Applying the Truth

He who listens to the teaching of the sanctuary, with the notion or imagination that he has completed the work of applying it to himself, and hears merely for others , or for merely intellectual improvement , is in a most unfavourable position to receive salutary impressions .This is the hazard that accompanies a steady attendance upon public worship , without faith , repentance , and a Christian profession.The mind of such a person becomes filled with the doctrines of the gospel , and they command his unhesitating assent. They are so true for his intellect , that he never thinks of disputing them . And at the same time , he never thinks of applying  them to himself practically. There is a species of mental pride, a pride of knowledge , perhaps a pride of orthodoxy , that hinders him from listening with a tender conscience , and a meek and lowly heart.  Perhaps it would be better if such a hearer might , for a time , be brought into a sceptical conflict with the truth. Perhaps there would be more hope for his conversion , if , instead of this cold and undisturbed assent to the Christian system which is accompanied with so much self - complacency , and so little self - application, there might rush in upon him some of those obstinate questionings that would destroy his ease of mind, and bring him into serious collision with the law and the truth of God .  He might then , perhaps , realise that the Word  of God is the most practical , because it is most truthful and searching , of all books ; that there is not a teaching in it that does not have a bearing  upon the most momentous interests of the human soul; and that the question that every should put to himself, whenever he reads it , or whenever he listens to it , is the question: "What is it to me ?" "What shall I do in reference to it ?"