nd they abound in this generation,
who will make no scruple of declaring that they possess a portion of
this Divine Spirit and a spark of God in their souls. Well then, I say,
here is the test, bring it all to this--does that life within you cast
out your own evil desires? If it does, well; if it does not, the less
you say about Christ in your hearts the less likely you will be to
become either a hypocrite, or a self-deceiver.

And so, brethren, remember, one last word, viz., that whilst on the one
hand whoever has the life of God in his heart will be fleeing from this
corruption, on the other hand you can weaken--ay! and you can kill the
Divine life by not so fleeing. You have got it, if you have it, to
nourish, to cherish, and to do that most of all by obeying it. If you do
not obey, and if habitually you keep the plant with all its buds picked
off one after another as they begin to form, you will kill it sooner or
later. You Christian men and women take warning. God has given you Jesus
Christ. It was worth while for Christ to live; it was worth while for
Christ to die, in order that into the souls of all sinful,
God-forgetting, devil-following men there might pass this Promethean
spark of the true fire.

You get it, if you will, by simple faith. You will not keep it unless
you obey it. Mind you do not quench the Holy Spirit, and extinguish the
very life of God in your souls.

THE POWER OF DILIGENCE

'Giving all diligence, add to your faith ...'--2 Peter i. 5.

It seems to me very like Peter that there should be so much in this
letter about the very commonplace and familiar excellence of diligence.
He over and over again exhorts to it as the one means to the attainment
of all Christian graces, and of all the blessedness of the Christian
life. We do not expect fine-spun counsels from a teacher whose natural
bent is, like his, but plain, sturdy, common sense, directed to the
highest matter, and set aglow by fervent love to his Lord. The Apostle
paints himself, and his own way of Christian living, when he thus
frequently exhorts his brethren to 'give all diligence.' He says in this
same chapter that he himself will 'give diligence [_endeavour_, in
Authorised Version] that they may be able after his decease to have
these things always in remembrance.' We seem to see Peter, not much
accustomed to wield a pen, sitting down to what he felt a somewhat
difficult task, and pointing the readers to his own examp