Practical Godliness
481
Ten thousand times ten thousand may profess to obey the law and
the gospel, and yet be living in transgression. Men may present in a
clear manner the claims of truth upon others and yet their own hearts
be carnal. Sin may be loved and practiced in secret. The truth of God
may be no truth to them, because their hearts have not been sanctified
by it. The love of the Saviour may exercise no constraining power over
their base passions. We know by the history of the past that men may
stand in sacred positions and yet handle the truth of God deceitfully.
They cannot lift up holy hands to God, “without wrath and doubting.”
This is because God has no control over their minds. The truth was
never stamped upon their hearts. “With the heart man believeth unto
righteousness.” “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.”
Are you doing this? Many are not, and never have done it. Their
conversion has been only superficial.
“If ye then,” says the apostle, “be risen with Christ, seek those
things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” The
heart is the citadel of the man. From it are the issues of life or death.
Until the heart is purified, a person is unfit to have any part in the
fellowship of the saints. Does not the Heart Searcher know who are
lingering in sin, regardless of their souls? Has there not been a witness
to the most secret things in the life of everyone? I was compelled to
hear the words spoken by some men to women and girls—words of
flattery, words that would deceive and infatuate. Satan uses all these
means to destroy souls. Some of you may thus have been his agents;
and if so, you will have to meet these things in the judgment. The
angel said of this class: “Their hearts have never been given to God.
[537]
Christ is not in them. Truth is not there. Its place is occupied by sin,
deception, and falsehood. The word of God is not believed and acted
upon.”
The present activity of Satan in working upon hearts, and upon
churches and nations, should startle every student of prophecy. The
end is near. Let our churches arise. Let the converting power of God
be experienced in the hearts of the individual members, and then we
shall see the deep movings of the Spirit of God. The forgiveness of
sins is not the sole result of the death of Jesus. He made the infinite
sacrifice, not only that sin might be removed, but that human nature