If Euodia and Syntyche could have walked alone, there would have been no collision, no strife. But they were called to walk together, and here was the demand for self-surrender. And be it ever remembered that Christians are not members of a club, of a sect, or of an association; they are members of a body, each connected with all, and all connected by the fact of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit with the risen and glorified Head in heaven.

This is an immense truth, and the practical carrying out of it will cost us not only all we have, but all we are. There is no place in all the universe where self will be so pulled to pieces as in the Assembly of God. And is it not well? Is it not a powerful proof of the divine ground on which that Assembly is gathered? Should we not be glad to have our hateful self thus pulled to pieces? Should we run away from those who do it for us? Euodia might lay the blame on Syntyche, and Syntyche on Euodia; the apostle does not raise the question of who was right or who was wrong, but he beseeches both to be “of the same mind in the Lord.”

Here lies the divine secret. It is self-surrender. But this must be a real thing. We sometimes pray with fervor to be enabled to trample self in the dust, and the very next moment, if anyone seems to cross our path, self is like a porcupine with all its quills up. This will never do. God will have us be real. Surely we can say with all our weakness and folly, we want to be real—real in everything, and therefore real when we pray for the power of self-surrender. But most assuredly, there is no place where there is a more urgent demand for this lovely grace than in the bosom of the Assembly of God.