We find in nature the vigorous and the weak the strong and the feeble characters, as well as the gentle and the sweet, the severe and the harsh. But a man is not simply what his natural character is. Far from it. He may perceive his defects and address himself to the remedy, or he may yield to his passions and become worse than a brute. Man’s will exercises a large control over the character with which he entered the world, and so we find that “made” characters are very frequently finer than those whose owners seem to have taken but scant trouble with themselves. It is a well-known fact that some of those generals who have been the coolest in battle were naturally timid.
The Christian character is of the deepest importance. There are children of God who really do not seem to take any pains as to their character. They seem satisfied to be ever discontented with their ways. We cannot change ourselves, but we can mortify our members, and then a great change in our ways will ensue. We have not simply a strong will of our own to command ourselves with, we have none other power within us than the Spirit of God. Conversion does not alter our natural characters, but when converted we have a new life—we have Christ in us—and more, w we have the Spirit of God as the power and force of this new and holy life.
We cannot, therefore, excuse ourselves by saving, “We are what we are, and cannot help it.” To do so is simply to indulge in base spiritual laziness. We need to rouse our souls to earnest and holy determination to yield ourselves to God. He stands by and strengthens those who follow His word with purpose of heart. Suppose a child of God addicted to tittle-tattle. Is he to be all his natural lifetime a trouble to God’s family, and a disgrace to his God? See another, who is a fault-finder by spiritual profession. Well, is it necessary that he prosecute this painful occupation till death happily terminates it? Not for one moment is such a notion to be tolerated. There is no necessity whatever for a Christian to be tattler or fault-finder. He is a disgrace to his God if he continue so to be.
One of the most melancholy features of Christian life is the fact that there are children of God who, after forty to fifty years’ experience of what this world is, of what their brothers and sisters are, and of what they are themselves, remain, as to their characters, very much what they were when first converted. The reason hereof is idleness. There has not been grappling with the evil thing; holy decision to mortify the members which are on earth has been lacking, and instead, there has been self-indulgence and giving way to evil, till the very evil given way to has hardly been noticed.
We speak of persons ripening for glory. In what does the ripening consist? Is it not in becoming more like Christ, and in self being resolutely refused? Let us inquire of ourselves whether the things under the power of which we used to be are still our rulers, or whether by yielding ourselves to God we are ruled by His Spirit? It is a very grave question, indeed—one which, though passed over on earth, must be gone into in eternity.