Spirituality by S. B. Whitney

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 26, 1865

Spirituality.

By S. B. Whitney

"For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." Rom. viii, 6.

No truth can be clearer than the declaration made in the above text. Forasmuch as the carnal mind, which is enmity against God, manifests itself in the transgression of his law, the fruit of which is death; so on the contrary, the spiritual mind is manifested in obedience to the law of God, which is as surely to be rewarded with eternal life. The importance of this truth has always been felt by true gospel believers, and the object of their efforts has ever been to be "transformed by the renewing of their minds." Rom. xii, 2. But the majority of professing Christians of this generation, seem to be laboring under a serious misapprehension on this subject, so much so, that in many cases they make the degree of feeling or animation they exhibit in the performance of their religious exercises, the index to the depth of their spirituality. As a legitimate consequence, inasmuch as they hunger and thirst more for feeling than for righteousness, many are satisfied with an excitement purely animal or mesmeric; and which, in some instances, is the result of satanic agency; supposing it to be the influence of the Holy Spirit.

This class can have a large measure of their supposed spirituality, and yet bitterly oppose the present truth, and accuse those who are obeying it, because they run not with them to the same excess of riot, of a lack of spirituality. But a brief consideration of Paul's testimony is sufficient to show, except in the case of those whose service is lukewarm and formal, and therefore not acceptable, that this accusation is not only unjust, but that the direct effect of spiritually mindedness is conformity to God's holy law. For he says in verses 3 and 4, "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and by a sacrifice for sin, (margin,) condemned sin (transgression of the law), in the flesh." For what? "That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit."

So then to be spiritually minded, is to have the righteousness of the law fulfilled in us, and while animation and shouting are proper and good in their place, they are to be considered rather as the occasional attendant, than as positive evidence, of a high-toned spirituality. And the humble, earnest Christian, who seeks to have his walk and conversation as it becometh the gospel, and with whose spirit, the "Spirit itself beareth witness" that he is a child of God, proves the correctness of what the apostle further says in verse 1. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit."

S. B. WHITNEY.