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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ,” that
you may “be filled with all the fullness of God.”
Many who have an intelligent knowledge of the truth, and are able
to defend it by arguments, are doing nothing for the upbuilding of
Christ’s kingdom. We meet them from time to time, but they bear
no fresh testimonies of personal experience in the Christian life; they
relate no new victories gained in the holy warfare. Instead of this
you notice the same old routine, the same expressions in prayer and
exhortation. Their prayers have no new note; they express no greater
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intelligence in the things of God, no more earnest, living faith. Such
persons are not living plants in the garden of the Lord, sending forth
fresh shoots and new foliage, and the grateful fragrance of a holy
life. They are not growing Christians. They have limited views and
plans, and there is no expansion of mind, no valuable additions to the
treasures of Christian knowledge. Their powers have not been taxed
in this direction. They have not learned to view men and things as
God views them, and in many cases unsanctified sympathy has injured
souls and greatly crippled the cause of God. The spiritual stagnation
that prevails is terrible. Many lead a formal Christian life and claim
that their sins have been forgiven, when they are as destitute of any
real knowledge of Christ as is the sinner.
Brethren, will you have a stinted Christian growth, or will you
make healthy progress in the divine life? Where there is spiritual
health there is growth. The child of God grows up to the full stature
of a man or woman in Christ. There is no limit to his improvement.
When the love of God is a living principle in the soul, there are no
narrow, confined views; there is love and faithfulness in warnings and
reproofs; there is earnest work and a disposition to bear burdens and
take responsibilities.
Some are not willing to do self-denying work. They show real
impatience when urged to take some responsibility. “What need is
there,” say they, of an increase of knowledge and experience? This
explains it all. They feel that they are “rich, and increased with goods,
and have need of nothing,” while heaven pronounces them poor, mis-
erable, blind, and naked. To these the True Witness says: “I counsel
thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and
white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy
nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou