Vital Godliness; A Treatise on Experimental and Practical Piety

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. EARLY RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS- CONTINUED. RELIGIOUS INQUIEY. Religious inquiry naturally succeeds reflection. The three thousand converted on the day of Pentecost were all honest and earnest inquirers: Men and brethren, what shall we do ? Acts 2: 37. The same was true of Saul of Tarsus: Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Acts 9: 6. So also the jailer cried, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Acts 16: 30. It cannot be otherwise with the truly awakened. Any man in deep distress and ignorant of the true method of deliverance, will naturally and earnestly desire instruction. The truly anxious soul will cry to God for divine guidance: Teach me thy statutes; lead me in a plain path; let me not err from thy ways; my Father, be thou my guide. He will also search the Scriptures with a sincere desire to know their teachings. He will ask the pilgrims to Zion and the ministers of the gospel to show him the way to the hill of theLord. . Sometimes he finds poor counsellors, who but perplex or mislead him. But the best directions that can be given him are either not understood or not followed, until he is led by the Spirit of all truth. I have known an intelligent man to send seven hundred miles for a printed sermon which had been useful to one of his friends, in the hope that it might show him also the way of life. The chief ingredient of this inquiry, when it is likely to result in saving good, is its sincerity. The young ruler asked our Lord a very weighty question and in a very earnest manner; but as soon as he got the full answer, he went away exceeding sorrowful. Saul of Tarsus cried, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? As soon as he received the answer, he obeyed the voice of Christ. There is no substitute for genuine sincerity. The lack of it spoils ...