Spiritual Declension.
I. The first test to which we would bring the professing Christian who is anxious to determine whether he is ceasing to run well is that furnished by secret prayer and the study of God's word. If any one is beginning to abbreviate the seasons of private devotion, reading a chapter or two less of the Bible, spending fewer moments in meditation, in self-examination, and in supplication for others and himself, and all not because he has less time at his disposal, but less will to devote to such occupations, let that man look at once to his state. He did run well; who has hindered him? But take other symptoms, equally decisive, though perhaps more easily overlooked. There is no feeling stronger in the genuine Christian than that of desire to promote God's glory in the salvation of his fellow-men. But suppose him to become comparatively indifferent to the diffusion of the Gospel, who will say that there is no abatement of the running well? who will deny the spiritual declension?
II. Note the dangers of the state which is thus described. We cannot but suppose that the Spirit is more displeased when neglected by one on whom He has effectually wrought, than when resisted by another with whom He has striven in vain. And the lukewarm man is useless to himself and to others: to himself, for such a religion as his will never save him; to others, for such a religion will not enable him to be instrumental in the saving of his fellow-men. "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear."
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit,No. 1561.
I. Christendom is full of Christians with no outstanding sin nor yet with one grace; whose whole life is one blank; with whom man finds no fault, and in whom God finds no fruit; who day by day are gaining nothing, and so are day by day losing everything; on whom nothing makes any impression, because they have become dulled to all; unpained, but it is the painlessness of a mortified wound; undisturbed, but it is a death-sleep; in repose, because Satan is no longer restless when he has entered into the house whence he was cast out, and has taken up his abode there.
II. Others, again, lose grace, in that they expose themselves to the temptations of pleasure, wherein they before lost it. Sin finds entrance more easily where it has found it before. The will is weakest there, temptation strongest. People do not mean to fall into the sin of which they have repented, but tinder catches any spark. The soul which knows sin may be kindled by anything which recalls the past sin. It is an awful gift to have recovered grace; it is a precious mercy of God to be again entrusted with that grace which we had before forfeited, but the more precious it is, the more carefully it is to be guarded. Carelessness before a fall may be ignorance, passion, infirmity of nature; carelessness after you have been restored from falling is sin against light: it is to reject the mercy of God in Christ.
III. Another frequent cause of forfeiting the grace of God is that people think that it will abide with them as a matter of course, and are not watchful to retain it; and so, as a matter of course, they lose it. It is part of love to be watchful, not to do what Christ forbids, to be alive to every wile of Satan which might even for a moment separate us from the love of Christ.
E. B. Pusey, Parochial and Cathedral Sermons,61.
References: Galatians 5:7. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. ix., p. 349; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons,p. 314; Preacher's Monthly,vol. viii., p. 135.Galatians 5:11. J. G. Rogers, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxvii., p. 22; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. ii., p. 93.Galatians 5:11-26. Ibid.,vol. iii., p. 80. Galatians 5:12. Preacher's Monthly,vol. viii., p. 375.Galatians 5:13. E. Johnson, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xiv., p. 324; D. Burns, Ibid.,vol. xxv., p. 88; H. W. Beecher, Ibid.,vol. xxx., p. 56; W. G. Horder, Ibid.,vol. xxxiii., p. 24.Galatians 5:13-18. Ibid.,vol. vi., p. 243.Galatians 5:14. H. W. Beecher, Ibid.,vol. vii., p. 131.Galatians 5:14-16. Ibid.,vol. x., p. 186. Galatians 5:15; Galatians 5:16. H. Scott-Holland, Contemporary Pulpit,vol. ii., p. 284; Preacher's Monthly,vol. iv., p. 156; J. Edmunds, Sixty Sermons,p. 359. Galatians 5:16 H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, The Life of Duty,vol. ii. p. 121; C. Kingsley, Village Sermons,p. 43; S. Pearson, ChristianWorld Pulpit,vol. iv., p. 139; H. S. Paterson, Ibid.,vol. xv., p. 309; Phillips Brooks, Sermons,p. 353.Galatians 5:16; Galatians 5:17. E. White, Contemporary Pulpit,vol. iv., p. 157; C. Kingsley, Town and Country Sermons,p. 422; F. D. Maurice, Sermons,vol. i., p. 263; T. Arnold, Sermons,vol. iv., p. 54.