LIVING unto God is the great and only sure test of Christian character. We are not our own, and the very thought of living to ourselves should be our grief; it is our guilt and shame. The first wish of our heart, the sublimest desire of our soul, should be to live unto God—to consecrate to him every action of our life, thought of our mind and feeling of our heart—to give him all. This devotion to God is not merely important, but it is essential. No correct views of truth, zeal for doctrine, feeling, tears or prayers, can supply its place. We must, like Enoch, walk with God, and like Paul, struggle to bring every thought into obedience unto Christ. It may be a severe task in this cold, indifferent, selfish world, to deny ourself to take up our cross and imitate the meek, lowly and Godly example of him who said "follow me;" but there is a power in grace divine, a celestial influence in redemption's scheme, which, when brought to bear upon the soul, can win it from the world, and inspire it with heaven directed energies. It can warm the affections of the heart, give life and energy to the soul, and constrain the truly pious to live unto God. They not only feel, but act; that religion is a spurious counterfeit, which ends in feeling, sighs and tears, leaving the life unchanged, unconformed to the will of God. Nor must this conformity be a mere form of godliness, or the result of momentary excitement and natural sympathy: it must be the undying energies of the new-born soul, warmed by the love of Christ and animated by the distant but brilliant glories of heaven.
Reader, are you living unto God? Are the warm and constant breathings of your soul, "Thy kingdom come?" and the earnest prayer of your heart, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Professed disciples of Jesus, to these inquiries what is the answer of your conscience and your actions as you mingle with an indifferent and ungodly world? Let your answer be deep, heart-searching and prayerful. Place yourself, as it were, before the judgment bar, and with all the solemn, grand and fearful scenes of the eternal world before your eyes, inquire with deep, earnest solicitude, Am I living unto God—unto him who died for me? If you are not thus living you have no Scriptural hope of heaven. You may have a name among the people of God; you may talk much about religion and the church, and even manifest a zeal that would lead you to compass sea and land to make one proselyte to the sect of your choice; but all this will not answer as a substitute for real spiritual piety. This alone can move the heart, mould the character, and conform the life unto God.—True Witness.