True Consecration, Or, Close Abiding of the Heart in God (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 16 CHAPTER III. CONSCIOUSNESS OF SIN. ' If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.'?I S. JOHN, i. 8. In fully and unreservedly dedicating ourselves to Christ, we have, so far as our own resolution goes, ' crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts.' To whatever extent we have learnt to ' live in the Spirit, ' to that same extent we also 'walk in the Spirit.' We cannot any longer be desirous of vainglory?that is to say, of our own glory, which is indeed vanity: we desire the glory of Christ, and seek only so to live for Him that we may show forth His love day by day. Such is our earnest desire; yet how much cause for saddest self-reproach have we in this matter! How frequently are we conscious of sinning against our Lord ! We wish?there is nothing we wish so much as that every action should be done for Him, every word, every thought, should be His alone. Yet, besides our many faults of omission, how often do we feel that we have Gal. v. 24-26. spoken words that were out of tune with His love; how continually do we find self asserting its evil power, marring the work we would do for Christ, turning our highest privileges into stumbling- blocks ! All this is but too true: Christian progress is full of such experience; though, thanks be to God, it may be progress still. The higher we raise our standard, the more deeply conscious must we be of our shortcomings; the more intensely we long to be made partakers of Christ's Holiness, the more we grieve over every proof of our own unholiness. But such grieving is in itself a blessed sign: it shows that the work of purification is really, however gradually, going on in our hearts. And we should remember that that work must necessarily be, in many respects, a painful proces...