THE WRITER has a dear friend in the ministry who, as a young man, tried again and again to give himself fully to the Lord, but without success.  He was perfectly sincere, but he continued perfectly miserable.  He was one of those many young people who are continually consecrating themselves to the Lord.  At length he came to discover that he had missed the very basis of consecration.  He found light through God's own "consecration" of the Old Testament priests.  When he beheld the blood placed on the priest's ear, on his thumb, on his toe, and saw him sprinkled all over with blood, he came to understand his union with "Christ made sin." He saw death written all over him.  He felt the awful doom and death to which Calvary committed him.  He came to understand his identification with Christ.  He saw himself one with the Crucified in His death and resurrection.  This death-life union changed his whole conception of surrender to Christ and laid the foundations in his life for a successful and abiding consecration.

Such an experience is not uncommon among Christians.  They have been justified by faith and have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  But they have not realized the implications of the Cross.  In some of our best churches they have been immediately taken from the justification of Romans 5:1 to the truth of consecration as set forth in Romans 12:1, 2. We would not be overcritical in that which is well meant; but to ignore or pass over the teaching and amazing declarations of our union with Christ as set forth in Romans 6 to 8 is not really the, proper approach to consecration.  Such a skirting of these underlying truths brought many years of misery to my ministerial friend.  He knew not the way of victory over sinful self.  All unconsciously he was attempting in the energy of self to lay his all on the altar.  When he came to see that he was already the Lord's through his life-union with Christ--already crucified and risen with Christ, "dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord'!--he then had a sure basis for presenting himself unto God.  At last he had found the blessed secret of success.  But let me further illustrate.
When Abraham Lincoln delivered his address at the dedication of the battlefield cemetery in Gettysburg, November 19,1863, he said: "We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives.... But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate--we cannot consecrate--we cannot hallow--this ground.  The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. ... It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work . . . to be dedicated to the great task remaining before us." We speak of Christian consecration.  "But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate--we cannot consecrate--we cannot hallow--this ground" of our already redeemed lives.  In His laid-down life the Crucified has already "consecrated it (us) far above our poor power to add or detract." Let us fix our eyes upon Christ.  We have already been fastened to the Crucified.  Let us believe that if we be dead with Him we shall also live with Him.
  The blessed truths clustering around our death-resurrection union with Christ, as set forth in Romans 6 to 8, lay the basis for a successful consecration, as so clearly set forth in Romans 12:1,2. Having been so completely redeemed and "accepted in the beloved," Christ now beseeches us by His own infinite and many tender mercies to present our bodies a reasonable, living, holy, acceptable sacrifice to Himself.  As we lay our hands upon the sacred and holy head of our Burnt Offering we know (let it be the language of a lively faith) that in Him we are a sweet savor unto God--a sweet savor of perfect obedience, perfect consecration, and perfect sacrifice "far above our poor power to add or detract." What power! What persuasion! What perfect peace!  His is the perfect satisfaction--a sweet savor offering made by fire--ours the sweet privilege of being burned out for Him.  Can we not trust Him?  Shall we not let Him carry us where He will? O hesitating believer, are we not ready to sign away our rights and reserves for all coming days?  Come.  Give Him all.  "It is more blessed to give than to receive." The Lord loves a hilarious giver.  Let us launch forth with Him on any uncharted sea.  Those who sail the high seas in treacherous times commit themselves to His Majesty the King: "At your service, Sir, with scaled orders." It was George Whitefield who said: "I give up myself to be a