Now, we're going to ask you to lay aside for a few minutes, the busy cares of life and come and have a talk with us about spiritual and heavenly things. Now, if you feel that you scarcely have time, and cannot fully dismiss the temporal concern of life from your mind, then we will excuse you (smile). Our talk will have little value unless we can give it our undivided attention.

Some people hesitate to look closely into their life lest they find such a delinquency as will disquiet them. Some fear to give a close examination lest it give Satan an opportunity to accuse them. This need not be. We can look closely into our daily life and not allow Satan to whisper one word to us. We cannot make improvement upon our life without close examination in order to discover weakness and imperfection. When we discover them, we must set earnestly to work to correct them. The discovery alone is not sufficient. If we do not correct a fault that we have discovered, we soon lose consciousness of the fault. There are times with everyone, no doubt, when it seems that they are making no progress, but these may be the times when we are making the most progress.

If we have just one fault, we ought to desire to get rid of it. Our desire should be so great that we shall set about at once to correct that fault. Now if we say, "Oh, it is such a little thing," then we shall not get free from it, and that little thing may become a greater thing. To be too quick to speak is a fault. The Bible says, "Be slow to speak." If we have the fault of speaking too quickly, we should correct that. We can if we will.

The Bible tells Christians to watch and pray. Christians do not need to watch and pray lest they rob a bank. They would not rob a bank if they never prayed. But we do need to watch and pray lest we do some little thing that we should not do. I will relate to you the experience of a dear brother who desired to live for God, but who neglected to watch and pray as he should. An evil thought was presented to his mind. Not seeing the evil of it, he indulged the thought and found pleasure in the indulgence. After a few minutes he felt the reproving of the Spirit of God and so dismissed the thought. Later it came again. It was so pleasing that he indulged it a little longer than before. Again the Spirit reproved him. In a few evenings the thought came again. It was only a little sensual thought, a little imaginary indulgence of the flesh. But it came again and again. It was indulged a little longer and a little longer. Eventually it worked a fleshly lust into his heart, and after two or three years he was led into actual commission of a sinful deed. It was an apparently innocent thought in the beginning, but it ended in sin committed.

There are little yieldings to lightness, impatience, air-castle building, exaggerations, frettings, murmurings, idleness, etc., that prey upon the soul and rob it of peace and the sweet consciousness of God's presence. But there is progress in the divine life for every one of us if we will only give attention to our life as we pass along. The first thing is to have a deep interest in making spiritual gain, and then to be full of faith and encouragement.

Jesus will help us to make some gains each day if we will press our way through the crowd and touch Him. It is the earnest prayer of faith that gets us through to God and makes us feel like giants in His strength. If we would be strengthened in our soul, we must exercise. This is the law of development in the spiritual as well as in the animal life. "Exercise thyself unto godliness." This is a motto we should hang upon the walls of our memory. Its meaning is that increase in godliness is attained only by exercise.

We shall have more now to say about our doing, but bear in mind that the doing is to be not in our strength, but in God's strength. Here are two mottoes to keep in remembrance: "Without Him I can do nothing;" "I can do all things through Christ, who strengtheneth me." By the help of the Lord we are going to tell how to be strong in Him. God wants us to be a David. Let's go out in His strength and meet the Goliaths. They must fall before us. We shall not tell so much we do not know as we shall endeavor to get us to practice what we know. How many times have we resolved to do and have failed to keep our resolution? Our failure was not because we could not, but because we did not. To make a success in any business enterprise, one must give it constant and daily attention. Likewise, if we make a success in the Christian life, we must give it constant and daily attention. We must make it not only a business, but also the first business of our life.

But some make this complaint: "It takes so much time." It will take some time, that is true, and if we do not think we have time, then we had better not begin. What would we think of a man who contemplated engaging in some business, but said he did not have much time to devote to it? We would advise him not to engage in the business at all. It takes time to make advancement in the Christian life. One brother said, "But we must attend to our temporal duties." Our reply was, "Shall we not attend to our spiritual duties?" When people talk of having to attend to temporal duties, it appears that they are going to do this if they have to neglect spiritual duties. Unless we have a better enlightenment than this, we shall never make progress in the Christian life.

We have no excuse for not being strong in the Lord. "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong." Of course, we need the help of God, but God helps those who help themselves. He will not by some irresistible power convey us to our closet and put us on our knees, but He will give us strength to go if we will use what He gives us.

We will now share, not learned theology, but plain, simple instruction how to make daily advancement in the divine life and to be strong in God. "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul." I Peter 2:11. Indulgence of the flesh weakens the spiritual powers. The question might arise, "What are fleshly lusts?" We are here in the flesh. The flesh has not only its desires but its needs. To indulge the flesh in its needs is not fleshly lust, but to indulge it in anything beyond its actual needs is "fleshly lusts." In other words, any intemperance is lust of the flesh. Temperance is a fruit of the Spirit. We are to add temperance to our knowledge. The more knowledge we get of the divine character, the more clearly we can discriminate between fleshly lusts and temperance.

"I keep my body under, and bring it into subjection," says Paul. He spoke these words when talking about running to obtain an incorruptible crown. He calls our attention to how people run to obtain a corruptible crown, and "every man," he says, "that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things." If men must be temperate in all things in order to obtain a corruptible crown, how much more temperate must we be in order to obtain an incorruptible crown? If the soul does not keep the body under, the body will keep the soul under.

But this keeping under does not consist in many prayers, in long vigils, and fasts, in severe chastening of the body, in dwelling in a cloister or being a hermit. Let's not make this sad mistake. His yoke is easy and His burden is light, yet the Christian life is one of self-denial. But His love in our hearts makes it a delight. We are not to keep our bodies under by prolonged fasts and beatings, but to keep in control the self-seeking that is natural to the self-life of man. [ The End ]