THE CULTIVATION OF PERSONAL RELIGION.
This is a subject of vital importance to every person professing to be a follower of the Redeemer. We deem it essential to the very existence of piety in the human heart, that its professor should strive mightily every day for the mastery over each besetting sin, and for the maintenance of a life of godliness. No real personal religion can be mantained without this daily struggle. We have been led to pen a few remarks on this subject, from the fear that some who profess and call themselves Christians, and who are members of churches, have lost sight of this truth. They seem to think that religion consists only in outward observances, instead of cultivation of that inner life, which is the motive power of all true action. Personal religion does not consist simply in zeal, knowledge, or an attendance on all the public means of grace. We can imagine that all these may exist while the inner life is languishing, or indeed there is an entire absence of genuine piety. The Apostle Paul, in a few comprehensive words, describes, personally, religion thus, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ who liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Again he says, "I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus." Personal religion is the great mystery of godliness; the life of God in the soul; which life is sustained and carried on by communion with God, and while God is the source of this life, yet it is obvious that it must be guarded and defended continually against all the assaults and interruptions incident to the present state of being. The failure of all who turn aside from vital godliness, is traced to the noncultivation of personal religion.—Sel.