Deeper and Higher

It is Friday, and as we look to the coming Lord's Day, it appears that most of us will once again be worshiping in our homes.  And I'm afraid, if we are not careful, we will be tempted to fret and complain about our confinement.  So let us stop and listen to the Apostle Paul in the 4th chapter of Philippians, verses 11b-13.
     "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.  I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.  I can do all things Christ which strengtheneth me."

What a thrilling and encouraging passage of scripture!  The great Apostle seems to indicate that his contentment was not always automatic, for he said in verse 11 -- "I have learned".  So----while we are confined, why don't we make a conscious effort to dig deeper and climb higher in the things of God, never forgetting the Wonderful promise in Romans 8:28---
     "And we know that ALL things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."

     "One of America's first African-American hymnists, Charles Price Jones, was born in Rome, Georgia, at the end of the Civil War.  His father died when he was young.  After his mother's death when he was 17, Charles wandered across the South, ending up in Arkansas, where He found Christ as his Saviour.  He immediately began witnessing of his newfound faith, and soon he was formally licensed to preach.  He married in 1891, and became a popular preacher.  Yet he felt something was missing.  He said:

     "I was pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist Church, Selma, Alabama, and my ministry with that church seemed to be accepted and much loved.  But as I read my Bible and observed conditions, I began to seek Him with all my heart for that power that would make my life wholly His.  I fasted and prayed three days and nights.  He then sanctified me sweetly in His love.  The blessing of God rested upon me.  It was the nearness, the eminence, the reality of the presence of God that exalted my spirit and filled me with joy, the joy of the Holy Ghost."

      In 1895, Bro. Jones became pastor of the Mt. Helm Baptist Church in Jackson, Mississippi, and there his Holiness teachings created a storm!  "I was looked on as a fanatic by some; by others as weak in the brain", he said.  While trying to minister amid a storm of criticism, Charles suffered a personal tragedy when his four-year-old daughter was burned in a fire and died.  Soon thereafter, he was dismissed as pastor and began holding services in an empty store where he preached from the counter.  But his attitude was victorious, as expressed in his great hymn written during this period:
'O deeper yet, I pray, and higher every day.'"

     "Deeper, deeper in the love of Jesus daily let me go;
Higher, higher in the school of wisdom, more of grace to know.
      Deeper, deeper blessed Holy Spirit, take me deeper still,
Till my life is wholly lost in Jesus, and His perfect will.

      Deeper, deeper though it cost hard trials, deeper let me go!
Rooted in the holy love of Jesus, let me fruitful grow.
      Deeper, higher, every day in Jesus, till all conflicts past,
Finds me conqueror, and in His own image perfected at last.

      O deeper yet, I pray, and higher every day,
And wiser, blessed Lord, in Thy precious, Holy Word."