Results of Not Seeking Holiness Part 3

4. Many good men think the church is sadly backslidden on account of this neglect.

1. Bishop Peck asks: "Is it not true that the large majority of real Christians are yet without it? -- that, in consequence of its neglect, the church is loaded with a body of death filled with backsliders, and comparatively powerless for the great purpose to which she is ordained of Heaven? ...

"How many thousands have been slain by harbored inward foes, which have seemed to be harmless! What a mass of backsliders there are now in the Church, for the very reason that they have been satisfied without going on unto perfection." -- Central Idea, p. 315.

2. President Mahan says: "We see the reason of the aspect of living death which the church now presents to the world. It is simply this: she is in a state of unbelief in respect to the nature and extent of the provisions and promises of divine grace. Christian Perfection, p. 51.

3. Bishop Foster says: "To say that the church is now living, and from the time of the beginning has been living, beneath her privilege, below her mission, would certainly be but a mild and moderate, though humiliating, utterance of the conviction of Christendom." -- Christian Purity, p. 25.

5. A neglect to seek holiness causes a spirit of opposition to holiness.

It is usually the case that persons who have been repeatedly convicted of their need of holiness, and of their duty to seek it, and have refused to do it, or have put forth at times some slight efforts to obtain it, and then relapsed into indifference upon the subject, become its worst enemies. They become displeased with those who faithfully preach it, and dislike to hear it personally professed. This is the natural result of neglected duty, and of grieving the Holy Spirit. They become opposed to holiness because holiness is opposed to them. Sinners who pursue a similar course in regard to regeneration, experience similar results.