Mon than ten years have passed away since the first edition of the following work made its appearance. They have proved to be years of profound exercise of heart—searching trial and severe sifting to very many of the people of God. But, blessed be His name, the exercise, the trial, and the sifting, have, by His grace, had the effect of establishing hearts more and more in His eternal truth,—of making the word of God and the name of the Lord Jesus Christ more precious—of demonstrating more clearly, that, if we want to advance in the divine life—if we desire an extension of God's kingdom within—if we would rise above the chilling atmosphere that enwraps the professing Church—then, truly, we must make the Lord Christ our paramount object; we must trust in Him, wait on Him, look to Him, live for Him, and Him alone; we must get rid of more of the dross of nature and of earth, and enter more experimentally into the meaning of fellowship with Christ in death and resurrection. These are valuable results, for which we may well praise our God, and to reach which we need not regret having traveled over a rough stage of our wilderness journey.
It is an unspeakable mercy to have men and things all reduced in our thoughts to their proper dimensions—to have everything fictitious laid bare, and everything hollow made manifest; and, without doubt, a few years make a vast difference in our judgment of people and circumstances; and above all, in our judgment of self. At our first starting, there is apt to be a great deal of what may be termed romance, which all vanishes before the stern realities of actual life. But then we must take care that we do not exchange nature's romance—which may exhibit much that is truly generous—for nature's cold and narrow-hearted selfishness. This, alas! is too often the case.
There are two ways in which we may be affected by discovering the hollowness and vanity of men and things, namely, first, we may be driven in upon ourselves; secondly, we may be driven more closely to Christ. In the former case, the heart becomes withered and shut up; in the latter, it becomes enriched and expanded: in the former case, I become like an icicle congealed by the cold atmosphere, into which my own belief has driven me; in the latter, I get real power from God, to come forth and act on the scene which had repulsed me.
It is well to ponder this distinction. We must watch against a morbid sensitiveness, which would totally unfit us for the dignified position of being "fellow-workers with God." Men and circumstances change, no doubt; but, blessed be God, we have to do with One who is "the same yesterday, to-day, and forever." May we keep our eye steadily fixed on Him. We shall never get strength by looking at the condition of things around us.
The professing Church is in rains; but there is something which can carry us through the ruins, and that is personal devotedness to the Lord Jesus Christ. "FOLLOW THOU ME," is a simple, definite, powerful command, uttered by our blessed Lord on His way from the grave to the throne; and when this command falls on the heart, in the power of the Holy Ghost, there is that which will sustain one in the midst of the darkest apostasy, or surrounded by the solitude of a desert.
Again, "Hold fast the form of sound words," is a command uttered by the apostle when he was "about to be offered up;" and when this command is applied to the conscience and understanding, by the power of the Holy Ghost, there is that which will keep one straight and steady, in the midst of the greatest confusion and inconsistency.
Nothing should hinder us in our personal devotedness to Christ, inasmuch as we can follow Him though we have not the countenance or support of another; and, further, nothing should hinder us in the maintenance of "the form of sound words;" for if the platform of public testimony were only occupied by "an elect lady and her children," they would be called upon to rise, and, with a firm and vigorous hand, close the door against the introducer of unsound doctrine.
Both the above passages, taken together, would preserve us from pernicious extremes. Some contend for what they call personal devotedness, others for what they call sound doctrine; but the devotedness of the former often proves to be but the eccentricity of an un-subdued nature, or the energy of an unbroken will; and the sound doctrine of the latter often proves to be but a cold intellectual accuracy—a lifeless, sapless, un-influential orthodoxy.
We have ever to bear in mind that" the form of sound words” is the proper foundation on which to build; and that personal devotedness is the proper superstructure to erect thereon.
The Lord grant us to know these things, in living power, by the grace of His Holy Spirit, that we may not only be in the narrow way, but move along it with an energy and a zeal which shall redound to the glory of Him who is at once the starting-post, the companion, and the goal of that way.