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The Pathway of Safety; or, Counsel to the Awakened By the Right Rev. Ashton Oxenden, D.D. (1808-1892) CHAPTER XV – PROGRESS AND RELAPSE DID you ever, from day to day, watch the growth of a crop of corn? First, the seed is sown. After a while, the green shoots make their appearance above the surface. The blade, week after week, grows higher and stronger, though continually checked by frost and cutting winds. Then the ear is formed, and the grain swells within it. At length the crop loses its green color, and a bright golden yellow takes its place. We now see that it is ripening. The warm rays of the sun are daily and hourly bringing it to perfection; till at length the sickle sweeps it down, and it is gathered into the barn. Is this a picture of yourself, dear reader? Does this describe your gradual steady growth, and your spiritual ripening, your increasing meetness for the heavenly garner? Look at St. Paul: how was it with him? What earnest desire there was in him to be getting on, to be making progress, to be advancing towards heaven! He ran, he fought, he trained himself, he strove eagerly for the prize. Hear his own words: ‘I therefore so run, not as uncertainly: so fight I, not as one who beateth the air; but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection.’ ‘Forgetting those things that are behind, and reaching forth unto those things that are before, I press toward the mark.’ (Phil. 3. 13, 14; 1 Cor 9.26.27) And so it will be with every one in whose soul there is spiritual life. If, for instance, you feel sin to be a hateful thing, you will be ever taking a closer and deeper search after it; and you will be longing to clear out all that is evil in your heart. If, again, you have faith to believe in Christ, you will be seeking for more faith; you will be daily praying to have it increased. If you know something of God, you will be anxious for further and fuller knowledge of Him. If this love has been ‘shed abroad in your heart,’ you will not be content with what you have got; but you will feel that you want more. If, in short, you have taken some steps up the ladder, you will desire to be mounting higher and higher. Now that you have welcomed Christ to your soul, let there be a daily and steady advance. You have gained much; but there is still more to win. You have touched, as it were, the hem of the Savior’s garment, and been healed by Him; but do not shrink back into the crowd again. ‘As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted, and built up in Him, and established in the faith.’ (Col. 2.6, 7) It is not enough to have drawn near to Christ: you must learn now to live with Him—not to be content with His presence just now and then, but to desire it always; to do everything as if He was by your side. ‘I must (said a good old Christian minister) acquire the holy habit of connecting everything with God. Whether my affairs move on smoothly or ruggedly, God must be acknowledged in them. If I go out of my house, or come in, I must go out and come in as under the eye of God. If I am occupied with business all the day long, I must have the glory of God in view. If I have an affair to transact with another, I must pray that God would be with us in that affair, lest we should blunder, or injure, and ruin each other.’ Such a heavenly state as this is within our reach; and we should try to attain to it. But it may be asked, ‘Are those who are thus advancing always the first to see their own progress?’ No I believe not. Oftentimes the Christian grows, without knowing it himself. He may even fancy that his heart is getting worse instead of better; because he sees the greatness and the number of his sins more clearly, and feels them more keenly. He may think that his faith is weaker than ever; because he discovers more painfully his unbelief. In short, the more he grows in grace, the lower he sinks in his own eyes. Once he thought well of himself; but he has learnt to take a humbler view of his state before God: just as the blade of grass shoots up boldly, and the young ear raises its head with confidence: but, as it becomes fuller, it droops towards the ground, not because it is feebler, but because it is heavier and riper. It often happens, too, that a Christian’s growth may be slow, and yet real. Do we see the corn rise in the fields? Do we see the hour-hand of the clock move? Yet in each case there is sure and gradual progress. Oh that it may be so with you! May your progress, though slow perhaps, be genuine! And if you would have it so, use the means which I have already pointed out— such as public prayer, the hearing of the Gospel, partaking of the Lord’s Supper, private reading of the Scripture, secret prayer, and interaction with the Lord’s people. Ah, well is it if you are thus getting on, advancing, making progress! Well is it if you are gaining fresh victories over sin; if clearer light is breaking in upon you if you are getting nearer to God, knowing Him better, and loving Him more; if you are feeling the ground firmer under you; and are fearing death less, and are desiring heaven more! We must aim high, if we would win heaven. We must not be content to say, ‘I will live as others live.’ Try to live as the Word of God directs you. Try to live as St. Paul lived, and St. Peter, and St. John, and others, who are now with God. Above all, try to live as Jesus lived when He was among us. Holiness is happiness; and sure I am that he who lives the holiest life lives the happiest life. Seek to be a rejoicing, happy Christian, living above the world, and daily pressing towards the mark for the prize of your high calling in Christ. Go on, my dear fellow-Christian; and may God help you on your way! He promises to do so: ‘I will be (He says) as the dew unto Israel; he shall grow up as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.’ (Hos. 14.5) They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary.’ (Isa. 40.31) But possibly someone who has been reading these pages, may have a little misgiving as to his own state. His conscience, all the while, may have been whispering, ‘Alas, it is not so with me! So far from getting on, I am falling back. There was a time when I felt much more than I now feel. My heart has grown cold. I have not the same delight in prayer that I once had. My Bible is not so welcome to me.’ A relapse! What state can be more sad? To have known God—to have loved Him— to have fled to Christ—to have given Him your heart—and then to have gone from Him, and to have allowed the world to steal in again—this is indeed a melancholy state of things! And oh, if such be your state, listen to a friendly counselor. God has a word for you; it may be, on this very page which you are reading. He would call you back, and stop you in your downward course. My dear reader, if you are a backslider; if you have gone aside, though it be only a step or two: if you have fallen back, though it may be only a little way perhaps; I beseech you to stop. Thank God, it is not too late for you to return. Take up your neglected Bible again. Fall humbly on your knees, and ask God to pour out upon you afresh the spirit of prayer. Give yourself to Him anew. Say to Him, ‘Lord, revive Thy work in my soul. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation.’ ‘Return, O Holy Dove, return, Sweet messenger of rest; I hate the sins that made Thee mourn, And drove Thee from my breast.’ But it may not be quite so bad with you as this. You may not have entirely relapsed. You may be in a stagnant state. The stream may not be actually dried up, though it does not flow on. There are some in the world, of whom it would be wrong to say that they are not God’s children; for many marks show them to be His. They have deep convictions of conscience, and strong feelings of their guilt and misery; they have willingly given up many worldly advantages for Christ; and it is their desire to live ‘unblameable and unreprovable in His sight.’ But there they stand, motionless, as it were. They have got thus far, but they make no advance. They have been ‘brought up out of the horrible pit,’ in which they were once sunk: but there they are content to be, at the pit’s mouth, as it were, instead of rising up, and pressing onwards towards heaven. They are much as they were weeks and months back. Their troubles and their temptations are just the same as they were then. They have got over none of their difficulties. They do not ripen. They do not ‘mount up with wings as eagles.’ They do not run, but crawl, towards heaven. Now, where this is the case, there must be something wrong. There must be some secret hidden sin allowed, or some known duty left undone. The plant must have some canker at the root, or it would grow. There is a fullness of blessing in Christ: but perhaps a lack of prayer for it on your part, you ‘have not, because you ask not.’ Can you expect the fire to burn brightly, if you do not feed it? Can you expect the wheels to go round, if you let no oil into them? Can you expect the vessel to move onward in its course, if its sails are not spread to catch the wind? You will do well to examine yourself, and find out what is wanting in you. And then set out, as it were, afresh. Repent, as if you had never repented before. Go to Christ for a new grant of pardon; and begin today to live an earnest and devoted life. But I would hope that neither of these states is yours; that you are neither going back, nor standing still; but that you feel yourself to be advancing. Your conscience tells you that you are getting on by little and little. Still you must be watchful. He that feels strong today may be weak tomorrow. Remember, your strength does not lie in yourself; but in the Lord. You stand, only so long as He supports you. You advance, only so far as He helps you on. Neither does God give you a stock of grace; but just enough for your present wants. Let your daily prayer then be, ‘Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe.’ (Ps. 119.117) And as you run your race, be ever ‘looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.’ (Heb. 12.2) Think what Spirit dwells within thee; Think what Father’s smiles are thine; Think that Jesus died to win thee— Child of heaven, canst thou repine? Haste thee on from grace to glory, Armed by faith, and winged by prayer; Heavens eternal day before thee, God’s own hand shall guide thee there. Soon shall close thy earthly mission, Soon shall pass thy pilgrim days Hope shall change to glad fruition, Faith to sight, and prayer to praise. Christian, let your motto be —‘Forward, Onward, heavenward! Set yourselves daily to some heart-work. Try and overcome some sin. Be ever putting on some Christian grace. Be ever getting some new thoughts of Christ. Be constantly seeking to pick out some pearl from Gods word. Deny yourself in some fresh particular. Get some fresh glimpse of God and of heaven. Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let your path be as the sun—that bright and shining light, which shines more and more unto the perfect day.’
SYMPTOMS OF A DECLINING STATE (Gathered chiefly from The Pocket Prayer-Book) 1. When you grow bolder with sin, or with temptations to sin, than you were in your more watchful state—then be sure something is wrong. 2. When you make a small matter of those sins and infirmities, which once seemed grievous to you, and almost intolerable. 3. When you settle down to a course of religion, that gives you but little labor, and leave out the hard and costly part. 4. When your God and Savior grow a little strange to you; and your religion consists in conversing with men and their books, and not with God and His book. 5. When you delight more in hearing and talking, than in secret prayer and the word. 6. When you use the means of grace more as a matter of duty, than as food in which your soul delights. 7. When you regard too much the eye of man, and too little the eye of God. 8. When you grow hot and eager about some disputed point, or in forwarding the interests of some party of Christians, more than about those matters which concern the great cause of Christ. 9. When you grow harsh and bitter towards those who differ from you, instead of feeling tenderly towards all who love Christ. 10. When you make light of preparing for the Lord’s Day and the Lords Table, and think more of outward ordinances than you do of heart-work. 11. When the hopes of heaven and the love of God do not interest you; but you are thirsting after some worldly enjoyment, and grow eager for it. When the world grows sweeter to you, and death and eternity are distasteful subjects ALL THESE ARE SURE SIGNS OF A DECLINING STATE. **************************************************** The Pathway of Safety; or, Counsel to the Awakened, Ashton Oxenden **************************************************** PREVIOUS CHAPTER -- NEXT CHAPTER ©God’sGWG |