TRUE HOLINESS

TRUE HOLINESS. What is holiness but obedience to truth ; truth desired, loved,
obeyed ? But how is truth to be obeyed unless it is known ? It is an unchanging
law of our being that the heart is affected through the medium of the understaud-
ing. III. Without the spirit of theological research it is impossible to make
rapid advances in the divine life. Christians have much to learn of God that
they may desire greater manifestations of His glory ; of themselves, that they may
be stimulated to greater attainments ; of their obligations, that they may press
after perfect holiness. There are, of course, instances in which growth in know-
ledge does not secure growth in grace ; but that is because truth does not make its
appropriate impression on the mind, and is opposed by sin. But the clearer our
views of God the more fervent our love of Him ; of sin, the more self-abasing our
repentance ; of Christ, the stronger our faith ; of duty, the stronger our desires to
perform it. IV. The attainment of religious knowledge is the source of pure
AND elevated ENJOYMENT. Of all the prospective emotions the desire of knowledge
it the most exalted. The pleasures of intellect transcend those of sense. How
much purer and higher the felicity consequent on advances in the knowledge of
God. The veriest infant in the school of Christ finds his understanding satisfied,
his heart filled with love at the discovery of every new principle in the Word of God.

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