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النشر الإلكتروني

THE

CHRISTIAN WITNESS,

AND

CONGREGATIONAL MAGAZINE.

JANUARY, 1867.

THOUGHTS ON SPIRITUAL GROWTH-FOR THE NEW YEAR.

By the Editor.

THE growth of a tree is easily measured; it is a question of feet and inches. And so is the growth of a human body. But how shall we measure the growth of a spirit? The foot rule is of no use here. It is a matter of consciousness, and consciousness cannot find a fixed standard by which to ascertain the spirit's progress; or, if we speak of the law of God as the standard, cannot find how to use and apply it so as to bring out a clear result. The thing to be measured is there—the human spirit, and the measuring-line is there—the law of God. But how to apply the one to the other so as to form a definite judgment on ourselves-this is the difficulty.

And the difficulty is such as often greatly to discourage the Christian. We wish to know whether during a given period, say twelve months, we have grown. We turn our eye inward, and it is hard for us to discover any marked difference between the inner man of to-day and the inner man of twelve months ago. We examine our outward life and we find that we are living just about as we were living then. Whether our faith is stronger and our holiness brighter— whether we are more God-like or more Christ-like-perhaps we cannot say. At the least, we can discover no very marked difference between our former self and our present self, although we have had another year's privilege, and worship, and instruction.

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Now how shall we deal with a case of this sort? Shall we distress ourselves or shall we not ? Are we at fault or are we not? These questions do not admit of a single answer. Some may be to blame, sadly and seriously to blame. They have not been either so watchful or so prayerful as they ought. They have not given earnest heed to the apostolic precept," Work out your

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own salvation with fear and trembling." They have not made it a study and an endeavour in the strength of Divine grace to practise such instructions as these Giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity:"-instructions to which there is added this most precious assurance," For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.' And their spiritual condition to-day is the result of their own spiritual negligence and sloth.

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But there may be others who cannot trace or perceive any material difference between what they are to-day and what they were a year ago, whose case must be dealt with in an entirely different manner. There may be a difference, a great difference, and yet not of a kind to be perceived or measured. There is such a thing as the strengthening and consolidating of a soul, as there is the strengthening and consolidating of a building, or of a society. But mere strengthening and consolidating are not so palpable or so easily seen as are growth and inYou can see whether a building has become higher in the course of a month-you cannot see whether it has become stronger. You can easily find out whether a society has increased in numbers—you cannot so easily find out whether it has become more consolidated. And so with our souls. We may know if we have acquired distinctly new truths or convictions, if we have been able to throw off some clearly ascertained besetting sin, if we have reached some hitherto far off or but dimly perceived attainment. But we may not know whether the convictions and virtues and graces which were ours a year ago and are ours still, have grown during that period. There may have been a strengthening and consolidating which cannot be measured, and of which our own consciousness can give us no clear assurance.

The thing may be looked at in another light. There are certain analogies between the history of the body and the history of the spirit which may help us to understand it.

There is a period during which the body grows-visibly and measurably grows. From infancy, through childhood and youth, it grows into manhood. There is a period during which the spirit grows-consciously and palpably, if not visibly and measurably, grows. Or rather there are periods during which the spirit thus grows. We may expect it to grow thus immediately after birth -after the spiritual birth. It is the time of youth, and has the ordinary characteristics of youth, energy, activity, elasticity, upward aspirations; and there must be something very wrong if there is not a corresponding growth in faith, and love, and holiness. There may be other seasons and periods likewise, having no respect to age, when through Divine grace or the soul's diligence, or rather both, the spirit makes conscious and palpable progress; getting rid of evils and infirmities which clung to it, acquiring knowledge, and strength, and faith, such as it was before a stranger to; and thus beyond all question making its calling and election sure.

But there is a time when the human body ceases to grow. From perfect

manhood onward there is no visible or measurable growth. We cannot say there is a time when the human spirit ceases to grow-taking growth in its largest acceptation. It will be capable of progress through all eternity. But there are periods when, if the spirit grows, the growth is not visible. And thus far the analogy holds. But during those years which follow maturity and fulness of bodily stature, while there is no upward growth, there is a quiet invisible process of strengthening going on by which the body acquires greater powers both of endurance and of action. So that while a man is not taller in stature at thirty or at forty than he was at twenty, he may be much stronger; and yet the progress of his strength may have been so silent and imperceptible that he has not himself been able to trace it.

As to the human body, there are other times when you cannot say that it either grows or strengthens-so far as you can ascertain, it is stationary. Its condition is the same for years, without any known rise or fall in strength or vital power. Now, may the spirit be stationary likewise? To say that it may seems to contradict a lesson which is often taught, and which seems to carry truth in the very form of it-that we cannot stand still, that if we are not going forward in the Divine life we must be going backward. to ascertain what the truth concerning this matter really is. will probably be found to be this: So far as our consciousness can inform us, we may be for a time spiritually stationary. But if we have been diligent in the use of means and in the discharge of duty, we have not been really stationary. There has been progress in the way of strengthening and confirming, although not of a kind we can see or measure.

But let us try
And the truth

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Let us look at this matter. The body is sometimes stationary we have said,―neither increasing in stature, nor strengthening inwardly, nor yet declining,—that is so far as we can see, for what the absolute truth on the subject may be we cannot say. But observe what is implied and involved in this fact. There is this involved, that the body receives suitable and sufficient nourishment, that it possesses suitable and sufficient clothing, and that it takes suitable and sufficient exercise. With any deficiency in these respects, unless counterbalanced in some unusual way, the body must decline, its health must be impaired or its strength diminished. There is a perpetual waste of the very fabric of our bodies, all its elements are decaying and passing away. And God has made provision for a perpetual new-creating of these elements, and if the body is really maintained in life and unimpaired health, even without progress, it can only be through this perpetual new-creation. And in order to this constant, gradual, imperceptible, but real, new-creation of the body, all the animal functions must be kept in order, and there must be supplied from without the material out of which by certain of these functions the perpetual waste is repaired. The maintenance of the body, if without progress on the one hand yet without decline on the other, is all the more notable, if life and health are exposed to the peculiar dangers arising from unwholesome food, unwholesome occupations, and an unwholesome atmosphere. Now let us apply all this to the spirit. The spirit is apparently stationary, we suppose, neither growing nor declining, so far as we can see or feel, simply

maintaining the position it has already won. Even if the condition of the spirit be really as well as seemingly stationary, yet if while there is no progress there is no declension, these things follow-that the spirit has been constantly fed by Divine truth, has been waiting day by day on God, and communing day by day with God, has been maintaining an honest warfare with sin, and an honest striving after holiness, and has in short been, through Divine grace, exercising the true Christian affection both towards God and towards man. If the spirit had been without spiritual food or spiritual exercise, if it had been negligent of prayer, or of watchfulness, or of work, it could not have maintained its position, declension would have been inevitable. So that if a man can truthfully say that he has not gone back, he must be able to say with equal truth that he has been working out his salvation with fear and trembling, that he has been keeping his face steadfastly Zionward, and that he has been sincerely endeavouring to know and to do the will of his Lord. And if a man can really say this in all honesty before God, we cannot be wrong in supposing that he has really grown and become stronger in his faith and habits of obedience.

If the matter be rightly understood, then we need not fear though we cannot discover onward progress, if it be really true that we have not gone backward. If the body maintains its position, there must be the healthy exercise of all its functions and the healthy supply of all its wants. And the same is true of the soul. And the more notably in the case of the soul, as of the body, if circumstances be adverse. And with all of us circumstances are in some respects adverse. We have all an evil heart of unbelief, which but for the counteraction of Divine grace and diligence in the ways of God, would speedily turn us aside from truth and righteousness. We have remains of corruption in us which would soon grow into evil fruit but for a constantly subduing and sanctifying power. In the case of some, rather of many, outward circumstances are adverse likewise. The very atmosphere they breathe in their homes and social and business circles, is unwholesome, enfeebling, often polluting and poisonous. And if in such circumstances and in such an atmosphere, they preserve spiritual health and do not decline in faith and holiness, it must be through the blessing of God on a diligent and earnest attention to spiritual and eternal things. If I am thrown by circumstances into a current which may be noiseless but is strong, and if while in that current I am not carried along with it, it must be because I am putting forth strength to carry me in the opposite direction. An hour's sleep, an hour's resting on my oars, an hour's inattention to my danger, would be my ruin. And if I am not wrecked, even if I make no visible headway, it can only be because of much wakefulness and toil. The neglect of the known will of God, the neglect of prayer and of the Divine Word and of Christian endeavour, will not be followed by a standing still, that is by a maintaining of the position already reached, but by a sure and certain declension.

We may return to the analogy between the body and the spirit and find perhaps another thought. The real health of the body is not always in proportion to the absence of pain or conscious illness. There may be causes of phy

sical injury silently at work, evil tendencies may be silently ripening, while there is no suspicion of danger, and the man appears to himself and to others to be well. But a crisis comes, the result of all this silent action in the frame, and with it comes pain and prostration, and what seems to be a struggle for life. But is the condition of the body really less healthy now than it was before this crisis? May we not say rather, whether with perfect scientific accuracy I do not know, that the system is now throwing out of itself evils that have long been in it, and that the pain it suffers is but a sign of its struggle to right itself?

We have something of this sort in the history of the soul. There may be a season of peace and quiet, during which the action of the soul is far from being healthy. Evils are silently generating within it. The peace it enjoys does not all flow from a steadfast faith in the Lamb of God. Its quiet is not the quiet of a living, active righteousness. The peace and quiet may partake rather of the character of a spiritual stupor, or at least of a spiritual sleepiness. And then perhaps comes a crisis, an awakening, a conflict, and with it pain and anguish. Instead of the placid countenance and the pleasant voice, there is a saddened visage and a mournful cry, "Oh! wretched man that I am "—and a disposition perhaps to say, "Oh! that it were with me as in times that are past." And yet it may be better with the man than in the times that are past. The period that preceded the fall of David was perhaps one of mental repose and comfort. But if his mental quietude degenerated into the unwatchfulness which occasioned his fall, it was far less healthy, and far less to be desired, than the period of agony which followed when he cried, "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation; and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness."

And even if this pain and conflict be not the fruit of former sin in times of peace and quiet, it is not to be inferred that the pain and conflict are evil signs. Satan may be permitted to try and sift us. His arrows may be fiery and penetrating, his assaults desperate and prolonged, and our suffering in consequence deep and intense. But in the battle there may be the exercise of the very highest elements of our Christian character. And if the battle be well fought, our Christian character will come out of it stronger and purer than it was.

Or, setting aside the idea of Satan having anything to do with our pain and conflict, still pain and conflict are not necessarily evil signs of the state of our spiritual health. We may have been brought into new circumstances, more trying to our faith and godly principles than any to which we have been heretofore exposed; we may have discovered hidden evils and weaknesses in our own souls; the very increase of our knowledge may have brought us face to face with new difficulties in relation to this great world and God's government of it; our very growth in grace may have made us more sensitive to the claims of God and of holiness, and more impatient with our own sins and shortcomings. And if we have pain and conflict in consequence, it is only a sign of the healthy action of our spiritual nature, and, rightly understood, need not cast down our soul or discourage us because of the way.

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