Again, the most accurate and complete knowledge of the doctrine,
and the fullest possession of the experience, will fail us at
last unless we carefully guard ourselves at several points, and
unless we watch and pray.
3. We must not judge ourselves so much by our feelings as by our
volitions. It is not my feelings, but the purpose of my heart,
the attitude of my will, that God looks at, and it is that to
which I must look. "If our heart condemns us not, then have we
confidence toward God." A friend of mine who had firmly grasped
this thought, and walked continually with God, used to testify:
"I am just as good when I don't feel good as when I do feel
good." Another mighty man of God said that all the feeling he
needed to enable him to trust God was the consciousness that he
was fully submitted to all the known will of God.
We must not forget that the Devil is "the accuser of the
brethren" (Rev. xii. 10), and that he seeks to turn our eyes away
from Jesus, who is our Surety and our Advocate, to ourselves, our
feelings, our infirmities, our failures; and if he succeeds in
this, gloom will fill us, doubts and fears will spring up within
us, and we shall soon fail and fall. We must be wise as the
conies, and build our nest in the cleft of the Rock of Ages.
Hallelujah!
4. We must not divorce conduct from character, or works from
faith. Our lives must square with our teaching.
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