What They Said

"…, why is it that so many professing Christians do not make progress, and indeed make no efforts to obtain it? Why, because they care nothing about it.  To take up a profession is all they desire; but to proceed from one degree of piety to another; to grow in grace, to go on unto perfection, is no part of their ambition.  How many are there to whom if we were to say, "Well now you call yourself a Christian, and wish others to consider you as such, and you are of course eager desirous of making continual advances in knowledge, faith, and holiness;  and we shall see you evidently becoming more and more like Christ" - who, I say, if we should thus address them, would look wonderingly in our face, as if they did not comprehend our meaning;  or reproachfully, as if we questioned their sincerity;  or contemptuously, as if we were indulging in enthusiasm or mysticism, and wished them to be as visionary as ourselves.  Of course such a frame of mind, and such views as these are adverse to all progress.  There must then be concern about the matter.  And shall there be none?  What, no solicitude to have more of the knowledge of truth, of faith in Christ, of likeness to God, of meetness for heaven?  No desire to advance in such things?  Is it possible to be a Christian and yet destitute of this? No, it is not.  I tell you, it is not.  If you have no concern to grow, there is no grace in you.   You are a piece of dead wood,  and not a living branch - a spiritual corpse, and not a living man.  In this state there can be no growth, for dead things never grow; while on the other hand, the very desire will insure the possession of its object."

John Angell James

(from: Christian Progress)