The Threshold Grace

Percy C. Ainsworth

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Threshold Grace, by Percy C. AinsworthThis eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it,give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online atwww.gutenberg.netTitle: The Threshold GraceAuthor: Percy C. AinsworthRelease Date: August 24, 2004 [EBook #13267]Language: ASCII*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE THRESHOLD GRACE ***Produced by David Newman, Clare Boothby and PG Distributed ProofreadersTHE THRESHOLD GRACEMEDITATIONS IN THE PSALMSBYPERCY C. AINSWORTHAUTHOR OF 'THE PILGRIM CHURCH.' 'THE BLESSED LIFE,' ETC.PREFATORY NOTEDuring his brief ministry Mr. Ainsworth published a series of meditations in the columns of the Methodist Times, whichare here reprinted by the kind permission of the Editor, Dr. Scott Lidgett. The rare interest aroused by the previouspublication of Mr. Ainsworth's sermons encourages the hope that the present volume may find a place in the devotionalliterature to which many turn in the quiet hour.A.K.S.CONTENTSI. THE THRESHOLD GRACE II. THE HABIT OF FAITH III. THE ONE THING DESIRABLE IV. EYES AND FEET V.THE SAFEGUARDED SOUL VI. A PLEA FOR TEARS VII. DELIVERANCE WITH HONOUR VIII. PETITION ANDCOMMUNION IX. HAUNTED HOURS X. THE WINGS OF THE DOVE XI. A NEW SONGI.THE THRESHOLD GRACEThe Lord shall keep thy going out and thy coming in, from this time forth and for ...

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• Publié par: ankui
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 55
• Langue: English

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PREFATORY NOTE

THE THRESHOLD GRACE MEDITATIONS IN THE PSALMS BY PERCYC. AINSWORTH AUTHOR OF'THEPILGRIM CHURCH.' 'THEBLESSED LIFE,' ETC.

During his brief ministry Mr. Ainsworth published a series of meditations in the columns of the Methodist Times , which are here reprinted by the kind permission of the Editor, Dr. Scott Lidgett. The rare interest aroused by the previous publication of Mr. Ainsworth's sermons encourages the hope that the present volume may find a place in the devotional literature to which many turn in the quiet hour. A.K.S.

Title: The Threshold Grace Author: Percy C. Ainsworth Release Date: August 24, 2004 [EBook #13267] Language: ASCII

Produced by David Newman, Clare Boothby and PG Distributed Proofreaders

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE THRESHOLD GRACE ***

CONTENTS

I. THE THRESHOLD GRACE II. THE HABIT OF FAITH III. THE ONE THING DESIRABLE IV. EYES AND FEET V. THE SAFEGUARDED SOUL VI. A PLEA FOR TEARS VII. DELIVERANCE WITH HONOUR VIII. PETITION AND COMMUNION IX. HAUNTED HOURS X. THE WINGS OF THE DOVE XI. A NEW SONG

afereh ysat ah efiLh fo ple rof neme er aisle pe dghttap orimes .hTs always needed 

The Lord shall keep thy going out and thy coming in, from this time forth and for evermore. Ps. cxxi, 8. Going out and coming in. That is a picture of life. Beneath this old Hebrew phrase there lurks a symbolism that covers our whole experience. But let us just now look at the most literal, and by no means the least true, interpretation of these words. One of the great dividing-lines in human life is the threshold-line. On one side of this line a man has his 'world within the world,' the sanctuary of love, the sheltered place of peace, the scene of life's most personal, sacred, and exclusive obligations. And on the other side lies the larger life of mankind wherein also a man must take his place and do his work. Life is spent in crossing this threshold-line, going out to the many and coming in to the few, going out to answer the call of labour and coming in to take the right to rest. And over us all every hour there watches the Almighty Love. The division-lines in the life of man have nothing that corresponds to them in the love of God. We may be here or there, but He is everywhere. The Lord shall keep thy going out.   forth to the world's work. It was much for the folk of an early time to say that as they went forth the Lord went with them, but it is more for men to say and know that same thing to-day. The going out has come to mean more age after age, generation after generation. It was a simpler thing once than it is now. 'Thy going out'—the shepherd to his flocks, the farmer to his field, the merchant to his merchandise. There are still flocks and fields and markets, but where are the leisure, grace, and simplicity of life for him who has any share in the world's work? Men go out to-day to face a life shadowed by vast industrial, commercial, and social problems. Life has grown complicated, involved, hard to understand, difficult to deal with. Tension, conflict, subtlety, surprise, and amid it all, or over it all, a vast brooding weariness that ever and again turns the heart sick. Oh the pains and the perils of the going out! There are elements of danger in modern life that threaten all the world's toilers, whatever their work may be and wherever they may have to do it. There is the danger that always lurks in things —a warped judgement, a confused reckoning, a narrowed outlook. It is so easily possible for a man to be at close grips with the world and yet to be ever more and more out of touch with its realities. The danger in the places where men toil is not that God is denied with a vociferous atheism; it is that He is ignored by an unvoiced indifference. It is not the babel of the market-place that men need to fear; it is its silence. If we say that we live only as we love, that we are strong only as we are pure, that we are successful only as we become just and good, the world into which we go forth does not deny these things—but it ignores them. And thus the real battle of life is not the toil for bread. It is fought by all who would keep alive and fresh in their hearts the truth that man doth not live by bread alone. For no man is this going out easy, for some it is at times terrible, for all it means a need that only this promise avails to meet—'The Lord shall keep thy going out.' He shall fence thee about with the ministry of His Spirit, and give thee grace to know, everywhere and always, that thou art in this world to live for His kingdom of love and truth and to grow a soul. The Lord, shall keep … thy coming in. some that once a man was safely across the threshold of hisIt might seem to home he might stand in less need of this promise of help. But experience says otherwise. The world has little respect for any man's threshold. It is capable of many a bold and shameless intrusion. The things that harass a man as he earns his tread sometimes haunt him as he eats it. No home is safe unless faith be the doorkeeper. 'In peace will I both lay me down and sleep, for Thou, Lord, alone makest me to dwell in safety.' The singer of that song knew that, as in the moil of the world, so also in the shelter of the place he named his dwelling-place, peace and safety were not of his making, but of God's giving. Sometimes there is a problem and a pain waiting for a man across his own threshold. Many a man can more easily look upon the difficulties and perils of the outer world than he can come in and look into the pain-lined face of his little child. If we cannot face alone the hostilities on one side of our threshold we cannot face alone the intimacies on the other side of it. After all, life is whole and continuous. Whatever the changes in the setting of life, there is no respite from living. And that means there is no leisure from duty, no rest from the service of obedience, no cessation in the working of all those forces by means of which, or in spite of which, life is ever being fashioned and fulfilled. And now let us free our minds from the literalism of this promise and get a glimpse of its deeper application to our lives. The threshold of the home does not draw the truest division-line in life between the outward and the inward. Life is made up of thought and action, of the manifest things and the hidden things. 'Thy going out.' That is, our life as it is manifest to others, as it has points of contact with the world about us. We must go out. We must take up some attitude toward all other life. We must add our word to the long human story and our touch to the fashioning of the world. We need the pledge of divine help in that life of ours in which, for their good or ill, others must have a place and a part. 'And thy coming in'—into that uninvaded sanctum of thought. Did we say uninvaded? Not so. In that inner room of life there sits Regret with her pale face, and Shame with dust on her forehead, and Memory with tears in her eyes. It is a pitiable thing at times, is this our coming in. More than one man has consumed his life in a flame of activity because he could not abide the coming in. 'The Lord shall keep … thy coming in.' That means help for every lonely, impotent, inward hour of life.

I. THE THRESHOLD GRACE

 otsghoud.Gof   terevs fig inak dloh remr 'nem fo nds,s mi whi and sabhci not es d tyulo  t. usdeIn ,deyehtnoc mrif that view of th eufuterw ihhci  l-cisum fo ytinre o  tist es renadopro m a rihfoefouldHe wng.  thi s gnesneg ehiworntcouiinf  oe thef .oTo yto  filan an etffer a m  suptai a dnertsthem have l th. Alamer llaereH .niint es bshm he t g iogno tua dnh  rather have hisa ,sh dnhs e lla cisinoming Ye.  me il costilfe;  filsno sioi ed v r thr teeagrr ve edna retaerg ot n out to ftill go s ahlls faet rehang wid  lofinivj re syo dnipeed tr stseef  oldgodna eht  ldne ssesong. But they perestnn  oidffci alerit lngniea ma erew s dehcatthe pto tolicarabsda w rot ehobtu d I on omrev.ero towseheknt  how eri tnreowdr sewhen verypreted w imorp siht fo drremoerevr fo—'sea dno tuiogn'.G or ein fing  comta keht sal ow tooL

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faf h its hat gooyebt dnd ehnimo for one moment eftlt ehp woreo  ehe tndenimerxp eH .latsah taht tranhe seb oge w eet fhtvi a etnta Fo. tynieretf  oeslup eht ni borand t sts no doeemtn eom mht rih he tan menomist t fom eh eur namut one th ent is bt ehm mot  ohwmo,mih seksap dna  e Th. ce ma ntmemo .mB  siheht tut  awasingmakey un relbtiw ht hoh ertpoisun at,am gfot ehm ia nhcnaurs, a follower   nhttii i  s .oSter  matreatis gt ylnO .htiaf focat ha tthai fhe osemhtnii  son tg in it,g abidinihte ur gntub mos  ugroith innnthg  hathich n an beetaw  dhts ahihhc Ae. bll tts indngis eurecnacifi out in splendid silotaoi.nI  tsiet sn  is itacpleb eeewt aht n hw t g passin Fait ths.idgnw nic ora dn aghouhrsehe tllsah eH tt yaw a  ss; it leads himdni  nht eadkrenol ha d n'mahas od hm se eronaht b  yhttaub tmi ,ce H trannote caw esuaceb ton do Gstru ttoe are  s eet ah mna dottrace Hiable to m eb eroe ya revm Hi mwe ustrngti t ro eta elgnat eh ndrastd um hofs  rtcui sn .tIiteves t takeparhe s o ots ennortac ge bl hofp eld annae pxreeicn enad weaves them in  aceeneroh coft  od tI .ynomrah dnght.e lio th intceerehs sit I  t  mitesakabar, lesuondna  ti imulake expees not mrele yebirneecm  etrpl uanfcoctlim ehtsdi fo ep aterdays and our b teewneo ruy seim snos bv oe,pl.syad-oti erehT  messthe of eage esuq oisu i  nneec iT . sem nopefilpao  ussllpe tedenpxilacyla dni o suddenchange srts ta eb ot mee srsou hhe Ty.bl nit vi eeWl  eh.rh ot eacwithife  o  fna yitemb-ron philosophy. Anni dlla iht es sinemcog usnfn io eilhtreeh en set  ity cessfaitfor iereH .hniw ti nvis its  Wy.orct e. The dxperiencn tod voya siwll etoh acaietinl  efic siehtoL .rch tf muct oompa bielopss si mi ah t tmusdj auetrf  osdnah eht ta tne ot the effort wit seos notu  ssin  t, iut bhe tas ehw h hcil ewnrae s a th i andlongolyga anf ia .fIe luvae  lhe tofel drah ht ,noss uo raftiusero  f s the mea  faith i sah ceb f nehtiassneWh. s h'akwe  eem .hT ytipalp we hichth we wiruo ni troffe suioscon cofe uras ew siht a kntuobhe t Tm. ahelonaygi  i s cnmolpte eand must be draw itnoc dna ,suoun mhe tndrfpee or yhtcelt ohtyed workeir  les the t ha hitreui td, rael,den t saeb o s still  there i hnit ehhtsim cu ut Be.ar cthwin c evah uoy nehw  faithatded oncea qc oebsat hth  alduvidi ehprap lyser eht ni dna tetacch dfromhed optr dmi tae ,ub dngfiifltcuany af f htiv foiyraseries of acts o efof iahtt  o a a lativ tsom era atths ontincfue htsoo  foisunocsst c lea aree welacifil  ruosyhpg.onn  Ials wrl  yhtsii .lS rule the souended of h basia ot!oti ,are  We timesomeeednI .tgiler ,d iatn iot es btshTnef iahta  ttis best is a habi epoh urT . i tsiH natm ll aim t.   es ss. usnescio-con l fit e eh decueWr  aut pWe. felis fles no muimerp habitual of the eriliguoi  nuo r tdydio oo s tea rw ehhtrouocst tn  hasthatrow  sort eh tfoW aher?dd ane amshe thd na ,egaugnal on not, ande would  nhttaw ocfnsuoi s osfra ilracr a n er t ,toeve ad n  nhtfoetra t eeh's miend So ind?ohs revep eb dlumos ldhon ha treonhtres'e ra .hToured out into a iart denelissecn e ere ar li in  sfe o sih tegrof yltr ym sise erTh. wn yefrule.yS aphtely  lone sow arac ytonntahteht ony ree in fand ffret ehda yoto  the lis gift of ea ngnite  ony ar,illiw enhs ot gnwithare m al thep ia lfo dub nnaenrdha tcat ben ahs .der!hA tub  what of that whci hacnntob  s e ah ll io  tha tist h fotraenllu ssee is a f that ther eHk en wt urts ! d in fan crtea hlluf eht yaw elp sim onethanore nim eu , .rTebra nac  og  tuo dnaTh. fue  hllrtea fe T . eheri  sowkr some slight reli am a hciap yam nubro t'swhn  ilesia re ehtreb orometdo s. Thhing i  tutnrre ,hwne instinct s to Godatnotien emops aha cctraofy ur o tnraovul eni hhtit,  habs ofinesd ti nehw ,yleviit wrkwos its oe ut your heart beoferH mi   . oH wht entht  is hacobes emnort oP .g o ru privand e ofileg' lat ehem's litgein sisrsdeunr eht doot eciffo   erwtiet nosl ianl in

II. THEHABIT OFFAITH

idcsae to  fvoreh. Tfaitis that icrem ehdrow lufcot ha t btos me .evo  doG nretL lat ar Eof  ton he he sit ehr  .s T ah t ue for uis a ref fo edit pu-tnep he tnd ae,amshf  kpurbaele fi st let canuble trooi e v ocecof esnf siH erP cnesht e hrough the gag oisnoc nab erkat   iut bs,inoklon uo gnomawollef r freinds. Inedomt eh gputrf h aegie  bay mWe. en ecnelis htiw tr re i Theher. Fat eHva  rfo eae shtshow. ipr hellfedoG ruo rehTsi eelief. Bnds no ri  snatotut ehernedrub a  ihw rof s hi tchfid rlwo  rhswoo t ehma,ert h heatillas sh ts hgisesu ni e thurhof  orrsoleolswih pah seben put to its laylf rahtsue ceoir prn ou ? Whe  hisotnu worros ym dado  t Iam, owrrh ta hos?fI  feh my grie it withc otduola ,y I mat hjoh ro berthspecs ref myt. I ss iw hsen wlyalla  nd avelofielns uht ecnec eurt tais a law of retiuodl .nA dhtre e botakref  i wweaht ew tuoc n dl