is past. We say of a man, 'he has the root of the matter in him.' In other words, he is not easily
moved. Depth of conviction, of inwrought Christian principle, have been wept and prayed into the
deepest depths of his being, and then the new birth, and Christian life, give him love and fidelity for
and to God and man.
"The Christian graces mingle and crystallize in reliability, so that men can trust us--invest their
confidence in us, without the possibility of being betrayed. All words, all expression, all forms of
speech, all forms of worship--be it the quiet of ritualism, or the ranting of a fanatic--are but outer
things, and have value, or are an excrescence? according to the reliability of the underlying life that
continually pours its waters into the viaducts of human society. There are men who, like Mount
Shasta, are there, crowned with whiteness every day of their years. You can depend upon them when
the sun rises and when it sets, when the storms sweep the earth, and when the sunshine kisses it. If
the grace of God has not so had its way in our hearts as to create reliability, all our words and songs
and shouts are a mere pretense, deceiving some, possibly, but duping ourselves most of all.
"One of the saddest sights, is to see a self-duped Pharisee raking the earth and the tombs to find
people to condemn, that he or she may stand on the pyramid of skulls, and manifest what soon
appears in its hideousness--themselves.
"But reliability, first pure then peaceable, thinking upon the things that are pure and peaceable,
and of good report with eyes fixed upon Him who comes to save men and women, changed into His
image, and made conformable unto His death, standing to help men to Him; so like Him that we are
the same yesterday, today, and, by His grace, for ever--is to be of real value to this world. Not
pretense, but reliability.
"Surely the Captain may depend on me,"
Though but an armor-bearer I may be.'
"And if the captain, then the whole company as well."