Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties and Roots

O worldly man, think of this. Tremble, tremble and repent. Number two. For another thing, let me warn all formalists and self-righteous people to take heed that they are not deceived. You fancy you will go to heaven because you go regularly to church. You indulge in expectation of eternal life because you are always at the Lord's table and are never missing in your pew. But where is your repentance? Where is your faith? Where are your evidences of a new heart? Where is the work of the Spirit? Where are your evidences of regeneration? O formal Christian, consider these questions. Tremble, tremble and repent. Three. For another thing, let me warn all careless members of churches to beware lest they trifle their souls into hell. You live on year after year as if there was no battle to be fought with sin, the world and the devil. You pass through life a smiling, laughing, gentleman-like or lady-like person and behave as if there was no devil, no heaven and no hell. O careless churchmen or careless dissenter, careless Episcopalian, careless Presbyterian, careless Independent, careless Baptist, awake to see eternal realities in their true light. Awake and put on the armor of God. Awake and fight hard for life. Tremble, tremble and repent. Four. For another thing, let me warn everyone who wants to be saved not to be content with the world standard of religion. Surely no man with his eyes open can fail to see that the Christianity of the New Testament is something far higher and deeper than the Christianity of most professing Christians. The formal, easy-going, do-little thing which most people call religion is evidently not the religion of the Lord Jesus. The things that He praises in these seven epistles are not praised by the world. The things that He blames are not things in which the world sees any harm. O, if you would follow Christ, be not content with the world's Christianity. Tremble, tremble and repent. Five. In the last place, let me warn everyone who professes to be a believer in the Lord Jesus not to be content with a little religion. Of all sites in the Church of Christ, I know none more painful to my own eyes than a Christian contented and satisfied with a little grace, a little repentance, a little faith, a little knowledge, a little charity, and a little holiness. I do beseech and entreat every believing soul that reads this tract not to be that kind of man. If you have any desires after usefulness, if you have any wishes to promote your Lord's glory, if you have any longings after much inward peace, be not content with a little religion. Let us rather seek every year we live to make more spiritual progress than we have done, to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, to grow in humility and self-acquaintance, to grow in spirituality and heavenly mindedness, to grow in conformity to the image of our Lord. Let us beware of leaving our first love like Ephesus, of becoming lukewarm like Laodicea, of tolerating false practices like Pergamus, of tampering with false doctrine like Thyatira, of becoming half-dead, ready to die like Sardis. Let us rather covet the best gifts, let us aim at imminent holiness, let us endeavor to be like Smyrna in Philadelphia, let us hold fast what we have already and continually seek to have more, let us labor to be unmistakable Christians. Let it not be our distinctive character that we are men of science, or men of literary attainments, or men of the world, or men of pleasure, or men of business, but men of God. Let us so live that all may see that to us the things of God are the first things, and the glory of God the first aim in our lives, to follow Christ our grand object in time present, to be with Christ our grand desire in time to come. Let us live in this way and we shall be happy, let us live in this way and we shall do good to the world, let us live in this way and we shall leave good evidence behind us when we are buried, let us live in this way and the Spirit's word to the churches will not have been spoken to us in vain. Chapter 15, Lovest Thou Me? Page 241 Lovest Thou Me? John 21, 16 The question which heads this paper was addressed by Christ to the Apostle Peter. A more important question could not have been asked. 1900 years have passed away since the words were spoken, but to this very day the inquiry is most searching and useful. A disposition to love somebody is one of the commonest feelings which God has implanted in human nature. Too often, unhappily, people set their affection on unworthy objects. I want this day to claim a place for him who alone is worthy of all our heart's best feelings. I want men to give some of their love to that divine person who loved us and gave himself for us. In all their loving, I would have them not forget to love Christ. Suffer me to press this mighty subject upon the attention of every reader of this paper. This is no matter for mere enthusiasts and fanatics. It deserves the consideration of every reasonable Christian who believes the Bible. Our very salvation is bound up with it. Life or death, heaven or hell, depend on our ability to answer the simple question, do you love Christ? There are two points which I wish to bring forward in opening up this subject. One, in the first place, let me show the peculiar feeling of a true Christian towards Christ. He loves him. A true Christian is not a merely baptized man or woman. He is something more. He is not a person who only goes, as a matter of form, to a church or chapel on Sundays and lives all the rest of the week as if there was no God. Formality is not Christianity. Ignorant lip worship is not true religion. The scripture speaketh expressly, they are not all Israel, which are of Israel. The practical lesson of those words is clear and plain. All are not true Christians who are members of the visible church of Christ. The true Christian is one whose religion is in his heart and life. It is felt by himself in his heart. It is seen by others in his conduct and life. He feels his sinfulness, guilt and badness and repents. He sees Jesus Christ to be that divine savior whom his soul needs and commits himself to him. He puts off the old man with his corrupt and carnal habits and puts on the new man. He lives a new and holy life, fighting habitually against the world, the flesh and the devil. Christ himself is the cornerstone of his Christianity. Ask him in what he trusts for the forgiveness of his many sins and he will tell you in the death of Christ. Ask him in what righteousness he hopes to stand innocent at the judgment day and he will tell you it is the righteousness of Christ. Ask him by what pattern he tries to frame his life and he will tell you that it is the example of Christ. But beside all this there is one thing in a true Christian which is eminently peculiar to him. That thing is to love Christ. Knowledge, faith, hope, reverence, obedience are all marked features in a true Christian's character. But his picture would be very imperfect if you omitted his love to his divine master. He not only knows, trusts and obeys, he goes further than this, he loves. This peculiar mark of a true Christian is one which we find mentioned several times in the Bible. Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ is an expression which many Christians are familiar with. Let it never be forgotten that love is mentioned by the Holy Ghost in almost as strong terms as faith. Great as the danger is of him that believeth not, the danger of him that loveth not is equally great. Not believing and not loving are both steps to everlasting ruin. Hear what St. Paul says to the Corinthians. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha. St. Paul allows no way of escape to the man who does not love Christ. He leaves him no loophole or excuse. A man may lack clear head knowledge and yet be saved. He may fail in courage and be overcome by the fear of man like Peter. He may fall tremendously like David and yet rise again. But if a man does not love Christ, he is not in the way of life. The curse is yet upon him. He is on the broad road that leadeth to destruction. Hear what St. Paul says to the Ephesians. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Ephesians 6 24 The apostle is here sending his good wishes and declaring his good will to all true Christians. Many of them no doubt he had never seen. Many of them in the early churches we may be very sure were weak in faith and knowledge and self-denial. How then shall he describe them in sending his message? What words can he use which will not discourage the weaker brethren? He chooses a sweeping expression which exactly describes all true Christians under one common name. All had not attained to the same degree whether in doctrine or practice, but all loved Christ in sincerity. Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ himself says to the Jews. If God were your Father, ye would love me. John 8 42 He saw his misguided enemies satisfied with their spiritual condition on the one single ground that they were children of Abraham. He saw them like many ignorant Christians of our own day claiming to be God's children for no better reasons than this, that they were circumcised and belonged to the Jewish church. He lays down the broad principle that no man is a child of God who does not love God's only begotten Son. No man has a right to call God Father who does not love Christ. Well would it be for many Christians if they were to remember that this mighty principle applies to them as well as to the Jews. No love to Christ, then no sonship to God. Hear once more what our Lord Jesus Christ did to the Apostle Peter after he rose from the dead. Three times he asked him the question, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? John 21 15-17 The occasion was remarkable. He meant gently to remind his erring disciple of his thrice repeated fall. He desired to call forth from him a new confession of faith before publicly restoring to him his commission to feed the church. And what was the question that he asked him? He might have said, Believest thou? Art thou converted? Are thou ready to confess me? Willst thou obey me? He uses none of these expressions. He simply says, Lovest thou me? This is the point he would have us know on which a man's Christianity hinges. Simple as the question sounded, it was most searching. Plain and easy to be understood by the most unlearned poor man, it contains matter which tests the reality of the most advanced apostle. If a man truly loves Christ, all is right. If not, all is wrong. Would you know the secret of this peculiar feeling towards Christ which distinguishes the true Christian? You have it in the words of Saint John. We love him because he first loved us. 1 John 4 19 That text, no doubt, applies specially to God the Father, but it is no less true of God the Son. A true Christian loves Christ for all he has done for him. He has suffered in his stead and died for him on the cross. He has redeemed him from the guilt, the power, and the consequences of sin by his blood. He has called him by his spirit to self-knowledge, repentance, faith, hope, and holiness. He has forgiven all his many sins and blotted them out. He has freed him from the captivity of the world, the flesh, and the devil. He has taken him from the brink of hell, placed him in the narrow way, and set his face toward heaven. He has given him light instead of darkness, peace of conscience instead of uneasiness, hope instead of uncertainty, life instead of death. Can you wonder that the true Christian loves Christ? And he loves him besides for all that he is still doing. He feels that he is daily washing away his many shortcomings and infirmities and pleading his soul's cause before God. He is daily supplying all the needs of his soul and providing him with an hourly provision of mercy and grace. He is daily leading him by his spirit to a city of habitation, bearing with him when he is weak and ignorant, raising him up when he stumbles and falls, protecting him against his many enemies, preparing an eternal home for him in heaven. Can you wonder that the true Christian loves Christ? Does the debtor in jail love the friend who unexpectedly and undeservedly pays all his debts, supplies him with fresh capital, and takes him into partnership with him? Does the prisoner in war love the man who at the risk of his own life breaks through the enemy's lines, rescues him, and sets him free? Does the drowning sailor love the man who plunges into the sea, dives after him, catches him by the hair of his head, and by a mighty effort saves him from a watery grave? A very child can answer such questions as these. Just in the same way, and upon the same principles, a true Christian loves Jesus Christ. But where there is real justifying faith in Christ, there will always be heart love to Christ. He that is really forgiven is the man who will really love. If a man has no love to Christ, you may be sure he has no faith. b. Love to Christ is the mainspring of work for Christ. There is little done for His cause on earth from sense of duty or from knowledge of what is right and proper. The heart must be interested before the hands will move and continue moving. Excitement may galvanize the Christian's hands into a fitful and spasmodic activity, but there will be no patient continuance in well-doing, no unwary labor and missionary work at home or abroad without love. The nurse in a hospital may do her duty properly and well, may give the sick man his medicine at the right time, may feed him, minister to him, and attend to all his wants, but there is a vast difference between that nurse and a wife attending the sick bed of a beloved husband or a mother watching over a dying child. The one acts from a sense of duty, the other from affection and love. The one does her duty because she is paid for it, the other is what she is because of her heart. It is just the same in the matter of the service of Christ. The great workers of the church, the men who have led forlorn hopes in the mission field and turned the world upside down, have all been eminently lovers of Christ. Examine the characters of Owen and Baxter, of Rutherford and George Herbert, of Leighton and Hervey, of Whitfield and Wesley, of Henry Martin and Judson, of Bickerstith and Simeon, of Helotson and Machine, of Stilwell and McNeill. These men have left a mark on the world. And what was the common feature of their characters? They all loved Christ. They not only held a creed, they loved a person, even the Lord Jesus Christ. C. Love to Christ is the point which we ought specially to dwell upon in teaching religion to children. Election, imputed righteousness, original sin, justification, sanctification, and even faith itself are matters which sometimes puzzle a child of tender years. But love to Jesus seems far more within reach of their understanding. That he loved them even to his death, and that they ought to love him in return, is a creed which meets the span of their minds. How true it is that out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise. Matthew 21, 16 There are myriads of Christians who know every article of the Anthantean, Nicene, and Apostolic creeds, and yet know less of real Christianity than a little child who only knows that he loves Christ. D. Love to Christ is the common meeting point of believers of every branch of Christ's church on earth, whether Episcopalian or Presbyterian, Baptist or Independent, Calvinist or Arminian, Methodist or Moravian, Lutheran or Reformed, Established or Free, here at least they are agreed. About forms and ceremonies, about church government and modes of worship, they often differ widely. But on one point at any rate they are united. They have all one common feeling towards him on whom they build their hope of salvation. They love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Many of them perhaps are ignorant of systematic divinity, and could argue but feebly in defense of their creed. But they all know what they feel toward him who died for their sins. I cannot speak much for Christ, sir, said an old, uneducated Christian woman to Dr. Chalmers. But if I cannot speak for him, I could die for him. Love to Christ will be the distinguishing mark of all saved souls in heaven. The multitude which no man can number will all be of one mind. All differences will be merged in one common feeling. Old doctrinal peculiarities, fiercely wrangled for upon earth, will be covered over by one common sense of debt to Christ. Luther and Dwingle will no longer dispute. Wesley and Toplady will no longer waste time in controversy. Churchmen and dissenters will no longer bite and devour one another. All will find themselves joining with one heart and voice in that hymn of praise unto him that loved us and washed us from our sin in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father. To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Revelation 1, verses 5-6 The words which John Bunyan puts in the mouth of Mr. Stanfast as he stood in the river of death are very beautiful. He said, This river has been a terror to many. Yea, the thoughts of it also have often frightened me. But now methinks I stand easy. My foot is fixed upon that which the priests that bear the ark stood while Israel went over Jordan. The waters indeed are to the palate bitter and to the stomach cold. Yet the thoughts of what I am going to, and of the convoy that waits for me on the other side, lie as a glowing coal at my heart. I see myself now at the end of my journey. My toilsome days are ended. I am going to see that head which was crowned with thorns, and that face which was spit upon for me. I have formerly lived by hearing and faith, but now I go where I shall live by sight, and be with him in whose company I delight myself. I have loved to hear my Lord spoken of, and wherever I have seen the print of his shoe in the earth, there I have coveted to set my foot to. His name has been to me a civet box, yea, sweeter than all perfumes. His voice to me has been most sweet, and his countenance I have more desired than they that have desired the light of the sun. Happy are they that know something of this experience. He that would be in tune for heaven must know something of love to Christ. He that dies ignorant of that love had better never have been born. Let me show in the second place the peculiar marks by which love to Christ makes itself known. The point is one of vast importance. If there is no salvation without love to Christ, if he that does not love Christ is in peril of eternal condemnation, it becomes all us to find out very distinctly what we know about this matter. Christ is in heaven, and we are upon earth. In what way shall the man be discerned that loves him? Happily, the point is one which it is not very hard to settle. How do we know whether we love any person here on earth? In what way and manner does love show itself between people in this world, between husband and wife, between parent and child, between brother and sister, between friend and friend? Let these questions be answered by common sense and observations, and I ask no more. Let these questions be honestly answered, and the knot before us is untied. How does affection show itself among ourselves? A. If we love a person, we like to think about him. We do not need to be reminded of him. We do not forget his name, or his appearance, or his character, or his opinions, or his taste, or his position, or his occupation. He comes up before our mind's eye many a time in the day. Though perhaps far distant, he is often present in our thoughts. Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ. Christ dwells in his heart and is thought of more or less every day. Ephesians 3.17 The true Christian does not need to be reminded that he has a crucified master. He often thinks of him. He never forgets that he has a day, a cause, and a people, and that of his people he is one. Affection is the real secret of a good memory in religion. No worldly man can think much about Christ unless Christ is pressed upon his notice, because he has no affection for him. The true Christian has thoughts about Christ every day that he lives, for this one simple reason, that he loves him. B. If you love a person, we like to hear about him. We find pleasure in listening to those who speak of him. We feel an interest in any report which others make of him. We are all attention when others talk about him and describe his ways, his sayings, his doings, and his plans. Some may hear him mentioned with utter indifference, but our own hearts bound within us at the very sound of his name. Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ. The true Christian delights to hear something about his master. He likes those sermons best which are full of Christ. He enjoys that society most in which people talk of the things which are Christ's. I have read of an old Welsh believer who used to walk several miles every Sunday to hear an English clergyman preach, though she did not understand a word of English. She was asked why she did so. She replied that this clergyman named the name of Christ so often in his sermons that it did her good. She loved even the name of her Savior. C. If we love a person, we like to read about him. What intense pleasure a letter from an absent husband gives to a wife, or a letter from an absent son to his mother. Others may see little worth notice in the letter. They can scarcely take the trouble to read it through. But those who love the writer see something in the letter which no one else can. They carry it about with them as a treasure. They read it over and over again. Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ. The true Christian delights to read the Scriptures because they tell him about his beloved Savior. It is no worrisome task with him to read them. He rarely needs reminding to take his Bible with him when he goes on a journey. He cannot be happy without it. And why is all this? It is because the Scriptures testify of him whom his soul loves, even Christ. D. If we love a person, we like to please him. We are glad to consult his tastes and opinions, to act upon his advice, and do the things which he approves. We even deny ourselves to meet his wishes, abstain from things which we know he dislikes, and learn things to do which we are not naturally inclined because we think it will give him pleasure. Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ. The true Christian studies to please him by being holy both in body and spirit, show him anything in his daily practice that Christ hates and he will give it up, show him anything that Christ delights in and he will follow after it. He does not murmur at Christ's requirements as being too strict and severe as the children of the world do. To him, Christ's commandments are not grievous and Christ's burden is light. And why is all this? Simply because he loves him. E. If we love a person, we like his friends. We are favorably inclined to them even before we know them. We are drawn to them by the common tie of common love to one and the same person. When we meet them, we do not feel that we are altogether strangers. There is a bond of union between us. They love the person that we love, and that alone is an introduction. Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ. The true Christian regards all Christ's friends as his friends and members of the same body, children of the same family, soldiers in the same army, travelers to the same home. When he meets them, he feels as if he had long known them. He is more at home with them in a few minutes than he is with many worldly people after an acquaintance of several years. And what is the secret of all this? It is simply affection to the same Savior and love to the same Lord. F. If we love a person, we are jealous about his name and honor. We do not like to hear him spoken against without speaking up for him and defending him. We feel bound to maintain his interest and reputation. We regard the person who treats him ill with almost as much disfavor as if he had treated us ill. Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ. The true Christian regards with a godly jealousy all efforts to disparage his master's name or word, church or day. He will confess him before princes if need be and be sensitive of the least dishonor put upon him. He will not hold his peace and suffer his master's cause to be put to shame without testifying against it. And why is all this? Simply because he loves him. G. If we love a person, we like to talk to him. We tell him all our thoughts and pour out all our heart to him. We find no difficulty in discovering subjects of conversation. However silent and reserved we may be to others, we find it easy to talk to a much-loved friend. However often we may meet, we are never at a loss for matter to talk about. We have always much to say, much to ask about, much to describe, much to communicate. Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ. The true Christian finds no difficulty in speaking to his savior. Every day he has something to tell him, and he is not happy unless he tells it. He speaks to him in prayer every morning and night. He tells him his wants and desires, his feelings and his fears. He asks counsel of him in difficulty. He asks comfort of him in trouble. He cannot help it. He must converse with his savior continually, or he would faint by the way. And why is this? Simply because he loves him. H. Finally, if we love a person, we like to be always with him. Thinking and hearing and reading and occasionally talking are all well in their way. But when we really love people, we want something more. We long to be always in their company. We wish to be continually in their society and to hold communion with them without interruption or farewell. Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ. The heart of a true Christian longs for that blessed day when he will see his master face to face and go out no more. He longs to have done with sinning and repenting and believing and to begin that endless life when he shall see as he has been seen and sin no more. He has found it sweet to live by faith, and he feels it will be sweeter still to live by sight. He has found it pleasant to hear of Christ and talk of Christ and read of Christ. How much more pleasant will it be to see Christ with his own eyes and never leave him any more. Better, he feels, is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire. And why is all this? Simply because he loves him. Such are the marks by which true love may be discovered. They are all plain, simple and easy to be understood. There is nothing dark, obtruse and mysterious about them. Use them honestly and handle them fairly and you cannot fail to get some light on the subject of this paper. Perhaps you had a beloved son in the army at the time of a great war. Perhaps he was actively engaged in that war and in the very midst of the struggle. Cannot you remember how strong and deep and anxious your feelings were about that son? That was love. Perhaps you have known what it is to have a beloved husband in the Navy, often called from home by duty, often separated from you for many months and even years. Cannot you recollect your sorrowful feelings at that time of separation? That was love. Perhaps you have at this moment a beloved brother in London, launched for the first time amidst the temptations of a great city in order to make his way in business. How will he turn out? How will he get on? Will you ever see him again? Do you not know that you often think about that brother? That is affection. Perhaps you are engaged to be married to a person every way suited to you, but prudence makes it necessary to defer the marriage to a distant period and duty makes it necessary to be at a distance from the one you have promised to make your wife. Must you not confess that she is often in your thoughts? Must you not confess that you like to hear of her and hear from her and that you long to see her? That is affection. I speak of things that are familiar to everyone. I need not dwell upon them any further. They are as old as the hills. They are all understood the world over. There is hardly a branch of Adam's family that does not know something of affection and love. Then let it never be said that we cannot find out whether a Christian really loves Christ. It can be known. It may be discovered. The proofs are already to your hands. You have heard them this very day. Love to the Lord Jesus Christ is no hidden, secret, impalpable thing. It is like the light. It will be seen. It is like sound. It will be heard. It is like heat. It will be felt. Where it exists, it cannot be hid. Where it cannot be seen, you may be sure there is none. It is time for me to draw this paper to a conclusion, but I cannot end without an effort to press it subject home to the individual conscience of each into whose hands it has fallen. I do it in all love and affection. My heart's desire and prayer to God in writing this paper is to do good to souls. One, let me ask you for one thing to look the question in the face which Christ asked of Peter and try to answer it for yourself. Look at it seriously. Examine it carefully. Weigh it well. After reading all that I have said about it, can you honestly say that you love Christ? It is no answer to tell me that you believe the truth of Christianity and hold the articles of the Christian faith. Such religion as this will never save your soul. The believers believe in a certain way and tremble. James 2.19 True saving Christianity is not the mere believing a certain set of opinions and holding a certain set of notions. Its essence is knowing, trusting, and loving a certain living person who died for us, even Christ the Lord. The early Christians like Phoebe and Persis and Tryphena and Tryphosa and Gaius and Philemon knew little probably of dogmatic theology, but they all had this grand leading feature in their religion. They loved Christ. It is no answer to tell me that you disapprove of a religion of feelings. If you mean by that that you dislike a religion consisting of nothing but feelings, I agree with you entirely. But if you mean to shut out feelings altogether, you can know little of Christianity. The Bible teaches us plainly that a man may have good feelings without any true religion. But it teaches us no less plainly that there can be no true religion without some feelings toward Christ. It is vain to conceal that if you do not love Christ, your soul is in great danger. You can have no saving faith now while you live. You are unfit for heaven if you die. He that lives without love to Christ can be sensible of no obligation to him. He that dies without love to Christ could never be happy in that heaven where Christ is all and in all. Awake to know the peril of your position. Open your eyes. Consider your ways and be wise. I can only warn you as a friend. But I do it with all my heart and soul. May God grant that this warning may not be in vain. 2. In the next place, if you do not love Christ, let me tell you plainly what is the reason. You have no sense of debt to him. You have no feeling of obligation to him. You have no abiding recollection of having got anything from him. This being the case, it is not likely, it is not probable, it is not reasonable that you should love him. There is but one remedy for this state of things. That remedy is self-knowledge and the teaching of the Holy Ghost. The eyes of your understanding must be opened. You must find out what you are by nature. You must discover that grand secret, your guilt and emptiness in God's sight. Perhaps you never read your Bible at all or only read an occasional chapter as a mere matter of form without interest, understanding or self-application. Take my advice this day and change your plan. Begin to read the Bible like a man in earnest and never rest till you become familiar with it. Read what the law of God requires as it is founded by the Lord Jesus in the fifth of St. Matthew. Read how St. Paul describes human nature in the first two chapters of his epistle to the Romans. Study such passages as these with prayer for the Spirit's teaching and then say whether you are not a debtor to God and a debtor in mighty need of a friend like Christ. Perhaps you are one who has never known anything of real, hearty, business-like prayer. You have been used to regard religion as an affair of churches, chapels, forms, services and Sundays but not as a thing requiring the serious, heartfelt attention of the inward man. Take my advice this day and change your plan. Begin the habit of real, earnest pleading with God about your soul, asking for light, teaching and self-knowledge. Beseech Him to show you anything you need to know for the saving of your soul. Do this with all your heart and mind and I have no doubt that before long you will feel your need of Christ. The advice I offer may seem simple and old-fashioned. Do not despise it on that account. It is the good old way in which millions have walked already and found peace to their souls. Not to love Christ is to be in imminent danger of eternal ruin. To see your need of Christ and your amazing debt to Christ is the first step towards loving Him. To know yourself and find out your real condition before God is the only way to see your need. To search God's books and ask God for light in prayer is the right course by which to attain saving knowledge. Do not be above taking the advice I offer. Take it and be saved. 3. In the last place, if you really know anything of love towards Christ, accept two parting words of comfort and counsel. The Lord grant they may do you good. For one thing, if you love Christ in deed and truth, rejoice in the thought that you have good evidence about the state of your soul. Love, I tell you this day, is an evidence of grace. What though you are sometimes perplexed with doubts and fears, what though you find it hard to say whether your faith is genuine and your grace real, what though your eyes are often so dimmed with tears that you cannot clearly see your calling and election of God, still there is ground for hope and strong consolation if your heart can testify that you love Christ. Where there is true love, there is faith and grace. You would not love Him if He had not done something for you. Your very love is a token for good. 4. For another thing, if you love Christ, never be ashamed to let others see it and know it. Speak for Him, witness for Him, live for Him, work for Him. If He has loved you and washed you from your sins in His own blood, you need never shrink from letting others know that you feel it and love Him in return. Man said a thoughtless ungodly English traveler to a North American Indian convert, Man, what is the reason that you make so much of Christ and talk so much about Him? What has this Christ done for you that you should make so much ado about Him? The converted Indian did not answer him in words. He gathered together some dry leaves and moss and made a ring with them on the ground. He picked up a live worm and put it in the middle of the ring. He struck a light and set the moss and leaves on fire. The flame soon rose and the heat scorched the worm. It writhed in agony and after trying in vain to escape on every side, curled itself up in the middle as if about to die in despair. At that moment the Indian reached forth his hand, took up the worm gently and placed it on his bosom. Stranger, he said to the Englishman, do you see that worm? I was that perishing creature. I was dying in my sins, hopeless, helpless and on the brink of eternal fire. It was Jesus Christ who put forth the arm of His power. It was Jesus Christ who delivered me with the hand of His grace and plucked me from everlasting burnings. It was Jesus Christ who placed me a poor sinful worm near the heart of His love. Stranger, that is the reason why I talk of Jesus Christ and make much of Him. I am not ashamed of it because I love Him. If we know anything of love to Christ, may we have the mind of this North American Indian. May we never think that we can love Christ too well, live to Him too thoroughly, confess Him too boldly, lay ourselves out for Him too heartily. Of all the things that will surprise us in the resurrection morning, this I believe will surprise us most, that we did not love Christ more before we died. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available, free and for sale, in audio, video and printed formats. Our many free resources, as well as our complete mail-order catalog, containing thousands of classic and contemporary Puritan and Reformed books, tapes and videos at great discounts, is on the web at www.swrb.com. We can also be reached by email at swrb at swrb dot com, by phone at 780-450-3730, by fax at 780-468-1096, or by mail at 4710-37A, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6L 3T5. You may also request a free printed catalog. And remember that John Calvin, in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart, from his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions, since he condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship, in which they absurdly exercise themselves, would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying His word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The Prophet's words, then, are very important. When he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind, as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew.