Spiritual Diligence

“The diligent soul shaM be made fat. ‘*

The professing Christian who is not painfully conscious of a strong tendency to spiritual sluggishness, is but imperfectly conversant with the sinfulness of his own heart, and knows but little of the subtle workings of his own mind. Not more certain is the setting of the sun at even, or the going down of a time-piece the moment it is wound up, than is the tendency of the renewed nature, from its highest point of experience, to spiritual declension and relapse. “On my bed sought Mm whom my soul loveth, I sleep, but my heart waketh,** was the humiliating confession of the Church of old; nd in numberless cases, were they honest to themselves, would be the confession of many Christians now. Not thus is it with the men of this world: here, for the most part, are no signs of sluggishness. In their toil for gain, in their struggle for honour, in their chase of pleasure, they are seldom found reposing upon the bed of sloth. Rising early, and sitting up late, they eat the bread of carefulness. Enlisting every faculty, employing every means, and straining every nerve, — one thing they do, and that one thing they attain. And although, when they reach the goal and grasp the prize, they find it but a shadow, a phantom, a dream; nevertheless, staking their life for “a corruptible crown,” they win it, and so they have their reward. But how different with us, the professed disciples of Christ, the children of Grod, and heirs of glory! How languidly we run the race, how feebly we struggle with the foe, how slow to lay hold on eternal life.

The passage which suggests our present reading, places before us two characters in striking contrast: the “sluggard” desiring and having nothing; the “diUgent, and his soul made fat.” The points of contrast are many and striking. The “sluggard” has his religious “desires,” and nothing more. He would fain be saved, but makes no effort to get salvation. He would be religious, without real religion; pious, without true piety; claiming the fruit of godliness apart from the root of godliness; looking for the reward of labour, without the labour that secures the reward; expecting the conquest of sinful habits without the battle that ensures the victory: in a word, looking for heaven without taking one real step heavenward. Is this rational? — is it sane? Ask him to apply the same rule to his worldly affairs, — in his race for wealth, — in his chase for honour, — in his pursuit of pleasure, — and he would laugh you to scorn.

Alas! that in the all-inomentous matter of the soul’s salvation, the religion of multitudes should consist in nothing more than mere dmre — which means, and ends in, nothmg. My dear reader, does this apply to you? Then let me, in all faithfulness, endeavour to dispel your delusion. An old divine remarks that, the path to heU is paved with good desires. Satan has not a more flattering, or a yet more fatal mode of smoothing the soul’s pathway to the nethermost hell than this. If he can but foster in you these dead, meaningless desires after salvation, until your conscience becomes so torpid, and your heart so languid, and your soul so indifferent that even these desires at last fail, he well knows he has secured his victim. But if ever you become truly religious, if ever you are really saved, it must be by a desire more vital, by a struggle more severe, by an influence more spiritual and divine than that which now moves you. Oh! it is of the utmost importance that you are sincere, and earnest, and persevering in the all-momentous matter of the soul’s eternal well-being. It admits of no sluggish effort, it will be obtained by no languid desires, it will be secured by no faint, heartless competition for the prize. Let the solemn, earnest words of Jesus ring in your ears until they awaken a response in your soul: “Strive to enter in at the strait gate If in anything you must be down-right earnest, it is the salvation of your souL All other considerations are. in comparison with this, but as shadows upon the wall, as the foam upon the billow. Eternal life or eternal death, — endless bliss or endless woe, — heaven or hell, are suspended upon the issue. Oh! remember it is written by the pen of Inspiration that, “the sluggard desireth and hath nothing” — Nothing! But let us turn our attention to the “diligent soul,” — “The sotU of the diligent shall he made fatJ* “What are some of the characteristics of the spiritually diligent? Let U8 group them.

The diligent soul is a converted souL The words are descriptive of a gracious state. The truly diligent believer is a partaker of spiritual life; to speak more emphatically, he is a living soul; or, in language yet more expressive, Christ liveth in him: so that it is not so much he that lives as that Christ lives in him. The “diligent soul” is a sinpardoned souL All his sins are washed away by the blood of Christ, God, for Christ’s sake, having forgiven him all iniquity. He is equally justified. Forgiveness and justification go hand in hand. By grace the pardoned soul is accepted of God in His beloved Son. He thus stands before God, through imputed righteousness, freely, folly, justified from all things. Sanctifikition, or progressive holiness, is another characteristic. A partaker of the divine nature, the diligent soul aims after the divine image, hungers and thirsts after holiness, and experiences its highest happines in doing and suffering

SPmirUAL DILIGENCE. 225

the will of God from the heart Lwe to the Saviour is an essential attribute of the spirkually diligent The absence of love would involve the absence of the great motive power of religious diligence. Love is the grand moving principle of God in redemption. ‘’God “90 laoed’’ is the key-note of the wondrous announcement And love to God unfolds the great secret of all earnest, holy obedience and diligence in the great matter of the soul’s spiritual and eternal well-being. But let me now, having thus briefly portrayed the character of the diligent soul, specify some of those things in which spmtual, earnest diligence is demanded.

The first is, to make quite swre of our personal sal” vation. This is a matter too vital and momentous to admit of a careless, languid, or postponed consideration. It is the only moral problem in a man’s life which demands incessant study and accurate solution. The proof must be demonstration itsel£ It is a fact the truth of which cannot be assumed. It is a matter which cannot be taken for granted. It is a question which, shaking after the manner of the logicians, we canixot “beg.” It must be ScripturaUy proved, divinely authenticated, and internally witnessed. listen to the strong language of the Apostle Peter, addressed to the saints of God, — “Wherefore the rather hretk/refif give DniacKf CE to make your CALLma and election sure’’^ The transposition of the Apostle in these

* Peter i 10. <l words is worthy of remark It will be observed that although “election” is the antecedent act, he mentions “calling” first. There is much wisdom and skill, as well as tenderness and love in this. He would teach us that, in this great matter of working out our salvation, we must begin with ^’calling” since it is (Jod’s part to begin with “election” With “election” we have nothing to do but simply to believe and holUy to live it, since it is one of those “secret things which belong unto Qodr It is the/rs link in the chain of our salvation, and is fastened to the eternal throne of the everlasting God. But the link in the chain with which we, as sinners, are more especially concerned, is the lowest one of all, — that of our calling.’’ If we once get firm hold of this link, the question of our election is settled. We are to give all diligence to make our calling sure, and this in its turn makes sure to us the fact of our election. Thus with what ocakfidence the Apostle addresses the Thessalonian saints, — “knowing, “brethren beloved, your election of God.” How did he arrive at a knowledge of their election of God? By what evidence was the fact confirmed? He himself answers,” For our Gospel came not v/nto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assv/rance!’ Thus, it was by their eflTectual calling of the Spirit that he knew their eternal election of God. By the same simple process we are to arrive at the same happy conclusion. like the Apostle, we

must reason, not from election to calling, but from calling to election. We must take hold by faith of the lowest link and so rise to the highest. Use all diligence, then, to make your calling sure. Let it not be a questionable, doubtful matter whether or not you have heard the caU of the Spirit in your souL All God’s people, sooner or later, are a called people. “Whom He did predestinate them He also called.” What says the Apostle, referring to himself? “am? CALLED me by His grace” Have you then been called? Have you heard the voice of Jesus calling you from the world, from your sins, from your idok, from your own righteousness to Himself? “My sheep hear my voice” Have you heard it? It is a sweet, winning voice, unmistakable in its accents, melodious in its tone, and irresistible in its power to them that hear it. It whispers in love now — it will thunder in judgment ere long. It now invites the weary, the burdened, the sorrowful to the repose of His loving, gracious heart; by and by it will be the voice of the Archangel sounding the trump of God, saying to the ungodly, “depart!” Have you, I again ask, heard the call of Jesus I Has His Gospel come to you, not in word only, but with the quickening, converting power of the Holy Ghost? If it is still a doubtful matter, if you are not quite sure that you are converted give all diligence to be so. Rest not until you have got, as the old Scotch divines were wont to express the thought, “agrip o£ Christ”

Get hold of Him by faith, and yon may rest assnied as to your calling; and if called of God, you may he equally sure as to your election of God.

Election is a most unmerited and glorious act of God’s love and grace; and when it occupies in our ex* perimental religion its proper place, it is one of the most encouraging, comforting, and sanctifying truths of the Gospel. But if you are just setting out in the divine life; if you are seeking the Lord, feeling after the Saviour, let the subject of your election remain in abeyance for a while, until you have first given all diligence to make your calling sure. You will then find God’s electing love sweet and holy nourishment to your souL

Our growth in grace also demands all diligence. The soul’s progress in holiness is not promoted by languor and neglect. It must not be left to its own spontaneity. The soil in which the holy seed is 80Wii» the garden in which the divine plants are reared ty God, is too hostile to the culture of holiness to admit of their growth apart from the strictest diligence and in* cessant watchfulness on the part of the believer. There must be much self-communion — holy vigilance — close walking with God — and the diligent use of all the apt pointed means of grace. It is thus the Apostle Peter exhorts us to this: “Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knofwUdgt temperance; and to temperance patience; and topaOenee godliness; <md to godliness brotherly Jcindness; and to hrothffrly kindness dmrUy, For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor tmfruitfvi in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ**^ What a lesson in sacred arithmetic for the saints of God to learn, — the holy lesson of increasing their grace, and adding to the graces of their Christian character. This sacred lesson is only learnt by giving to its study all diligence. It is, too, the lesson of daily life and of our whole life. Each day should find us growing in an acquaintance with Christ; augmenting our stock of grace; strengthenii the graces of our Christian character; and “increasing in the knowledge of Ood”

Nor is this diligence to terminate but with the termination of our Christian course. “We desire,” says the Apostle, “that every one of you do show the same DHJGENCB to the full assurance of hope UKTO the end.” The necessity of watchfulness, earnestness, and perse-Terance in the things relating to our eternal future will exist until that future is reached The race we nm, admits of no pause; the pilgrimage we travel, of no halting; the battle we fight, of no truce; the prize for which we compete, of no compromise. There is an etti before us, and that end we must keep full in view. The Saviour has said, — ‘He thai endurelh to the end fkall be saved” “^ “Be thou faithful unto death, amd

/ mil give thee a crown of life that fadeth not away!* The garden of the believing soul will soon betray the diligent care and skill of its culture. “Iwent by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; and, lo, it was all grown over vnth thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof and the stone wall thereof was broken down” But to those who keep diligently their own spiritual vineyard, seeking to walk in all godly obedience, the promise is, — ‘*The Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of waters whose waters fail not*’ who would not give all diligence to work out a salvationwhich God by His Spirit has wrought in us — with fear and trembling, knowing that such blessings as these are held out as its reward?

We can only further remark, in general terms that, spiritual earnestness and activity involve diligence in prayer: the praying soul will ever be a diligent soul Prayer preserves religion aUve in the soul; draws in the vital influence that keeps it healthful and vigorous. And if we would forego the couch of ease and the bed of slumber, we must keep the heart with all prayerful diligence in close intercourse with God. If, too, the soul would become fat and flourishing, there must be all holy diligence in the employment of those d Prov. xxiv. 30, 31. Isaiah lviii. 11. means and appliances God has appointed for our use. Blessed is the man that heareth Me, watching daily at My gates, waiting a the posts of My doors’’ We can expect nought but leanness of soul if we are found sinfully undervaluing and wilfully neglecting God’s appointed ordinances and means. When a religious professor imagines that he has got above the means — that he has reached so advanced and elevated a point in his Christianity as to be independent of a teaching ministry, of sanctuary worship, of the ordinances of Chiist’s Church, of social Christian fellowship, of closet prayer, and of the communion of saints — it is time that he should look with holy jealousy and alarm to the real state of his soul as before God. That man is deceived. He is not that diligent soul whose grace is vigorous, and whose graces are radiant. He is not fighting manfully, nor violent in prayer, nor trading diligently with heaven, nor so employing his Master’s talents as to bring to Him the largest revenue of glory. His soul shall be lean, while the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.

We must give all diligence, too, that God’s aflctive dealings with us may be sanctified. There is scarcely any path in our Christian course which so loudly calls for diligence as this. The loss of an afflictioi of a trial, of a temptation, is an irrevocable loss. It cannot be repaired. There was a needs-he for the rod of correction with which our Heavenly Father

232 THE MINISTBY OF HOlftE.

visited us,-^some sin to be removed, or some back* sliding to be restored, or some evil to be checked, or some lesson to be learnt, or some blessing to be bestowed. If, then, we are not diligent in seeking a sanctified possession of the discipline, earnest in securing the end for which our God chastened us, we have lost the mission and the blessing for which it was sent, — and how great and irreparable that loss! Let us, then, see that we lose not one of our sorrows — they are too precious and valuable to be lost — but that we turn them all to a good account; diligent to extract some sweet thing from the bitter, some nourishing thing from the eater, and to find a pencilling of light in the somberest cloud. Let us see that under the afflictive hand of God we become more humble, more spiritually minded, more dead to the world, more prayerftil, more Christ-like, and Christ more precious; — in a word, made by our Father’s corrections more “a partaker of the Dwine holiness” O hallowed fruit of sanctified sorrow? Earthly sorrow is, too, a preparation for heavenly joy. All the saints in gloiy graduated fi:om this school; and many with high honour — honour to themselves and honour and glory to our God. No tongue can adequately describe the costly, sacred blessings flowing from one hallowed sorrow. We have, perhaps, become more intimately acquainted with the character of God, more experimentally know the Lord Jesus Christ, and more spiritually understand the

SFOtlTUAL DILIGENCE. 233

meaning of God’s holy Word, in one sanctified aflliction, than we ever attained to in all our previous liistoiy. Blessed is the man whom Thou CHASTENETH,

Zord, and teacheth him otU of Thy law” Trial makes us apt scholars, — skilful interpreters of the Scriptures. “I never understood the Psalms,” says Luther, “until God afflicted me,” Thus affliction performs a heaven-sent mission. It stirs us up to Christian diligence and wakefulness. Some of God’s people are spiritual somnambulists, — they are apt to walk the heavenly way in their sleep I “J sleep, hd my heart wakefh!’ In consequence of this infirmity they are exposed to great danger. If Israel’s Keeper, who never slumbers nor sleeps, did not hold them up, a single step in this their drowsy, dreamy ptate, woxdd prove for ever fatal But God wisely and lovingly provides for this moral somnambulism of His saints. By the rod of affliction, sometimes very gentle, at other times very heavy. He wakes them from, their slumbers, rouses them to a sense of their perQ, and stirs them up to more diligent, earnest, prayerful waiting upon Him. And then they testify, —” Before I was afflicted I went astray; hd now have I kept Thy Word. It is good for m/e that I have been afflicted, thai

1 Trdght learn Thy statutes’* This subject is a most practical one.

Let us, as believers, watch against sleepy frames. “Drowsiness covereth a mun with rags:” it robs and

234y THE MIKISTEY OF HOME.

impoverishes him. Spiritual drowsiness will be followed with like spiritual effects in our souls. We shall forget how glorious is our clothing in the righteousness of Christ, how comely are our persons before God, viewed in Jesus, and consequently we shall not realize our present acceptance in the Son of God; we shall lose the enjoyment of the blessing which flows from the blessed state described by the Apostle: — ‘’Being JtLstiJied by faith, we have peace with God through <mr Lord Jesm Christ There is no position or plac in which there is not need to watch against spiritual sluggishness and lethargy. The disciples fell fast asleep on the mount of transfiguiation, and in the garden of Gethsemane! Who of us, then, are safe? Some grow lean in the midst of plenty, while others are kept alive in famine. Rutherford quaintly but truly remarks, — “An empty stomach often keeps a man awake, while a full one lulls him to sleep.” When God removes us from fat pasture, leads us into the desert, creates in us hungering and thirsting after the means of grace, after the banqueting house of His Gospel, — fills the soul with a sight of sin, with a sense of its deep need of Christ, and with earnest longings after Him, — 0, what a powerful means has all this proved of keeping believing souls broad awake, watchful, prayerful, close to God!

Equally must we be on our guard against that which produces supineness and sleepiness of frame.

The world is a powerful soporific. Its moral effect is stupifying, deadening. Watch against it. Go not into it You cannot drink of its cup of pleasure and not be spiritually drowsy. The worid and Christ are the antipodes of each other; and it is impossible for you to carry Christ to heaven in one hand, and the gay, the frivolous, the Christ-despising world in the other. Sin in every shape is spiritually stupifying. It is a fearful narcotic to the soxd of a man of God. Watch against its pleas and its disguises; its small departures which, inevitably lead to great ones. Be careful of a too great absorption in your worldly calling. Let not business drown your souL Be content with a limited measure of success, that you may find time for religious privileges and duties, public and private. Never suffer the interests of Christ’s cause to give place to, or be slighted by, your own. Seek first the kingdom of God, — this will tend much to keep your soul alive. You will not be less ‘* diligent in bimness,’ for being first ‘* fervent in spirit, serving the Lord” Watch, then, against all these sleeping draughts. Bemember Pharaoh’s dream, — it is strikingly significant. “7%e HI favoured and leanfieshed hine did eat wp the seven well favoured and fat hine!* * All these things against which I have guarded you are the *Hll favmired and leanfieshed hine,’’ which will “ea up’’ the marrow and fetness of your soul, compelling you to exclaim,” Jfy

‘Gen. xH. 4.

THE MIKISTRT OF HOME.

lean/ness, my leanness, woe unto me.” Be studiously, prayerfully watchful against the worlcCs religion. It looks very religious, truly I — but in reality it is all hollow, sinful, and fatal The holiness of the world is false. Its religion is false. Its worship is false. Its hopes are fidse. Its professors are false. Be on your watch-tower against Ritualism, — it is fascinating, ensnaring, but soul-destroying. The sceptical religion and ritualistic worship of the day, — the religion and worship of vestments, of altar lights, of incense, of crosses, of sacraments, of genuflexions, of a ghostly priesthood — which is no priesthood at all — is drugging the souls of thousands, who, drinking of its fleshly, enticing cup, sink into a profounder sleep of spiritual death, from which, perhaps, they never wake until awakened by the groans and curses, the flames and torments of hell!

Perhaps the Lord is rousing you to spiritual sensi* biliiy, by causing you to feel how cold, and sleepy, and dormant your heart has too long been. And now, it may be, you feel as if you had no feeling! You are sensible only of insensibility! You are softened by the very consciousness of your hardness. You are alive only to the existence of death. The words- of the Christian poet may best express your experience : —

“0 yes! Vm sinful: that I know,
For God and conscience teU me so;
But yet, for all my sin and woe,
I cannot feel!

“I know tile Trath: I’m deeply read;
And Bible doctrines fill my head:
But oh! my heart is cold and dead, — / cannot feel!

**0 could I feel enough oppressed.
Then Jesus Christ might give me rest:
But with a stone within my breast,
/ cannot feel I

“If I could weep and mourn for sin,
Then my salvation would begin:
But what a hardened state I’m in, — I cannot feel/**

Do these lines express your spiritual experience? Then, thank God, and take courage! These thoughts, these words, these feelings are unmistakeable evidences of grace. They are not the maxks of a dead, but the vital breathings of a living soul — a soul alive from Christ, and alive in Christ. As a corpse is not sensible of its insensibility, so an individual entirely ‘’ dead in trespasses and sins” would never weep and mourn for sin, and lament its want of feeling. The Lord com-, fort encourage, and stimulate you with these words! If you have this true, real desire for Christ, His whole heart travels towards you.

Yes, the diligent soul shall have its reward, — “* Shan be Toade fat’^ Just as a man diligent in the business of this life prospers and becomes rich, so the spiritual merchantmany the soul trading with heaven and heavenly things, — who, waiting on the Lord, constantly attending on the Word and ordinances of His house, labouring for the meat which endureth unto eternal life, — shall be fat and flourishing, shall he filled and satisfied as with marrow and fatness, shall become fruitful in every good word and work, a vessel of honour fit for the Master’s use. Be watchful, be prayerful, be diligent. Christ is coming! the Lord is at hand! “It is high time to awake out of sleep; for nov) is your salvation nearer than when ye believed’’ Everything bids you persevere. The prize held out to you bids jovl — persevere. The glittering crown, the snowy robe, the waving palm, the golden harp, the new song, the vision of Jesus in His glory, all, all with one accord imite in saying to you — ^persevebe! “Wherefore, hdoved, seeing that ye look for such things BE DILIGENT, that ye may he found of Him in peace, without spot and Uameless!’ Sweet thought, that Jesus, amid the drowsiness of His people, never sleeps. He watches over us by day, by night, moment by moment, with unwearied care and with unslumbering love. See how patiently, faithfully, lovingly, He stands at the door of thy cold and half dead heart —” Open to Me, My sister, My love. My dove. My undefUed: for My head is filled vnth dew. My locks with the drops of the night!’ t)oes this look as if Jesus slumbers when we sleep, or as though He had withdrawn when we depart? Ah, no! Expressive attitude, touching

6PIKITUAL DIUGENCE. 239

words, tender inesistible appeal! that the response of our innermost heart may be, — “Come, Lord Jesus: oome quickly! Enter and claim me for Thyself, — body, soul, and spirit” ‘’Watch ye, theeefoee; foe

TE KNOW KOT WHEN THE MASTER OF THE HOUSE C50M-ETH, AT EVEN, OE AT mDNIGHT, OE AT THE COCK CEOWING, OE IN THE HOENING; LEST COMING SUDDENLY He find you SLEEnNG.”

“Wake, ilioii that ileepest in enchanted bowers,

Lert tiieae lost yean ahonld hannt thee in the nit

When death ia waiting for thy numbered honra
To take their swift and everlasting flit:

Wake, ‘eare the earth-bom charm unnerve thee quite. And be thy tibon^ts to woriL divine addressed;

Bo somethm{f — do it soon — do it with all thy mit I An angd’s wing would droop, if long at rest, And Ctod himsrif, inactive, were no longer blesf