BLJ: Pay close attention to excuse number 10. If you are going to profess holiness, make sure to live it.
6. "If I seek holiness I shall have to change some items of my business, and give up some of my habits."
If your business or your habits are wrong, you will have to give them up or lose your soul. If honest in this objection, you are not in a justified state, and consequently have no religion at all. You cannot frequent the theater, circus, horse-race, and parlor-dance, and retain any religion at all. Those paths are the broad way to destruction. A justified state cannot be retained an hour while things are done known to be wrong. "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin;" "He that committeth sin is of the devil." The sinner makes the same excuse; would you tell him he could obtain religion and not give up all? There is a wile of Satan in this objection which is alarming.
7. "If I were entirely sanctified, I should be obliged to do many duties from which I now excuse myself"
If honest in this excuse, you have no reason to regard yourself a Christian. A Christian is a man who loves and obeys God. What right have you to choose to do a part of God's will, and refuse to do a part? "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord! Lord! shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." (See question 4. ) No man could obtain pardon with this excuse in his heart, nor justification be retained with such a state of mind.
8. "If I obtain holiness, and live a holy life, I shalt have enemies."
Well, suppose you do. The man who has no enemies as very little character; as he who has not sufficient pluck and virtue to make some enemies in this world, is about next to nobody. Our ideal of virtue and manliness, is one who has decision and a fearless love for what is right, regardless of any opposition he may encounter. The man who loves virtue, and has the will and principle to vindicate it, must expect enemies; but this will be good for him. The strong tree that defies the wind, is more deeply rooted and fastened in the soil by every blast it encounters. A good man never knows how much there is of him, or how much Christ has done for him, until he has confronted and braved enemies. All the enemies that a holy life provokes, will serve a good purpose in the wisdom and power of God, though no thanks to the devil who brings it about.
9. "If I were entirely sanctified, lived in that state and confessed it, I would be singular, and be subject to observation and talk."
6. "If I seek holiness I shall have to change some items of my business, and give up some of my habits."
If your business or your habits are wrong, you will have to give them up or lose your soul. If honest in this objection, you are not in a justified state, and consequently have no religion at all. You cannot frequent the theater, circus, horse-race, and parlor-dance, and retain any religion at all. Those paths are the broad way to destruction. A justified state cannot be retained an hour while things are done known to be wrong. "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin;" "He that committeth sin is of the devil." The sinner makes the same excuse; would you tell him he could obtain religion and not give up all? There is a wile of Satan in this objection which is alarming.
7. "If I were entirely sanctified, I should be obliged to do many duties from which I now excuse myself"
If honest in this excuse, you have no reason to regard yourself a Christian. A Christian is a man who loves and obeys God. What right have you to choose to do a part of God's will, and refuse to do a part? "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord! Lord! shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." (See question 4. ) No man could obtain pardon with this excuse in his heart, nor justification be retained with such a state of mind.
8. "If I obtain holiness, and live a holy life, I shalt have enemies."
Well, suppose you do. The man who has no enemies as very little character; as he who has not sufficient pluck and virtue to make some enemies in this world, is about next to nobody. Our ideal of virtue and manliness, is one who has decision and a fearless love for what is right, regardless of any opposition he may encounter. The man who loves virtue, and has the will and principle to vindicate it, must expect enemies; but this will be good for him. The strong tree that defies the wind, is more deeply rooted and fastened in the soil by every blast it encounters. A good man never knows how much there is of him, or how much Christ has done for him, until he has confronted and braved enemies. All the enemies that a holy life provokes, will serve a good purpose in the wisdom and power of God, though no thanks to the devil who brings it about.
9. "If I were entirely sanctified, lived in that state and confessed it, I would be singular, and be subject to observation and talk."
People talk about you now. Your coldness, indifference, dwarfishness, and unhappy representation of Christianity is seen and talked about. If one must be observed and talked about, would you not rather people would talk about your devotion to God, holy singularity and religious enthusiasm, than to talk as they now do? Christians are a "peculiar people;" they are to be "separate from the world," and are to let their light shine, like a city on a hill which cannot be hid. Men cannot be public sinners, and then become private saints. This is what sinners would like, but God has no private saints.
10. "The inconsistencies of some who have professed holiness. have prejudiced my mind against it."
What! have you let the folly of mortals prejudice your mind against HOLINESS? -- against that which is godlike, and the most lovely and excellent of all the moral elements in the universe -- against that which cost the blood of God's only Son -- against that which constitutes the only preparation for the society of angels and of God? Is this not evidence of depravity that needs the cleansing blood of Christ? Unbelievers who meet with one hypocrite in the church, often come to think that most professors are hypocrites. This objection indicates a similar regard for those who profess perfect love. What have the faults or sins of men to do with your obligations to yourself, to the world, to the church, and to God?
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