 
A Serious Call To a Devout and Holy Life

Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil. – Isaiah 1:16

William Law   
Edited by Paul Miller

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Rules for Living A Holy Life

William Law – A Brief Biography
Foreword

by Paul Miller

This book is for those who want to deny themselves, carry their cross, and follow Jesus. It is for those who want to imitate the lives of Jesus and the apostles and the many other godly men and women who have gone before us and who have stood apart from the general population of Christians due to loving God more than the world.

A summary of the life of William Law can be found in the introduction to this book. Law was sincere, yet not always right. However, we can all learn from his advice, and if we did, this world would be a better place. Many have found things about the beliefs of William Law with which they do not fully agree, yet many more have been challenged by his writings to live a holy life that is pleasing to God, and certainly one that is more pleasing that the life of the general Western Christian.

Law did not write for a specific group of Christians, and followers of Jesus across the Christian spectrum have read the Serious Call and have been challenged to fully follow Jesus in a practical manner. We need to be called once again unto holiness, as we are often found too much like the world.

This book has been updated and adapted to the present day, while retaining Law's original format. In a few instances, some of Law's thoughts that might have been questionable, outdated, or may even have deviated somewhat from traditional biblical understanding (such as mysticism) have been edited or omitted.

We hope, therefore, that this book is relevant and useful to the modern biblical Christian, and that it will, as Law intended, challenge us all to live a pious life devoted to God.

For though we are given grace through faith in Jesus Christ, yet we must life holy lives for His sake. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? No, in no wise. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? (Romans 6:1-2).

A few terms that William Law often uses ought to be defined here.

Piety

Piety as used in this book refers to a general sense of holiness and devotion to God. A holy life is a pious life. A pious Christian is a devout and godly person.

Providence

Providence refers to the overarching hand of God upon our lives, and even refers to God Himself. It refers to God's will and wisdom and protection and care for us. While the unsaved might refer to fate or luck or chance, Christians might refer to the providence of God – that things do not occur by chance, but by the will of God according to the love and wisdom of God.

For example, in his Thanksgiving Day Proclamation of October 3, 1789, President George Washington declared that "it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor."

In an August 20, 1778, letter to Brigadier General Thomas Nelson, George Washington referred to certain events that happened during the Revolutionary War to assist the Americans as could only have happened due to the hand of God. Washington wrote: "The Hand of providence has been so conspicuous in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations."

Devotion

Devotion refers to loyalty or commitment to God. If we are devoted to God, we will seek His will and pleasure above all else. We should be devoted to Him above all else. The term can also refer to our having private or public devotions – a time usually consisting of prayer and Bible reading in which we devote ourselves to being with God and growing nearer to Him.

Vanity

Vanity refers to the emptiness or uselessness of something. It can also refer to excessive pride, conceit, and self-love. We can be vain when we think we look good or are smart and want everyone else to notice, too. We can take God's name in vain, or use it in emptiness, simply saying God's name as a curse word or in an expression. We can vainly, or pointlessly in a futile attempt, try to stop the rain by holding our hands up in the air.

John Bunyan, in Pilgrim's Progress, gives a good idea of vanity in his section on Vanity Fair. There, people live for themselves and their own pleasures and desires, not realizing that they live in vain, or for no real purpose. Soon, their lives will be over and all that they thought was good will be gone.
Introduction

This Introduction was compiled mainly from the introduction to earlier editions, such as the 1899 edition printed by Methuen & Co. in London.

The Life of William Law (1686-1761)

William Law was born in 1686, at King's Cliffe, a large village near Stamford, in Northamptonshire, England. His father, Thomas Law, was a grocer and chandler, or one who ran the village shop. It is a position, as all country people know, of some importance in the rustic hierarchy, and in those days was more important than it is now. Both the father and the mother – her name was Margaret – were good, religious people. Some have thought that they were the models for Jeremiah and Hannah in the Serious Call.

Their son, William – he was the fourth of eight sons, and there were three daughters as well – entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, as sizar, or poor scholar, in 1705. He earned his B.A. degree in 1708, was elected Fellow and was ordained in 1711, and graduated as M.A. in 1712. While at Cambridge he drew up a set of "rules for my future conduct." The first rule was "to fix it deep in my mind that I have but one business upon my hands – to seek for eternal happiness by doing the will of God." "Doing the will of God" sums up the earlier part of Law's history, just as freedom and peace in the Holy Spirit sums up the later. Through the one he rose to the other, like Origen and many other saints.

On the accession of George I in 1716, William refused to take the oaths of allegiance and abjuration, and he was accordingly deprived of his Fellowship and of all prospect of employment in the Church. The loss to Law was very great, as he lost both influence and employment. However, affliction tries the righteous man, and very pure reverence is due to those who, like Law, retained their saintliness in a world that had cast them out, and which they could not understand.

Almost immediately after the resignation of his Fellowship, Law began to make his mark in the world of literature. The Three Letters to the Bishop of Bangor appeared in 1717; the Remarks upon the Fable of the Bees in 1723; The Absolute Unlawfulness of Stage Entertainments in 1726; and the Case of Reason in 1731.

In 1726 appeared the first of Law's devotional works, the Practical Treatise upon Christian Perfection. It is significant that Law uses "perfection" here, not, as the old fathers wrote about perfection of love, but Law intended it to be about obedience.

About this time Mr. Edward Gibbon, the grandfather of the historian, was seeking a tutor for his only son. Law was selected for this position, accompanied the younger Gibbon to Cambridge, and in 1730, when his pupil went abroad to make the grand tour, found a home in that "spacious house with gardens and land at Putney," where his patron resided, "in decent hospitality." Here he lived, "as the much honored friend and spiritual director of the whole family," until the establishment was broken up soon after Mr. Gibbon's death in 1736.

In 1729 the publication of the Serious Call had set the seal on Law's reputation, and he was visited and consulted at Putney by a little circle of disciples. Chief among them were Dr. Cheyne, the two Wesleys, and the poet John Byrom. The Wesleys drifted away from him, but John Byrom remained his faithful friend for life. Law was one of those men who have many admirers and few friends, and whose friends are markedly inferior to themselves. They are men who cannot bear contradiction.

William Law settled at King's Cliffe, his birthplace, in a good house known as King John's Palace, or the Hall Yard. Here, in 1744, he was joined by Miss Hester Gibbon, the daughter of his old patron, and Mrs. Elizabeth Hutcheson, the widow of a wealthy country gentleman; and here he died in 1761.

Law's life at King's Cliffe was wholly uneventful. The only dates that emerge are those of the writings that he sent to be published from time to time, down to the very year of his death. It cannot have been a wholesome existence for so able a man to have been thus confined as domestic chaplain with two women of limited understanding and peculiar character. He seems to have had scarcely any contact with the outside world. Certainly he suffered through the absence of greater duties and conversation with his equals. The little household was strictly ordered. The Bible and books of theology were the only literature admitted, and Law did not seem to participate in any form of recreation beyond conversation, a little music, and an occasional drive or ride. The historian Gibbon, who is oddly divided between dislike of Law's ways and pride in having been, in a sense, the proprietor of so famous a man, speaks of the house at King's Cliffe as "a hermitage," or the dwelling of a hermit, and the term is not inappropriate.

The Christian duty most insisted upon by Law was charity. He himself was the soul of generosity. He built and endowed a girls' school at King's Cliffe, possibly with the thousand pounds that had been sent to him anonymously by someone who was grateful for spiritual profit received from the Christian Perfection. In 1745 the foundation was increased by Mrs. Hutcheson, until it included also a school for boys, almshouses, and a library.

Such wise generosity could bear nothing but good fruits; but the rule of the house was that all surplus income should be given away in alms. As Mrs. Hutcheson enjoyed two thousand pounds a year, Miss Gibbon had inherited half her father's large property, and Law himself possessed some means, the sums thus disposed of must have been very considerable.

Law would never allow his portrait to be taken, but Mr. Tighe, who visited King's Cliffe some time before 1813, tells us that Law "was in stature rather over than under the middle size; not corpulent, but stout made, with broad shoulders; his visage was round, his eyes grey, his features well-proportioned and not large; his complexion ruddy, and his countenance open and agreeable. He was naturally more inclined to be merry than sad. . . . He chose to eat his food from a wooden platter, not from an idea of the unnecessary luxury of a plate, but because it appeared to him that a plate spoiled the knives."

He was a thorough Englishman in person and mind, and he is a noble figure. In all his numerous controversies, he never used a discourteous word or a deceitful argument. He never fought for trifles nor for any cause that did not lie very near to the heart of religion. He found himself condemned to a life of isolation, yet he never lost heart or temper or showed the least trace of bitterness, though he was naturally of a masterful and positive disposition; indeed, he grew in sweetness and goodness to the very end. Certainly no one could be more consistent or thorough. "He left," says Gibbon the historian, "the reputation of a worthy and a pious man, who believed all that he professed and practiced all that he enjoined," and these words are just.

Of the Serious Call

The Serious Call was published in 1729, when its author was about forty-three years of age. The world has always regarded it as Law's masterpiece, and with good reason. In it Law describes his own life and principles, with all the force of earnest sincerity. The book is, we may say, a part of himself. Law had other writings, but this is the one that best relates practically to the people.

The style of the Serious Call is admirably adapted to its subject. It is serious, clear, and strong, but not graceful. There is never the slightest doubt about Law's meaning. He conveys to the reader the exact idea that is in his own mind. He selects the plainest words and the simplest figures, and he is not in the least afraid of repetition. A typical instance is to be found in the parable of the pond, in the eleventh chapter. The picture is as distinct as possible and easy to understand. Almost the only artistic feature in the book is to be found in the characters. Some of them are created with great skill; many of them show how keen a power of sarcasm Law possessed, and how carefully he bridled it.

Attempts have been made to find real people behind the characters. Jeremiah and Hannah have been identified with Law's own father and mother, and the English historian Edward Gibbon was convinced that Beth and Miranda represented his two aunts. Of Jeremiah we are specifically told that he lived about two hundred years ago, and the characters are all types, suggested, no doubt, by people whom Law had met, yet had not drawn from life. Character painting had been for a century a favorite method of conveying moral instruction, and many famous writers, from Earle to Addison, have left us specimens of their skill in this kind of composition.

The Serious Call has not escaped criticism, and indeed, it is easy enough to point out features in which it bears the mark of the eighteenth century; but it is a splendid protest against the spiritual apathy of the times, and no more strenuous plea for consistency and thoroughness was ever delivered.

The book is addressed to Christians, and it is, as its title implies, a Serious Call to be what they profess. The point is inevitable; it is driven home with extraordinary force, and Law's whole life gives weight to every word.

It is not in the least necessary to agree with Law in all the details. The questions which he urges upon the reader are, "Are you living the Christian life as you believe it ought to be lived? Are you acting up to your convictions? Are you a true follower of Jesus or not?" Few can face these questions without many qualms of conscience.

As in Thomas à Kempis' Imitation of Christ we have a pure man describing purity, so here we have a real man insisting on reality. Every syllable is transparently genuine. This is the secret of the Serious Call. It is remarkable that, of those whom we know to have been deeply affected by the book, not one was in complete sympathy with Law. Nor does Law expect this. He would say to the reader, "If you are wiser than I, thank God for it, but beware that you are not less sincere."

Let us take a few conspicuous instances of some who were affected by this book. One of the first and most illustrious of Law's disciples was John Wesley. "Meeting now," says Wesley, – the time was shortly after his election to the Lincoln Fellowship – "with Mr. Law's Christian Perfection and Serious Call, although I was much offended at many parts of both, yet they convinced me more than ever of the exceeding height and breadth and depth of the law of God. The light flowed in so mightily upon my soul that everything appeared in a new light. . . . I was convinced more than ever of the impossibility of being half a Christian."

There were "many parts" of the book that Wesley did not approve. In 1732 he visited William Law at Putney, consulted him upon religious questions, and took him for "a kind of oracle." But in 1738 the little rift widened into a division. On his return from Georgia, Wesley threw in his lot with the Moravians, but Law could not agree with Peter Bohler, whose views of the atonement, faith, instantaneous conversion, and sinlessness were highly repugnant to him. A sharp correspondence ensued between Wesley and Law, and these two excellent men drifted apart. Later on, Wesley became much more serious in many of his views, but by this time Law had become interested with the mystical thoughts of Behmenism, and this was a new barrier. Yet, within eighteen months of William Law's death, Wesley spoke of the Serious Call as "a treatise which will hardly be excelled, if it be equaled, in the English tongue, either for beauty of expression or for justness and depth of thought."

No good man could well be more unlike Law than Dr. Samuel Johnson. Johnson was often too harsh and sweeping in his assertions, but he could not sympathize with Law's politics, philosophy, or his abrupt exclusion of the world from Christianity. Further, Johnson did not much like Law's peculiar type of Behmen-based mysticism, yet he thought that the Serious Call was "the finest piece of hortatory [exhorting] theology in any language." "When at Oxford," he says in another place, "I took it up expecting to find it a dull book, and perhaps to laugh at it. But I found Law quite an over-match for me; and this was the first occasion of my thinking in earnest of religion after I became capable of religious inquiry."

Thus, Law gave a great impulse to Methodism and breathed new life into the old-fashioned High Church. But he also strongly affected the rising Evangelical school, though focusing more on our part in living a holy life than in Jesus' role in saving us from the old nature. Law preached self-denial rather than self-sacrifice, but he expected Christians to live differently than the lost.

Many good people, of widely divergent ways of thinking, have read the Serious Call with great profit to their souls; but what we are to learn above all things from the Serious Call is that there can be no truth and no wholesome life without perfect sincerity. The double minded man is unstable in all his ways (James 1:8).

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Chapter 1

Concerning the nature and extent of Christian devotion.

Devotion to God is not just prayer and church attendance. Many people do these things who are not devoted to God. Rather, prayer, whether private or public, is one particular part of devotion. Devotion signifies an entire life given, or devoted, to God. Are you devoted to God?

He, therefore, is devout, who no longer lives according to his own will or according to the way and spirit of the world, but only according to the will of God. He is devout who considers God in everything, who serves God in everything, who devotes every part of his life to piety, by doing everything in the name of God and under such ways as are done for His glory.

We readily acknowledge that God alone is to be the reason for and recipient of our prayers. In our prayers, we are to look wholly unto Him and act entirely for Him, and we are only to pray in such a way and for such things and purposes as are suitable to His will and glory.

Prayer is more than repeating words. It is more than saying the same prayer all the time or just reading prayer requests to God. If we understand the reason why we are to be strictly pious in our prayers, we will find it to be the same strong reason why we should be strictly pious in all the other parts of our lives. We know for certain that we should honor and trust God in our prayers and that we should look wholly to Him and pray according to His will; and we should do the same in all the other actions of our life.

Any manner of life and any use of our talents, whether of ourselves or of our possessions, time, or money that is not strictly according to the will of God and that is not for purposes that are appropriate for His glory, is as absurd and flawed as prayers that are not according to the will of God.

Is in foolish to try to pray in a holy manner if it is not our intent to live in a holy manner. There is no other reason why our prayers should be according to the will of God and why they should contain nothing except what is wise, holy, and heavenly, other than so our lives may be of the same nature and be full of the same wisdom, holiness, and heavenly character as our prayers. We ought to live unto God in the same spirit and with the same sincerity that we pray to Him. Our most heavenly prayers – those that we think bring us nearest to the throne of God – would be foolish and a waste of time if they are only words, if it were not for our obligation and desire to devote all the actions of our lives to God. If it were not absolutely necessary to walk before Him in wisdom and holiness and all heavenly manner of life, doing everything in His Name and for His glory, there would be no excellency or wisdom in the most heavenly prayers. Such prayers would be absurdities. It would be like praying for wings when it was not part of our duty to fly.

As certain, therefore, as there is any wisdom in praying for the Spirit of God, so it is certain that we are to make that Spirit the guide of all our actions. As certain as it is our duty to look wholly unto God in our prayers, so certain it is that it is our duty to live wholly unto God in our lives. However, it cannot rightly be said that we live unto God unless we live unto Him in all the ordinary actions of our life. We are not living fully for God if we do not do so at all times and in all things. Unless He is the standard and measure of all our ways, we are living for ourselves.

It cannot rightly be said that we pray unto God unless our prayers look wholly to Him. Unreasonable and absurd ways of life, whether in work or hobbies or entertainment, whether they consume our time or our money, are like unreasonable and absurd prayers, and are as truly an offense unto God. Many, though, say fine prayers, but do not have the intent or desire to live fully for God. They pray to God on Sunday morning and then live for themselves on Sunday afternoon. They say a quick prayer on Monday morning, and then barely give God another thought until the next morning's quick prayer.

It is because we do not know or consider that we must devote every aspect of our lives wholly unto God that we see so many people ridicule many who profess to be Christian. You see them regularly attend church, but when the church service is over, they are just like those who seldom or never attend church. In their way of life, their manner of spending their time and money, in their cares and fears, in their pleasures and indulgences, in their work and recreation, they are just like the rest of the world.

This causes the depraved part of the world to generally make a joke of Christians, because they see that their devotion goes no farther than their prayers, and that when the prayers and religious service are over, they live no more unto God until the next church service. Instead, they live by the same thoughts and inclinations, and in as full an enjoyment of all the indiscretion of life as other people. They sing to God on Sunday morning, and then listen to the music of the world the rest of the week. Their hearts do not belong wholly unto God. This is the reason why they are the jest and scorn of indifferent and worldly people – not because they are really devoted to God, but because they appear to have no other devotion but that of routine prayers and typical church attendance.

Dave is very fearful of missing church. All the church community thinks that Dave must be sick if he is not at church. But Dave spends the rest of his time living for fun. He is a companion of the most foolish people in their most misguided pleasures. He is ready for every ill-mannered entertainment and diversion, and there is no amusement too trivial to please him. Much of his time is devoted to sports and parties. He gives himself up to idle words and gossip. He is good friends with foolish people who live for this world and for themselves. He allows himself to foolishly hate and resent certain people without considering that he is to love everybody as himself. If you ask him why he never puts his conversation, his time, and his fortune under Christian principles, Dave has no more to say for himself than the most disorderly person. The whole tenor of Scripture lies as directly against such a life as against depravity and drunkenness. He who lives such a life of idleness and foolishness lives no more according to the religion of Jesus Christ than he who lives in gluttony and drunkenness.

But if someone were to tell Dave that he could neglect church without any harm to his soul, Dave would think that person was not a Christian and would avoid his company. But if someone tells him that he may live as most of the world does, that he may enjoy himself as others do, that he may spend his time and money as people of the world do, that he may conform to the foolishness and faults of the general public and gratify his emotions and passions as most people do, Dave never suspects that person to lack a Christian spirit or think that he is doing the devil's work; but if Dave were to read the entire New Testament from beginning to end, he would find his course of life condemned in every page of it.

Indeed, there cannot be anything more absurd imagined than wise and majestic and heavenly prayers added to a life of emptiness and indiscretion, where neither labor, pleasure, time, nor money are under the direction of the wisdom and heavenly character of our prayers. It would be absurd to think of someone praying in fine, eloquent words, yet who lives his life for himself and without regard for the glory of God and holiness.

On the other hand, if we were to see someone pretending to act wholly with regard to God in everything that he did, who would neither spend time nor money, nor take part in any work or recreation unless he could act according to strict principles of conscience and piety, but at the same time he would neglect all prayer and Bible reading, would we not be amazed at such a person and wonder how he could have so much foolishness along with so much religion? Don't many do this, though? They go to church and think of themselves as fine Christians. They tell others how much they like church. When in public, they pray before eating to show others how religious they are and how much they love God. They do or do not do certain things because they say that they want to please God. They help teach at church and are often doing things to help others – yet they rarely read the Bible or sincerely fervently pray.

Yet this is as reasonable as for anyone to be faithful in church attendance and in saying prayers, and yet letting the rest of his life – his time and labor, his talents and money – be disposed of without any regard to taking piety and devotion to God seriously. It is as great an absurdity to think that someone can have holy prayers and divine petitions without a holy life, as to think that someone can have a holy and divine life without prayers and the Holy Scripture and a life devoted to God.

Let anyone therefore think how easily he could discredit someone who pretended to be a sincere Christian but never prayed, and the same arguments will as plainly discredit another, who pretends to pray much but does not live a holy life. To be weak and foolish in spending our time and money is no greater a mistake than to be weak and foolish in our prayers. To participate in anything in life that we would not offer to God is the same kind of irreligion as to neglect to pray or to pray irreverently or merely ritualistically and not from the heart, making our prayers unworthy of God.

The conclusion of the matter is that either wisdom and Christianity prescribe rules and motives for all that we say and do in life, or they do not. If they do, then it is as necessary to govern all our actions by those rules as it is necessary to worship God. If the Bible teaches us anything about eating and drinking, how to use our time and money, how to live in and yet be separate from the world, what approach we are to have in everyday life, how we are to act toward all people, how we are to treat the sick, the poor, the elderly, and the destitute, who to love and respect, how to treat our enemies, and how to be self-disciplined and deny ourselves, then he must be very weak who thinks that these parts of Christianity are not to be observed with as much exactness and care as any doctrines that relates to prayer.

It is very noticeable that there is not one command in all the Gospels for public worship, and perhaps it is a duty that is least insisted upon in the rest of Scripture. The Scriptures place much emphasis on how we ought to live in our private and personal lives, how we ought to live as families and even as Christian brothers and sisters, but the Bible does not measure Christian maturity on how often we attend church. While it is good for us to meet together, it is foolish to think that we are fulfilling the object of following Jesus simply because we go to church.

Our blessed Savior and His apostles are entirely concerned with doctrines relating to ordinary life. They call us to renounce the world and to be different in every aspect and way of life from the spirit and the way of the world. We are to renounce all its goods, to fear none of its evils, and to reject its pleasures. Our happiness should be different than what makes those of the world happy. We are to be as newborn babies who are born into a new state of things, to live as pilgrims just passing through, in holy fear, and with our hearts set on things above. We are to take up our cross every day, deny ourselves, profess the blessedness of mourning, expect persecution, and seek the blessedness of poverty of spirit. We must forsake the pride and vanity of riches, not worry about tomorrow, live in the deepest state of humility, rejoice in worldly sufferings, reject the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, accept injuries, forgive and bless our enemies, and love mankind as God loves them. We are to give up our whole hearts and affections to God, and to strive to enter through the narrow gate into a life of eternal glory.

This is the type of devotion that our blessed Savior taught, and it should be common in all Christians. Is it not therefore incredibly strange that people should place so much piety in attending church, which Jesus never mentioned, and yet neglect these common duties of our ordinary life, which are commanded on every page of the Gospels? I call these duties the devotion of our common life, because if they are to be practiced, they must be made part of our common life; they can have no place anywhere else.

If contempt of the world and heavenly affection are necessary characteristics of Christians, it is necessary that this attitude of mind appears in the whole course of their lives and in the way that they live in the world, because it can have no place anywhere else. If self-denial is a condition of following Jesus, all who would truly follow Him must make it a part of their normal lives. If humility is a Christian duty, then the normal life of a Christian must demonstrate humility in every part of life. If poverty of spirit is necessary, it must be the spirit and demeanor of every day of our lives. If we are to relieve the naked, the sick, and the prisoner, it must be the common kindness of our lives, as far as we are able to do it. If we are to love our enemies, we must make our everyday life a visible exercise and demonstration of that love. If contentment and thankfulness and patiently bearing evil are duties to God, then they are the duties of every day and should be in every circumstance of our lives. If we are to be wise and holy as the newborn children of God, we cannot be so except by renouncing everything that is foolish and vain in every part of our lives. If we are to be new creatures in Christ, we must show that we are so by having new ways of living in the world. If we are to follow Christ, it must be our usual way of spending every day. If we blend in with our unsaved co-workers, friends, and neighbors, then we are not following Jesus.

It is the same with all the virtues and holy qualities of Christianity; they are not ours unless they are the virtues and qualities of our ordinary lives. Christianity does not allow us to live in the typical worldly ways of life, conforming to the folly and sin of what everyone else does, and gratifying the passions and qualities in which the world delights. It is so far from accommodating us in any of these things that all the virtues of Christianity that give evidence of salvation are simply ways of living above and contrary to the world in all the normal actions of our life. If our everyday life is not a common course of humility, self-denial, renunciation of the world, poverty of spirit, and heavenly affection, we do not live the lives of Christians. Yet how many Christians delight in the same immodest fashion and music and movies and sports and other entertainment of the world and still profess to walk in the footsteps of Jesus?

Though these virtues is characteristic should be plain and consistent among true Christians, it is just as plain that there is little or nothing of these to be found even among even the better sort of people who are not true Christians. You see them often at church. They are pleased with nice sermons, but if you look into their lives you see them to be just the same kind of people as those who do not pretend to be devoted to God. They have the same desire and love for the world, the same worldly cares, fears, and joys. They have the same perspective, equally worldly in their desires. You see the same fondness for worldly success and prosperity, the same pride and vanity of clothing, the same self-love and indulgence, the same foolish friendships and groundless hatreds, the same levity of mind and shallow spirit, the same fondness for fun and sports, the same types of music and entertainment, the same idle natures, and the same empty ways of spending their time as the rest of the world that does not pretend to love God.

I do not mean this comparison to be between people who seem good and those who are living in blatant sin, but between people of sincere and thoughtful lives. Let us look at an example of two ordinary women. Let us suppose that one of them regularly attends church and prays out of a sense of duty, while the other woman is not very concerned about these things, but is at church when it is convenient for her or when she feels like it, just whatever her mood and schedule happen to be. Now it is easy to see this difference between these two women, but other than this, can you find any other differences between them? Can you find that their lives are much different? Are not the qualities, customs, and manners of the one the same as the other? Their lives are much the same in their purposes and desires. They both consider the same things as good and evil and right and wrong. They both enjoy the things of this life and do not seem to live for the next world.

One would think that one of these women would live much differently than the other if one desired to follow Jesus and the other was not so concerned about that, but there is not much difference between the lives of these two women. Both live in pleasure, delighting themselves in the common fashion of the day. Neither seems to ask what kind of clothing would most please God, but both are only interested in that which they thinks makes them look fashionable or might impress others. This can be seen among those of today who go to church and profess to be Christian, but dress no more modestly during the week than those who have no concern for God. Both wear tight pants and shorts, short skirts, and other immodest fashions of this world.

Neither woman lives in self-denial regarding God, but if they deny themselves anything such as food, it is only to support their vanity and desire to look good to others. Neither renounces everything that looks like pride, either of person, dress, or possessions. Both women find much enjoyment in public entertainment. Both waste their time in gossip and corrupt conversation. Neither cares much of making good use of time by way of Bible reading and prayer, family devotions, reading good books that might draw them nearer to God, or helping their neighbors. Both are more interested in storing up treasure in this life than the next. Both carelessly spend in order to clothe themselves with the latest fashions. Neither woman considers her finances as given to her by God to be carefully used, and no more to be spent on vain and needless clothing and jewelry than it is to be buried in the earth. Both women appear much the same outside of church; yet if they do not differ in these things that should separate a follower of Jesus from one who is not, can it with any sense be said that the one is a good Christian and the other is not? What begins in the heart should be clear in the outward person.

Here is another example. Mike is a good-natured person. He has kept good company, hates everything that is false and dishonorable, is very generous and brave to his friends, but has concerned himself so little with the Scriptures and Christ that he hardly knows the difference between a Jew and a Christian.

Ray, on the other hand, was taught about the Christian life at an early age. He buys religious books. He can talk about all the feasts and fasts of the church and knows the names of most people who have been eminent for piety throughout the history of the church. You never hear him swear or mock or tell a dirty joke, and when he talks of Christianity, he talks of it as of a matter of the greatest concern.

Here you can see that according to how the world views things, one person has enough religion to be considered a pious Christian, while the other is so far from all appearance of religion that he may fairly be considered an atheist; and yet if you look into their everyday lives, if you examine their main and ruling beliefs regarding the greatest things in life or the greatest doctrines of Christianity, you will not find the least difference imaginable. Consider this, because this is what the world sees and how it views them.

To have biblical ideas and attitudes with relation to this world is as essential to living the Christian life as it is to have right notions of God; yet it is as impossible for someone to worship a crocodile and be a Christian as it is for him to have his affections set upon this world and yet be a good Christian.

But now if you consider Mike and Ray in this respect, you will find them exactly alike, seeking, using, and enjoying all that can be had in this world in the same manner and for the same goals. You will find that riches, prosperity, pleasures, indulgences, social status, and honor are just as much the happiness of Ray as they are of Mike. Yet if Christianity has not changed a person's mind and behavior in relation to these things, what can we say that it has done for him?

If the doctrines of Christianity were practiced, they would make a person as different from other people as to all worldly inclinations, sensual pleasures, and the pride of life, as a wise man is different from a foolish man. It would be as easy a thing to know a Christian by his outward course of life as it is now difficult to find anyone who lives it. It is notorious that Christians are now like other people in their frailties and weaknesses; this might be in some degree excusable. The problem is, however, that they are like heathens in all the main and most important aspects of their lives. They enjoy the world and live every day in the same frame of mind and with the same plans and indulgences as those who do not know God and who are living for this life only.

Everyone who is capable of any reflection must have observed that this is generally the state even of devout people, whether men or women. You may see them different from other people as to church attendance and prayer rituals, but they are generally like the rest of the world in all the other parts of their lives. That is, they simply add religious observance to a heathen life. I have the authority of our blessed Savior for this remark, where He says, Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, With what shall we be clothed? For the Gentiles seek after all these things (Matthew 6:31-32). If those who profess to be Christians identify with the world even in the necessary things of life like food and clothing, surely it is a much greater sign of an heathen attitude to enjoy the vanity and folly of the world and to be like them in the main areas of life – in self-love and indulgence, in sensual pleasures and recreation, in the vanity and immodesty of clothing, in the love of show and popularity, in desire for wealth, and more. Consequently, they who add a little religion to such a life are said to pray as Christians, but live as heathens.

* * *

 Piety and pious as used throughout this book refer to holy living, righteous duties, devout, fearing God, sincere desire to live for God, etc.
Chapter 2

An inquiry into the reason why most Christians fall so far short of the holiness and devotion of Christianity.

It may now be reasonably asked how it is that the lives of even the better sort of church people are so strangely contrary to the principles of true Christianity?

Before I give a direct answer to this, I want to ask why it is that profanity, including taking God's name in vain, is so common a sin among Christians. It is now almost as common among women as it is among men. Some swear regularly, some let these words slip out almost as if by accident, and some have a different set of language for when they are in church and when they are not.

Now I ask, why are so many people guilty of so blatant and profane a sin as this? They cannot blame this sin on either ignorance or human weakness. It is against a direct commandment and the plainest doctrines of our blessed Savior. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain for the LORD will not hold guiltless anyone that takes his name in vain (Exodus 20:7). But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment (Matthew 12:36). Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth (Ephesians 4:29). If anyone among you thinks to be religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, his religion is vain (James 1:26). Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile (Psalm 34:13).

If we find the reason why so many professed Christians take part in this notorious vice, then you will have found the reason why so many of the better sort of church people live so contrary to Christianity. The reason for common swearing is this: it is because people do not have the intention to please God in all their actions. If someone intends to please God as the first and greatest duty of his life, he will never swear again. It will be as impossible for him to swear while he feels this intention within himself as it is impossible for a man who intends to please his prince to go up and abuse him to his face.

Some pastors have been heard swearing in church meetings. Some pastors joke about how they swear at home when they get mad. How many professed Christians willingly listen to music or watch movies that contain profanity or in which God's name is taken in vain? Many even take God's name in vain as they pray. When God's name is used as a filler, it is being used in vain. No one would go up to a king and say, "Hello, King Stephen. It is nice to meet you, King Stephen. King Stephen, you are a good leader, King Stephen. I have a request, King Stephen. You are kind, King Stephen and generous, King Stephen, etc." Not only would this be annoying to the king and anyone else listening, but it would not be using the king's name and title with respect. Yet many Christians pray this way – using God's name as a filler word. They pray, "Hello, Father God. We come before you, Father God, and we ask You, Father God, to help us, Father God, etc." Some use "Lord God." Others use "heavenly Father." Whatever term and name is used, though, it is not giving God's name the reverence that is due.

How many Christians use the Christian swear words, such as "Gosh," "Jeez," "Holy cow," etc.? Even "OMG" is nothing more than idle words often taking God's name in vain. This is the same as adding a little religion to a worldly life, without having the intent to please God in all our actions and words.

It seems to be only a small and necessary part of piety to have such a sincere intention as to avoid profanity and taking God's name in vain, and we have no reason to view ourselves as disciples of Christ if we do not even have the simple desire and intent to please God in all our actions. Yet it is purely for lack of this intent and degree of piety that you see such a mixture of sin and worldliness in the lives of even the better sort of people. It is for lack of this intention that you see people who profess Christianity who swear and seek the pleasures of this world.

It is the reason you see clergymen given to pride and covetousness and worldly enjoyments. It is for lack of this intention that you see women who profess devotion to God, yet dress in the latest fashions and styles in order to please themselves and others rather than God, who waste their time in idleness and pleasures and who prefer popularity and fashion more than modesty and holiness. If a woman's heart was full of the intention to please God in all things, she would find it as impossible to swear and dress immodestly as to get drunk or steal. She would no longer desire to stand out at social events or dress in the latest and most worldly manner. She would no longer wear short skirts and dresses or tight clothing simply because others do.

She will want to impress God and not others. She will be more concerned with fitting in with the Word of God than with her co-workers and friends. She will know that the one is as far from the wisdom and excellency of the Christian spirit as the other. While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price (1 Peter 3:2-4). How Christian women (or men) can dress in Spandex or yoga shorts and pants and think they are pleasing God is difficult to understand. It is simply that many professing Christians do not really have the intent to please God in all that they do, say, watch, or wear.

It was this general intention to please God fully in everything that made the early Christians such eminent examples of piety and resulted in the godly fellowship of the saints and all the glorious army of martyrs and confessors. If you will stop here and ask yourselves why you are not as pious as the early Christians were, your own heart will tell you that it is neither through ignorance nor inability, but purely because you never thoroughly intended it. You observe the same Sunday worship that they did, and you usually go to church, because it is your full intention to do so; and when you as fully intend to be like them in their ordinary common lives, when you intend to please God in all your actions, you will find it as possible to be as devoted to God in the service of Christ.

When you have this intention to please God in all your actions as the happiest and best thing in the world, you will find in yourself disliking everything that is vain and inappropriate in common life, whether of business or pleasure. You will be as fearful of living in any foolish way, either of spending your time or your money, as you are now fearful of not attending church or not saying prayers. A Christian businessman will no longer drink or swear or laugh at dirty jokes simply because others do. A Christian secretary or athlete will no longer dress immodestly simply because others do. If it is your goal to please God in everything, you will be different than most professing Christians, and certainly different than the world.

No one who does not possess this general sincere intention to please God in every aspect of life can be considered a Christian, for he is not following Jesus if he does not intend to please God in all things. Yet if this intent were common among Christians, it would change the face of the entire world. True piety and exemplary holiness would be as common and visible as going to the store, or any business in life.

Let a clergyman have this intent, and he will speak as if he had been brought up by an apostle. He will not think of himself as an executive with a great and growing ministry, but he will be a humble, holy servant of God. His heart will not be set upon fancy buildings and gymnasiums and fancy cars and entertaining the community. His heart will not be set upon fun youth groups and church social events, but his heart will be set upon the need for a holy congregation. He will not think that his local community needs entertained and enticed, but needs repentance and Jesus Christ. He will not confuse emotion for the power of the Spirit of God. If a clergyman intends to please God in everything, he will not love the music and entertainment of the world that distracts his heart from Jesus Christ. Instead, he will set an example for the congregation by his holy living.

He will no more complain that some people do not like him or that his church is not growing than he will complain of his lack of expensive clothes or lack of a new luxury vehicles. Let him but intend to please God in all his actions as the happiest and best thing in the world, and then he will know that there is nothing noble in a clergyman but a burning zeal for the salvation of souls. He will preach messages from God rather than sermons with nice outlines. He will deal with the sin in his own life and in that of his congregation rather than try to avoid the sins of the church in order to be popular and accepted by them. He will be more concerned with pleasing God than in pleasing the people. He will spend much time alone with God in prayer and in the Scriptures, desiring to walk with God instead of just preparing a sermon. He will understand that a worldly spirit is not good in his profession, and that godliness rather than games is the goal.

Let a worker have this intention to please God in all things, and it will make him a saint in his shop. His everyday business will be a course of wise and reasonable actions, made holy to God by being done in obedience to His will and pleasure. He will buy and sell and labor and travel, because by so doing he can do some good to himself and others. But then, as nothing can please God but what is wise and reasonable and holy, so he will neither buy nor sell nor labor in any other manner or to any other goal except that which may be shown to be wise and reasonable and holy.

He will not therefore consider what skills or methods or machines will soonest make him richer and greater than others or allow him to most quickly retire to a life of ease and pleasure, but he will consider what skills and methods and machines can make worldly business most acceptable to God and make his work a life of holiness, devotion, and piety. This will be the intent and spirit of every worker. He cannot stop short of these degrees of piety, whenever it is his intention to please God in all his actions as the best and happiest thing in the world. On the other hand, whoever is not of this spirit and intent in his trade and profession, whoever does not grow toward living a wise and holy and heavenly life, it is certain that he has not this intention; and yet without it, one cannot be seen as a true follower of Jesus Christ.

If a gentleman of noble birth and fortune has this intention, you will see how it will carry him from every appearance of evil to every instance of piety and goodness. He cannot live by chance or as impulse carries him, because he knows that nothing can please God except a wise and consistent course of life. He cannot live in idleness and indulgence, in sports and entertainment, in pleasures and drunkenness, in wasteful expenses and high living, because these things cannot be turned into means of piety and holiness or made part of a wise and godly life.

As he turns away from all appearance of evil, so he hurries and reaches toward every instance of goodness. He does not ask what is allowable and legal, but what is commendable and praiseworthy. He is not content with what is good, but he desires what is best. All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient; all things are lawful for me, but all things do not edify (1 Corinthians 10:23).

He does not ask whether God will forgive the folly of our lives, the foolishness of our pleasures, the wastefulness of our expenses, the richness of our possessions, and the careless consumption of our time; but he asks whether God is pleased with these things. He does not ask whether it is pardonable to hoard money, to adorn himself with diamonds, and to drive luxurious cars, while the widow and the orphan, the sick and the prisoner need to be helped. Instead, he asks what God has required from him and whether or not he will be called to account at the last day for the neglect of them. It is not his intent to live in such ways as God might forgive, but to be diligent in such ways that he knows God will reward. His goal is not to live for himself and to come up with excuses that he hopes God will accept, but to live fully for God – even if it means to give away what he has.

He will not therefore look at the lives of other Christians to learn how he ought to spend his riches, but he will look to the Scriptures and make every doctrine, parable, precept, or instruction that relates to rich men a law to himself in the use of his possessions.

He will have nothing to do with costly clothing, because the rich man in the Gospel was clothed with purple and fine linen (Luke 16:19). He denies himself the pleasures and indulgences that his wealth could obtain, because our blessed Savior said, Woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation (Luke 6:24). He will have but one rule for charity, and that will be to give all that he can, because the Judge of the living and dead has said that all that is so given is given to Him. And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brothers, ye have done it unto me (Matthew 25:40).

He will have no hospitable table for the rich and wealthy to come and feast with him in good eating and drinking, because our blessed Lord said, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen nor thy rich neighbours, lest they also invite thee again, and a recompense be made thee. But when thou makest a banquet, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and thou shalt be blessed, for they cannot recompense thee; for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just (Luke 14:12-14).

He will waste no money in extravagant houses or fancy cars or costly furniture. He will not be carried from pleasure to pleasure, from entertainment to entertainment, wasting his time and resources in vain sports and theater and expensive hobbies, because an inspired apostle has said, All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world (1 John 2:16).

Let not anyone look upon this as an imaginary description of charity that looks fine in theory but cannot be put into practice. It is so far from being an imaginary, impossible form of life, that it has been practiced by great numbers of Christians in former ages who were glad to turn their whole fortunes into a constant course of charity. It is so far from being impossible now, that if we can find any Christians who sincerely intend to please God in all their actions as the best and happiest thing in the world, whether they are young or old, single or married, men or women, if they have but this intention, it will be impossible for them to do otherwise. This one principle will infallibly carry them to this height of charity, and they will find themselves unable to stop short of it.

If a person's intent is to please God in the use of his money because it is his greatest happiness to please God, it is not possible for such a person in such a state of mind to spend his money in needless, showy possessions, in covering himself with gold, or in buying extravagant vehicles and homes and toys while there are any works of piety and charity to be done with it or any ways of spending it well. This is as strictly impossible as for someone who intends to please God with his words to purposefully swear and lie to others. For as all waste and unreasonable expense is done intentionally and with deliberation, so no one can be guilty of it whose constant intention is to please God in the use of his money.

I have chosen to explain this matter by focusing on this desire to intend to please God in everything we do, because it makes the case so clear, and because everyone who has a mind may see it in the clearest light and feel it in the strongest manner simply by looking into his own heart. It is as easy for every person to know whether or not he intends to please God in all his actions as for any employee to know whether this is his intention toward his employer. Each person can also just as easily tell how he spends his money and whether or not he considers how to please God in it, as he can tell where his savings are. There is no room left for ignorance or weakness in this matter. Everyone can see this in his own life, and everyone has the power to do what is right. No one can fail, except he whose intention is not that of a Christian and who does not intend to please God with all that he has.

Consider two different people. One is consistent in daily private and family prayer and Bible reading, and the other is not. The reason for this difference is not that one has strength and power to pray and read, but the other has not. The reason is that one person intends to please God in the duties of devotion and to walk with God, while the other person has no intention of doing so. The case is the same in the right or wrong use of our time and money. You see one person throwing away his time and money in sleep and idleness, in entertainment and sports, in traveling and recreation, and in the most worthless and unreasonable expenses. You see another person careful of every day, spending his time carefully and usefully, and spending all his money in works of charity. The difference is not that one person has the strength and power to do this while the other has not, but it is because one person intends to please God in the right use of all his time and money, while the other person has not intended to please God in this way.

Let us now judge ourselves sincerely. Let us not vainly be content with the worldliness of our lives, the wastefulness of our expenses, the foolishness of our recreation, the pride of our habits, the idleness of our lives, and the wasting of our time, imagining that these are such imperfections as we fall into through the unavoidable weakness and frailty of our natures. Let us not think that we are pleasing God in all things simply because we are as frail in these matters as others who attend church with us. Rather, let us be assured that these deficiencies of our everyday lives are because we have not so much Christianity as to intend to please God in all the actions of our lives as the best and happiest thing in the world. We make excuses for ourselves that we are only human, that we are supposed to enjoy the things of this world, or that this is how others in our church – even the church leaders – live. Instead, let us realize that we lack the first and most fundamental principle of Christianity: we lack an intention to please God in all our actions.

If anyone was to ask himself why there are any parts of Christianity that he neglects, any practices of humility that he lacks, any method of love that he does not follow, or any rules of redeeming time that he does not observe, his own heart will tell him that it is because he never intended to be so exact in those duties. For whenever we fully intend it, it is as possible to conform to this discipline of the true Christian life as it is possible for a person to observe times of prayer and Bible reading.

The problem is not that we desire to be good and perfect but fall short of it through the weakness of our nature, but it is because we do not have piety enough to intend to be as good as we can or to please God in all the actions of our life. We see that this is plainly the case of him who spends his time in sports when he should be at church; it is not his lack of power, but his lack of intention or desire to be there. We cannot watch a movie that glorifies immorality, adultery, and profanity and blame our watching it on our weak human nature, but rather the fault is that when we chose a movie to watch, it was not our intention to please God in it.

The case is plainly the same in every other folly of human life. A woman does not wear a short skirt or tight pants and blame her immodesty on her weak human nature, but simply that she did not intend to please God in what she wore. A young woman does not go off to college and join the volleyball team and blame her tight immodest uniform on her coach or her weak human nature, but she has chosen to dress immodestly and conform to the expectation of others because it was not her intention to put God first and to please Him in what she wore.

She who spends her time and money in the unreasonable ways and fashions of the world does not do so because she lacks power to be wise and Christlike in the management of her time and money, but because she has no intention or desire of being so. When she has this intention, she will find that it is quite possible to act according to it, because then it will be her care and desire to do so.

This doctrine does not suppose that we do not have need of divine grace or that it is in our own power to make ourselves perfect. It only supposes that through the lack of a sincere intention to please God in all our actions, we fall into such inconsistencies of life as by the ordinary means of grace we would have power to avoid. We do not have that spiritual growth and maturity of which our present state of grace makes us capable, because we do not so much as intend to have it. It only teaches us that the reason why you see no real discipline or self-denial, no great charity, no profound humility, no heavenly affection, no true contempt of the world, no Christian meekness, no sincere zeal, and no eminent piety in the common lives of Christians is because they do not so much as intend to be exact and exemplary in these virtues.

If your intent is to get up early to make it to work on time, you go to bed on time, set your alarm clock, and make it to work on time – because you intend to do so. If you want to spend time with God in the morning, you can, if you truly intend to do so. Many do not because they do not really intend to seek God in the mornings.

Is it your intention to follow Jesus and please God in all that you do?
Chapter 3

Of the great danger and folly of not intending to be as complete and exemplary as we can in the practice of all Christian virtues.

Although the goodness of God and His rich mercies in Christ Jesus are sufficient to assure us that He will be merciful to our unavoidable weakness and infirmities – that is, to those sins we commit unintentionally or out of ignorance, yet we have no reason to expect the same mercy toward those sins that we have committed due to a lack of intention to avoid them.

For instance, in the case of one who commonly swears and who dies without repenting of that sin, he seems to have no right ask for God's mercy regarding his speech, because he can no more plead any weakness or ignorance as his excuse than the man who hid his talent in the earth could plead his lack of strength to keep it out of the earth (see Matthew 25:25).

If this is correct reasoning in the case of one who often swears, that his sin is not to be considered a mere weakness to be overlooked and pardoned, because he has no weakness to plead in its excuse, then why do we not carry this line of reasoning to its true extent? Why do we not just as much condemn every other error of life that has no more weakness to plead in its excuse than common swearing?

For if this is such a bad thing because it could be avoided if we only sincerely intended to avoid it, then must not all other erroneous ways of life be wrong if we live in them, not through weakness and inability, but because we never sincerely intended to avoid them? Ye shall have one law for him that sinneth through ignorance, both for him that is born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them. But the soul that doeth ought presumptuously, whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, the same reproacheth the Lord; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people (Numbers 15:29-30). To sin unintentionally is one thing, but to sin because we did not intend to please God in everything is quite another.

For instance, perhaps you have made no progress in the most important Christian virtues, and you have not made much progress in humility and love; if your failure in these duties is purely owing to your lack of intention to perform them in any true degree, have you not then as little to plead for yourself, and are you not as much without any excuse as the one who regularly swears?

Why, therefore, do you not drive these things home upon your conscience? Why do you not think it is as dangerous for you to live in such defects as are in your power to amend, as it is dangerous for a common swearer to live in the breach of that duty that it is in his power to observe? Is not negligence and a lack of sincere intention as blamable in one case as in another?

It may be that you are as far from Christian maturity as the one who often takes God's name in vain is from keeping the third commandment; are you not therefore as much condemned by the doctrines of the Gospel as the one who misuses God's name is by the third commandment?

Maybe you will say that all people fall short of the perfection of the Gospel, and therefore you are content with your failings. But this does not help your case at all, for the question is not whether Gospel perfection can be fully attained, but whether you come as near it as a sincere intention and careful diligence can carry you. Are you not in a much lower state than you would be if you sincerely intended and carefully labored to advance yourself in all Christian virtues?

If you are as advanced in the Christian life as your best endeavors and full surrender to God can make you, then you may justly hope that your imperfections will not be laid to your charge; but if your defects in piety, humility, and loving God and others are because of your negligence and lack of sincere intention to be as eminent as you can be in these virtues, then you leave yourself as much without excuse as he who lives in the sin of swearing through the lack of a sincere intention to depart from it.

The salvation of our souls is set forth in Scripture as a thing of difficulty that requires all our diligence, and is to be worked out with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12).

We are told that narrow is the gate, and confined is the way which leads unto life, and there are few that find it (Matthew 7:14), that many are called, but few are chosen (Matthew 22:14). Many will try to obtain their salvation who will end up falling short, as seen in these words: Strive to enter in at the narrow gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in and shall not be able (Luke 13:24).

Our blessed Lord here commands us to strive to enter in, because many who seek to enter will fail. This plainly teaches us that the Christian life is a state of labor and striving, and that many will fail to be saved – not because they took no pains or care about it, but because they did not take pains and care enough; they only sought, but did not strive to enter in. They looked for God, but not with a whole heart. They wanted to be religious, but not righteous. Salvation comes by grace through faith, of course, but our Christian growth and following Christ takes effort. Jesus told us to deny ourselves and carry our cross. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me (Matthew 16:24). If we are not willing to follow Him fully, then we are not really following Him at all.

Every Christian, therefore, should examine his life by these doctrines, as well as by the Ten Commandments. These doctrines are plain marks of our condition, just as the commandments are plain marks of our duty.

We certainly cannot in any way earn our salvation. The living water comes entirely from above, and yet we must thirst for it. The Bread of Life is Jesus Christ alone, yet we must hunger for Him. The narrow way to heaven is through Jesus Christ alone, and yet we are told to strive to enter in that way. We do not earn the right to enter in through our efforts, yet we must not sit by idly and ignore the means of salvation. We cannot simply say a prayer or walk down an aisle and use that to claim that we have been saved if our lives give no evidence of having been changed by God and if we have not repented of our sin and given them up.

What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. (James 2:14-24)

It is true that humans are dead in trespasses and sins and must be born again. However, those who have been given new life by God's Holy Spirit must now demonstrate that new life by living in obedience to and love for the heavenly Father. It would be very hypocritical to claim that we are following Jesus if we have no intention to follow Him in all things. I prove my faith in Jesus Christ by my life lived for Him and by my intent to please Him in all things. To do so takes effort and intent. If spiritual maturity is only given to those who strive for it, then it is as reasonable for me to consider whether my course of life is a course of striving to obtain it, as to consider whether I am keeping any of the commandments.

If my religion is only a compliance with those religious obligations that are popular where I live; if it costs me no self-denial or difficulty; if it does not cause me to pursue holiness and turn from sin; if I have no careful thoughts and serious reflections about it, is it not great weakness to think that I am striving to enter in at the strait gate? It would be as foolish is if you claimed to want to be a world-class marathon runner though you never ran, you were a glutton and a drunk, you ate junk food all the time, and you stayed in bed all day. Just as you must have the intention to train in all aspects of life to be a world-class marathon runner if you are to be believed and taken seriously, so you must intend to live for God in all things if you are to be believed and taken seriously to be a Christian.

If I am seeking everything that can delight my flesh and feed my appetites, spending my time and fortune in pleasures, entertainment, and worldly enjoyments; if I am a stranger to seeking God, to fasting, to prayer, to reading God's Word, and to denying self; then how can it be said that I am working out my salvation with fear and trembling?

If there is nothing in my life and conversation that shows me to be different from the outwardly religious and the godless, if I use the world and worldly enjoyments in the same way that most people do now and in all ages have done, why would I think that I am among those few who are walking in the narrow way to heaven?

Yet if the way is narrow and if none can walk in it but those who strive, should I not just as much consider whether the way I am in is narrow enough, or the labor I take is a sufficient striving, as to consider whether I sufficiently observe the Ten Commandments?

The sum of the matter is this: from what is mentioned above and from many other passages of Scripture, it seems plain that our spiritual success and maturity depend upon the sincerity and carefulness of our endeavors to obtain it. We must not be content merely to be entered in the race, but we must run the race and run well until the end. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus (Hebrews 12:1-2).

Despite their frailties and defects, weak and imperfect Christians will be viewed as having pleased God if they have done their utmost to please Him. Remember that salvation is not earned by these means, but one who already is a true Christian should do his utmost to please God. If one who does not know God strives in order to try to please God, his efforts are in vain. One must be born again by faith and made new by the Holy Spirit. As for true followers of Jesus, the rewards of charity, piety, and humility will be given to those whose lives have been a careful labor to exercise these virtues in as high a degree as they could. If we truly love God, it will be our desire to please Him in all things.

We cannot offer to God the service of angels. We cannot obey Him as if we were in a state of perfection; but fallen men can do their best, and this is the perfection that is required of us. It is only the perfection of our best endeavors, a careful labor to be as devoted to Him as we can.

As the law to angels is angelical righteousness, as the law to perfect beings is strict perfection, so the law to our imperfect natures is the best obedience that our frail nature is able to perform. Of course, none of us do our best. None of us will reach perfection in this life; yet it should be our hope and desire to walk as closely with our God in love and obedience as we can.

The measure of our love to God seems in justice to be the measure of our love of every virtue. We are to love and practice it with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength. When we cease to live with this regard to virtue, we live below our nature, and instead of being able to plead our infirmities, we stand chargeable with negligence. We cannot claim that we are sinful and that we simply made a mistake if we did not willingly intend to follow Him fully and please Him in all things.

It is for this reason that we are exhorted to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, because unless our hearts and passions are eagerly bent upon working out our salvation; unless holy fears animate our endeavors and keep our consciences strict and tender about every part of our duty, constantly examining how we live and how prepared we are to die, we will in all probability fall into a state of negligence, and remain in such a course of life, as will never allow us to gain the rewards of heaven.

He who considers that a just God can only make such allowances as are suitable to His justice, and that our works are all to be examined by fire, will find that fear and trembling are proper emotions for those who are drawing near so great a trial. We certainly ought to live as to not be ashamed at His coming. Abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming (1 John 2:28).

Indeed, there is no probability that anyone will do all the duty that is expected from him or make such progress in piety that the holiness and justice of God requires, except he who is constantly afraid of falling short of it. We do not need to live in fear, of course, but we ought to live with our thoughts and hearts on Him in love and with a desire and intent that we are doing our best for Him. This is a life of love and not fear, for we ought to live in such love to Him that we want to please Him in all things.

This is not intended to fill people's minds with a painstaking anxiety and discontent in serving God, but to fill them with a justified fear of living in sloth and idleness and in the neglect of such virtues as they will lack at the day of judgment. It is to stir them up to earnestly examine their lives and to promote such zeal and care and concern for Christian maturity as they use in any matter that has gained their hearts and affections. It is only desiring them to be aware of their condition, humble in their own opinion, earnest after higher degrees of piety, and so fearful of falling short of happiness as the great apostle Paul was when he wrote to the Philippians:

Not as though I had already attained it, either were already perfect, but I follow after, if I may lay hold of that for which I have also been laid hold of by the Christ, Jesus. Brethren, I do not reckon to have laid hold of it yet, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and extending myself unto those things which are ahead, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us, therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded. (Philippians 3:12-15)

If the apostle Paul thought it necessary for those who were following Jesus as he was to be "thus minded," pursuing holiness and spiritual maturity to which they had not yet arrived, surely it is much more necessary for us, who are laboring under great imperfections, to be "thus minded" and to earnestly strive after such degrees of a holy and divine life as we have not yet attained. Let us go on unto perfection (Hebrews 6:1).

The best way for anyone to know how much he ought to set his sights after holiness is to consider, not how much will make his present life easy, but to ask himself how much he thinks will make him at peace at the hour of death.

Now anyone who dares to be so serious as to put this question to himself will be forced to answer that at death, everyone will wish that he had been as perfect as human nature can possibly be.

Is not this therefore sufficient to put us not only upon wishing, but laboring after all that perfection which we will then wish we had? Is it not excessive foolishness to be content with such a course of piety as we already know cannot content us at a time when we will need it, as to have nothing else to comfort us? How can we carry a more severe condemnation against ourselves than to believe that at the hour of death we will not have lived a life devoted to God, and we will wish that we had been among the best servants of God, and yet take no methods of pursuing holiness while we are alive?

Though this is an absurdity that we can easily pass over at present while the health of our bodies, the passions of our minds, and the hurry and pleasures and business of the world lead us on with eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear, yet at death it will set itself before us in a dreadful magnitude, it will haunt us like a dismal ghost, and our conscience will never let us take our eyes from it.

We see in worldly matters how tormenting self-condemnation is and how a man is hardly able to forgive himself when he has brought himself into any calamity or disgrace purely by his own foolishness. The affliction is made doubly tormenting if he is forced to blame it all upon himself, as his own behavior, contrary to what is decent and right.

Now by this we may in some degree guess how terrible the pain of that self-condemnation will be, when a man shall find himself in the miseries of death under the severity of a self- condemning conscience, blaming all his distress upon his own foolishness, against the sense and reason of his own mind, against all the doctrines and precepts of Christianity, and contrary to all the instructions, calls, and warnings, both of God and man.

Erik was a busy, notable tradesman, and very prosperous in his dealings, but he died when he was only thirty-five years old. A little before his death, after the doctors had concluded that there was nothing they could do to save him, some of his neighbors came to see him one evening. Erik spoke to them and said:

"I see, my friends, the tender concern you have for me, by the grief that appears in your faces, and I know the thoughts that you now have about me. You think how sad a case it is, to see so young a man, and in such flourishing business, delivered up to death; and perhaps, had I visited any of you in my condition, I would have had the same thoughts of you.

"But now, my friends, my thoughts are no more like your thoughts than my condition is like yours. It is not difficult for me now to think that I am to die young or that I will die before I have acquired great possessions. These things now mean nothing, and I have no name little enough to call them by. For if in a few days or hours I am to leave this body to be buried in the earth and to find myself either forever happy in the favor of God or damned, can any words sufficiently express the littleness of everything else?

"Is there any dream like the dream of life, that amuses us with the neglect and disregard of these things? Is there any folly like the folly of our human condition, in which we think that we are too wise and too busy to have time to think about these kinds of things?

"When we consider death as a misery, we only think of it as a miserable separation from the enjoyments of this life. We seldom mourn over an old man who dies rich, but we lament the young who are taken away in the prime of life while they are acquiring wealth. You look upon me with pity, not that I am going unprepared to meet the Judge of the living and the dead, but that I am to leave a prosperous trade in the prime of my life.

"This is the wisdom of our human thoughts, and yet what foolishness of the silliest children is so great as this? For what is there miserable or dreadful in death, but the consequences of it? When a man is dead, what does anything mean to him but the situation he is then in?

"Our poor friend Jarred died, you know, as he was getting ready for a banquet. Do you think he now cares that he did not live until that entertainment was over? Feasts and business and pleasures and enjoyments seem important things to us while we think of nothing else; but as soon as we add death to them, they all sink into an equal littleness. The soul that is separated from the body no more mourns the loss of business than it mourns missing a banquet.

"If I am now going into the joys of God, could there be any reason to grieve that this happened to me before I was forty years old? Could it be a sad thing to go to heaven before I had made a few more business deals or waited on a few more customers? And if I am to go among lost spirits, could there be any reason to be content that this did not happen to me until I was old and full of riches?

"If good angels are ready to receive my soul, would it be any sadness to me that I was dying upon a poor bed in a small room? And if God has delivered me up to evil spirits, to be dragged by them to places of torments, would it be any comfort to me if they found me upon a fancy and expensive bed?

"When you are as near death as I am, you will know that all the different states of life, whether of youth or age, riches or poverty, being great or unknown, mean no more to you than whether you die in a poor or fancy apartment. The greatness of those things that follow death makes all that goes before it sink into nothing.

"Now that judgment is the next thing that I look for, and everlasting happiness or misery is so near me, all the enjoyments and prosperities of life seem as vain and insignificant and to have no more to do with my happiness than the clothes that I wore as a baby.

"But, my friends, I am surprised that I have not always had these thoughts. For what is there in the terrors of death, in the vanities of life, or in the necessities of piety, but what I might have as easily and fully seen in any part of my life? What a strange thing it is that a little health or the poor business of a shop should keep us so senseless of these great things that are coming so fast upon us!

"When you came into my room, I was thinking to myself what numbers of souls there are now in the world in the same condition as I am in, surprised with a summons to the other world. Some are being taken from their shops and farms, others from their sports and pleasures, some from their work, others taken while gambling. Some are on the road, others at their own homes – and all seized at an hour when they thought nothing of it – frightened at the approach of death, confounded at the vanity of all their labors, goals, and projects, astonished at the folly of their past lives, and not knowing which way to turn their thoughts to find any comfort. Their consciences are flying in their faces, bringing all their sins to their remembrance, tormenting them with deepest convictions of their own folly, presenting them with the sight of the angry Judge, the worm that never dies, the fire that is never quenched, the gates of hell, the powers of darkness, and the bitter pains of eternal death.

"Oh, my friends! Thank God that you are not of this number, that you have time and strength to busy yourselves in such devotion to God as may bring you peace at the end of your lives. Remember, too, that there is nothing but a life of great piety or a death of great stupidity that can keep these concerns away.

"If I now had a thousand worlds, I would give them all for one more year, that I might present unto God one year of such devotion and good works as I never before so much as intended. I would live that year fully for God and have no concern for the things of this world.

"When you consider that I have lived free from scandal and depravity, and in the communion of the church, you might wonder to see me so full of remorse and self-condemnation at the approach of death. But, alas! What a sad thing it is to have lived only free from murder, theft, and adultery, which is all that I can say of myself. I have kept myself free from what some consider heinous crimes, but I have not lived my life devoted to God.

"You know, indeed, that I have never been considered a drunk, but at the same time, you are witnesses, and have been frequent companions of my self-indulgence and love of the things of this world. And if I am now going to a judgment where nothing will be rewarded but good works, I may well be concerned, that though I am not a drunk, yet I have not lived in pursuit of a godly and holy life.

"It is true that I usually attended church when I was not too lazy, too busy, involved in sports or other recreation, or not otherwise distracted by work, hobbies, or other recreation. But even then, my church attendance and service has been more of a social thing or a duty than any real intention of seeking God's holiness. Even more, I did not make it a great concern to spend time daily alone with God.

"But the thing that now most surprises me is that I never had even a general intention of living up to the piety of the Gospel. This never so much as entered into my head or my heart. I never once in my life considered whether I was living according to God's Word, or whether my way of life was such as would provide me the peace and mercy of God at this hour.

"Can it be thought that I have followed God's Word when I never so much as intended in any serious and deliberate manner either to know or keep it? Can it be thought that I have pleased God with such a life as He requires, even though I have lived without ever considering what He requires, or how much I have done for Him? I have never really seriously thought any more about it than about any simple business transaction that I have made.

"In the business of life, I have used prudence and reflection. I have done everything by rules and methods. I have been glad to converse with men of experience and judgment in order to find out the reasons why some fail and others succeed in any business. I have taken no step in my business except with great care and caution, considering every advantage or danger that attended it. I have always had my eye upon the main end of business, and I have studied all the ways and means of being successful in all that I undertook.

"But what is the reason that I have brought none of these qualities to my Christian life? What is the reason that I, who have so often spoken of the necessity of rules and methods and diligence in worldly business, have all this while never once thought of any rules or methods or discipline to carry me on in a life of piety?

"Do you think anything can amaze and perplex a dying man like this? What pain do you think a man must feel when his conscience lays all this folly to his charge, when it will show him how regular, exact, and wise he has been in small matters that pass away like a dream, and how stupid and careless and senseless he has lived, without any reflection, without any rules, in things of such eternal importance as no heart can sufficiently conceive?

"If I had only my frailties and imperfections to regret at this time, I would lie here humbly trusting in the mercies of God. But, alas! How can I call a general disregard and a thorough neglect of all religious improvement a frailty or imperfection when it was as much in my power to have been exact and careful and diligent in a course of piety, as in the business of my trade?

"I could have spent as much time and effort, have been as disciplined, and been taught as many certain methods of holy living, as of thriving in my shop, had I but so intended and desired it. I could have placed my thoughts and heart upon knowing God more and on walking with Him. I am ashamed that my music, books, movies, television shows, and other entertainment could have drawn me nearer to Him, but instead they were the same as what those of the world loves.

"Oh, my friends! A careless life, unconcerned and inattentive to the duties of Christianity, is so without all excuse, so unworthy of the mercy of God, such a shame to the sense and reason of our minds, that I can hardly conceive a greater punishment than for a man to be thrown into the state that I am in and to reflect upon it. If I had lived a life devoted to God, how many others might have been impacted and might be now devoted children of God, instead of only seeking their friendship and sharing in the love of the world?"

Erik was continuing to speak, but he had his mouth stopped by a convulsion, which prevented him from speaking any more. He lay convulsed about twelve hours, and then died.

Now if every reader would imagine Erik to have been some particular acquaintance or relation of his, and imagine that he saw and heard all that is here described, that he stood by his bedside when his poor friend lay in such distress and agony, lamenting the folly of his past life, it would, in all probability, teach him such wisdom as never entered into his heart before. If to this he would consider how often he himself might have been taken by surprise in the same state of negligence and made an example to the rest of the world, this double reflection, both upon the distress of his friend and the goodness of God who had preserved him from it, would in all likelihood soften his heart into holy character and make him turn the remainder of his life into a regular course of piety.

This therefore being so useful a meditation, I will here leave the reader, as I hope, seriously engaged in it.

* * *

 While Philippians 2:12 tells the Christian (note that Paul wrote this to the Christian – to those who were already saved by grace through faith) to work out his own salvation with fear and trembling, Philippians 2:13 says that it is God who works in us. God works salvation in us, and the Christian works it, or shows it, on the outside. God changes the heart, and as a result, our outward life and actions change. 
Chapter 4

We cannot please God in any condition or employment of life, except by intending and devoting it all to His honor and glory.

In the first chapter I stated the general nature of devotion and showed that it does not just imply a form of prayer, but it involves a certain form of life – one that is not just offered to God at any specific time or place, but everywhere and in everything. I will now be more specific and show how we are to devote our labor and employment, our time and possessions, to God.

A good Christian should consider every place holy, because God is there; he should also look upon every part of his life as a matter of holiness, because it is to be offered to God.

The profession of a clergyman is a holy profession because the clergyman ministers in holy things; but worldly business is also to be made holy unto the Lord by being done as a service to Him and in conformity to His divine will. For just as all people and all things in the world that are devoted to God's use truly belong to God, so all things are to be used and all persons are to act always for the glory of God.

People of worldly business, therefore, must not look upon themselves as free to live for themselves or to live according to their own worldly desires and goals simply because their employment is of a worldly nature. They must consider that since the world and all worldly professions as truly belong to God as the "religious" careers, so it is as much the duty of people in worldly business to live wholly unto God as it is the duty of those who are devoted to "full-time Christian ministry."

As the whole world is God's, so the whole world is to act for God. As all people have the same relation to God and receive all their talents and abilities from God, so all people are obligated to live for God with all their talents and abilities.

As all things are God's, so all things are to be used and regarded as the things of God. For us to abuse things on earth and live to ourselves is the same kind of rebellion against God as for angels to abuse things in heaven, because God is the same Lord of all on earth as He is the Lord of all in heaven. Things may and must differ in their purpose, but they are all to be used according to the will of God. People may and must differ in their occupations, but they should all act for the same purpose, as dutiful servants of God, in the right and godly performance of their callings.

Clergymen should live wholly unto God in the exercise of holy duties, in the ministration of prayers and sacraments, and in a zealous distribution of spiritual goods. But people of other employments are, in their own particular ways, as much obligated to act as the servants of God and live wholly unto Him in their line of work. This is the only difference between clergymen and people of other callings. A clergyman does not have a higher calling than others; he has a different calling. The highest calling for each of us is whatever God has for us. We are each responsible to live fully for Him and to follow Jesus wholeheartedly.

When it can be shown that people are permitted to be vain, covetous, sensual, worldly-minded, or proud in the exercise of their worldly business, then it will be allowable for clergymen to indulge the same characteristics in their sacred profession. In the same way, if clergymen can glorify God and have their hearts set on Him by indulging in the music and other entertainment of the world, then those of other professions may do the same. All people are under the same divine standards of holiness. The characteristics of worldliness, pride, arrogance, foolishness, etc. are most repulsive and most disgraceful in clergymen, who have devoted themselves to God to be His servants in the spiritual service of the most holy sacred things and who are therefore to keep themselves separate and different from the common life of other men. However, all Christians should be devoted to God and should be pursuing holiness. They all are to live as holy and heavenly people, doing everything in their lives so that it may be received by God as a service done for Him. Things spiritual and temporal, sacred and common, must, like men and angels and heaven and earth, all work for the glory of God.

As there is but one God and Father of us all, whose glory gives light and life to everything that lives, whose presence fills all places, whose power supports all beings, whose providence rules all events; so everything that lives, whether in heaven or earth, whether thrones or principalities, whether men or angels, must all, with one spirit, live wholly to the praise and glory of this one God and Father of them all. Angels as angels must glorify God in their heavenly responsibilities, but so must men as men, women as women, children as children, and clergy as clergy; some with things spiritual and some with things temporal, all should offer to God the daily sacrifice of a reasonable life, wise actions, purity of heart, and heavenly affections.

This is the common business of all people in this world. It is not good for any woman to waste her time and money in the foolishness and audacity of pursuing a fashionable life, nor for any man to give himself up to pursue worldly desires and dreams. It is not for the rich to gratify their passions in the indulgences and pride of life, nor for the poor to distress and torment their hearts with the poverty of their condition; but men and women, rich and poor, should all walk before God in the same wise and holy character, in the same denial of all wasteful qualities, and in the same discipline and care of their souls. This is not only because they all have the same rational nature and are to be servants of the same God, but because they all should desire the same holiness in order to prepare them for the same happiness to which they are all called. It is therefore absolutely necessary for all Christians, both men and women, to consider themselves people who are devoted to holiness, and to so order their common ways of life by such rules of reason and piety as may turn into continual service to Almighty God.

In order to make our employment, an acceptable service unto God, we must carry it out with the same spirit and attitude that is required in giving of charity, or any work of piety. Whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatever ye do, do everything for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). If we are to use this world, as not using it as their own (1 Corinthians 7:31); if you are to present your bodies in living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing unto God (Romans 12:1); if we are to walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7); and if our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20); then it is necessary that the common way of our lives, in every circumstance, be made to glorify God by such qualities as make our prayers and adorations acceptable to Him. For if we are worldly or earthly-minded in our work, and if it is carried on with vain desires and covetous inclinations only to satisfy ourselves, we can no more be said to live to the glory of God than gluttons and drunkards can be said to eat and drink to the glory of God.

As the glory of God is one and the same thing no matter what we do, then whatever we do must be done for God's glory. That same heart and frame of mind that make our giving and devotions acceptable must also make our employment, a proper offering unto God. If a man labors to be rich and pursues his business so that he may raise himself to a state of prominence and glory in the world, he is no longer serving God in his employment; he is acting under other masters and has no more title to a reward from God than he who gives to a charity so that he may be seen, or prays in order to be heard by others.

Vain and earthly desires are no more acceptable in our employments than in our alms and devotions. For these characteristics of worldly pride and vainglory are not only evil when they mix with our good works, but they have the same evil nature and make us repugnant to God when they enter into the common business of our employment. If a businessman gives to charity in order to get his name on a building or to be seen handing a big check to someone or to be appointed to the board or to be noticed by others in any way, then he is doing this for his own glory and not for the glory of God. How much more acceptable it would be to give our poor an anonymous gift than to give a large amount away trying to impress others!

If it is not acceptable to indulge covetous or vain desires in our worldly employments, it is not acceptable to do so in our devotion to God. But as our giving and devotions are not an acceptable service to God if they do not proceed from a heart truly devoted to God, so our common employment cannot be considered a service to Him unless it is performed with the same attitude and piety of heart.

Most occupations in life are in their own nature lawful, and those that are may be made a substantial part of our duty to God, if we engage in them only as far and for such ends as are suitable to beings who are to live above the world all the time that they live in the world. This is the only measure of our practice of any worldly business, whatever and wherever it is. It must have no more of our hands, our hearts, or our time, than is consistent with a hearty, daily, careful preparation of ourselves for another life. For as all Christians who have renounced this world and who now prepare themselves by daily devotion and a life of holiness for an eternal state of quite another nature, they must look upon worldly employments as upon worldly wants and bodily infirmities – as things not to be desired, but only to be endured and suffered, until death and the resurrection have carried us to an eternal state of real happiness. Certainly we might enjoy our work, but the goal should be to use it as a means to glorify God through it and not to use it to store up treasures in this life.

He who does not look at the things of this life in this degree of little importance cannot be said either to feel or believe the greatest truths of Christianity. For if he thinks that there is anything great or important in human business of itself, can he be said to feel or believe those Bible passages that represent this life and the greatest things of life as vapors, dreams, and shadows? Work is important and necessary here on earth, but all our efforts and promotions will soon flee away; only what is done for the glory of God will last.

If someone thinks prestige and show and worldly glory are any proper happiness of a Christian, how can he be said to feel or believe this doctrine: Blessed are ye when men shall hate you and when they shall separate you from their company and shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil for the sake of the Son of man (Luke 6:22)? For surely if there were any real happiness in prestige and show and worldly glory, if these things deserved our thoughts and care, it would not be a matter of the highest joy when we are torn from them by persecutions and sufferings. If, therefore, a person will live in a way that shows that he believes the most fundamental doctrines of Christianity, he must live above the world. This is the attitude that must enable him to go through the business of life while living wholly unto God and with a mind set upon the things of above. It is as necessary that people work with this attitude as it is necessary that their employment itself is lawful.

The farmer who tills the ground is employed in an honest business that is necessary in life and very capable of being made an acceptable service unto God. But if he labors and toils, not to serve any reasonable ends of life, but in order to have the biggest tractor and the most land, the honesty of his employment is lost to him, and his labor becomes his folly.

A businessman may justly think that it is acceptable to the will of God for him to sell such things as are innocent and useful in life and that help both himself and others, to be able to support himself and his family, and also to enable them to help others. But if, instead of this, he trades only with regard to himself, without any other purpose but himself, if it is his main goal to grow rich so that he may live in ease and indulgence and be able to retire from business to idleness and luxury, then his job loses all its innocence for him, and is so far from being an acceptable service to God that it is only a more likely course of covetousness, self-love, and ambition. For such a person turns the necessities of employment into pride and covetousness, just as the drunkard and pleasure seeker turn the necessities of eating and drinking into gluttony and drunkenness. Fancy jewelry, luxury cars, expensive homes, and millions of dollars in the bank might make a person seem successful in the eyes of the world, but this matters little in the eyes of God.

He who is up early and late, who sweats and labors so that he may become rich and live in pleasure and indulgence, lives no more to the glory of God than he who plays and gambles for the same ends. For though there is a great difference between running an honest business and gambling, yet most of that difference is lost when one runs a business with the same desires and goals with which others gamble. It is different to give to others than it is to spend wastefully on oneself. Would it please God more if you bought yourself an $80 pair of pants or if you bought yourself a $30 pair of pants and gave $50 away? Charity and extravagant clothing are very different things, but if people give to charity for the same reasons that others dress in fine clothing – only to be seen and admired – then that kind of giving has become like the vanity of fine clothes. In the same way, if the same motives that make some people diligent and industrious in their work make others constant at gambling, such efforts are no better than to work at gambling.

Corey has been a businessman for more than thirty years in the greatest city in the land. He has been constantly growing his business and his fortune. Every hour of the day is for him an hour of business. Even though he eats and drinks very heartily, he seems to eat every meal in a hurry, and he would say grace if he had time. Corey ends every day at the bar, but is not able to get there until almost nine o'clock. He is always forced to have a drink or two to drive thoughts of business out of his head and make him drowsy enough for sleep. He does business all the time that he is awake, and he has discussed several more matters before he can get to bed. His prayers are simply quick prayer lists, which he never misses when the weather is bad, because he has always some business dealings concerning items being shipped at sea, and he prays that God will protect those ships. Corey will tell you with great pleasure that he has been in this kind of hurry for many years, and that it would have killed him long ago, except that it has been a rule with him to get out of town every Saturday and make Sunday a day of quiet and relaxation in the country.

He is now so rich that he could easily retire and spend his old age building and furnishing a fine house in the country, but he is afraid that he would be miserable if he were to quit his business. He will tell you with great seriousness that it is a dangerous thing for someone who has been used to having money to ever give it away. If thoughts of the Christian life ever pop into his head, Corey contents himself with thinking that he was never a friend to heretics and infidels, that he has always been kind to the minister of his parish, and that he often gives something to charity.

This way of life is so far from all the doctrines and discipline of real Christianity, that no one can live in it through ignorance or frailty. Corey can no more imagine that he is born of the Spirit (John 3:8), that he is in Christ a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), that he lives here as a stranger and a pilgrim (1 Peter 2:11), setting his affections on things above (Colossians 3:2), and laying up treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:20) – he can no more imagine this than he can think that he has been all his life an apostle working miracles and preaching the gospel.

It must also be admitted that the generality of business people, especially in the cities, are too much like Corey. You see them all week buried in business, unable to think of anything else, and then spending Sunday in idleness and recreation, in golfing and other sports, in drinking with friends, in doing yard work, and they make it often the worst day of the week, as far as glorifying God is concerned.

They do not live this because they cannot support themselves with less time and thought devoted to business, but they live like this because they want to grow rich in their business or move up the corporate ladder and to have their families live with the finer things of life; he wants to live for things that someone living a reasonable Christian life has no desire or use for. People like Corey want to be seen in the finest houses and in new vehicles and expensive clothing. Take away this desire, and people of all business will find themselves at leisure to live every day like Christians, to be careful of every duty of the gospel, to live in a visible course of Christianity, and to spend time alone with God every day in prayer and in God's Word, as well as in family devotions.

The only way to do this is for people to consider their occupation as something that they want to devote to the glory of God, something they are to do only in such a way as they may do for Him. Nothing can be right in business that is not under these rules. The apostle commands servants to be obedient to their masters in simplicity of your heart as unto the Christ, not to be seen as only pleasing men, but as the slaves of the Christ, doing the will of God from within, with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men (Ephesians 6:5-7).

This passage sufficiently shows that all Christians are to live wholly unto God in every situation and condition, doing their work in such a manner and for such intent as to make it a part of their devotion and service to God. For certainly if poor general laborers are not to work simply to get a paycheck or to make their boss happy, if they are to look wholly unto God in all their actions and serve in singleness of heart as unto the Lord, then certainly people of other employments and conditions must just as necessarily go through their business with the same singleness of heart. They should not work in order to please the vanity of their own minds or to gratify their own selfish worldly passions, but they should live as servants of God in all that they do. Certainly no one will say that a general laborer is to devote his life to God and make the will of God the sole rule and end of his service, but a business owner does not need not to act with the same spirit of devotion in his business. This is as absurd as to make it necessary for one man to be more just or faithful than another.

It is therefore absolutely certain that no Christian is to enter any farther into business or for any other purpose than such as he can in singleness of heart offer unto God as a reasonable service. The Son of God has redeemed us for this purpose, that we should, by a life of wisdom and piety, live for the glory of God. This is the only rule and measure for every position and condition of life. Without this rule, the most lawful employment becomes a sinful state of life.

Take this away from the life of a clergyman, and his holy profession serves only to expose him to a greater damnation. If a pastor does his job in order to move up the pastoral ladder and move on to bigger churches and better retirement and pay, then he is not a clergyman wholly devoted to God. If his goal is for "his" church to be known as the church with the nicest coffee shop, biggest gymnasium, best sport tournaments, or the most modern music, then his heart is not in the right place.

Take this goal of glorifying God away from businessmen, and stores are only places of greediness and filthy greed. Take this away from the wealthy, and the course of their life becomes a course of sensuality, pride, and debauchery. Take away this rule from when we eat, and all turns into gluttony and drunkenness. Take away this measure from how we dress, and all is turned into such paint, glitter, ridiculous ornaments, and immodesty as are a real shame to the wearer. Take this purpose away from the use of our fortunes, and you will find people spending money on everything, being stingy only in charity and giving to others. Take this away from our recreation, and you will find no sport too foolish nor any entertainment too vain and corrupt to be the pleasure of Christians. If, therefore, we desire to live unto God, it is necessary to bring our whole life under this law, to make His glory the sole rule and measure of how we live in every area of life. There is no other true devotion to God, except living devoted to God in the everyday duties and matters of our lives.

People must not be content simply because they earn an honest living, for many earn an honest living who do not know God. Christians, though, must consider whether they use their job as they are to use everything – as strangers and pilgrims who are baptized into the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who are to follow Him in a wise and heavenly course of life, in the mortification of all worldly desires, and in purifying and preparing their souls for the blessed enjoyment of God.

If ye then are risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where the Christ sits at the right hand of God. (Colossians 3:1)

As he who has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; for it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. (1 Peter 1:15-16)

That he might sanctify and cleanse her in the washing of water by the word, that he might present her glorious for himself, a congregation, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:26-27)

For to be greedy, arrogant, covetous, or power-hungry in the common course of our business is as contrary to these holy qualities of Christianity as cheating and dishonesty.

If a glutton were to say, in excuse of his gluttony, that he only eats such things as it is lawful to eat, that would be as poor of an excuse as for the greedy, covetous, overbearing employer to say that his behavior is okay because he only deals in lawful business. For as a Christian is not only required to be honest, but to be of a Christian spirit and to make his life an exercise of humility, repentance, and heavenly affection, so all characteristics that are contrary to these are as contrary to Christianity as cheating is contrary to honesty.

So that the matter plainly comes down to this: excuses for sinful behavior are no more acceptable in our employment as they are for eating and drinking or in anything else we do.

Arrogance, laziness, greed, profanity, and anger in our worldly employment are as much sins and corruption as hypocrisy in prayer or boastfulness or pride in giving to charitable causes. It is just as repulsive to God when we are boastful in giving to charitable causes as it is when we are arrogant in any other part of life. He who labors and toils in a calling so that he may impress others is as far from the pious humility of a Christian as he who gives to charities so that he may be noticed by others. The reason why pride and vanity in our prayers and charitable giving render them an unacceptable service to God is because pride destroys the piety of our prayers and generosity. Pride, boasting, self-importance, egotism, and anything else similar destroy the piety of everything that they touch and render every action involved incapable of being offered unto God.

If we could divide ourselves so as to be humble in some respects and proud in others, such humility would be of no use to us, because God requires us to be as truly humble in all our actions and plans as to be truly honest in all our actions and plans.

A person is not honest and true because he is honest and true to most people or because he is honest and true some of the time, but because the person is honest and true in all things and with everyone. This is the same with humility. We are not really humble if we are only humble some of the time or only regarding certain things, but our humility must extend itself to all our actions and plans. It must be a general characteristic of our lives before we can rightfully be called humble.

We sometimes talk as if someone can be humble in some things, but proud in others. We speak as if someone might be humble in how he dresses, but arrogant regarding his education. We might say that someone is humble in what he does now, but boastful regarding his past accomplishments. While we might pass over this kind of talk in general discussion, this cannot be allowed when we examine the nature of our actions.

It is very possible for a man who gets his money by fraud and cheating to be very punctual in paying for what he buys; but then you can be sure that he does not do so out of any principle of true honesty. In the same way, it is very possible for a man who is prideful of his expensive car or his big muscles, or boastful of his education, to dress in such a manner as a truly simple and humble man would do; but to think that he does so out of a true principle of Christian humility is as absurd as to suppose that a thief pays for what he buys out of a principle of Christian honesty. Therefore, just as any kind of dishonesty destroys our pretense of trying to seem honest, so any kind of pride destroys our pretense of trying to seem humble.

If we suppose that God rejects pride in our prayers and charity but ignores it in our dress, our persons, or wealth, it would be the same thing as to suppose that God condemns dishonesty in some actions but allows it in others. Pride in one area differs from pride in another area in the same way as robbing one person differs from robbing another person. The sin is still sin.

Again, if pride and showing off is so repulsive that it destroys the merit and worth of the most reasonable actions, then certainly it must be equally repulsive in those actions that are only due to the weakness and infirmity of our nature. Giving to and helping others is commanded by God, and is wonderful in itself as a true example of a heavenly perspective, but clothes are only there to cover our shame and nakedness; surely, therefore, it must at least be as repulsive a degree of pride to be vain regarding our clothing as to be vain regarding our giving.

We are commanded to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17), but we are forbidden to lay up treasures upon earth (Matthew 6:19). Certainly it is just as wrong to neglect the admonition to store up treasures in heaven rather than on earth as it is to neglect the command to pray.

Women are required to adorn themselves modestly and plainly.

In like manner also that the women adorn themselves in an honest manner, with shyness and modesty, not with ostentatious hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing but with good works (as becomes women professing godliness). (1 Timothy 2:9)

Let their adorning not be outward with ostentatious hairdos and wearing of gold nor in composition of apparel, but let the interior adorning of the heart be without corruption, and of an agreeable spirit and peaceful, which is precious in the sight of God. (1 Peter 3:3-4)

If, therefore, many women are vain in those things that are specifically forbidden, if they patch and paint that which should be adorned simply and sensibly, certainly they have as much to repent of for such pride as they have whose motive to prayers and charity is pride. A woman who spends more time working on her physical appearance than her spiritual qualities is not to be admired. A woman who shows off her body rather than covering it by dressing modestly is not one who is seeking to glorify God in all things. A woman who spends more time applying facial creams and eyeliner and nail polish than she does reading God's Word has her heart on the things of this life rather than the next. She is seeking to please herself and others rather than God.

All these instances are only to show us the great necessity of such a regular and consistent piety as extends itself to every area and action of our lives.

If we are to truly follow Jesus and intend to glorify God in all that we do, then we must eat and drink and dress and talk according to the seriousness of the Christian spirit. We should engage in no employment except that which we can truly devote to God, nor pursue any work that might lead us astray from pursuing a holy, devout life. We must be honest, not only on specific occasions and in such instances of which the world expects, but we must live such an honest life from such a living principle of justice as makes us love truth and integrity in all its instances and follow it through all dangers and against all opposition, whatever the cost. We know that the more we pay for any truth, the better is our bargain. Our integrity becomes a pearl when we have parted with all to keep it.

If we are to live a holy life, we must be humble, not only in such instances as are expected by the world, or those in which we are comfortable, but we must live in such humility of spirit as allows us to be meek and lowly in the whole course of our lives. It will show itself in our clothing, our possessions, our person, our conversation, our enjoyment of the world, the tranquility of our minds, in patience under wrongs done to us, in submission to our employers and others who are above us, and in kindness and humility to our employees and those who are below us. It will be seen in all the outward actions of our lives. We must not only devote private and family prayer and Bible reading to God, but we must have that spirit of devotion to God everywhere and in all things. Our hearts should always be set toward heaven, as we look up to God in all our actions and do everything as His servants. We ought to live in the world as in a holy temple of God, always worshipping Him in our hearts. We should go through life every day with thankfulness in our hearts and holiness in our actions, and the holy and caring use of all His gifts.

We must not only send up petitions and thoughts to heaven, but we must go through all our worldly business with a heavenly spirit, as members of Christ's spiritual body, so that with new hearts and new minds we may turn our earthly life into a preparation for a life of greatness and glory in the kingdom of heaven. The only way to arrive at this piety of spirit is to bring all your actions to the same standard as your devotions and charity. You know very well what it is that makes your giving and devotions acceptable to God, and the same rules and the same regard to God must cause everything else that you do to be a proper and acceptable service unto God.

Enough, I hope, has been said to show you the necessity of introducing Christianity into all the actions of your life, and of living and acting with the same regard to God in all that you do, just as in your prayers and giving.

Eating is one of the most ordinary actions of our lives. We have it in common with mere animals, yet we see that godly people of all ages throughout the world have turned this ordinary action into one that glorifies God, by making every meal begin and end with sincere prayer.

We still see some remnant of this custom in many Christian families, but indeed, it is now generally performed as to look more like a mockery of being devoted to God than any solemn application of the mind unto God. In one house you may perhaps see the head of the family just lift up his hat as if gesturing to God. In another house, some member of the family might say some quick prayer when they are all together out of duty or formality rather than from sincere thanks and gratitude. In still another house, thanks to God is rarely said unless there is a big family gathering, and then some member of the family announces that they will pray before eating. Half of the family looks awkward, not sure what to do, while the other half bows their heads ritualistically. In religious homes, the family might even know to all repeat the same prayer together – the only prayer they ever pray before meals, and that infrequently, but they have the prayer memorized just in case the need arises.

Sometimes we see those members of families who sometimes thank God before meals at home, but things change when they are outside the home. Whether it is a teenager with friends or at school, a parent at work, or a young adult at a restaurant, they seem to forget to give God thanks, as if they are ashamed or embarrassed. Others, though, make a big deal when outside the home to make sure that everyone around them knows they are about to pray. If the prayer comes from show or pride, it is not done for the glory of God from a sincere heart, just as one who neglects to thank God does not glorify God.

We have about come to the point, though, that while some still thank God before eating, he who sincerely bows to pray outside the home or at someone else's home is seen as a religious fanatic and is ridiculed, especially if the prayer lasts for more than a minute or two. I am not saying that we must always pray long prayers before meals, but if it is proper to thank God at these times, then we ought do so sincerely and with the proper respect and words that show that we really do recognize God as the Giver of all things, and we ought to humbly and sincerely thank Him from our hearts.

If the head of every family would sincerely and solemnly thank God before each meal and discuss the things of God after the meal, it would likely cause him and others there to consider that profanity, gluttony, and foolish talk is improper at those meals.

If, in these days of general corruption, this part of devotion to God, this simple and sincere act of giving God thanks, has fallen into a mere ceremony or has been disregarded in full, it must be because the desire to please the flesh and a lack of self-control have too much power over us to allow us to add any devotion to our meals. But this much must be said, that when we are as pious as Jews and heathens of all ages have been, we will think it is proper to pray at the beginning and end of our meals.

I have appealed to this pious custom of all ages as a proof of the reasonableness of the doctrine of this and the preceding chapters; that is, as a proof that Christianity is to be the rule and measure of all the actions of ordinary life. For surely, if we are not even to eat unless doing so to the glory of God, it must be evident that whatever else we do should be done with the same regard to the glory of God and in harmony with the principles of a devout and pious mind.
Chapter 5

People who are free from the necessity of labor and employment are to consider themselves as devoted to God in a higher degree.

Some people in the world are free from the necessities of labor and employment, and have their time and fortunes at their own disposal. But as no one is to live in his employment according to his own will or for such purposes as please his own notions, but is to do all his business as a service unto God, so those who have no particular employment are not at liberty to live to themselves, to pursue their own notions, and to spend their time and fortunes as they please, for they are under greater obligations of living wholly unto God in all their actions.

The freedom of their circumstances places them under a greater necessity of always choosing and doing the best things for the glory of God. They are those of whom much will be required, because much is given unto them (see Luke 12:48).

A slave can only live unto God in one particular way, and that is by Christian patience and submission in his state of slavery. But all ways of holy living, all instances and all kinds of virtue, lie open to those who are masters of themselves, their time, and their fortune.

It is the duty, therefore, of such persons, to use their liberty wisely, to devote themselves to all kinds of righteousness, to desire everything that is holy and pious, to endeavor to be eminent in all good works, and to please God in the highest and most perfect manner. It is their duty to be wise in their conduct and thus extensive in their endeavors after holiness.

If you are free from having to work, if you are not a laborer or tradesman or merchant or soldier, then consider yourself as placed in a state in some degree like that of good angels who are sent into the world as ministering spirits for the general good of mankind, to assist, protect, and minister for those who shall be heirs of salvation. The more you are free from the common necessities of general humanity, the more you are free to imitate the higher perfections of angels.

If Sarah had, due to the circumstances of her life, been compelled to wash clothes to make a living, or to clean houses or serve as a maid, it would then be her duty to serve and glorify God by such humility, obedience, and faithfulness as might adorn that state of life. It would then be recommended to her care to improve that one talent to its greatest possibility, so that when the time came when mankind will be rewarded for their labors by the great Judge of the living and the dead, she will hear Jesus say, Well done, thou good and faithful [servant]; . . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord (Matthew 25:21).

But as God has given you five talents (see Matthew 25:20-21), or greater opportunity than Sarah, and He has given you more than just the necessities of life, you are responsible to do more with what you have. As God has given you more opportunity and more freedom in choosing how to take care of what He has provided for you, since He has blessed you with more riches and possessions, then He expects you to use your fortune to make the most of your short life to live for the glory of God, the good of your neighbor, and your own spiritual growth. It is now your duty to imitate the greatest servants of God, to inquire how the most eminent saints have lived, to study all the arts and methods of holiness, and to set no bounds to your love and gratitude to the bountiful Author of so many blessings.

Many in this situation see how much of this life they can enjoy. They sit around and read fiction novels, travel, entertain themselves, play golf often, buy themselves nice things, and yet how much more good could they do for others and for God's kingdom if they devoted their time and money to Him and to His causes, that they might see how much they can live for God's glory? How much could they learn if they spent much of their time is prayer and Bible reading, in putting aside the fiction novels and reading stories of missionaries and other people used by God? What if they would not buy the luxury car, but instead buy a more practical car and use the extra money to help a poor family in need of a car?

If God has blessed you with a comfortable retirement or with much time and resources, it is now your duty to turn your five talents into five more, and to consider how your time, leisure, health, and fortune may be made the happy means of purifying your own soul, improving your fellow human beings in the ways of virtue, and of carrying you at last to the greatest heights of eternal glory as you store up your treasure in heaven.

As you have no employer, let your own soul be the object of your daily care and attendance. Be sorry for its impurities, stains, and imperfections, and study all the holy arts of restoring it to its natural purity in Christ. Delight in its service, and beg God to adorn it with every grace and perfection. Nourish it with good works, and give it peace in solitude and strength in prayer. Make it wise with profitable reading, enlighten it by prayer and contemplation upon the things of God, make it tender with love, sweeten it with humility, humble it with repentance, enliven it with psalms and hymns, and comfort it with frequent reflections upon future glory. Keep it in the presence of God, and teach it to imitate those guardian angels, which, though they attend to human affairs and reach to the lowest of mankind, yet they always behold the face of my Father who is in the heavens (Matthew 18:10).

This is also Sarah's duty. For as sure as God is one God, so sure it is that He has but one command to all mankind, whether you are in bonds or free, rich or poor; and that is, to act according to the excellency of that nature which He has given you, to live according to wisdom and understanding, to walk in the light of Christianity, to use everything as wisdom directs, to glorify God in all His gifts, and to dedicate every condition of life to His service.

This is the one common command of God to all mankind. If you have a job, you are to be reasonable and pious and holy in the exercise of it. If you have time and a fortune in your own power, you are to be reasonable and pious and holy in the use of all your time and all your fortune.

The proper Christian use of everything and every talent is the necessary duty of every person who is capable of knowing right and wrong. The reason why we are to do anything as unto God and with regard to our duty and relation to Him is the same reason why we are to do everything as unto God and with regard to our duty and relation to Him.

That same reason for why we are to be wise and holy in the performance of all our business is the same reason why we are to be wise and holy in the use of all our money.

We always have the same natures and are servants of the same God no matter where we are. Every place is equally full of His presence and everything is equally His gift, and so we must always act according to the wisdom of our new nature in Christ Jesus. We must do everything as the servants of God. We must live in every place as in His presence. We must use everything as things belonging to God should be used.

Either this piety, wisdom, and devotion are to be in every part of our lives and are to extend to the use of everything, or they are not to be involved in our lives at all. There is no partway Christianity. We cannot live some of the time for God and some of the time not for Him – or we are not living for Him at all.

If it is alright for us to forget about God or disregard common Christianity and live according to the flesh and do whatever is right in our own eyes in one thing, then it is alright to do so in everything. Of course, we should not forget God in anything, and therefore we should not forget Him or cease to intend to glorify Him in everything and in every place.

Therefore, if some people think that they must be sincere and solemn at church, but can be worldly and foolish at home; that they must set apart Sunday (or even just Sunday morning) for God, but may spend the rest of the week doing what they please, then they are wrong. Some people have times of prayer, but think they are free to waste the rest of their time. Some people give a little money to charity, but think they are free to spend the rest as they please.

These people have not considered enough the nature of Christianity or the true reasons for piety. For he who can tell upon principles of reason why it is good to be wise and heavenly-minded at church can tell that it is always desirable to have the same characteristics in all other places. He who truly knows why he should spend any time well, knows that it is never allowable to throw any time away. He who rightly understands the reasonableness and excellency of charity will know that it can never be excusable to waste any of our money in pride and folly or in any needless expenses.

Every argument that shows the wisdom and excellency of charity proves the wisdom of spending all our fortune well. Every argument that proves the wisdom and reasonableness of having times of prayer shows the wisdom and reasonableness of wasting none of our time.

If anyone could show that we do not always need to act as if we are in the presence of God, that we do not need to consider and use everything as the gift of God, and that we do not need to always live by wisdom and make Christianity the rule of all our actions, then those same arguments would show that we never need to act as if we are in the presence of God, and that we never need to make wisdom and Christianity the rule of any of our actions.

If, therefore, we should live unto God at any one time or in any one place, then we are to live unto Him at all times and in all places. Whether at church on Sunday morning, at work the next day, in the car listening to music, or at home watching television, we are to live always to please God. If we are to use anything as the gift of God, then we are to use everything as His gift. If we are to do anything by strict rules of devotion and piety, then we are to do everything in the same manner. Holiness, wisdom, and piety are just as much the best things at all times and in all places as they are the best things at any time or in any place.

If it is our glory and happiness to have a new nature that is endued with wisdom and knowledge from above, that is capable of becoming more like Jesus, then it must be our glory and happiness to improve our knowledge and wisdom, to act up to the excellency of our new nature, and to imitate Jesus in all our actions to the utmost of our power.

They therefore who confine their Christianity to certain times and places or when alone, who think that people are being too strict and rigid who introduce Christianity into everyday life and apply it to all their actions and ways of living, are not only wrong, but they are wrong about the entire nature of Christianity. Certainly they are wrong about Christianity if they think that parts of their lives are better or easier if separated from Christianity. If you cannot live for Jesus around your friends, get new friends. If you cannot live fully for God while listening to your music, change your music. If you cannot live fully for God while attending sporting events on the Lord's Day, then give up the sporting events. Those who think that it is not always best to be wise or holy or pious mistake the whole nature of Christianity. He has not learned the nature of piety who thinks it is too much to be pious in all his actions. He does not sufficiently understand what godly wisdom is who does not earnestly desire to live in everything according to it.

If we had a religion that consisted in absurd superstitions that had no regard to spiritual growth and maturity, it might be okay for people to only live part of their lives by it. However, the religion of the Gospel is the refinement and exaltation of our best abilities. It requires a life of the highest judgment and wisdom. It requires us to use this world simply as pilgrims passing through. We are to live in such a way that God is glorified in everything we say and do. We are to walk in such wisdom as exalts the Giver of our new nature, and we are to practice such piety as will draw us near to God. Who can think it is burdensome to always live in the spirit of Christianity, to have every part of his life full of this, except he who would think it would be burdensome to be as the angels of God in heaven?

Just as God is one and the same Being, always acting like Himself and acting according to His own nature, so it is the duty of every child of God to always act according to the nature of God. It is therefore an unchanging law of God that all rational beings should act reasonably in all their actions – not at only one specific time or place or occasion, or in the use of some specific thing, but at all times, places, and occasions, and in the use of all things. This is a law that is as unchangeable as God, and it can no more cease to be than God can cease to be a God of wisdom and order.

When, therefore, any being who is endued with reason does an unreasonable thing at any time or place, or in the use of anything, he sins against the great law of its nature, abuses itself, and sins against God, the Author of that nature.

They, therefore, who pursue self-indulgence and waste their time and money pursuing sports and worldly entertainment, the styles and fashions of the world, or following the worldly customs of the day, are actually rebelling against God, who has given us a new heart and common sense for no other purpose than to make them the rule and measure of all our ways of life.

When, therefore, you are guilty of any foolishness or extravagance, or if you indulge any empty hobbies and passions and worldly amusement, do not consider it to be a small matter because it may seem so if compared to some other sins; but consider it as it is – acting contrary to your nature. All worldly ways are contrary to the nature of all Christians, whether men or angels, neither of which can any longer be agreeable to God if they act contrary to the new nature in Christ Jesus.

The realities of human life make food and clothing necessary for us, which angels do not need. However, it is no more allowable for us to turn these necessities into foolish indulgences, whether of the luxury of food or the vanity of clothes, than it is allowable for angels to act below the dignity of their proper state. A reasonable life and a wise use of our proper condition is as much the duty of all people as it is the duty of all angels. These are not speculative thoughts or imaginary notions, but these are plain and undeniable laws that are based in the nature of rational beings, who as such are bound to live by reason and to glorify God by a continual right use of their abilities and talents. Although people are not angels, by considering the state and perfection of angels, they may know how and why they are to live and act. Our blessed Savior has plainly turned our thoughts this way by making this petition a constant part of all our prayers: Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10). This is plain proof that our obedience is to imitate the obedience of angels, and that rational beings on earth are to live unto God, the same as rational beings in heaven live unto Him.

When, therefore, you imagine in your mind how Christians ought to live unto God, and in what degrees of wisdom and holiness they ought to use the things of this life, you must not look at the world, but you must look up to God and the society of angels and consider what wisdom and holiness is necessary to prepare you for such a state of glory. You must look to all the highest precepts of the Gospel, you must examine yourself by the spirit of Christ, you must consider how the wisest and godliest people in the world have lived, you must think how departed souls would live if they were permitted to return to earth and live their short human lives over again, and you must think about how wise and holy you will wish you would have lived your life when it is time for you to leave this world.

This is not over-emphasizing the matter or proposing to ourselves to live lives that cannot be lived. It is but barely complying with the apostle Paul's advice, where he says, Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is any praise, exercise yourselves in these things (Philippians 4:8). For no one can come near the doctrine of this passage, but he who proposes to himself to do everything in this life as the servant of God, to live by wisdom in everything that he does, and to make the wisdom and holiness of the Gospel the rule and measure of his desires, using every gift for the glory of God.
Chapter 6

Concerning the great obligations and the great advantages of making a wise and Christian use of our finances and possessions.

As the holiness of Christianity sets apart all conditions and employments of life unto God, as it requires us to reach for joyful obedience, doing and using everything as the servants of God, so are we more specially compelled to observe this Christian exactness in the use of our finances and possessions.

The reason for this is clear if we consider that our property and possessions are as much the gift of God as our eyes or our hands, and they are no more to be buried or thrown away as we please, than we are to put out our eyes or throw away our limbs as we please.

Besides this consideration, there are several other great and important reasons why we should be religiously exact in the use of our possessions.

First, because the manner of spending our money or using our possessions is so much part of our everyday life, that our everyday life should be much of the same nature as our common way of spending our money. If common sense and Christianity govern us in this, then common sense and Christianity have got great hold of us; but if indulgence, pride, and impulse determine how we spend our resources, then indulgence, pride, and impulse will determine the greatest part of our life.

Secondly, another great reason for devoting all our belongings to appropriate use is because they are capable of being used for most excellent purposes and can be a great means of doing good. If we waste it, we do not just waste what appears to be a little bit, but we waste that which might be made as eyes to the blind, as a husband to the widow, and as a father to the orphan. We waste that which not only enables us to minister worldly comforts to those who are in distress, but that which might purchase for ourselves everlasting treasures in heaven. What we spend on our impulses and worldliness is gone forever, but that which we spend to help others lasts forever. Consider how much money Christians spend on worldly entertainment such as sports, movies, and concerts. Consider how much money Christians waste on clothing, cars, and much more. It Christians were to spend that money in buying evangelistic books for the unsaved or in helping the poor, think how much eternal good could be done for others that we now waste on our own pleasures. In eternity, I doubt any of us will regret having helped other too much or followed Jesus too carefully, or told too many about Jesus, but we will regret the opposite. If we part with our money in foolish ways, we part with a great power of comforting our fellow humans and of making ourselves forever blessed.

If there is nothing so glorious as doing good, if in this we imitate Christ, then nothing can be so glorious in the use of our money as to use it all in works of love and goodness, making ourselves friends, and fathers, and benefactors, to all our fellow human beings, imitating the divine love and turning all our power into acts of generosity, care, and kindness to those who are in need of it.

If a man had eyes and hands and feet that he could give to those who lacked them, but he locked them up in a chest or made some needless or ridiculous use of them instead of giving them to his brothers who were blind and lame, should we not rightly consider him to be an inhuman wretch? If he would rather choose to amuse himself with furnishing his house with those things than to entitle himself to an eternal reward by giving them in love to those who lacked eyes and hands, might we not justly consider him to be insane?

Money has very much the nature of eyes and feet. If we either lock it up in chests or waste it in needless and ridiculous expenses upon ourselves, while the poor and the distressed lack it for their necessary uses, are we not cruel and selfish? If we waste our money on costly clothing or expensive concerts and sporting events while others are starving in poverty and in need of clothing, then we are not far from the cruelty of him who chooses rather to adorn his house with hands and eyes than to give them to those who lack them.

If we choose to indulge ourselves in such expensive enjoyments and entertainment as have no real use in them and satisfy no real need, then rather than entitling ourselves to an eternal reward by disposing of our money well, we are guilty of his insanity who rather chooses to lock up eyes and hands instead of making himself forever blessed by giving them to those who lack them. For after we have satisfied our own sincere and reasonable needs, all the rest of our money is but like spare eyes or hands. It is something that we cannot keep to ourselves without being foolish in the use of it, but is something that can only be used well by giving it to others who need it. This can be done not just by donating to charities, but by actually helping our brothers and sisters in need or personally giving to and helping those who have come upon hard times.

Thirdly, if we waste our money, we are not only guilty of wasting a talent that God has given us, but we make useless that which is a powerful means of doing good. In addition, we further harm ourselves by turning this useful talent into a powerful means of corrupting ourselves. As much as it is spent in support of some unprofitable habit or useless or even harmful entertainment, or in gratifying some vain and impractical desires, we are not glorifying God. When we spend our money in those things that we ought to renounce, conforming to the fashions and pride of the world, supporting the sinful lifestyles of actors and athletes, endorsing those things even on the Lord's Day which ought to be kept holy unto the Lord, then we are more intent in pleasing ourselves than in pleasing God.

Just as cleverness and natural abilities will be wasted, lost, or used for foolishness if not devoted strictly to God, so money, if it is not used strictly according to common sense and Christian principles, will not only be wasted away, but it will betray people into great foolishness and make them live a more vain and extravagant life than they could have done without it. If, therefore, you do not spend your money in doing good to others, you will spend it to the hurt of yourself. It is possible to give medicine to a sick friend to whom it will do much good, but if you took that same remedy yourself when you did not need it, it could cause ill effects and harm. This is the case of extra funds. If you give money and other aid to those who really need it, it is a pleasant and gracious thing, but if you spend it on yourself in something that you do not need, it is wasteful and can be damaging to your soul and mind, and makes you worse than you would be without it.

Consider again the comparison from earlier. If the man who would not make a right use of spare eyes and hands should, by continually trying to use them himself, spoil his own eyes and hands, we might justly accuse him of still greater madness.

This is truly the case of money spent upon ourselves in vain and needless expenses. In trying to use them where they have no real use, or if we have no real need of them, we only use them to our great hurt, in creating unreasonable desires, in nourishing bad habits, in indulging our passions, and in supporting a worldly, vain turn of mind. For fancy eating and drinking, fine clothes, and fine houses, cars, boats, and other worldly toys and diversions, all naturally hurt and infect our hearts. They are the food and nourishment of all the folly and weakness of our nature, and will definitely make us vain and worldly in our demeanor. They are all the support of something that should not be supported. They are contrary to that dignity and piety of heart that cherishes the things of God. They are like weights upon our minds that make us less able and less inclined to raise up our thoughts and affections to the things that are above.

Imagine what those Christians in some other countries must think of our extravagance and waste, spending money on ourselves for so many games and so much entertainment, when they try to survive day by day with basic food and medicine. They must wonder why we spend money on supporting movies and television shows that are contrary to the Bible, when they may not even have a Bible. They must wonder why we spend so much on entertaining ourselves, when they are fighting to survive. When our neighbor has trouble paying the heating bill or paying Christian school tuition or buying groceries and clothes, and we are storing up our treasures here on earth in needlessly expensive cars, extravagant vacations, sports obsessions, and worldly concerts. Instead of storing up treasure in heaven and helping others, we fill our mind with trash and our hearts with worldly pleasure.

Money thus spent is not merely wasted or lost, but it is spent to bad purposes and miserable effects, to the corruption and disorder of our hearts, making us less able to live according to the sublime doctrines of the Gospel. It is like keeping money from the poor to buy poison for ourselves – and we make excuses and try to justify it to ourselves and others. We have families all around us in need, and brothers and sisters all around the world in poverty, and we are building fancy coffee shops and gymnasiums in our churches to match the giant-screen televisions, sound systems, and light shows for our own amusement and entertainment.

What we spend on the love of clothing helps to increase vanity in our minds. What we spend on our own indulgence and emptiness (think about most movies, television shows, video games, romance books, alcohol, sports obsessions, etc.) simply helps to dull our hearts and minds and encourage that which is carnal. What we spend in trying to impress others or show off our lifestyle only encourages us to set ourselves up as the idol of our own imagination. So in everything, when you go from meeting your reasonable needs to supporting some unreasonable hobby, habit, or desire, we end up not glorifying God, but instead end up supporting those things that every good Christian is called upon to renounce.

Whether we consider our money and possessions as a talent and trust from God, or if we consider the great good that it enables us to do if used wisely or the great harm that it does to us if spent foolishly and selfishly, it seems that it is absolutely necessary to make common sense and Christianity the strict rule of using all that we have.

Every exhortation in Scripture to be wise and reasonable, satisfying only such wants as God would have satisfied; every exhortation to be spiritual and heavenly, pressing after a glorious change of our nature; and every exhortation to love our neighbor as ourselves and to love all mankind as God has loved them, is a command to strictly follow Christian principles in the use of our money. For none of these things can be complied with unless we are wise and reasonable, spiritual and heavenly, exercising brotherly love and godly charity in the use of all that we have. This attitude and use of our worldly goods is so much the doctrine of all the New Testament, that you cannot read a chapter without being taught something of it. I will only produce one remarkable passage of Scripture, and it is sufficient to justify all that I have said concerning this Christian use of all that we have:

When the Son of man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then he shall sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats, and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto those on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry, and ye gave me food; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee? or thirsty and give thee drink? When did we see thee a stranger and take thee in? or naked and clothe thee? Or when did we see thee sick or in prison and come unto thee?

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brothers, ye have done it unto me.

Then he shall also say unto those who shall be on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and ye gave me no food; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then they shall also answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister unto thee?

Then he shall answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of my brothers, ye did it not to me. And they shall go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. (Matthew 25:31-46)

I have quoted this passage at length, because if you look at the way of the world, you would hardly think that Christians had ever read this part of Scripture. For what is there in the lives of Christians that looks as if they intended to demonstrate their Christian beliefs by these good works? Yet the necessity of them is here asserted in the highest manner, and is pressed upon us by a lively description of the glory and terrors of the day of judgment.

Instead, compare what the typical Christian spends, both in time and money, on family and personal entertainment with what they spend on helping their brothers and sisters in need. Compare the budgets of many churches and see what they spend on youth games, television screens, sports, etc. compared with how much they spend on true evangelism, giving to the poor and needy, and missions. It seems that while the typical Christian is more concerned with spending on himself than spending for the glory of God, the typical church spends more on itself than on helping others, too.

Some people, even many who might be thought of as virtuous Christians, look upon this text only as a general recommendation of occasional works of charity, whereas it shows the necessity not only of occasional acts of charity, but the necessity of such an entire charitable life as is a continual exercise of all such works of charity as we are able to perform.

You should agree that you have no reason to claim the title of Christian if you have neglected these good works, because such people who have neglected them are, at the last day, to be placed on the left hand and banished with a Depart from me, ye cursed. There is, therefore, no evidence of salvation except in the performance of these good works. Who is it, therefore, who may be said to have performed these good works? Is it he who has once assisted a prisoner or once donated to help relieve the poor or sick? This would be as absurd as to say that he who had prayed once or twice was devoted to God. Is it, therefore, he who has done these works of charity several times? This can no more be said than he can be said to be truly just who had done acts of justice several times. What is the rule, therefore, or measure of performing these good works? How can someone be assured that he performs them as he ought?

Now the rule is very plain and simple, and it is one that is common to every other virtue and act of charity. Who is the humble, meek, devout, just, or faithful person? Is it he who has done acts of humility, meekness, devotion, justice, or fidelity several times? No; it is he who lives in the habitual exercise of these virtues, not from compulsion or out of fear or as if trying to bribe God, but he who lives like this naturally, abiding in Christ and walking in the Spirit of God.

In the same way, he only can be said to have performed these works of charity who lives in the habitual exercise of them to the utmost of his power. He only has performed the duty of divine love who loves God with all his heart and with all his mind and with all his strength. He only has performed the duty of these good works who has done them with all his heart and with all his mind and with all his strength. There is no other measure of our doing good than our ability to do so.

The apostle Peter puts this question to our blessed Savior: Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? until seven times? Jesus said unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times, but, Until seventy times seven (Matthew 18:21-22). Jesus did not mean that after seventy-seven offences we might then stop forgiving, but the expression of seventy times seven is to show us that we are not to limit our forgiveness to any certain number of offences, but we are to continue forgiving the most repeated offences against us. Thus our Savior says in another place, If he trespasses against thee seven times in a day and seven times in a day turns again to thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him (Luke 17:4). If, therefore, a man stops forgiving his brother because he has forgiven him often already; if he excuses himself from forgiving this person because he has already forgiven several other people, then this person breaks this law of Christ concerning forgiving one's brother.

The rule of forgiving is also the rule of giving; you are not to give or do good seven times, but seventy times seven. You are not to stop giving because you have given often to the same person or to other people; but you must look upon yourself as being just as obligated to continue helping those who continue in need as you were motivated to help them once or twice. If you had not been able to help a person once, then you might have been excused from doing so; but if it is in your power to help people often, it is as much your duty to do it often as it is the duty of others to do it only seldom because they are only seldom able.

Think how much good our church youth groups would do if instead of often going to concerts and amusement parks and playing games, they would seriously intend to help those in the church and community who need help. To go to the store for others, to mow their lawns, rake their leaves, and clean their houses results in much more good not only for the youth and those whom they help, but also for those who see such Christians actually often helping out of continuous love rather than a once-a-year service project.

He who is not ready to forgive everyone as often as he needs to be forgiven does not forgive like a disciple of Christ. He who is not ready to give to everyone he sees or knows to be in need does not give like a disciple of Christ. It is as necessary to give to seventy times seven and to live in the continual exercise of all good works to the utmost of our power, as it is necessary to forgive until seventy times seven and to live in the habitual exercise of this forgiving attitude toward all who need it.

The reason for all this is very plain, because there is the same goodness, the same excellency, and the same necessity of being charitable at one time as at another. It is as much the best use of our money to be always doing good with it, as it is the best use of it at any particular time. That which is a reason for a charitable action is as good a reason for a charitable life. That which is a reason for forgiving one offence is the same reason for forgiving all offences. For such charity has nothing to endorse it today, except the same that will endorse it tomorrow. You cannot neglect it at one time, without being guilty of the same sin as if you neglected it at another time. Whosoever has this world's goods and sees his brother have need and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him, how does the charity of God abide in him? (1 John 3:17).

As certain, therefore, as these works of charity are an essential part of the Christian's life, so certain it is that we are to do them to the utmost of our power; not just today or tomorrow, but through the whole course of our lives. If, therefore, it is our duty at any time to deny ourselves any needless expenses, to be moderate and frugal so that we may have to give to those in need, it is as much our duty to do so at all times so that we may be able to do even more good. Rather let him labour, working with his hands that which is good, that he may have to give to him that is in need (Ephesians 4:28).

If it is at any time a sin to prefer needless vain expenses to works of charity, it is so at all times, because charity as much excels all needless and vain expenses at one time as at another. If it is ever necessary to demonstrate Christ in us by taking care of these works of charity and to see that we make ourselves in some degree capable of doing them, it is as necessary to demonstrate Christ in us by taking care to make ourselves as capable as we can be by performing them in all parts of our life.

Therefore, you must either renounce your Christianity so far as to say that you do not ever need to perform any of these good works, or you must admit that you are to perform them all your life in as high a degree as you are able. There is no middle way to be taken, any more than there is a middle way between pride and humility or modesty and immodesty. If you do not strive to fulfil all charitable works, if you neglect any of them that are in your power, if you deny assistance to those who need what you can give, whenever or wherever it is, you number yourself among those who need Christian charity. It is as much your duty to do good with all that you have, and to live in the continual exercise of good works, as it is your duty to show self-control in all that you eat and drink.

This also brings up the necessity of renouncing all those foolish and unreasonable expenses that the pride and folly of mankind have made so common and fashionable in the world. For if it is necessary to do good works, as far as you are able, it must be as necessary to renounce those needless ways of spending money that render you unable to do works of charity. If you have money for your own extravagances but claim that you cannot much afford to help the poor, then your heart might need to be adjusted. If you can spend hundreds of dollars on your own entertainment and recreation yet claim that you do not have money to give to your neighbor in need, then you might not be seeking to glorify God with all that you have.

You must therefore no more conform to these ways of the world than you ought to conform to the sins of the world. You must no more spend with those who idly waste their money as their own whims lead them than you must drink with the drunken or swear with the profane. A routine of such expenses is no more consistent with a life of charity than excess in drinking is consistent with a life of sobriety. When, therefore, anyone tells you of the lawfulness of expensive apparel or the innocence of purchasing expensive toys for yourself, only imagine that the same person was to tell you that you need not to do works of charity and that Christ does not require you to do good unto your poor brothers and sisters, as unto Him; then you will see the wickedness of such advice. For to tell you that you may spend your money on yourself so that you have none to help others in need is the same thing as telling you that you do not need to have any care about such good works themselves.

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 Aneko Press has many of these types of inexpensive books that can be given away as gifts or in other ways to help both Christians and the lost. Give an evangelistic book away for Christmas or give spiritual growth books away to members of your church. Give visitors at church, your neighbors, family, and friends a book that may help prepare them for eternity.
Chapter 7

How the imprudent use of our possessions corrupts all the perspectives of the mind and fills the heart with poor and ridiculous passions through the whole course of life. This is represented in the character of Beth.

It has already been observed that the manner of spending our money or resources is to be done prudently and according to Christian principles. This should be a normal part of our everyday lives, and so much the business of every day, that according as we are wise or unwise in this respect, the whole course of our lives will be rendered either very wise or very full of foolishness.

Many people who are friends of Christianity, who receive instructions of piety with pleasure and satisfaction, often wonder how it comes to pass that they make no greater progress in that religion that they so much admire.

The reason is because Christianity lives only in their head, but something else has possession of their heart; therefore, they continue from year to year to be mere admirers and approvers of piety, without ever coming up to the reality and perfection of its precepts. This is why we have so many church attenders but such little holiness. This is why our churches are filled with events and social gatherings, but little repentance and revival. We have nice sermons with little power, and much activity with little results.

The reason why Christianity does not get possession of their hearts is not because they live in blatant sins or depravity, for their regard to Christianity preserves them from such things; but it is because their hearts are constantly employed, perverted, and kept in a wrong condition by the misguided use of those things that are lawful to be used.

The use and enjoyment of their possessions and money is lawful, and therefore it never enters into their heads to imagine any great danger from doing so. They never reflect that there is a vain and irresponsible use of what they have, which, though it does not destroy like blatant sins, yet it so disorders the heart and supports it in such worldliness and dullness, such pride and vanity, as makes it incapable of receiving the life and spirit of true Christianity. Our souls may receive infinite harm and be rendered incapable of all virtue merely by the use of innocent and lawful things.

What is more innocent than rest and relaxation? Yet what is more dangerous to our souls than sloth and idleness? What is more lawful than eating and drinking? Yet what is more destructive of all virtue, what more fruitful of all sin, than indulgence and pleasures of the flesh?

How lawful and praiseworthy is the care of a family! Yet how certainly are many people rendered incapable of all virtue because of a worldly and anxious demeanor!

It is for lack of Christian exactness in the use of these innocent and lawful things that Christianity cannot get possession of our hearts. It is in the right and prudent management of ourselves as to these things that the art of holy living chiefly consists. Blatant sins are plainly seen and easily avoided by people who profess Christianity, but the indiscreet and dangerous use of innocent and lawful things harms us, as it does not shock and offend our consciences, and so it is difficult to make people at all sensible of its danger.

A gentleman who spends much of his time and money on sports, and a woman who spends much of her money on clothing for herself, can hardly be persuaded that the spirit of Christianity cannot survive in such a way of life. We make excuses for why we do what we do and love what we love, even though such things may not glorify God. What music is near to the heart of those who love God, what will we sing in heaven, but that which glorifies God? Yet how often do we hear Christians and even pastors talk about the music of the world as their favorite music? If it does not draw us nearer to God, it keeps our hearts and minds from Jesus.

These people, as has been noted, may live free from depravity. They may be friends of the Christian faith, praising it and speaking well of it and admiring it in their thoughts, but it cannot govern their hearts and be the motivation for their actions until they change their way of life and allow Christianity to dictate how to use and spend their money and time and all that they have.

A woman who loves fashion and new clothing, who thinks no expense too great to bestow upon the adorning of her person, cannot stop there. For that behavior draws a thousand other follies along with it, and they will render the whole course of her life – her business, her conversation, her hopes, her fears, her tastes, her pleasures, and diversions – all suitable to it.

Beth and Miranda are two unmarried sisters. Their parents died twenty years ago and left their daughters a sizeable fortune. Since that time, Beth and Miranda have lived on $120,000 a year each, and they have spent their money as they pleased.

Beth has amazed all her friends for her excellent management in living so well on so moderate a fortune. Several ladies who have twice her fortune are not able to always be so refined and so constant at all places of pleasure and expense. She has everything that is in fashion, and she goes anywhere there is any amusement or entertainment. She buys a new car every few years. Beth considers herself religious. She talks passionately against heretics and false teachers, and usually attends church. She once commended a sermon that was against the pride and vanity of dress, and thought it was a good sermon for Laurie, whom she takes to act a great deal finer than she needs to.

If anyone asks Beth to give something to a charity, if she likes the person who asks, or if she happens to be in the right mood, she will toss him five or ten dollars, and she will tell him that if he knew how large her credit card bill was this month, he would think that was a great deal for her to give. A few months after this, she hears a sermon upon the necessity of charity; she thinks the man preaches well, that it is a very proper subject, that people need to be reminded of it, but she applies nothing to herself, because she remembers that she gave ten dollars some time ago, when she could so hardly spare it.

As for poor people themselves, she will not give directly to any of them. She is very positive they are all cheats and liars and will say anything to get money, and therefore she thinks it must be a sin to encourage them in their evil ways.

You would think Beth had the most tender conscience in the world if you were to see how careful she is and how fearful she is to give anyone any help if she thinks they might not really need or deserve it.

She buys many novels and romance books, and she has seen most of the latest movies. She says that she can better relate to others and understand them if she is entertained by such things. Beth spends much time reading romance novels, going shopping, exercising, and keeping up with the latest gossip. She does not have a lot of time left over, and she does not often have time for morning devotions.

Beth would be a fine example of piety if she was half as careful of her soul as she is of her body. She tries to eat in a healthy manner, and she buys the latest health supplements and skincare products. She will take great pains to do what she thinks will make her look better, even if such things take up a decent portion of her time and money.

If you visit Beth on a Sunday, you will always find her cheerful, and she will gladly discuss the latest news and gossip. She can readily discuss with you the latest music and movies and the most popular television shows. She will even discuss the latest sports results. Beth thinks they are atheists who do not go to church on Sunday, but after church she has no problem doing her yard work, going to sporting events or other entertainment, or going to restaurants. She believes that she pleases God by going to church in the morning, and she believes that is really all God means by keeping the Lord's Day holy and separate.

If you want to know who is rude and ill-natured, who got into trouble, who spends too much, and who is in debt, she will gladly tell you what she has heard. If you want to know which couple is fighting and who is now in love, if you want to know how late Tina stayed out one night, what she bought that she did not need, and how she talks too much, Beth will hospitably share her knowledge of such things. If you want to know how mean Craig is to his wife, what ill-natured things he says to her when nobody hears him, and how they are considering getting divorced, you must visit Beth on Sunday. However, Beth is so convinced that God is pleased with her church attendance, that she has no difficulty refusing to help a poor widow simply because she did not attend church that morning.

This is how Beth lives, and if she lives ten more years, she will have spent about fifteen hundred and sixty Sundays in this way. She will have worn thousands of different articles of clothing. In addition to her sleep each night, she will have spent much of her last thirty years of life going out with friends, watching movies, attending concerts and sporting events, going on vacations, reading fiction books, exercising to try to look good, and participating in other activities and forms of recreation. This is how she spends most of her time when she is awake, except for an hour and a half most Sunday mornings at church. With great care and management, over her adult life she will have spent about three-and-a-half million dollars on herself, giving only ten or twenty dollars occasionally to charities that she considers deserving of her money.

I will not say that it is impossible for Beth to be saved, but I will say that she has no basis from Scripture to think she is on the way to heaven, for her whole life is in direct opposition to all those qualities and practices which the Gospel has shown are the results of salvation.

If you were to hear her say that she had lived all her life like Anna the prophetess, who departed not from the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers (Luke 2:37), you would look upon her as exaggerating much; yet this would be no greater an exaggeration than for her to say that she had been striving to enter in at the narrow gate (Luke 13:24) or making the Gospel the rule of her life.

She might as well say that she lived with our Savior when He was upon earth as that she has lived in imitation of Him or sincerely tried in any way to live in such a way as is required of all those who are His disciples. She might as truly say that she has washed the saints' feet every day as that she has lived in Christian humility and poverty of spirit. She might just as reasonably think that she has taught at a school for orphans as that she has lived in works of charity. She has as much reason to think that she has been a soldier in the army as that she has lived in self-denial and devotion to God. It might as fairly be said that she lived by the labor of her hands as that she had given all diligence to make her calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:10).

It is to be well observed here that the poor pointless way of life, the lack of true Christianity, and the folly and vanity of Beth's whole life, is all owing to the attitude she had of how to spend her money. It is this that has formed her spirit, that has given life to every idle notion, that has supported every trifling passion, and that has kept her from all thoughts of a prudent, useful, and devout life.

When her parents died, Beth had no thought about her $120,000 a year other than she had enough money to do what she would with, to spend upon herself, and to purchase the pleasures and gratifications of all her desires. It is this way she began, this false judgment and indiscreet use of her fortune, that has filled her whole life with the same indiscretion and kept her from thinking of what is right, wise, and pious in everything else.

She delighted in plays and romances, in scandal and backbiting. She was easily flattered and easily offended. She was devoted to pleasures and entertainment, and she pursued whatever she thought might keep her looking young and desired whatever fashions she thought looked good on her, with no regard to glorifying God or what might benefit her soul. Whether it was her attitude toward clothing, entertainment, fun, self-indulgence, or anything else, these were all based upon her frame of mind in how she thought she was entitled to use her money.

She could have been humble, serious, devout, a lover of good books, an admirer of prayer and time alone with God, careful of her time, modest in her attire, diligent in good works, full of charity and the love of God, but the misguided use of her fortune forced all these contrary qualities upon her.

It was no wonder that she would turn her time, her mind, her health, and her strength to the same uses that she turned her fortune. It is because she was wrong in so great a part of life that you can see nothing wise, reasonable, or pious in any other part of it.

I hope not many of you are like Beth, but we all can benefit from her bad example and perhaps see something of our own lifestyle and attitude in her way of life. For as Beth seems to be ruined by the poor use of her fortune, so the lowness of most people's virtue, the imperfections of their piety, and the disorders of their passions, are generally due to their unwise and unChristian use and enjoyment of lawful and innocent things.

More people are kept from a true sense and taste of real Christianity by a regular love of the world and self-indulgence than by outright drunkenness. More people live without regard to the great duties of piety out of too great a concern for worldly goods than through direct negligence.

One person would perhaps be devout if he were not so focused on his career. Another person is blind to all the motives of piety because she is indulging an idle, slothful lifestyle. These people could be cured from their worldly passions if they would be sincere in living holy lives. If this woman were less concerned about her outward appearance, or this man less concerned about sports, they might find it not so difficult to set their hearts and minds fully on Jesus.

These downfalls seem only little when they are compared to great sins, and though they are little in that respect, yet they are great, as they are impediments and hindrances to a pious spirit.

The truths of Christianity can be seen only by those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, by those who are willing to count the cost and follow Jesus. Even so, whatever takes our mind off God, whatever causes us to love the things of the world, these render our soul incapable of seeing, apprehending, and cherishing the doctrines of holiness.

If we sincerely desire to make real progress in Christianity, we must not only abhor flagrant and well-known sins, but we must regulate the innocent and lawful parts of our behavior, putting the most common and allowed actions of life under the rules of discretion and piety. We must not only avoid that which is clearly wrong and do what is good, but we must do that which is best and most pleasing in the eyes of God if we are sincere in living lives of holiness and being separate from the world.
Chapter 8

How using what we have wisely and piously naturally carries us to great perfection in all the virtues of the Christian life. This is represented in the character of Miranda.

Any one part of our life that we take care to live in a pious manner is of great advantage, not only on its own account, but as it helps us to get used to live by godly standards and discipline and to bring ourselves under submission to Christ.

A man of business who has brought one part of his business under certain rules is likely to follow the same rules with the rest of how he runs his business. So he who has brought any one part of his life under the principles of Christianity may then be taught to extend the same order and regularity into other parts of his life.

If anyone is so wise as to think that his time is too precious to be disposed of by chance or is not to be wasted by whatever diversions come along; if he takes care to observe how his time is spent and if he sets aside specific times for his work, his devotions with God, his time with his family, etc., then we can imagine how soon such care and discipline would reform and improve the whole course of his life.

He who once knows the value and reaps the advantage of the disciple of well-ordered time will not be a stranger to the value of anything else that is of any real concern to him. How many people claim to want to spend time with God every day, but then say that they just do not have the time? However, if these people set aside a specific time to do so, if they valued its importance as much as they claim, they would find it an easy object to obtain if they were as determined to feed their souls as they are to feed their bodies. Those who take care with their time will no longer be accused of procrastination or laziness.

A rule that relates even to the smallest part of our lives is of great benefit to us, simply because it is a rule. As the proverb by Horace says, "He who has begun is half done," so he who has begun to live by rule, or biblical standards and discipline, has gone a great way toward the improvement of his life. Living by "rule" as used here means to live according to Christian principles based upon the intent and duty to live for God.

If a person should decide to not be gluttonous in his meals only to avoid stomachaches, or if he decided to avoid getting drunk just to avoid the headaches, he might be exact in these rules without being at all the better person for them. But when he is moderate and regular in any of these things out of a sense of Christian sobriety and self-denial so that he may offer unto God a more reasonable and holy life, then it is that the smallest rule of this kind is naturally the beginning of great piety.

For the smallest rule in these matters is of great benefit, as it teaches us some part of how to govern our lives, keeps up a tenderness of mind, causes us to think about God often, and brings a sense of Christianity into the ordinary actions of our common life.

If a person, whenever he was with others, heard anyone swear, take God's name in vain, or speak evil of his neighbor or co-worker, should make it a rule for himself to either gently reprove the person, or if that was not proper, then to leave the company as decently as he could, he would find that this little rule, like a little yeast in bread dough, would spread and extend itself throughout the rest of his life.

If another person would take the Lord's Day seriously and would determine to personally abstain on the Lord's Day from any innocent and lawful things, as well as to avoid shopping, eating out, sports, yardwork, business, and such things, if he would devote the entire day, besides just morning church attendance, to greater rest and focus on the things of God – to reading, devotion, instruction, and works of charity – though it may seem but a small thing, yet whoever would try the benefit of so little a rule would perhaps find a change in his spirit and a taste of piety raised in his mind that he was a stranger to before. It would be easy to show in many other instances how little and small matters are the first steps and natural beginnings of great perfection.

But the two things out of all others that should most be under a strict rule, and which are the greatest blessings both to ourselves and others when they are rightly used, are our time and our money. These talents are continual means and opportunities of doing good.

He who is piously strict and exact in the wise management of either time or money will soon make right use of the other. He who is happy and already careful by using his time and money according to solid biblical principles and has the intent to glorify God in both, is already building a foundation for spiritual growth.

Miranda (Beth's sister) is a sincere, reasonable Christian. As soon as she was in charge of her time and fortune, it was her first thought how she could best fulfil everything that God required of her in the use of them, and how she might make the best and happiest use of this short life. She depends upon the truth of what our blessed Lord said, that there is only one thing needful (Luke 10:42), and therefore she makes her whole life but one continual labor after it. She has but one reason for doing or not doing anything, for liking or not liking anything, and that is the will of God.

She is not so weak as to think that a true Christian woman must try to look and act like a popular woman of this world. Miranda's thoughts are upon God, and so she seeks to improve her inner life rather than emphasize her outer looks. She has renounced the world to follow Christ in the exercise of humility, charity, devotion, morality, modesty, and heavenly affections.

Growing up under her mother's care, Miranda was forced to be refined, to live according to formalities, to be dressed in the latest fashions, and to make social calls with her mother every Sunday. She would have to spend much time before church putting on a fancy dress, wearing the right makeup, and choosing the proper jewelry so that she looked refined and proper at church. Miranda's mother had no regret if Miranda's skirts or dresses were somewhat short, and long as it was the fashion of the day and as long as she thought Miranda looked cute and would impress the young men.

Under her mother's care, she was taken to the movies, where she often heard profane talk and God's name taken in vain, and immorality and immodesty were seen as normal. Miranda would have to listen to her mother's favorite music, which was the popular music of the world, full of love of the flesh and the world and it would fill her mind with the things of the world. Her mother made sure that she dressed in the popular styles of the day and that she ate right and took care of her body so that others might admire her looks. Modesty and pleasing God were not a consideration to her mother if Miranda had to wear her school's cheerleading or athletic uniforms, but rather, her mother was proud at how cute and fit Miranda looked. Remembering this way of life as she was growing up made her now very careful to avoid such foolish behavior and lack of intent to glorify God in all things.

Miranda does not divide her life into trying to please God, her neighbors, her friends, and herself, but she considers all as due to God, and so she does everything in His Name, and for Him. This makes her consider her fortune as a gift from God that is to be used, as everything is, for the wise and reasonable ends of a Christian and holy life. Therefore, she divides her fortune between herself and several poor people, and she lives on only a portion of what she has.

She thinks it the same foolishness to indulge herself in needless, vain expenses, as to give to other people to spend in the same way. Therefore, just as she will not give a poor man in need of food and clothing money to go see a professional football game, neither will she spend money on herself in that way, for she thinks it proper and right to be as wise herself as she expects poor men should be. Miranda believes that it is a folly and a crime in a poor man to waste what is given him in foolish and unnecessary things while he lacks food and clothing.

Is it any less foolish and wasteful, or any less wrong, for us to spend that money in silly diversions, that might be so much better spent in imitation of the divine goodness, in works of kindness and charity toward our fellow humans, and especially our fellow Christians? If a poor man's own necessities are a reason why he should not foolishly waste any of his money, surely the necessities of the poor and the goodness of charity, which is received as if done to Jesus Himself, is a much greater reason why no one should ever waste any of his money. If he does so, he not only does like the poor man who wastes that which he needs, but he wastes that which is wanted for the most noble use and which Christ Himself is ready to receive.

If we are angry at a poor man and look upon him as contemptible when he throws away that which should buy his own bread, how must we appear in the sight of God if we willfully, selfishly, and foolishly use that which should buy bread and clothes for our hungry and naked brothers and sisters, who are as near and dear to God as we are, and who are fellow heirs of the same state of future glory?

This is the spirit of Miranda, and this is how she uses the gifts of God. She considers herself only one of a certain number of poor people who are helped by her fortune, and she only differs from them in the blessedness of giving.

Except for her food and other direct needs, she never spends much upon herself. If you were to see her, you would wonder what poor person it was who was so surprisingly neat and clean. She has but one rule that she observes in her dress, and that is to be always neat and modest. Everything about her resembles the purity of her soul, and she is always clean on the outside, because she is always pure within.

Early every morning, Miranda can be found praying and reading the Bible. She rejoices in the beginning of every day, because it begins her day of pursuing holiness and living again for God. She seems to be as a guardian angel to those who live near her, making intercession with God for those who are still asleep.

She has drawn near to God and walked with Him before the light of day has even entered into her sister's room. Miranda does not make excuses for not having spent time with God, for she does not need to, as it has been her habit and joy for many years and is an essential part of her life. She has read the Bible through more often and knows more of it by heart than most pastors. She does not simply say prayers to God, but she communes with Him.

When you see her at work, you see the same wisdom that governs all her other actions. She is either doing something that is necessary for herself or necessary for others who need to be assisted. There is hardly a poor family in her neighborhood who does not wear something or have something that Miranda did not make or obtain for them. Often when some poor family was in need of food or clothing, God used Miranda to provide for them and help them in their time of need.

If Miranda had pursued the pleasures of this world and spent her money on herself, many poor families would not have benefitted from her sacrifice and kindness. Her wise and pious mind desired neither the amusements nor luxuries of this world. She did not allow herself to partake of or participate in the vanities, wastefulness, and pleasures of this world during the day, for she knew that at night she would have to give an account of her actions to God. When she can no longer work to help others, she will no longer work.

At her table, she lives strictly by this rule of holy Scripture: Whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatever ye do, do everything for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). This makes her begin and end every meal as she begins and ends every day – with acts of devotion to God. She eats and drinks only to give her body what is needed, and is never extravagant or wasteful.

If Miranda had to run a race in order to save her life, she would eat and train so as to be most fit and ready for the race. However, as the race which is set before her is a race of holiness, purity, and heavenly affection that she is to finish in a corrupt body of earthly passions, so her everyday diet has only this one end – to make her body more fit for this spiritual race. She does not eat and drink as much as she is able until she is too full to eat more, but she only eats what is needed to render her body able and willing to obey the soul, to join in psalms and prayers, and to lift up eyes and hands toward heaven with greater readiness. Miranda will never have her eyes swell with fatness or pant under a heavy load of flesh as long as she is a Christian.

The Holy Scriptures are her daily study. She reads with a watchful attention, constantly casting an eye upon herself, and examining herself by every doctrine that is there. When she has the New Testament in her hand, she imagines herself at the feet of our Savior and His apostles, and she makes everything that she learns from them the laws of her life. She receives their sacred words with as much attention and reverence as if she saw them in person and knew that they had just come from heaven in order to teach her the way that leads to it.

She thinks that examining her life every day by the doctrines of Scripture is the only possible way to be ready for her trial at the last day. She is sometimes afraid that she spends too much money for books, because she cannot resist buying all practical books of any value, especially those dealing with Christianity and the inward holiness of the Christian life. But of all human writings, her greatest delights are the biographies and autobiographies of godly men and women who have lived before her. In these she searches as for hidden treasure, hoping to find some secret of holy living or some uncommon degree of piety that she can make her own. She does not waste her time reading books of empty fiction or those with no eternal purpose or value. By this means, Miranda has her head and her heart so stored with all the principles of wisdom and holiness and is so full of the one main business of life, that she finds it difficult to converse upon any other subject. If you are in her company, when she thinks it is proper to talk, you will be made wiser and better, whether you want to or not, as she loves to discuss the things of God. She is not prepared to discuss the latest sports and entertainment, for her heart is not set upon those things. She loves the company of others who also naturally discuss the things of God as that which only fills their hearts.

To tell about her generosity and kindness would necessitate telling every day of her life for the past thirty years, for that is how long she has been spending her money this way. She has helped nearly twenty poor tradesmen who had failed in their business, and she has saved twenty more from failing. She has paid for the Christian education of several poor children, and she has paid for training for several unemployed young people so they could find employment. As soon as any worker in her neighborhood is confined at home with sickness, she sends him some gifts of money to help with food and medicine until he gets better.

If a family seems too large to be supported by the labor of those who can work in it, she sometimes pays their rent and gives them something yearly toward their clothing. By this means, there are several poor families that live in a comfortable manner and are from year to year blessing her in their prayers. Miranda is ready to help a poor family with the cost of replacing a furnace or water heater or oven. Her neighbors are not strangers to her, as she often visits them and gets to know them, and so she is better aware of their physical and spiritual needs.

She encourages the Christian youth in her town to put away their concerts and games and foolishness and spend their time and money actually doing good to others rather than amusing themselves. She encourages them to spend time alone with God daily in prayer and Bible reading, to read good Christian books, and to help their neighbors with yardwork, gardening, cleaning, and whatever else is needed. Is this way, the youth see early on that the purpose of life is to love and help others rather than be amused and entertained. Rather than spending money on pizza every week and paying for games and concerts and ski trips, the youth use that money for others, developing lifelong habits of eternal value. In addition, they learn to be more serious and heavenly-minded, seeking holiness rather than fun.

If there is any poor man or woman who is more than ordinarily wicked and sinful, Miranda watches them in their situation, and if she learns that they are in any need, she tries to quickly be there to help them and care for them. More than once in this way, her kindness and generosity have led others to repentance and new life in Jesus Christ. There is nothing in the character of Miranda more to be admired than this quality. This tenderness of affection toward the most abandoned sinners is the highest instance of a divine and godly soul.

Miranda once passed by a house where the man and his wife were cursing and swearing at one another in a most dreadful manner, with three children crying about them. This sight so much affected her compassionate mind, that the next day she went and offered to watch the three children during the day for a year, so that they would not be ruined by living with such wicked parents. Miranda took care of them during the summer and after school during the school year, and they were blessed with her care and prayers and all the good works that she did for them. They heard her talk, they saw her live, and they joined with her in psalms and prayers. The two oldest children are now following Jesus, the oldest child has led his parents to the way of salvation through Jesus Christ, and their lives are remarkably different now.

Miranda is a constant source of relief to the poor and needy in their misfortunes and accidents. There are sometimes little misfortunes that happen to them, which of themselves they could never be able to overcome. A car needs fixed or they have some medical bills that would keep them in distress for years, but Miranda is there to help. She immediately helps them, but also always uses the opportunity as a means of raising their minds toward God. She knows that to simply help meet some material needs can be beneficial for now, but to point them to repentance, peace, and forgiveness in Jesus Christ can have eternal results.

She has a great tenderness for old people who have grown past their labor. While churches often overlook this group of people and do not often provide them much help, they are the constant objects of Miranda's care. She adds to their income to help comfort the infirmities of their age, so that, being free from trouble and distress, they may serve God in peace and tranquility of mind. She generally has a large number like this, who, by her generosity and exhortations to holiness, spend their last days in great piety and devotion. Miranda has learned the great benefit of doing more than donating a little to a church, but she truly cares about the bodies and souls of those around her.

Miranda never lacks compassion, even to common beggars – especially toward those who are old or sick, or full of sores, who lack limbs, or who are blind. She hears their complaints with tenderness, gives them some proof of her kindness, and never rejects them with hard or reproachful language, for fear of adding affliction to her fellow creatures.

If a poor old traveler tells her that he has neither strength nor food nor money left, she never urges him to go back from where he came or tells him that she cannot help him because he might be a cheat or because she does not know him; but she relieves him for that reason, because he is a stranger and unknown to her. For it is the most noble part of charity to be kind and tender to those whom we never saw before, and perhaps never may see again in this life. I was a stranger, and ye took me in, said our blessed Savior (Matthew 25:35). Who can perform this duty, who will not help people who are unknown to him?

Miranda considers that Lazarus was a common beggar, that he was the care of angels, and that he was carried into Abraham's bosom (Luke 16:22). She considers that our blessed Savior and His apostles were kind to beggars, they spoke comfortably to them, healed their diseases, and restored eyes and limbs to the lame and blind. Miranda remembers that Peter said to the beggar who wanted alms from him, Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have I give thee: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk (Acts 3:6). Miranda, therefore, never treats beggars with disregard or dislike, but she imitates the kindness of our Savior and His apostles toward them; and though she cannot, like them, work miracles for their relief, yet she relieves them with that power that she has, and she can say with the apostle, Such as I have I give thee: in the name of Jesus Christ.

Miranda realizes that she may often give to those who do not deserve it or who will waste what she has given to them, but what then? Is not this the very method of divine goodness? Does not God make his sun to rise on the evil and on the good? (Matthew 5:45). Is not this the very goodness that is recommended to us in Scripture, that by imitating it, we may be children of our Father who is in heaven, who sends rain on the just and on the unjust?

Shall I withhold a little money or food from my fellow man for fear he might not be good enough to receive it from me? I beg of God to deal with me, not according to my merit, but according to His own great goodness; and shall I be so absurd as to withhold my charity from a poor brother or sister, because he may perhaps not deserve it? Shall I use a standard of judgment toward him that I pray God will never use toward me? Besides, where has the Scripture made merit the rule or measure of charity? On the contrary, the Scripture says, If thine enemy hungers, feed him; if he thirsts, give him drink (Romans 12:20).

This plainly teaches us that whether or not we think a person is worthy is not to be a rule of our charity, but that we are to do acts of kindness to those who least of all deserve it. For if I am to love and do good to my worst enemies, if I am to be charitable to them notwithstanding all their spite and malice, then surely merit is no measure of charity. If I am not to withhold my charity from such bad people who are my enemies, then certainly I am not to deny alms to poor beggars, who I do not know are bad people and who are not my enemies.

You will perhaps say that by this means we encourage people to be beggars; but the same thoughtless objection may be made against all kinds of charities, for they may encourage people to depend upon them. The same may be said against forgiving our enemies, for it may encourage people to do us hurt. The same may be said even against the goodness of God, that by pouring His blessings on the evil and on the good, on the just and on the unjust, evil and unjust men are encouraged in their wicked ways. The same may be said against clothing the naked or giving medicine to the sick, for that may encourage people to neglect themselves and be careless of their health. But when the love of God dwells in you, when it has enlarged your heart and filled your heart with mercy and compassion, you will not make any more objections like these.

When you are at any time turning away the poor, the old, the sick, the helpless traveler, the lame, or the blind, ask yourself these questions: Do I sincerely wish that these poor creatures may be as happy as Lazarus, who was carried by angels into Abraham's bosom? Do I sincerely desire that God would make them fellow heirs with me in eternal glory? If you search into your soul, you will find that these emotions are not there, and that you are wishing nothing like this. For it is impossible for anyone heartily to wish a poor creature so great a happiness, and yet not have a heart to give him a small gift.

For this reason, Miranda gives to all in need as much as she can, and she prays to God to forgive them all. I cannot refuse charity to those whom I ask God to bless and whom I wish to be partakers of eternal glory, but I am glad to show some degree of love to such as, I hope, will be the objects of the infinite love of God. If, as our Savior has assured us, it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35), we ought to look upon those who ask for our help as friends and benefactors, who come to do us a greater good than they can receive, who come to exalt our virtue, to be witnesses of our charity, to be monuments of our love, to be our advocates with God, to be to us in Christ's stead, to appear for us in the day of judgment, and to help us to a blessedness greater than our charity can bestow on them.

This is the spirit, and this is the life, of the devout Miranda. Rather than spending her wealth upon herself, she has distributed it to and blessed many hundreds who were in need.

When she dies, she will shine among apostles, saints, and martyrs. She will stand among the best servants of God and be glorious among those who have fought the good fight and finished their course with joy.
Chapter 9

Containing some reflections upon the life of Miranda, and showing how it may and ought to be imitated by all of her gender.

Now this life of Miranda, which I heartily recommend all females to imitate (however contrary it may seem to the way and fashion of the world) is appropriate to the true spirit and is founded upon the plainest doctrines of Christianity.

To live as she does is as truly suitable to the Gospel of Christ, as to be baptized or to be a missionary in a foreign land. Her spirit is that which animated the saints of former ages, and it is because they lived as she does that we now celebrate their memories and praise God for their examples. There is nothing that is eccentric, trivial, or unreasonable in Miranda's character, but everything there described is a right and proper instance of solid and real piety.

It is as easy to show that it is strange to go to church or to say one's prayers, as that it is strange to observe any of these rules of life. All of Miranda's rules of living unto God, of spending her time and fortune, of eating, working, dressing, and speaking, are as substantial parts of a reasonable and holy life as are devotion and prayer.

There is nothing to be said in support of the wisdom of sincerity, devotion, charity, or humility, except what is as good an argument in support of the wise and reasonable use of how to dress. Neither can anything be said against the folly of luxury, worldly pleasure and entertainment, extravagance, wastefulness, pride, laziness, or indulgence, but what must be said against the folly of dress. Christianity is as deeply concerned in the one as in the other.

If you are vain in one thing, you may be vain in everything; for one kind of vanity only differs from another as one kind of overindulgence differs from another. If you spend your fortune in the needless, vain fashions of clothing, you cannot condemn wastefulness, extravagance, or luxury without condemning yourself.

If you imagine that it is your only vice and that therefore it is not such a big deal, you are like those who think they are only guilty of the folly of covetousness or pride. Although some people may live so convincing a life as to appear chargeable with no other fault than that of covetousness or pride, yet things are not as they appear, for covetousness or pride cannot live in a heart that is rightly devoted to God in all other aspects.

In the same way, although some people may spend much money needlessly and foolishly on fashion and dress yet seem to be in every other respect truly pious, yet it is certainly false; for it is as impossible for someone who is in a true state of Christianity to be vain in the use of clothes, as to be vain in the use of charity or devotions.

Now to convince you of this from your own reflections, let us suppose that some eminent Christian, for instance, the virgin Mary, was sent back into the world for a few years, and that you were going to learn from her and to be edified by her great dedication to God. Would you expect to find her dressed in fine and expensive clothes? No. Would you expect her to be wearing short skirts and tight shorts and otherwise dressing immodestly? No. You would know, in your own mind, that would be as impossible as to find her drinking in a nightclub or sitting in a theater watching a movie in which God's name is used in vain. Simple add the title of holy or Christlike to any man or woman, and your own mind tells you immediately that such a person would not be caught up in the vanity of fine apparel. A Christian dressed in expensive, lavish, indulgent clothing is as great nonsense as an apostle in a $2,000 suit or the virgin Mary in a $500 dress. Everyone's own natural sense convinces him of the inconsistency of these things.

What is the reason that when you think of an eminent servant of God, you cannot imagine that he or she is indulgent in fancy and expensive clothing? Is it not because it is inconsistent with such a right state of heart and with true and exalted piety? Is not this, therefore, a demonstration that where such vanity is residing, that a right state of heart and true and exalted piety must be lacking? For as certainly as the Lord's mother could not indulge herself or conform to the vanity of the world in clothing, so it is certain that none can indulge themselves in this vanity, except those who lack her piety of heart. Therefore it must be admitted that all needless and expensive finery of clothing is the effect of a disordered and proud heart that is not governed by the true spirit of Christianity.

Covetousness is not a crime because there is any harm in gold or silver, but because it supposes a foolish and unreasonable state of mind that has left its true good and has fallen into such a poor and wretched condition.

In the same way, the expensive habit of fashionable clothing is not a crime because there is anything good or evil in clothes, but because the expensive ornaments of clothing show a foolish and unreasonable state of heart that has fallen from right notions of human nature, abuses the purpose of clothing, and turns the necessities of life into instances of pride and folly.

Sometimes people try to impress others with their fancy cars and houses and clothes and how much money they make and all their expensive jewelry and games and toys. It shows the condition of their mind, and that it is impossible for those who care so much about the outward things to have anything wise, or reasonable, or good within. Indeed, to suppose that someone living for this world is of great piety is as much nonsense as to suppose that a coward is of great courage.

It is certain that the use and manner of clothes is a mark of the state of a person's mind, and consequently, that it is a thing highly essential to Christianity. Just as it is not only the drunkard who is guilty of intemperance, as many are intemperate when it comes to eating and drinking, so it is not only the famous and wealthy who are guilty of vanity and sin when it comes to how people dress, for those who depart from the reasonable and Christian purpose for clothing and how we should modestly dress are also guilty.

As, therefore, every argument against drunkenness is as good an argument against all lack of moderation, so every argument against the vanity of foolish and proud extravagance is as good an argument against all vanity and abuse of dress. For they are all the same kind, and only differ as one degree of excess may differ from another. She who dresses a little immodestly has as little right to accuse another person because she dresses very immodestly, as she who watches movies containing a little profanity and immorality has the right to condemn one who watches incredibly immoral and profane movies.

For as in the matter of drunkenness, there is no rule but the sobriety that is according to the doctrines and spirit of Christianity, so in the matter of apparel there is no rule to be observed except the proper and modest use of clothes as is strictly according to the doctrines and spirit of Christianity. To pretend to make the way of the world our measure in these things is as weak and absurd as to make the way of the world the measure of our sobriety, morality, or humility. It is foolish for Christians to imitate the world, for Christians are to be so far from conforming to the fashions of this life, that to overcome the world is an essential characteristic of Christianity. For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith (1 John 5:4).

This is a matter of the heart. The way that you are to judge the sin of vain apparel is to consider it as an offence against the proper use of clothes, just as covetousness is an offence against the proper use of money. You are to consider it as an indulgence of a proud, selfish, vain, and unreasonable spirit, and as an offence against the humility and sincerity of the Christian spirit.

It is an offence against all those doctrines that require you to do all to the glory of God and that require you to make a right use of your talents. It is an offence against all those texts of Scripture that command you to love your neighbor as yourself, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, and do all works of charity that you are able. You must not deceive yourself by asking what can the harm be of clothes. The covetous man might as well ask what can be the harm of gold or silver. You must consider that it is a great deal of harm to lack that wise, reasonable, and humble state of heart that is according to the spirit of Christianity, and that no one can have it as he ought to have, who indulges himself either in the vanity of dress or the desire for riches.

There is therefore nothing right in the use of clothes, or in the use of anything else in the world, but the plainness and simplicity of the Gospel. Every other use of things (however common and fashionable in the world) distracts and disorders the heart, and is inconsistent with that inward state of piety, purity of heart, wisdom of mind, and love toward God that Christianity requires.

If you would be a good Christian, you must live wholly unto God; and if you would live wholly unto God, you must live according to the wisdom that comes from God. You must judge the nature and value of things properly – from a biblical perspective. You must live in the exercise of holy and heavenly affections, and you must use all the gifts of God to His praise and glory.

Some people, perhaps, who admire the purity and maturity of Miranda's life, may ask how such a life can be proposed as a common example for all Christians. How can we who are married or we who are under the direction of our parents imitate such a life?

The answer is that you can imitate such a life in the same way as you can imitate the life of our blessed Savior and His apostles. The circumstances of our Savior's life and the state and condition of His apostles were different from yours, just as those of Miranda's are; and yet their lives and the purity and perfection of their behavior is the common example that is proposed to all Christians.

It is their spirit, therefore, their piety and their love of God that you are to imitate, and not the specific incidents of their lives. Act under God as they did, direct your common actions to that purpose that they did, do all out of love for God and to glorify Him as they did, show love, humility, and self-denial to your neighbors as they did; and then, though you may only be teaching your own children while the apostle Paul was converting whole nations, yet you are following his steps and acting after his example.

Do not think, therefore, that you cannot be or do not need to be like Miranda just because you are not in her same situation in life; for as the same spirit and character would have made Miranda a godly woman even if she had been forced to earn her living by difficult manual labor, so you can have the same spirit and character if you will but desire and intend to glorify, honor, and obey God in everything you say and do.

Miranda is what she is because she does everything in the name of God and with regard to her duty to Him; and when you do the same, you will be exactly like her, though you may be very different from her in the outward state of your life.

You are married, you say, and so you do not have time and money in your power as Miranda does. That is true, and therefore you cannot spend as much time and money in the same way that she does. But Miranda's perfection does not consist in that she spends so much time or money in such a way, but that she is careful to make the best use of all the time and money that God has put into her hands. Do you, therefore, make the best use of all the time and money that are at your disposal?

If Miranda has $120,000 a year, and you have only $35,000, do you not have the more reason to be extremely exact in the wisest use of your money? If she has a great deal of time and you have but a little, shouldn't you be even more watchful and careful, lest that little should be lost?

Maybe you women object and say that if you were to imitate the clean plainness and frugalness of her clothing, you would offend your husbands.

First, be very sure that this is true before you make it an excuse.

Secondly, if your husbands really do require you to buy expensive jewelry, to wear revealing clothing, to wear short skirts and tight shorts, and to be worldly and extravagant in all your apparel, then take these two resolutions:

First, to discuss with your husbands the necessity of glorifying God and stopping this wasteful and vain behavior.

Secondly, to do your best to please your husbands by such solid virtues as may correct the vanity of their minds and teach them to love you for those inner qualities that will make you pleasing in the sight of God and His holy angels.

As to this doctrine concerning the plainness and modesty of dress, it may perhaps be thought by some to be sufficiently refuted by asking whether all persons are to be dressed in the same way. These types of questions are generally asked by those who try to make simple truths complicated rather than simply follow them. Suppose that I had recommended a universal simple and natural diet. Would it not be a good and beneficial thing to eat more natural and simple foods? But would it then follow that the millionaire and the laborer would eat the same exact foods? In like manner, although simplicity and modesty of dress is recommended to all, yet it does not mean that all are to be clothed exactly in the same manner.

Now what is the particular rule with regard to clothing? How can I clothe myself according to biblical principles and best please and glorify God? This simple principle will cause even the very rich to dress simply, and yet will still allow all to dress differently.

To ask what is vanity in dress is not a puzzling question, and though Christianity does not state the specific and exact clothing for all people, it gives such general rules as are a sufficient direction in every state of life. It is not difficult to observe what is too low or too short or too tight. To cover one's body modestly is not difficult to figure out, although excuses are made by those who are not asking what glorifies God the most and what best follows biblical principles.

She who lets Christianity teach her that the purpose of clothing is to hide our shame and nakedness and to protect our bodies from the elements of the weather, and that she is to desire to glorify God by a sincere and wise use of this necessity, will always know what vanity of dress is in his particular situation. If a woman asks how short a skirt can be and still glorify God, her heart is not yet right. Rather, she should be asking what clothing will best glorify God and portray modesty and Christlike principles without any hint of immodesty or pride.

The person who thinks that it is needless to discuss the proper Christian use of apparel has as much reason to think it is needless to discuss the proper Christian use of alcohol or the Lord's name. Luxury and indulgence in dress is as great an abuse as luxury and indulgence in eating and drinking. There is no avoiding either of them except by making Christianity the strict measure of our behavior in both cases. That which should motivate a Christian to want to be holy regarding the use of alcohol or the Lord's name is the same principle that should motivate a Christian to desire to be holy regarding how one dresses.

Also, as all things that are lawful are not necessarily expedient or beneficial, so there are some things allowable in the use of liquors and apparel, which, by abstaining from them for pious ends, may be made means of great perfection. All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient; all things are lawful for me, but all things do not edify (1 Corinthians 10:23).

Thus, for instance, some Christians spend hundreds or thousands of dollars each year on entertainment or sporting events or the theater. To watch a sporting event might be allowable; that is, it might not be sinful. However, if they would refrain from such expense not only for the sake of denying themselves and seeking the things that are above and having one's mind on Christ instead of the world, they might be able to relieve and refresh the helpless, poor, and sick and do much good with the hundreds or thousands of dollars.

If a Christian would abstain from the use of that which is lawful in dress in order to be more frugal and simple in his attire as the principles of Christianity allow, if he would do this not only as a means of better humility, but that he may be more able to clothe other people, this person might be said to do that which was highly suitable to the true spirit, though not absolutely required by the letter, of the law of Christ. How much good could we do and how much could we help others if, for example, we bought a thirty dollar pair of pants instead of an eighty dollar pair, giving the extra fifty dollars to someone who was struggling to afford groceries or diapers?

For if those who give a cup of cold water to a disciple of Christ will not lose their reward (Matthew 10:42), how dear must they be to Christ who often give themselves water so that they can provide medicine for the sick and languishing members of Christ's body! Think how much better it would be for us and how much we could help others simply by not drinking soda and using that money to help others.

But to return. All that has been here said to married women may serve for the same instruction to those who are still under the direction of their parents.

Now though the obedience which is due to parents does not obligate their children to carry their virtues any higher than their parents require of them, yet their obedience requires them to submit to their direction in all things that are not contrary to the laws of God. If, therefore, your parents require you to live more in the fashion and lifestyle of the world, or to be more expensive in your dress and person, or to dispose of your time otherwise than suits with your desires after holiness, you must submit and bear it as your cross until you are at liberty to follow the higher counsels of Christ and have it in your power to choose the best ways of raising your virtue to its greatest height.

While you are in this state, you might not be able to follow your own principles in pursuit of a holy life as thoroughly as you might want, but there are other benefits to your situation that are not available if you had a life of more liberty.

For if in this state, where obedience to your parents is so great a virtue, you comply in all things lawful out of a pious, tender sense of duty, then those things in which you obey, instead of being hindrances of your virtue, become means of improving it. What you lose by being kept back from such things as you would choose on your own, you gain by that excellent virtue of obedience in humbly complying against your inclination.

But as for those who are adults and are responsible for themselves, if the liberty of their situation makes them covet the best gifts, if it carries them to choose the most excellent ways, if they would turn their lives into a regular exercise of the highest virtues, happy are they who have so learned Christ!

He that has ears to hear, let him hear. (Matthew 11:15) 
Chapter 10

Showing how all orders and classes of men and women of all ages are obligated to devote themselves unto God.

In the preceding chapters, I have gone through several great instances of Christian devotion, and have shown that all the parts of our common lives – our employments, our talents, possessions, and resources – are all to be made holy and acceptable unto God by a wise and Christian use of everything, and by directing our actions and designs to such purposes as are suitable to the honor and glory of God.

I will now show that this consistency of devotion, this holiness of common life, this Christian use of everything that we have, is a devotion that is the duty of all Christian people.

Kent has had a good education and has university degrees, but he wants to be free from any rules of life. He has not looked for a job yet, because he thinks that every employment or business calls people to the careful performance of strict guidelines in carrying out its duties. He will tell you that he did not enter Christian ministry, because he views it as a career that requires great holiness of life and that does not suit his disposition to be so good. He will tell you that he never intends to marry, because he cannot obligate himself to that regularity of life and good behavior that he realizes is the duty of those who are at the head of a family.

Kent thinks that he is conscientious in this conduct, and is therefore content with the most idle, impertinent, and careless life. He claims to be a Christian, but has no desire to be devoted to God or to pursue a holy life. He lives by no rules and thinks everything is very good, because he is neither a pastor, nor a father, nor has any employment or family to look after.

But Kent is a rational creature, and as such, is as much obligated to live according to reason and order as a priest is obligated to attend to the altar, or a husband is to be faithful to his wife. If you live contrary to reason, you do not commit a small crime, but you break the law of your nature, you rebel against God who gave you that nature, and you put yourself among those whom the God of reason and order will punish as apostates and deserters.

Though Kent has no employment, yet as he professes to be a Christian, he is as much obligated to live according to the holiness of the Christian spirit as much as any man is obligated to be honest and faithful in his calling. If you abuse this great calling, you are not false in just a small matter, but you abuse the precious blood of Christ. You crucify the Son of God afresh, you neglect the highest instances of divine goodness, you blemish the Body of Christ, and you abuse the means of grace and the promises of glory. Therefore it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you (Luke 10:14).

It is therefore great foolishness for anyone to think himself at liberty to live as he pleases just because he does not have specific responsibilities as some others do. If we avoid the responsibilities of a husband or Christian worker because we fear the consequences of not fulfilling our duties well, there is far more to fear if we neglect the duties that reason and Christian principles supply for those who claim to be children of God. What could be more rightfully dreaded than the neglect of our Christian calling, which is not merely to serve the little uses of a short life, but to redeem souls unto God, to fill heaven with saints, and to finish a kingdom of eternal glory unto God.

No one, therefore, must think himself excused from the exactness of piety and morality simply because he has chosen to be idle and independent in the world. The necessities of a reasonable and holy life are not based upon the various conditions and employments of this life, but in the immutable nature of God and the nature of man. A man is not to be reasonable and holy because he is a pastor or a missionary or a father of a family, but he is to be a holy man and a good father because piety and goodness are characteristics of a man of God. If any man could please God without living according to wisdom and order and biblical principles, then there would be nothing displeasing to God in being a lazy pastor or an unprincipled father. He, therefore, who abuses his reason and common sense is like the pastor who takes advantage of his position in order to increase his wealth, power, or status, or in order to get his own way. He who neglects the holiness of the Christian life disregards the most important responsibility.

If a man were to choose to put out his eyes rather than enjoy the light and see the works of God, or if he should voluntarily kill himself by refusing to eat and drink, everyone would admit that such a one was a rebel against God who justly deserved His highest indignation. You would not say that this was only sinful in a pastor or in the head of a family, but in everyone.

Now wherein does the sinfulness of this behavior consist? Does it not consist in this, that he abuses his nature and refuses to live the life for which God has created him? But if this is true, then all people who abuse their reason, who do not live the life for which God created them, are rebels against God and are therefore subject to His wrath.

Let us suppose that this man, instead of putting out his eyes, had only used them in looking at foolish or sinful things, or shut them up in sleep all day; that instead of starving himself to death by not eating at all, he turned every meal into a feast and would eat and drink like an glutton. Could he be said to have lived more to the glory of God? Could he any more be said to live the life for which God had created him than if he had put out his eyes or starved himself to death?

One who claims to be a Christian, yet who lives for himself or ignores the principles of Christianity in part of his life and does not seek God's will and glory in everything, is just as much a rebel against God as he who lives a life completely full of foolishness and self-indulgence.

For he who puts out his eyes or murders himself, has only this guilt – that he abuses the powers God has given him, refuses to live the life for which he was created, and puts himself into a state that is contrary to the divine will. This is the guilt of everyone who lives an unreasonable, unholy, and foolish life.

As, therefore, no particular state of private life is an excuse for the abuse of our bodies or for killing ourselves, so no particular state of private life is an excuse for the abuse of our reason or the neglect of the holiness of the Christian religion. For surely it is as much the will of God that we should make the best use of our rational faculties and conform to the purity and holiness of Christianity as it is the will of God that we should use our eyes and eat and drink for the preservation of our lives.

Therefore, until a person can show that he sincerely endeavors to live according to the will of God and to be that which God requires him to be, and until he can show that he is striving to live according to the holiness of the Christian religion – whosoever he is or wherever he is – he has to answer for the same neglect as they who refuse to live, who abuse the greatest trusts, and who neglect the highest calling in the world.

Everyone acknowledges that all classes of people are to be equally and exactly honest and faithful. There is no exception to be made in these duties for any certain class or situation of life. If we would but attend to the reason and nature of things, if we would only consider the nature of God and the nature of man, we would find the same necessity for the right use of our reason in every grace or quality of the Christian life. We would find it as absurd to suppose that one person must be exact in piety while someone else does not need to be, as to suppose that one person must be exact in honesty, but another person does not need to be. Christian humility, sincerity, devotion, and piety are as great and necessary parts of a reasonable life as justice and honesty.

On the other hand, pride, worldliness, and covetousness are as much disorders of the soul and are as contrary to God and as much a misuse of our reason as cheating and dishonesty. Theft and dishonesty seem, indeed, to crude eyes, to be greater sins, because they are so hurtful to civil society and are so severely punished by human laws. But if we consider mankind in a higher view, as God's order or society of rational beings who are to glorify Him by the right use of their reason and by acting conformably to the order of their nature, we will find that every characteristic that is equally contrary to reason and order, that opposes God's purposes and designs and disorders the beauty and glory of the rational world, is equally sinful in man and equally repulsive to God.

This would show us that the sin of worldliness is like the sin of dishonesty, and those guilty of either are equally deserving recipients of divine displeasure.

If we consider Christian mankind further, as redeemed, baptized into fellowship with the Son of God, temples of the Holy Spirit, designed to live according to His holy will, created to offer to God the reasonable sacrifice of a humble, pious, and thankful life, able to be purified through Christ Jesus from the disorders of their fall and to make a right use of the means of grace, then we will find that all views that are contrary to this holiness and that are abuses of this infinite mercy, all actions that make us unlike Christ and that disgrace His body, abuse the means of grace, and oppose our hopes of glory, have everything in them that can make us forever repulsive to God. So although pride and worldliness and other vices of this kind do not hurt civil society in the same way as cheating and dishonesty do, yet they hurt that society and oppose those ends that are greater and more glorious in the eyes of God than all the societies that relate to this world.

It is therefore false to imagine that individuals who have taken upon themselves no duties or employment of life are free to live however they want, to indulge their appetites, and to be less careful of the duties of piety and holiness, for this is no better than to cheat or to be dishonest. He who abuses his reason, wisdom, and common sense, who indulges himself in lust and worldliness and neglects to act the wise and reasonable part of a true Christian, has everything in his life to render him as offensive to God as he who is guilty of cheating and dishonesty.

If, therefore, you rather choose to be an idle pleasure seeker than to be unfaithful, if you choose to live in lust and worldliness rather than to injure your neighbor, you have made no better provision for the blessings of God, than he who has chosen to rob a house instead of a church.

For abusing our own nature is as great a disobedience against God as injuring our neighbor. He who lacks piety toward God has done as much to condemn himself as he who lacks honesty toward men. Every argument, therefore, that proves it necessary for all people in all stations of life to be truly honest, proves it equally necessary for all people in all stations of life to be truly holy and pious and do all things in such a manner as is suitable to the glory of God.

Another argument to prove that all classes and kinds of Christian people are obligated to be holy and devout in the common course of their lives in the use of everything that they enjoy, may be taken from our obligation to prayer. Prayer is a duty and privilege that belongs to all Christians. If we look into why no Christian is to be excused from prayer, we will find it as good a reason why every Christian is to live a life of piety and holiness in all things.

The reason why we are to pray to God and glorify Him with hymns and psalms of thanksgiving is because we are to live wholly unto God and glorify Him in all possible ways. It is not because words of praise or psalms of thanksgiving demonstrate our worship of God more than other things, but it is because they are possible ways of expressing our dependence, obedience, and devotion to God. Now if the reason for verbal praises and thanksgivings to God is because we are to live unto God in all possible ways, then it plainly follows that we are equally duty-bound to worship and glorify God in all other actions that can be turned into acts of piety and obedience to Him. Since actions are of much more significance than words, it must be a much more acceptable worship of God to glorify Him in all the actions of our common life than simply to use any little form of words at one particular time. We can sing and even pray out of duty, but true piety involves a life that glorifies and honors God from the heart in everything – including our songs and prayers and actions. Let us not think that our prayers alone please God, if we do not intend to live every part of our lives for His glory.

So, if God is to be worshipped with thanksgiving, he who makes it a rule to be content and thankful in every part of his life, because it comes from God, praises God in a much higher manner than he who only listens to some half-Christian songs on the way to work. He who dares not say an unkind word or do an unreasonable thing because he knows that God is present everywhere, performs a better devotion than he who dares not miss church. To live in the world as a stranger and a pilgrim, using all its enjoyments as if we used them not, making all our actions steps toward a better and more godly life, is offering a better sacrifice to God than any forms of holy and heavenly prayers. [Let] those that use this world, as not using it as their own, for the fashion of this world passes away (1 Corinthians 7:31). People can say prayers all day without a heart devoted to God, but if one's heart has been changed by God and is devoted to Him, he will live every moment for God, including praying without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

To be humble in all our actions, to avoid every appearance of pride and vanity, to be meek and lowly in our words, actions, clothing, behavior, and plans, in imitation of our blessed Savior, is worshipping God in a higher manner than they do whose devotion to God consists only in church attendance and in saying prayers on the way to work. He who contents himself with only what is necessary in order to be able to give more away to those who need it, who dares not spend any money foolishly because he considers it as a gift from God that must be used according to His will, praises God with something that is more glorious than just singing along with the latest Christian songs.

He who prays at a regular time each day performs a proper instance of devotion, but he who makes his life an offering of prayer and devotion to God in pursuit of wisdom and holiness, worships God with the most true and substantial devotion. For who does not know that it is better to be pure and holy than to talk about purity and holiness? Who does not know that a person is not to be considered any more pure or holy than as he is pure and holy in all aspects of his everyday life? But if this is easy to see, then it is also easy to see that it is better to be holy than to have holy prayers.

Prayers, therefore, are so far from being a sufficient devotion, that they are the smallest parts of it. We are to praise God with words and prayers because it is a possible way of glorifying God, who has given us such abilities as may be so used. Words are but small things in themselves, and times of prayer are but little if compared with the rest of our lives; so that devotion that consists in times and forms of prayer is but a very small thing if compared to that devotion that is to appear throughout every part of our lives. If our devotion to God consists mainly in some routine prayers and church attendance, we are not fully devoted to God.

Again, it is an easy thing to worship God with forms of words, so it is the smallest kind of piety. On the other hand, it is more difficult to worship God with our entire lives and being, to honor Him with the right use of our time, and to offer to Him the continual sacrifice of self-denial and self-discipline. It requires more piety to eat and drink only for such purposes as may glorify God, or to undertake no labor nor allow any recreation except where we can act in the name of God. It is more difficult to sacrifice all our corrupt tempers, correct all our passions, and make piety to God the rule and measure of all the actions of our common life. The devotion of this kind is much more acceptable to God than only words of devotion that we offer to Him without devoting our entire lives to Him. This is not difficult, however, if we love God more than we love ourselves and the world. It becomes natural and joyful to seek God's glory in all things.

Every sincere reader will easily perceive that I do not intend to lessen the true and great value of prayers, either public or private, but only to show that they are certainly but a very slender part of devotion when compared to a devout life.

To see this in a yet clearer light, let us suppose a person listens to typical modern Christian music in his car on the way to work every day. Let us also suppose that in his everyday life he is restless and uneasy, full of murmurings and complaining, always worrying about much and never trusting God. At work and at home he prefers the music of the world, and does not much think about God until he gets his dose of Christianity in music the next day on the way to work.

Now, can you conceive anything more absurd and unreasonable than such a character as this? Is such a person to be considered thankful to God, because he tries to listen to a little upbeat music with a positive and somewhat Christian message on the way to work each day? If his Christianity consists only in this and little more, how can he be said to be devoted to God in everything? Is it not certain that such forms of praise must be so far from being an acceptable devotion to God, that they must be abhorred as an abomination? Now the absurdity that you see in this instance is the same in any other part of our life. If our everyday life contradicts our prayers, it is the same abomination as songs of thanksgiving in the mouths of worldly Christians.

To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? shall the LORD say. . . . Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do good; seek judgment; restore unto the oppressed; hear the fatherless in right judgment; protect the widow. Then come, shall the LORD say, and we shall be even; if your sins were as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow; if they were red like crimson, they shall become as wool. (Isaiah 1:11, 16-18)

If we say that we love God while our lives show that we love the world, how is that sincere? If we pray for the unsaved, yet neglect to represent Jesus and tell them about Him, how are our prayers sincere? If we pray to glorify God while we fill our hearts and minds with entertainment, sports, worldly music, etc., how are we not being hypocritical?

You pray on bended knees while you are clothed with pride. You speak heavenly petitions while you are hoarding up treasures upon earth. You claim to be devoted to God while you live in the foolishness of the world. You offer prayers of meekness and charity while your heart is the seat of pride and resentment. You are satisfied with minutes of prayer while you give up days and years to idle diversions and foolish pleasures. These things are as absurd and unacceptable to God as Christian songs from a person who lives full of ungratefulness, pride, and love for the world and self.

Unless the common course of our lives is according to the common spirit of our prayers, our prayers are so far from being a real or sufficient degree of devotion that they become an empty lip-labor, or what is worse, a notorious hypocrisy.

Seeing, therefore, that we are to make the spirit and character of our prayers the common spirit and character of our lives, this may serve to convince us that all kinds of people are to labor and aspire after the same utmost maturity of the Christian life. We cannot pray sincerely while we live insincerely. If we pray fervently and sincerely, then our lives will be sincerely lived for God. If we live for the world and self, then our mere prayers are from the head and not the heart.

How many people say nice prayers at church, and then listen to the music of the world on the way home? Their hearts are not on God, and therefore how could their prayers be sincere and fervent? Half-hearted prayers are from half-hearted people. For as all Christians are to pray and seek the truth of God's Word, as they are all to walk in the Spirit of God, so all Christians are to live sincere lives of denying themselves and loving God and others, and of not loving the world or the things of this world. Let us not just pray these things from our lips, but let us sincerely live this way, devoted to the glory of God in all things.

As certain, therefore, as the same holiness of prayers requires the same holiness of life, so certain it is that all Christians are called to the same holiness of life. A soldier or a tradesman is not called to minister at the altar or preach the Gospel, but every soldier or tradesman is as much obligated to be devout, humble, holy, and heavenly-minded in all parts of his common life, as a clergyman is obligated to be zealous, faithful, and dedicated in all parts of his profession. And all this is for one simple reason: because all people are to pray for the same holiness, wisdom, and divine qualities, and to make themselves as prepared as they can for the same heaven.

All human beings, therefore, as human beings, have one and the same important business: to act according to the excellency of their rational nature and to make reason and order the law of all their designs and actions. All Christians, as Christians, have one and the same calling: to live according to the excellency of the Christian spirit and to make the sublime precepts of the Gospel the rule and measure of all their behavior and attitude in common life. The one thing needful to one person is the one thing needful to all.

The businessman is no longer to hoard up treasures upon earth; the soldier is no longer to fight for his own glory; the great scholar is no longer to pride himself in the depths of science; but they must all with one spirit count all things as loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:8).

The refined woman must learn compassion, empathy, and how to be clothed with humility. The polite gentleman must exchange the carefree thoughts of sophistication and refinement for a broken and a contrite heart. The man of distinction must so far renounce the dignity of his birth as to think himself miserable until he is surrendered to Christ Jesus. Employees must consider their service as done unto God. Employers must consider their employees as their brothers and sisters in Christ who are to be treated as fellow members of the body of Christ.

Young ladies while single must devote themselves to piety, prayer, self-denial, and all good works; if they marry, they ought to be holy, serious-minded, and prudent in the care of a family, bringing up their children in piety, humility, and devotion, and abounding in all other good works to the utmost of their state and capacity. They have no choice of anything else, but must devote themselves to God in one of these states. They may choose a married or a single life, to work or to stay at home – but it is not left to their choice whether they will make either state a state of holiness, humility, devotion, and all other duties of the Christian life. It is no more left in their power because they have fortunes, or are born of rich parents, to divide themselves between God and the world, or take such pleasures as their fortune will afford them, than it is allowable for them to be sometimes moral and modest, and sometimes not. Both rich and poor should live fully for God. Both rich and poor should always be moral and modest.

They are not to consider how much Christianity they need to be thought by others to be good people, or how they can add a little devotion to God to their otherwise selfish, foolish, and worldly lives; but they must look into the spirit and attitude of their prayers, and into the nature and goals of Christianity. They will then find that whether married or unmarried, they have but one business upon their hands, and that is to be wise, pious, and holy, not in little modes and forms of worship, but in every thought of their minds, in the whole form of all their behavior, and in the daily course of everyday life.

Young gentlemen must consider what our blessed Savior said to the young gentleman in the Gospel; He told him to sell all that he had and give to the poor (Matthew 19:21). Although this text should not obligate all people to sell everything they have, yet it certainly requires all kinds of people to employ all their possessions and finances in such wise and reasonable and charitable ways as may sufficiently show that all that they have is devoted to God, and that no part of it is kept from the poor to be spent in needless, vain, and foolish expenses.

If, therefore, young gentlemen propose to themselves lives of pleasure and indulgence, if they spend their estates in high living, in luxury and intemperance, in show and fashion, in pleasures and diversions, in sports and gaming, and similar needless gratifications of their foolish passions, they have as little reason to consider themselves to be angels as to be disciples of Christ.

Let them be assured that it is the business of a Christian gentleman to distinguish himself by good works, to be eminent in the most sublime virtues of the Gospel, to patiently deal with the ignorance and weakness of those who are profane, to be a friend and helper to all who live near him, to seek to save the lost, to live in the utmost heights of wisdom and holiness, and to show through the whole course of his life a true Christlike greatness of mind. He must desire such a level of distinction as he might have learned from seeing the blessed Jesus, and show no other spirit but such as he might have gotten by living with the holy apostles. He must learn to love God with all his heart, soul, and strength, and his neighbor as himself (Mark 12:30-31); and then he will have all the true greatness and distinction that he can have here, and will be ready for eternal happiness in heaven hereafter.

In all classes of life and in all circumstances, the one common trait of all true Christians, both of men and women, is to be holy.

The salesman is not to leave devotion to the clergyman, nor is the clergyman to leave humility to the laborer. Wealthy women are not to leave it to poor women to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, to love their husbands and children, to be subject to their husbands, and to adorn themselves in modest apparel, shamefacedness, and sobriety (Titus 2:4-5; 1 Timothy 2:9-10); nor are poor women to leave it to the rich to help and serve God and others. Great men must be eminent for true poverty of spirit, and people of a low and afflicted state must greatly rejoice in God.

The man of strength and power is to forgive and pray for his enemies, and the innocent sufferer who is chained in prison must, with Paul and Silas, sing praises to God. God is to be glorified, holiness is to be practiced, and the spirit of Christianity is to be the common spirit of every Christian, in every state and condition of life.

The Son of God did not come from above to add an external form of worship to the various ways that we already live, allowing people to live as they did before, in such behavior and enjoyments as the fashion and spirit of the world approves; but He came down from heaven altogether divine and heavenly in His own nature, in order to call mankind to a divine and heavenly life. Our own human nature and behavior must be changed by God's Holy Spirit once we have been born again of the Spirit. Then, as new creations of God, we are to walk in the wisdom and light and love of God, and to be like Him to the utmost of our power. We ought to renounce all the compelling ways of the world, whether of greatness, business, or pleasure. We must give up the things of this world and live in such wisdom, purity, and holiness as will best prepare us to be glorious in the enjoyment of God for all eternity.

Whatever, therefore, is foolish, ridiculous, vain, wasteful, earthly, or fleshly in the life of a Christian is something that ought not to be there. It is a spot and a defilement that must be washed away with tears of repentance. But if anything of this kind runs through the course of our normal lives, if we allow things in ourselves that are either vain, foolish, or worldly, then it is as if we renounce our profession of faith in Christ Jesus.

For as sure as Jesus Christ was wisdom and holiness, as sure as He came to make us like Himself and to have us baptized into His Spirit, so sure is it that none can be said to keep to their Christian profession except those who, to the utmost of their power, live wise and holy and heavenly lives. This, and this alone, is Christianity. It is a universal holiness in every part of life, a heavenly wisdom in all our actions, not conforming to the spirit and passions of the world, but turning all worldly enjoyments into means of piety and devotion to God.

If this devout state of heart, if these habits of inward holiness are true Christianity, then true Christianity is equally the duty and happiness of all classes of Christian people; for there is nothing to recommend it to one that is not the same recommendation to all classes of people.

If it ought to be the happiness and glory of a pastor to live in this devout spirit, full of these holy concerns, doing everything as unto God, it ought to be just as much the glory and happiness of all men and women, whether young or old, to live in the same spirit. The same reasons why a mature pastor should be focused upon divine things, turning all his life into the highest exercises of piety, wisdom, and devotion, are the same reasons why all Christians should, to the utmost of their power, do the same themselves.

If you say that a clergyman must be an eminent example of Christian holiness because of his high and sacred calling, you are right. But if you say that it is more to his advantage to be exemplary than it is to yours, you are greatly mistaken, for there is nothing to make the highest degrees of holiness desirable to a clergyman, except what makes them equally desirable to every person of every family. An exalted piety, high devotion, and the Christian use of everything is as much the glory and happiness of one person as it is of another.

Imagine what a spirit of piety there would be in the best clergyman in the world. You would want him to love God and to imitate the life of our Savior and His apostles. You would expect him to live above the world, shining in all the instances of a heavenly life, loving God and others, yet not caring for the things of the world. He would talk about Jesus Christ and the Scriptures and not have much time for the foolish entertainment of the world. If you can imagine the qualities and characteristics that you think should be in the holiest disciple of Jesus, then you have found out that which ought to be true of your own life.

I desire every reader to dwell awhile upon this, and perhaps he will find more conviction from it than he imagines. Everyone can tell how good and pious and holy he thinks other Christians should be. Everyone knows how wise and reasonable a thing it is in a clergyman to be entirely separate from the world and to be an eminent example of Christian holiness. As soon as you think of a wise and ancient Christian leader, you think of some exalted degree of holiness, a living example of all those holy qualities that you find described in the Gospel.

If you ask yourself what is the happiest and best thing for a young clergyman to do, you would find the answer to be that nothing can be so happy and glorious for him as to be like that excellent holy older clergyman and imitate his pursuit of Christ alone. We must wonder, then, why our new clergymen, or usually youth pastors, are so much trained that they must plan activities and games and fun, rather than get serious and teach the youth to turn from the things of the world and to grow up and follow Jesus.

If you ask what is the happiest and best thing for any young man or woman to do, the answer must be the same – that nothing can be so happy or glorious for them as to live in such habits of piety and in such exercises of a divine life as the holiest man or woman does. For everything that is great and glorious in Christianity is as much the true glory of every man or woman as it is the glory of any clergyman or missionary. If high degrees of divine love, fervent charity, spotless purity, heavenly affection, constant self-denial, and frequent devotion are the best and happiest way of life for any Christian, it is so for every Christian.

Consider if you were to see a clergyman throughout every area of his life living below his character, conforming to all the foolish tempers of the world and governed by the same cares and fears that govern vain and worldly men. What would you think of him? What would you think if he spent his time playing video games, watching sports and movies, being entertained by the things of the world, listening to the music of the world, mowing his lawn on the Lord's Day, or using profanity? What would you think if he was often found drinking alcohol, smoking cigars, and getting new tattoos and earrings? What if he spoke more of his love for a sports team than of his love for God? What would you think if he rarely made time to pray and read the Scriptures? Would you think that he was only guilty of a small mistake? No, you would condemn him as wrong in that which is not only the most important matter, but the only important matter that relates to him. Think about this for a while until your mind is fully convinced how miserable a mistake it is in a clergyman to live a careless worldly life.

While you are thinking this way, turn your thoughts toward some of your acquaintances, your brother or sister, or any young person. Now, if you see that they are not living their lives according to the doctrines of the Gospel, if you see that their way of life cannot be said to be a sincere endeavor to enter in at the narrow gate, you see something that is wrong, in the same degree and for the same reasons as with the clergyman. They do not commit a small mistake, but they are wrong in their overall way of life. They mistake their true happiness as much as that clergyman does who neglects the high duties of his calling.

Apply this reasoning to yourself. If you find yourself living an idle, indulgent, vain life, choosing rather to gratify your passions than to live up to the doctrines of Christianity and practice the plain precepts of our blessed Lord, you have as much blindness and unreasonableness to charge yourself with that you can charge upon any foolish and worldly clergyman.

All the virtues of the Christian life, its perfect purity and its heavenly disposition, should be as much the sole rule of your life as they ought to be the sole rule of the life of a clergyman. If you neglect these holy qualities, if you do not eagerly pursue them, if you do not show yourself a visible example of them, then you are as much fallen from your true happiness and you are as great an enemy to yourself and have made as bad a choice as that clergyman who has chosen to enrich his family and live a life content with the things of this world rather than to be like an apostle.

There is no reason why you should think the highest holiness and the most heavenly qualities should belong only to pastors and missionaries, for these should be true of all Christians. Just as the wisest pastor in the world is he who lives in the greatest heights of holiness and who is most exemplary in all the exercises of a divine life, so the wisest youth, the wisest woman, and the highest man, is the one who lives in the highest degrees of Christian holiness and all the exercises of a divine and heavenly life. Is it your desire to be holy and to truly give up all that keeps you from growing in Christ?
Chapter 11

Showing how great devotion to God fills our lives with the greatest peace and happiness that can be enjoyed in this world.

Some people will perhaps object that all these requirements of holy living unto God in all that we do are too great a restraint upon human life, that it will be made too anxious a state by introducing a regard to God in all our actions, and that by depriving ourselves of so many seemingly innocent pleasures, we will render our lives dull, uneasy, and sad.

These objections, of course, are not at all true, and can be well-answered logically and biblically. These rules are meant for and will result in quite a different end. Instead of making our lives dull and miserable, they will render them full of contentment and strong satisfactions. By these rules, we only change the childish satisfactions of our vain and weak passions for the solid enjoyments and real happiness of a sound mind.

There is no foundation for comfort in the enjoyments of this life, but in the assurance that a wise and good God governs the world. The more we see God in everything, the more we look to Him in every place and in all our actions, the more we conform to His will, and the more we act according to His wisdom and imitate His goodness. We enjoy God much more, partake of the divine nature, and heighten and increase all that is happy and comfortable in human life.

He who is trying to overcome and root out of his mind all those passions of pride, envy, and ambition, which are contrary to Christianity, is doing more to make himself happy, even in this life, than he who is planning ways to enjoy them. These passions are the causes of all the anxiousness and irritations of human life. They are the fevers of our minds, troubling them with false appetites and restless cravings after such things as we do not need, and spoiling our taste for those things that are our proper good.

Imagine that you saw a man who intended to follow the Scriptures as the rule of all his actions. Imagine that he had no desires but after such things as nature lacks and Christianity approves. Consider that he was as pure from all the motions of pride, envy, and covetousness, as from thoughts of murder; that in this freedom from worldly passions, he had a soul full of divine love, wishing and praying that all people may have what they need of worldly things and be partakers of eternal glory in the life to come. Imagine a man living in this manner, and your own conscience will immediately tell you that he is the happiest man in the world, and that it is not in the power of the most imaginative mind to invent any higher happiness in the present state of life.

On the other hand, if you suppose him to be in any degree less determined; if you suppose that he is subject to one foolish fondness or vain passion, your own conscience will again tell you that by this he lessens his own happiness and robs himself of the true enjoyment of his other virtues. So it is true that the more we live by the principles of Christianity, the more peaceful and happy our lives will be.

Again, as it appears that real happiness is only to be had from the greatest degrees of holiness, the greatest denials of our passions, and the strictest observance of biblical principles, so the same truth will appear from a consideration of human misery. If we look into the world and view the disquiet and troubles of human life, we will find that they are all owing to our unbridled and irreligious passions.

All trouble and uneasiness begins in the desire of something. Therefore, if we want to know the true cause of our troubles and concerns, we must find out the cause of our desires, because that which creates and increases our wants, does, in the same degree, create and increase our troubles and concerns.

God Almighty has sent us into the world with very few things that we need. Food and drink and clothing are the only things necessary in life, and as these are only our present needs, so the present world is well furnished to supply these needs.

If a man had half the world in his power, he could not make it do any more than to support an animal life. He could not cause it to make him any other happiness. This is the state of man. He is born with few real needs, and is born into a large world very capable of supplying them. One would reasonably suppose that people would go through life in contentment and thankfulness to God; at least they should be free from great anxiety and discontent, having been placed in a world that has more than enough to relieve all their needs.

But if we add to all this that this short life, furnished with all that we need, is only a short passage to eternal glory, where we will be clothed with the brightness of angels and enter into the joys of God, we might still more reasonably expect that human life should be a state of peace, joy, and delight in God. It certainly would be, if reason had its full power over us.

Sadly, although God, nature, and reason make human life free from needs and so full of happiness, yet our passions, in rebellion against God and against nature and reason, create a new world of evils and fill human life with imaginary needs and vain reasons for being discontent.

The man of pride has a thousand needs that his own pride has created. These render him as full of trouble as if God had created him with a thousand appetites, without creating anything to satisfy them. Envy and the drive to be prosperous also have their endless needs, which trouble the souls of men, and by their contradictory motions, render them as foolishly miserable as those who want to fly and crawl at the same time.

Just let any complaining, troubled man tell you the reason for his uneasiness, and you will plainly see that he is the author of his own torment; he is troubling himself with some imaginary evil that will cease to torment him as soon as he is content to be that which God and nature and reason require him to be.

If you would see a man passing his days discontent because he could not walk upon the water or catch birds as they fly by him, you would readily confess that the man is bringing his own worry upon himself. But if you consider all the most tormenting anxieties of life, you will find them all just as absurd. People are only tormented by their own folly and by being worried about such things that no more concern them nor are any more fit for them than walking upon the water or catching birds.

Can you think of anything more silly and extravagant than to imagine a man racking his brain and studying night and day how to fly by flapping his arms? Can you imagine him wandering from his own house, wearying himself by climbing up every hill and tall place, asking everybody he meets to lift him up from the ground, bruising himself with continual falls, and at last breaking his neck? If he did all this because he thought it would be glorious to have the eyes of people gazing up at him, and that he would be glad to eat and drink and sleep at the top of the highest trees in the land, would you not admit that such a man brought his own trouble upon himself by his own folly?

If you ask what the purpose is to imagine such foolish creatures as these, which are nowhere to be found in human life, it may be answered that wherever you see someone with an excessive desire for honor, power, or wealth, there you see this vain and senseless flyer.

Another example would be a man who had a large pond of water, yet lived in continual thirst, not allowing himself to drink even a sip for fear of causing his pond to shrink. He was always wasting his time and strength in carrying more water to his pond, always thirsty, yet always carrying a bucket of water in his hand, watching early and late to catch the drops of rain, staring at every cloud, and running greedily into every mire and mud, hoping to find water, and always studying how to make every ditch empty itself into his pond. If you would see him grow grey and old in these anxious labors, and at last end his careful, thirsty life by falling into his own pond and drowning, would you not say that such a man was not only the author of all his own trouble, but was foolish enough to be counted among the crazy and insane? Yet however foolish and absurd this character seems to be, he does not represent half the follies and absurd difficulties of the covetous person.

I could now easily proceed to show the same effects of all our other passions, and make it plainly appear that all our miseries, anxieties, and complaints are entirely of our own making, in the same absurd manner as in these instances of the covetous man and the man pursuing power and wealth. Look wherever you will, and you will see all types of worldly troubles that are like the trouble of him who was always in the mire and mud in search of water to drink, when he had more at home than was sufficient for a hundred horses.

Rhonda is always telling you how troubled she is, what intolerable, shocking things happen to her, how she deals with so many problems, and what difficulties she meets with everywhere. She tells you that her patience is quite worn out, and it is difficult for her to bear the behavior of other people. Every meeting she is at causes her to return home annoyed. One thing or another has been said or done, she claims, that no reasonable, well-bred person ought to bear. Poor people who want her charity are sent away with short-tempered answers, not because she does not have a heart to part with any money, but because she is too full of trouble of her own to attend to the complaints of others.

Rhonda has no business upon her hands but to receive the income of a plentiful fortune, yet by her sorrowful state of mind, you would be apt to think that she had neither food nor lodging. If you see her look more pale than ordinary, if her lips tremble when she speaks to you, it is because she has just come from a visit where Anthony took no notice at all of her, but talked all the time to Christy, who does not even have half her fortune. When situations have caused her such turmoil that she is forced to send for the doctor to make her able to eat, she tells him, in great anger at God, that she never was well since she was born, and that she envies every beggar that she sees in good health.

This is the agitated life of Rhonda, who has nothing to torment her but her own spirit.

You would make her the happiest person in the world if you could only inspire her to be full of Christian patience and humility. This would make her thankful to God for half as much health as she has had, and this would help her to enjoy more for the time to come. This would cure her trouble and turmoil and loss of appetite, and she would not need the doctor's medicine.

I have briefly looked at these absurd characters for no other reason except to convince you, in the plainest manner, that to strictly follow the principles of Christianity are so far from causing a life to be dull, anxious, and uncomfortable, that, on the contrary, nearly all of the miseries, vexations, and complaints that are in the world are owing to the lack of true Christianity and are directly caused by those absurd passions that the Scriptures teach us to deny.

All the needs that disturb our lives, that make us uneasy to ourselves, quarrelsome with others, and unthankful to God, that weary us in vain labors and foolish anxieties, that carry us from project to project and from place to place in a poor pursuit of we know not what, are the same things that neither God nor nature nor reason has subjected us to, but are solely infused into us by pride, envy, selfish desires, and covetousness.

So far, therefore, as you reduce your desires to such things as nature and reason require, and so far as you regulate all the motions of your heart by the sincere principles of Christianity, so far you remove yourself from that infinity of wants and vexations that torment every heart that is left to itself.

Most people, indeed, admit that Christianity preserves us from a great many evils and helps us in many respects to a more happy enjoyment of our lives; but then they imagine that this is only true of a moderate portion of Christianity that keeps us from the excesses of our passions. They suppose that the strict rules and restraints of an exalted piety are such contradictions to our nature that will make our lives dull and uncomfortable.

They are fine with a little Christianity to keep them from what they consider to be big and serious sins, but they do not want to live wholly unto God and have to leave what they see as innocent sins and worldly amusement. They want a little Christianity to keep them from robbing banks, but not enough to keep them from stealing time from their employer. They want enough piety to keep them from X-rated movies, but not too much piety, for they still want to watch movies containing profanity, immorality, and taking God's name in vain. They want enough of God to cause them to go to church on Sunday morning, but not enough that causes them to give up shopping, sports, yardwork, and other things to keep the entire Lord's Day holy.

Although the weakness of this objection sufficiently appears from what has been already said, I will add one thing more to it. This objection supposes that Christianity, moderately practiced, adds much to the happiness of life, but that such heights of piety as complete Christianity requires has a contrary effect. It supposes, therefore, that it is good to be kept from the excesses of envy, but not good to be kept from other degrees of envy. It believes that it is good to be delivered from desiring all power and wealth, but would make one unhappy if delivered from desiring a moderate amount power and wealth. It supposes, also, that happiness in life consists in a mixture of virtue and vice, a mixture of selfish pride and humility, charity and envy, heavenly affection and covetousness – all which is as absurd as to suppose that it is good to be free from intense pain, but bad to be without moderate pain, or that the happiness of health consisted in being partly sick and partly well.

If humility is the peace and rest of the soul, then no one has as much happiness from humility as he who is the humblest. If excessive envy is a torment of the soul, he most perfectly delivers himself from torment who most perfectly extinguishes every spark of envy. If there is any peace and joy in doing any action according to the will of God, he who brings the most of his actions to this rule increases the peace and joy of his life the most.

So it is in every virtue; the greatest degree of it will result in the greatest happiness. It is the same with every sin. If you only stop sinning in excess, you do but little for yourself; but if you reject it entirely, you feel the true ease and joy of a renewed mind.

For example, if Christianity only restrains the excesses of revenge but lets the spirit still live within you in lesser instances, your Christianity may have made your life a little more outwardly decent, but it has not made you happier at all. But if you have once sacrificed all thoughts of revenge in obedience to God, and are resolved to return good for evil at all times that you may render yourself more like God and fitter for His mercy in the kingdom of love and glory, this is a height of virtue that will make you feel its happiness.

As for those satisfactions and enjoyments that an exalted piety requires us to deny ourselves, this deprives us of no real comfort of life. Piety requires us to renounce no ways of life where we can act reasonably and offer what we do to the glory of God. All ways of life, all satisfactions and enjoyments that are within these bounds, are no way denied us by the greatest levels of piety. Whatever you can do or enjoy, as in the presence of God, as His servant and as His rational creature who has received reason and knowledge from Him – all that you can do to conform to an awakened conscience and the will of God is allowed by the laws of piety. Will you think that your life will be uncomfortable unless you may displease God, be a fool, and act contrary to that reason and wisdom which He has implanted in you?

As for those things that we dare not offer to a holy God, that are only invented by the folly and corruption of the world, that inflame our passions and sink our souls into sin and worldly pleasure and render us incapable of the divine favor either here or hereafter, surely it can be no uncomfortable state of life to be rescued by Christianity from such self-murder and to be rendered capable of eternal happiness.

Let us suppose a person lacking that knowledge that we have from our senses is placed somewhere alone by himself in the middle of a variety of things that he did not know how to use. Suppose that he has bread, wine, water, gold dust, iron chains, gravel, clothes, fire, etc. Suppose that he has no knowledge of the right use of these things, nor any direction from his senses how to quench his thirst, satisfy his hunger, or make any use of the things about him. Imagine that he puts the gold dust in his eyes, and when his eyes hurt, he puts wine into his ears. When he is hungry, he puts gravel into his mouth, and when in pain, he sets the iron chains upon himself. When he is cold, he puts his feet in the water. When he is afraid of the fire, he runs away from it, and when he gets tired, he makes a seat from his bread.

Let it be supposed that through his ignorance of the right use of the things that are around him, he will vainly torment himself while he lives, and he will at last die, blinded with dust, choked with gravel, and loaded down with iron chains. Let it be supposed that some kind person went to him and showed him the nature and use of all the things that were around him, and gave him such strict rules of using them that would certainly, if followed, make him happier for all that he had and deliver him from the pains of hunger, and thirst, and cold.

Could you with any reason say that those strict rules of using those things that were around him had made that poor man's life dull and uncomfortable?

This is in some measure a representation of the narrow path of holiness; it only relieves our ignorance, saves us from tormenting ourselves, and teaches us to use everything around us to our proper advantage. Man is placed in a world full of a variety of things. His ignorance makes him use many of them as absurdly as the man who put dust in his eyes to relieve his thirst, or put on iron chains to remove pain.

Christianity, therefore, comes in to his relief and gives him strict rules of using everything that is around him, that by so using them as they were intended to be used, he may have always the pleasure of receiving the right benefit from them. It shows him what is strictly right in food and drink and clothes, and that he has nothing else to expect from the things of this world but to satisfy such needs of his own and then to extend his assistance to others, so that, as far as he is able, he may help all his fellow human beings to the same benefit from the things of the world that he has.

It tells him that this world is incapable of giving him any other happiness, and that all attempts to be happy in loads of money, acres of land, fine clothes, expensive toys, stately fashion, sports and entertainment, and show and splendor, are only vain endeavors and ignorant attempts after impossibilities, as these things are no more able to give the least degree of happiness than dust in the eyes can cure thirst or gravel in the mouth can satisfy hunger. Rather, like dust and gravel misapplied, these things will only serve to render him unhappier by such an ignorant misuse of them.

It tells him that although this world can do no more for him than satisfy these needs of the body, yet there is a much greater good prepared for mankind than eating, drinking, and getting dressed. It is yet invisible to his eyes, being too glorious for the comprehension of flesh and blood, but it is reserved for him to enter upon as soon as this short life is over; where, in a new body formed to an angelic likeness, he will dwell in the light and glory of God to all eternity.

It tells him that this state of glory will be given to all those who make a right use of the things of this present world, who do not blind themselves with gold dust, or eat gravel, or groan under loads of iron of their own putting on, but who use bread, water, wine, and clothing for such purposes as are according to nature and reason, and who, with faith and thankfulness, worship the kind Giver of all that they enjoy here and hope for hereafter.

Now can anyone say that the strictest rules of such a religion as this deprive us of any of the comforts of life? Might this not as justly be said of those rules that only hinder a man from choking himself with gravel? For the strictness of these rules only consists in how good and right they are.

Who would complain of the severe strictness of a law that, without any exception, prohibited putting dust into our eyes? Who could think it too rigid that there were no relaxing of the rule – that it was permitted to only put a little dust in our eyes instead of a lot? Now this is the strictness of Christianity; it requires nothing of us strictly or without any lessening of the rule, except where every degree of the thing is wrong and where every indulgence hurts us.

If Christianity forbids all instances of revenge, without any exception, it is because all revenge is of the nature of poison; and though we might not take so much as to put an end to life, yet if we take any at all, it damages the body and makes it difficult to be restored to our former health.

If Christianity requires us to be kind to all, to love our neighbor as ourselves, to forgive and pray for all our enemies without any exception, it is because all degrees of love are degrees of happiness that strengthen and support the divine life of the soul and are as necessary to its health and happiness as proper food is necessary to the health and happiness of the body.

If Christianity has instructions against laying up treasures upon earth and commands us to be content with food and raiment, it is because every other use of the world is abusing it to our own consternation and turning all its conveniences into snares and traps to destroy us. It is because this plainness and simplicity of life secures us from the cares and pains of restless pride and envy, making it easier to keep that straight road that will carry us to eternal life.

If Christianity says, Sell what thou hast and give it to the poor (Matthew 19:21), it is because there is no other natural or reasonable use of our riches, and no other way of making ourselves happier with the riches. It is because it is as strictly right to give others that which we do not need ourselves, as it is right to use so much as our own needs require. For if a man has more food than his own nature requires, how base and unreasonable it is to invent foolish ways of wasting it, rather than letting his fellow creatures have the same comfort from food that he has had.

It is so far, therefore, from being a hard law of Christianity to make this use of our riches, that a reasonable man would rejoice in a religion that teaches him to be happier in that which he gives away than in that which he keeps for himself. A person should rejoice in a religion that teaches him to make extra food and raiment greater blessings to himself by giving to others than that which feeds and clothes his own body.

If Christianity requires us sometimes to fast and deny our natural appetites, it is to lessen that struggle and war that is in our nature and to render our bodies more fit instruments of purity and more obedient to the good motions of divine grace. It is to dry up the springs of our passions that war against the soul, to cool the flame of our blood, and to render the mind more capable of divine meditations. Although these abstinences give some pain to the body, yet they lessen the power of bodily appetites and passions and increase our taste of spiritual joys, that even these disciplines of Christianity, when practiced with discretion, add much to the comfortable enjoyment of our lives.

If Christianity calls us to a life of watching and prayer, it is because we live among a crowd of enemies and are always in need of the assistance of God. If we are to confess and mourn our sins, it is because such confessions relieve the mind and restore it to ease, just as burdens and weights taken off the shoulders relieve and make it easier for the body. If we are to be frequent and fervent in holy petitions, it is to keep us steady in the sight of our true God, and that we may never lack the happiness of a lively faith, a joyful hope, and a well-grounded trust in God. If we are to pray often, it is that we may be often happy in such secret joys as only prayer can give, and in such communications of the divine presence as will fill our minds with all the happiness that beings not in heaven are capable of.

If there were anything in the world more worth our care – any exercise of the mind or any conversation with others – that would be more to our advantage than this communion with God, we would not be called to such a continuance in prayer and in the Scriptures. But if a man considers what it is that he leaves when he retires to devotion, he will find that he is using his time most profitably by communing with God rather than by watching television or reading the paper or wasting time in any way.

If Christianity requires us to live wholly unto God and to do all to His glory, it is because every other way of living is wholly against ourselves and will end in our own shame and confusion. Everything is dark that God does not enlighten. Everything is senseless that has not its share of knowledge from Him. Nothing lives that did not get life from Him. Nothing exists unless He commanded it to be. There is no glory or greatness, except what is of the glory and greatness of God.

This is the condition of all creatures, whether men or angels. Just as they cannot make themselves, so they enjoy nothing from themselves. If they are great, it is only because they have received much of the gifts of God. Their power can only be the divine power acting in them. Their wisdom can be only the divine wisdom shining within them. Their light and glory is only the light and glory of God shining upon them.

Just as they are not men or angels because they had decided to be so themselves, but because the will of God formed them to be what they are, so they cannot enjoy this or that happiness of men or angels because they decide to, but because it is the will of God that such things are the happiness of man, and such things the happiness of angels. But if God is all in all – if His will is the measure of all things, and all natures, then nothing can be done, except by His power. Nothing can be seen, except by His light. We have nothing to fear, except from His justice. We have nothing to hope for, except from His goodness. The nature of man is helpless in himself.

This is the condition of all creatures in heaven and on earth. They are nothing, and can do nothing, can suffer no pain nor feel any happiness, but only so far and in such degrees as the power of God allows all this. If this is the state of things, then how can we have the least glimpse of joy or comfort or any peaceful enjoyment of ourselves, except by living wholly unto God, using and doing everything while conforming to His will? A life thus devoted unto God, looking wholly unto Him in all our actions and doing all things suitably to His glory, is so far from being dull and uncomfortable, that it creates new comforts in everything that we do. A life lived fully for God is the best and happiest life that can be lived.

On the contrary, if you want to see how they are who live according to their own wills and who cannot submit to a life devoted to God, look at the man in the parable to whom his Lord had given one talent. He could not bear the thought of using his talent according to the will of Him from whom he had it, and therefore he chose to make himself happier in a way of his own. He said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown and gathering where thou hast not scattered; therefore, I was afraid and went and hid thy talent in the earth; behold, thou hast what is thine. His Lord, having convicted him by his own words, sends him away with this sentence: Cast ye the unprofitable slave into the outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 25:24-30).

Here you see how happy this man made himself by not acting wholly according to his Lord's will. It was, according to his own account, a happiness of murmuring and discontent. I knew thee, he said, that thou art a hard man. It was a happiness of fear and apprehensions. I was, he said, afraid. It was a happiness of vain labors and fruitless travels. I went, he said, and hid thy talent, and after having been awhile among his foolish passions, tormenting fears, and fruitless labor, he is rewarded with darkness, eternal weeping, and gnashing of teeth.

This is the happiness of all those who think that a strict and exalted piety and a life lived fully for God results in a dull and despondent state of life. They may live free for a while from the restraints and directions of Christianity, but instead, they will be under the absurd rule of their passions. They must, like the man in the parable, live in murmurings and discontents, in fears and apprehensions. They may avoid the labor of doing good, of spending their time devoutly, of laying up treasures in heaven, of clothing the naked, and of visiting the sick; but then they must, like this man, have labors and pains in vain, that tend to no use or advantage, and that do no good either to themselves or others. They must travel and labor and work and dig to hide their talent in the earth. They must, like him, at their Lord's coming be convicted by their own words, be accused by their own hearts, and have everything that they have said and thought about holiness show the justice of their condemnation to eternal darkness, weeping, and gnashing of teeth.

This is the purchase that they make who avoid pursuing holiness and strictly following biblical principles in order to live for themselves.

On the other hand, if you would like to see a short description of the happiness of a life rightly employed and wholly devoted to God, you must look at the man in the parable to whom his Lord had given five talents. Lord, he said, thou didst deliver unto me five talents; behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful slave; thou hast been faithful over a few things; I will set thee over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy lord (Matthew 25:20-21).

Here you see a life that is wholly intent upon the improvement of the talents, that is devoted wholly to God, and is a state of happiness, prosperous labors, and glorious success. There are not, as in the former case, any uneasy passions, murmurings, vain fears, and fruitless labors. The man is not toiling and digging in the earth for no end or advantage, but his pious labors prosper in his hands, his happiness increases upon him, the blessing of five becomes the blessing of ten talents, and he is received with Well done, thou good and faithful slave. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.

Now as the case of these men in the parable left nothing else to their choice, but either to be happy in using their gifts to the glory of the Lord, or miserable by using them according to their own desires and wishes, so the state of Christianity leaves us no other choice.

All that we have, all that we are, and all that we enjoy, are only so many talents from God. If we use them with the goal of a pious and holy life, our five talents will become ten, and our labors will carry us into the joy of our Lord; but if we abuse them to the gratifications of our own passions, sacrificing the gifts of God to our own pride and vanity, we will live here in vain labors and foolish anxieties, shunning the Christian life as a miserable thing, accusing our Lord of being a hard master, and we will fall into everlasting misery.

We may for a while amuse ourselves with names and sounds and shadows of happiness. We may talk of this or that greatness and dignity; but if we desire real happiness, we have no other possible way to it but by improving our talents, by using the powers and abilities given to us by God in a holy and pious manner, that we may be happy and glorious in the powers and abilities of angels in the world to come. There is no real happiness and joy in trying to live a little of the Christian life and a little of the world. Choose one or the other. To live fully for God while renouncing the ways of the world is the only way that brings true joy now and forever.

How ignorant, therefore, are they of the nature of Christianity, of the nature of man, and of the nature of God, who think a life of strict piety and devotion to God results in a dull and uncomfortable life, when it is so plain and certain that there is neither comfort nor joy to be found in anything else!
Chapter 12

The happiness of a life wholly devoted to God proved even more by considering the vanity, sensuality, and ridiculous inferior enjoyments of those who live according to their own desires. This is represented in various characters.

We may see even more of the happiness of a life devoted to God by considering the inadequate plans for happiness and the contemptible ways of life which they are thrown into who do not live according to a strict piety, but who are seeking after happiness by other methods.

If we look at the lives of those who live by no rule but their own desires and whims, if we see what they call joy and greatness and happiness, and if we notice how they rejoice and regret and change from one delusion to another, we will find great reason to rejoice that God has appointed a straight and narrow way that leads to life (Matthew 7:14). We will be glad that we are not left to the folly of our own minds or forced to take up such empty shadows of joy and happiness as the weakness and folly of the world has invented. I say invented, because those things that make up the joy and happiness of the world are mere inventions that have no foundation in nature and wisdom, are in no way the proper good or happiness of anyone, and are in no way good either in body or mind to carry us to our intended end.

For instance, when a man tries to be happy by desiring wealth or power and raising himself to some imaginary heights above other people, this is truly an invention of happiness that has no foundation in nature, but is as mere a vanity of our own making as if a man should intend to make himself happy by climbing up a ladder.

If a woman seeks happiness from fine colors or spots upon her face, from jewels and expensive clothes, this is as merely an invention of happiness and is as contrary to nature and reason as if she should propose to make herself happy by painting a fence post and putting the same makeup and jewelry on it. It is in this respect that I call these joys and happiness of the world mere inventions of happiness, because neither God, nor nature, nor reason, has appointed them as such; but whatever appears joyful or great or happy in them is entirely created or invented by the blindness and vanity of our own minds.

It is on these inventions of happiness that I desire you to cast your eye, that you may then learn how great true Christianity is, that delivers you from such a multitude of follies and vain pursuits as are the torment and vexation of minds that wander from true happiness in God.

Look at Eric, and learn how miserable they are who are left to the folly of their own passions. Eric is rich and in health, yet always uneasy and always searching after happiness. Every time you visit him, you find some new project in his head. He is eager about it as something that is more worthwhile and will do more for him than anything he has already tried. Every new thing so controls him, that if you were to take him from it, he would think himself quite ruined. His hopeful thoughts and strong passions promise him so much happiness in everything, that he always feels cheated and is satisfied with nothing.

When he first started out in life, fine clothes were his delight. His inquiry was only after the best tailors and latest fashions, and he had no thoughts of excelling in anything but clothing. He spared no expense, but carried every refinement to its greatest height. But this happiness did not meet his expectations, and he left off his expensive imported clothing, put on a plain coat, criticized those who pursued the luxurious clothing of the world, and gave himself up to gambling with great eagerness.

This new pleasure satisfied him for some time. He envied no other way of life, but after having nearly been killed when he was falsely accused of cheating, he gave up the dice and cards and no longer looked for happiness in gambling.

The next thing that seized his wandering imagination was being thought of as important in his town. For more than a year, he talked of nothing else but ladies, local politicians, parties, important meetings, fundraising events, and celebrations. But growing sick of these, he turned to parties and alcohol and drugs. Here he had many merry nights, and he met with stronger joys than any he had felt before. Here he had thoughts of remaining and of looking no further for fulfilment, but after nearly overdosing on drugs one time and almost causing an accident while driving home another time, he quit that kind of life and gave up on finding happiness therein.

Eric's next attempt after happiness carried him into athletics. He joined a couple sports leagues, attended many professional games of all kinds, watched all the games he could on television when he was not able to attend in person, and sports became his life. For two or three years, nothing made him as happy as being involved in and following sports. No sooner had Eric started to excel at golf and to be respected as a sports authority, when he got sight of another happiness, saw sports as a waste of time and money, and began to pursue the pleasures of building.

He bought the latest tools and machines. He invented new kinds of architectural designs and built himself a fancy barn and stables. He had such devices in his barn and stables as were never seen before. He wondered at the dullness of the old builders and became obsessed with improving how things were built. He even wanted to find new and better ways to hang doors. He told his friends that he was never so delighted in anything in his life, and that he had more happiness among his bricks and mortar and wood than he ever had at the fancy celebrations. He said that he wanted to pursue his passion of building as long as he lives.

The next year he left his house unfinished, complained to everybody about masons and carpenters, and devoted himself wholly to the happiness of automobiles. He began buying old cars and fixing them up. He restored old cars so that they looked brand new. He would drive around the country for days at a time, just for the pleasure of driving. He bought himself a couple expensive cars and took great care of them. He found great enjoyment in this passion – until a new one came along. After a couple years of this, he grew tired of it, and the happiest thing he could think of next was to go abroad and visit foreign countries. This gave him immense pleasure. His happiness exceeded his imagination, and he was only bothered that he had begun so fine a life no sooner. A few months later he returned home, complaining about the rudeness and bad manners of those in other lands.

After this he pursued learning and culture for a whole year. He was up early and late studying his Italian grammar so that he might have the happiness of understanding the opera whenever he would hear one, and not be like those unreasonable people who are pleased with not understanding.

Eric is very moody and temperamental, depending on how things are going for him when you visit him. If you find him when some project is almost worn out, you will find an irritable rude man; but if you see him just as he enters upon his newest adventure, he will greet you with much friendliness and kindness.

Eric is now at a standstill and is doing what he never did in his life before: he is reasoning and reflecting with himself. He loses several days in considering which of his past ways of life he will try again. But then, to his relief, a new project comes to his mind. He is now living upon vegetables and herbs, and running about the country to get himself into as good shape as any marathon runner in the land.

I have given many foolish particulars of this kind of life, because I hope that every particular folly that you see here will naturally turn itself into an argument for the wisdom and happiness of a life lived for God.

If I could lay before you a specific account of all the circumstances of terror and distress that daily attend a life at sea, the more detailed I was in the account, the more I would make you feel and rejoice in the happiness of living upon the land. In like manner, the more I enumerate the follies, anxieties, delusions, and restless desires that go through every part of a life devoted to human passions and worldly enjoyments, the more you must be affected with that peace and rest and solid contentment that Christianity gives to the souls of men.

If you were to just briefly cast your eye upon a madman or a fool, it might mean little or nothing to you; but if you were to watch them for many days and observe the lamentable madness and foolishness of all their actions, this would be an affecting sight and should make you often thank God for the enjoyment of your reason and senses.

Just so, if you are only told in general of the folly and madness of a life devoted to the world, it may make little or no impression upon you; but if you are shown how such people live every day, if you see the continual foolishness and madness of all their particular actions and designs, this would be an affecting sight and should make you bless God for having given you a greater happiness to pursue.

The more folly and ridiculousness characters like Eric have in them, as long as it is conceivable, the more they are useful to correct our minds, and therefore are nowhere more proper than in books of devotion and practical piety. As in several cases, we best learn the nature of things by looking at that which is contrary to them, so perhaps we best understand the excellency of wisdom by contemplating the wild extravagancies of folly.

I will therefore continue this method a little more, and try to recommend the happiness of piety to you by showing you, in some other instances, how miserably and poorly they live who live without a truly Christian life.

You might say that the ridiculous, restless life of Eric is not the common condition of those who give themselves up to live by their own passions and neglect the strict rules of Christianity, and so therefore it is not so great an argument of the happiness of a Christian life as I would make it out to be.

I answer, that I am afraid it is one of the most general characters in life, and that few people can read it without seeing something in it that reminds them of themselves. For where will we find that wise and happy person who has not been eagerly pursuing different appearances of happiness, sometimes thinking it was here, and sometimes there?

If people were to divide their lives into particular stages and ask themselves what they were pursuing or what it was that they had mainly in view when they were twenty years old, or twenty-five, or thirty, or forty, or fifty, and so on, until they reached old age and were near death, numbers of people would find that they had liked and disliked and pursued as many different illusions of happiness as are to be seen in the life of Eric.

This must necessarily be the case, more or less, with all those who propose any other happiness than that which arises from a strict and regular devotion to God and a true Christian life of holiness. There is no better way to live than to live a life fully devoted to God, and any other pursuit cannot fully satisfy. Let us, then, cast aside the things that keep us from holiness and full devotion to God. Let us realize the emptiness of the things of this world. Let it not be said of us in our obituaries that we were sports fans or loved games, but rather than we loved God and others with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind – and that the life we lived left no question about it. Let us live for eternity, seeking to save the lost and to become more like Jesus every day.

The generality of people are not of such restless, variable temperaments as Eric. The only difference is that Eric is continually changing and trying something new, but others are content with one specific thing. They do not leave gambling and then move on to travel. They have so much steadiness in their temperaments that some seek after no other happiness but to store up riches. Others grow old with their passion of sports. Others are content to drink themselves to death, without the least inquiry after any other happiness.

Now is there anything more happy or reasonable in such a life as this, than in the life of Eric? Is it not as great and desirable, as wise and happy, to be constantly changing from one thing to another, as to be nothing else but a gatherer of money, a hunter, a gambler, a sports fan, or a drunkard all your life?

Shall Christian principles be looked upon as a burden and as a dull and joyless state simply because they call people from such unfulfilling happiness as this in order to live according to the laws of God, to labor after the perfection of Christ Jesus, and to prepare themselves for an endless state of joy and glory in the presence of God?

But turn your eyes now another way, and let the trifling joys of Teresa teach you how wise they are whose hearts and hopes are fixed upon happiness in God. If you were to live with Teresa for six months, you would see all the happiness that she will have as long as she lives. She has no more happiness to come, except the poor repetition of that which could never have even pleased once, except through a littleness of mind and lack of thought.

She is going to get dressed up once again and have her social visits with her friends. She is again going to change her clothes, put on different shoes and jewelry, and put makeup on her face. She is once again going to see a new movie at the theater and listen to some new music. She will again go shopping for some new clothing that she thinks makes her look good. She will again spend her time talking with her friends about nothing beneficial, but only about how they look and what their plans are to amuse and entertain themselves. Once again, she will stay out until midnight and get up late, and of course has no time to spend with God.

She is again to be pleased with fake compliments, and again disturbed at imaginary insults. She is to again be pleased with her good luck at gambling, and again tormented with the loss of her money. She is again to prepare herself for a party, and again to spend her time in gossip.

If you see her get out of her car more quickly than usual, converse with more excitement, and seem happier than she was last week, it is because there is some surprising new dress or new entertainment that just came to town.

These are all the substantial and regular parts of Teresa's happiness, and she never knew a pleasant day in her life, except it was because of one or more of these things.

It is for this happiness that she has always been deaf to the wisdom of Christianity, that her heart has been too carefree and cheerful to consider what is right or wrong in regard to eternity or to listen to the sound of such dull words as wisdom, piety, and devotion.

It is for fear of losing some of this happiness that she dares not meditate on the immortality of her soul, consider her relation to God, or turn her thoughts toward those joys that make saints and angels infinitely happy in the presence and glory of God.

Let it be now observed, that as poor a type of happiness as this appears, yet most women who avoid the restrictions of Christianity for a carefree life must be content with much less of this kind of happiness than Teresa enjoys. Since they do not have Teresa's fortune and social status in the world, they exchange the comforts and true joys of a pious life for a very small part of her happiness.

If you look into the world and observe the lives of those women who cannot be persuaded to live wholly unto God and to conduct themselves in a wise and pious manner, you will find most of them to have lost all the joy of Christianity, without gaining the tenth part of Teresa's happiness. They spend their time and fortunes only in mimicking the pleasures of richer people, and they desire and long after these worldly delusions of happiness rather than enjoy them, as they can only be purchased by considerable fortunes.

But if a woman of noble birth and great fortune, having read the Gospel, would rather choose to be a housekeeper in some pious family where wisdom, piety, and great devotion directed all the actions of every day, she would have made a wise choice. If she would choose to give up the kind of happiness that Teresa enjoys in order to live a holy life for Jesus Christ and enjoy the things of God now and forever, I would not consider her crazy or depressed, but I would think that she judged as rightly of the spirit of the Gospel as if she had rather wished to be poor Lazarus at the gate than to be the rich man clothed in purple and fine linen and eating sumptuously every day (Luke 16:19-31).

If you want to know what a happiness it is to be governed by the wisdom of Christianity and to be devoted to the joys and hopes of a holy life, look at the poor condition of Craig, whose greatest happiness is to play video games. When he talks of happiness, it is about a new video game or how well he is doing or how late he stayed up playing.

He has a warehouse job for which he shows up faithfully and does his work, but he has no ambition other than to pay his rent and maintain his current lifestyle. He has no thoughts of improving his life, for he is quite content. He works in the afternoons by choice, as that best meets his needs. He can go home after work and stay up until three or four in the morning playing video games, and then go to sleep until he has to leave for work.

He does not pay attention to the news. He has never voted in any election, as he does not have time to vote and does not really care who gets elected, anyway. He certainly has no time to read and improve his mind, and has no use for or interest in Christianity, or anything much, for that matter. When he does go out on a weekend with some friends, it is usually to a movie or some other amusement, and he finds this to be a nice temporary diversion from his video games, as long as he is not away from home too long and as long as he can drink some alcohol while he is away.

Of course, Craig does not have time to cook for himself, so his meals consist of fast food or something that can be microwaved without much preparation. Potato chips and other snacks supplement his microwaved meals. Soon, though, he is back playing video games, and he counts his day a success if he reaches a new level or sets a personal record in a game. Craig is happy and satisfied with his life, and he has no desire to change. If you were to watch Craig for a year, you would not see much else in his life, except some profanity when he loses at a game.

I believe the most effective means in the world to inspire a person with true piety is to see the example of someone who truly follows Jesus and the principles of Christianity in every aspect of his life. The next best way to inspire others to Christian living is to show the foolishness and emptiness and temporariness of such a life without piety. As the one excites us to love and admire the wisdom and greatness of the Christian life, so the other may make us fearful of living without it. However, Jesus lived the perfect Christian life, and most do not care to follow Him; many people are so blind that they are content in their wickedness and emptiness and even religion, and they are content with their rejection of holiness in Christ Jesus.

Who cannot thank God for the means of grace and for the hope of glory when he sees the foolishness of those who live their lives without pursuing God? Who would not eagerly engage in all the labors and exercises of a pious life and be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:58) when he sees what dull pleasure, poor understanding, and foolish enjoyments that are left to those who seek for happiness in other ways?

So, whether we consider the greatness of true Christianity or the littleness of all other things and the emptiness of all other enjoyments, there is nothing to be found in the whole nature of things for a thoughtful mind to rest upon except the happiness and peace in a life devoted to God.

Consider now how unreasonable it is to pretend that a life of strict piety must be dull and anxious. Can it with any reason be said that the duties and restraints of biblical Christianity must render our lives burdensome and sad, when they only deprive us of such temporary happiness as has been here laid before you?

Must it be tedious and tiresome to live in the continual exercise of charity, devotion, and holiness, to act wisely and virtuously, to do good to the utmost of your power, to imitate the divine perfections, to walk with God, and to prepare yourself for the enjoyment of an eternity in heaven? Must it be dull and tiresome to be delivered from blindness and vanity, from false hopes and vain fears, to grow in holiness, to feel the comforts of conscience in all your actions, to know that God is your friend, that all things must work for your good, that neither life or death, nor men or devils, can do you any harm? Should it not cause joy and comfort to know that all your sufferings and actions that are offered unto God, all your watchings and prayers and labors of love and charity, all your improvements, are in a short time to be rewarded with everlasting glory in the presence of God? Must such a state as this be dull and tiresome, for lack of the kind of empty temporary happiness that Eric and Teresa enjoy?

It cannot be said that there is no happiness or pleasure lost by being strictly pious, nor has the devout person anything to envy in any other state of life. For all the skill and scheming in the world, without Christianity, cannot make more of human life or carry its happiness to any greater height than Eric and Teresa have done. The finest minds, the greatest geniuses upon earth, if not governed by the Spirit of God, are only as foolish and vain in their methods of happiness as poor Craig.

If you were to see a man monotonously trying all his life to satisfy his thirst by always trying to drink from the same empty cup, you would certainly despise his ignorance. But if you would see others who are better educated and wealthier ridiculing the plainness of having only one cup, while they were trying to satisfy their own thirst by a variety of fancy, yet empty, cups of different shapes and sizes, would you think that these were wiser or happier or any better off? This is all the difference that you can see in the happiness of this life.

The dull and heavy soul may be content with one empty appearance of happiness, and be continually trying to hold the one same empty cup to his mouth all his life. However, if the rich athletes and actors, the powerful politicians, the doctors and lawyers, and the successful businessmen all join together, they can only show you more and various empty appearances of happiness. No matter what they offer as proof of their happiness, they can only come up with empty cups and empty lives, as all lives are that are not fully devoted to God.

If you do not think it is difficult to be deprived of the pleasures of gluttony for the sake of Christ Jesus, you have no reason to think it is difficult to be restrained from any other worldly pleasure. The best things that the world has to offer are the same things that Solomon pursued and found to be meaningless. He wrote about them in the book of Ecclesiastes. Solomon tried wealth, pleasure, learning, power, and more. His conclusion was: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole happiness of man (Ecclesiastes 12:13). Nothing but a life devoted to God, abiding in Jesus, and filled with God's Holy Spirit provides true happiness and eternal joy.

If all that the world has to offer are only empty cups, what does it matter which one you take or how many you have? You would soon find your heart made wiser and better if you would meditate on things like this, to reflect upon the vanity of all classes of life without piety, and to consider how all the ways of the world are only different ways of error, blindness, and mistake. These meditations would awaken your soul into a zealous desire of that solid happiness that is only to be found in turning fully to God.

Examples of great piety are not now common in the world. You may not know anyone like this. You may not be able to learn from their example or see their light and fervor; but the misery and folly of worldly people is what meets your eyes in every place, and you do not need to look far to see how vainly and foolishly they dream away their lives, for lack of biblical wisdom.

This is the reason that I have laid before you so many characters that demonstrate the vanity of a worldly life. I want to teach you to benefit from seeing the corruption of the age. I want you to be made wise, not just by the sight of what piety is, but by seeing what misery and folly reigns where piety is not. You can also find and read biographies and autobiographies of men and women throughout history who were surrendered to God and who were greatly used by God. To compare their lives with those of worldly Christians should motivate you to seek eternal rewards, give up the things of this world, and live fully for God.

If you would reflect on things like this, your own observation would carry this instruction much farther, and all your conversation and acquaintance with the world would be a daily conviction to you of the necessity of seeking greater happiness in Jesus – far greater than all the poor enjoyments this world can give.

To meditate upon the perfection of the divine attributes, to contemplate the glories of heaven, to consider the joys of saints and angels living forever in the brightness and glory of the divine presence – these are the meditations of souls advanced in piety.

However, to see and consider the emptiness and error of all worldly happiness, the depravity of sensuality, the sinfulness of pride, the foolishness of covetousness, the vanity of dress, the delusion of honor, the blindness of our passions, the uncertainty of our lives, and the shortness of all worldly projects – these are meditations that are good for all of us to consider. They require no depth of thought or splendid speculation, but are forced upon us by all our senses and taught to us by almost everything that we see and hear.

This is that wisdom that cries out in the streets, that stands at all our doors, that appeals to all our senses, teaching us in everything and everywhere, by all that we see and hear, by births and burials, by sickness and health, by life and death, by pains and poverty, by misery and vanity, and by all the changes and chances of life, that there is nothing else for us to look after, that there is no other goal worth pursuing, except the happiness that is only to be found in the hopes and expectations of real Christianity.
Chapter 13

That not only a life of vanity or worldly pleasure, but even the most regular kind of life that is not governed by great devotion to God, sufficiently shows its miseries, its needs, and its emptiness to the eyes of all the world. This is represented in various characters.

A very remarkable saying of our Lord and Savior to His disciples is this: Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear (Matthew 13:16). This teaches us two things. First, that the dullness and heaviness of men's minds with regard to spiritual matters is so great, that it may rightly be compared to the lack of eyes and ears. Secondly, that God has so filled everything and every place with motives and arguments for a godly life, that they who are so blessed and so happy as to use their eyes and their ears must necessarily be affected with them.

Now though this was, in a more special manner, the case of those whose senses were witnesses of the life, miracles, and doctrines of our blessed Lord, yet it is as truly the case of all Christians now. For the reasons for following Jesus and the calls to piety are so prominently written and engraved upon everything and present themselves so strongly and so constantly to all our senses in everything that we meet, that they can be disregarded only by eyes that do not see and by ears that do not hear.

What greater motive to live a Christian life is there than the vanity and the inferiority of all worldly enjoyments? Who can help seeing and feeling this every day of his life, even though so many professing Christians are so absorbed in worldly enjoyments?

What greater call to look toward God than the pains, the sicknesses, the crosses, and the troubles of this life? Whose eyes and ears are not daily witnesses of them? What miracles could more strongly appeal to our senses, or what message from heaven speak louder to us, than the daily dying and departure of our fellow creatures? The one thing needful, or the great end of life, is not left to be discovered by fine reasoning and deep reflections, but is pressed upon us in the plainest manner by the experience of all our senses and by everything that we meet with in life.

Let us but intend to see and hear, and then the whole world becomes a book of wisdom and instruction to us. All that is regular in the order of nature, all that is accidental in the course of things, all the mistakes and disappointments that happen to us, and all the miseries and errors that we see in other people become plain lessons of advice to us. They teach us, with as much assurance as an angel from heaven, that we can in no way raise ourselves to any true happiness, except by turning all our thoughts, wishes, and endeavors, toward the happiness of the next life.

It is this right use of the world that I would lead you into, by directing you to turn your eyes upon every shape of human folly, that you may from them draw fresh arguments and motives of living to the best and greatest purposes of your creation. Certainly seeing how the world lives should motivate you to give up the things of the world and to live fully for God.

If you would but carry this intention about you, to profit by the foolishness of the world, and to learn the greatness of Christianity as compared to the littleness and vanity of every other way of life, you would find every day, every place, and every person, a fresh proof of the wisdom of those who choose to live wholly unto God. You would then often return home wiser, better, and more strengthened in pursuit of holy living by everything that has fallen in your way.

Jerry is a learned, ingenious man, well versed in literature, and no stranger to any kingdom in Europe. The other day, being just recovered from a lingering fever, he took upon himself to speak to his friends in this manner:

"My glass has almost run out, and your eyes see how many marks of age and death I bear about me; but I plainly feel myself sinking away faster than any bystanders imagine. I fully believe that I will die with the next year."

The attention of his friends was much raised by such a declaration, expecting to hear something truly excellent from so learned a man who had but a year longer to live. Jerry then continued in this manner:

"For these reasons, my friends, I have stopped visiting all taverns. The wine of those places is not good enough for me in this decay of nature. I must now be nice in what I drink. I cannot pretend to do as I have done in the past; therefore, I am resolved to furnish my own cellar with a little of the very best, though it cost me ever so much.

"I must also tell you, my friends, that age forces a man to be wise in many other respects, and it makes us change many of our opinions and practices. You know how much I have enjoyed having many friends and acquaintances. I now condemn it as an error. Three or four cheerful, diverting companions are all that I now desire, because I find that in my present infirmities, if I am left alone or to serious company, I think about my way of life and wonder if I am prepared for death."

A few days after Jerry had made this declaration to his friends, he relapsed into his former illness, was committed to a nurse, and he died before his fresh parcel of wine came in.

Young David, who was present at this discourse, went home a new man, with full resolutions of devoting himself wholly unto God. David said that he was deeply affected with the wisdom and importance of Christianity when he saw how poorly and unprepared the learned Jerry was to leave the world, through the lack of Christianity in his life.

David had often envied Jerry's great learning, his skill in languages, his knowledge of antiquity, the way he spoke, and his fine manner of expressing himself upon all subjects! But when David saw how poorly Jerry's life ended, what was to be the last year of such a life, and how foolishly the master of all these accomplishments was then forced to speak for lack of being acquainted with the joys and expectations of piety, he was thoroughly convinced that there was nothing to be envied or desired, except a life of true piety, and that nothing was so sad and comfortless as a death without it.

Just as David was edified and instructed in the present case, if you have anything of his thoughtful disposition, you will meet with a variety of instruction of this kind. You will find that arguments for the wisdom and happiness of a holy life offer themselves in all places and appeal to all your senses in the plainest manner.

You will find that all the world preaches to an attentive mind, and that if you have but ears to hear, almost everything you meet teaches you some lesson of wisdom. You can learn from all classes of life how a life devoted for God is the best way to live and to die, and that all other ways are empty and meaningless and wasted.

If we add the great truths that the Son of God has taught us to these admonitions and instructions that we receive from our senses and from the condition of human life, it will be past all doubt that the only real and lasting happiness for each of us is to live a life in Christ Jesus.

Since the Word of God teaches us that our souls are immortal, that piety and devotion will carry us to an eternal enjoyment of God, and that carnal, worldly lives will sink us into everlasting misery with condemned spirits, what glaring nonsense and stupidity it is to call anything joy or happiness except that which carries us to this joy and happiness in God!

If all things ended at our physical death, there might be some excuse for pursuing the different kinds of happiness found in this world, but since the death of our bodies only means the beginning of eternity, and since all people are to be immortal, either in misery or happiness in a world entirely different from this, since death happens daily to others around us, and since our day of reckoning is fast approaching and we know not when, it is certain that no one can exceed another person in joy and happiness, except so far as he exceeds him in those virtues that prepare him for a happy death due to a life saved by grace and lived for God's glory.

Kevin is a sincere clergyman, of good repute in the world and respected in his church. Most of his congregation say he is an honest man and a decent pastor. Kevin bought a nice house and some land and hopes to work hard and live a comfortable life.

Kevin is sincere and dedicated, and he works hard. However, he does much work in the power of the flesh. Rather than spending much time alone with God, he spends much time working on a nice alliterated sermon outline. Rather than seeking God each week for a message, he plans out his series of sermons months in advance. That is easier for him, and he feels more organized.

Kevin does not mind speaking out against sin – as long as it is the sin outside the church. He has a blind eye toward the sin and worldliness in his own church. He wants to keep the people happy, and so has convinced himself that some things that might not be good are really alright, since he does not want to preach against them and irritate his congregation.

For example, many of his people love sports. They sometimes miss church in order to attend sporting events or even to participate in sporting leagues on the Lord's Day. Many of his members rush out after church to restaurants, not caring that they are causing others to work on the Lord's Day. After lunch, they treat the Lord's Day as just another day. They mow their lawn, go shopping, or any number of other things. Kevin would not preach on passages like Isaiah 58:13-14, for he would be preaching against himself and many in his congregation. If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy will on my holy day; and call the sabbath the delightful, holy, glorious day of the LORD; and shalt honour him by not doing thine own ways, nor seeking thine own will, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth and cause thee to eat of the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it (Isaiah 58:13-14). Instead, he rationalizes that it is being legalistic to set one day apart for God. As long as people go to church most of the time, he is okay with that.

Many of the women in his congregation, including some in his own family, copy the fashion of the world. They wear short skirts to church and skintight pants during the week. The women rationalize that their skirts are not as short as some, and besides, they think they are cute. Kevin does not want to upset the women, so he justifies avoiding the topic of modesty by thinking that he is not their judge and it is not his place to comment.

Kevin works hard and does what he can, and so when he gets some time away from his church duties, he likes to relax and listen to the music of the world. He says that he needs a break from the rest of his week, and anyway, there is much worse music that he could listen to.

Kevin turns to the latest church growth statistics and plans in order to run the church. He tries to model his church after successful business practices. After all, if businesses attract customers and grow, his church can learn from them. So, rather than seeking God and avoiding the world, Kevin looks to the world to see what he can learn. Using this method, Kevin has led the church in adding big television screens, adding a worship team, a welcome center, a coffee shop, and singing modern upbeat music instead of those old dry hymns. Every year, Kevin runs a big baseball tournament for the community, wanting to show the community how nice and fun they are. They do not want to offend any who come, though, so they keep the talk about Jesus to a minimum.

Kevin learned in seminary how to make a nice sermon outline, and he follows pastors in his denomination who have bigger churches so he can learn from them and imitate their ways. The congregation is happy, as they are religious, have many fun activities, and are not too pressured to change their ways or to seek holiness. Kevin, like Martha in the Bible, is busy trying to do good things. He is so busy, that he often does not have time to spend alone with God other than a quick prayer and sermon preparation that he counts as his devotions. He certainly does not have time to read books that might challenge him to seek holiness or that might show that he is living in the flesh, and he only has time to skim a few books each year about the latest church growth methods that were recommended to him by those pastors with bigger churches.

Kevin works hard, and members come and go, but he rarely sees any biblical conversions. He says this is just how things are in our society. He prays for revival, but since he has no time to read about it, does not really understand what it is or what he is praying for. He is content and will think himself a successful pastor if he can continue until his retirement working hard and leading his congregation just as he is doing now. His dream as a pastor is to build a gymnasium on the church property.

If Kevin had dedicated his life to piety and holiness, he might have perceived how absurd a thing it is to try to grow a church by imitating the world or by trying to imitate business plans. If he had learned to be more like Mary and sit at the feet of Jesus and hear His Word, rather than like Martha, too busy serving and doing and planning, then he might have learned more fully what it means to walk with God, abide in Christ, be filled with the Holy Spirit, and commune with God.

Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about in much serving and came to him and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things; but only one thing is necessary, and Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. (Luke 10:38-41)

If Kevin had looked to God instead of the world, he might have realized that while he was active in serving and entertaining, the local community was not changing, and few, if any, were being converted. He might have seen that while his people were busy playing and socializing and attending classes and seminars, they were not growing in holiness or in devotion to God.

There is no life that cannot be made better and filled with more joy and happiness than one in which the things of the world are forsaken, and the heart, soul, and mind are focused on the things of God. Whether a pastor or a laborer, whether young or old, we can and should forsake the world and look to Jesus Christ.

Larry is a gentle, honest man. He served his time under a master tradesman, but has, by his own management, grown the business bigger than it ever was before. For the past thirty years he has spent much time communicating with people all over North America. Larry considers life to be good when business is going well. People admire and respect him, and people often listen to his advice on many topics, including business, politics, and religion.

Larry has made much money in business, and often spends much money on things he likes, and sometimes gives money to various charities. Larry is always ready to join in any public contribution. One charity is as good as another to Larry, and he does not mind contributing to the Red Cross, the United Way, the Salvation Army, or any local fundraising event. He feels good donating some of his money to any cause, whether religious, for the good of the community, or to help a family. Larry has a generous spirit.

If you ask what it is that has secured Larry from all scandalous vices, it is the same thing that has kept him from all strictness of devotion – it is his great business. He has always had too many important things on his mind, and his thoughts have been too much employed to allow him to fall either into constant depravity or to feel the necessity of an inward, solid piety.

For this reason, he considers the pleasures of iniquity and the delights of holiness with the same indifference. He has no more desire of living in the one than in the other, because neither of them is consistent with his pursuit of business and success, which are his happiness.

If Larry was asked what his goals are in life, he would be as much at a loss for an answer as if he was asked what any other person is thinking of. Although he always seems to himself to know what he is doing and has many things in his head that are the motives of his actions, yet he cannot tell you of any one main goal in life that he has considered and chosen as being truly worthy of all his labor and pains.

He has several confused notions in his head that have been there for a long time. Some of these notions are that it is something great to have more business than other people; to have more dealings upon his hands than a hundred others in the same profession; and to grow continually richer and richer and raise an immense fortune before he dies. The thing that seems to give Larry the greatest life and spirit and to be most in his thoughts is an expectation that he will die richer than any other businessman in the area ever did.

The majority of people, when they think of happiness, think of someone like Larry, in whose life every instance of happiness is supposed to meet. He is sincere, prudent, rich, prosperous, generous, and charitable. Let us then look at this condition in a different, but truer light.

Let it be supposed that this same Larry was a sincere, hardworking man, every day deep in a variety of business. Let us suppose that he neither drank nor was immoral, but was honest and consistent in his business. Let it be supposed that he grew old in this course of trading, and that the intent and goal of all this labor and care and application to business was only so that he might die in possession of more than a hundred thousand pairs of boots and spurs, and the same number of raincoats.

Let it be supposed that most of those who knew him would say of him when he is dead that he was a great and happy man, a thorough master of business, and had acquired a hundred thousand pairs of boots and spurs by the time he died.

Now if this were really the case, I believe it would be readily granted that a life of such business was as poor and ridiculous as any that can be invented. But would a man who has spent all his time and thoughts in business and hurry so that he might die being worth a million dollars any bit wiser than he who has taken the same pains to own a hundred thousand pairs of boots and spurs when he leaves the world?

For if the attitude and condition of our souls is what matters – if the only purpose of life is to know and glorify God, to lead others to Jesus Christ, and to die as free from sin and as exalted in virtue as we can; if naked we came, and naked are we to return; and if we are to stand trial before Christ and His holy angels for everlasting happiness or misery, then what can it possibly matter what someone had or did not have in this world? What does it matter what you call those things that a man has left behind him? It does not matter whether you call them his or anyone else's. You can call them trees or fields or birds or feathers. You can call them a million dollars or a hundred thousand pairs of boots and spurs. I say call them what you want, for the things mean no more to him after death than the names.

It is easy to see the foolishness of a life spent this way, for someone to have a goal to own at death such a number of boots and spurs; yet there needs to be no better ability of seeing, nor any increased understanding to see the foolishness of a life spent in making a man a possessor of ten towns before he dies.

For if, when he has acquired all his towns or all his boots, his soul is to go to its own place, his body is to be laid in a coffin, and he is to face God's judgment regarding whether he trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation, whether he lived for himself or for God, whether he loved worldliness or holiness, and whether he loved God and others, how can we say that he who has spent his life saving a million dollars has acted wiser for himself than he who has taken the same effort to obtain a hundred thousand of anything else?

To continue, let it now be supposed that Larry, when he first entered into business, happened to read the Gospel with attention, and found that eternal matters were much more important than that business to which he had served an apprenticeship, that there were things that belong to man that are of much more importance than all that our eyes can see, that there were things that are so glorious as to deserve all our thoughts, so dangerous as to need all our care, and so certain, as never to deceive the faithful laborer. Let it be supposed, that from reading this Book he had discovered that his soul was worth more to him than his body, and that it was better to grow in the virtues of the soul than to have a large number of things or a full bank account. Let us suppose that he had learned that it was better to be ready for heaven than to have many fine houses upon the earth; that it was better to secure everlasting happiness than to have plenty of things that he cannot keep; that it was better to live in habits of humility, piety, devotion, charity, and self-denial, than to die unprepared for judgment; that it was better to be most like our Savior or some godly and holy person, than to excel all the tradesmen in the world in business and fortune.

Let it be supposed that Larry, believing these things to be true, entirely devoted himself to God when he first started out in the world, resolving to pursue his business no further than was consistent with great devotion, humility, and self-denial, and for no other purpose but to provide himself with a sufficient living, and to do all the good that he could to the souls and bodies of his fellow creatures. Let it therefore be supposed that instead of the constant pressure of business, he was frequent in his devotions and was a strict observer of taking much time to pray; that, instead of restless desires after more riches, his soul has been full of the love of God and heavenly affection, constantly watching against worldly attitudes, and always aspiring after divine grace. Imagine if, instead of worldly cares and possessions, Larry was busy fortifying his soul against all approaches of sin; that instead of costly show and expensive generosity of a splendid life, he loved and exercised all instances of humility and lowliness; that instead of great treats and full tables, he furnished a simple refreshment to those who needed it.

Let it be supposed that his contentment kept him free from all kinds of envy, that his piety made him thankful to God in all difficulties and disappointments, and that his charity kept him from being rich, by a continual distribution to all in need of compassion. If this had been the Christian spirit of Larry, can anyone say that he had lost the true joy and happiness of life by conforming to the spirit and living up to the hope of the Gospel? Can it be said that a life made exemplary by such virtues as these, that always keep heaven in sight, that both delights and exalts the soul here on earth and prepares it for the presence of God hereafter, must be poor and dull if compared to that of storing up riches, that can neither stay with us, nor we with them?

It would be simple to give many examples of this kind, to show you how little is lost and how much is gained by introducing a strict and exact piety into every condition of human life.

I will now, therefore, leave it to you to think more about these things on your own, hoping that you are motivated enough by what has been said here to convince yourself that true and exalted piety is so far from making any life to be dull and tiresome, that it is the only joy and happiness of every condition in the world. In thy presence is fullness of joy; in thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Psalm 16:11).

Imagine someone with an incurable disease. If you were to see such a person wholly intent upon doing everything in the spirit of Christianity, making the wisest use of all his time, fortune, and abilities, trying to carry every duty of piety to its greatest height and striving to live fully for God in all things for the rest of his life, you would think that he was doing what was good and right and best. If he avoided all business except that which was necessary, if he avoided all the follies and vanities of the world, had no desire for sports or entertainment, but sought for all his comfort in the hopes and expectations of Christianity, you would certainly commend his wisdom, and you would think that he is living the right way for someone in his condition.

On the other hand, if you would see the same person with trembling hands, short breath, thin jaws, and hollow eyes wholly intent upon making business deals as long as he could speak; if you would see him buying expensive clothes when he could barely get dressed, and spending his money gambling and drinking rather than seeking the prayers of his friends; if you would see him watching sports and movies and listening to the latest music of the world rather than drawing near to God and focusing on the things of eternity when his soul was so soon to be separated from his body, you would certainly condemn him as a weak, silly man.

Just as it is easy to see the reasonableness, wisdom, and happiness of a Christian spirit in a dying man, so we should see the wisdom of such behavior and thoughts in all who love God every day of their lives. If one is wise to live without loving Jesus and without caring for the things of the world when he knows he is dying, then certainly it is just as wise to live this way at all times. Not only do we not know how soon our day of death will arrive, but we will live more wisely and happily in the meantime and be better ready for eternity if we live every moment fully for God.

How soon will every healthy person be in the same state as the dying man! How soon will he desire all the same comforts and satisfactions of Christianity that every dying person will wish he had! If it is wise and good to live piously because we have less than a year to live, is it not wiser and better if we live this way because we may have more years to come? If one year of piety before we die is so desirable, are not more years of piety much more desirable?

If a man knew that he had only five more years to live, he could not possibly think at all without intending to make the best use of them. When he realized that his remaining stay in this world was so short, he must necessarily think that this world was not worth living for; and when he saw how near he was to another world that was eternal, he must certainly think that it would be necessary to be very diligent in preparing himself for it.

As reasonable as piety appears in such a circumstance of life, it is yet more reasonable in all circumstances of life. Who but a madman can think that he certainly has five years left in this world?

If it is reasonable and necessary to deny our worldly appetites and live wholly unto God because we are certain that we are to die at the end of five years, certainly it must be much more reasonable and necessary for us to live in the same spirit because we have no certainty that we will live five more weeks. Again, if we were to add twenty years to the five, which is in all probability more than will be added to the lives of many people who are now alive, what a little thing this is! How small a difference is there between five and twenty-five years!

It is said that one day before the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years are as one day (2 Peter 3:8), because in regard to His eternity, this difference is as nothing. We are all created to be eternal, to live in an endless succession of ages upon ages, where thousands, and millions of thousands of years will have no proportion to our everlasting life in God. So it is in regard to this eternal state, which is our real state, that twenty-five years is as small an amount as twenty-five days.

We can never make any true judgment of time as it relates to us without considering the true state of our duration. If we are temporary beings, then a little time may justly be called a great deal in relation to us; but if we are eternal beings, then the difference of a few years is as nothing.

Imagine three different kinds of rational beings, all of different, but fixed, duration. One type lived only about a month, the other a year, and the third a hundred years. Now if these beings were to meet together and talk about time, they would talk about it very differently. Half an hour to those who were to live but a month would be a very different thing to those who are to live a hundred years. As, therefore, time means different things with regard to the condition of those who enjoy it, so if we would know how much or how little time we had left on earth, we would more carefully consider our state.

Since our eternal state is just as certainly ours as our present state, and since we are just as certainly to live (or die) forever, it is plain that we cannot judge of the value of any particular time in relation to our lives, except by comparing it to that eternal duration for which we are created.

If you want to know what five years means to someone who was to live a hundred years, you must compare five to a hundred and see what proportion it bears to it. If you want to know what twenty years signify to a son of Adam, you must compare it not to a million years, but to an eternal duration, to which no number of millions bears any proportion.

Consider how foolish we would think a person to be who would give up an eternity in heaven for the sake of being rich or popular or to enjoy the amusement of the world only for one day before he was to die. But if the time will come when a number of years will seem less to everyone than a day does now, what a condemnation must it then be if eternal happiness would be lost for something less than the enjoyment of a day! A day seems so little to us now because we compare it to years. What a little thing seventy years must be, then, when compared to all of eternity! Yet people regularly reject Jesus Christ and holiness in order to enjoy the foolish things of this world for such a brief amount of time as a single lifetime.

Just as the fixed stars, by reason of our being placed at such a distance from them, appear but as little points, so when we are in eternity and look back upon all time, it will all appear but as a moment. Then it will be that a luxury, an indulgence, a prosperity, a greatness of fifty years, will seem to everyone who looks back upon it as the same poor short enjoyment as if he had been taken away in his first sin.

These few reflections upon time are only to show how poorly they think, how miserably they judge, who are less careful of an eternal state because they may be at some years' distance from it, than they would be if they knew they were within a few weeks of it. If you would consider the things of eternity if you knew you only had a week to live, then you should consider it now, not knowing how long you have to live. If you would ridicule or reject the things of God and avoid being fully devoted to Him now, then you demonstrate your foolishness, just as one does who professes to know Jesus Christ and attends church, but fills his life with the things of the world. How often is one who proclaims to love Jesus Christ not known for holiness, but for his love of a sports team, some worldly amusement, or some other things that shows more love for the world than love for God? If God is worth serving on your deathbed, He is worth serving fully every day of your life. 
Chapter 14

Concerning that part of devotion that relates to times and hours of prayer, of daily early prayer in the morning, and how we are to improve our forms of prayer, and increase the spirit of devotion.

Having shown the necessity of a devout spirit or habit of mind in every part of our common lives, in the discharge of all our business and in the use of all the gifts of God, I come now to consider that part of devotion that relates to times and hours of prayer and Bible reading.

I take it for granted that every Christian who is in health is up early in the morning, for it is much more reasonable to suppose a person wakes up early because he is a Christian, than because he is a laborer, or a tradesman, or has business to deal with. Joseph Alleine, a seventeenth-century nonconformist pastor, prayed from four until eight every morning. If he heard other people working before he was spending time with God, he would be ashamed that others were out serving their masters before he was serving His. Does it bother you if you do not spend time alone with God every day?

We naturally think poorly of someone who is in bed when he should be at work or in his shop. We cannot think much good of someone who is such a slave to sleep and laziness that he neglects his work and his business because of it. Let this therefore teach us to conceive how abhorrent we must appear in the sight of heaven if we are in bed, shut up in sleep and darkness, when we should be praising God, and are such slaves to drowsiness as to neglect our devotions for it.

If he is to be blamed as slothful and lazy who chooses to indulge in sleep rather than to perform his proper share of worldly business, how much more is he to be reproached who would rather lie folded up in a bed than be raising up his heart to God in acts of praise and adoration and in reading His Word! The same can be said of those who stay up late occupying themselves at parties or sports or television or social events, and then are too tired or claim not to have time to spend with God in the mornings.

In addition to reading His Word, prayer is the nearest approach to God and the highest enjoyment of Him that we are capable of in this life. It is the noblest exercise of the soul, the most exalted use of our best abilities, and the highest imitation of the blessed inhabitants of heaven.

When our hearts are full of God, sending up holy desires to the throne of grace, we are then in our highest state and are upon the utmost heights of human greatness. We are not merely in the presence of kings and princes, politicians, or famous athletes and entertainers, but we are in the presence and audience of the Lord of all the world, and can be no higher until death is swallowed up in glory.

Sleep is necessary, of course, for the care and refreshment of the body, but we can overindulge in sleep just as we easily can overindulge regarding food or drink or recreation or entertainment. He, therefore, who chooses to enlarge the slothful indulgence of sleep rather than be early at his devotions to God, chooses the dullest refreshment of the body before the highest, noblest employment of the soul.

You will perhaps say that although you sleep late, yet you are always careful of your devotions when you get up. It may be so. But what then? Is it pardonable to waste a great part of the day in bed after you say your prayers? It is as much your duty to rise to pray, as to pray when you are risen. If you put off your devotions in order to stay in bed, you offer to God the prayers of an idle, slothful worshipper who acts as poorly as lazy employees who often wake up late for work. You may know employees who regularly stay up late playing games or watching television, then go to bed and wake up with just enough time to read the newspaper, eat breakfast, and sleepily show up for work just in time. There are even pastors who do not spend time with God in devotions in the morning, but who show up at their church office and say a little prayer and work on their sermon outline, considering that their time with God. That, too, shows laziness, a lack of holy priority, and a lack of walking with God.

If you try to justify your behavior by saying that you pray while getting ready for work or while on the way to work, you deceive yourself, for you cannot perform your devotions as you ought. You are not giving God the place He deserves, and you are denying Him your full love and attention. A man's spouse would not appreciate if he never spent time with her except for a phone call on the way to work, while he spent the rest of his time at work, at sports, with friends, watching television, and sleeping; yet this is how many people treat God. They would rather sleep or play games or watch television or any other similar indulgence of the flesh than to spend time with God.

These people think that they give due devotion to God by combining efforts, such as praying on the way to work or while exercising, yet these things distract from the benefit of being alone in the presence of God, and it shows a divided devotion. They have not time for both in the morning, and so combine them into one, not realizing that they are in essence not setting aside time to be focused on God alone.

No one ought to pretend to say that he knows and feels true communion with God and the joy and power of prayer who does not think it is worthwhile to be early at it. If one feels it is important to earn a good living, he does not sleep in every day, but is up and working early. If one thinks it is important to go fishing or hunting, he wakes up early in order to begin. However, when it comes to being with God early in the morning, most do not seem to value its importance.

A person who constantly eats and drinks too much does not feel the same effects from it as those do who live in notorious instances of gluttony and intemperance, but his course of indulgence, although it is not scandalous in the eyes of the world and does not bother his own conscience, is a great and constant hindrance to his improvement in virtue. It gives him eyes that see not and ears that hear not. It creates hindrances to entering into the true and full spirit of Christianity.

This is the case of those who waste their time in sleep and lazy habits. It does not disorder their lives or wound their consciences as notorious acts of drunkenness do, but like any other more moderate course of indulgence, it silently and by smaller degrees wears away the spirit of Christianity and sinks the soul into a state of dullness and sensuality.

If you consider devotion only as a time of repeating some prayer requests or reciting a prayer, you may perhaps perform it, even though you live in this daily indulgence; but if you consider your time of devotion as a state of the heart, as a lively fervor of the soul that is deeply affected with a sense of its own misery and infirmities and that desires the Spirit of God more than all things in the world – you will find that the spirit of indulgence and the spirit of prayer cannot survive together. Self-denial of all kinds is the very life and soul of piety. We give up ourselves in order to fully follow Jesus Christ. Then Jesus said unto his disciples, If anyone will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me (Matthew 16:24). Like Moses, we must be willing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of the Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt (Hebrews 11:25-26). However, he who has not even so small a degree of piety as to be able to be early at his prayers and the regular reading of the Scriptures can have no reason to think that he has taken up his cross and is following Christ.

What mastery has he got over himself, what has he denied himself for the cause of Christ, what trials is he prepared for, what sacrifice is he ready to offer unto God, who cannot even discipline himself to wake up before work and begin the day spending time alone with God?

Some people will not hesitate to tell you that they sleep late because they have nothing to do, and that if they had either work or something fun to wake up for, they would not lose so much of their time in sleep. But such people are mistaken. They have much to do. They have a hardened heart to change. They have the whole spirit of Christianity to get. Certainly he who thinks devotion to God is of less importance than business or pleasure, or that he has nothing to do because nothing but his prayers await him, may be justly said to have the whole spirit of Christ to seek.

You must not therefore consider how small a crime it is to rise late, but you must consider how great a tragedy it is to lack the spirit of holiness, to have a heart not rightly affected with prayer, and to live in such softness and idleness as makes you incapable of the most fundamental duties of a truly Christian and spiritual life.

This is the right way of judging the crime of wasting your time in bed or in amusing yourself with sports or television or other such things, when you should be reading the Bible, praying, singing hymns and psalms and spiritual songs to God, and even learning from Christian biographies and other spiritually beneficial writings.

You must not consider the neglect only in itself, but what it proceeds from. Consider what virtues it shows to be lacking, and what vices it naturally strengthens. Every habit of this kind reveals the condition of the soul and plainly shows the whole state of your mind.

If our blessed Lord used to pray early before day, if He spent whole nights in prayer, if the devout Anna was day and night in the temple, if Paul and Silas sang praises unto God at midnight, if the early Christians for several hundred years, besides their hours of prayers in the daytime, met publicly in the churches at midnight to join in psalms and prayers, is it not certain that these practices showed the state of their heart? Are they not plain proofs of the whole condition of their minds?

And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he [Jesus] went out and departed into a solitary place and prayed there. (Mark 1:35)

And it came to pass in those days that he went out into the mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God. (Luke 6:12)

And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser . . . who departed not from the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers. (Luke 2:36-37)

At midnight . . . Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God. (Acts 16:25)

If you live in a contrary state, wasting a great part of every day in sleep or in other vain things, thinking that you can spend time with God later or tomorrow, is it not equally certain that this practice shows the state of your heart and the whole condition of your mind?

If this indulgence is your way of life, you have as much reason to believe that you lack the true spirit of devotion as you have to believe the apostles and saints of the early church were truly devout. For as their way of life was a demonstration of their devotion, so a contrary way of life is as strong a proof of a lack of devotion.

When you read the Scriptures, you see a religion that is all life and spirit and joy in God. It supposes that our souls are risen above earthly desires and bodily indulgences and are preparing for another body, another world, and heavenly enjoyments. You see Christians represented as temples of the Holy Spirit, as children of the day, as candidates for an eternal crown, as watchful young women who have their lamps always burning in expectation of the bridegroom. But can he be thought to have this joy in God, this care of eternity, this watchful spirit, if he does not have enough zeal to rise and pray?

Are there not family members to pray for? Are there not billions of unsaved people to pray for? Can you not pray for Christian workers and employers and the sick and the hurting and the grieving? Will you not pray for our nation and for your leaders? Should you not wake up and pray for a spirit of holiness and to forsake your love for the things of the world? Do you not care enough to get out of bed and pray for your spouse and your children, for your brothers and sisters and parents? Are there not Christians all over the world who face daily persecution who need your prayers? Will you not wake up and thank God for another night's sleep and another day to serve Him? Are there not a thousand others matters of thanks and needs and concerns that you should be praying about?

Do you know the Scriptures so well that you do not need to rise and seek God's Word? Have you read the Bible through so many times that you do not need to read today? Have you so little love for God that you cannot get up and commune with Him?

When you look into the writings and lives of the first Christians, you see the same spirit that you see in the Scriptures. All is reality, life, and action. Watching and prayers, self-denial, and denying the flesh was the common business of their lives. From that time to this, there has been no person like them, eminent for piety, who has not, like them, been eminent for self-denial and self-discipline. This is the only royal way that leads to a kingdom. We cannot increase in holy living unless we decrease in worldly living.

How far are you from this way of life, or rather how contrary to it, if instead of imitating their discipline and self-denial, you cannot so much as rise in the morning to pray and read God's Word? If Christlikeness, if bodily sufferings, if watchings and fastings, if sacrifice and denying self will be marks of glory at the day of judgment, where must we hide our heads in shame who have slumbered away our time in sloth and softness?

Am I a soldier of the cross,

A follow'r of the Lamb?

And shall I fear to own His cause,

Or blush to speak His name?

Must I be carried to the skies

On flow'ry beds of ease,

While others fought to win the prize,

And sailed through bloody seas?

Are there no foes for me to face?

Must I not stem the flood?

Is this vile world a friend to grace,

To help me on to God?

Sure I must fight if I would reign;

Increase my courage, Lord;

I'll bear the toil, endure the pain,

Supported by Thy Word.

– Isaac Watts, "Am I a Soldier of the Cross?"

You perhaps now find some pretenses to excuse yourselves from that fasting and self-denial that the first Christians practiced. You imagine that human nature has grown weaker and that the difference of climates may make it not possible for you to observe their methods of self-denial and austerity in these colder countries.

All this is only a poor excuse, for the change is not in the outward state of things, but in the inward state of our minds. When there is the same spirit in us that there was in the apostles and early Christians, when we feel the weight of Christianity as they did, when we have their faith and hope, we will take up our cross and deny ourselves and live in such methods of giving up self as they did.

If the apostle Paul had lived in a cold country, if his health was often afflicted by a sick stomach, he would have done as he advised Timothy and drank some wine, but still he would have lived in a state of self-denial and sacrifice. He would have given this same account of himself: I therefore so run, not as unto an uncertain thing; so I fight, not as one that beats the air; but I keep my body under, and bring it into subjection, lest preaching to others, I myself should become reprobate (1 Corinthians 9:26-27).

After all, let it now be supposed that you imagine there is no reason for you to be so serious and vigilant, so fearful of yourself, so watchful over your passions, so apprehensive of danger, so careful of worldliness and sin as the apostles were. Let it be supposed that you imagine that you do not need as much self-denial and discipline to subdue your bodies and purify your souls as they had – that you do not need to have your loins girt and your lamps burning as they did. Will you therefore live so much differently than they did? Will you make your life as constant a course of softness and indulgence as theirs was of strictness and self-denial?

If you think that you have sufficient time both for prayer and Bible reading and family devotions, even though you rise late, then let me persuade you to rise early as an instance of self-denial. It is such a small thing, that if you cannot comply with it you have no reason to think yourself capable of any other type of self-denial. Can you not even wake up and spend time with the Master?

If I were to ask you not to spend hours a day thinking about what food and drink satisfies you, or if I were to ask you to put away your obsession with sports, I would not do so simply because these things satisfy the flesh and the world, but because these passions render you incapable of enjoying the most essential doctrines of Christianity.

For the same reason, I do not insist much on not indulging in excess sleep simply because of the sleep, wasteful and as indulgent as it is, but I desire you to renounce this indulgence because it gives a softness and idleness to your soul and is so contrary to that lively, zealous, watchful, self-denying spirit that was not only the spirit of Christ and His apostles, the spirit of all the saints and martyrs which have ever been among us, but it must also be the spirit of all those who want to rise above the common corruption of the world.

Here, therefore, we must be determined to fight. We must blame our lack of self-denial, not as tolerating this or that specific sin, but as promoting a general habit that extends itself through our whole spirit and supports a state of mind that is wholly wrong. It is contrary to piety, not as accidental slips and mistakes in life are contrary to it, but in such a manner as a bad habit of body is contrary to health.

On the other hand, if you were to rise early every morning as an instance of self-denial, as a method of renouncing indulgence, as a means of redeeming your time, and as a means of preparing your spirit for prayer, you would find mighty advantages from it. This method, though it seems to be such a small circumstance of life, would in all probability be a means of great piety. It would keep it constantly in your head that softness and idleness were to be avoided, that God should come first in your life, and that self-denial was a part of Christianity. It would teach you to exercise power over yourself, and it would make you able to renounce other pleasures and inclinations that war against the soul.

This one rule would teach you to think of others. It would incline your mind to discipline, and would very likely help you live the rest of your day while considering the principles of prudence and devotion.

Above all, one certain benefit from this method is that it will best train and prepare you for walking in the Holy Spirit. When you begin the day in the spirit of Christianity, renouncing excess sleep because you are renouncing ease and laziness and redeeming your time, this tends to put your heart into a good state, and you begin to seek the assistance of the Holy Spirit. What is planted and watered this way will certainly have an increase from God. You will then speak from your heart, your soul will be awake, your prayers will refresh you like meat and drink, you will feel what you say, and you will begin to know what saints and holy men have meant by fervors of devotion, by fervent, effectual prayer, and by walking with God.

He who is thus prepared for prayer, who rises with these interests, is in a very different condition from the person who has no rules of this kind. He who rises by chance as he happens to be tired of his bed or is able to sleep no longer – or lies in bed as long as possible before getting up for work – if such a one prays only with his mouth, if his heart feels nothing of that which he says, if his prayers are only prayers of habit or repetition, there is nothing to be wondered at in all this, for such habits are the natural effect of such a state of life.

Hoping, therefore, that you are now enough convinced of the necessity of rising early to begin your day devoted to God, I will proceed to lay before you a method of daily prayer.

I do not intend to prescribe to you the use of any particular forms of prayer, but only to show you the necessity and manner of praying at the beginning of the day.

You will find here some things that will be useful to you. If you are proficient in the spirit of devotion and your heart is always ready to sincerely pray, then in this case you do not need to repeat formal prayers.

For though I think a written prayer can be helpful at times in public worship, yet if anyone can find a better way of raising his heart unto God in private than by prepared or written forms of prayer, I have nothing to object against it. My goal is only to assist and direct those who stand in need of assistance.

Some Christians might find it helpful to use forms of prayer, such as the Lord's Prayer, to begin the time of prayer. Then, if he finds his heart ready to break forth into new and higher strains of devotion, he should leave the formal prayer and follow those fervors of his heart and pour out his heart to God in love, trust, faith, and thankfulness.

This seems to be the true liberty of private devotion; it might begin under some form, but should not be so tied down to it that one fears to leave the form and speak from the heart, with the fervency and passion that are usually more affecting and carry the soul more powerfully to God than any expressions of repetition or form.

All people who have ever made any reflections upon what passes in their own hearts must know that the thoughts of our hearts are varied in regard to devotion. Sometimes our hearts are awakened, we feel that God is near to us and us to Him, and we are so full of deep remorse for our sins, that we cannot confess our thoughts in any language but that of tears.

Sometimes the light of God's countenance shines so brightly upon us, we see so far into the invisible world, and we are so affected with the wonders of the love and goodness of God, that our hearts worship and adore in words that cannot be spoken, and we feel emotions of devotion that the feelings of our heart cannot find words to express.

On the other hand, sometimes we are so earthly-minded, so dull and unaffected with that which concerns our souls, that our hearts are too low for our prayers. We cannot keep pace with our forms of confession or feel half of that in our hearts that we have in our mouths. We thank and praise God with forms of words, but our hearts have little or no share in them.

To provide against this irregularity of our hearts, it is therefore recommended to have at hand such forms of prayer as may best suit us when our hearts are in their best state, and also to be most likely to raise and stir them up when they are sunk into dullness. For as words have a power of affecting our hearts on all occasions, as the same thing differently expressed has different effects upon our minds, so it is reasonable that we should make this advantage of language, and we should provide ourselves with such forms of expression as are most likely to move and enliven our souls and fill them with sentiments suitable to them.

Think about a time when you know you ought to pray, but your mind is wandering and you cannot pray as you ought. You could sincerely pray a prayer by a saint from the past to get your mind fixed on God. There are many such prayers. Here are a few examples. Consider this from Basil in the fourth century:

As I rise from sleep I thank You, O [Lord], for through Your great goodness and patience You were not angered with me, an idler and sinner, nor have You destroyed me in my sins, but have shown Your usual love for men, and when I was prostrate in despair, You raised me to keep the morning watch and to glorify Your power. And now enlighten my mind's eye and open my mouth to study Your words and understand Your commandments and do Your will and sing to You in heartfelt adoration and praise Your Most Holy Name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

Here is one by the sixteenth-century reformer Martin Luther:

Behold, Lord, an empty vessel that needs to be filled. My Lord, fill it. I am weak in faith; strengthen me. I am cold in love; warm me and make me fervent that my love may go out to my neighbor. I do not have a strong and firm faith. At times I doubt and am unable to trust You altogether. O Lord, help me. Strengthen my faith and trust in You. In You I have sealed the treasures of all I have. I am poor; You art rich and did come to be merciful to the poor. I am a sinner; You art upright. With me there is an abundance of sin; in You is the fullness of righteousness. Therefore, I will remain with You from whom I can receive, but to whom I may not give. Amen.

Church father Jerome prayed:

Lord, thou hast given us thy Word for a light to shine upon our path; grant us so to meditate on that Word, and to follow its teaching, that we may find in it the light that shines more and more until the perfect day; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Here is a prayer for the mornings by church father John Chrysostom:

Lord, deprive me not of Your heavenly joys. Lord, deliver me from eternal torments. Lord, if I have sinned in mind or thought, in word or deed, forgive me. Lord, deliver me from all ignorance, forgetfulness, cowardice, and stony insensibility. Lord, deliver me from every temptation. Lord, enlighten my heart which evil desires have darkened. Lord, I being human have sinned, but You being the generous God, have mercy on me, knowing the sickness of my soul. Lord, send Your grace to my help, that I may glorify Your holy Name. Lord Jesus Christ, write me, Your servant, in the Book of Life, and grant me a good end. O Lord my God, even though I have done nothing good in Your sight, yet grant me by Your grace to make a good start. Lord, sprinkle into my heart the dew of Your grace. Lord of heaven and earth remember me, Your sinful servant, shameful and unclean, in Your kingdom. Amen.

Here is one more example, given by fourth century theologian Ephrem the Syrian, of a nighttime prayer:

O Lord, Heavenly King, Comforter, and Spirit of Truth, have compassion and mercy on Your sinful servant and pardon my unworthiness. Forgive me all the sins that I humanly committed today, and not only humanly, but even worse than a beast – my voluntary sins, known and unknown, from my youth and from evil suggestions, and from my brazenness, and from boredom. If I have sworn by Your Name or blasphemed it in thought, blamed or reproached anyone, or in my anger have detracted or slandered anyone or grieved anyone, or if I have gotten angry about anything, or have told a lie, if I have slept unnecessarily, or if a beggar has come to me and I despised or neglected him, or if I have troubled my brother or quarreled with him, or if I have condemned anyone, or have boasted, or have been proud, or lost my temper with anyone, or if when standing in prayer my mind has been distracted by the glamour of this world, or if I have had depraved thoughts or have overeaten, or have drunk excessively, or have laughed frivolously, or have thought evil, or have seen the attraction of someone and been wounded by it in my heart, or said indecent things, or made fun of my brother's sin when my own faults are countless, or been neglectful of prayer, or have done some other wrong that I cannot remember – for I have done all this and much more – have mercy, my Lord and Creator, on me, Your wretched and unworthy servant, and absolve and forgive and deliver me in Your goodness and love for men, so that, lustful, sinful, and wretched as I am, I may lie down and sleep and rest in peace. And I shall worship, praise and glorify Your most honorable Name, with the Father and His only begotten Son, now and ever, and for all ages. Amen.

While we should not substitute these for our prayers, we can use them to guide our thoughts and hearts to focus on God, the object of our prayers.

The first thing good to do when you are upon your knees to pray, is to shut your eyes, and with a short silence let your soul place itself in the presence of God; that is, you are to use this, or some other better method, to separate yourself from all common thoughts, making your heart as sensible as you can of the presence of God.

Now if it necessary to begin by getting focused on God in silence, then how poorly must they perform their devotions who are always in a hurry. How poorly must they perform their devotions who begin them in haste, who only pray when driving a car or riding a bike, and who hardly allow themselves time to be still before God with any seriousness or attention! They are only saying prayers instead of praying.

If you were to try to always pray in the same place at home and to set that place apart for your time alone with God, then this place would become a special place to you, a kind of holy place, and would likely have an effect upon your mind and dispose you to such a demeanor as would very much assist your devotion. By having a sacred place in your room, it would in some measure resemble a chapel or house of God. This would dispose you to be always in the spirit of Christ when you were there, and would fill you with wise and holy thoughts when you were by yourself. It would raise in your mind such feelings as you have when you walk into a chapel, and you would be afraid of thinking or doing anything that was foolish near that place, which is the place of prayer and holy communion with God.

When you begin your prayer, use such various expressions of the attributes of God that may make you most sensible of the greatness and power of the divine nature. Begin, therefore, with words like these: "O Being of all beings, Fountain of all light and glory, gracious Father of men and angels, whose Spirit is everywhere present, giving life, light, and joy to all angels in heaven, and to all creatures upon earth, etc." These representations of the divine attributes, which show us in some degree the majesty and greatness of God, are an excellent means of raising our hearts into lively acts of worship and adoration.

There is a prayer often prayed by the congregation during burial services that says in part: "Yet, O Lord God most holy, O Lord most mighty, O holy and most merciful Savior, deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death!" This is an effectual prayer because it joins together so many great expressions and gives such a description of the greatness of the divine majesty as to naturally affect every sensible mind.

Therefore, although prayer consists of more than fancy words and memorized expressions, yet as words speak to the soul and have a certain power of raising thoughts in the soul, so those words that speak of God in the highest manner and most fully express the power and presence of God, that raise thoughts in the soul most suitable to the greatness and providence of God, are the most useful and most edifying words in our prayers.

When you direct any of your petitions to our blessed Lord, let it be in some expressions of this kind: "O Savior of the world, God of God, Light of Light; You who are the brightness of Your Father's glory and the express image of His person; You who are the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and End of all things; You who have destroyed the power of the devil and have overcome death; You who are entered into the Holy of Holies, who sits at the right hand of the Father, who is high above all thrones and principalities, who makes intercession for all the world; You who are the Judge of the living and the dead; You who will soon come down in Your Father's glory to reward all people according to their works, be my Light and my Peace, etc."

Such terms as these, which describe so many characters of our Savior's nature and power, are not only proper acts of adoration, but will, if they are repeated with any attention, fill our hearts with the highest fervors of true devotion.

Do not, though, pray these names of God in vain. It is not uncommon to hear people pray and simply repeat the same name of God as a kind of filler in their prayers, which is the same as taking God's name in vain. Have you not heard people pray in such a manner as, "Father God, we thank You, Father God, for helping us, Father God; and Father God, we ask You, Father God, etc." Any such term can be used, such as heavenly Father, Lord, or much else. Be careful that our prayers do not become means of taking God's name in vain.

If you ask any particular grace of our blessed Lord, let it be in some manner like this: "O Holy Jesus, Son of the most High God, You who were scourged for me, stretched and nailed upon a cross for the sins of the world, unite me to Your cross and fill my soul with Your holy, humble, and suffering spirit. O Fountain of mercy, You who saved the thief upon the cross, save me from the guilt of a sinful life. You who cast seven demons out of Mary Magdalene, cast out of my heart all evil thoughts and wicked tempers. O Giver of life, You who raised Lazarus from the dead, raise up my soul from the death and darkness of sin. You who gave Your apostles power over unclean spirits, give me power over my own heart. You who appeared unto Your disciples when the doors were shut, appear unto me in the secret place of my heart. You who cleansed the lepers, healed the sick, and gave sight to the blind, cleanse my heart, heal the disorders of my soul, and fill me with heavenly light."

These kinds of appeals have a double advantage. First, they are so many proper acts of our faith whereby we not only show our belief in the miracles of Christ, but we turn them at the same time into instances of worship and adoration. Secondly, they strengthen and increase the faith of our prayers by presenting to our minds instances of that power and goodness that we call upon for our own assistance. He who appeals to Christ as casting out demons and raising the dead has then a powerful motive in his mind to pray earnestly and to depend faithfully upon His assistance.

In order to fill your prayers with excellent elements of devotion, it might help to you to observe this additional principle: when at any time, either in reading the Scripture or any book of piety, you meet with a passage that more than ordinarily affects your mind, and seems, as it were, to especially draw your heart toward God, you should try to turn it into the form of a prayer. By this means you will be often improving your prayers and making the desires of your heart known unto God.

During the time you have set aside to be alone with God, it will be of great benefit to you to have something planned and regular, and also to have something natural and not considered in advance in your devotions.

You should have some specific topic that is constantly to be the chief matter of your prayer at that particular time, and yet have liberty to add such other petitions as your condition may then require. For instance, as the morning is to you the beginning of a new life, and as God has then given you a new day to use for His glory and a fresh entrance into the world, it is highly proper that your first prayer should be one of praise and thanksgiving to God, as for a new creation. You should offer and devote body and soul, all that you are, and all that you have, to His service and glory. Receive, therefore, every day as a resurrection from death and as a new enjoyment of life. Meet every rising sun with such sentiments of God's goodness as if you had seen it, and all things, newly created just for you. Under the sense of so great a blessing, let your joyful heart praise and magnify so good and glorious a Creator.

Let, therefore, praise and thanksgiving and the surrender of yourself unto God always be the fixed and certain subject of your first prayers in the morning. Then take the liberty of adding such other devotions as your situation in life or the condition of your heart will then make most needful and expedient for you.

One of the greatest benefits of private devotion consists in rightly adapting our prayers to those two conditions – our situation and needs in life at the moment, and the condition of our heart before God.

By our situation in life, I mean our external state or condition, as of sickness, health, pains, losses, disappointments, troubles, particular mercies or judgments from God, and all sorts of kindnesses, injuries, or reproaches from other people. As these are major parts of our lives, they continually change. Even so, our prayers will change based upon our situation at the time. Our devotion will be made doubly beneficial to us when it watches to bring all these concerns and changes to God daily, turning them all into a more particular application to God of such thanksgiving, such acceptance of God's will, and such petitions as our present state more especially requires.

He who makes every change a reason of presenting to God some specific petition suitable to that change will soon learn an excellent way not only of praying with fervor, but of living as he prays and praying as he lives.

The next condition to which we are always to adapt some part of our prayers is the difference of our hearts. By this is meant the different changes and feelings of our hearts, as of love, joy, peace, tranquility, dullness and dryness of spirit, anxiety, discontent, motions of envy and ambition, dark and disconsolate thoughts, resentments, fretfulness, and a frame of mind contrary to biblical attitudes. As these thoughts and feelings, through the weakness of our nature, will have their succession, more or less, even in pious minds, so we should constantly make the present condition of our heart the reason for some particular application to God.

If we are in the delightful calm of a pleasant time in life and of love and joy in God, then we should offer the grateful tribute of thanksgiving to God for having been given so much happiness, thankfully owning and acknowledging Him as the bountiful Giver of it all.

If, on the other hand, we feel ourselves laden with heavy emotions, with dullness of spirit, anxiety, and uneasiness, then we must look up to God in humility, confessing our unworthiness, opening our troubles to Him, asking Him to lessen the weight of our infirmities in His good time, and to deliver us from such passions as oppose the purity and perfection of our souls.

By watching and attending to the current condition of our hearts in this way, and by suiting some of our petitions exactly to the current needs, we will not only be well acquainted with the disorders of our souls, but we will also be well exercised in the method of curing them. By this prudent and wise application of our prayers, we will get all the relief from them that is possible, and the very changeableness of our hearts will prove a means of exercising a greater variety of holy qualities.

Now, by all that has here been said, you will easily perceive that people who seek the greatest benefit from prayer ought to mainly pray from the heart. As to that part of their prayers that is always fixed on one certain subject, in that they may use the help of forms composed by other people; however, in that part of their prayers that they always suit to the present state of their life and heart, there they must let the sense of their own condition help them pray the kinds of petition, thanksgiving, or accepting God's will, as their present state more especially requires.

Happy are they who have this business and employment upon their hands!

Now, if people of leisure, whether men or women, who spend their time in parties, video games, sports, movies, television, and other ridiculous diversions, were to devote some of their time to God's Word and prayer, searching after all the means and helps to attain a devout spirit; if they were to collect the best forms of devotion, to read the finest passages of prayers in the Scriptures; if they were to collect the devotions, confessions, petitions, praises, resignations, and thanksgivings, which are scattered up and down the Psalms, and categorize them so as to help them in the different conditions of their own lives and in their own devotional lives; if their minds were often thus employed, sometimes meditating upon them, sometimes learning them by heart and making them as habitual as their own thoughts, how fervently would they pray who came thus prepared to prayer! How much better would it be to spend your free time like this than in the amusement and foolishness of the things of this world!

How much better would it be to be ready with hymns and anthems of the saints, and to teach your souls to ascend to God, than to corrupt, bewilder, and confound your hearts with the wild imaginations and the sinful thoughts of many modern authors and singers! How much better to fill your hearts and minds with the great hymns of the Christian faith that have provided comfort and strength for countless Christians, than to listen to the empty or lewd lyrics of today's secular world? Which is better? Which will bring your thoughts and heart nearer to God?

Although it might seem that this method of prayer is more for people with much free time, yet peoples of much business or labor must not think themselves excused from this, or they must think that they should not be improving their devotional lives. The greater their business is, the more need they have of some such method as this, to prevent its power over their hearts, to secure them from sinking into worldly notions, and to preserve a sense and taste of heavenly things in their minds. Time that is regularly and constantly set aside to read God's Word and pray will do great things and will produce mighty effects.

It is for the lack of considering devotion in this light, as something that is to be nursed and cherished with care, as something that is to be made part of our business, that is to be improved with care and contrivance, by art and method, and a diligent use of the best helps; it is for the lack of considering it in this light that so many people are so little benefited by it and live and die strangers to that spirit of devotion, which, by a prudent and wise use of proper means, they might have enjoyed in a high degree. It is for this reason that so many Christians are active yet spiritually immature. It is for this reason that so many churches have many activities yet little spiritual depth and make so little impact in the world.

Although the spirit of devotion is the gift of God and is not attainable by any mere power of our own, yet it is mostly given to, and never withheld from, those who, by a wise and diligent use of proper means, prepare themselves for the reception of it. It is amazing to see how eagerly people employ their possessions, minds, time, study, application, and efforts when anything is intended and desired in worldly matters, yet how uninterested, negligent, and unconcerned they are and how little effort they will use to raise and increase their devotion to God! Just look at their passion and preparation when discussing and watching their favorite sports team, compared to the lack of passion and preparation when with the unsaved or when discussing the things of God.

Jesse is a man of an excellent background and clear understanding. He is well advanced in age and has had much success in business. Every part of trade and business in which he has participated has had some improvement from him, and he is always thinking about how to carry every method of doing anything well to its greatest height. Jesse aims at the greatest perfection in everything. The soundness and strength of his mind and his just way of thinking upon things make him intent upon removing all imperfections.

He can tell you all the defects and errors in all the common methods, whether of trade, building, or improving land or machinery. The clearness and strength of his understanding, which he is constantly improving by continual exercise in these matters, by often recording his thoughts in writing, and trying everything every way, has rendered him a great master of most concerns in human life.

Thus has Jesse gone on, increasing his knowledge and judgment as fast as his years came upon him. The only thing that has not fallen under his improvement or received any benefit from his judicious mind is his devotional life. This is in just the same poor state as it was when he was only six years of age, and the old man prays now in that little form of words that his mother used to hear him repeat night and morning.

Jesse, who hardly ever saw the simplest utensil or ever took the most basic tool into his hand without considering how it might be made or used to better advantage, has gone all his life praying in the same manner as when he was a child, without ever considering how much better or more often he might pray. He has not considered how improbable the spirit of devotion is if he does not make any effort to seek God and to know His Word. He does not consider how necessary it is that our prayers should be enlarged, varied, and suited to the particular state and condition of our lives. If Jesse sees a book that will help him on to holiness and devotion to God, he passes it by, just as he does with a spelling book, because he remembers that he learned to pray, so many years ago, under his mother, when he learned to spell.

Now how poor and pitiful is the conduct of this man of sense, who has so much judgment and understanding in everything except that which is the whole wisdom of man! How miserably do many people, more or less, imitate this conduct! They pursue the best and the good in various aspects of this life, yet neglect that which is of eternal value, including profit to their own eternal souls.

This all seems due to a strange, infatuated state of negligence that keeps people from considering what true and sincere devotion to God is. For if they would only once proceed so far as to reflect upon it or ask themselves any questions concerning it, they would soon see that the spirit of devotion was like any other sense or understanding – that it is only to be improved by study, care, application, and the use of such means and helps as are necessary to make someone proficient in any art or science.

David is a man of learning, and he is well-versed in all the best authors both of antiquity and of the modern era. He has read them so often that he has entered into their spirit and can very ingeniously imitate the manner of any of them. Their thoughts are his thoughts, and he can express himself as if having their thoughts. He is so great a friend to this improvement of the mind, that if he comes across a young scholar, he never fails to advise him concerning his studies.

David tells these young people that they must not think they have done enough when they have learned languages or studied their specific subject, but they must be daily conversant with the best ancient and modern authors in their field, read them again and again, and catch their spirit by living with them. He says there is no other way of becoming like them or of making themselves excel in their field of study.

How wise might David have been, and how much good might he have done in the world, if he had but thought the same way about devotion to God as he does of learning! Indeed, he never says anything shocking or offensive about devotion to God, because he never thinks or talks about it. He only neglects and disregards the topic. He would not even own a copy of the Bible, except that he obtained one in the Greek language. David thinks that he sufficiently shows his regard for the Holy Scriptures when he tells you that he has no other book of piety besides the Bible.

It is very good that David prefers the Bible to all other books of piety, but if he has no other book of piety besides the Bible because it is the best, then why is he not content with having only the one best book of the Greeks and the Romans? Why is he so greedy and eager to have so many more? Why it that he thinks the more books he has of Latin and Greek authors are beneficial to a greater understanding of them all?

Why does he read so many commentators upon Cicero, Horace, and Homer, and not one upon the Gospel? How is it that his love of Cicero and Ovid makes him love to read other authors who write like them, yet his esteem for the Gospel does not gives him desire to read such books as breathe the very spirit of the Gospel?

Why is it that he tells young scholars not to be content with barely understanding one author in their field, but that they must be continually reading them all as the only means of entering into their spirit, yet he does not read books that help him to understand the Scriptures that he neglects? Why does the Bible lie alone in his study? Are not the spirit of the church fathers and the piety of the holy followers of Jesus Christ throughout history as good and necessary a means of entering into the spirit of the Gospel as the reading of the ancient writers is of entering into the spirit of antiquity?

Is the spirit of poetry only to be understood by much reading of poets and orators, and is not the spirit of devotion to be obtained in the same way, by frequently reading the holy thoughts and pious strains of devout men? Is a young poet to search after every line that may give new wings to his imagination, and is it not as reasonable for him who desires to improve in the divine life and in the love of heavenly things to search after every strain of devotion that may move, kindle, and inflame the holy passion of his soul?

Do you advise public speakers to read, memorize, and practice delivering the best speeches throughout history, and is there not the same benefit and advantage to be made by books that lead us nearer to God? Should not we use them in the same way by reading about them and thinking about them and learning from the best of them so that devotional habits and aspiring to God in holy thoughts may be well formed in his soul?

Now the reason why David does not think and judge the same way about devotion to God is because he never thought of prayer in any other manner than as repeating a form of words. It never in his life entered his head to think of devotion to God as a state of the heart, as a means of improving the mind, and as a quality that is to grow and increase like our reason and judgment, to be formed in us by such a regular, diligent use of the right means necessary to form any other wise habit of mind.

It is for lack of this that he has been content all his life with the bare repetition of prayer, and why he is so eagerly intent upon entering into the spirit of heathen poets and orators.

It is much to be lamented that numbers of scholars are more or less guilty of this excessive folly. They are so negligent of improving their devotion to God and so desirous to accomplish trivial things, that it seems as if they think it is as noble to write a short poem as it is to live, think, and pray with a life fully devoted to God. Yet to correct this attitude and fill someone with a desire for godliness, there seems to be no more required than the bare belief in the truth of Christianity.

If you were to ask Jesse and David, or anyone of business or learning, whether piety is the highest perfection of man or whether a life devoted to God is the greatest attainment in the world, they would answer in the affirmative, or else they must give up the truth of the Gospel.

To set any accomplishment against devotion to God, or to think that anything or all things in this world bear any proportion to its excellency, is the same absurdity in a Christian as it would be in a philosopher to prefer the food from one meal to the greatest improvement in knowledge.

Just as philosophy professes to be the search and inquiry after knowledge, so Christianity supposes, intends, desires, and aims at nothing else but raising fallen people to a life in Christ, to such habits of holiness and such degrees of devotion as may prepare him to enter among the holy inhabitants of the kingdom of heaven.

He who does not believe this of Christianity must be considered an infidel. He who believes this has faith enough to give him a right judgment of the value of things as will support him in a sound mind and enable him to conquer all the temptations that the world will lay in his way.

Devotion is nothing else but right understanding and right affections toward God. All practices, therefore, that heighten and improve our true understanding of God, all ways of life that tend to nourish, raise, and fix our affections upon Him, are to be considered ways to help us and to fill us with devotion.

As prayer is the proper fuel of this holy flame, so we must use all our care and planning to give prayer its full power, such as by giving to others, by self-denial, by frequent time alone with God in prayer and in reading the Holy Scriptures, by learning and living the ways of God according to His Word, by giving up the things of the world, and by changing, improving, and suiting our devotions to the condition of our lives and the state of our hearts.

Those who have the most free time and ease seem more especially called to a more eminent observance of these holy rules of a devout life. They who by the necessity of their circumstances, and not through their own choice, have but little time to spend with God, must make the best use of that little they have and to be certain that they are not making excuses for not walking with God or not filling their time with selfishness, entertainment, and foolishness. This is the certain way of making devotion produce a devout life.
Chapter 15

Of singing psalms in our private devotions. Of the excellency and benefit of this kind of devotion. Of the great effect it has upon our hearts. Of the means of performing it in the best manner.

You have seen in the previous chapter what means and methods you are to use to improve and grow in your devotion, how early you are to begin your prayers, and what is to be the subject of your first devotions in the morning.

There is one thing still remaining that you are required to observe, not only as right and proper to be done, but that which cannot be neglected without great disservice to your devotions. That one thing is to begin all your prayers with a psalm. This is so right and so beneficial to devotion and has so much effect upon our hearts, that it may be insisted upon as a common rule for all people.

I do not mean that you should read over a psalm, but that you should chant or sing one of those psalms which we commonly call the reading psalms. Singing is as much the proper use of a psalm as devout supplication is the proper use of a form of prayer. A psalm only read is very much like a prayer that is only looked over. The psalms have been sung since they were written. They were used in Israelite worship and in Puritan church services. We need to get back to worshipfully and respectfully singing the psalms today.

The method of chanting a psalm, such as is used in the colleges, in the universities, and in some churches, is a method of which all people are capable. The change of the voice in chanting a psalm is so small and natural, that everybody is able to do it, and it is sufficient to raise and keep up the gladness of our hearts. This might seem strange to many people, for we have become used to entertaining ourselves even in what we call "worship songs," that we have neglected to learn how to really sing to God in the quietness of our own hearts. We neglect the psalms because they do not entertain us. May we learn to get back to God's Book!

It is good, therefore, to consider singing a psalm as a necessary beginning of your devotions, as something that is to awaken all that is good and holy within you, that is to call your spirits to their proper duty, to set you in your best posture toward heaven and tune all the powers of your soul to worship and adoration.

There is nothing that so clears a way for your prayers, nothing that so disperses dullness of heart, nothing that so purifies the soul from poor and little passions, nothing that so opens heaven, or carries your heart so near it, as these songs of praise. These psalms are more than mere emotional repetition as many of our songs have today, but these also have deep meaning.

They create a sense of delight in God, they awaken holy desires, they teach you how to ask, and they prevail with God to give. They kindle a holy flame, they turn your heart into an altar and your prayers into incense, and they carry your prayers as a sweet-smelling savor to the throne of grace.

The difference between singing and reading a psalm will easily be understood, if you consider the difference between reading and singing a common song that you like. While you only read the words, you only like it, and that is all; but as soon as you sing it, then you enjoy it and you feel the delight of it; it has got hold of you, your passions keep pace with it, and you feel the same spirit within you that seems to be in the words. This is much more than bouncing along to a drumbeat, but is truly worshiping and praising God as you hear the divine heartbeat.

If you were to tell someone who was singing such a psalm that he does not need to sing it, that it was sufficient to look at it, he would wonder what you meant and would think that you are as absurd as if you were to tell him that he should only look at his food to see whether it was good, but did not need to eat it. A song of praise not sung is very much like any other good thing not made use of.

You might say that singing is a particular talent that belongs only to particular people, and that you have neither voice nor ear to make any music. If you would have said that singing is a general talent and that people differ in that as they do in all other things, you would have said something much truer. For how vastly people differ in the talent of thinking, which is not only common to all people, but seems to be the very essence of human nature. How readily do some people reason upon everything, and how hardly do others reason upon anything! How clearly do some people discuss the most difficult matters, and how confusedly do others talk upon the plainest subjects!

Yet no one desires to be excused from thought, or reason, or discourse, because he does not have these talents, as some people have them. It is just as ridiculous for a person to think himself excused from thinking upon God, from reasoning about his duty to Him, or discussing the means of salvation, because he claims not to be talented in these areas as for a person to think himself excused from singing the praises of God because he does not have a fine ear or a musical voice.

It is speaking from the heart, and not eloquent speaking, that is a required part of prayer; so it is singing, and not artful, fine singing, that is a required way of praising God. Some might say that this is not their style of music. They may be right, for this style of singing psalms from the heart to God is not a means of entertaining ourselves, but of bowing before a holy and mighty God. If it is the heart that matters most, then singing these psalms to God reveals a heart that is seeking and loving God in a way that merely listening to the latest music cannot begin to understand.

If a person was to keep from praying because he had an odd tone in his voice, he would have as good an excuse as he has who keeps from singing psalms because he has but little management of his voice. As a man's speaking his prayers, though in an odd tone, may yet sufficiently answer all the ends of his own devotion, so a man's singing of a psalm, though not in a very musical way, may yet sufficiently answer all the ends of rejoicing in and praising God.

This objection might be of some weight if you were desired to sing to entertain other people, but is not to be admitted in the present case, where you are only required to sing the praises of God as a part of your private devotion.

If a person who has a very quiet voice and a bad way of speaking was asked to pray in front of a congregation, it might be a proper excuse for him to say that he did not have a loud voice or a good way of speaking that was proper to represent the congregation in prayer; but he would be very absurd, if, for the same reason, he would neglect his own private devotions.

Now this is exactly the case of singing psalms. You may not have the talent of singing so as to be able to entertain other people, and therefore it is reasonable to excuse yourself from it; but if for that reason you should excuse yourself from this way of praising God in private, you would be guilty of a great absurdity. This is because professional singing is no more required for the music that is made by singing psalms to God than eloquence is required in private prayer. These things should be the natural and proper expression of a heart rejoicing in God.

Our blessed Savior and His apostles sang a hymn (Matthew 26:30), but it may reasonably be supposed that they rather rejoiced in God than made fine music.

If you live so that your heart truly rejoices in God and feels itself affected with the praises of God, then you will find that this state of your heart will neither lack a voice nor ear to find a tune for a psalm. Everyone, at some time or other, finds himself able to sing in some degree. There are some times and occasions of joy that make all people ready to express their sense of it in some sort of harmony. The joy that they feel forces them to let their voice have a part in it.

He therefore who says he lacks a voice or an ear to sing a psalm, mistakes the case. Instead, he lacks that spirit that really rejoices in God. The dullness is in his heart, and not in his ear. When his heart feels a true joy in God, when it has a full relish of what is expressed in the Psalms, he will find it very pleasant to make the motions of his voice express the motions of his heart.

Singing, indeed, as it is improved into an art and is changed from simple singing into how some of it is today – screaming into microphones or flailing around incomprehensibly, is not natural, nor the effect of any natural state of the mind. Singing, as it signifies a motion of the voice suitable to the motions of the heart and the changing of its tone according to the meaning of the words that we utter, is as natural and common to all people as it is to speak loudly when they threaten in anger, or to speak low when they are dejected and ask for forgiveness.

All people therefore are singers, in the same manner as all people think, speak, laugh, and lament, for singing is no more an invention than grief or joy are inventions. Every state of the heart naturally puts the body into some state that is suitable to it and is proper to show it to other people. If a man is angry or disdainful, no one needs to instruct him how to express these passions by the tone of his voice. The state of his heart disposes him to a proper use of his voice.

If therefore there are but few singers of divine songs, if people must be exhorted to this part of devotion, it is because there are but few whose hearts are raised to that height of piety as to feel any motions of joy and delight in the praises of God. If you sing songs to God on Sunday morning but the rest of the week sing songs of the world, it is because your joy and delight are not on God. One cannot well have a heart tuned to sing God's praises and love, and then be satisfied listening to the songs of the world.

Imagine to yourself that you had been with Moses when he was led through the Red Sea, that you had seen the waters divide themselves and stand as a wall on both sides. Imagine that you had seen them held up till you had passed through, and then you saw those walls of water fall upon your enemies. Do you think you would then have lacked a voice or an ear to have sung with Moses, The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my [salvation] (Exodus 15:2)?

I know your own heart tells you that all people must have been singers upon such an occasion. Let this therefore teach you that it is the heart that tunes a voice to sing the praises of God. If you cannot sing the same words now with joy, it is because you are not so affected with the salvation of the world by Jesus Christ as the Jews were, or that you yourself would have been with their deliverance at the Red Sea.

That it is the condition of the heart that positions us to rejoice in any particular kind of singing may be easily proved from a variety of observations upon human nature. An old lover of the pleasures of this world may, according to the language of the world, have neither voice nor ear, if you only sing a psalm or a song in praise of virtue to God; but yet, if in some easy tune you sing something that celebrates his former depravity, he will then, though he has no teeth in his head, show you that he has both a voice and an ear to join in such music. You then awaken his heart, and he just as naturally sings to such words as he laughs when he is pleased.

This will be the case in every song that touches the heart; if you celebrate the ruling passion of any man's heart, you put his voice in tune to join with you. That is why you can tell much about the true love in a person's heart by hearing the kind of music he enjoys throughout the week. That is why some people moan and groan when simple hymns are sung, but clap and bounce and raise their hands when a song is played filled with technology, drums, and guitars. They are most likely worshiping the music rather than God, and singing from amusement rather than true worship from the heart.

So, if you can find someone whose ruling passion is devotion to God, and whose heart is full of God, his voice will rejoice in those songs of praise that glorify God, who is the joy of his heart, though he has neither voice nor ear for other music. If you would like, therefore, to delightfully perform this part of devotion, it is not so necessary to learn a tune or practice upon notes, as to prepare your heart; for, as our blessed Lord said, Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies (Matthew 15:19). It is equally true that out of the heart proceed holy joys, thanksgiving, and praise. If you can once say with David, My heart is ready, O God, my heart is willing, it will be very easy and natural to add, as he did, I will sing and give praise (Psalm 57:7).

Let us now consider another reason for this kind of devotion. Just as singing is a natural effect of joy in the heart, so it has a natural power of making the heart joyful. The soul and body are so united that each has power over one another in their actions. Certain thoughts and sentiments in the soul produce certain motions and actions in the body. On the other hand, certain motions and actions of the body have the same power of raising certain thoughts and sentiments in the soul. Just as singing is the natural effect of joy in the mind, so it is as truly a natural cause of raising joy in the mind.

Just as devotion of the heart naturally breaks out into outward acts of prayer, so outward acts of prayer are natural means of raising the devotion of the heart. It is this way in all conditions and states of the mind. As the inward state of the mind produces outward actions suitable to it, so those outward actions have the similar power of raising an inward state of mind suitable to them. As anger produces angry words, so angry words increase anger.

If we consider human nature, we will find that singing or chanting the psalms is as proper and necessary to raise our hearts to a delight in God, as prayer is proper and necessary to excite in us the spirit of devotion. Every reason for one is in all respects as strong a reason for the other.

If, therefore, you want to know the reason and necessity for singing psalms, you must consider the reason and necessity of praising and rejoicing in God. It is because singing psalms is just as much the true exercise and support of the spirit of thanksgiving as prayer is the true exercise and support of the spirit of devotion. You might as well think that you can be as devout as you should be without the use of prayer, as that you can rejoice in God as you should without the practice of singing psalms, because this singing is as much the natural language of praise and thanksgiving as prayer is the natural language of devotion.

The union of soul and body is not a mixture of their substances, as we see some substances united and mixed together, but consists solely in the mutual power that they have of acting upon one another. If two people were in such a state of dependence upon one another that neither of them could act, move, think, feel, suffer, or desire anything without putting the other into the same condition, one might properly say that they were in a state of strict union, although their substances were not united together. The soul has no thought or passion that does not affect the body, and the body has no action or motion that does not in some degree affect the soul.

It is the sole will of God that is the reason and cause of all the powers and effects that you see in the world. The sun gives light and heat, not because it has any natural power of doing so, but because it is God's will that it is so. The sun is fixed in a certain place and other bodies move around it, not because it is the nature of the sun to stand still and the nature of other bodies to move around it, but merely because it is the will of God that they should do so. The eye is the organ or instrument of seeing, not because the parts of the eye have a natural power of giving sight of themselves, but because God designed it and willed it to be so. The ears are the organs or instruments of hearing, not because the components of the ear have any natural power over sounds, but merely because it is the will of God that this is how we should hear. So, in the same manner, it is the sole will of God, and not the nature of a human soul or body, that is the cause of this union between the soul and the body.

Now if you rightly understand this short account of the union of the soul and body, you will see a great deal into the reason and necessity of all the outward parts of Christianity. This union of our souls and bodies is the reason why we have both so little and so much power over ourselves. It is because of this union that we have so little power over our souls, for as we cannot prevent the effects of external objects upon our bodies, so we cannot always command the inward state of our minds. Just as outward objects act upon our bodies without our will, so our bodies act upon our minds by the laws of the union of the soul and the body. So, it is because of this union that we have so little power over ourselves.

On the other hand, it is because of this union that we have so much power over ourselves. For our souls, in a great measure, depend upon our bodies, and we have great power over our bodies. We can command our outward actions and accommodate ourselves to such habits of life as naturally produce habits in the soul. We can discipline our bodies and remove ourselves from objects that inflame our passions, and so we have great power over the inward state of our souls.

As we are masters of our outward actions and can force ourselves to outward acts of reading, praying, singing, and the like, and as all these bodily actions have an effect upon the soul and naturally tend to form certain attitudes in our hearts, so by being masters of these outward, bodily actions, we have great power over the inward state of the heart; and it is because of this union that we have so much power over ourselves.

From this you may see the necessity and benefit of singing psalms, and of all the outward acts of Christianity; for if the body has so much power over the soul, it is certain that all such bodily actions that affect the soul are of great importance in Christianity. This is not because there is any true worship or piety in the actions themselves, but because they are proper to raise and support that spirit that is the true worship of God.

Therefore, although the center of Christianity is in the heart, yet since our bodies have a power over our hearts and since outward actions both proceed from and enter into the heart, it is plain that outward actions have a great power over that Christianity that is seated in the heart.

It can be beneficial to use outward helps as well as inward meditation in order to obtain and increase habits of piety in our hearts. This doctrine may easily be carried too far, however, for by calling in too many outward means of worship, it may degenerate into superstition and mere ritual.

It is certain that if we want to arrive at habits of devotion or delight in God, we must not only meditate and exercise our souls, but we must practice and exercise our bodies to all such outward actions as are conformable to these inward dispositions. If we would truly humble our souls before God, it would be beneficial to bring our bodies to postures of lowliness; if we desire true warmth of devotion, we must make prayer the frequent labor of our lips. If we want to banish all pride and passion from our hearts, we must force ourselves to all outward actions of patience and meekness. If we want to feel inward motions of joy and delight in God, we must practice all the outward acts of it and make our voices call upon our hearts.

Now, therefore, you can plainly see the reason and necessity of singing psalms. It is because outward actions are necessary to support inward attitudes, and therefore the outward act of joy is necessary to raise and support the inward joy of the mind.

If some people were to stop praying because they find their hearts to be dull and wandering, you would accuse of great absurdity. You would think it very reasonable that they should continue their prayers, as the most likely means of removing the dullness and lack of devotion of their hearts.

This is very much the case with singing psalms. People often sing without finding any inward joy comparable to the words that they sing; therefore they are careless of it or wholly neglect singing psalms, not considering that they act as absurdly as he who neglects prayer because his heart was not enough affected with it. It is certain that this singing is as much the natural means of raising emotions of joy in the mind as prayer is the natural means of raising devotion.

I spent much time upon this topic because of its great importance to true Christianity. There is no state of mind so holy, so excellent, and so truly perfect, as that of thankfulness to God. Consequently, nothing is of more importance in Christianity than that which exercises and improves this habit of mind.

A dull, uneasy, complaining spirit, which is sometimes the spirit of those who seem to profess to be Christians, is yet, of all attitudes, the one most contrary to Christianity, for it disowns that God whom it pretends to adore. For he who does not adore Him as a Being of infinite goodness sufficiently disowns God.

If a person believes that nothing happens by chance, but that all is guided and directed by the care and providence of a Being who is all love and goodness to all His creatures; if someone does not believe this from his heart, then he cannot be said to truly believe in God. Yet he who has this faith has faith enough to overcome the world and to always be thankful to God. He who believes that everything happens to him for the best cannot possibly complain because he wants something better.

If, therefore, you spend your time murmuring and complaining about everything that happens in your life, it is not because you are a weak, feeble creature, but it is because you lack the first principle of Christianity – a proper belief in God. Just as thankfulness is a clear acknowledgment of the goodness of God toward you, so murmurings and complaints are plain accusations of God's lack of goodness toward you.

On the other hand, would you like to know who is the greatest saint in the world? It is not he who prays most or fasts most; it is not he who gives most to charity or who is most known for sobriety, morality, or justice; but it is he who is always thankful to God, who wills everything that God wills, who receives everything as part of God's goodness, and who has a heart always ready to praise God for it.

All prayer and Scripture reading, fastings and repentance, meditation and private devotions, all sacraments and ordinances, are only means to render the soul like Christ, make it conformable to the will of God, and fill it with thankfulness and praise for everything that comes from God. This is the perfection of all virtues, and all virtues that do not lead to this or proceed from it are only false ornaments of a soul not converted unto God.

You do not need, therefore, to wonder why I place so much stress upon singing a psalm at all your devotions, since you see it is to form your spirit to such joy and thankfulness to God as is the highest perfection of a divine and holy life.

If anyone would tell you the shortest, surest way to all happiness and all perfection, he must tell you to make it a rule to thank and praise God for everything that happens to you. It is certain that whatever seeming calamity happens to you, if you thank and praise God for it, you turn it into a blessing. If you could therefore work miracles, you could not do more for yourself than by this thankful spirit, for it heals by speaking a word, and turns all that it touches into happiness.

If, therefore, you desired to be so true to your eternal interest as to make this thankfulness to be the goal of your Christian life, and if you would but set it in your mind that you were going to aim at this goal in all your devotions, then you would have something plain and visible to walk by in all your actions. You would have a clear goal and purpose in what you do. You would then easily see the effect of your virtues, and you might safely judge of your improvement in piety. For as far as you renounce all selfish attitudes and motions of your own will, as far as you seek for no other happiness but to thankfully accept everything that happens to you, so far you may be safely considered to have advanced in piety. In every thing give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

Although this might be the highest quality that you can aim at in this regard, though it might be the noblest sacrifice that the greatest saint can offer unto God, yet is it not tied to any time or place or occasion, but it is always in your power, and should be the exercise of every day. The common events of every day are sufficient to discover and exercise this quality, and may plainly show you how far you are governed in all your actions by this thankful spirit.

For this reason I exhort you to use this method in your devotion, so that every day might be made a day of thanksgiving, and that the spirit of murmur and discontent may be unable to enter into the heart that is so often employed in singing the praises of God.

Do not pray so that you may be seen by others, but if your situation causes you to be always in the sight of others, be more afraid of being seen to neglect prayer than of being seen praying. If for some reason some people cannot pray in private, they should consider their confinement and the necessities of their condition, such as the confinement of a prison. Then they have an excellent pattern to follow. They can imitate Paul and Silas, who sang praises to God in prison, though we are expressly told that the prisoners heard them. Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them (Acts 16:25). They did not refrain from praying or singing to God for fear of being heard by others. If therefore anyone is in the same necessity, either in prison, or out of prison, what can he do better than follow this example?

I cannot pass by this place of Scripture without desiring the pious reader to observe how strongly we are here called upon to this use of psalms, and what a mighty recommendation of it the practice of these two great saints is. In their great distress, in prison, in chains, under the soreness of being beaten, in the horror of night, the divinest, holiest thing they could do was to sing praises unto God.

Shall we, after this, need to be told to sing to God? Will we let the day pass without such thanksgiving as Paul and Silas would not neglect in the night? Shall a prison, chains, and darkness furnish them with songs of praise, but we have no singing when we are alone with God?

Let it also be observed that while these two holy men were singing to God in devotion, doing that on earth that angels do in heaven, the foundations of the prison were shaken, all the doors were opened, and every one's chains were loosed (Acts 16:26).

Will we now ask for reasons why we should sing songs to God in our devotions when we have here such miracles to convince us of its mighty power with God? Could God by a voice from heaven more expressly call us to these songs of praise than by thus showing us how He hears, delivers, and rewards those who use them?

By the way, the privacy of our prayers is not destroyed by our having others observe us praying, but by our seeking out people to see us praying. If therefore nobody hears you but those you cannot separate yourself from, you are just as much in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will as truly reward your secrecy as if you were seen by Him only.

Private prayer, as opposed to public prayer, does not suppose that no one is to have any witness of it. For husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, parents and children, employers and employees, tutors and pupils, are to be witnesses to one another of such devotion as may truly and properly be called private. It is far from being a duty to conceal such devotion from such near relations. In all these cases, therefore, where such relations sometimes pray together in private, and sometimes apart by themselves, the singing of a psalm can have nothing objected against it.

Our blessed Lord commands us, when we fast, to anoint our heads and wash our faces, that we appear not unto others to fast, but unto our Father who sees in secret. But this only means that we must not make public demonstration to the world of our fasting. For if no one was to fast in private or could be said to fast in private unless he that had no witnesses of it, no one could keep a private fast except he who lived by himself, for every family must know which members are fasting and not eating with them. Therefore, the privacy of fasting does not suppose such a privacy as excludes everybody from knowing it, but such a privacy as does not seek to be known in public.

Cornelius, the devout centurion, of whom the Scriptures say that he gave much and prayed to God always, said to Peter, Four days ago I was fasting until this hour (Acts 10:30). That this fasting was sufficiently private and acceptable to God is clear from the vision of an angel, with which Cornelius was blessed at that time. That it was not so private as to be entirely unknown to others, appears from what is said in another place, that he called two of his household servants and a devout soldier of those that waited on him continually (Acts 10:7). Cornelius' fasting was so far from being unknown to his family, that the soldiers and those of his household were made devout themselves by continually waiting upon him and by seeing and partaking of his good works.

The sum of the matter is that most people in the world can be as private as they please; therefore, let them use this excellent devotion between God and themselves. As therefore the privacy or excellency of fasting is not destroyed by being known to some particular persons, neither would the privacy or excellency of your devotions be hurt, though you should be heard by some of your family singing a psalm.

Other people in the world cannot help but have witnesses of their devotions, for they are not able to have complete privacy. Let them therefore not neglect singing a psalm at such times, just as they should not neglect their prayers. Surely there can be no harm in being known to sing a psalm during your devotional time, just as you say prayers and read God's Word.

If, however, there are other times that you desire to be in such secrecy at your devotions as to have nobody suspect it, and for that reason you do not sing a song, I have no objection against it, as long as you regularly make it a practice to sing to God most times.

For who would not be often doing in the day that which Paul and Silas would not neglect during the middle of the night? If, when you are singing in this way, it would come into your head how the prison shook and the doors opened when Paul sang, it would do your devotion some good.

Knowing that our thoughts and imaginations have great power over our hearts and can mightily affect us, it would be of great use to you, if at the beginning of your devotions, you were to imagine to yourself some such thoughts as might heat and warm your heart into an attitude suitable to those prayers that you are about to offer unto God.

For example, before you begin your psalm of praise and rejoicing in God, make this use of your imagination: be still, and imagine to yourself that you saw the heavens open, and the glorious choirs of cherubim and seraphim about the throne of God. Imagine that you hear the music of those angelic voices that cease not day and night to sing the glories of Him who is, and was, and is to come.

Help your imagination with such passages of Scripture as these:

After this I saw, and, behold, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues stood before the throne and before the Lamb clothed with long white robes and palms in their hands and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation unto him who is seated upon the throne of our God and unto the Lamb.

And all the angels stood round about the throne and about the elders and the four animals; and they fell upon their faces before the throne and worshipped God, saying, Amen: The blessing and the glory and the wisdom and the thanksgiving and the honour and the power and the might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. (Revelation 7:9-12)

Think upon this until your imagination has carried you above the clouds, until it has placed you among those heavenly beings and made you long to take part in their eternal music. If you will but use this method and let your imagination dwell upon such things as these, you will soon find it to be an excellent means of raising the spirit of devotion within you.

Always, therefore, begin your psalm, or song of praise, with these thoughts; and at every verse of it, imagine yourself to be among those heavenly companions, that your voice is added to theirs, and that angels join with you and you with them, and that you, with a poor and low voice, are singing that on earth which they are singing in heaven.

Again, sometimes imagine that you had been one of those apostles who joined with our blessed Savior when He sang a hymn. Strive to imagine with what majesty He looked and that you had stood close by Him surrounded with His glory. Think how your heart would have been inflamed and what ecstasies of joy you would have then felt, when singing with the Son of God. Think again and again, with what joy and devotion you would then have sung, if you had really been there, and what a punishment you would have thought it was to have been silent then, while Jesus and the others were singing. Let this teach you how to be affected with psalms and hymns of thanksgiving.

Sometimes imagine to yourself that you saw holy David with his hands upon his harp and his eyes fixed upon heaven, calling emotionally upon all the creation, sun and moon, light and darkness, day and night, men and women and angels, to join with his rapturous soul in praising the Lord of heaven.

Dwell upon this until you think you are singing with this divine musician, and let such a companion teach you to exalt your heart unto God in the following psalm, which you may want to use regularly, early in the morning:

I will extol thee, my God, my king, and I will bless thy name for ever and ever (Psalm 145:1). Sing this entire psalm. Other psalms, such as 34, 96, 103, 111, 146, and 147, wonderfully set forth the glory of God, and therefore you may focus on any one of them, at any particular hour, as you like; or you might want to take your favorite parts of any psalm and put them together, making it personal for your own devotion.
Chapter 16

Recommending times of prayer throughout the day. The subject of these prayers is humility.

I am now come to another time of prayer, which can be a little later in the morning. The devout Christian must at this time look upon himself as called upon by God to renew his acts of prayer and address himself again to the throne of grace.

There is indeed no express command in Scripture to repeat our devotions at this specific hour. Indeed, the hours for being awake might greatly vary from person to person depending upon one's job and what shift one works and many other factors. However, it is a good habit to get into to have more than one time of devotion with God after rising from sleep. In addition to your regular singing of a psalm, prayer, and Bible reading when you first wake up, you can make it a beneficial habit to read a short devotional, take some time to again pray, or some other such act of devotion to God that will keep your heart and mind on Him throughout the day.

It might be during a break or during lunch at work. Maybe a stay-at-home mom could spend a few minutes in prayer after putting a child down for a nap. A teacher might find time to pray during lunch. A businessman could spend five minutes in prayer before or after an appointment.

It is good to pray for those around you. Are there those who need Jesus Christ whom you could pray for and seek opportunity to point to the Savior? Is there someone hurting whom you could pray for and later tell about God's care and comfort? You could pray for your children, your spouse, your employer or employees, or any such matter close at hand. Not only will you have opportunity to draw near to God once again, but you can pray for those around you or who are on your mind at the time. Your heart and mind will be again removed from the things of this world and focused upon the God of the universe. Seek peace and love in your own heart, and seek forgiveness for your impatience or harsh or foolish words already this day. Use the time to habitually find rest for your soul as you again take nourishment from Him who is the Living Water and the Bread of Life.

Let us learn from the practice of the saints in all ages of the world, from the customs of the pious Jews and early Christians, and find times of spiritual refreshment throughout the day. Do not substitute these times for your regular daily devotions, though, when you first get up, but add to this main time as additional strength, help, hope, and peace in addition to your earlier time with the Master.

If you were up early in the morning, your first devotions will have been already before this; you will have been long enough at other business to make it proper for you to return to this greatest of all business – raising your soul and affections unto God.

If you have gone to work already without having spent much time alone with God, you may learn from this that indulging yourself in sleep in the morning is no small matter, since it sets you far back in your devotions and robs you of those graces and blessings which are obtained by frequent prayers. If prayer has power with God, looses the bands of sin, purifies the soul, reforms our hearts, and draws down the aids of divine grace, then how can that which robs us of a time of prayer be considered a small matter?

Imagine yourself somewhere in midair as a spectator of all that is happening in the world, and that you saw, in one view, the devotions that all Christian people offer to God every day. Imagine that you saw some people piously waking early to be alone with the Savior, as the early Christians did, constant in this daily devotion, singing psalms, and calling upon God, and being again with Christ at various purposeful times throughout the day. Now imagine that you saw others living without such desire or discipline, who wake up and go about their day without taking time for God, allowing sleep and food and television and work to take the place of devotion to God, spending only a few minutes in prayer as they rush around, or reading only a short devotional if their laziness or daily schedule of rushing around permits.

Now if you were to see this as God sees it, how do you suppose you would be affected with this sight? What conclusion would you reach concerning these different sorts of people? Would you see that some had hearts devoted to God, while others gave Him their leftovers? Would you think that those who purposely set aside the distractions of the world and who arose early in the morning to be with the Creator got nothing by their discipline and dedication? Would you think that those who intentionally awoke and put God first in their lives every day were the same as those who prefer laziness and indulgence and work and the world to times of devotion?

Could you take the one to be as true servants of God as the other? Could you imagine that those who were so different in their lives would find no difference in their status after death? Could you think it a matter of indifference as to which of these people you were most like? In which group would you rather be found? Let it be now your care to join yourself to that group of devout people, to that society of saints, among whom you desire to be found when you leave the world.

Although the bare number and repetition of our prayers is of little value, yet since prayer, rightly and attentively performed, is the most natural means of amending and purifying our hearts, since persistence and frequency in prayer is as much pressed upon us by Scripture as prayer itself, we may be sure that when we are frequent and regular in our prayers, we are taking the best means of obtaining the highest benefits of a devout life.

On the other hand, they who through negligence, laziness, or any other indulgence, render themselves either unable or uninclined to observe regular times of sincere devotion, we may be sure that they deprive themselves of those graces and blessings that an exact and fervent devotion procures from God.

If you are of a devout spirit, you will rejoice at these times of prayer that keep your soul in a holy enjoyment of God, change your passions into divine love, and fill your heart with stronger joys and consolations than you can possibly meet with in anything else. If you are not of a devout spirit, then you still ought to have these times of prayer in order to train and exercise your heart into a true sense and feeling of devotion to God.

By praying specifically every day regarding a specific virtue or grace, you will soon find a mighty change in your heart. You cannot thus constantly pray for any virtue every day of your life, and yet live the rest of the day contrary to it. If a worldly-minded man would pray every day against all the instances of worldly desires, if he would pray against the temptations of covetousness and would desire God to assist him to reject them all and to help him flee from covetousness, he would find his conscience so much awakened that he would be forced either to forsake such prayers or to forsake his worldly life.

The same will hold true in any other instance. Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss (James 4:3). Because we ask in cold and general forms, such as only naming the general virtue desired or only a sin in general, without describing the specific sins or virtue needed specific to our situation, no change is made in our hearts. Whereas when a person names all the parts of any virtue in his prayers, or the specific sins in his life, his conscience is thereby awakened and he is fearful at seeing how far short he is of a holy life. When he sees how much he lacks of that virtue for which he is praying, he is stirred up to zeal in devotion.

In the last chapter, I laid before you the excellency of praise and thanksgiving, and I recommended that as the subject of your first devotions in the morning. A humble state of soul is the very state of Christianity. Humility is the life and soul of piety, the foundation and support of every virtue and good work, and the best guard and security of all holy affections. Therefore, I will recommend humility to you as the constant subject of your devotions, earnestly desiring you to think no day safe or likely to end well, in which you have not early called upon God to carry you through the day in the exercise of a meek and lowly spirit.

This virtue is so essential to the right state of our souls, that there is no pretending to live a reasonable or pious life without it. We may as well think to see without eyes or to live without breath as to live in the spirit of Christianity without the spirit of humility.

No people have more reason to fear becoming proud than those who have made some advances in a pious life, for pride can grow upon our virtues as well as upon our vices, and it sneaks up on us on all occasions. Every good thought that we have, every good action that we do, lays us open to pride and exposes us to the assaults of vanity and self-satisfaction. It is not only our physical qualities, the gifts of fortune, our natural talents, and the distinctions of life, but even our devotions and alms and our fastings and self-denial that expose us to fresh and strong temptations of this evil spirit.

The Bible warns us to be careful in this regard, and we would do well to listen. Therefore let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall (1 Corinthians 10:12). Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall (Proverbs 16:18).

Humility does not consist in having a worse opinion of ourselves than we deserve, or in abasing ourselves lower than we really are; but as all virtue is founded in truth, so humility is founded in a true and just sense of our weakness, misery, and sin. He who rightly feels and lives in this sense of his condition, lives in humility.

The weakness of our condition appears from our inability to do anything as of ourselves. In our natural state we are entirely without any power; we are indeed active beings, but can only act by a power that is every moment lent us from God. We have no more power of our own to move a hand or stir a foot than to move the sun or stop the clouds.

This is the dependent, helpless poverty of our condition, and is a great reason for humility. For, since we neither are, nor can do anything of ourselves, to be proud of anything that we are or of anything that we can do, and to ascribe glory to ourselves for these things as our own achievements has the guilt both of stealing and lying. It has the guilt of stealing, as it gives to ourselves those things that only belong to God, and it has the guilt of lying, as it is the denying the truth of our condition and pretending to be something that we are not.

Another argument for humility is based in the misery of our condition. The misery of our condition appears in this, that we use these borrowed powers of our nature to the torment and vexation of ourselves and our fellow creatures.

God Almighty has entrusted us with the use of reason, and we use it to the disorder and corruption of our human nature. We reason ourselves into all kinds of folly and misery, and we make our lives the sport of foolish and extravagant passions. We seek after imaginary happiness in all kinds of shapes, create to ourselves a thousand wants that we do not really need, amuse our hearts with false hopes and fears, use the world worse than irrational animals, and envy, vex, and torment one another with restless passions and unreasonable contentions.

Let anyone but look back upon his own life and see what use he has made of his reason, how little he has consulted it, and how less he has followed it. What foolish passions, what vain thoughts, what needless labors, what extravagant projects, have taken up the greatest part of his life! How foolish he has been in his words and conversation! How seldom he has done well with judgment, and how often he has been kept from doing wrong by accident. How seldom he has been able to please himself, and how often he has displeased others. How often he has changed his counsels, hated what he loved, and loved what he hated. How often he has been enraged by little things, has been pleased and displeased with the very same things, and has been constantly changing from one vanity to another! Let a man but take this view of his own life, and he will see reason enough to confess that pride was not made for man.

Let him but consider that if the world knew everything about him that he knows about himself, if they saw what vanity and passions govern his inside and what secret thoughts and attitudes defile and corrupt his best actions, he would have no more pretense to be honored and admired for his goodness and wisdom than a rotten and moldy piece of wood would have to be loved and admired for its usefulness. This is so true and so well-known to the hearts of almost all people, that nothing would appear more dreadful to them than to have their hearts thus fully revealed to the eyes of all beholders.

Perhaps there are very few people in the world who would not rather choose to hide than to have all their secret follies, the errors of their judgments, the vanity of their minds, the falseness of their pretenses, the frequency of their vain and disorderly passions, their uneasiness, lusts, secret habits, hatred, envies, and vexations made known to the world.

Will pride be entertained in a heart that is conscious of its own miserable behavior? Will a person in such a condition that he could not support himself under the shame of being known to the world in his real condition boast of his goodness? Will such a person, whose shame is only known to God, to holy angels, and his own conscience, dare to be vain and proud of himself in the sight of God and holy angels? If we add the shame and guilt of sin to this, we will find a still greater reason for humility.

No one who had lived in innocence would have any claim for self-honor and esteem, because as a creature, all that it is or has or does is from God, and therefore the honor of all that belongs to it is only due to God.

But if someone is a sinner and is under the displeasure of the great Governor of all the world, deserving nothing from Him but judgment and punishments for the shameful abuse of his powers, if such a person pretends to self-glory for anything that he is or does, he can only be said to glory in his shame.

It is sufficiently apparent how monstrous and shameful the nature of sin is simply by that great atonement that is necessary to cleanse us from the guilt of sin. Nothing less has been required to take away the guilt of our sins than the sufferings and death of the Son of God. Had He not taken our nature upon Himself, we would have been forever damned and incapable of ever appearing before Him. Is there any room for pride or self-glory while we are partakers of such a nature as this?

Have our sins rendered us so abominable and offensive to Him who made us, that He could not so much as receive our prayers or accept our repentance until the Son of God made Himself man and became a suffering advocate for our whole race? Can we, then, in this condition, pretend to boast in ourselves? Will we presume to take delight in our own worth, who are not worthy so much as to ask pardon for our sins without the mediation and intercession of the Son of God? If we will boast of anything as our own, we must boast of our misery and sin, for there is nothing else but this that we can really claim as our own.

Turn your eyes toward heaven and imagine that you saw what is going on there. Imagine that you saw cherubim and seraphim and all the glorious inhabitants of that place, all united in one work, not seeking glory from one another, not laboring for their own advancement, not contemplating their own perfections, not singing their own praises, not valuing themselves and despising others, but all employed in one and the same work, all happy in one and the same joy: falling down before the throne of God and giving glory and honor and power to Him alone.

Then turn your eyes to the fallen world and consider how unreasonable and repulsive it must be for such poor worms, such miserable sinners, to take delight in their own vain glories, while the highest and most glorious children of heaven seek for no other greatness and honor but to ascribe all honor and greatness and glory to God alone.

Pride is only the disorder of the fallen world. It has no place among other beings. It can only subsist where ignorance and sensuality, lies and falsehood, and lusts and impurity reign. Let a man, when he is most delighted with himself, look upon an image of the cross and contemplate our blessed Lord stretched out and nailed upon it, and then let him consider how absurd it must be for a heart full of pride and vanity to pray to God through the sufferings of such a meek and crucified Savior!

These are the reflections that you are often to meditate upon, that you may thereby be disposed to walk before God and man in such a spirit of humility as it proper for the weak, miserable, sinful state of all who are descended from fallen Adam.

When you have by such general reflections as these convinced your mind of the reasonableness of humility, you must not content yourself with this, as if you were therefore humble because your mind acknowledges the reasonableness of humility and declares pride to be wrong. You must also immediately enter into the practice of this virtue, like a young beginner who has all of it to learn, but can only learn a little at a time, and with great difficulty. You must consider that you have not only this virtue to learn, but you must grow in humility every day for the rest of your life.

You would not imagine yourself to be devout because in your judgment you approved of prayers and often declared that you were in favor of devotion. Yet how many people imagine themselves to be humble enough for no other reason than because they often commend humility and make declarations against pride!

Charles is a rich man, of good upbringing and very fine heritage. He is fond of nice clothing, interested in the smallest matters that can add any embellishment to his person. He is arrogant and domineering to all his inferiors, is very full of everything that he says or does, and never imagines it possible for his judgment to be mistaken. He can bear no contradiction, and he shows the weakness of your understanding as soon as you oppose him. He changes everything in his house, his clothing, and his hobbies as often as anything more elegant comes his way. Charles would have been very religious, except that he always thought he was so.

There is nothing so revolting to Charles as a proud person, and the misfortune is, that he is so very quick-sighted in this, that he discovers some touch of vanity in almost everyone.

On the other hand, he is exceeding fond of humble and modest persons. He says that humility is so amiable a quality, that we appreciate and admire it wherever we meet with it. There is no possibility of despising the lowest person who is humble, or of esteeming the greatest man who lacks it.

Charles no more suspects himself to be proud than he suspects his lack of sense. The reason is because he always finds himself so much in love with humility and so enraged at pride. It is very true that Charles speaks sincerely when he says he loves humility and abhors pride. He is no hypocrite. He speaks the true sentiments of his mind, but Charles does not realize that he only loves humility and hates pride in other people. He never once in his life thought of any other humility or of any other pride than that which he has seen in other people.

The case of Charles is common. Many people live in all the instances of pride and indulge every vanity that can enter into their minds, and yet never suspect themselves to be governed by pride and vanity, because they know how much they dislike proud people and how much they are pleased with humility and modesty, wherever they find them. The more pride anyone has, the more impatient he will be at the smallest instances of it in other people. The less humility anyone has in his own mind, the more he will demand and be delighted with it in other people.

You must therefore act by quite a contrary measure and consider yourself only as humble as you place every instance of humility upon yourself and never call for it in other people, and are so much an enemy to pride that you never spare it in yourself nor ever condemn it in others.

To love humility is of no benefit or advantage to you unless you love to see all your own thoughts, words, and actions governed by it. To hate pride does you no good unless you hate to cling to any degree of it in your own heart.

In order to begin and start out well in the practice of humility, you must take it for granted that you are proud and that you have more or less been infected with this unreasonable quality all your life. You should believe also, that it is your greatest weakness, that your heart is most subject to it, and that it is so constantly coming upon you that you have reason to watch and suspect its approaches in all your actions.

There is no vice that is more deeply rooted in our nature or that receives such constant nourishment from almost everything that we think or do as pride. There is hardly anything in the world that we want or use, or any action or duty of life, but pride finds some way or other to take hold of it. So at whatever time we begin to offer ourselves to God, we can hardly be more certain of anything than that we have a great deal of pride of which we need to repent.

If, therefore, you find it disagreeable to your mind to entertain this opinion of yourself, and you cannot put yourself among those who want to be cured of pride, you may be as sure as if an angel from heaven had told you that you indeed have much pride. You can have no greater sign of a more confirmed pride than when you think that you are humble enough. He who thinks he loves God enough shows himself to be an entire stranger to the holy passion of love. Even so, he who thinks he has humility enough shows that he is not even a beginner in the practice of true humility.
Chapter 17

Showing by the general spirit and attitude of the world how difficult the practice of humility is, and how Christianity requires us to live contrary to the world.

When anyone first begins to exercise this virtue of humility, he must consider himself as a learner, for he must learn something that is contrary to his former thoughts and habits of mind and can only be obtained by daily and constant practice.

Not only has he as much to do as he who has some new art or science to learn, but he has also a great deal to unlearn. He is to forget and lay aside his own spirit, which has been a long while implanting and forming itself. He must forget and depart from the abundance of desires and thoughts that the fashion and trends and spirit of the world has made natural to him.

He must lay aside his own spirit, because as we are born in sin, we are born in pride, which is as natural to us as self-love. This is one reason why Christianity is so often represented as a new birth and a new spirit. We must therefore unlearn what the spirit of the world has taught us before we can be governed by the spirit of humility.

The devil, the father of all lies and falsehoods, is called the prince of this world in the Bible (John 12:31; 14:30), because he has great power in it and because many of its rules and principles are invented by this evil spirit to separate us from God and to prevent our return to happiness.

Now, according to the spirit and manner of this world, whose corrupt air we have all breathed, there are many things that pass for great and honorable and most desirable, which yet are so far from being so, that the true greatness and honor of our nature consists in not desiring them.

To abound in wealth, to have fine houses and rich clothes and fancy cars, to be attended with splendor and elegance, to be physically attractive, to have titles of dignity, to be above our fellow human beings, to have others admire us, to overcome our enemies with power, to subdue all who oppose us, to portray ourselves in as much splendor as we can, to live highly and magnificently, to eat and drink and delight ourselves in the most costly manner, these are the great, the honorable, the desirable things, to which the spirit of the world turns the eyes of all people. Many people are afraid of standing still and not engaging in the pursuit of these things, lest the same world should think he is a fool. However, as martyred missionary Jim Elliot once wrote, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." Where is your treasure? What are you pursuing?

The history of the Gospel is chiefly the history of Christ's conquest over the spirit of the world. The number of true Christians is the number of those who, following the Spirit of Christ, have lived contrary to this spirit of the world.

If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, that person is not of him (Romans 8:9). Whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world (1 John 5:4). Set your sight on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead and your life is hid with the Christ in God (Colossians 3:2-3). This is the language of the whole New Testament. This is the mark of Christianity. You are to be dead – dead to the spirit and philosophy of the world – and you are to live a new life in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

Notwithstanding the clearness and plainness of these doctrines which thus renounce the world, most Christians live and die slaves to the customs and beliefs of the world. How many people swell with pride and vanity for things with no real or eternal value, but only because the things are admired by the world?

Would someone work hours and hours of overtime, neglecting time with God and family, simply to be able to purchase a luxury car to impress others? How fearful many people are of having their houses poorly furnished or not having name-brand clothing, simply because those of the world might think less of them and consider them lowly and common people!

How often we say or do things that we would not normally do, simply because we want the people of the world to think well of us and to like us, even though what we say or do might be contrary to the ways of Jesus Christ. How many people drink or smoke or swear or are immoral or immodest or make an idol of sports or watch sinful movies or a thousand other things, simply because they do not want to be looked down upon by the world, but want to be accepted by those who live contrary to the Gospel!

Others really intend to and would like to live according to God's standards, but they fail to do so because they are afraid of what the world might say of them. Nevertheless, even among the princes many believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God (John 12:42-43).

The impressions we have received from living in the world enslave our minds, so that we dare not attempt to be holy in the sight of God and the holy angels, because we are afraid of being little in the eyes of the world. From this arises the greatest difficulty of humility, because it cannot survive in any mind except so far as it is dead to the world and has parted with all desires of enjoying the world's greatness and honors. In order to be truly humble, you must unlearn all those notions that you have been learning all your life from this corrupt spirit of the world.

You can make no stand against the assaults of pride, and the meek affections of humility can have no place in your soul, until the power of the world has no hold over you. Certainly you will be different than most people, and even different than most who profess to be Christians, but this must be so if you want to please God instead of others.

Once you are advanced so far as to be able to stand still in the torrent of worldly fashions and opinions, and you examine the worth and value of things that are most admired and valued in the world, you have gone a great way in gaining your freedom and have laid a good foundation for the amendment of your heart. For as great as the power of the world is, it is all built upon a blind obedience. We only need to open our eyes to be freed from its power. The general perspective and spirit of the world is nothing else but indulgence, folly, and extravagance.

Who will not admit that the piety of Christianity was always confined to a small number? Is not this expressly admitting and confessing that the common spirit and perspective of the world is not according to the piety of Christianity? Therefore, in order to be humble, you must withdraw your obedience from that common spirit of the world, and you must form your judgments according to the principles of Christianity. Who would be afraid of making such a change as this?

To lessen your fear and regard to the opinion of the world, think how soon the world will disregard you and have no more thought or concern about you than about the poorest animal that died in a ditch. Your friends, if they can, may bury you with some distinction and set up a monument to let posterity see that your dust lies under such a stone; and when that is done, all is done. Your place is filled up by another, the world is just in the same state it was, you are blotted out of its sight and as much forgotten by the world as if you had never belonged to it.

Think about the rich, the great, and the well-educated people who have made great fortunes and have been held in high esteem by the world. Many of them died in your time, and yet they are sunk, lost, and gone, and as much disregarded by the world, as if they had been only bubbles of water.

Think about how many poor souls have rejected the ways of God and now face a miserable eternity in hell, and all their service to the world is forgotten, and the world continues just as well without them. Is it therefore worth your while to lose the smallest degree of virtue for the sake of pleasing so bad a master and so false a friend as the world?

Is it worth your while to bow your knee to such an idol as this, who will soon disregard you, instead of serving that great and holy and mighty God, who will make all His servants partakers of His own eternity? Will you let the fear of a false world that has no love for you keep you from the fear of that God who has created you that He may love and bless you to all eternity?

Lastly, you must consider what behavior the profession of Christianity requires of you with regard to the world.

This is plainly seen in these words: Who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil age (Galatians 1:4). Christianity, therefore, implies a deliverance from this world, and he who professes this professes to live contrary to every idea and everything that is peculiar to this evil world.

John declares this opposition to the world in this way: They are of the world; therefore, they speak of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God (1 John 4:5-6). This is the description of the followers of Christ, and it is proof enough that no people are to be considered real Christians whose hearts and attitudes belong to this world. We know, says the same apostle, that we are of God, and the whole world lies in wickedness (1 John 5:19).

Christians, therefore, can know that they are of God, just as they know they are not of the world; for they must not live according to the ways and the spirit of the world. All the ways, wisdom, politics, and views of the world lie in wickedness. He only is of God, or is born of God in Christ Jesus, who has overcome this world; that is, he only is of God who has chosen to live by faith and govern his actions by the principles of a wisdom revealed from God by Christ Jesus.

Paul takes it so much for certain that Christians are no longer to be considered as living in this world that he argues from it as from an undeniable principle concerning abolishing the rites of religion: For if ye are dead with the Christ to the elements of the world, why, as though living unto the world, do ye decree rites? (Colossians 2:20). The apostle Paul undeniably believed that Christians knew that their profession of faith required them to be done with all the desires and passions of the world, to live as citizens of the new Jerusalem, and to have their conversation in the things of heaven.

Our blessed Lord Himself has fully determined this point in these words: They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world (John 17:16). This is the state of Christianity with regard to this world. If you are not out of and contrary to the world, you lack the distinguishing mark of Christianity. You do not belong to Christ unless your heart and actions are not of the world, just as Jesus was not of the world.

We may deceive ourselves with empty and soft comments upon these words, but they are and will be understood in their basic simplicity and plainness by everyone who reads them in the same spirit that our blessed Lord spoke them. To understand them in any lower, less significant meaning is to let carnal wisdom explain away that doctrine by which it was to be destroyed.

The Christian's great conquest over the world is contained in the mystery of Christ upon the cross. It was there, and from there, that He taught all Christians how they were to come out of and conquer the world, and what they were to do in order to be His disciples. All the doctrines, sacraments, and institutions of the Gospel are simply explanations of the meaning and applications of the benefit of this great mystery.

The state of Christianity implies nothing else but an entire, absolute conformity to that spirit that Christ showed in the mysterious sacrifice of Himself upon the cross.

Every person, therefore, is only a Christian so far as he partakes of this Spirit of Christ. It was this that made the apostle Paul so passionately say: But in no wise should I glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; but why does he glory? Is it because Christ had suffered in his place and had excused him from suffering? No, by no means. It was because his Christian profession had called him to the honor of suffering with Christ and of dying to the world under reproach and contempt, as He had done upon the cross; for he immediately adds, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world (Galatians 6:14). This, you see, was the reason of his glory in the cross of Christ – because it had called him to a like state of death and crucifixion to the world.

Thus was the cross of Christ, in Paul's day – the glory of Christians; it did not signify their not being ashamed to have a Master who was crucified, but it signified their glorying in a religion that was nothing else but a doctrine of the cross, that called them to the same suffering spirit, the same sacrifice of themselves, the same renunciation of the world, the same humility and meekness, the same patient bearing of injuries, reproaches, and contempt, and the same dying to all the greatness, honors, and happiness of this world, that Christ showed upon the cross.

To have a true idea of Christianity, we must not consider our blessed Lord only as suffering in our place, but as being our representative, acting in our name and with such particular merit as to make our joining with Him acceptable unto God. He suffered and was a sacrifice to make our sufferings and sacrifice fit to be received by God. We are to suffer, to be crucified, to die, and to rise with Christ, or else His crucifixion, death, and resurrection will profit us nothing.

The necessity of this conformity to all that Christ did and suffered upon our account is very plain from the whole tenor of Scripture. First, as to His sufferings, this is the only condition of our finding victory by them. If we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him (2 Timothy 2:12).

Secondly, as to His crucifixion: Knowing this: that our old man is crucified with him (Romans 6:6). Here you see Christ is not just crucified in our place, but unless our old man is really crucified with Him, the cross of Christ will profit us nothing. Our life has not then really changed. We, too, must be crucified with Him. We must die with Him. How can we live for the things of the world if we have died to the things of the world?

Thirdly, as to the death of Christ, the condition is this: If we are dead with him, we shall also live with him (2 Timothy 2:11). If, therefore, Christ has died but we have not died to sin and the world, if we are not dead with Him, we can be certain from this verse that we will not live with Him.

Lastly, as to the resurrection of Christ, the Scriptures show us how we are to partake of the benefit of it: If ye then are risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where the Christ sits at the right hand of God (Colossians 3:1).

You see how plainly the Scripture sets forth our blessed Lord as our representative, acting and suffering in our name, binding and requiring us to conform to all that He did and suffered for us.

It was for this reason that the holy Jesus said of His disciples, and in them of all true believers, They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world (John 17:14). All true believers, conforming to the sufferings, crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Christ, no longer live according to the spirit and attitude of this world, but their life is hid with the Christ in God (Colossians 3:3).

This is the condition of separation from the world, to which all Christians are called. They must so far renounce all worldly notions and be so much governed by the things of another life, that they show they are truly and really crucified, dead, and risen with Christ. It is as necessary for all Christians to conform to this great change of spirit, to be new creations in Christ, as it was necessary that Christ should suffer, die, and rise again for our salvation. If someone professes to be a Christian or says a "sinner's prayer," yet has no change in life, then how can he or she be a new creation in Christ if things remain the same?

How high the Christian life is placed above the ways of this world is wonderfully described by Paul in these words: Therefore from now on we know no one according to the flesh: and even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, [he is] a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are made new (2 Corinthians 5:16-17).

He who feels the force and spirit of these words can hardly bear any human interpretation of them. From now on, he says, since the death and resurrection of Christ, the state of Christianity is become so glorious a state that we do not even consider Christ Himself as in the flesh upon earth, but as a God of glory in heaven. We know and consider ourselves not as people in the flesh, but as fellow members of a new society who are to have all our hearts, our notions, and conversation in heaven and the things of above.

Thus is it that Christianity has taken us out of and above the world, and we fall from our calling as soon as we fall into the spirit of the world. It was the spirit of the world that nailed our blessed Lord to the cross. So it is that every person who has the Spirit of Christ, who opposes the world as He did, will certainly be crucified by the world, some way or other; for Christianity still lives in the same world that Christ did, and these two will be utter enemies until the kingdom of darkness is entirely at an end.

In the same way, if your way of life is not contrary to the world, the Spirit of Christ is not in you. If you had you lived with our Savior as His true disciple, you would have been hated as He was. If you now live in His Spirit, the world will be the same enemy to you now that it was to Him then.

If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you (John 15:19).

We are apt to lose the true meaning of these words if we consider them only as an historical description of something that was the condition of our Savior and His disciples at that time; but this would be reading the Scripture as a dead letter, for they exactly describe the condition of true Christians at this time, and at all other times, until the end of the world.

For as true Christianity is nothing else but the Spirit of Christ, so whether that Spirit lives in the person of Christ Himself or in His apostles or followers in any age, it is the same thing. Whoever has His Spirit will be hated, despised, and condemned by the world, as He was. The world will always love its own, and none but its own. This is as certain and unchangeable as the contrast between light and darkness.

When Jesus said, If the world hates you, He did not add by way of consolation, that it may at some time cease its hatred or that it will not always hate them, but He only gives this as a reason for their bearing it: ye know that it hated me before it hated you (John 15:18). This signifies that it was He, that is, His Spirit, that by reason of its contrariness to the world, was then, and always would be, hated by it.

You will perhaps say that the world has now become Christian, at least that part of it where we live, and therefore the world is not now to be considered in that state of opposition to Christianity as when it was heathen. It is granted that much of the world now professes Christianity, but will anyone say that this Christian world is of the Spirit of Christ? Are its general qualities the qualities of Christ? Are the passions of sensuality, self-love, pride, covetousness, ambition, and selfishness less contrary to the spirit of the Gospel now that they are among Christians than when they were among heathens? Or will you say that the qualities and passions of the heathen world are lost and gone?

Consider also what you are to mean by the world. Now this is fully described to us by John: All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). This is an exact and full description of the world. Now will you say that this world has become Christian? But if all this still exists, then the same world now is, and is the same enemy to Christianity, that it was in John's days.

It was this world that John condemned as being not of the Father. Whether therefore it outwardly professes to be Christian or it openly persecutes Christianity, it is still in the same state of contrariety to the true spirit and holiness of the Gospel.

Indeed the world, by professing Christianity, is so far from being a less dangerous enemy than it was before, that it has by its acceptance destroyed as many Christians as it did by the most violent persecution.

We must, therefore, be so far from considering the world as in a state of less enmity and opposition to Christianity than it was in the first times of the Gospel, that we must guard against it as a greater and more dangerous enemy now than it was in those times. The fiercest opponents of Jesus were the religious people. Certainly, true Christianity is the best thing that can come to a nation, yet lukewarm Christianity, just like religion without the truth of Jesus, is opposed to Him. It is even a greater enemy, because it has greater power over Christians by its favors, riches, honors, rewards, and protection than it had by the fire and fury of its persecutions. Most Christians seem satisfied with lukewarm Christianity and loving the world. They do not mind going to church once a week as long as God does not take over the rest of their lives.

A world accepting of a form of Christianity is a more dangerous enemy, for it has lost its appearance of enmity. Its outward profession of Christianity makes it no longer considered an enemy, and therefore most people are easily persuaded to give themselves up to be governed and directed by it.

How many consciences are kept quiet because they sin under the authority of the Christian world! Sin is accepted in the nation and even in the church, and so we no longer see sin as sinful, we no longer seek holiness, and we even oppose those who would dare urge us to return to the holiness of the Word of God.

How many instructions of the Gospel lie disregarded, and how unconcerned are many who do occasionally read the Scriptures, simply because they seem disregarded by the Christian world! It is easy to go to Christian meetings and activities and see the love of the world. It is common to see Christians who speak well of sinful movies, listen to sinful music, dress immodestly, ignore the holiness of the Lord's Day, have sinful habits, have no interest in holiness, be content with what is okay instead of what is best, and condemn those who want to pursue godliness.

How many demands do people make to the Christian world, without any hesitation or remorse, which, if they had been required of them by heathens, would have been refused as contrary to the holiness of Christianity! Because the spirit of the world has found comfort inside the church, Christians blend in well with the world.

Who could be content with seeing how contrary his life is to the Gospel, except that he sees that he lives as the Christian world does? We do not see how worldly we are, because we live as the rest of the Christians around us live. We do not compare ourselves to Jesus or examine ourselves by the Scriptures, but we look around us at a weak and worldly church and think we are doing just fine.

Who could read the Gospel and not be persuaded of the necessity of great self-denial, holiness, humility, and poverty of spirit, unless the authority of the world has banished this doctrine of the cross, and we live by the precepts of the world rather than by the way of the cross? There is nothing, therefore, that a good Christian ought to be more suspicious of or should more constantly guard against than the authority of the Christian world.

All the passages of Scripture that represent the world as contrary to Christianity and that require our separation from it as from worldliness and unrighteousness, as from a monster of iniquity, are all to be taken in the same strict sense in relation to the present world.

The change that the world has undergone has only altered its methods, but has not lessened its power of destroying religion. Christians had nothing to fear from the heathen world except the loss of their lives; but the world has become a friend and has made it difficult for them to live as true disciples of Jesus.

While pride, sensuality, covetousness, and ambition had only the authority of the heathen world, Christians were thereby made more intent upon the contrary virtues; but when pride, sensuality, covetousness, and ambition have the authority of the Christian world, then Christians are in the utmost danger, not only of being caught up in the sins of the world, but of losing the very notion of the piety of the Gospel.

There is, therefore, hardly any possibility of saving yourself from the present world, except by considering it as the same wicked enemy to all true holiness as it is represented in the Scriptures, and by assuring yourself that it is as dangerous to conform to its beliefs and passions now that it claims to be Christian as when it was heathen. For Christians to be like the world rather than to be separate from the world is contrary to the ways of Jesus.

For only ask yourself if the piety, humility, and earnestness of the Christian world is the piety, the humility, and earnestness of the Christian spirit. Let us not conform to a false popular version of worldly Christianity, for the way of the cross still requires self-denial and holiness. We will not draw the unsaved to Christ by playing games and imitating their entertainment, but by holiness and godliness.

Does one need to do more to make his soul unfit for the mercy of God than to be greedy and ambitious of honor? Yet how can a man renounce this practice without renouncing the spirit and practice of the world in which we now live?

Let us not allow the world, or even a worldly church, set our standards for living, but let us go to the Scriptures and the life of Jesus and fully follow His Word and His standards, no matter what the world may do or no matter what popular Christianity does. We are to be different and separate from the world. Let us, then, not boast that we are blending in so well with the world and even copying their methods.

These reflections will, I hope, help you to break through those difficulties and resist those temptations which the authority and fashion of the world has raised against the practice of Christian humility and holiness.
Chapter 18

Showing how the education which children generally receive in their youth makes the doctrines of humility difficult to be practiced. The spirit of a better education is represented in the character of Jeremiah.

Another difficulty in the practice of humility arises from our education. For the most part, we all are corruptly educated and then committed to take our course in a corrupt world, so it is no wonder if examples of great piety are so seldom seen.

Many people in the world are undone by being born and bred in families that are opposed to true Christianity. They grow up spiritually blind and opposed to God's love and truth and moral standards of right and wrong. This is not what I now mean. The education of which I now speak is that which children generally receive from virtuous and sincere parents and educated teachers.

Had we continued perfect, as God created the first man, perhaps the perfection of our nature would have been a sufficient self-instruction for everyone. However, just as sickness and disease have created the necessity for medicine and physicians, so the change and disorder of our rational nature have introduced the necessity of education and teachers.

As the only goal of the physician is to restore nature to its own state, so the only end of education is to restore our rational nature to its proper state. As medicine may justly be called the art of restoring health, so education should be considered in no other light than as the art of recovering to man the use of his reason.

As the instruction of every art or science is founded upon the discoveries, wisdom, experience, and maxims of the great people who have labored in it, so human wisdom, or the proper use of our reason, which young people should be called to by their education, is nothing else but the best experience and finest reasonings of those who have devoted themselves to the study of wisdom and the improvement of human nature.

All, therefore, that great saints and dying men, when fullest of light and conviction and after the highest improvement of their reason – all that they have said about the necessity of piety, of the excellency of virtue, of their duty to God, of the emptiness of riches, of the vanity of the world – all the sentences, judgments, reasonings, and maxims of the wisest people when in their highest state of wisdom, should constitute the common lessons of instruction for youthful minds.

This is the only way to make the young and ignorant part of the world the better for the wisdom and knowledge of the wise and ancient.

An education that is not wholly intent upon this is as much beside the point as if the art of medicine had little or no regard to the restoration of health. The youths who learned from Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, and Epictetus were thus educated. Their everyday lessons and instructions were lectures upon the nature of man, his true end and the right use of his mental and physical abilities, the immortality of the soul, its relation to God, the beauty of virtue and its agreeableness to the divine nature, the dignity of reason, the necessity of moderation, fortitude, and generosity, and the shame and folly of indulging our passions.

The wisdom found in Jesus and in the Scriptures, of course, far surpasses the wisdom found in the greatest human philosophers and teachers. As Christianity has, as it were, newly created the moral and religious world and set everything that is reasonable, wise, holy, and desirable in its true point of light, so one would expect that the education of youth should be as much bettered and amended by Christianity as the faith and doctrines of religion are amended by it.

As Christianity has introduced such a new state of things and so fully informed us of the nature of man, the ends of his creation, and the state of his condition; as it has fixed all our goods and evils, taught us the means of purifying our souls, pleasing God, and becoming eternally happy, then one might naturally suppose that every Christian country abounded with schools for teaching not only a few questions and answers of a catechism, but for the forming and training of youth in such an outward course of life as the highest precepts, the strictest rules, and the most excellent doctrines of Christianity require.

An education under Pythagoras or Socrates had no other end but to teach you to think, judge, act, and follow such rules of life as Pythagoras and Socrates used. Is it not as reasonable to suppose that a Christian education should have no other end but to teach youth how to think, judge, act, and live according to the specific laws of Christianity?

One would suppose that in all Christian homes, schools and Sunday schools, teaching youth to begin their lives in the spirit of Christianity, in such sincerity of behavior, such self-denial, sobriety, humility, and devotion as Christianity requires, should not only be more, but a hundred times more regarded than anything else.

Our education should imitate the ways of Jesus. Suggest nothing to our minds but what is wise and holy. Help us to discover and subdue every vain passion of our hearts and every false judgment of our minds. It is as true and as reasonable to expect and require all this benefit from a Christian education as to require that medicine should strengthen all that is right in our nature and remove that which is sickly and diseased.

The education of our youth should emphasize the life of Jesus and all of Scripture. Our youth should be taught early in life the necessity and importance of putting God first in all things, in beginning their days alone with God in fervent prayer and in Scripture reading, in living holy lives, and in leading the lost to Jesus Christ. Instead, our youth are often taught general moral lessons based upon a Bible story, follow the example of their youth leader in thinking that Christianity consists of a little Bible lesson followed by concerts, games, sports and fun. They copy the fun and fashions of the world, and so learn early that Christianity is simply a less sinful version of the world, where they can be like the world and dress like the world and be entertained like the world, as long as they avoid blatant open sin.

Many of these Christian youth may have attended church for eighteen years, yet do not spend daily time alone with God, have never read the Bible through even once, and have learned that evangelism is simply inviting others to a youth party at church rather than calling them to repentance and new life in Jesus Christ. Then, the youth grow up and are dissatisfied with church and Christianity unless they continue to be fed the fun and games of their childhood. They are taught in youth groups that Christian entertainment is supposed to mimic the world and that the holiness of God and separation from the world are simply things too extreme for us and are not meant for all children of God.

Our youth are trained by their parents and youth leaders to love sports and worldly entertainment. They are taught to look up to and admire athletes and musicians and actors; but they know nothing of the men and women of the past who lived lives of sacrifice and surrender and self-denial, counting all things as loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:8). Our youth can sing the latest songs, name the best athletes, and have watched the newest movies, but they know nothing about Polycarp, Perpetua, Chrysostom, the Waldensians, Wycliffe, Huss, Luther, Knox, Calvin, Bunyan, Wesley, Whitefield, Baxter, Moody, Spurgeon, Sunday, Carmichael, and hundreds of other Christians of the past. Our youth should learn to know and study the Scriptures and to be holy and not like the world. They should learn to read the lives of the eminent Christians throughout history, setting them up as examples to follow and to learn from. But, alas, our modern education is not of this kind.

The first notion that we try to awaken in children is pride. It is as dangerous a passion as that of lust. We stir them up to vain thoughts of themselves and do everything we can to puff up their minds with a sense of their own abilities. We teach them about self-esteem rather than that we are sinful and can do nothing on our own to please God.

Whatever way of life we intend for them, we apply to the fire and vanity of their minds and exhort them to do everything from corrupt motives. We stir them up to action from principles of strife and ambition, from glory, envy, and a desire of distinction, that they may excel others and shine in the eyes of the world.

We repeat and instill these motives in them, until they think it a part of their duty to be proud, envious, and vainglorious of their own accomplishments. When we have taught them to look down upon being outdone by any, to bear no rival, to thirst after every instance of applause, to be content with nothing but the highest distinctions, then we begin to take comfort in them and promise the world some mighty things from youths of such a glorious spirit.

If children hope to be in Christian ministry, we set before them some eminent orator whose fine preaching and large church has made him the admiration of the age and carried him through all the dignities and preferments of the church. We encourage them to have these honors in their eye and to expect the reward of their studies from them. We teach them that the best pastors are those who have the biggest churches and the most activities and attract the people of the world.

We teach them to learn from successful worldly CEOs instead of learning from Isaiah or Elijah or Jeremiah or Paul.

If the youth are intended for a career, we have them look at all the rich people of the same career and consider how many now have fancy homes and nice cars who began in the same low degree as they now do. We awaken their ambition and we try to encourage them by often telling them how very rich such people died and that success is measured by material things.

If they want to be lawyers, then we set great lawyers and judges before their eyes. We tell them how much money these lawyers and judges make and how much applause these people get and how respected they are in society. We exhort them to aim at these things, to set these people as examples, and to be content with nothing less than the highest honors of the long robe.

That this is the nature of our best education is too plain to need any proof. I believe there are few parents who would not be glad to see these instructions daily given to their children. After all this, we complain of the effects of pride. We wonder to see grown men motivated and governed by success, envy, scorn, and a desire of glory, not considering that all the time of their youth they were called upon to act and work upon these same principles.

You teach a child to scorn to be outdone, to thirst for distinction and applause, and is it any wonder that he continues to act all his life in the same manner? Even Christian parents now teach their children the importance of being in the best sports' leagues, to skip church to join traveling sports' teams, to take more pride in scoring goals than in memorizing Scripture. Parents give their children more praise when they win a game than if they follow Jesus. Parents praise their daughters more for how cute they look in short skirts than how graceful their hearts are for choosing to dress modestly. We want our children to fit in with the world, and we do so at the expense of their souls.

Sadly, we often set the bad example for our children, as they see our obsession with sports as we neglect the Scriptures; as they see us watch movies filled with taking God's name in vain and committing immorality, while we tell our children to avoid these things; as they see us drink and swear and gossip and act religious, while they rarely see us reading God's Word or hear us praying for them; as they hear us listen to the music of the world while we condemn their choice of worldly music – or worse yet, approve of it.

If a youth is ever to be so much a Christian as to govern his heart by the doctrines of humility, I would like to know when he is to begin it; or if he is ever to begin at all, why do we train him up in qualities quite contrary to it? We should train our children to fully follow God from their earliest days.

How dry and poor must the doctrine of humility sound to a youth who has been taught to pursue success by ambition, envy, emulation, and a desire for glory and distinction! If he is not to act by these principles when he is a man, why do we urge him to act by them in his youth?

One can hardly be thought to glorify God and to be concerned with pleasing God if she dresses according to the immodest fashions of the world. If women are to dress modestly when they are old, why do we encourage their tight clothes, tiny swimming suits, and immodest athletic uniforms when they are young? Why would Christian parents and teachers encourage immodesty, lust, and immorality in our children and youth rather than warn them of the dangers and teach them to avoid and flee from such sin?

Envy is acknowledged by all people to be the most ungenerous, base, and wicked passion that can enter into the heart of man. Is this, then, a characteristic to be instilled, nourished, and established in the minds of young people? I know it is said that it is not envy, but imitation or example that is intended to be awakened in the minds of young men; but this is vainly said. For when children are taught to be better than everyone else and to scorn to be outdone by any of their age, they are plainly and directly taught to be envious. It is impossible for anyone to have this aversion of being outdone and this contention with rivals without burning with envy against all those who seem to excel him or take any distinction from him. What children are taught is simply envy, but it is called by a name that does not make it seem as bad.

If envy admitted to be bad, and it be only example that is endeavored to be awakened in children, surely there ought to be great care taken that children may know the one from the other – that they may despise the one as a great sin, while they give the other admission into their minds. If this were to be attempted, though, the fineness of the distinction between envy and imitation would show that it is easier to divide them in words than to separate them in action.

For copying a person's success, when it is defined in its best manner, is nothing else but a refinement upon envy, or rather the most plausible part of that black and venomous passion. Though it is easy to separate them as ideas, yet the most acute philosopher who understands the art of distinguishing ever so well, if he gives himself up to emulation, will certainly find himself deep in envy. Envy is not an original quality, but is the natural, necessary, and unavoidable effect of emulation, or a desire of glory.

So he who establishes the one in the minds of people, necessarily puts the other there. There is no other possible way of destroying envy, except by destroying emulation, or a desire of glory. For the one always rises and falls in proportion to the other. We should certainly want to do our best and to succeed in the eyes of God, but success in the eyes of the world and success in the eyes of God are often two different things, and our children should know and see the difference.

I know it is said in defense of this method of education that ambition and a desire of glory are necessary to excite young people to work hard, and that if we were to press upon them the doctrines of humility, we should deject their minds and sink them into dullness and idleness.

But those people who say this do not consider that this reason, if it has any strength, is just as strong against pressing the doctrines of humility upon grown men, lest we should deject their minds and sink them into dullness and idleness. For who does not see that middle-aged men use the assistance of pride, ambition, and vainglory to spur them up to action and industry just as much as children do? This excuse, therefore, that is given why children should not be trained up in the principles of true humility, is as good an excuse why the same humility should never be required of adults.

Let those people who think that children would be spoiled if they were not educated in this way ask that if any children had been educated by our blessed Lord or His holy apostles, would their minds have been sunk into dullness and idleness? Do they think that such children would not have been trained up in the profoundest principles of strict and true humility? Can they say that our blessed Lord, who was the meekest and humblest man who was ever on earth, was hindered by His humility from being the greatest example of worthy and glorious actions that ever were done by man?

Can they say that His apostles, who lived in the humble spirit of their Master, ceased to be laborious and active instruments of doing good to all the world because they learned humility? A few such reflections as these are sufficient to expose all the poor attempted justifications for an education in pride and ambition.

Jeremiah lived about three hundred years ago. He had only one son, whom he educated himself in his own house. As they were sitting together in the garden when the child was ten years old, Jeremiah began talking to him. He said:

The little time that you have been in the world, my child, you have spent entirely with me. My love and tenderness to you has made you look upon me as your only friend and benefactor, and the cause of all the comfort and pleasure that you enjoy. Your heart, I know, would be ready to break with grief if you thought this was the last day that I would be with you.

But, my child, though you now think yourself mighty happy because you have hold of my hand, you are now in the hands and under the tender care of a much greater Father and Friend than I am, whose love to you is far greater than mine, and from whom you receive such blessings as no human being can give.

This is the God whom you have seen me daily worship, whom I daily call upon to bless both you and me, and all mankind, whose wondrous acts are recorded in those Scriptures which you constantly read. This is that God who created the heavens and the earth, who brought a flood upon the whole world, who saved Noah in the ark, who was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whom Job blessed and praised in the greatest afflictions, who delivered the Israelites out of the hands of the Egyptians, who was the Protector of righteous Joseph, Moses, Joshua, and holy Daniel, who sent so many prophets into the world, and who sent His Son Jesus Christ to redeem mankind. It is this God who has done all these great things, who has created so many millions of people who lived and died before you were born, with whom the spirits of good men who are departed from this life now live, whom infinite numbers of angels now worship in heaven. This great God is the Creator of worlds, of angels, and of mankind. He is your loving Father and Friend, your good Creator and Nourisher, from whom, and not from me, you received your being ten years ago, at the time that I planted that little tender elm which you there see.

I myself am not half the age of this shady oak under which we sit. Many of our fathers have sat under its boughs; we have all called it ours in our turn, though it stands and drops its masters as it drops its leaves.

Look at this wide and large firmament over our heads, where the sun and moon and all the stars appear in their turns. If you were to be carried up to any of these bodies at this vast distance from us, you would still discover others as much above you as the stars that you see here are above the earth. If you were to go up or down, east or west, north or south, you would find the same height without any top, and the same depth without any bottom.

And yet, my child, God is so great, that all these bodies added together are but as a grain of sand in His sight. This great God and Father of all worlds and all spirits cares as much about you as if He had no son but you, or there was no creature for Him to love and protect but you alone. He numbers the hairs of your head, watches over you while you are sleeping and awake, and has preserved you from a thousand dangers, which neither you nor I know anything about.

You have often see how poor my power is and how little I am able to do for you. Your recent sickness has shown you how little I could do for you in that condition, and the frequent pains of your head are plain proofs that I have no power to remove them. I can bring you food and medicine, but I have no power to turn them into your relief and nourishment. It is God alone who can do this for you.

Therefore, my child, fear and worship and love God. Your eyes, indeed, cannot yet see Him, but all things that you see are marks of His power and presence, and He is nearer to you than anything that you can see.

Take Him for your Lord and Father and Friend. Trust Him as your Shepherd and Redeemer. Look up unto Him as the fountain and cause of all the good that you have received through my hands, and respect me only as the bearer and minister of God's good things unto you. He who blessed my father before I was born will bless you when I am dead.

Your youth and little mind is only yet acquainted with my family, and therefore you think there is no happiness outside of it; but, my child, you belong to a greater family than mine. You are a young member of the family of this Almighty Father of all nations, who has created infinite orders of angels and numberless generations of men, to be fellow members of one and the same society in heaven.

You do well to respect and obey my authority, because God has given me power over you to bring you up in His fear, and to do for you as the holy fathers recorded in Scripture did for their children, who are now in rest and peace with God.

I will soon die and leave you to God and yourself. I trust in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of my sins. I will go to God and to His Son Jesus Christ, and live among patriarchs and prophets, saints and martyrs, where I will wait for you and hope for your safe arrival at the same place.

Therefore, my child, meditate on these great things, and your soul will soon grow great and noble. Let your thoughts often leave these gardens, these fields and farms, to contemplate God and heaven, and to consider the angels and the spirits of good men living in light and glory.

As you have been used to look to me in all your actions and have been afraid to do anything unless you first knew my will, so let it now be a rule of your life to look up to God in all your actions, to do everything in His fear, and to abstain from everything that is not according to His will.

Keep Him always in your heart and mind. Train your thoughts to reverence Him in every place, for there is no place where He is not. Read the Scriptures daily. Trust and believe God and His Word.

God keeps a book of life wherein all the actions of all people are written. Your name is there, my child, and when you die, this book will be laid open before men and angels, and according as your actions are found there, you will be judged. You will have either eternal life or eternal death based upon whether or not your repented of your sin and trusted in the Lamb of God. Your works in this show the condition of your heart. We are all sinners, yet God sent His Son to die for us. He died for you. Trust in Him for salvation, my son. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes unto the Father, but by me (John 14:6). If you trust in Jesus alone, you will be received to the happiness of those holy men and women who have died before you. If you reject Him or if you trust in your works or your church or anything else, you will be turned away among wicked spirits who are never to see God anymore.

Live only for Christ Jesus. Let your life – your thoughts, words, and actions please Him in all things. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in the heavens (Matthew 5:16).

My child, God is all love and wisdom and goodness. Everything that He has made and every action that He does is the effect of them all. Therefore, you cannot please God, except as far as you strive to walk in love, wisdom, and goodness. As all wisdom, love, and goodness proceed from God, so nothing but love, wisdom, and goodness can lead to God.

When you love that which God loves, you act with Him and you join yourself to Him. When you love what He dislikes, then you oppose Him and separate yourself from Him. This is the true and the right way; think about what God loves, and love it with all your heart.

First of all, my child, worship and adore God. Think of Him magnificently, love Him fully, speak of Him reverently, magnify His providence, adore His power, serve Him always, and pray unto Him frequently and constantly. Next, love your neighbor, which is all mankind, with such tenderness and affection as you love yourself. Think how God loves all mankind, how merciful He is to them, how tender He is to them, how carefully He preserves them, and then strive to love the world as God loves it.

God wants all people to be happy; therefore you ought to want and desire the same. They cannot be truly happy, though, outside of Jesus Christ. Let them know. Show them by your own life. In thy presence is fullness of joy; in thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Psalm 16:11).

Above all, my son, remember this: never do anything through strife, envy, jealousy, or pride. Never do anything in order to excel other people, but in order to please God, and because it is His will that you should do everything in the best manner that you can.

For once it becomes a pleasure to you to excel other people, it will by degrees be a pleasure to you to see other people not do as well as yourself. Banish therefore every thought of self-pride and self-distinction, and accustom yourself to rejoice in all the excellencies and perfections of your fellow creatures, being as glad to see any of their good actions as your own.

God is as well pleased with their well-doings as with yours. You ought to desire that everything that is wise and holy and good may be performed in as high a manner by other people as by yourself.

Let this therefore be your only motive and incentive to all good actions, honest industry, and business – to do everything in as perfect and excellent a manner as you can, for this reason: because it is pleasing to God, who loves you and desires your perfection. When I am dead, my son, you will be master of all my estate, which will be a great deal more than the necessities of one family require. Therefore, as you are to be charitable to the souls of men and wish them the same happiness with you in heaven, so be charitable to their bodies, and endeavor to make them as happy as you can upon earth.

As God has created all things for the common good of all people, so use what you have as God would want it used – for the good of others.

Do good, my son, first of all to those who most deserve it; but remember to do good to all. The greatest sinners receive daily instances of God's goodness toward them. He nourishes and preserves them, that they may repent and return to Him. Therefore, imitate God, and do not think that anyone is too bad to receive your relief and kindness, when you see that he needs it.

Learn to love to read, not so you can be a scholar and boast of your wisdom, but so you can read from the wisdom of the men and women of the past and learn how they depended upon God and lived for Him and were used by Him. Read the autobiographies and biographies of men and women throughout history who were used by God. Read the writings of those who walked closely with God and who spent much time with Him. Often the latest Christian fad is merely a religious novelty that does not lead you into the ways of God. Learn from the holy men and women of the past. Thus hath the LORD said, Stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths, where the good way is and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls (Jeremiah 6:16).

Let truth and plainness therefore be the only ornament of your language, choose everything that is best, live according to reason and order, and act in every part of your life in conformity to the will of God.

Study how to fill your heart full of the love of God and love for your neighbor, and then be content to be no deeper a scholar and no finer a gentleman than these qualities will make you. As true Christianity is a new nature governed by right reason according to the Word of God, so it loves and requires great plainness and simplicity of life. Therefore, avoid all unnecessary displays of wealth and riches. Let your house be plainly furnished with moderate conveniences. Obtain that which is reliable and dependable rather than that which is the latest trend. Do not consider what you can afford, but what right reason requires.

Let your clothing be simple, clean, and modest, not to display the beauty of your person, but to declare the reasonableness of your mind, so that your outward clothing may resemble the inward plainness and simplicity of your heart.

As to your food and drink, observe the highest rules of Christian temperance and sobriety. Consider your body only as the servant and minister of your soul, and only nourish it as it may best perform a humble and obedient service to it.

But, my son, observe this as one of the main rules, which I will remind you of as long as I live: hate and despise all human glory, for it is nothing else but human folly. It is the greatest snare and the greatest betrayer that you can possibly admit into your heart.

Love humility in all its instances. Practice it in all its parts, for it is the noblest state of the soul of man. It will set your heart and affections right toward God, and will fill you with every quality that is tender and affectionate toward others.

Let every day, therefore, be a day of humility. Condescend to all the weaknesses and infirmities of your fellow creatures. Cover their frailties, love their excellencies, encourage their virtues, relieve their needs, rejoice in their prosperities, be compassionate in their distress, receive their friendship, overlook their unkindness, forgive their malice, be a servant of servants, and condescend to do the lowest tasks for the lowest of mankind.

Aspire after nothing but your own purity and perfection, and have no ambition but to do everything in so reasonable and Christlike a manner that you may be glad that God is everywhere present and sees and observes all your actions. The greatest trial of humility is a humble behavior toward your equals in age, status, and condition of life. Therefore, be careful of all the motions of your heart toward these people. Let all your behavior toward them be governed by genuine love. Have no desire to put any of your equals below you, nor have any anger at those that would put themselves above you. If they are proud, they have a sinful disorder; let them, therefore, have your tender pity, and perhaps your meekness may prove an occasion of their cure. But if your humility should do them no good, it will, however, be the greatest good that you can do to yourself.

Remember that there is but one man in the world with whom you are to have perpetual contention and be always striving to exceed, and that is yourself.

The time of practicing these precepts, my child, will soon be over with you. The world will soon slip through your hands – or rather, you will soon slip through it. It seems only the other day since I received these same instructions from my dear father that I am now leaving with you. The God who gave me ears to hear and a heart to receive what my father said to me, will, I hope, give you grace to love and follow the same instructions. Love God and others, and lead them to Jesus Christ. Hate sin, especially in your own heart. Be holy. Be separate from the world. Live for eternity.

Thus did Jeremiah educate his son.

Can anyone think that such an education as this would weaken and deject the minds of young people and deprive the world of any worthy and reasonable labors? It is so far from that, that there is nothing so likely to raise and exalt the mind and prepare it for the most heroic exercise of all virtues.

For who will say that love for God, a desire to please Him, love for our neighbor, love for truth and reason and virtue, contemplation of eternity, and the rewards of piety are not stronger motives to great and good actions than a little uncertain popular praise?

On the other hand, there is nothing in reality that more weakens the mind and reduces it to lowliness and slavery, nothing that makes it less a master of its own actions or less capable of following reason, than a love of praise and honor.

Praise and honor are often given to things and persons where they are not due, as those things are generally most praised and honored that most gratify the sentiment, fashions, and attitudes of the world. He who acts upon the desire of praise and applause must part with every other principle. He must say black is white, put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter, and do the meanest, basest things, in order to be applauded. Many of the most respected and applauded people of our day are those who are greedy, corrupt, envious, immoral liars who are opposed to God and His Word.

In a corrupt world, as this is, worthy actions are only to be supported by their own worth, where instead of being praised and honored, they are most often reproached and persecuted.

To teach children to copy the example of others, or to desire glory in a world where glory itself is false and most commonly given wrongly, is to destroy the natural integrity and fortitude of their minds and give them a bias that will more often carry them to sinful and low actions than to great and worthy actions. Teach your children to know and love and imitate Jesus Christ, rather than teach them to know and love and imitate the things of this world.
Chapter 19

Showing how the common method of educating daughters makes it difficult for them to enter into the spirit of Christian humility. How miserably they are injured and abused by such an education. The spirit of a better education, represented in the character of Hannah.

That state of mind that is often taught and encouraged in the education of daughters makes it exceedingly difficult for them to enter into such a sense and practice of humility as the spirit of Christianity requires.

The right education girls is of the utmost importance to human life. There is nothing more desirable for the common good of all the world. For though women sometimes carry on the trade and business of the world, yet as they are mothers and tender caregivers of families, they at times have the care of the education of their children, and so are entrusted with that which is of the greatest consequence to human life. For this reason, good or bad women are likely to do as much good or harm in the world as good or bad men in the greatest business of life.

The soundness or folly of our minds are in part owing to those early notions and ways of thinking that we eagerly receive from the love, tenderness, authority, and constant conversation of our mothers. As we call our first language our mother tongue, so we may as justly call our first qualities our mother qualities. Perhaps it is easier to forget the language than to part entirely with those qualities that we first learned in the home.

It is, therefore, much to be lamented, that this gender, on whom so much depends, who have the first forming both of our bodies and our minds, are not only educated in pride, but in the silliest and most contemptible part of it.

They do not need to dispute with us the proud prizes of arts and sciences, of learning and eloquence, in which I think they would often prove our superiors, but we turn them over to the study of beauty and dress, and the whole world conspires to make them think of nothing else. Fathers and mothers, friends and relations, seem to have no other wish toward the little girl except that she may have nice skin, a fine shape, dress well, dance to admiration, and be popular.

Now if a fondness for our persons, a desire of beauty, and a love of fashion is a part of pride (as surely it is a most contemptible part of it), the first step toward a woman's humility seems to require a repentance of these things that she has been taught.

For it must be admitted that, generally speaking, parents are never more fond of their daughters than when they see them too fond of themselves and are dressed in such a way as is a great reproach to the sincerity and modesty of the Christian life. What makes this matter still more to be lamented is that women are not only ruined by this education, but we ruin that part of the world that would otherwise furnish most instances of an eminent and exalted piety. These young girls could turn out to be godly women and great examples of Christlikeness, but instead we train them to reject modesty and gentleness, and encourage them in their immodest clothing, popularity with the world, and attempts to be like men.

I believe it may be affirmed that for the most part there is a natural finer sense, a clearer mind, a readier understanding, and a gentler disposition in females than in males. These are all qualities, which if they were truly improved by proper studies and serious methods of education, would in all probability carry them to greater heights of piety than are to be found among the generality of men.

For this reason, I speak to this matter with so much openness and plainness, because it is much to be lamented that people so naturally qualified to be great examples of piety should, by an improper education, be made poor and excessive spectacles of the greatest vanity.

The Church has had many godly females throughout its history, and that seems to be because they learned more biblical principles and less love of the world than many of our own day. Today's girls are encouraged by many of their parents, and even by the examples of those in their churches and schools, to embrace the clothing and attitude of the world, being more concerned to be popular and outwardly attractive than to please God, dress modestly, and have inner grace and beauty.

The corruption of the world indulges them in great vanity, and people seem to consider them in no other view than as so many painted idols that are to allure and gratify their passions. If many women are vain, light, showy creatures, they attempt to excuse themselves that they are only following what they have been taught and what the generality of the world expects them to be.

They should consider, though, that friends to their vanity are not really their friends. They should consider that they are to live for themselves and choose to do what is right in God's sight, rather than follow the lust and vanity of the world. This has even entered into our churches, so that it is rare to find a group of young Christian women who are not admiring each other's cute short skirts and tight shirts and pants, and are not even ashamed to go around town in skin-tight pants and shorts. Even Christian high schools and colleges seem to encourage this kind of immodest clothing, especially in the area of athletics. Our women should not be copying the fashions of this world, but should be set apart by their modest clothing and pure hearts. Females have as great a share in the rational nature as men have. They have as much reason to desire to, and as much necessity to aspire after, a holy life and a close walk with God as any saint.

They should consider that they are abused, injured, and betrayed when they are taught that qualities to be pursued are outer beauty and love of the world rather than inner beauty and separation from the world. How much better to teach our young women that instead of profanity, immorality, immodesty, alcohol, and tattoos, they should seek holiness, a knowledge of the Scriptures, a love of the ways of God, the fulness of the Holy Spirit, and a desire to be like Jesus.

There are many examples of strong, courageous, and godly women in the Bible and throughout history, and we should be setting these women up as heroes to our girls instead of corrupt politicians, immoral actresses, and immodest athletes. If it were a virtue in a woman to be proud and vain in herself, we could hardly do better to raise this passion in her than by those means that are now used in her education.

Rhonda is a fine woman, of good upbringing, great sense, and much Christianity. She has three daughters whom she has educated by herself. She will not trust them with anyone else, or at any school, for fear they should learn anything unsatisfactory. Her daughters participate in some activities, but Rhonda stays with the instructors or coaches all the time they are with her daughters, because she wants to hear everything that is said to them. She has read the Scriptures so often with them that they can repeat large parts of it from memory. From Pilgrim's Progress to Foxe's Book of Martyrs to biographies of great Christians, there is hardly a good book of devotion that you will not find on their shelves.

Had Rhonda lived in the first ages of Christianity, when it was practiced in the fulness and plainness of its doctrines, she would have been in all probability been one of its greatest saints. But she was born in corrupt times, where she lacks examples of Christian perfection, She hardly ever saw a piety higher than her own, so she has some bad qualities, and has passed them all on to her daughters.

Rhonda was never poorly dressed in her life, and nothing pleases her in dress except that which is very fashionable and beautiful to the eye. Her daughters see her great zeal for Christianity, but then they see an equal earnestness for all sorts of fine clothing. They see she is not negligent of her devotion, but then they see her more careful to preserve her complexion and to prevent those changes with which time and age threaten her.

Rhonda often shows them her own picture, which was taken when their father fell in love with her. She tells them how distracted he was with passion at the first sight of her, how wonderful her complexion was, and how fashionably she was dressed.

Rhonda wants her children to dress nicely in the latest fashions. The children plainly see this attribute of their mother, and pretend to be more pleased with the latest clothing than they really are, merely to gain her favor. They saw their oldest sister once brought to tears, being severely reprimanded by their mother for saying that she thought it was better to cover her body than to dress in any immodesty that the modern culture requires.

Rhonda limits them in their meals and is very scrupulous of what they eat and drink, telling them how many fine shapes she has seen spoiled in her time for lack of such care. If a pimple rises in their faces, she is in a great fright, and they themselves are as afraid to have her see it as if they had committed some great sin.

The health of her daughters is often not as good as it ought to be, for they are taught to eat less than their bodies need in order to not gain weight. Her daughters are becoming obsessed with their looks, just as their mother is, and they are always trying to impress others by their physical appearance and clothing. Yet Rhonda appeases any guilt by admiring their books of devotion and their church attendance.

Though I believe that some girls are raised better than this, I do think that most girls are not brought up as well or raised with so much Christianity as in the present instance. The minds of the majority of our female youth are turned as much to the care of their beauty and dress and the indulgence of vain desires as in the present case, without having such rules of devotion as Rhonda's daughters had. If solid piety, humility, and a serious sense of themselves is much lacking in that gender, it is the plain and natural consequence of a vain and corrupt upbringing and education. If they are often too ready to receive successful and popular worldly men for their husbands instead of godly and holy men, it is no wonder they should like those qualities in men that they have been taught to admire in themselves.

If they are often seen to lose that little Christianity that they were taught in their youth, it is no more to be wondered at than to see a little flower choked and killed among the weeds. For personal pride and affectation and a delight in beauty and fondness of fine things, are qualities that must either kill all Christianity in the soul, or be killed by it. They can no more thrive together than health and sickness.

Some people who judge hastily will perhaps say that I am being too severe against the female gender. More reasonable people, though, will easily observe that I am not speaking of the female gender itself, but only of their manner of education. Not only do I not only spare them, but I plead their interest, assert their honor, set forth their perfections, commend their natural qualities, and only condemn that education that is injurious to their interests, debases their honor, and deprives them of the benefit of their excellent natures and qualities. Godly and modest women are greatly to be admired and respected, but there are far too few of them, even in our churches.

Their education, I profess, I cannot spare; but the only reason is, because it is their greatest enemy. It deprives the world of many blessings and the church of many saints that might reasonably be expected if they were educated in holy goodness and tenderness, and if their minds were trained to love and admire everything that is holy, virtuous, and divine.

I do not pretend to state the exact degree of harm that is done by this manner of education, yet its plain and natural tendency to do harm is sufficient to justify the most absolute condemnation of it. We should educate our children to love God and His Word and to seek inner beauty, rather than to try to impress those of the world.

If anyone wants to know how generally women are hurt by this education, if he imagines there is no personal pride or vain fondness in those who are adorned and dressed with so much glitter of art and ornament, let him only make the following experiment wherever he pleases.

Let anyone come up with the most civil, secret, friendly way he can think of to let one of these worldly educated young women know that he thinks her manner of conforming to the world does not promote her beauty, that her manner of dress promotes the ways of the world rather than godliness, and I daresay that only a few rare women will appreciate his words of guidance. For most of these women, it will not be long before their resentment toward him is made known. Let a godly man tell a young woman that her athletic uniform is immodest, and she will not likely seek God's glory in the matter, but will show resentment toward the well-intentioned young man.

If such an experiment would show that there are few such women who would continue his friendship after they knew he had such an opinion of them, surely it is time to complain of and condemn that education that so generally corrupts their hearts and prevents them from acquiring a meek and gentle and godly spirit.

Although it is hard to judge the hearts of people, yet where they declare their resentment and uneasiness at anything, there they pass judgment upon themselves. If a woman cannot forgive a man who thinks she is not prettier because she dresses immodestly or is not impressed by her jewelry or other adornments, there she infallibly discovers the state of her own heart, and is condemned by her own, and not another's judgment.

We are never angry at others except when their opinions of us are contrary to that which we have of ourselves. A man who makes no pretenses to scholarship is never angry at those who do not consider him to be a scholar; if a woman had no vain opinion of herself and her clothing, she would never be angry at those who are of her same opinion. So the general adverse effects of this type of education are too well-known to admit of any reasonable doubt.

To show how possible it is to bring up daughters in the more excellent way, let the following character demonstrate.

Hannah is a pious widow, well-born and well-bred, and has a good living for her five daughters, whom she brings up as one entrusted by God to prepare five young women for the kingdom of heaven. Her family abides by Christian principles, and they consistently have times of regular devotion.

Hannah and her daughters meet together a few times during the day to pray, and they sing hymns and read the Scriptures together, too. They spend much of their time in such good works and beneficial diversions, helping them to always be ready to return to their psalms and prayers, keeping their thoughts on loving God and helping others.

Hannah loves her daughters and sees them as her spiritual children, too, and they reverence her as their spiritual mother, with an affection far above that of the best of friends.

She has divided part of her estate among them, so that each one may be charitable out of her own belongings, and each of them does her own part to provide for the poor and sick of the community. Hannah instructs her daughters in all kinds of labor and talents, such as sewing, knitting, cooking, playing musical instruments, gardening, cleaning, caring for children, and other things, not for their amusement, but so that they can help and serve others and not fall prey to the temptations and bad habits which attend an idle life.

She tells them she had rather see them reduced to the necessity of maintaining themselves by their own work than to have riches to excuse themselves from labor. For though they might be able to assist the poor without working, yet by their labor they will be able to assist them more. How different this is from those who simply donate money to charitable causes rather than also getting personally involved in helping people!

If Hannah has lived as free from sin as it is possible for human nature, it is because she is always watching and guarding against all instances of pride. If her virtues are stronger and higher than other people's, it is because they are all founded in a deep humility and biblical principles.

"My children," she said to them, "when your father died, I was much pitied by my friends as having the care of a family and the management of an estate fallen upon me. But my own grief was founded upon another principle. I was grieved to see myself deprived of so faithful a friend, and that such an eminent example of Christian virtues should be taken from the eyes of his children before they were of an age to love and follow it.

"But as to worldly cares, which my friends thought were so heavy upon me, they are mostly of our own making. If a person is disturbed with strange appearances in a dream, his trouble is over as soon as he wakes up and realizes that it was just a dream. Our worldly cares are often of our own making, and they are often over when we realize the true purpose and meaning of life as found in Jesus Christ.

"When a right knowledge of ourselves enters into our minds, it makes as great change in all our thoughts and apprehensions as when we awake from the wanderings of a dream. We acknowledge a man to be insane who imagines himself to be glass and so is afraid of moving, or if he imagines himself to be wax and so dare not let the sun shine upon him.

"But, my children, there are things in the world that pass for wisdom, politeness, grandeur, happiness, and fine upbringing, that show as great ignorance of ourselves and might as justly pass for thorough madness as when a man imagines himself to be glass or wax.

"A woman who does not appear in the world without fashionable clothes, who thinks it a happiness to have a face covered with make-up, who would rather show off her skin with immodest clothing than display her heart by following the Scriptures, who would rather not work than to work in common labor, who would rather be popular with the unsaved than accepted in the beloved (Ephesians 1:6), is as ignorant of herself as he who imagines himself to be made of glass.

"For this reason, all my discourse with you has been to acquaint you with yourselves and to accustom you to such books and devotions as may best instruct you in this greatest of all knowledge. You would think it is difficult not to know the family into which you were born and what ancestors you were descended from, but, my children, you can know all this with exactness, and yet be as ignorant of yourselves, as he who believes he is made of wax.

"For though you were all of you born of my body and bear your father's name, yet you are all pure spirits. I do not mean that you do not have bodies that need food and drink and sleep and clothing, but that all that deserves to be called "you," is nothing else but spirit. It is the inner life that matters most. Let their adorning not be outward with ostentatious hairdos and wearing of gold nor in composition of apparel, but let the interior adorning of the heart be without corruption, and of an agreeable spirit and peaceful, which is precious in the sight of God (1 Peter 3:3-4).

"A being who is spiritual and rational in its nature is as contrary to all fleshly beings as life is contrary to death. You were made in the image of God, to live forever, never to cease any more, and to enjoy life, reason, knowledge, and happiness in the presence of God and the society of angels to all eternity.

"Everything that you call yours, besides your spirit, is only like your clothing. It is something that is only to be used for a while, and then will end and die and wear away, and will mean no more to you than the clothing and bodies of other people. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever (1 Peter 1:24-25).

"But, my children, you are not only in this manner spirits, but you are fallen spirits. You began your lives in a state of corruption and disorder, full of attitudes and passions that blind and darken the reason of your mind and incline you to that which is hurtful. Those who do not know Jesus Christ pursue the things of this life and are full of pride and vanity and foolishness and sin. Those who trust in Jesus Christ and are devoted to God, though, deal with an internal struggle. For I delight with the law of God with the inward man, but I see another law in my members which rebels against the law of my mind, bringing captive unto the law of sin which is in my members (Romans 7:22-23).

"This internal war we always feel within us, more or less. If you want to know the one thing necessary to all the world, it is this: to preserve and perfect all that is rational, holy, and divine in our nature, and to mortify, remove, and destroy all that vanity, pride, and sensuality which spring from the corruption of our condition. We must die to self and let the new nature rule. We must leave and reject the vanities of this life and store up our treasure in heaven.

Put off everything concerning the old way of life, that is, the old man who corrupts himself according to deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your understanding and that ye put on the new man, which is created in conformity to God in righteousness and in the holiness of the truth (Ephesians 4:22-24).

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal (Matthew 6:19-20).

"Could you think, my children, when you look at the world and see what customs, fashions, pleasures, troubles, amusements, and attitudes employ the hearts and time of people, that things were as I have told you? But do not you be affected by these things. The world is in a great dream, and but few people are awake in it. Most remain in the dark about spiritual things until they die.

"You see then your condition, my children. You are to honor, improve, and perfect the Christian spirit that is within you. You are to prepare it for the kingdom of heaven, to nourish it with the love of God and of virtue, to adorn it with good works, and to make it as holy and heavenly as you can. You are to preserve it from the errors and vanities of the world. You are to save it from the corruptions of the body, from those false delights and sensual tempers with which the body tempts it.

"You are to nourish your spirits with pious readings and holy meditations, with watchings, fastings, and prayers, that you may taste and relish and desire that eternal state that is to begin when this life ends. Let your heart be far from the emptiness of this life, whether sports or music or other entertainment and vanities. Rather, let your mind be upon the things of God. Let your heart be filled with music about Jesus. Let your movies and books improve your spiritual life.

"As to your bodies, you are to consider them as poor, perishing things that are sickly and corrupt at present and will soon drop into common dust. You are to watch over them as enemies that are always trying to tempt and betray you, and so never follow their advice and counsel. You are to consider them as the place and habitation of your souls, and so keep them pure and clean and decent. You are to consider them as the servants and instruments of action, and so give them food and rest and clothing, that they may be strong and healthy to do the duties of a charitable, useful, pious life.

"While you live in this way, you live like yourselves. Whenever you have less regard to your souls or more regard to your bodies than this, whenever you are more concerned about fashionable clothing and being popular than upon the perfecting of your souls, you are more foolish than he would rather have a fancy coat than a healthy body.

"For this reason, my children, I have taught you nothing that was harmful for you to learn. I have kept you from everything that might betray you into weakness and folly. I taught you that instead of desiring fine possessions, have a fine mind; instead of desiring the pleasures of this world, seek the happiness and favor of God. If you want to do that which is desirable, do all the good to others that you can while walking with God and abiding in Christ Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.

"Instead of the vain, immodest entertainment of most movies, music, television shows, and sports, I have taught you to delight in visiting the sick and poor. What music and dancing and entertainment are to many people in the world, prayers and devotions and psalms are to you. How far greater it is to sing unto the Lord than to amuse yourself with the emptiness of the world's songs. Your hands have not wasted time in trying to adorn your outer selves in foolish wasteful and vain fashions, but in making clothes and bread for the poor. You have not wasted your fortunes upon yourselves, but have added your labor to them in order to do more good to others.

"Instead of short skirts, yoga pants, tight shirts, and immodest athletic attire, I have taught you to conceal your bodies with modest garments, and let the world have nothing to view of you but the plainness, the sincerity, and humility of all your behavior.

"You know, my children, the high perfection and the great rewards of chastity and following God's moral standards. You know how it frees you from worldly cares and troubles and furnishes means and opportunities of higher advancements in a divine life. Therefore, love, esteem, and honor chastity. Bless God for all that glorious company of others of your age and gender who want to live for God. Do not give in to the immodesty and immorality that so many in the world, and even in the church, have embraced.

"If you follow God and He leads you to the many great blessings of a married life, then find a godly man who will lead you in family devotions, who loves God with all his heart, soul, strength, and mind. Be sure he is one who walks with God rather than merely goes to church. Many go to church who love the world, are obsessed with the sports and other entertainment and diversions of the world, and will lead your heart away from being devoted to God.

"I desire nothing, I press nothing upon you, but to make the most of human life and to pursue perfection in Christ, whatever state of life you choose.

"Never, therefore, consider yourselves as people who are to be seen, admired, and courted by men. Rather, see yourselves as poor sinners who are to save yourselves from the vanities and follies of a miserable world by humility, devotion, and self-denial. Learn to live for your own sakes and for the service of God. Let nothing in the world be of any value with you except that which you can turn into a service to God and a means of your future happiness.

"Consider often how powerfully you are called to a virtuous life, and what great and glorious things God has done for you. This will cause you to love everything that can promote His glory. Think about the vanity and shortness of human life, and let death and eternity be often in your minds, for these thoughts will strengthen and exalt your minds and make you wise and judicious and truly sensible of the littleness of all things human.

"Think of the happiness of prophets and apostles, saints and martyrs, who are now rejoicing in the presence of God, and who see themselves possessors of eternal glory. Then think how desirable a thing it is to watch and pray and do good, as they did, so that when you die you may have your place among them.

"Whether married or unmarried, consider yourselves as mothers and sisters, as friends and relations, to all who need your assistance. Never allow yourselves to be idle while others are in need of anything that your hands can make for them. This useful, charitable, humble employment of yourselves is what I recommend to you with great earnestness, as being a substantial part of a wise and pious life. Besides the good you will thereby do to other people, every virtue of your own heart will be very much improved by it.

"Next to reading, meditation, and prayer, there is nothing that so secures our hearts from foolish passions, nothing that preserves so holy and wise a frame of mind, as some useful, humble employment of ourselves.

"Never, therefore, consider your labor as an amusement to get rid of your time; instead, consider it as something that is to be serviceable to yourselves and others, that is to serve some serious and useful purpose in life, to save and redeem your time, and make it turn to your account when the works of all people shall be tried by fire.

"When you were little, I left you to little amusements, to please yourselves in anything that was free from harm; but as you are now grown up to a knowledge of God and yourselves, as your minds are now acquainted with the worth and value of virtue and exalted with the great doctrines of Christianity, you are now to do nothing as children, but despise everything that is bad, or vain, or irreverent. You are now to make the work of your hands suitable to the piety of your hearts, and employ them for the same ends and with the same spirit, as you watch and pray.

"If there is any good to be done by your work, if you can possibly employ yourselves usefully to other people, then how silly it is, how contrary to the wisdom of the Scriptures, to make that a mere amusement that might as easily be made an exercise of the greatest charity!

"Be glad therefore to know the needs of the poorest people, and let your hands be employed in making such simple and ordinary things for them as their necessities require. By thus making your labor a gift and service to the poor, your ordinary work will be changed into a holy service and made as acceptable to God as your devotions.

"As charity is the greatest of all virtues, as it always was the chief attribute of the greatest saints, so nothing can make your own charity more pleasing in the sight of God than this method of adding your personal labor to it.

"The humility of this will be as beneficial to you as the charity of it. It will keep you from all vain and proud thoughts of your own state and distinction in life, and from treating the poor as creatures of a different species. By accustoming yourselves to this labor and service for the poor, as the representatives of Jesus Christ, you will soon find your heart softened into the greatest meekness and lowliness toward them. You will reverence their state and condition, think it an honor to serve them, and never be so pleased with yourself as when you are most humbly employed in their service.

"This will make you true disciples of your meek Lord and Master, who came into the world not to be ministered unto, but to minister (Matthew 20:28); and though He was Lord of all, and among the creatures of His own making, yet He lived among them as one who served.

"Christianity has its most glorious effects upon your hearts when it has changed your spirit, removed all the pride of life from you, and made you delight in humbling yourselves beneath the lowest of all your fellow creatures.

"Live, therefore, my children, as you have begun your lives, in humble labor for the good of others. Let ceremonious visits and vain acquaintances have as little of your time as you possibly can. Engage in no foolish friendships or vain affections for particular people, except to love them most who most turn your love toward God and your compassion toward others. It is easy to find people with whom you can discuss politics and sports and movies and music and shopping, but it is rare to find those who delight to discuss and dwell upon the things and ways of God. Make friends of those whose lives and conversations draw you toward the things of eternity, who spend time in serving God and others rather than themselves.

"Above all, avoid the conversation of those young men who love the things of this world, who devote their time to games and vanity and trying to impress others rather than serve them. Avoid those who love the outward beauty more than the inner, for they are like those whitewashed tombs our Lord told us about, and they desire the same in others. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whitewashed sepulchres, who indeed appear beautiful outside, but inside are full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness (Matthew 23:27). These men are the shame of their own gender, and ought to be the abhorrence of ours.

"When you go out in public, let humility, modesty, and simplicity adorn you. Let tenderness, compassion, holiness, and a good nature be all the fine qualities that you show in any place.

"If the conversation where you happen to be contains evil-speaking, scandal, gossip, or backbiting, keep your heart and your tongue to yourself. Be as much grieved as if you were among cursing and swearing, and leave as soon as you can.

"If you intend to marry, let the time never come until you find a man who has those perfections which you have been laboring after yourselves, who is likely to be a friend to all your virtues, and with whom it is better to live than to lack the benefit of his example.

"Love poverty and reverence the poor. There are many reasons for this, one particular reason being that our blessed Savior was one of the number, and because you may make them friends and advocates with God for you. Visit and converse with them frequently. You will often find simplicity, innocence, patience, fortitude, and great piety among them, and where they are not so, your good example may amend them.

"Rejoice at every opportunity of doing a humble action and exercising the meekness of your minds. It might be, as the Scripture expresses it, in washing the saints' feet; that is, in waiting upon and serving those who are considered below you. It might be in bearing with the arrogance and ill-manners of those who are your equals or above you. There is nothing better than humility. It is the fruitful soil of all virtues, and everything that is kind and good naturally grows from it.

"Therefore, my children, pray for and practice humility, and reject everything in dress, possessions, and conversation that has any appearance of pride. Strive to do everything that is praiseworthy, but do nothing in order to be praised. Do not think of obtaining any reward for all your labors of love and virtues until Christ comes with all His holy angels.

"Above all, my children, take care that you do not have vain and proud thoughts of your own virtues. For as soon as people live different from the common way of the world and despise its vanities, the devil represents to their minds the height of their own perfections. He is content that they should excel in good works, provided that he can but make them proud of them.

"Therefore, watch over your virtues with a jealous eye, and reject every vain thought as you would reject the most wicked imagination. Consider what a loss it would be to you to have the fruit of all your good works devoured by the vanity of your own minds.

"Never, therefore, allow yourselves to despise those who do not follow your rules of life, but force your hearts to love them, and pray to God for them. Let humility be always whispering into your ears that you yourselves would fall from those rules tomorrow, if God would leave you to your own strength and wisdom.

"When, therefore, you have spent days and weeks well, do not allow your hearts to contemplate anything as your own, but give all the glory to the goodness of God, who has carried you through such rules of holy living as you were not able to observe by your own strength. Take care to begin the next day, not as experts in virtue who can handle great matters, but as poor beginners who need the daily assistance of God to save you from all sins.

"Your dear father was a humble, watchful, pious, wise man. While his sickness would permit him to talk with me, his discourse was mainly about your education. He knew the benefits of humility, and he saw the ruin which pride made in our gender; Therefore he asked me, with the tenderest expressions, to renounce the fashionable ways of educating daughters in pride and softness, in the care of their beauty and dress, and to bring you all up in the plainest, simplest instances of an humble, holy, and industrious life.

"He taught me an admirable rule of humility, which he practiced all the days of his life, which was this: to let no morning pass without thinking upon some frailty and infirmity of our own that may put us to confusion, make us blush inwardly, and entertain a low opinion of ourselves.

"Think, therefore, my children, that the soul of your good father, who is now with God, speaks to you through my mouth. Let the double desire of your father, who is gone, and of me, who am with you, prevail upon you to love God, to study to grow in spiritual maturity, to practice humility, and with innocent labor and love to do all the good that you can to all your fellow creatures, until God calls you to the next life."

This is how the pious widow educated her daughters. The spirit of this kind of education speaks so plainly for itself that I hope I do not need to say anything in its justification. If we could see it in life, as well as read of it in books, the world would soon realize its happy effects.

A daughter educated in this way would be a blessing to any family. She would make a great companion for a wise man, and would make him happy in the government of his family and the education of his children; and if a daughter educated in this way did not get married, she would know how to live well and pursue the excellent goals of a single life lived for the glory of God and the good of others.

A very ordinary knowledge of the spirit of Christianity seems to be enough to convince us that no education can be of true advantage to young women except that which trains them up in humble labor, in great plainness of life, in modesty of dress, manners, and character, and in strict devotion to God. For what should a Christian woman be, but a plain, unaffected, modest, humble creature, opposed to everything in her dress and manner that can draw the eyes of beholders or gratify the passions of lewd and impassioned people?

How great a stranger must he be to the gospel who does not know that it requires this to be the spirit of a pious woman! Our blessed Savior said, Whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart (Matthew 5:28). Does an education that turns women's minds to the arts and ornaments of dress and beauty need to be more strongly condemned than by these words of our Lord? For surely, if the eye is so easily and dangerously betrayed, every art and ornament is sufficiently condemned that naturally tends to betray it.

How can a woman of piety more justly abhor and avoid anything than that which makes her a snare and temptation to other people? If lust and impure eyes are the death of the soul, can any women think themselves innocent of offending God and those who seek to follow Him, who with cleavage showing, short skirts and shorts, tight pants, and every ornament of dress, invite the eye to offend?

As there is no pretense for innocence in such behavior, so neither can they tell how to set any bounds to their guilt. For as they can never know how much or how often they have caused others to sin, so they can never know how much guilt will be placed to their own account.

In this lust-filled world where immodesty abounds, men ought to find a safe place among Christians, yet how often do we find the same immodesty among the women in our church, more concerned with trying to look young than with pleasing God and setting a good example for others? How often do we find the same immodest clothing being worn by our Christian youth that can be found among the vain and foolish who do not know God? How often do the vain immodest fashions slowly find their way into the church, with the women of the church excusing them, and the leaders of the church afraid to mention them lest they offend their own wives and daughters.

One would think that being the source of causing others to lust and sin would sufficiently deter every pious woman from everything that might render her the occasion of loose passions in other people.

The apostle Paul, speaking of a thing entirely innocent, reasons after this manner: But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours becomes a stumblingblock to those that are weak . . . and through thy knowledge the weak brother shall perish, for whom Christ died. In this manner, therefore, sinning against the brethren and wounding their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother to fall, I will never eat flesh nor do anything which may cause my brother to fall (1 Corinthians 8:9, 11-13).

Now if the spirit of Christianity requires us to abstain from things that are lawful, innocent, and useful when there is any danger of betraying our weak brothers into any error thereby, then surely it cannot be considered too nice or needless a point of conscience for women to avoid such things that are neither innocent nor useful, but naturally tend to corrupt their own hearts and raise sinful passions in other people. Are Christian women more concerned with pleasing themselves or with pleasing God?

Surely every woman of Christian piety ought to say, in the spirit of the apostle, "If my beauty products and clothing, or any vain adorning of my person, is a natural means of making weak, careless eyes to offend, I will renounce all these things as long as I live, lest I should make my fellow creatures to offend."

I will now leave this subject of humility, having said enough, as I hope, to recommend the necessity of making it the constant, chief subject of your devotion.

I have considered the nature and necessity of humility and its great importance to a Christian life. I have shown you how many difficulties are formed against it from our natural inclinations, the spirit of the world, and the common education of both genders.

These considerations will, I hope, instruct you how to form your prayers to the best advantage and teach you the necessity of letting no day pass without a serious, earnest application to God for the whole spirit of humility. Fervently beseech Him to fill every part of your soul with it, to make it the ruling, constant habit of your mind, that you may not only feel it, but feel all your other qualities arising from it, that you may have no thoughts, no desires, and no intentions, except those that are the true fruits of a humble, meek, and lowly heart.

May you always appear simple, lowly, and plain in your own eyes, fully content that others should have the same opinion of you. May the whole course of your life, your expense, your house, your dress, your manner of eating, drinking, conversing, and doing everything, be continual proof of the true, unfeigned humility of your heart.

May you go through all the actions and incidents of life calmly and quietly, as in the presence of God, looking wholly unto Him and acting wholly for Him. Seek neither vain applause nor resent insults, but do and receive everything in the meek and lowly spirit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Chapter 20

Recommending devotion during the day. This frequency of devotion is equally desirable by all orders of people. Universal love is here recommended to be the subject of prayer. Intercession is an act of universal love.

While not all people can take time at specific hours during the day to pray, it is good to pray consistently throughout the day. Certainly we can spend time with God when we first wake up. We can take some time and pray during a break at work. We can pray for several minutes during our lunch time. We can pray when we get home after work, when we get together for family devotions, and before we go to bed. David wrote, Seven times a day do I praise thee because of the judgments of thy righteousness (Psalm 119:164). David also wrote, Evening and morning and at noon I will pray and cry aloud, and he shall hear my voice (Psalm 55:17).

To take time to be with God at different times throughout the day is not pressed upon us as absolutely necessary, but it is recommended to all people as the best, the happiest, and the most perfect way of life. If you love God, why would you not want to pray to Him?

If great and exemplary devotion are good qualities for employees and soldiers and people in any walk of life, how much more are they good qualities for those devoted to God? Work hard as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that wars entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who has chosen him to be a soldier (2 Timothy 2:3-4). Devote yourself to God and do all for His glory. Do not pretend to live for God if you are still ruled by the passions of the flesh. Do not think you are devoted to God if you do not spend time with Him or if your heart is set upon the sports and entertainment of this life. You will not be serving God as He deserves.

There are many Christians who seem to equally like Christian music and the music of the world. They are just as comfortable in their prayers as at a ball game. They love both equally. However, their hearts are divided, and it shows. They cannot make up their minds as to whether they want to surrender all for God or surrender all for the world. As a result, these Christians end up mediocre and lukewarm and are not giving their all to anything. The double-minded man is unstable in all his ways (James 1:8).

The gentleman and merchant fail in the greatest purpose of life, and they live to their loss in the world, unless devotion to God is their main and governing concern. It is certainly very honest and creditable for people to engage in trades and employments. It is reasonable for gentlemen in this world to manage their estates and families well. However, every gentleman and tradesman loses the greatest happiness of his creation and is robbed of something greater than all employments, distinctions, and pleasures of the world, if he does not live more to piety and devotion to God than to anything else in the world.

There are no excuses made for people of business and power in the world who are not fully devoted to God. First, because it would be to excuse them from that which is the greatest purpose of living, and would only be finding reasons for why they are less beneficial to themselves and less serviceable to God and the world than they could and should be. Secondly, because most people of business and prestige engage too much in worldly matters – much further than the reasons of human life or the necessities of the world require.

Merchants and tradesmen, for instance, are generally much more engaged in business than they need to be, which is so far from being a reasonable excuse for their lack of time for devotion, that it is their crime, and must be censured as a blamable instance of covetousness and ambition. If people are so busy with work and business that they do not have time to walk daily with God, then their hearts are in the wrong place. Some people of wealth are caught up in the things of leisure – in sports and hobbies and travel, and neglect using their time and possessions for God.

If you claim to be a Christian and to follow Jesus Christ, then there is no reason why you should not be pursuing holiness and a life devoted fully to God. Since piety and devotion to God are the common unchangeable means of spreading the gospel and saving souls, there is nothing left for the gentleman, the teacher, the soldier, the housewife, and the tradesman, but to take care that their lives, by care and watchfulness, by meditation and prayer, are wholly devoted to God.

If a merchant, having resisted more business so that he might quietly serve God, would therefore die worth five hundred thousand dollars instead of a million, could anyone say that he had mistaken his calling or had left this world as a loser?

If someone would have killed fewer deer, been less frequent at sporting events and movies, and had watched less television because more of his time had been given to being alone with God in meditation and reading and prayer, could it be thought that when he left the world, he would regret the loss of those hours that he had given to the care and improvement of his soul?

If a tradesman, by aspiring after Christian maturity and often turning from his business to be alone with and serve God, should, instead of leaving his children fortunes to spend in luxury and idleness, leave them to live by their own honest labor, could it be said that he had made a wrong use of the world, because he had shown his children that he had more regard to that which is eternal, than to this which is so soon to be at an end? If he had not had his children in so many sports leagues or dance classes, especially on the Lord's Day, in order to teach them the ways and Word of God and to take them to visit and help the widows and poor and others in need, would he regret his decision to lead his family in holiness rather than in the pleasures of this life?

It would be good if all gentlemen, merchants, soldiers, teachers, and all people should put these questions seriously to themselves: What is the best thing for me to intend and drive at in all my actions? What can I do to make the most of this life as I follow Jesus? How will I wish I had lived my life when I am leaving the world? Am I living for this life or the next? Is the world taking too much of my heart and time, so that I am neglecting the things of God in my own life and in that of my family? Am I doing all I can to help my neighbors and spread the love of God in material means as well as proclaiming to them the Word of God in an effort to lead them to Jesus Christ?

Now to be so wise and to make such use of our reason seems to be but a small and necessary piece of wisdom. For how can we pretend to have sense and judgment if we dare not seriously consider and answer and govern our lives by that which such questions require of us? Shall a nobleman think his birth too high a dignity to condescend to such questions as these? Will a tradesman think his business is too great to take any care about himself and his family?

Will people live in so much ignorance as to never ask themselves these questions, but push on blindly in pursuit of they know not what, nor why, without ever considering the worth, value, or tendency of their actions, without considering what God, reason, eternity, and their own happiness require of them? It is for the honor of devotion to God that none can neglect it except those who are inconsiderate and who dare not inquire after that which is their best and most worthy choice.

It is true, Larry, that you are a man of respect and means, and you are to act the part of such a station in human life. You are not called, as Elijah was, to be a prophet, or as Paul, to be an apostle. But will you therefore not surrender to God? Will you neglect to seek and study to live in holiness, because you are not called to be in Christian ministry?

You would think it very absurd for a man not to value his own health because he was not a physician. Yet it is more absurd for you, Larry, to neglect the improvement of your soul in piety, because you are not an apostle or a missionary.

Consider this text of Scripture: If ye live according to the flesh, ye shall die; but if through the Spirit ye mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For all that are led by the Spirit of God, the same are sons of God (Romans 8:13-14). Do you think that these verses do not equally relate to all mankind? Can you find any exception here for people of power and wealth? Is not a spiritual and devout life here made the common condition on which all people are to become sons of God? Will you leave times of prayer and rules of devotion to particular states of life, when nothing but the same spirit of devotion to God and faith in Jesus Christ can save you, or anyone, from eternal death?

Consider this text: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive according to that which they have done in the body, good or evil (2 Corinthians 5:10). Now if your wealth would excuse you from appearing before this judgment seat, or if your prestige could protect you from receiving according to your works, this would be some excuse for your leaving devotion to God to other people. But if you, who are now so distinguished, must then appear among common souls without any other distinction from anyone else except such as your virtues or sins give you, does it not as much concern you, as any prophet or apostle, to make the best provision for the best rewards at that great day?

Again, consider this doctrine of the apostle: For none of us live for ourselves, and no one dies for himself. For if we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord; whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived: to thus exercise lordship over the dead as well as over the living (Romans 14:7-9).

Now are you, Larry, an exception to the doctrine of this text? Will you, because of your condition, leave it to others to live and die unto Christ? If so, you must also leave it to them to be redeemed by the death and resurrection of Christ. For it is the express doctrine of the text that for this purpose Christ died and rose again, that none of us should live to himself. It is not that only pastors or apostles or missionaries should no longer live to themselves, but that none of us, that is, no Christian in any condition whatsoever, should live unto himself. We are not to live for ourselves, but for God.

This book is not recommending the kind of devotion to God that many people want – the kind that says you do not need to be holy in everything or that you do not need to be fully devoted to God or that a little of the world in our heart does not matter. The kind of devotion I am writing about is not just for certain people, but is the kind taught in the Bible. It is expected of all who claim to follow Jesus. All Christians are expected to leave the ways of the world and follow Jesus fully. If you do not think that you need to seek and glorify God in everything and that you do not need to be holy in all things, then you are not following the Scriptures and your heart is deceived. If you neglect devotion to God for any love of the things of the world so that you may live more according to what you want to do than what God says, or dress more according to how others dress than according to the modesty that God requires, then you have not died to the world and the flesh and sin and Satan, and you have forsaken the terms on which all Christians are to receive the benefit of Christ's death and resurrection.

Observe even more how the same doctrine is taught by Peter: As he who has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation (1 Peter 1:15).

If, therefore, Larry, is one of those who are here called, he can see what it is that he is called to, just as we can all see from the Scriptures what it is to be crucified with Christ. It is not to have only as much Christianity as suits with your demeanor, your business, or your pleasures. You are not just to have a particular type of piety that might be sufficient for you to be considered religious while you still hold on to things of the world, but you are first of all to be holy, as He who has called you is holy; and secondly, you are to be holy in every aspect of your life.

The reason the apostle Peter immediately gives as to why this spirit of holiness must be the common spirit of Christians, is very affecting, and is equally for all sorts of Christians: Knowing that ye have been ransomed from your vain conversation (which you received from your fathers), not with corruptible things like silver and gold, but with the precious blood of the Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without contamination (1 Peter 1:18-19).

This is as if he had said, "Since you know you were made capable of this state of holiness when you entered into a relationship with Christ and were made heirs of His glory – not by any human means, but by such an incomprehensible instance of love as infinitely exceeds everything that can be thought of in this world; and since God has redeemed you to Himself at so great a price, then how base and shameful it must be if you do not from now on devote yourselves wholly to the glory of God, and become holy, as He who has called you is holy!"

If, therefore, Larry considers his success and wealth, or if, in the words of the text, he considers his gold and silver and the corruptible things of this life as any reason why he may live according to his own desires and amusement and why he may neglect a life of strict piety and great devotion – if he thinks anything in the world can be an excuse for not imitating the holiness of Christ in the whole course and form of his life, then he makes himself as guilty as if he would neglect the holiness of Christianity for the sake of playing a game.

Is it your desire and intent to give up all that keeps you from a holy life? Are you making any excuses for why some of the things of the world have hold of your heart? Do you think that God is pleased with your partial devotion to Him? Does it not bother you that Jesus gave His all for you, but you are not giving your all for Him?

The greatness of this new state of life to which we are called in Christ Jesus, and the greatness of the price by which we are made capable of this state of glory, has turned everything that is worldly, temporal, and corruptible into an equal littleness, and made it as much shameful and foolish and as great a contempt of the blood of Christ to neglect any degrees of holiness, as it would be to neglect devotion to God because you wanted to play a game.

The apostle Paul said, Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom ye have of God, and that ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

How poorly, therefore, has Larry read the Scriptures, how little does he know of Christianity if he can still try to use his success and business as an excuse for not strictly and fully following God! Is he any more his own than he who has no prestige or dignity in the world? Must lowly and little people preserve their bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit by watching, fasting, and prayer, while Larry can indulge his in idleness, lust, and sensuality, because he so much money or such a title of distinction? How poor and ignorant are such thoughts as these!

Yet you must either think this way or else acknowledge that the holiness of saints, prophets, and apostles is the holiness after which you are to labor with all the diligence and care that you can. If you leave it to others to live in such piety and devotion to God, in such self-denial, humility, and moderation as may render them able to glorify God in their body and in their spirit, then you must also leave it to them also to have the benefit of the blood of Christ.

The apostle Paul said, Ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father with his children, that ye would walk worthy of God, who has called you unto his kingdom and glory (1 Thessalonians 2:11-12). Perhaps Larry has often heard these words, without ever thinking how much they require of him; and yet he cannot consider them without perceiving to what an imminent state of holiness they call him.

How can the holiness of the Christian life be set before you in higher terms than when it is represented to you as walking worthy of God? Can you think of any reduction of virtue or any neglect of devotion that is consistent with a life that is to be made worthy of God? Can you suppose that anyone walks in this manner except he who watches over all his steps and considers how everything he does may be done in the spirit of holiness? Yet as high as these expressions carry this holiness, it is here plainly made the necessary holiness of all Christians. For the apostle does not here exhort his fellow apostles and saints to this holiness, but he commands all Christians to endeavor after it. Again, We exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father with his children, that ye would walk worthy of God, who has called you unto his kingdom and glory (1 Thessalonians 2:11-12).

Peter said, If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God; if anyone ministers, let them do it according to the virtue which God gives, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus, the Christ, unto whom is glory and dominion for ever and ever (1 Peter 4:11). Do you not here plainly perceive your high calling? He who speaks is to have such regard to his words that he appears to speak as by the direction of God. He who gives is to take care that he so gives that what he disposes of may appear to be a gift that he has of God. Is not all this to be done that God may be glorified in all things?

Must it not then be said that anyone of nobility, dignity, or prestige in the world ought to so use his nobility or prestige as gifts of God, for the greater setting forth of His glory. Is there now anything forced or far-fetched in this conclusion? Is it not plain and true that everything in life is to be made a matter of holiness unto God? Your work, your hobbies, your finances, your time, and all else are to be made holy unto the Lord. If so, then your wealth and dignity are so far from excusing you from great piety and holiness of life, that it lays you under a greater necessity of living more to the glory of God, because you have more of His gifts that may be made serviceable to it.

It is the very purpose of Christianity to redeem all orders and classes of people into one holy society, so that rich and poor, high and low, masters and servants, may in one and the same spirit of piety become a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, an acquired people, that ye should show forth the virtues of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvellous light (1 Peter 2:9). Great devotion and holiness is not to be left to any particular group of people, but is to be the common spirit of all who desire to live up to the terms of common Christianity.

I now proceed to consider the nature and necessity of universal love. Intercession is the most proper exercise to raise and preserve that love. By intercession is meant praying to God and interceding with Him for our fellow creatures.

Our blessed Lord has recommended His love to us as the pattern and example of our love to each other. As, therefore, He is continually making intercession for us, so we ought to intercede and pray for one another. A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall everyone know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another (John 13:34-35).

Jesus does not call this a new commandment because people were not to love each other before, for this was an old commandment, both of the law of Moses and of nature. However, this commandment was new in that we are to imitate a new and until then unheard of example of love: it was to love one another as Christ had loved us.

If others are to know that we are disciples of Christ because we love one another according to His new example of love, then it is certain that if we lack this love, we make it as plainly known to others that we are not His disciples.

There is no principle of the heart that is more acceptable to God than universal fervent love to all mankind, wishing and praying for their happiness, because there is no principle of the heart that makes us more like God, who is love and goodness itself, and who created all beings for their enjoyment of happiness. The greatest happiness, of course, is found when we are in Him and walking with Him.

The greatest idea that we can perceive of God is when we conceive Him to be a being of infinite love and goodness, using His infinite wisdom and power for the common good and happiness of His people. The highest notion, therefore, that we can form of man is when we conceive him as much like God, in this respect, as he can be, using all his infinite faculties, whether of wisdom, power, or prayers, for the common good of all his fellow creatures, heartily desiring they may have all the happiness they are capable of, and as many benefits and assistances from him as his state and condition in the world will permit him to give them.

On the other hand, what a baseness and iniquity there is in all instances of hatred, envy, spite, and ill-will, if we consider that every instance of them is acting in opposition to God and intending mischief and harm to those creatures whom God favors, protects, and preserves, in order to promote their happiness! An ill-natured man among God's creatures is the most perverse creature in the world, acting contrary to that love by which he himself subsists, and which alone gives subsistence to all those variety of beings that enjoy life in any part of the creation.

All things whatsoever ye desire that men should do unto you, so also shall ye do unto them (Matthew 7:12). Although this is a doctrine of strict justice, yet it is only universal love that can comply with it. For as love is the measure of our acting toward ourselves, so we can never act in the same manner toward other people until we look upon them with that love with which we look upon ourselves.

As we have no degrees of spite or envy or ill-will to ourselves, so we cannot be inclined toward others as we are toward ourselves, until we universally renounce all instances of spite, envy, and ill-will – even in the smallest degrees.

If we had any imperfection in our eyes that made us see any one thing wrong, our eyes would show us a hundred things wrong for the same reason. So, if there is any attitude of our hearts that makes us envious or spiteful or ill-natured toward anyone, that same attitude will make us envious, spiteful, and ill-natured toward a great many others.

If, therefore, we desire this divine virtue of love, we must exercise and practice our hearts in loving all others, because it is not Christian love until it is the love of all. If a person could keep this whole law of love and yet offend in one point, he would be guilty of all. For as one instance of injustice destroys the justice of all our other actions, so one allowed instance of envy, spite, and ill-will renders all our other acts of benevolence and affection worth nothing.

Acts of love that do not proceed from a principle of universal love are like acts of justice that proceed from a heart not inclined to universal justice. A love that is not universal may indeed have tenderness and affection, but it has nothing of righteousness or piety in it. It is but indulgence or duty or such a love as publicans and heathens practice. It is as much a law of Christ to treat everyone as your neighbor and to love your neighbor as yourself, as it is a law of Christianity to abstain from theft.

Now the noblest motive to this universal tenderness and affection is based in this doctrine: God is charity [love], and he that abides in charity [love] abides in God, and God in him (1 John 4:16).

Who, therefore, whose heart has any tendency toward God, would not desire this divine love that so changes and exalts our nature into a union with Him? We must observe, though, that love only has this mighty power of uniting us to God when it is so pure and universal as to imitate that love that God has to His people.

As God forgives all who come to Him and gives grace to all, so we should forgive all those injuries and offenses that we receive from others when they seek our forgiveness, and do all the good that we can to them. God Almighty, besides His own great example of love, which ought to draw all His creatures after it, has so provided for us and made happiness so common to us all, that we have no occasion to envy or hate one another. We should seek the happiness of all, and that happiness only comes through Jesus Christ.

As to other things, such as the enjoyments and prosperities of this life, they are so little in themselves, so foreign to our happiness, and generally speaking, so contrary to that which they appear to be, that they are no basis for envy, spite, or hatred. There is nothing of this world that is worthy of our envy. How silly it would be to envy a man who was drinking poison out of a golden cup! Yet who can say that he is acting wiser than this when he is envying any instance of worldly greatness or pleasure?

Many people whose lives have been full of trouble and difficulty have grown nearer to God through these things and were better prepared for heaven, while many whose lives have been filled with wealth and pleasure and ease have ignored the ways of God and their love of prosperity has since plunged them into everlasting misery! One person might never have been corrupt and immoral if it had not been for his fortune and prosperity, while another person might never have surrendered to God if he had not come to poverty and disgrace. One man succeeds in everything, and so loses all; another meets with nothing but crosses and disappointments, and thereby gains more than all the world is worth. A pastor might have fallen from Christ as he grew in popularity and honor, while another might have learned Christlikeness and humility by remaining in a simple rural church.

How envied was Alexander, when conquering the world he built towns, set up his statues, and left marks of his glory in many kingdoms! How despised was the poor preacher Paul when he was beaten with rods! Yet how strangely was the world mistaken in their judgment! How much Paul was to be envied, and how much Alexander was to be pitied!

Now to proceed to another motive to this universal love.

Our power of doing external acts of love and goodness is often very narrow and restrained. There are, it may be, only a few people to whom we can contribute any worldly relief. But though our outward means of doing good are often thus limited, if our hearts are full of love and goodness, we get, as it were, an infinite power. This is because God will attribute to us those good works, those acts of love and tender kindnesses that we sincerely desired to do and would gladly have performed had it been in our power.

You cannot heal all the sick and relieve all the poor. You cannot comfort all who are in distress, nor be a father to all the fatherless. You cannot, it may be, deliver many from their misfortunes or teach them all to find comfort in God. If, however, there is a love and tenderness in your heart that delights in these good works and excites you to do all that you can; if your love has no bounds, but continually wishes and prays for the relief and happiness of all who are in distress, then you will be received by God as a benefactor to those who have had nothing from you but your good will and tender affections. You will be received by God as a sharer of such good works, for though they had none of your hands, they had all of your heart. Be sure, though, that you help those whom you can actually help, and pray for those whom you cannot help.

This consideration surely is sufficient to make us look to and watch over our hearts with all diligence, to study the improvement of our inward character, and to aspire after every height and perfection of a loving, charitable, and benevolent mind.

On the other hand, we may also learn the great evil and mischief of all wrong turns of mind, of envy, spite, hatred, and ill-will. For if the goodness of our hearts will entitle us to the reward of good actions that we never performed, it is certain that the badness of our hearts – our envy, ill-nature, and hatred – will bring us under the guilt of actions that we have never committed.

As he who lusts after a woman will be considered an adulterer, though he has only committed the crime in his heart, so the malicious, spiteful, ill-natured man who only secretly rejoices at evil will be considered a murderer, though he has shed no blood.

Since, therefore, our hearts, which are always revealed and open to the eyes of God, give such an exceeding extent and increase, either to our virtues or vices, it is our best and greatest business to govern the motions of our hearts, and to watch, correct, and improve the inward state and character of our souls.

There is nothing that so much exalts our souls as this heavenly love. It cleanses and purifies like a holy fire, and all ill tempers fall away before it. It makes room for all virtues, and carries them to their greatest height. Everything that is good and holy grows out of it, and it becomes a continual source of all holy desires and pious practices.

By love, I do not mean any natural tenderness, which is more or less in all people, according to their humanity; but I mean a larger principle of the soul, founded in wisdom and piety, which makes us tender, kind, and benevolent to all our fellow creatures, as creatures of God, and for His sake. It is a love that is above our sinfulness and is based upon the love of God. It is this love that loves all things in God, as His creatures, that becomes a holy principle of all great and good actions.

The love, therefore, of our neighbor, is only a branch of our love to God. For when we love God with all our hearts and with all our souls and with all our strength, we will necessarily love those beings who are also related to God, who have everything from Him, and who are created by Him to be objects of His own eternal love.

Can I think that I love God with all my heart while I hate those who belong to God, who have no other master but Him, who bear His image, are part of His family, and exist only by the continuance of His love toward them? It was the impossibility of this that made John say, If anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar (1 John 4:20). These reasons sufficiently show us that no love is holy or Christian until it becomes universal – until we love all people.

Christianity requires me to love people as God's creatures who belong to Him and who bear His image and enjoy His protection. If these are the great and necessary reasons why I should live in love and friendship with any one person in the world, then they are the same great and necessary reasons why I should live in love and friendship with every person in the world. Consequently, I offend against all these reasons and break through all these ties and obligations whenever I lack love toward anyone. The sin, therefore, of hating or despising anyone is like the sin of hating everyone. The necessity of loving anyone is the same necessity of loving everyone in the world. Though many people may appear to us to be sinful, odious, or extravagant in their conduct, we must never look upon that as the least motive for any contempt or disregard of them; instead, we should look upon them with greater compassion, as being in the most pitiable condition that can be.

As it was the sins of the world that made the Son of God become a compassionate suffering advocate for all mankind, so no one is of the Spirit of Christ except he who has the utmost compassion for sinners. Nor is there any greater sign of your own perfection than when you find yourself all love and compassion toward those who are very weak and imperfect. On the other hand, you never have less reason to be pleased with yourself than when you find yourself most angry and offended at the behavior of others. All sin is certainly to be hated and abhorred, wherever it is; but then we must set ourselves against sin, as we do against sickness and diseases, by showing ourselves tender and compassionate to the sick and diseased.

All other hatred of sin that does not fill the heart with the softest, tenderest affections toward persons miserable in it, is the servant of sin at the same time that it seems to be hating it. There is no attitude that even good people ought more carefully to watch and guard against than this.

A man naturally imagines that it is his own exceeding love of virtue that makes him not able to bear with those who lack it. When he abhors one man, despises another, and cannot bear the name of a third, he supposes it all to be a proof of his own high sense of virtue and proper hatred of sin. Yet one would think that a person needed no other cure for this attitude than this one reflection: that if this had been the attitude of the Son of God, if He had hated sin in this manner, there would have been no redemption of the world. If God had hated sinners in this manner, the world itself would have ceased long ago.

This, therefore, we may take for a certain rule, that the more we partake of the divine nature, the more improved we are ourselves. The higher our sense of virtue, the more we will pity and be compassionate toward those who lack it. The sight of such people will then, instead of raising in us a haughty contempt or indignation toward them, fill us with such a heart of compassion as when we see the miseries of a hospital.

We should often consider the reasons on which the duty of love is founded so that the foolishness, crimes, and ill-behavior of our fellow creatures may not diminish that love and tenderness that we are to have for mankind.

We are to love our fellow man, not because they are wise, holy, virtuous, or well-behaved, for all mankind neither ever was nor ever will be so. Therefore, it is certain that the reason of our being obligated to love them cannot be founded in their own virtue. If their virtue or goodness were the reason of our being obligated to love people, we would have no rule to proceed by, because though some people's virtues or vices are very notorious, yet, generally speaking, we are very poor judges of the virtue and merit of other people.

We are sure that the virtue or merit of people is not the reason of our being obligated to love them, because we are commanded to pay the highest instances of love to our worst enemies. We are to love and bless and pray for those who most wrongfully treat us. This, therefore, is proof that the person's merit is not the reason on which our obligation to love them is to be based.

Let us consider what that love is that we owe to our neighbor. It is to love him as ourselves, to have all those sentiments toward him that we have toward ourselves. It is to wish him everything that we may lawfully wish to ourselves. It is to be glad for all the good and sorry for all the bad that happens to him, and to be ready to do all such acts of kindness for him as we are always ready to do for ourselves.

This love, therefore, is nothing else but a love of benevolence. It requires nothing of us but such good wishes, tender affections, and acts of kindness as we show to ourselves. This is all the love that we owe to the best of people, and we are never to lack any degree of this love to the worst or most unreasonable person in the world.

What is the reason that we are to love every person in this way? Our obligation to love all people in this way has many reasons.

First, there is the reason of equity – of being fair and impartial. If it is good to love ourselves in this manner, it must be unjust to deny any degree of this love to others, because every person is of the same nature and in the same condition as ourselves.

If, therefore, your own crimes and foolishness do not lessen your obligation to seek your own good and wish well to yourself, then neither do the foolishness and crimes of your neighbor lessen your obligation to wish and seek the good of your neighbor.

Another reason for this love is founded in the authority of God, who has commanded us to love every person as ourself.

Thirdly, we are obligated to this love in imitation of God's goodness, that we may be children of our Father who is in heaven, who wills the happiness of His people, and makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good. He makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Matthew 5:45).

Fourthly, our redemption by Jesus Christ calls us to the exercise of this love, for He came from heaven and laid down His life out of love for the whole sinful world.

Fifthly, by the command of our Lord and Savior, who has required us to love one another, as He has loved us. A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall everyone know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another (John 13:34-35).

These are the great and perpetual reasons on which our obligation to love all mankind as ourselves is founded.

These reasons never vary or change. They always continue in full force, and therefore equally obligate us at all times and in regard to all people.

God loves us, not because we are wise and good and holy, but out of compassion for us, because we lack this happiness. He loves us in order to make us good through Jesus Christ. Our love, therefore, must take this course of not looking for or requiring the merit of our brothers and sisters, but pitying their disorders and wishing them all the good that they lack and are capable of receiving, desiring that they might find true joy in Jesus Christ.

It now appears plainly from what has been said, that the love that we owe to our brothers and sisters is only a love of benevolence. This duty of benevolence is founded upon reasons that never vary or change, such as never depending upon the qualities of people. From this it follows that to lack this love for a bad man is the same great sin as to lack it for a good man. He who denies any of this benevolence to a bad man offends against all the same reasons of love as he who denies any benevolence to a good man; consequently, it is the same sin.

Consider, then, how you treat an evil person or how you speak to him. Consider if you would think of acting the same way toward a good and kind person, and if not, then be assured that you are committing the same sin.

Think about acts of charity or love to your neighbor. They are founded upon reasons that vary not, that have no dependence upon the merits of your neighbors. You should help your neighbor not because he deserves it or is a better person than others, but simply because he is your neighbor in need of your help.

You might ask if you are not to have a particular esteem and respect for good people. The answer is yes, but this high esteem and respect is something very different from that love of benevolence that we owe to our neighbor. The high esteem and respect that you have for a person of eminent piety is no act of charity to him. It is not out of pity and compassion that you respect him, but it is rather an act of charity to yourself, that such esteem and respect might encourage you to follow his example.

You may and should love, like, and approve the life that the good person leads, but this is simply loving virtue wherever you see it, rather than loving with a benevolent kind of love. The sum of the matter is that the actions that you are to love, esteem, and admire are the actions of good and pious people; but the people to whom you are to do all the good you can, in all sorts of kindness and compassion, are all people, whether good or bad.

This distinction between love of benevolence and esteem or respect is very plain and obvious. You may, perhaps, still better see the plainness and necessity of it by this following example. No one is to have a high esteem or honor for his own accomplishments or behavior, yet everyone is to love himself, or wish well to himself; therefore, this distinction between love and esteem is not only plain, but very necessary to be observed.

If you think it is hardly possible to dislike the actions of unreasonable people and yet have a true love for them, consider this in relation to yourself. It is very possible, I hope, for you not only to dislike, but to detest and abhor a great many of your own past actions, and to accuse yourself of great foolishness for them. But do you then lose any of those tender sentiments toward yourself that you used to have? Do you then cease to wish well to yourself? Is not the love of yourself as strong now as at any other time?

What is possible in relation to ourselves is in the same manner possible in relation to others. We may have the highest good wishes toward them, desiring for them every good that we desire for ourselves, yet at the same time dislike their way of life. For example, we might hope a person succeeds in business while at the same time disapproving of his immorality.

So all the love that we may justly have for ourselves, we are, in strict justice, supposed to exercise toward all other people; and we offend against the great law of our nature and the greatest laws of God when our attitude toward others is different from that which we have toward ourselves. That self-love that is just and reasonable keeps us constantly tender, compassionate, and well-affected toward ourselves; if, therefore, you do not feel these kind dispositions toward all other people, you may be assured that you are not in that state of love that is the very life and soul of Christian piety.

You know how it hurts you to be made the jest and ridicule of other people, and how it grieves you to be robbed of your reputation and deprived of the favorable opinion of your neighbors. If, therefore, you expose others to scorn and contempt in any degree, if it pleases you to see or hear of their frailties and infirmities, or if you gossip about their faults, then you are so far from loving such people as yourself, then we may rightly suppose that you have as much hatred for them as you have love for yourself. Such attitudes are as truly the proper fruits of hatred as the contrary attitudes are the proper fruits of love.

As it is a certain sign that you love yourself because you are sympathetic of everything that concerns you, so it is just as certain a sign that you hate your neighbor when you are pleased with anything that hurts him.

If the need for a true and exact love is so great a need that, as Paul says, it renders our greatest virtues to be only as empty sounds and tinkling cymbals (1 Corinthians 13:1), how highly does it concern us to study every art and practice every method of raising our souls to this state of love! It is for this reason that you should not let your time of prayer pass without fully and sincerely asking God for a heart and life full of universal love and benevolence to all mankind. Such daily constant devotion is the only likely means of preserving you in such a state of love as is necessary to prove you to be a true follower of Jesus Christ.
Chapter 21

Of the necessity and benefit of intercession, considered as an exercise of universal love. How all classes of people are to pray and intercede with God for one another. How naturally such intercession amends and reforms the hearts of those who use it.

It is very evident from Scripture that intercession is an important and necessary part of Christian devotion. The first followers of Christ seem to support all their love and maintain all their communication and correspondence by mutual prayers for one another.

Paul, whether he writes to churches or specific people, shows his intercession to be perpetual for them, writing that they are the constant subject of his prayers. To the Philippians he wrote, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine for you all, making request with joy (Philippians 1:3-4). We see here not only a continual intercession, but one performed with so much gladness that it shows that it was an exercise of love in which he highly rejoiced.

His devotion also showed the same care for specific people, as appears by the following passage: I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with a pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day (2 Timothy 1:3). How holy an acquaintance and friendship was this, how worthy of people who were raised above the world and related to one another as new members of a kingdom of heaven!

Apostles and great saints did not only benefit and bless specific churches and individuals, but they also received graces from God because of the prayers of others. This is why Paul wrote to the Corinthians: Ye also helping us with prayer, that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons, thanks may be given by many on our behalf (2 Corinthians 1:11).

This was the ancient friendship of Christians, uniting and cementing their hearts, not by worldly considerations or human passions, but by the mutual communication of spiritual blessings, and by prayer and thanksgiving to God for each other. How many today have such close friendships with others based upon the love of God rather than a shared appreciation of sports, hunting, politics, shopping, or some other such inferior pleasure?

It was this holy intercession that raised Christians to such a state of mutual love that far exceeded all that had been praised and admired in human friendship. When the same spirit of intercession is again in the world, when Christianity has the same power over the hearts of people that it then had, this holy friendship will again be found in our churches and communities, and Christians will be again the wonder of the world for that exceeding love that they bear to one another. Maybe Christians do not love each other as they should because they do not sincerely pray for each other as they should.

Frequent intercession with God, earnestly entreating Him to forgive the sins of all mankind, bless them with His providence, enlighten them with His Spirit, and bring them to everlasting happiness, is the most divine exercise in which the heart of anyone can be engaged.

Be daily, therefore, on your knees, in a solemn deliberate performance of this devotion, praying for others with the same sincerity, fervency, and passion that you have when praying for yourself. You will find that all little, ill-natured passions die away as your heart grows kind and generous, delighting in the common happiness of others as you used to delight only in yourself.

For the one who daily prays to God that all people may be forever happy in heaven, takes the likeliest way to make him wish for and delight in their happiness on earth. It is also a good means of stirring up your heart to be concerned enough about their souls to speak to them of repentance and salvation in Christ.

It is hardly possible for you to beseech and entreat God to make anyone happy in the highest enjoyments of His glory for all eternity, and yet be troubled to see him enjoy the much smaller gifts of God in this short and low state of human life. Pray that all people will be converted, and that they would live for God on earth, too.

How strange and unnatural it would be to pray to God to grant health and a longer life to a sick man, and at the same time to keep him from the proper medicine that he needs. Yet this would be no more strange or unnatural than to pray to God that your neighbor may enjoy the highest degrees of His mercy and favor, and yet at the same time to deny him the little credit and respect that he has among his fellow creatures. It would be just as strange as to pray for the salvation of your neighbors, yet neglect to tell them the way to eternal life.

When therefore you have made it a habit of your heart to sincerely perform this holy intercession, you have done much to render your heart incapable of spite and envy, and to make it naturally delight in the happiness of all mankind. This is the natural effect of a general intercession for all mankind, but its greatest benefits are when it descends to such specific instances as our state and condition in life more particularly require of us, and we really do love and care about and help all those around us.

Though we are to treat all mankind as neighbors, yet we can only live in the actual society of a few, and by our circumstances on life are more specifically able to help some than others, so when our intercession is made an exercise of love and care especially for those among whom our lot is fallen or who belong to us in a nearer relationship or proximity (such as our family members, neighbors, and co-workers), it then becomes the greatest benefit to ourselves and produces its best effects in our own hearts.

If therefore you always change your prayers for others according as the needs and necessities of your neighbors or acquaintances seem to require – asking God to deliver them from this particular evil or to grant them that particular gift or blessing – such intercessions, besides the great charity, would have a mighty effect upon your own heart, as encouraging you to every other good duty and to the exercise of every other virtue toward such people as have so often a place in your prayers.

This would make it pleasant for you to be courteous, civil, and kind to all about you, and make you unable to say or do a rude or mean thing to those for whom you are used to being so kind and compassionate in your prayers.

There is nothing that makes us love someone so much as praying for him, and when you can once do this sincerely for anyone, you have prepared your soul for the performance of everything that is kind and civil toward him. This will fill your heart with a generosity and tenderness that will give you a better and sweeter behavior than anything that is called fine breeding and good manners.

By considering yourself as an advocate with God for your neighbors and acquaintance, you would never find it hard to be at peace with them yourself. It would be easy to you to bear with and forgive those for whom you specifically prayed for God's mercy and forgiveness.

Such prayers as these among neighbors and acquaintances would unite them to one another in the strongest bonds of love and tenderness. It would exalt and ennoble their souls, teaching them to consider each other as members that are created for the enjoyment of the common blessings of God, and desiring them to become fellow heirs of the same future glory, if they are not already.

By being thus desirous that everyone should have his full share of the blessings of God, they would not only be content, but glad to see each other happy in the little enjoyments of this temporary life. These would be the natural effects of such an intercession among people of the same town or neighborhood or who were acquainted with one another's state and condition. How wonderful if we would pray together with and for our neighbors! We used to live more in community – especially as Christians. Now, though, people travel for miles to attend the church of their choice, often in a different town, and no longer know, help, or care about their own neighbors. Let us get to know our neighbors and pray for them and help them. Let us again unite with the Christians who live in our neighborhoods, fellowshipping together and helping each other and praying together for each other and for the lost who live near us.

James is a holy minister, full of the spirit of the gospel, watching, laboring, and praying for a poor country village. Every soul in it is as dear to him as himself, and he loves them all as he loves himself, because he prays for them all as often as he prays for himself.

His whole life is one continual exercise of great zeal and labor, always showing care and watchfulness for the lives and souls of others, because he has learned the great value of souls by so often appearing before God as an intercessor for them.

He never thinks he can love or do enough for his flock, because he never considers them in any other perspective than as so many people, who by receiving the gifts and graces of God, are to become his hope, his joy, and his crown of rejoicing.

He goes about his parish and visits everybody in it. He visits in the same spirit of piety that he preaches to them. He visits them to encourage their virtues, to assist them with biblical advice and counsel, to discover their manner of life, and to know the state of their souls, that he may intercede with God for them according to their particular necessities. He does not go grudgingly, but willingly and out of love, as if visiting close family or dear friends. He does not so much talk about the weather, sports, or politics, but he is far more concerned with the condition of their souls and their growth in grace and love and holiness, as well as any other needs and concerns they might have.

When James first entered into the ministry, he had some arrogance in his character, and a great contempt and disregard for all foolish and unreasonable people; but he has prayed away this spirit. He now has the greatest tenderness for the most obstinate sinners, because he is always hoping that God will, sooner or later, hear those prayers that he makes for their repentance.

The rudeness, ill-nature, or perverse behavior of any of his flock used to cause him to be impatient, but it now raises no other passion in him than a desire to be upon his knees in prayer to God for them. In this way his prayers for others have altered and amended the state of his own heart.

It would strangely delight you to see with what spirit he talks with others, with what tenderness he reproves, with what affection he exhorts, and with what vigor he preaches; and it is all owing to this, because he reproves, exhorts, and preaches to those for whom he first prays to God. Can you not tell when a pastor is doing his duty or if he really cares and loves? Does he get annoyed when someone calls him or requests a visit, or does he gladly talk and go and serve in love?

This devotion from James softens his heart, enlightens his mind, sweetens his temper, and makes everything that comes from him instructive, amiable, and affecting. He does not only speak love, though, but he speaks the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). His desire is that those in his community walk with God and live holy lives, and so he speaks against sin and worldliness wherever it is found, and especially among his own parishioners. His standard is the Word of God, and yet he speaks it so much in love in an effort to lead the sheep to the Great Shepherd, that the people are often affected by the truth of God's Word because of the tenderness, sincerity, boldness, and love of James. We need more pastors like James.

When he first came to his little village, it was as disagreeable to him as a prison, and every day seemed too tedious to be endured in so secluded a place. He thought his parish was too full of poor and lowly people, and that none of them were fit for the conversation of a gentleman.

This caused him to spend more time in his studies. He stayed much at home, wrote notes about Homer and Plato, and sometimes thought it difficult to be called to pray by anyone when he was just in the midst of reading about one of Homer's battles. This was his polite, or I may rather say, poor, ignorant turn of mind, before devotion to God had taken over his heart.

Now his days are so far from being tedious, and his parish so far from seeming boring and secluded, that he now only wants more time to do that kind of good after which his soul thirsts. The solitude of his little parish has become matter of great comfort to him, because he hopes that God has placed him and his flock there to make it their way to heaven, that they can grow close together as they walk with God and live for Him.

He can now not only converse with, but gladly attend and wait upon the poorest and simplest people. He is now daily watching over the weak and infirm, humbling himself to perverse, rude, and ignorant people wherever he can find them. He is so far from desiring to be considered a well-to-do gentleman, that he desires to be used as the servant of all, and in the spirit of his Lord and Master girds himself and is glad to kneel down and wash any of their feet.

He now thinks the poorest creature in his parish good enough, and great enough, to deserve the humblest attendances, the kindest friendships, the tenderest help, and the most fervent prayers he can possibly show them. He is so far now from lacking agreeable company, that he thinks there is no better conversation in the world than to be talking with poor and lowly people about the kingdom of heaven.

All these noble thoughts and divine sentiments are the effects of his great devotion to God; he presents every person so often before God in his prayers that he never thinks he can esteem, reverence, or serve them enough for whom he implores so many mercies from God. James is mightily affected with this passage of holy Scripture: The effectual prayer of the righteous is very powerful (James 5:16).

This makes him practice all the skills of holy living and pursue every instance of piety and righteousness, that his prayers for his flock may have their full force and avail much with God. For this reason, he has sold a small estate that he had, and he has set up a charitable retirement for elderly poor people to live in prayer and piety, that his prayers, being assisted by such good works, may pierce the clouds and bring down blessings upon those souls committed to his care.

James reads how God Himself said unto Abimelech concerning Abraham: He is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live (Genesis 20:7). And again, how he said of Job: and my slave Job shall pray for you; for only because I will accept him (Job 42:8).

From these passages James justly concludes that the prayers of people eminent for holiness of life have an extraordinary power with God; that He grants to other people such pardons, reliefs, and blessings through their prayers that would not be granted to people of less piety and spiritual maturity. This makes James exceeding studious of Christian maturity, searching after every grace and holy quality, purifying his heart all manner of ways, fearful of every error and defect in his life, lest his prayers for his flock should be less availing with God through his own defects in holiness.

This makes him careful of every attitude of his heart. This causes him to give alms of all that he has, to watch and fast and deny himself, and to live according to the strictest rules of moderation, meekness, and humility, that he may be in some degree like an Abraham or a Job in his parish, and make such prayers for them as God will hear and accept.

These are the happy effects that a devout intercession has produced in the life of James. If other people, in whatever condition and place they were in, were to imitate this example in such a manner as suited their particular condition of life, they would certainly find the same happy effects from it.

If employers, for instance, were to remember their employees in their prayers in this way, fervently asking God to bless them and adapting their prayers to the specific needs and necessities of their employees, letting no day pass without a full performance of this part of devotion, the benefit would be as great to themselves as to their workers. There is no way as likely as this to become a wise and good employer than to be inspired with a true sense of that power which they have in their hands through prayer to make them delight in doing good and becoming exemplary in all things.

Presenting their employees so often before God, as equally related to God and entitled to the same expectations of heaven as themselves, would naturally incline them to treat them not only with kindness and fairness, but with such tenderness, care, and generosity, as became fellow heirs of the same glory. This type of Christian devotion would make employers inclined toward everything that was good for their employees and to be watchful of their behavior, and ready to require Christian principles from his employees as part of the job – to expect kindness and charity, to refrain from filthy talking and from taking God's name in vain, and so on.

This would teach employers to consider their employees as God's servants, to desire their spiritual maturity, to do nothing before them that might corrupt their minds, to impose no business upon them that should lessen their sense of duty to God or hinder them from their full share of devotion to Him, both in public and in private. Praying for them would make them glad to see their employees growing in holiness, and would encourage him to create all the opportunities and encouragements possible that would allow them to know Jesus Christ and perform all the duties of the Christian life.

It would be natural for such an employer to perform every part of family devotion; to pray together; to have the Scriptures and books of piety available for them to read; to take all opportunities of instructing them, of raising their minds to God, and of teaching them to do all their work as a service to God and upon the hopes and expectations of another life!

It would be natural for such a person to show compassion for their weakness and ignorance, to bear with the dullness of their understandings or the perverseness of their character, to reprove them with tenderness, and exhort them with affection, being hopeful that God would hear his prayers for them! How impossible it would be for an employer who often and fervently prayed for his employees to use any unkind words toward them, to be unfair to them, or to treat them improperly!

This type of devotion to God would give employers a different frame of mind and heart, and would cause them to consider how to show proper care, kindness, and protection to those who had spent their strength and time in working for them. Employees, too, should fervently pray for their employers in much the same way.

If some businessmen think it is too low of a task for their condition and dignity to exercise such a devotion as this for their employees, let them consider how far they are from the Spirit of Christ, who made Himself not only an intercessor, but a sacrifice for all of sinful mankind. Let them consider how miserable their greatness would be if the Son of God would think it as much below Him to pray for them as they do to pray for their fellow creatures. Let them consider how far they are from that spirit that causes one to pray for his most unjust enemies, if they have not enough kindness to pray for those by whose labors and service they themselves live in ease.

Consider, too, that if parents would make themselves advocates and intercessors with God for their children in this way, constantly applying to heaven on behalf of their children, nothing would be more likely not only to bless their children, but also to form and dispose their own minds to the performance of everything that was excellent and praiseworthy. Not only would they want their children to avoid the things of the world, but they would be likely to avoid those same things themselves in order to show their children how to live lives devoted to God.

I suppose that most parents remember their children in their prayers and ask God to bless them, but the thing here intended is not a general type of prayer, but a regular method of recommending all their particular needs and necessities unto God and of praying for every such particular grace and virtue for them as their state and condition of life seems to require, now and in the future. Why cannot parents of young children pray for them that if God wills that they should live to adulthood, that they would always follow Jesus fully, that God would guide them as to education and careers – and to godly spouses, if He so desires them to be married?

The state of parents is a holy state, in some degree like that of the priesthood, and calls upon them to bless their children with their prayers and sacrifices to God. It was because of this that holy Job watched over and blessed his children and sanctified them. He rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all (Job 1:5).

If parents, therefore, considering themselves in this way, would daily call upon God in a solemn, deliberate manner, altering and extending their intercessions as the circumstances and growth of their children required, such devotion would have a mighty influence upon the rest of their lives. It would make them very careful in their behavior, and prudent and careful of everything they said or did, so that their example would not contradict and prevent that which they so constantly desired in their prayers.

If a father daily specifically prayed to God that He would be pleased to inspire his children with true piety, great humility, holiness, and strict moderation, what would be more likely to make the father himself become exemplary in these virtues? How naturally would he grow ashamed of lacking the same virtues that he thought necessary for his children! His prayers for their piety would be a certain means of exalting his own piety to its greatest height.

If a father considered himself as an intercessor with God for his children and daily blessed them with his prayers, what more likely means could there be to make him strive after every degree of holiness, that he might thereby be better able to obtain blessings from heaven for them? How would such thoughts make him avoid everything that was sinful and displeasing to God, lest when he prayed for his children, God would reject his prayers!

Such praying parents would want to avoid leading their children into worldliness and an unhealthy love for the games and fashions of the world. Instead, they would promote those things that lead to holiness and God's glory.

How tenderly, how biblically would such a father converse with his children whom he considered as his little spiritual flock, whose virtues he was to form by his example, encourage by his authority, nourish by his counsel, and prosper by his prayers to God for them. How fearful would he be of all greedy and unjust ways and of bringing his children up in pride and indulgence, or of making them too fond of the world, lest he should thereby render them incapable of those graces that he was so often asking God to grant them.

These being the plain, natural, happy effects of this intercession, all parents, I hope, who have the real well-being of their children at heart, who desire to be their true friends and supporters and to live among them in the spirit of wisdom and piety, will not neglect so great a means, both of raising their own virtue, and of doing eternal good to those who are so near and dear to them by the strongest ties of nature.

Lastly, if all people, when they feel the first approaches of resentment, envy, or contempt toward others, or if in any little disagreements and misunderstandings whatever, instead of indulging their minds with irritated thoughts and angry words, would go to God in special and specific prayer for such people who had contributed toward their envy, resentment, or discontent, this would be a certain way to prevent the growth of all unkind attitudes.

If you were also to form your prayer or intercession at that time to the greatest degree of contrariety to that mood you were then in, it would be an excellent means of raising your heart to the greatest state of piety.

For example, when at any time you find envy in your heart toward anyone, whether on account of his riches, power, reputation, learning, or advancement, you would immediately pray to God to bless and prosper him in that very thing which caused your envy; if you would express and repeat your prayer in the strongest terms, asking God to grant him all the happiness from the enjoyment of it that can possibly be received, you would soon find it to be the best antidote in the world to expel the venom of that poisonous passion.

This would be such a triumph over yourself and would so humble and reduce your heart into obedience and order that the devil would be afraid of tempting you again in the same way, when he saw the temptation turned into so great a means of amending and reforming the attitude of your heart.

Again, if in any little difference or misunderstanding that you happened to have at any time with a relation, a neighbor, or anyone else, you would then pray for them in a more extraordinary manner than you ever did before, requesting God to give them every grace, blessing, and happiness you can think of, you would have taken the quickest method possible of reconciling all differences and clearing up all misunderstandings. You would then think that nothing is too great to be forgiven, you would feel no superiority over others, and you would not need a third party to mediate your disagreement, but you would be glad to testify of your love and goodwill to him who had so high a place in your secret prayers.

This would be the mighty power of such Christian devotion. It would remove all ill-tempered passions, soften your heart into the most tender humility, and be the best arbitrator of all differences that occurred between you and any of your acquaintances.

The greatest resentments among friends and neighbors most often arise from small misunderstandings or little mistakes in conduct. This is a certain sign that their friendship is merely human and is not founded upon Christian principles or supported by such a course of mutual prayer for one another as the first Christians used.

Such devotion must necessarily either destroy such attitudes or else be destroyed by them. You cannot possibly have any ill temper or show any unkind behavior to anyone for whose welfare you are so much concerned as to be his advocate with God in private.

We may also learn the repulsive nature and exceeding guilt of all spite, hatred, contempt, and angry passions. They are not to be considered as defects in good nature and sweetness of temper, nor as failings in civility of manners or good breeding, but as such foundational temperaments as are entirely inconsistent with the charity of intercession. The spite, hatred, contempt, and anger toward another person is not simply a lack of spiritual maturity, but is a result of the lack of fervently praying for that person and having a heart filled with love for others.

You might think it is a small matter to be irritable or ill-natured to a certain person, but you should consider whether it is a small matter to do that which you could not do if you had enough kindness as to be able to pray for him. You might think it is a small matter to ridicule one person and despise another, but you should consider whether it is a small matter to lack that love toward these people that Christians are not supposed to lack toward their most hardened enemies.

If you are as kind and loving to these people and if you would bless them and pray for them as you are required to be kind and loving to and bless and pray for your enemies, then you will find that you have enough love to make it impossible for you to treat them with any degree of scorn or contempt. You cannot possibly despise and ridicule that person whom your private prayers entrust to the love and favor of God.

When you despise and ridicule someone, it is with no other purpose except to make him seem ridiculous and contemptible in the eyes of others, in order to prevent their esteem of him. How, therefore, can it be possible for you to sincerely ask God to bless that person with the honor of His love and favor whom you want people to treat as worthy of their contempt?

Could you, out of love to a neighbor, desire your mayor to honor him with every token of his esteem and favor, while at the same time encouraging your children to mock and despise him? This is as impossible as to encourage others to mock and despise those whom you commend to God in your secret prayers.

From these considerations we may plainly see the reasonableness and justice of this doctrine of the gospel, that Whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire (Matthew 5:22 KJV).

We are not, I suppose, to believe that every hasty word or unreasonable expression that slips from us by chance or surprise that is contrary to our intention and character is the great sin signified here. Rather, he who says "Raca," or "Thou fool," must mainly mean he who allows himself to deliberately speak to his brother in scornful and hateful reproachful language.

Since to speak in such a way would seem to be some of the worst things that one could say to another, and that could not be said except by those who did not have enough love to pray to God for his brother, then it cannot be considered unreasonable to think that a true Christian devoted to God could not speak in such a way. For who would think it would be unreasonable that a Christian cannot obtain the favor of God for himself unless he respected and esteemed his fellow Christian as one who bears the image of God, as one for whom Christ died, as a member of Christ's body, and as a member of that holy society on earth that is in union with that triumphant Church in heaven? Yet all these considerations must be forgotten and all these glorious privileges disregarded before someone can treat a Christian brother or sister as an object of scorn and contempt.

To scorn or despise a brother, or as our blessed Lord says, to call him "Raca," or fool, must be looked upon as among the most odious, unjust, and guilty attitudes that can be supported in the heart of one claiming to be a Christian, and should justly cause him to doubt his salvation in Jesus Christ. For to despise one for whom Christ died is to be as contrary to Christ as he who despises anything that Christ has said or done.

If a Christian who had lived at the time of the virgin Mary, should have, after the death of our Lord, treated her with contempt, you would certainly say that he had lost his piety toward our blessed Lord. A true reverence for Christ would have forced him to treat her with respect who was so nearly related to Him. I dare appeal to anyone's mind, whether it does not tell them that this relation of Mary to our blessed Lord must have obligated all those who lived and spoke with her to treat her with great respect and esteem. Might not someone have justly dreaded the vengeance of God for any scorn or contempt that he had shown to her?

Now if this is plain and obvious reasoning, if contempt directed toward Jesus' mother must have been interpreted as contempt for Christ because of her near relation to Him, then let the same reasoning show you the great impiety of despising any brother or sister. You cannot despise a brother without despising him who stands in a close relation to God and to His Son Jesus Christ.

You would certainly think it is very impious to treat a writing with great contempt that had been written by the finger of God; can you think it is less impious to show contempt toward and denigrate a brother who is not only the workmanship, but the image of God?

You would rightly think it would be very profane to spit upon and trample upon a Bible, and can you suppose it to be less profane to scorn and trample upon a brother, who so belongs to God that his very body is to be considered as the temple of the Holy Spirit? (1 Corinthians 6:19).

If you had despised and mistreated the Lord's mother, you would have been guilty of despising her who gave birth to the Messiah. If you scorn and despise a brother, you are guilty of impiously despising him for whom Christ laid down His life.

If this scornful attitude is founded upon a disregard of all these relations that every Christian bears to the Lord, can you wonder or think it difficult that someone who allows himself to despise a brother should be in danger of hell fire?

It must also be observed, that though in these words, "Whosoever shall say, Thou fool," etc., the great sin there condemned is the attitude of despising a brother, yet we are also to believe that all hasty expressions and words of contempt, though spoken by surprise or accident, are by this text condemned as great sins and notorious breaches of Christian love. They proceed from a great lack of Christian love and meekness, and they call for great repentance.

The reason we are always to realize our great guilt and call ourselves to a strict repentance for these hasty expressions of anger and contempt is because they are seldom what they seem to be; that is, they are more than mere starts of temper that were occasioned purely by surprise or accident, but are much more our own natural demeanor than we generally imagine, and they reveal the condition of the heart.

A man may say a great many bitter or angry things, but he quickly forgives himself, because he supposes it was only the suddenness of the occasion, or something accidental that caused him to lose his temper. He should consider, though, that the accident or surprise might not have been the reason for his angry expressions, but might only be that which causes his angry temper to display itself.

Generally speaking, this is the case, as all condescending, angry language generally proceeds from some secret habits of pride in the heart. Therefore, people who are subject to it, though only now and then as accidents happen, have great reason to repent of more than their quick temper or angry words, but ought to deal with the pride and anger that still dwells in their hearts.

This may be the reason why the text looks no farther than the outward language, and why it only says Whosoever shall say, Thou fool; because few can proceed so far as to rashly say such mean and cruel words, except they whose hearts are more or less possessed with habits and hearts of pride and self-importance.

Intercession is not only the best arbitrator of all differences, the best promoter of true friendship, and the best cure and preservative against all unkind qualities and all angry and arrogant emotions, but it is also of great use to show us the true condition of our own hearts.

There are many characteristics that we think are lawful and innocent that we never suspect of any harm; however, if they were to be tried by this devotion of intercession, it would soon show us how we have deceived ourselves. Prayer can reveal the condition of our hearts.

Greg is a pious, disciplined, good man, remarkable for an abundance of excellent qualities. No one is more consistent in attending church and no one's heart is more affected with it. His charity is so great, that he almost starves himself to be able to give more to the poor; yet Greg had a remarkable failing along with these great virtues.

He had a mighty urge to hear and discover all the defects and infirmities of everyone around him. You were welcome to tell him anything about anyone, as long as you did not do so in the manner of an enemy. He never disliked anyone who gossiped about someone else, unless they gossiped with a mean attitude or used profane words. If you would but whisper anything gently, though it were ever so bad in itself, Greg was ready to receive it.

When he visits, you generally hear him relating how sorry he is for the defects and failings of a certain neighbor. He is always letting you know how much he cares about the reputation of his neighbor, how reluctant he is to say that which he is forced to say, and how gladly he would conceal it, if it could be concealed.

Greg had such a tender, compassionate manner of relating the most prejudicial things to his neighbor, that he even seemed, both to himself and others, to be exercising a kind of Christian compassion at the same time that he was indulging a whispering, evil-speaking characteristic.

Greg once whispered to a particular friend in great secrecy something that was too bad to be spoken of publicly. He ended with saying how glad he was that it had not yet been made public, and that he had some hope that it might not be true, though the suspicions were very strong. His friend made him this reply:

"You say, Greg, that you are glad it has not yet been made public, and that you may have some hope that it may not prove true. Go home, therefore, to your closet, and pray to God for this man, in such a manner and with such earnestness as you would pray for yourself in the same situation. Ask God to intervene in his favor, to save him from false accusers, and to bring all those to shame who, by unkind gossip and secret stories, wound him, like those who stab in the dark. When you have made this prayer, then you may, if you want, go tell the same secret to some other friend that you have told to me."

Greg was quite affected by this rebuke, and he felt the force of it upon his conscience in as clear a manner as if he had seen the books opened at the day of judgment. He could have resisted all other arguments, but it was impossible for Greg either to reject or to follow this advice without being equally self-condemned in the highest degree.

From that time to this, he has constantly used this method of intercession, and his heart has been so entirely changed by it that he can now no more privately whisper anything to the detriment of another than he can openly pray to God to harm people. Gossip and speaking poorly of others now hurt his ears like profanity and taking God's name in vain do. He has set aside one day in the week to humble himself before God, to fast and pray, and to spend more time praying for others.

It may well be wondered how a man of so much piety as Greg could be so long deceived as to live in such a state of scandal and evil-speaking, without realizing that he was guilty of such things. It was the tenderness and seeming compassion with which he heard and related everything that deceived both himself and others. This was a falseness of heart, though, which was only to be fully discovered by the true charity of interceding for others.

If people of virtue, like Greg, who think they do not have much sin, were often to try their spirit by such a manner of praying for others, they would often find sins in themselves that they did not suspect.

I have laid before you the many and great advantages of intercession. You have seen what a divine friendship it must necessarily produce among Christians; how dear it would render all relations and neighbors to one another; how it tends to make clergymen, employers, and parents exemplary and faithful in all the duties of their lives; how certainly it destroys all envy, spite, and ill-natured passions; how speedily it reconciles all differences; and with what a piercing light it reveals to a person the true condition of his heart.

These considerations will, I hope, persuade you to make such intercession a constant, important part of your devotional lives.
Chapter 22

Recommending prayer for joyful surrender to God's will. The nature and duty of conformity to the will of God in all our actions and designs.

I have recommended certain topics to be made the steadfast and main matter of your devotions. During your morning prayers, give God thanks and present yourself to Him as a living sacrifice. Make the great virtue of Christian humility a big part of your petitions. Pray for all the graces of universal love, and raise it in your heart by such general and specific intercessions as your own condition and your relationship to other people seem more specifically to require of you. Pray, too, as you consider the necessity of surrender and conformity to the will of God. There is nothing wise or holy or just except the great will of God. This is as strictly true as to say that nothing is infinite and eternal but God.

No one, therefore, whether in heaven or on earth, can be wise, holy, or just, unless they conform to the will of God. It is conformity to this will that gives virtue and perfection to the highest services of the angels in heaven, and it is conformity to the same will that makes the ordinary actions of people on earth become an acceptable service unto God.

The whole nature of virtue consists in conforming to the will of God, and the whole nature of iniquity consists in rejecting the will of God. God's creatures are created to fulfil His will. The sun and moon obey His will by the necessity of their nature. Angels conform to His will by the perfection of their nature. If, therefore, you want to show yourself not to be a rebel and apostate from the order of the creation, you must act like beings both above and below you. It must be the great desire of your soul that God's will may be done by you on earth, as it is done in heaven. It must be the settled purpose and intention of your heart to desire nothing, plan nothing, or do nothing, unless you have reason to believe that it is the will of God that you should desire, plan, and do so.

It is as just and necessary to live in this condition of heart and to think this way about God and yourself, as to think that you have any dependence upon Him at all. It is as great a rebellion against God to think that your will may ever rightly differ from His as to think that you have not received the power to do His will.

You are therefore to consider yourself as one who has no other business in the world except to be that which God requires you to be and to do what God wants you to do. You are to have no attitudes and qualities contrary to His, no rules of your own to seek your own will and purposes, but you are to be and do that which is in strict conformity and thankful resignation to the divine pleasure.

To think that you are your own or that you can do whatever you want is as absurd as to think that you created and can preserve yourself. It is as plain and necessary a first principle to believe that you are God's, that you belong to Him, and that you are to act and accept everything in a thankful surrender to His pleasure, as to believe that in Him "you live, and move, and have your being" (Acts 17:28).

Resignation to God's will signifies a cheerful recognition and thankful acceptance of everything that comes from God. It is not enough to patiently submit, but we must thankfully accept and fully approve of everything that happens to us by the order of God's providence.

There is no reason why we should be patient except for the same good and strong reason why we should be thankful. If we were under the hands of a wise and good physician who could not make a mistake or do anything to us except that which was for our benefit, then it would not be enough to be patient and abstain from complaining about such a physician. It would be as much a neglect of duty and lack of gratitude to him not to be pleased and thankful for what he did as it would be to complain about him.

Now this is our true condition in relation to God. It cannot be rightly said that we believe in God unless we believe Him to be of infinite wisdom. Every argument, therefore, for patience during trials and difficult situations is just as strong an argument for acceptance and thankfulness for everything that He does to and for us. We do not need anything more to have this proper gratitude toward God than to fully believe in Him, that He is this Being of infinite wisdom, love, and goodness. If you agree to this truth in the same way that you agree to things of which you have no doubt, then you will cheerfully approve of everything that God has already approved for you.

Just as you cannot possibly be displeased with the behavior of any person toward you that is for your good, is wise in itself, and comes from love and goodness toward you, so when you understand that God not only does that which is wise and good and kind, but that which is the effect of infinite wisdom and love in the care of you, it will be as necessary, while you have this faith, to be thankful and pleased with everything that God chooses for you, as to wish for your own happiness.

Whenever, therefore, you find yourself inclined not to be content or to complain about anything that is the effect of God's providence over us, you must look upon yourself as denying either the wisdom or goodness of God. For every complaint necessarily supposes this. You would never complain about your neighbor unless you believe that you can show his unwise, unjust, or unkind behavior toward you. Every act of complaining or impatient reflection under the providence of God is the same accusation of God – that you believe He is being unwise, unjust, or unkind toward you. A complaint always assumes unkind or unfair treatment.

Because of this, you may also see the great necessity and piety of this thankful state of heart, because the lack of it implies an accusation of God's lack of wisdom or goodness in how He deals with us. To have this thankfulness of heart does not need any special holiness or rare spiritual gift, but this is a plain and simple principle founded in the simple belief that God is a Being of infinite wisdom and goodness.

This appreciation of the divine will may be considered in two respects. First, it signifies a thankful endorsement of God's general providence over the world. Secondly, it signifies a thankful acceptance of His specific providence over us.

First, every person is, by the law of creation, obligated to consent to and acknowledge the wisdom and goodness of God in His general providence over the whole world. We should believe that it is the effect of God's great wisdom and goodness that the world itself was formed at such a particular time and in such a manner. We should realize and admit that the general order of nature, the whole frame of things, was created and formed in the best manner. We ought to believe that God's providence over states and kingdoms and times and seasons is all for the best – that the revolutions of state and changes of empire, the rise and fall of monarchies, persecutions, wars, famines, and plagues, are all permitted and conducted by God's providence to the general good of man in this fallen world.

A good person is to believe all this with the same fulness of assent as he believes that God is in every place, though he neither sees, nor can comprehend the manner of His presence.

This is a noble and magnificent thought, a true religious greatness of mind, to be so affected with God's general providence as to admire and magnify His wisdom in all things. A true Christian attitude will not allow anyone to complain about the course of the world or the state of things, but we will look upon everything in heaven and earth as pleased spectators, adoring that invisible hand that gives laws to all motions and overrules all events to ends suitable to the highest wisdom and goodness.

It is very common for people to freely find fault with such things that have only God for their cause. Many people think that they can complain about the climate they live in or even the weather for the day. What these people are actually telling you is what a dismal cursed day it is and what intolerable seasons we have. Some people think that they have very little to thank God for, and that it is hardly worthwhile to live in a world so full of changes and revolutions. These are attitudes of great impiety and show that true Christianity has not yet settled in the hearts of those who have them.

It certainly sounds much better to complain about the course of the world or the state of things than to complain about how God does things. It sounds better to complain about the seasons and weather than to complain about God; but if these things have no other cause except God and His providence, it is not much different to say that you are only angry at the things, but not at the Cause and Director of them. If you complain about the cold weather, then you are really complaining about the God who gave us the cold weather.

The whole structure of the world is sacred and all things are to be considered as God's. This is fully taught by our blessed Lord in the case of oaths: But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by the heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head because thou canst not make one hair white or black (Matthew 5:34-36). This is because the whiteness or blackness of your hair is not yours, but God's arrangement.

Here you see that all things in the whole order of nature, from the highest heavens to the smallest hair, are always to be considered, not separately as they are in themselves, but as in some relation to God. It is good reasoning not to swear by the earth, a city, or your hair, because these things are God's, and so in a certain manner belong to Him. It is exactly the same reasoning, then, not to complain about the seasons of the earth, the situations of cities, and the change of times, because all these things are in the hands of God, have Him for their Author, and are directed and governed by Him to such ends as are most suitable to His wise providence. Here, too, we can pray to God about these matters and acknowledge His care and wisdom.

If you think you can complain about the state of things or even about the weather without complaining about God, hear what our blessed Lord says further about oaths: Whosoever therefore shall swear by the altar, swears by it and by all things thereon. And whosoever shall swear by the temple, swears by it and by Him that dwells therein. And he that shall swear by the heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him that sits thereon (Matthew 23:20-22).

This Scripture plainly requires us to reason after this manner. Whoever complains about the course of the world complains about God, who governs the course of the world. Whoever complains about the seasons and weather and speaks impatiently of times and events, complains and speaks impatiently about God, who is the sole Lord and Governor of times, seasons, and events.

Just as when we think of God Himself we are to have thoughts of praise and thanksgiving and trust, so when we look at those things that are under the direction of God and governed by His providence, we are to receive them with the same attitudes of praise and gratitude and trust.

Although we are not to think that all things are right and just and lawful that the providence of God permits (for then nothing could be unjust, because nothing is without His permission), yet we must adore God during even the greatest public calamities and the most grievous persecutions, as things that are allowed by God, like plagues and famines, for ends suitable to His wisdom and glory in the government of the world.

We need to have the attitude that Jesus recommended even for someone like John the Baptist as he sat in prison, soon to be beheaded. John sent two of his disciples to Jesus to make sure that He was really the Messiah. John might have wondered why he was sitting in prison when he had done nothing wrong, but had only obeyed and served God. Jesus told the two disciples of John to notice the miracles and the preaching, which proved that Jesus was the Messiah. Then Jesus added, And blessed is he who is not offended in me (Matthew 11:6). Even in difficult circumstances that might not have seemed deserved or fair to John the Baptist, Jesus reminded John that He was in control and that John needed to simply trust Him and not be offended by how He decides to run things.

There is nothing more suitable to the piety of a reasonable person or to the spirit of a Christian than to approve of, admire, and glorify God in all the ways that He leads us and acts in the world and in our own lives. We should consider the whole world as His particular family, and all events as directed by His wisdom.

Everyone seems to agree to this as an undeniable truth, that all things must be as God pleases. Is this not enough to make everyone pleased with what God does? How can anyone be an irritated complainer of anything that is the result of God's providence, except by showing that he considers his own self-will and self-wisdom better than the will and wisdom of God? If someone's heart is in this condition, how can we say that his heart is governed by Christianity? Will we claim to love, trust, and honor God, and then complain about how He runs the universe?

For if we cannot thank and praise God in calamities and sufferings as well as in prosperity and happiness, we are as far from the piety of a Christian as someone is from having Christian love who only loves those who love him. To thank God only for the things that you like is no more a proper act of piety than to believe only what you see is an act of faith. Joyful submission and thanksgiving to God are only acts of piety when they come from faith, trust, and confidence in the divine goodness.

The faith of Abraham was an act of true piety because it stopped at no difficulties; it was not changed or lessened by any human events or appearances. It first of all took him, against all display of happiness, from his own family and country, into a strange land, not knowing where he would end up. It afterwards made him, against all appearances of nature, when his body was wearing out and when he was about a hundred years old, depend upon the promise of God. Abraham was fully persuaded that what God had promised, He was able to perform. It was this same faith, that against so many pleas of nature and against so many appearances of reason, prevailed upon him to offer up Isaac, accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead (Hebrews 11:17-19).

This faith is the true pattern of Christian surrender to God's will and ways. You are to thank and praise God for things agreeable to you that have the appearance of happiness and comfort. You are also to thank and praise God when you are, like Abraham, called from all appearances of comfort to be a pilgrim in a strange land or to part with an only son. You should be just as fully persuaded of God's goodness in all things that happen to you as Abraham was of the divine promise when there was the least appearance of its being performed.

This is true Christian joyful surrender to God, which requires no more to support it than the same plain assurance of the goodness of God as Abraham had of His truth and faithfulness. If you ask yourself what greater reason Abraham had to depend upon God's goodness than you have to depend upon God's goodness, you will find that none can be given.

You cannot therefore look upon this as an unnecessarily high standard of holiness, since the lack of it implies the lack, not of any high notions, but of a plain and ordinary faith in the most basic and sure doctrines both of natural and revealed religion. Abraham had the simple faith that all followers of Jesus should have. Abraham did not have extraordinary faith, but he had faith in His extraordinary God.

Surrender to the divine will signifies a thankful admiration of God's governing all things in general, as well as a thankful acceptance of God's specific leading and direction in our own lives. Everyone should consider himself a particular object of God's providence, under the same care and protection of God as if the world had been made for him alone. It is not by chance that anyone is born at such a time as they were, of such parents, and in such a place and condition. It is as certain that every soul comes into the body at such a time and in such circumstances, by the specific design of God, according to His will and for His purposes. This is as certain as that it is by the distinct design of God that some beings are angels and others are human.

It was just as much by the counsel and eternal purpose of God that you were born in your particular circumstances and that Isaac was the son of Abraham as that Gabriel was made an angel and Isaac was created as a man.

The Scriptures assure us that it was by divine appointment that our blessed Savior was born at Bethlehem, and at such a time as He was (Galatians 4:4-5). Although it was because of the dignity of His person and the great importance of His birth that much of the divine counsel was declared to the world concerning the time and manner of the birth of the Messiah, yet we are as sure from the same Scriptures that the time and manner of every person's coming into the world is according to some eternal purposes and direction of divine providence, and in such time, place, and circumstances as are directed and governed by God for the particular purposes of His wisdom and goodness.

This we are as certain of, from plain revelation, as we can be of anything. For if we are told that not even one sparrow falls to the ground without our heavenly Father (Matthew 10:29), can anything more strongly teach us that much greater beings, such as human souls, do not enter the world without the care and direction of our heavenly Father? If it is said that the very hairs of your head are all numbered (Matthew 10:30), is it not to teach us that nothing – not even the smallest things imaginable – happen to us by chance? But if the smallest things we can conceive are declared to be under God's direction, do we need to, or can we, be more plainly taught that the greatest things of life, such as the manner of our coming into the world, our parents, the time, and other circumstances of our birth and condition, are all according to the eternal purposes, direction, and appointment of divine providence?

The disciples asked our blessed Lord concerning the blind man, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? He who is the eternal Wisdom of God answered, Neither has this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him (John 9:2-3). Jesus plainly declared here that the specific circumstances of everyone's birth, the body he receives, and the condition and state of life into which he is born are appointed by a special providence that directs all things to their particular times and seasons and manner of existence, that the wisdom and works of God may be made evident in them all.

It is therefore certain that what we are as to birth, time, and condition of entering into the world, and all that is distinct in our circumstance, is the effect of God's specific providence over us and is intended for some particular purpose both for His glory and our own happiness. We are, then, by the greatest necessity of gratitude, called upon to conform and surrender our will to the will of God in all these respects. We ought to thankfully approve and accept everything that is unique to our situation, praising and glorifying His name for our birth, for our parents, and in our specific circumstances and condition, being fully assured that it was for some reasons of infinite wisdom and goodness that we were so born into such particular states of life. We might not understand why we were born into our specific circumstances, but we must trust God and His will and follow Him where He has us.

If the man mentioned above was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him, did he not have a great reason to praise God for appointing him, in such a particular manner, to be the instrument of His glory? If one person is born here, and another there; if one person is born into riches, and another into poverty; if one receives his flesh and blood from these parents, and another from those, each for a specific purpose as the man who was born blind, then do not all people have the greatest reason to bless God and to be thankful for their particular circumstances and condition? All that is specific in each circumstance is as directly intended for the glory of God and for their own good, as the particular blindness of that man who was born so that the works of God might be manifested in him.

How noble an idea does this give us of the divine omniscience presiding over the whole world and governing such a long chain and combination of seeming coincidences and chances, to the common and particular advantage of all people! It is wonderful how all people, in such a wonderful variety of causes, circumstances, and events, should all fall into such specific circumstances as were foreseen and foreordained to their best advantage and so as to be most useful to the wise and glorious ends of God's government of all the world.

If you had been anything else than what you are, you had, all things considered, been less wisely provided for than you are now; you would have lacked some circumstances and conditions that are best suited to make you happy and serviceable to the glory of God.

If you could see all that God sees, all that happy chain of causes and motives that are to move and invite you to a right course of life, you would see something to make you appreciate and like the circumstances you are in as better for you than any other. However, since you cannot see all things as God sees them, it is here that your Christian faith and trust in God is to exercise itself and render you as grateful and thankful for the happiness of your state as if you saw everything that contributes to it with your own eyes. Let us be sure to follow God's will for our lives and obey and serve Him completely.

Now if this is the case with everyone in the world, each blessed with some particular state that is best for him, how reasonable is it for everyone to want that which God has already wanted for him! How reasonable it is that by a pious faith and trust in the divine goodness, we thankfully adore and magnify that wise providence that we are sure has made the best choice for us of those things that we could not choose for ourselves!

Every uneasiness of our own circumstances comes from comparing our circumstance with that of other people. This is quite as unreasonable as if a sick man would be angry at those who prescribe different things for him than those that are prescribed to people in health. All the different states of life are like the different states of diseases; what is a remedy to one person in his state may be harmful to another.

To complain because you are not as some others are, is as if a person with one disease would complain that he is not treated like someone else who had a different disease. If he were to have what he was asking for, he would be killed by that which would heal someone else.

In any of the various conditions of life, if you give yourself up to being discontent or to complain about anything in your situation, you may, for all you know, be so ungrateful to God as to complain about that very thing that is to prove the cause of your salvation. If you had it in your power to get what you think it is so upsetting not to have, it might perhaps be that very thing which, of all others, would most expose you to eternal damnation.

So whether we consider the infinite goodness of God that cannot choose mistakenly for us, or our own great ignorance of what is best for us, there can be nothing so reasonable and pious as to have no will but that of God's, and to desire nothing for ourselves, in our persons, our state, and condition, except that which the good providence of God appoints for us. If we claim to trust and love God, then let us be content to follow His will for our lives and to live for His glory in whatever circumstances He places us.

Even more, as the good providence of God introduces us into the world as it does, into such states and conditions of life as are most convenient for us, so the same unerring wisdom orders all events and changes throughout the whole course of our lives in such a way as to render them the most capable means to exercise and improve our virtue. The things that happen to us as we follow God happen according to God's will and wisdom. If we are John the Baptist or Joseph sitting in prison, Daniel being taken away from his homeland and carried off to another land, Ruth experiencing the death of her husband, Solomon becoming a king, Job dealing with the loss of his possessions and family, one who was born blind, Paul being shipwrecked, or whatever situation and circumstances we are facing, let us be certain that we are devoted to God, and let us accept our circumstances gladly as the will of God that He will use for our good and His glory.

Nothing hurts us or destroys us except the improper use of that liberty with which God has entrusted us. We are as sure that nothing happens to us by chance as that the world itself was not made by chance. We are as certain that all things happen and work together for our good as that God is goodness itself. We have as much reason to be glad for everything that happens to us simply because God wills it for us as to believe that the greatest wisdom is that which is directed by infinite wisdom.

This is not cheating or soothing ourselves into any false content or imaginary happiness, but is a satisfaction grounded upon as great a certainty as the being and attributes of God. If we are right in believing that God acts over us with infinite wisdom and goodness, we cannot carry our desire of conformity and resignation to the divine will too high; nor can we ever be deceived by thinking that those circumstances which God has brought upon us are best for us.

The providence of God is not more concerned in presiding over night and day and the variety of seasons, than in the common course of events that seem most to depend upon the mere wills of men. It is as exactly right to look upon all worldly events and changes and all the various turns and changes in your own life to be as truly the effects of divine providence, as the rising and setting of the sun or the changes of the seasons of the year. Just as you are always to treasure the wisdom of God in the management of these things, so it is the same reasonable duty always to magnify God as He directs of everything that happens to you in the course of your own life.

This holy surrender and conformity of your will to the will of God being so much the true state of piety, I hope you will think it proper to pray often to God for so great a gift. By constantly praying for it, your heart may be habitually disposed toward it, and always in a state of readiness to look at everything as God's, and to consider Him in everything, so that everything that happens to you may be received in the spirit of piety and made a means of glorifying and serving God.

There is nothing that so powerfully governs the heart, that so strongly excites us to wise and reasonable actions, as a true sense of God's presence. But as we cannot see or understand the nature and essence of God, so nothing will so constantly keep us under a lively sense of the presence of God as this holy surrender that attributes everything to Him and receives everything as from Him.

If we could see a miracle from God, our thoughts would be affected with a holy awe and veneration of His presence! But if we consider everything as God's doing, either by order or permission, we will then be affected with ordinary things, just as they would be who saw a miracle.

Just as we would be affected by a miracle because it is a result of the action of God and demonstrates His presence, so when you consider God as acting in all things and all events, then you will consider all things sacred to you, like miracles, and you will be filled with the same awe-inspiring sentiments of the divine presence.

You must not keep back the exercise of this pious attitude to any certain times or occasions, or imagine how surrendered you will be to God's will if certain trials should happen, for this is amusing yourself with the notion or idea of surrender, instead of the virtue itself. Do not therefore please yourself by thinking how piously you would act and submit to God in a plague, or famine, or persecution, but be intent upon the perfection of the present day; be assured that the best way of showing true zeal is to make little things the occasions of great piety. Acknowledge and accept the will of God in all things, whether small or great, for they are all from Him.

Begin therefore in the smallest matters and most ordinary occasions, and get your mind used to the daily exercise of this pious perspective in the most simple and common things in life. And when a little offense, an insult, a little injury, loss, or disappointment, or the smallest events of every day continually raise your mind to God in proper acts of surrender and acceptance of God's will, then you may well be counted among those who are resigned and thankful to God in the greatest trials and afflictions.
Chapter 23

Of evening prayer. Of the nature and necessity of examining ourselves. How we are to be specific in the confession of all our sins. How we are to fill our minds with a just disgust and dread of all sin.

I am now come to the topic of evening prayer, which is a time so proper for devotion that I suppose nothing needs be said to recommend it as a time of prayer to all people who profess any regard to Christianity.

As the day's work is generally finished for most people by the late evening, this is the proper time for everyone to examine himself and review all his behavior from the first action of the day. The necessity of this examination is based upon the necessity of repentance. For if it is necessary to repent of all our sins, if the guilt of unrepented sins still continue upon us, then it is necessary, not only that all our sins, but the particular circumstances and aggravations of them, be known and recollected and repented of.

Scripture says, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). This is as much as to say that our sins are only forgiven, and we are only cleansed from the guilt and unrighteousness of them, when they are confessed and repented of. There seems therefore to be the greatest necessity that all our daily actions be constantly observed and brought to account, lest by negligence we load ourselves with the guilt of unrepented sins.

This examination therefore of ourselves every evening is not only to be considered as a commendable rule and one that is proper for a wise person to observe, but as something that is as necessary as daily confession and repentance of our sins. You cannot repent, unless you know what it is that you are repenting of.

Maybe before now you only used to confess yourself a sinner in general and ask forgiveness overall, without any specific remembrance or remorse for your specific sins of that day. By this practice you were brought to believe that the same short prayer of confession of sin in general is a sufficient repentance for every day.

Suppose another person would say that confessing our sins in general once at the end of every week was sufficient, and that it is just as well to confess the sins of seven days altogether as to do so in repentance at the end of every day. I know you sufficiently see the unreasonableness and impiety of this opinion, and that you think it is easy enough to show the danger and foolishness of it; yet the same arguments that say we should confess our sins daily instead of weekly are the same reasons why we should confess our sins specifically instead of in a general way.

If we do not examine ourselves daily and confess our specific sins, then soon these sins become normal to us and accepted by us. Whereas if we confess our sins daily, we see every day the sins against which we struggle and the people we have hurt, and we lament that we so often fall into such sin, asking God to help us, being determined to overcome these things.

Is not this a good reason for requiring that your daily repentance be very direct and specific for your daily sins? For if confession is to bring about a hatred of sin, surely that confession that considers and lays open your specific sins, that brings them to light with all their circumstances and troubles, that requires a specific sorrowful acknowledgment of every sin, must, in a much greater degree, fill the mind with an abhorrence of sin than that which only confesses you to be a sinner in general. Confessing your sins in general every day or every so often has nothing in it to make you truly ashamed of your own way of life.

Would you not tell such a person that by only confessing his sins in general once a week, he would be in great danger of forgetting a great many of his sins? There is no sense or force in this argument unless you realize that our sins are all to be remembered and are to be specifically repented of. Is it not necessary that our specific sins are not forgotten, but are specifically remembered in daily repentance? Every argument for daily confession and repentance is the same argument for the confession and repentance of the specific sins of every day. Daily confession has no other reason or necessity but our daily sins. If we did not sin every day, we would not need to repent every day.

You would, I suppose, think yourself guilty of great impiety if you were to go to bed without confessing yourself to be a sinner and asking pardon of God; you would not think it sufficient that you did so yesterday. Yet if, without any regard to today, you only repeat the same form of general words that you used yesterday, the sins of the present day may justly be looked upon to have had no repentance. For if the sins of the present day require a new confession, it must be such a new confession as is proper to itself. It is the state and condition of every day that is to determine the state and manner of your repentance in the evening; otherwise the same general form of words is an empty formality that has the appearance of a duty rather than such a true performance of it as is necessary to make it truly useful to you. If we simply repeat a general prayer, we are not truly confessing and repenting for our specific sins of that day.

Suppose that on a certain day you have been guilty of these sins: you told a lie, you lost your temper, you spoke harshly of your employer, and you took God's name in vain. Suppose that on the next day you lived better. You spent time alone with God, you went about your work diligently, and you even helped someone. Now suppose that on the evening of both these days you only use the same general confession, considering it rather as a duty that is to be performed every night than as repentance that is to be suited to the specific sins of the day.

Can it with any reason be said that each day has had its proper repentance? Is it not just as foolish to say that there is no difference in the guilt of these days as to say that there is no need for different prayers of repentance at the end of them? How can each of them have its proper repentance unless by its having a repentance as large, and extensive, and specific as the guilt of each day?

Again, suppose that on that day, when you had been guilty of the sins above mentioned, that in your evening repentance you had only called one of them to mind. Is it not plain, that the other two are unrepented of, and that, therefore, their guilt still abides upon you? You would then be in the condition of him who commits himself to the night without having repented this day of the other sins.

Now these are not needless details or such picky trivialities that we do not need to trouble ourselves about, but are such plain truths as essentially concern the very life of piety. For if repentance is necessary, it is just as necessary that it be rightly performed in the right time and with the right heart. We certainly may not remember every single sin we commit, but the sooner we confess our sins to God and repent after we sin, the more we will remember and the more we will see the sinfulness of our sin and the corruption in our heart.

I have given this example only to show you, in the plainest manner, that examination and a careful review of all the actions of the day is not only to be looked upon as a good rule, but as something as necessary as repentance itself.

If a businessman must give an account for his daily expenses, can it be thought needless of him to take notice of every specific expense that he had during the day? And if a person is to repent of his sins at night, can it be thought that he is too much concerned because he aims to know and call to mind what specific sins he is to repent of each day?

Though it should be admitted that a confession in general might be sufficient for the end of such days as have only the unavoidable frailties of our nature to lament, yet even this folly proves the absolute necessity of this self-examination; for without examining ourselves, how can we know that we have gone through a day without any specific sins committed? Certainly, most or all of us can recall one or more specific instances of sin that we have committed during the day.

An evening repentance that brings all the actions of the day to account is not only necessary to wipe off the guilt of sin, but is also the most certain way to amend and perfect our lives and to be aware of our frailties and the need to enter each day with care and to be more aware of our sinful tendencies and our need of holiness. It is only such a repentance as this that touches the heart, awakens the conscience, and leaves a dread and detestation of sin upon the mind.

For instance, if one evening all that you can recall regarding your sins of the day would be a rushed and careless performance of your devotions, or too much time spent in empty conversation; if the unreasonableness of these things were fully reflected upon and acknowledged, and if you were then to condemn yourself before God for them and implore His pardon and assisting grace, what could be so likely a means to prevent your falling into the same faults the next day? You would be determined the next day not to be so careless with your devotions or time.

If you would fall into the same sins again the next day, if they were again brought to the same examination and condemnation in the presence of God, their happening again would be such a proof to you of your own folly and weakness, would cause such a pain and remorse in your mind, and would fill you with such shame and confusion at yourself, as would, in all probability, make you exceedingly desirous of greater perfection.

In the case of repeated sins, the certain benefit that we would receive from this examination and confession would be that the mind would thereby be made humble, full of sorrow and deep regret, and we would desire to turn from these sins completely.

A formal, general confession that is only considered as a duty and that overlooks the specific sins of the day, and is the same, whether you have sinned much or little, has little or no effect upon the mind. A person may use such a daily confession and yet go on sinning and confessing all his life, without any remorse of mind or true desire to change.

If your own specific sins are left out of your confession, your confessing of sin in general has no more effect upon your mind than if you had only confessed that all people in general are sinners. There is nothing in any confession to show that it is yours, unless it is about your own sins – not of sin in general or sin that is common to all, but of such specific sins as are your own proper shame and reproach.

No other confession but one that admits and confesses your own specific guilt can be an act of true sorrow or real concern at your own condition. A confession that is without this sorrow and regret of heart has nothing in it either to atone for past sins or to produce in us any true reformation and amendment of life.

In order to make this self-examination still more beneficial, everyone should commit himself to a certain method in it. Everyone has something specific in his nature, stronger inclinations to some sins than others, some vices that stick closer to him and are harder to be conquered than others. It is just as easy for everyone to know this of himself as to know whom he likes or dislikes, so it is highly necessary that these specific frailties of our natures and character should never escape a severe trial at our evening repentance. I say a severe trial, because nothing but a rigorous severity against these sins is sufficient to conquer them.

They are the right eyes that are not to be spared, but are to be plucked out and cast from us (Matthew 5:29). For as they are the infirmities of our nature, so they have the strength of nature and must be treated with great opposition, or they will soon be too strong for us.

He, therefore, who knows that he is most subject to anger and impatience, must be very exact and constant in his examination of these things every evening. He must find out every slip that he has made of that kind, whether in thought, word, or action. He must be ashamed of his sin, and reproach and accuse himself before God for everything that he has said or done in obedience to his anger and impatience. He must no more allow himself to forget to examine himself every night in regard to these things than to forget to pray at all.

If you find that pride and vanity is your prevailing downfall, that you are always concerned about your outer beauty and always looking for compliments, grasping after everything that compliments or flatters your physical appearance, never spare nor forget this in your evening examination. Confess to God every vanity of thought, word, or action that you have been guilty of, being ashamed of yourself because of your sin.

If all people would act in this manner in regard to their habitual and regular sins to which their nature most inclines them, and though it might not immediately do all that they would wish, yet by a constant practice, it would certainly in a short time produce its desired effect.

As all conditions and employments of life have their particular dangers and temptations and expose people more to some sins than others, so everyone who desires his own improvement in holiness should make it a necessary part of his evening examination to consider how he has avoided such sins or fallen into such sins as are most common to his circumstances in life. For as our business and condition of life has great power over us, so nothing but such watchfulness as this can secure us from those temptations to which we are daily exposed.

The poor man, from his condition of life, is always in danger of being discontent and uneasy; the rich man is most exposed to love of pleasure and indulgence; the tradesman to lying and unreasonable gains; and the scholar to pride and vanity. In every state of life, a person should always, in examining himself, have a strict eye upon those faults to which his state of life most of all exposes him.

It is reasonable to think that every true Christian desires to live a holy life and has set some specific rules for himself to help him to do so. It should be a constant part of his nightly routine to examine how and in what degree he has observed them, and to reproach himself before God for every neglect of them. By rules, I here mean such rules as relate to the discipline and handing of our time and the business of our common life. These are such rules as determine a certain order to all that we are to do, regarding our work, devotion, self-denial, reading, recreation, conversation, meals, hobbies, sleep, and the like. These are especially helpful for those who lack self-discipline or who quickly make excuses for their lack of devotion to God.

Just as good rules relating to all these things are certain means of great improvement and are rules that all serious Christians ought to set for themselves, so they will hardly ever be observed to any purpose unless they are made the constant subject of our evening examination. You are not to content yourself with a hasty general review of the day, but you must enter upon it with thoughtfulness and deliberation. Begin with the first action of the day and proceed, step-by-step, through every specific matter that you have been concerned in, and so let no time, place, or action be overlooked.

An examination thus managed will in a little time make you as different from yourself as a wise man is different from one who is insane. It will give you such a newness of mind, such a spirit of wisdom and desire of perfection, as you were an entire stranger to before.

I proceed now to lay before you such considerations as may fill your mind with a proper dread and disgust of all sin, and may help you to confess your own sin in the most sincere and fervent remorse and sorrow of heart.

Consider first how repulsive all sin is to God, how vile it is, and how abominable it renders sinners in the sight of God! Consider that it is sin alone that makes the great difference between an angel and the devil. Consider that every sinner is, as far as he sins, a friend of the devil's, and is carrying on his work against God. Consider that sin is a greater blemish and defilement of the soul than any filth or disease is a defilement of the body. To be content to live in sin is a much greater low than to desire to wallow in the mire.

Consider how repulsed you would be by someone who delighted in nothing but filth and nastiness and who hated everything that was decent and clean; let this teach you to understand how repulsive that person must appear to God who delights in nothing but the impurity of sin.

For all sins, whether of the flesh, pride, deception, or anything else, are nothing else but the filth and impure diseases of the rational soul. All righteousness is nothing else but the purity, decency, beauty, and perfection of that spirit which is made in the image of God.

Learn from the greatness of that atonement that has been made for sin what dread you ought to have for the guilt of sin. God made the world by the breath of His mouth, by a spoken word, but the redemption of the world has been a work of longer labor.

We learn from the first chapter of Genesis how easily God can create beings, but we see how difficult it is for infinite mercy to forgive sins when we consider that costly atonement, that bloody sacrifice, the pain and sorrow that all had to be accomplished before the guilty sinner would be able to appear in the presence of God.

Ponder these great truths. The Son of God was forced to become man, to be partaker of all our infirmities, to undergo a poor, painful, miserable, and contemptible life, to be persecuted and hated, and at last nailed to a cross, so that by such sufferings He might render God propitious to that nature in which He suffered. Consider that all the bloody sacrifices and atonements of the Jewish law were to represent the necessity of this great sacrifice and the great displeasure God bore to sinners.

Consider that the world is still under the curse of sin and certain marks of God's displeasure at it – such as famines, plagues, tempests, sickness, diseases, and death.

Consider that all the children of Adam are to go through a painful, frail life, denying and mortifying their natural appetites and crucifying the lusts of the flesh in order to have a share in the atonement of our Savior's death. Consider that all their self-denial, all their tears and repentance, are only made available by that great intercession that Jesus is still making for them at the right hand of God.

Consider these great truths. Consider that this incomprehensible redemption, all these sacrifices and sufferings, both of God and man, are only to remove the guilt of sin; and then let this teach you with what tears and repentance you ought to purge yourself from it.

After you have considered this guilt of sin that has done so much harm to your nature, exposed it to such great punishment, and made it so repulsive to God that nothing less than so great an atonement of the Son of God and such great repentance of our own can restore us to the divine favor, then consider your own particular part in the guilt of sin. If you would like to know with what zeal you ought to repent, consider how you would exhort another sinner to repentance, and what repentance and change you would expect from him whom you judged to be the greatest sinner in the world.

Everyone may rightly consider this case to be his own. You may rightly look upon yourself to be the greatest sinner that you know in the world. For though you may know many people to be guilty of some blatant sins that you are not guilty of yourself, yet you may justly condemn yourself as the greatest sinner that you know, for the following reasons:

First, because you know more of the foolishness and sin of your own heart than you do of other people's. You can charge yourself with various sins that you only know of yourself, and you cannot be sure that other sinners are guilty of them. Just as you know more of the foolishness, the depravity, the pride, the deceitfulness, and the negligence of your own heart than you do of anyone else's, so you have good reason to consider yourself as the greatest sinner that you know, for you know more of the greatness of your own sins than you do of other people's.

Secondly, the greatness of our guilt arises mainly from the greatness of God's goodness toward us, and from the particular graces, blessings, favors, light, and instructions that we have received from Him. Now as these graces and blessings and the multitude of God's favors toward us should cause us to be even more ashamed of our sins against Him, so they are known only to us. Therefore, every sinner knows more of the source of his own guilt than he does of other people's, and consequently may justly look upon himself to be the greatest sinner that he knows.

How good God has been to other sinners, what light and instruction He has graciously granted to them, what blessings and graces they have received from Him, and how often He has touched their hearts with holy inspirations, you cannot tell; but all this you know about yourself; therefore, you know greater difficulties of your own guilt and are able to charge yourself with greater ingratitude than you can charge upon other people. This is the reason why the greatest saints in all ages have condemned themselves as the greatest sinners – because they knew the pain of their own sins, which they could not know of other people's.

The right way, therefore, to fill your heart with true remorse and a deep sense of your own sins is not to consider other people's sins, or compare the outward form or course of your life with that of other people's, and then consider yourself to be less sinful than they are because the outward course of your life is less sinful than theirs. In order to know your own guilt, you must consider your own specific circumstances, your health, your sickness, your youth or age, your particular calling, the happiness of your education, the degrees of light and instruction that you have received, the good people with whom you have conversed, the admonitions that you have had, the good books you have read, the numberless multitude of divine blessings, graces, and favors that you have received, the good motions of grace that you have resisted, the resolutions to change that you have often broken, and the checks of conscience that you have disregarded.

It is from these circumstances that everyone is to state the measure and greatness of his own guilt. As you know these circumstances only of your own sins, so you must necessarily know how to charge yourself with higher degrees of guilt than you can charge upon other people.

God Almighty knows greater sinners, it may be, than you are, because He sees and knows the circumstances of all people's sins; but your own heart, if it is faithful to you, can reveal no guilt as great as your own, because it can only see your own circumstances by which you sin.

You may see sins in other people that you cannot charge upon yourself, but you also know a number of your own sins that you cannot accuse them of. Perhaps that person who appears at such a distance from your virtue and so sinful in your eyes would have been much better than you are if he had been in your circumstances and received all the same favors and graces from God that you have received.

This is a very humbling reflection, and very proper for those people to make who measure their virtue by comparing the outward course of their lives with that of other people's. No matter whom you consider, however different from you his way of life is, you can never know that he has resisted as much divine grace as you have, or that if he had been in your same circumstances, he would not have been much truer to his duty in Christ Jesus than you are.

This is the reason why I desired you to consider how you would exhort that man to confess and lament his sins whom you looked upon to be one of the greatest sinners; because if you will be honest, you must direct the charge at home and look no further than yourself. God has given no one any power of knowing the true greatness of any sins but his own, and therefore the greatest sinner that everyone knows is himself.

You might easily see how someone in the outward course of his life breaks the laws of God, but you can never say that you would not have broken more of them than he has done if you had been in his exact circumstances.

A serious and frequent reflection upon these things will mightily tend to humble us in our own eyes, make us very aware of the greatness of our own guilt, and help us to be very tender in attacking and condemning others. Who would dare to be severe against other people, when for all he knows, the severity of God may be more due to him than to them? Who would gossip about the sins of others if he considers that he knows more of the greatness of his own sin than he does of theirs?

How often you have resisted God's Holy Spirit? How many motives to goodness have you disregarded? How many particular blessings have you sinned against? How many good resolutions have you broken? How many checks and admonitions of conscience have you stifled? You may very well know this about yourself, but how often this has been the case with other sinners, you do not know. Therefore, the greatest sinner that you know must be yourself.

Whenever, therefore, you are angry at sin or sinners, whenever you read or think about God's indignation and wrath at wicked people, let this teach you to be the most severe in your own condemnation, and most humble and contrite in the acknowledgment and confession of your own sins, because you know of no sinner equal to yourself.

Lastly, when you are confessing your sins in the evening before you go to bed, another subject that is most proper for your prayers at that time is death. Let your prayer at this time, therefore, be much upon it, considering all the dangers, uncertainties, and terrors of death. Let your prayer contain everything that can affect and awaken your mind into a better understanding of it. Let your petitions be for right thoughts and attitudes of the approach and importance of death, and beg of God that your mind may be filled with such a sense of its nearness that you may have it always in your thoughts, do everything as in sight of it, and make every day a day of preparation for it.

Imagine that your bed is your grave, and that all things are ready for your burial. Imagine that you are to have no more to do with this world, and that it will be owing to God's great mercy if you ever see the light of the sun again or have another day to add to live for God.

Then commit yourself to sleep, as into the hands of God, as one who is to have no more opportunities of doing good, but is to awake as a spirit that is separate from the body and waiting for the judgment of the last great day.

Such a solemn resignation of yourself into the hands of God every evening, parting with all the world as if you were never to see it again, and all this in the silence and darkness of the night, is a practice that will soon have excellent effects upon your spirit.

This time of the night is exceeding proper for such prayers and meditations, and the likeness that sleep and darkness have to death will contribute very much to make your thoughts about it the more deep and affecting. I hope that you will not let a time so proper for such prayers be ever passed over without them.
Chapter 24

The conclusion. Of the excellency and greatness of a devout spirit.

I have now finished what I intended in this book. I have explained the nature of devotion, both as it signifies a life devoted to God and as it signifies a regular method of daily prayer. I have now only to add a word or two in recommendation of a life governed by this spirit of devotion.

Although it is as reasonable to suppose that it is the desire of all Christians to be holy and separate from the world as to suppose that all sick people desire to be restored to perfect health, yet experience shows us that nothing needs to be more urged, repeated, and forced upon our minds than the simplest rules of Christianity.

Christian holiness itself is not tied to a particular kind of life, such as that of a pastor or missionary, but is to be pursued no matter what our employment or situation in life. This has been fully dealt with in another place, where it has been shown that a holy life does not mean that one must necessarily be in full-time Christian ministry, but that the full performance of those duties that are necessary for all Christians and are common to all situations of life should be characteristic of all who follow Jesus.

There is much in life that is not necessarily wrong, but which should be avoided if we are to be single-minded followers of Jesus. Much that the world has to offer will not be attractive to those in pursuit of pleasing God in all things. In the same way, much that the world views as unnecessary or overly strict is necessary to the Christian life. Some of these things have already been discussed, and God's Spirit can show you these things in your own life if you seek Him.

The thing which is here urged upon all Christians is a life of a great and strict devotion, which I think has been sufficiently shown to be equally the duty and happiness of all classes of people. Neither is there anything in any particular state of life that can be justly pleaded as a reason for not having a fully devout spirit.

In this age of ours, we have lived so far away from the spirit of devotion, that many seem afraid even to be suspected of being devoted to Jesus, thinking that the pursuit of a holy life and following the teachings of the Bible is founded in ignorance and poorness of spirit – and that small, weak, legalistic, and dejected minds are usually the ones who desire such things. To speak of avoiding the sports and games and music and fashion of this world, to desire to keep the Lord's Day holy, or to show greater interest in the things of eternity than the things of this world, leads to ridicule – even by those who claim to follow Jesus.

It will here be fully shown that great devotion is the noblest spirit of the greatest and noblest souls; they who think it comes from ignorance and poorness of spirit are themselves not a little, but entirely ignorant of the nature of devotion, the nature of God, and the nature of themselves.

People of wealth or with a good education or of great knowledge in worldly matters may perhaps think it hard to have their lack of devotion blamed upon their ignorance; but if they will be content to be tried by reason and Scripture, it may soon be made to appear that a lack of devotion to God, wherever it is, either among the learned or unlearned, is based in glaring ignorance, and is the greatest blindness and insensibility that can happen to a rational creature. Devotion to God is so far from being the effect of a little and dejected mind, that it must and will be always highest in the most perfect natures.

First, who would rightly consider it a sign of a poor, little mind for someone to be full of reverence and duty to his parents, to have the truest love and honor for his friend, or to excel in the highest instances of gratitude to his benefactor? Are not these qualities of the highest degree in the most exalted and best minds?

What is the highest devotion but the highest exercise of these qualities – of duty, reverence, love, honor, and gratitude to the amiable, glorious Parent, Friend, and Benefactor of all mankind? If it is good to honor your parents, please your friend, and be thankful to those who help and support you, then is it not even more just, reasonable, and honorable to honor, please, and be grateful toward God?

As long as duty to parents, love to friends, and gratitude to benefactors are thought great and honorable qualities, then devotion, which is nothing else but duty, love, and gratitude to God, must have the highest place among our highest virtues.

If a prince, out of his mere goodness, would send you a pardon by one of his servants, would you think it a part of your duty to receive the servant with tokens of love, esteem, and gratitude for his great kindness in bringing you so great a gift, while at the same time think it a unsatisfactory and poor of spirit to show love, esteem, and gratitude to the prince, who of his own goodness freely sent you the pardon? Yet this would be as reasonable as to suppose that love, esteem, honor, and gratitude are noble qualities when they are paid to our fellow humans, but the effects of a poor, ignorant, dejected mind when they are paid to God.

Even more, that part of devotion that expresses itself in sorrowful confessions and penitential tears of a broken and a contrite heart is very far from being a sign of a small and ignorant mind. For who does not acknowledge it to be an instance of an honest, generous, and brave mind to acknowledge a fault and ask forgiveness for any offence? Are not the finest and most improved minds the most remarkable for this excellent quality? Is it not also admitted that the genuineness and excellence of a man's spirit is much shown when his sorrow and indignation at himself rises in proportion to the folly of his crime and the goodness and greatness of the person he has offended?

The greater anyone's mind is and the more he knows of God and himself, the more he will be disposed to prostrate himself before God in all the humblest acts and expressions of repentance. The greater the genuineness, goodness, judgment, and penetration of his mind, the more he will be sensitive and tender to God's displeasure. The more he knows of the greatness, goodness, and perfection of the divine nature, the fuller of shame and confusion he will be at his own sins and ingratitude.

On the other hand, the more dull and ignorant any soul is, the more unprincipled and selfish it naturally is, the more senseless it is of the goodness and purity of God, and so much the more opposed it will be to all acts of humble confession and repentance.

Devotion, therefore, is so far from being best suited to small and ignorant minds, that a true elevation of soul, a lively sense of honor, and great knowledge of God and ourselves are the greatest natural helps that our devotion to God has. On the other hand, it will here be shown by a variety of arguments that lack of devotion to God is based upon the most excessive ignorance.

First, our blessed Lord and His apostles were eminent instances of great and frequent devotion to God. Now if we will agree (as all Christians must agree) that their great devotion was based upon a true knowledge of the nature of devotion, the nature of God, and the nature of man, then it is clear that all those who are insensible of the duty of devotion to God are in an excessive state of ignorance, and they do not know God, themselves, or devotion.

If a right knowledge in these three respects produces great devotion, as in the case of our Savior and His apostles, then a neglect of devotion must be due to ignorance.

Why is it that most people turn to devotion when they are in sickness, distress, or fear of death? Is it not because these circumstances show them more of the need of God and their own weakness than they perceive at other times? Is it not because their infirmities or their approaching end convince them of something that they did not half perceive before?

If devotion at these times is due to better knowledge of God and ourselves, then the neglect of devotion at other times is because of great ignorance of God and ourselves. Even more, as lack of devotion to God is ignorance, so it is the most shameful ignorance and the greatest foolishness.

If, therefore, our relation to God is our greatest relation, if our advancement in His favor is our highest advancement, then he who has the highest thoughts of the excellence of this relation, he who most strongly perceives the highest worth and the great value of holiness and virtue, who judges everything as little when compared with it, proves himself to be master of the best and most excellent knowledge.

If a judge has fine skill in painting, architecture, and music, but at the same time has twisted and confused notions of fairness and a poor, dull understanding of the value of justice, who would hesitate to consider him a poor ignorant judge?

If a pastor was a man of great eloquence and gifted in the art of people skills, and if he understood how to raise and enrich his family in the world, but had no understanding of or desire to learn from the wisdom and principles of the Church Fathers and other great Christians throughout church history; if he did not understand the holy nature and great obligations of his calling, but treated his position as a series of duties and ran it like a small business; if he would rather live idly in the sports and passions of this world rather than to be crucified to the world; if he prepared sermons but neglected his devotional time with God, then who would hesitate to charge such a pastor with lack of understanding?

If a judge is to be considered ignorant if he does not feel and perceive the value and worth of justice, and if a pastor is to be looked upon as lacking understanding if he is more interested in other things than in the exalted virtues of his sacred calling, then all Christians are to be looked upon as wise or unwise according to their knowledge and understanding of those great things that are the common and greatest concern of all Christians.

If a gentleman thought that the moon is no bigger than it appears to the eye, that it shines with its own light, that all the stars are only spots of light; and if, after reading books of astronomy, he still continued in the same opinion, most people would think he had a poor understanding of these things. But if the same person would think that it was better to provide for a short life here than to prepare for a glorious eternity hereafter, that it was better to be rich than to be eminent in piety, his ignorance and dullness would be too great to be compared to anything else.

If a man had eyes that could see beyond the stars or pierce into the heart of the earth, but could not see the things that were right before him or could not discern anything that was useful to him, we would think that he had very bad vision. If another person had ears that heard sounds from the moon but could hear nothing that was said or done upon earth, we would look upon him to be as bad as deaf.

In like manner, if a person has a memory that can retain a great many things; if he has a mind that is sharp and acute in arts and sciences, but has a dull, poor understanding of his duty and relation to God, of the value of piety, and of the worth of biblical morality and holiness, he may very justly be considered to lack understanding. He is like the person who can only see and hear such things as are of no benefit to him.

As certain therefore as piety, virtue, holiness, and eternal happiness should be of the greatest concern to us, so certain it is that he who dwells most in contemplation of them, whose heart is most affected with them, who best comprehends the value and excellency of them, and who judges all worldly attainments to be mere bubbles and shadows in comparison to them, proves himself to have, above all others, the finest understanding and the strongest judgment. This therefore is an undeniable proof that he who would rather have his soul in a state of Christian maturity than to have the greatest portion of worldly happiness has the highest wisdom of anyone.

On the other hand, he who can speak many languages and repeat a great deal of history, but prefers the indulgence of his body to the purity and perfection of his soul, who is more concerned to get fame or wealth here than to live in eternal glory hereafter, is in the nearest state to that person of unsound mind who chooses a bright coat rather than a large estate. He is not called unsound by men, but he must appear to God and heavenly beings as in a more excessive state of foolishness, and sooner or later will certainly appear so to himself.

He who judges it the best thing he can do to please God to the utmost of his power, who worships and adores Him with all his heart and soul, who would rather have a pious mind than all the dignities and honors in the world, shows himself to be in the highest state of human wisdom.

If someone would imagine some mighty prince to be greater than God, we would consider him to be a poor, ignorant creature. We would acknowledge such an imagination to be the height of stupidity. However, if this same human being would think that it is better to be devoted to some mighty prince than to be devoted to God, would not this still be a greater proof of a poor, ignorant, and blinded nature? Yet our society abounds with such people. This is what all people do who think that anything is better, greater, or wiser, than living a holy life devoted to God.

Any way that we consider this matter, it plainly appears that devotion to God is an instance of great judgment and of an elevated nature, while the lack of devotion to God is a certain proof of the lack of understanding. To see the dignity and greatness of a devout spirit, we only need to compare it with other attributes that are chosen in place of it.

John tells us that everything in the world (that is, all the qualities of a worldly life) is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). Let us therefore consider what wisdom or excellency of mind is required to qualify someone for these pleasures of this world. Let us suppose that someone is given up to the pleasures of the body; surely this can be no sign of a great mind or an excellent spirit, for if he has but the characteristics of an animal, he is good enough for these enjoyments.

Let us suppose that someone is devoted to honor and splendor and is fond of popularity and prestige. If this quality required any great or fine understanding to make someone capable of it, it would prove that the world abounded with great minds, for many seek these things.

Let us suppose that someone is in love with riches, and is so eager in the pursuit of them as to think he never has enough. This passion requires no excellent sense or understanding at all, but reveals only blindness and foolishness.

To desire the things of the world shows great lack of wisdom and understanding, and it reveals a heart that is not at all devoted to God. However, to know and love God and to trust in His Son, Jesus Christ; to walk in His ways and to live according to His Word; to deny oneself and love God and others; to forsake the temporary pleasures of this world in order to live for eternity; this demonstrates the qualities and characteristics of those who are wise in God's sight.

Let us but grant that there is a God and providence, and we have admitted enough to justify the wisdom of devotion to God; for if there is an infinitely wise and good Creator, in whom we live, move, and have our being (Acts 17:28), whose providence governs all things in all places, then certainly it must be the highest act of our understanding to think properly of Him. It must be the noblest instance of judgment and the most exalted quality of our nature to worship and adore this God of all creation, to conform to His laws, to study His wisdom, and to live and act everywhere as in the presence of this infinitely good and wise Creator. He who lives this way lives in the spirit of devotion.

What can show such great qualities and so fine an understanding as to live in this way? For if God is wisdom, surely he must be the wisest man in the world who most conforms to the wisdom of God, who best obeys His providence, who enters furthest into His purposes, and who does all he can so that God's will may be done on earth, as it is done in heaven.

A devout person sees through the vanity of the world and understands the corruption of his nature. He lives by a law that is not visible to ordinary eyes. He enters into the spiritual world and desires the greatest things, setting eternity against time. He chooses to be forever in the presence of God when he dies, rather than to have the greatest share of worldly pleasure while he lives.

A person who dares to be poor and contemptible in the eyes of the world in order to be approved by God; one who resists and rejects all human glory and opposes the roar of his passions; one who meekly endures all insults and wrongs and dares to wait for his reward until the invisible hand of God gives to everyone their proper places, endures a much greater trial and exercises a nobler fortitude than he who is bold and daring in the fire of battle.

If we would therefore exercise the greatest courage, we must do all in the spirit of devotion to our God, and be valiant against the corruptions of the world, the lusts of the flesh, and the temptations of the devil; for to be daring and courageous against these enemies is the noblest bravery of which any human is capable.

I have made these remarks for the sake of those who think that full devotion to God is bigotry and poorness of spirit, so that they may see how poor and lowly all other qualities are if compared to it. I want them to see that all worldly attainments, whether of greatness, wisdom, or bravery, are but empty sounds, and that there is nothing wise, great, or noble in a human spirit, but to properly know and wholeheartedly worship and adore the great God who is the support and life of all, whether in heaven or on earth.

The best life to live is a life fully devoted to God. No one in eternity will ever regret having lived too much for God, but all will regret if they did not live a life fully devoted to Him. Salvation comes by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ. As followers of Jesus, though, let us truly follow Him. It matters not what others say or do or think. You will likely be ridiculed and attacked and condemned by the world – and by many who claim to follow Jesus – but keep your eyes on Him. Live your life according to the Scriptures. Read them, know them, love them, live them, and proclaim them to others.

This is not a call to those who are content going to church, but this is a call to those who have been changed by Jesus Christ, who have been born again by the Spirit of God, and who want to glorify God in everything that they say, think, and do. You cannot do this on your own, of course, but must depend upon the strength and power of the Spirit. You must abide in Jesus Christ and seek the wisdom of God. This is a call to return to the ways of the followers of Jesus as recorded in the Scriptures. This is a serious call to a devout and holy life.

THE END
Rules for Living A Holy Life

by William Law

These rules for holy living were written by William Law for his own life when he was a young man before or while at college. It would be good to see our youth today (and Christians of all ages) embrace such rules for their own lives. May we learn from these rules and be inspired to live our lives fully devoted to God.

  1. To fix it deep in my mind that I have but one business upon my hands – to seek for eternal happiness by doing the will of God.
  2. To examine everything that relates to me in this view, as it serves or obstructs this only goal of life.
  3. To think nothing great or desirable simply because the world thinks it is so, but to form all my judgments of things from the infallible Word of God and direct my life according to it.
  4. To avoid all concerns with the world and its ways, except where it is required by living for Christ.
  5. To remember frequently, and impress it upon my mind deeply, that no condition of this life is for enjoyment, but for trial; and that every power, ability, or advantage we have are all talents to be accounted for to the Judge of all the world.
  6. That the greatness of human nature consists in nothing else but in imitating the divine nature. Therefore, all the greatness of this world that is not for God is perfectly inconsequential.
  7. To remember, often and seriously, how much time is inevitably thrown away, from which I can expect nothing but the charge of guilt; and how little time there may be to come, on which an eternity depends.
  8. To avoid all excess in eating and drinking.
  9. To spend as little time as I possibly can among such people as can receive no benefit from me nor I from them.
  10. To be always fearful of letting my time slip away without some fruit.
  11. To avoid all idleness.
  12. To call to mind the presence of God whenever I find myself under any temptation to sin, and to have immediate recourse to prayer.
  13. To think humbly of myself, and with great love for all others.
  14. To refrain from all evil speaking.
  15. To think often of the life of Christ, and propose it as a pattern to myself.
  16. To pray privately three times a day, in addition to my morning and evening prayers.
  17. To keep from ----------* as much as I can without offense.
  18. To spend some time in giving an account of the day, previous to evening prayer: How have I spent the day? What sin have I committed? What temptations have I withstood? Have I performed all my duty?

* This was missing from the source (Walton's Cyclopaedia) from which Law's rules were copied.
William Law – A Brief Biography

William Law intended to become a priest in the Church of England. God had other plans for him. William Law is now known as an author of books challenging Christians to live holy lives. Law was not content with average Christianity, but believed that if we claimed to follow Jesus, we should forsake the world and follow Jesus fully. He believed, as stated in his most popular book, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, that those Christians who are not holy and who love the world are like they are because they do not really intend to be holy. William Law's life and writings greatly impacted many people, including John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, Dr. Samuel Johnson, Edward Gibbon, Lord Byrom, Henry Venn, Andrew Murray, and William Wilberforce.

William Law was born to Thomas and Margaret Law in 1686, at King's Cliffe, a large village near Stamford, in Northamptonshire, England. His father ran the village shop. William was the fourth of eight sons, and there were three daughters as well.

William entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1705. He earned his B.A. degree in 1708, was elected Fellow and was ordained in 1711, and graduated as a Master of Arts in 1712. While at Cambridge he wrote a set of rules to guide his daily life. The first rule was "to fix it deep in my mind that I have but one business upon my hands – to seek for eternal happiness by doing the will of God." Law strongly believed in seeking and doing the will of God in the power of the Holy Spirit. Law expected Christians to want to live a life of piety, or devotion to God.

When Queen Anne died and the German George I became the new ruler of England, William refused to take the oaths of allegiance and abjuration, and so was deprived of his Fellowship and of all hope being a priest in the Church. Law lost both his influence and his intended career. However, Law began writing. He wrote Three Letters to the Bishop of Bangor in 1717; the Remarks upon the Fable of the Bees in 1723; The Absolute Unlawfulness of Stage Entertainments in 1726; and the Case of Reason in 1731. In 1729 William Law's Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life was published. This is the writing for which he is best known.

In 1726 the first of Law's devotional works was published, called the Practical Treatise upon Christian Perfection. About this time Mr. Edward Gibbon, the grandfather of the historian, was seeking a tutor for his only son. Law was selected for this position and was the family's private tutor for the next ten years.

After his time with the Gibbon family was over, William Law returned to his town of birth, King's Cliffe, and lived in a house known as King John's Palace, or the Hall Yard, where he remained until his death in 1761.

Law's life at King's Cliffe was mainly uneventful. He did not seem to have had much to do with the outside world, and about the only dates noted for Law are the dates when he had a book published. The Bible and books of theology were the only literature he had in his home, and Law did not seem to participate in any form of recreation beyond conversation, a little music, and an occasional drive or ride. The historian Edward Gibbon speaks of the house at King's Cliffe as "a hermitage," or the dwelling of a hermit.

The Christian duty most insisted upon by Law was charity. He lived by example, and he was a very generous and giving man. He gave all of his extra income to help others. He built and endowed a girls' school at King's Cliffe. The school grew and eventually included a school for boys, almshouses, and a library.

William Law never allowed his portrait to be painted, but Mr. Tighe, who visited King's Cliffe some time before 1813, tells us that Law "was in stature rather over than under the middle size; not corpulent, but stout made, with broad shoulders; his visage was round, his eyes grey, his features well-proportioned and not large; his complexion ruddy, and his countenance open and agreeable. He was naturally more inclined to be merry than sad. . . . He chose to eat his food from a wooden platter, not from an idea of the unnecessary luxury of a plate, but because it appeared to him that a plate spoiled the knives."

In all his numerous controversies, he never seemed to use a discourteous word or a deceitful argument. He never argued about unimportant matters and he never fought for any cause that did not lie very near to the heart of Christianity. He found himself living a somewhat isolated life, yet he never lost heart or showed the least trace of bitterness, though he was naturally of a masterful and positive spirit; indeed, he grew in sweetness and goodness to the very end. Certainly no one could be more consistent or thorough.

William Law was a sincere and godly man who read the Scriptures and lived them as he understood them; and he expected all Christians to do the same. He spent much time alone with God, following the example of his Master. If people professed to be Christians, then Law expected them to desire to be like Jesus in all things. He believed with Elijah: If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him (1 Kings 18:21).
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A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life – William Law

Revised Edition Copyright © 2018

First edition published 1729

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