From the out-of-print book Too Much: The Filled to Overflowing Experience by William Booth-Clibborn. Used by permission.
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Too Much: The Filled to Overflowing Experience2. "Too Much Religion"
"I labored more abundantly than they all:
Yet not I but
the Grace of God that was with me." -- I Corinthians 15:10.
It is alarming to see, as we have, to what extent
Christians are living on half-fare and what multitudes are merely existing
instead of living to the full. I propose to show both from Nature's laws and
from certain scriptures that God's full provision for us is nothing short of a
life so rich, so intense, so copious as to easily provide us the strength and
power to overcome all obstacles! Not only making us successful, personally, but
giving us such strength that we are able to help others. I will show why it is
that many do not obtain this abundant life and on what conditions it may be
received and retained.
First, let me speak of an incident that occurred in my life as a school boy,
which made a great impression upon me and which caused me to take an entirely
new view of this whole question.
The Pentecostal Outpouring in Germany
I was converted at twelve years of age by an instant miraculous transaction
that simply transformed my life. This took place when I was all alone. At the
time I was the worst boy in school. The very God of Heaven seemed to come down,
put His arms around me and claim me as His own. It was a tremendous experience,
so revolutionary as to make me verily a new creature. I wrestled until four in
the morning and knew the "peace that passeth all understanding." Thereafter, I
stood firm against the ridicule and persecution of my schoolmates and witnessed
to them as best I could, and had the exceeding joy of leading many of my chums
to Christ.
At the age of fifteen, God graciously filled me with the Holy Spirit, and
called me to the ministry. With my father, I traveled all over Holland and
Germany and parts of Poland and Russia, preaching the Gospel and the message of
the Pentecostal outpouring.
We visited many large centers in Germany and in every city great children's
revivals broke out. In Hamburg, Elmshorn, Dusseldorf, Posen, Bromberg, Breslau,
Leignitz, Glogau, Neustadt, Laskowitz, and many other smaller towns and
settlements where we ministered, father took care of the adult service whereas
in the meantime I devoted my energies to the young people's groups and Sunday
Schools with most encouraging results. The churches advertized me as the
"Yugend Missionar" and the pastors were surprisingly co-operative, as in
Germany we found all such efforts. for children to be frowned upon and the
attitude to be ultra-conservative. God's Spirit moved upon these men however
and so it was that I saw hundreds upon hundreds of children converted in my own revival meetings, whose names I collected in a book. These exceeded one
thousand, the majority of them receiving the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
You can well imagine how difficult it was for me to settle down to the common
curriculum of school life after the adventure, excitement and joy of
victorious, fruitful revival work. Upon my return to England, it was decided
that my education must be completed; but I did not see it that way and was
filled with misgivings and grief. I begged father and mother to allow me to
continue preaching, promising to do my school work "on the run,"
conscientiously, every morning. My pleadings were all in vain. "Children, obey
your parents!" ended the argument, and I started packing for boarding school.
My parents sent me to Kent College, Canterbury, in the South of England, very
much against my will.
A Revival in My College
What a purgatory that school life proved to be! It was an agony of soul to
be suddenly snatched from such a glorious revival atmosphere to the
petty foolishness and commonalities of a large college teeming with unconverted
boys. It proved a cruel cross! After living in the Heavenlies, I was brought
back to earth with a thump! I set to praying determinedly that God might bless
this period of my life and make it fruitful, and that, though the circumstances
were so discouraging to aggressive Christian work, God would open the way
whereby I might win some of these boys to Christ.
Night and day, I was eaten up with the zeal of God's house. I lived in strong
crying and weeping. Many were the evenings that I left the games and fun making
downstairs and retired to my room to wet my pillow, and groan in spirit by the
hour. I often travailed in prayer so long that I lay weak and helpless
prostrated on the floor. I recognize now that God's hand was in this bitter
disappointment, this sudden cutting off from the work that had captured my
heart. Every grace I had obtained, every gift He had granted, must now be
tested in these unfriendly flames. The humiliations I endured, the peculiar
situations that arose, as I felt constrained to even rebuke the teachers and
preach to the boys, were certainly not easy, but the Lord walked with me and
talked with me every day.
Oh, how I longed to be preaching again! But where there is a will, there is a
way. To satisfy this hunger, I started noon prayer meetings, with glorious
success. Persecution increased. Such annoyances sound trivial but may seriously
affect study and a conduct record. They took my study books out of my desk, so
when preparation period came I had no books to work with and as a consequence
poor marks. At our noon prayer time they turned the hose on us, or locked the
door as we were on our knees making us tardy for dinner. In a dozen petty ways
they would do all possible to irritate and trouble us. We started with three
but soon had a dozen attending.
My precious brother Eric, who passed away as a missionary in Haute Volta,
French North Africa, stood by me wonderfully. We experienced a real revival in
that school. I continued in intercession at every opportunity, and would
steal away by myself, to cry to God for help. I discovered a little room in the
school belfry turret of the large dormitory building where, in solitude, I
could pour out my heart to God.
My Bitterest Enemy
I will never forget a certain Sunday afternoon. I was on my knees in one of
those unutterably sweet moments of sacred communion and fellowship with God. I
had been weeping for about an hour when the door suddenly opened, and there
stood before me Mr. Hargreaves, one of the teachers, with his pipe in his
mouth. He sized up the situation at a glance, and, taking the pipe out of his
mouth, he exclaimed in a tone of disgust and contempt, "Ah! Booth-Clibborn, you
have got too much religion!" I just stared at him with tear-filled eyes, and
never answered. After a moment's hesitation, he went out, closing the door
behind him.
This particular teacher was one of the bitterest enemies that I had. He was
second to the Head Master and therefore, had considerable authority in the
school. He took care to check, if not altogether to frustrate me in my attempts
to glorify Christ and to speak to the boys about their souls. In a scripture
class, he would cross me and contradict me at every turn, though his deductions
from Holy Writ were the most ridiculous I ever heard. He would insist he had
the proper interpretation of every passage and hold my words up to scorn.
An essay that I had written on Christ's cleansing of the Temple, he flung at me
clear across the class room, in a towering fit of rage. So you can imagine my
feelings at his discovering my secret retreat for prayer that Sunday afternoon.
The remark intended as a dash of cold water upon my soul, calculated, no doubt,
to discourage and dishearten me, proved to be one of the greatest blessings of
all that trying period of my life. It is strange how often God chooses to use
our worst enemies or the most dreaded circumstances as the means to bring to
our hearts His deepest revelations. I just wept all the more, and it seemed all
of heaven came down to comfort me. The Voice of God spoke so sweetly, "That's
just it, William, you do have too much religion. Had you just enough for
yourself to keep you true to Me and do My Will, you would not care for your
school chums. Nor would you have enough to spare to pour out your soul in
prayer this way for them. You would not be concerned about the spiritual
welfare of every boy in the school." And much more did He say to me in that
glad hour.
The "Too Much" That Brings Success
Oh, what a refreshing was mine! What showers of blessing filled my soul up in
that little turret room, as I cast myself afresh at His Feet, and put my hand
in His Hand, and told Him that I would be true by His grace till death, if He
would only give me, for my hire, the hearts of those boys, that I might be the
means of the salvation of their souls. Praise God, it was the "too much" that
kept me true to Christ in that school, and gave me sufficiency "to spend and be
spent" without reserve for the salvation of my fellow students. It bore me up
under all their persecution, ridicule and the thousand and one little mean
expressions of opposition that invariably followed my every attempt to witness
for Christ and to win them to His cause. Oh, praise God for the way He opened
His truth to me, for the passion He put in my heart for the Scriptures, and for
the fruit He finally gave us in our little noonday meetings in the shoe-shine
room where we used to shut ourselves in for prayer.
We finally had five courageous converts to join us every mid-day besides
other boys who were interested. Sunday afternoons we would go out on the school
grounds, climb up a big oak tree, perch on its branches like so many birds, and
then I would read and expound the Scriptures to them, while on occasion the
whole student body would vainly thrash the bush for "the saints." When they
passed underneath our tree, we would hold our breaths as it were. We had plenty
of excitement and adventure. The stories I could relate! But time forbids. It
was the "too much" that took me through. Had I merely had religion, that is, a
sufficiency to keep myself separate from the world, just to support my soul in
the dark hours that beset me, in the fierce temptations that assailed me, I
really doubt that I could have made a success of it. I must have finally fallen
into indifference, become careless and, losing my desire for prayer, would have
backslidden altogether. It seems to me the very energy I expended in reaching
others reacted on my soul and kept me in the grace and favor of God and so it
must always be. It was the "too much," that little extra measure, that made
success possible.
The Meaning of the Word "Religion"
Now the word religion is used in various senses: For instance, we commonly hear
people say, "Thank God, I haven't got religion; I've got salvation." But the
least examination will convince us that the word religion may be rightly used
of salvation and all that concerns salvation, though it may also be used of
that cold and dead professionalism which has but too often blighted the work of
God. However, I wish to use it in its positive sense, in its best meaning.
What is the etymological construction of the word "religion"? It comes from the
Latin verb Religare, which means to bind back or to tie again --
this is quite significant. Now, Latin verbs have many tenses. So has the verb
Religare, one of which is Religio, from which we get the word
religion. Indeed, we get many words from the Latin root Religare, in
French as well as in English. The French Lieger means to tie up. Ligate
and Ligature are two English words which mean to bind and bandage. But get
this: Ligio, the latter part of the word Religion, means to tie up. The
prefix Re makes it mean to be tied up again, for wherever you find Re,
as a prefix, in the English language, it means that something is to be done
again. Thus: bound, rebound; publish, republish; call, recall; capture,
recapture; claim, reclaim; gain, regain; commend, recommend; cover, recover;
create, recreate; form, reform; fill, refill; etc., etc. There are scores of
them.
Now, the whole plan of salvation is in that one word Religion, in its
very construction. If the word Religion means to be bound back again,
then it shows that we have all been loosened from God at one time. The whole
human race has fallen away. "We have all sinned and come short of the glory of
God." And Religion's chief business is to bind us back to the God from
whose love and knowledge we fell. The word Religion, therefore, suggests the
fall, and, at once, also suggests the possibility of undoing the damage of the
fall, and restoring us and reconciling us to our Creator. Now, let me ask you a
point-blank question at this time. Can we get too much religion? Can we be
rebound too closely to God? My answer is "No!" Whereas in Old Testament times,
they could only, in a degree, be restored to intimacy and communion with God,
and enjoy a measure of divine life and power, the Lord Jesus asserts in John
l0:10 that He came to earth for the express purpose of restoring us fully to
the closest communion with God and to the enjoyment of an abundance of divine
life. Is not this the best of Good News! We are really favoured to be living in
the time of the DAY of grace and salvation. Nothing should be able to keep us
from enjoying God's whole provision -- all that Christ purchased for us on the
Cross.
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