p. 5 | A HOLY LIFE

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 9, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 41.

A HOLY LIFE.

THE world never needed holy lives as much as at the present hour. Nothing will exert such potential influence and power as holy living. We may have every other accomplishment, but without this our lives will be a failure. With this inward adorning and outward manifestation, although minus many other graces, we will succeed in making an impression on the minds and hearts of others that will stir within them a desire to be good. Holiness of heart and life should be the supreme aim of all to obtain.

The injunction of Holy Writ is, “Be ye holy.” To this command we should yield a willing obedience. No Christian can live beneath this privilege, and retain the knowledge of salvation in Jesus Christ. There is no room for controversy on this point. The question of the possibility of so doing, it seems to us, can not be raised. There can be no mental reservation or equivocation here. We stand in the presence of Jehovah’s stern decree. To please God I must live a holy life. God will not abide in the heart where sin dwells. When He assumes sway in our nature, all rivalry must cease. Obedience to Him is the test of discipleship.

No departure from this law is allowable. Every thought, word, and deed must be in accordance with His will. The lack of spiritual power in the individual Christian life is at this point. The profession of salvation is one thing; the exemplification of this is another feature. Normal Christianity will not meet the demand. There must be the practical and the experimental.

There can be no substitute for piety. A revival of holy living is the great need of the church to-day; lives deeply rooted in the teachings of the Word of God; lives influenced by the guidance of the Divine Spirit; lives hid with Christ; lives that can not, and will not tolerate the questionable in thought or practise; lives clear, manly, open, frank, candid, square, transparent, not concealed from the gaze of the world; but lived in the open. Would to God that all who profess His name lived in this way! What an influence would be exerted! How soon would we see the ranks of the enemy waver!—Baltimore Methodist.