GROWING IN GRACE by Christian Advocate

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 19, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 12.

GROWING IN GRACE.

By Christian Advocate

According to the Word of God there are several stages of progress in the spiritual life, as there are in the natural life. Some are little children, some are young men, and some are fathers. All believers are little children when they first enter into the kingdom of God by faith. One may be sixty years old, but he is only an infant in grace when he is first converted. He may be a great scholar, a great statesman, a man of powerful influence in the community and of wide experience in the things of this world; but if he has just given his heart to God, he is only a babe in Christ. His first experience of the spiritual life may be exceedingly delightful. His soul may be filled with holy rapture. He may not be able to understand how he can ever be happier or rise higher. But he is only a little child.

Between this stage and that described by the apostle in the epistle to the Ephesians there is a long stretch of progress. Yet it is the privilege of every one to rise "unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." One needs not to grow so slowly as the body grows. Great progress may be made in a very short space of time. Some grow in grace more in a day than others grow in many years. Too many never grow. They are little children still, tho they have been in the church for many years. Some are not so large and strong as they were at first. Theirs is a sad case of arrested development. Multitudes make little progress. The means of grace are at hand. Every facility has been provided, but yet the soul stands still, if, indeed, such a thing is possible.

A growing Christian is a happy Christian. He is distinctly conscious of improvement. He is not satisfied with himself nor with his attainments. He sees heights above to which he has not yet attained. But he also sees ground below which he has left behind. He is not what he wishes to be. He is not what he expects to be. But he is not what he once was. His strength is greater, his hope is brighter, his peace more constant, his love deeper, his doubts fewer, the fruits of his labors are more abundant.

No one can grow in grace who neglects the Bible. If the daily paper and other current literature occupy his mind to the exclusion of the Bible, his spiritual life will languish. To grow in grace it is necessary to keep the Sabbath holy, to attend upon the means of grace in the house of God. He does not grow in grace who does not spend some time each day in secret devotion. Too little time is given to communion with God in a secret place. To be alone with God one half hour each day is worth more than many hours spent in worldly pleasure. If Christian men and women would redeem the time, and give a small part of each day to silent, secret prayer and holy fellowship with God, the spiritual life of the church would advance rapidly. Because the world has so much of our time, and God so little, we are weak and sickly.—Christian Advocate.