GROWTH IN GRACE by Cuyler

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 24, 1862

GROWTH IN GRACE.

By Cuyler

ONLY living things grow. A dead tree has no growth; and if you observe a maple before your door, or an elm on your lawn, that does not answer to the roll-call of May by putting forth its leaves, you may conclude that it is as dead as the pro-slavery rebellion.

1. In the church of Christ, spiritual life is indispensable to spiritual growth. We mean the life of God in the converted soul—a life united to Christ’s infinite being by the vital union that exists between himself and the believer. Is it surprising that many a church-member has made no advance in Bible knowledge or in personal godliness, when he has no real hunger after either of them? Can a moral mummy grow? Can the man who never prays aright receive the Spirit? Can a spiritual corpse breathe out heavenly aspirations, or reach out an arm to save the sinner, or open with its skeleton finger a purse to give to God’s treasury? Can it do anything but decay, with pestilential odors filling the moral atmosphere around? No; and without a genuine work of regeneration in the soul, let no man flatter himself that he is a living Christian, much less a growing one.

"If he be a true Christian, he will grow—and "grow in grace." This phrase (as Peter employed it) is comprehensive of all graces. It includes love, and joy, and peace, and patience, and long-suffering, and temperance, and faith, and charity. In a word, it means Christian character—that possession and exhibition of moral excellence that is learned in the school of Christ—that impression received from Christ, which, in turn, makes prodigious impression upon others. Into the construction of this character enter all the qualities that make a man courteous, brave, magnanimous, delicate, pure-minded, honest, humble, devout, and holy. Into it enter all the Gospel ingredients. Into the formation of this character comes the divine Spirit with his transforming, beautifying, sanctifying power. Every day’s experience leaves its touch on this character. Every failure teaches deficiency, and awakens humility and contrition. Every moral victory inspires courage and grateful exultation. It is not perfection that the most successful Christian reaches—the Luther, the Edwards, the Brainerd, the Frelinghuysen, do not reach perfection; but if not equal to his Master, he becomes like him, and unlike his own former self. This character which the growing Christian gains is the source of his power in the community. It is his influence—his moral momentum to carry his point with others—his might to convince gainsayers—his persuasiveness more eloquent than the most captivating words that ever fell from the lips of eloquence itself. It is just what he is by the making of God’s grace. And this side of heaven there is nothing that unfolds such beauty, carries with it such influence, and commands such genuine homage, as athletic, consistent Christian character.

2. The more symmetrical this character is, the better. “The finest specimen of a Christian,” says Guthrie, “is he in whom all the graces, like the strings of an angel’s harp, are in the most perfect harmony.” No one grace outgrows and belittles the rest. The man is not brave at the expense of humility—or zealous at the expense of justice or magnanimity. He does not let study interfere with devotion, or devotion interfere with philanthropy. We may sacrifice the duties of the closet to outdoor labors of Christian charity. On the other hand, “like a lark that goes singing up to heaven while the hawk is rifling her nest below,” we may spend our hours in devotional flight and in heavenly communions, when we should be down here, fighting Satan; redressing human wrongs; breaking human fetters; drying tears on sorrow’s scalded cheek; reforming the vicious, and rescuing lost souls from the verge of hell. The head should have its share of time and thought; the hand its share; but the lion’s share should be given to the heart, for out of it are the issues of life. Thus by developing the whole man we shall broadly, and efficiently, and symmetrically grow in grace. We shall reach up every day nearer to “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

3. As a third hint, let us remind you, Christian brother, that the true measure of your growth in influence and usefulness will be your interior growth in holiness—in living, loving likeness to the Saviour. All external improvement in character is proportioned by this inward state of heart-holiness. In short, the growth is from within. Just as soon attempt to increase the dimensions of a tree by padding round its trunk with clay or cotton, and splicing out its boughs by stray bits of stolen timber, as to increase the volume of a godly character by mere heaping-on of observances, or of intellectual acquirements, or external forms of devotion. These only swell the bulk of a man’s religion; they do not add to its vitality or power. If a tree is dead, it is past all increase; if it is alive, it will pump its own sap in April-time, put out its own foliage, and battle its own way up toward the firmament. The reason why that sturdy oak on the village green grew from the tiny acorn that a school-boy could carry in his pocket until it has become the “pride of the village” in the summer, and able to wrestle with the wildest hurricanes of winter, is simply that underneath that shaggy bark is a stout inward life. Its growth is from within.

You may heap on whatever of sacred knowledge you will—whatever of rituality—whatever of external forms—whatever of subscriptions to creeds and confessions—whatever of slavish obedience to law, and if there be no life of God in the soul, you have but a stupendous effigy of religion without one spark of vitality. But if there be in that soul only a germ of true godliness, there is hope of growth. By the quickening aids of God’s Spirit, the seed will become the blade—the blade the ear—and at last when prayer has brought down the sunshine and the rain from the celestial throne, then cometh the full corn in the yellow ear. Then there will be increase of character by the expansion of the inward life. The soul will take in and digest truth—good books, good sermons, and good examples. The soul will assimilate these truths, and build them into its spiritual texture. It will take up the nourishing qualities out of them, as a robust man takes up the nourishment of a wheaten loaf or a loin of venison. The spiritual character enlarges—beautifies—solidifies. The young convert grows in strength. He becomes athletic. He is at length equal to bearing huge loads of responsibility—equal to grappling with strong temptations. He becomes an overmatch for the devil. The recruit of yesterday is at length the veteran with the dust of a thousand conflicts on his armor, and the light of a thousand victories on his helmet’s plume. He has grown in grace.—Cuyler.