THE church in Sardis was a spiritual graveyard. Very few in it were really born again. Most had a name that they lived, but were dead toward God. Yet in the midst of these disheartening conditions a few were found who had not defiled their garments, and to whom the promise was that they should be counted worthy to walk with Christ in white. What encouragement this should give to Christians who find themselves in a community where there is very little of a spiritual character. Christ abides! Circumstances, no matter how depressing, need not hinder growth in grace. Such may be scorned as old-fashioned and bigoted by those who know nothing of the realities of true spiritual life, but they will find their craving for understanding and fellowship met as they continue in prayer and in the study of the Holy Scriptures. The Lord will never leave nor forsake any who endeavor to keep themselves unspotted from the world and from formal religiousness which hinders rather than helps in one’s walk with God. There is no occasion to despair or become discouraged when one is assured of His approval.
If snowdrops, frail and delicate.
Can thrust a passageway
Through barren ledge and bedded rock
To greet the light of day;
If fairest lilies grow among
A cesspool’s mud and mire
And keep their petals virgin-pure,
As gold tried in the fire;
If honeysuckles have been seen
To climb on icicles,
And roses in December snows
Surmount these obstacles;
Then there is no environment.
That men can ever face.
With handicaps that are too large
For God’s sufficient grace.”
―W. M. Czarnnske.