Practical Godliness
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to the greatness of the truth which we claim to believe? The love of
the world, the love of some darling sin, has weaned the heart from the
love of prayer and of meditation on sacred things. A formal round of
religious services is kept up; but where is the love of Jesus? Spirituality
is dying. Is this torpor, this mournful deterioration, to be perpetuated?
Is the lamp of truth to flicker and go out in darkness because it is not
replenished by the oil of grace?
I wish that every minister and every one of our workers could
see this matter as it has been presented to me. Self-esteem and self-
sufficiency are killing spiritual life. Self is lifted up; self is talked
about. Oh, that self might die! “I die daily,” said the apostle Paul.
When this proud, boasting self-sufficiency and this complacent self-
righteousness permeate the soul, there is no room for Jesus. He is
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given an inferior place, while self swells into importance and fills the
whole temple of the soul. This is the reason why the Lord can do so
little for us. Should He work with our efforts, the instrument would
appropriate all the glory to his own smartness, his wisdom, his ability,
and he would congratulate himself, as did the Pharisee: “I fast twice in
the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.” When self shall be hidden
in Christ, it will not be brought to the surface so frequently. Shall
we meet the mind of the Spirit of God? Shall we dwell more upon
practical godliness, and far less upon mechanical arrangements?
The servants of Christ should live as in His sight and as in the sight
of angels. They should seek to understand the requirements of our time
and prepare to meet them. Satan is constantly attacking us in new and
untried ways, and why should the officers in God’s army be inefficient?
Why should they leave any faculty of their nature uncultivated? There
is a great work to be done, and if there is any want of harmonious
action in doing it, it is because of self-love and self-esteem. It is only
when we are careful to carry out the Master’s orders without leaving
our stamp and identity upon the work that we work efficiently and
harmoniously. “Press together,” said the angel, “press together.”
I urge upon you who minister in sacred things to dwell more upon
practical religion. How rarely are seen the tender conscience, and true,
heartfelt sorrow of soul and conviction of sin! It is because there are no
deep movings of the Spirit of God among us. Our Saviour is the ladder
which Jacob saw, whose base rested on the earth and whose topmost
rounds reached the highest heavens. This shows the appointed method