The Law of Spiritual Growth [pp. 608-640]

Law of Spiritual Growth.
reliance upon Him, in self-denial, in prayer, in watching, in the
use of all appointed means, in sacrifices, in diligence, in labours,
with patience and meekness and love, we are to persevere to
the end. Many a time we shall be weary. Many a time we
shall suffer humiliation. Many a time we shall go into our
retirement with shame and pour out our confessions before
God. Many a time our hearts shall ache, and the big tear
shall steal unbidden down our cheeks. Do these things appal
you? Do you shrink back from the encounter? Do you feel
that you have no stomach for the fight? If you do, then you
are not worthy to be Christ's disciple. No; we were not called
to indolence and ease. We were called, like enlisted soldiers,
to fight the battles of our King. Religion doubtless has its
joys. But we are not always to be speaking of them, and
never of the good fight of faith. We want to see the enemies
of our peace, who, and what, and where, they are. We want
to be reminded of the issue of this struggle in which we are now
engaged. We want the truth of God's blessed word brought
down upon our hearts to animate, and stir, and rouse our sleeping courage into life and action.
Amid the endurance and the labours of the present, direct
your eye toward the future. This conflict will have an end.
The victory shall be yours. You shall be more than a conqueror through the blood of Him who loved you. Your humiliation will be past. Your heart will cease to ache. Your tears
will cease to flow. Heaven's unfolding gates, and the fellowship around the eternal throne, will be a recompense for all the
sorrows of the way. Let this, then, be the lesson that we shall
learn from this examination into Scripture truth-that we have
a warfare to accomplish-that we are to maintain it to the end
-that the victory shall be ours-that the fruits we shall reap
from it shall be eternal rest, and eternal glory, at God's right
hand.
In closing these observations there is a single suggestion
upon which those who are living in impenitence and fancied
security would do well to reflect. To all such we beg to offer
the remark: Do not congratulate yourselves that you are
exempt from the toils and trials of the conflict to which we
have referred. Your exemption in that respect does not fur
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