THIS our day is abundant in shams, but, of all these, the worst is sham Christianity. Far better be an open enemy to the truth than to be its false friend, The open enemy may be won—the false friend is in almost a hopeless position, for he is a deceiver.
Unreal spirituality is a deadly deception. He who is deceived by himself is the dupe of his own flattery. There are no worse enemies to true Christians than Christian flatterers; but he who flatters his own soul is his own destroyer. It is not that God will cast off a child of His who is a self-deceiver, but no self-deceiver is walking with God, and his walk is such that, so far as his course in this world goes, he is his own destroyer. The issues of eternity are in God’s hand.
Assumed piety is a lie to God, and the hypocrite is an impostor. “If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” No man walking in the light before God would say of himself that which God would not say of him. True humility never speaks of itself, it is known by its fruits.
When a Christian says of himself, “I am this or that,” as if he had attained to anything, he is occupied with himself, and not with Christ. This is an effect of spiritual pride, and it is a common disease of the soul.
Spiritual pride eats into the soul’s reality, as rust into steel.
God knows the state of our souls. He is greater than our hearts, and knoweth all things. We may think that we know what our hearts are, but we really know very little about ourselves, for our hearts are deceitful above all things. When God turns a man’s heart inside out, and makes him look at it he is ready to faint at the sight; but the sight of it is only, after all, a partial view of that which God fully sees.
When a believer is walking with God, all is reality with him. He can neither tolerate flattery nor assumed spirituality, whether emanating from himself or from another. He is in the light, and this is the message, “That God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” When practically in the light there is absolute rest, if we be real, for we have nothing to hide from God, and “the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” It is no slight advance in things spiritual when the Christian has come to having no secrets, but has all things open with God. In the abstract, we are aware that God knows all about us—every thought and plan; but it is quite another thing when the Christian so walks with God that there is not the sense of even, a gossamer vail being between his innermost soul and His God. All true Christians must be conscious of being sometimes practically more in the sense of the light than at others; and at times, too, the Christian may be conscious of a hidden and unconfessed evil coming betwixt the soul and God till the thin gossamer vail thickens into a dark cloud, and till there is no longer the sense of walking in the light of God’s presence. Then comes the gracious way of God in bringing about the sense of darkness, and calling forth confession—then restoring to communion. It is reality that we need, and nothing else will serve our souls in a day of trial.