John Wesley said, "Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but
sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be
clergymen or laymen, they alone will shake the gates of hell and set up
the kingdom of heaven upon the earth."

A life surrendered to God will be an invincible life, while the life
only partly surrendered will know nothing but defeat. Someone says that,
in the transfer of property, any reservation implies, also, reserved
rights. If a man sells a ten-acre lot, and keeps a yard square in the
center for himself, he has a right of way across what he has sold to
get to his reservation. And if, in our surrender, we keep back anything,
"that constitutes the devil's territory, and he will trample over all we
call consecrated to get to his own." Therefore a complete surrender of
the life to God is absolutely necessary.

To the rich young man who came to him, Jesus said, "One thing thou
lackest." He demanded an unconditional surrender of every interest of
his life. But the young man was not willing to make the surrender, and
went away sorrowful. Of every man and woman Jesus asks the same
surrender. But many now wander off in the darkness of formality and
doubt because they are not willing. Three things are implied in such a
surrender: (1) An acknowledgment of the Divine ownership and human
stewardship in all temporal affairs; (2) A complete submission of the
will to God; (3) The supremacy of Jesus Christ in the heart and life, so
that the interests of his kingdom are first, always, and everywhere.

There is an old story of a monk who, having been disobedient to the
rules of the monastery, was told he must die. They took him out into the
graveyard, stood him upright in a grave, filled in the earth about his
feet. Then they asked, "Are you dead yet?" He said, "No." The earth was