Remember, too, that joined to that prayer there must be much holy fear.
“Happy is the man,” says Solomon, “that feareth always”-not the fear that is
distrustful and suspicious of God, but the fear that is distrustful and more
than suspicious of self; the fear that is conscious of inward weakness and
depravity, that dares not into temptation go, but asks to have its eyes
turned aside from beholding vanity, lest the look should lead to the desire,
and the desire should engender the act.
With holy fear there must be much careful walking. He that would persevere to
heaven must not hope to go there pell-mell helter-skelter, heedless,
careless, thoughtless as to his daily life. There must be self-examination,
self-inspection, watchfulness incessantly. An arrow may pierce thee between
any joint of thy armour unless thou hold the shield of faith to catch its
barbed shaft, and quench its barbarous flame. God grant thee grace to walk
carefully and humbly with thy God.
To persevere in grace we must seek to use all the means of grace that can
assist us-not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner
of some is; not neglecting either private or public prayer; using what grace
we have if we expect to get more; doing what we can for God, as we expect him
to do all for us; in fine, working out our own salvation with fear and
trembling, because it is God that worketh in us to will and to do of his own
good pleasure. If these things be in you and abound, they shall be the means
of preserving you, and you shall be among. the happy number that shall sing,
” Now unto him that is able to keep us from falling, and to present us
faultless before his presence with exceeding joys unto him be glory for ever
and ever. Amen.” And now, fourthly and lastly:-
IV. THIS RESOLUTION MAY BE ACCOMPLISHED IN AN EMPHATIC SENSE.
Understand me, for here it is that I wish to appeal to believers in Christ.
This man Ittai said, ” Surely in what place that my lord the king shall be,
whether in death or in life, even there also will thy servant be.” You can
follow Christ in a general way in the. activities of Christian life, and so
on, but there is a peculiar way of following him. You can get, by God’s
grace, very near your Master, and by still greater grace you can keep near to
him, and keep near to him all your lives. I have never been able to hope for
perfection in the flesh, but I believe that even Christian ought to strain
after even perfection itself. I am afraid we have fixed. the standard of what
a Christian may be a deal too low; of what a. Christian should be it would
not be possible to fix the standard too high. It is not needful for a
Christian to be sometimes with Christ, and sometimes to lose fellowship. It
is not necessary for a Christian to be full of doubts and fears. I met an
elderly Christian some years ago who is now in heaven, whose word certainly I
could never dare to have doubted, who told me that by the space of forty
years he had never had a doubt of his own acceptance in the Beloved, and
though he had had many troubles and trials, he did not know that his
communion with Christ had once been interrupted. I marvelled at him, but I
marvelled a great deal more at myself that I had not tried to get into the
same place. Why not? If you are straitened, it certainly is not in your God;
you are straitened in your own bowels. He never gave you legitimate cause to
doubt him, nor did he ever give you a reasonable excuse for forsaking
fellowship with him. Let us, oh! let us aim at keeping as near to Jesus as
John did, and not, like Peter, follow afar off. Let it be the great prayer of
our lives:
“Abide with me from morn till eve,
For without thee I cannot live.”
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
