gious books, avoid all bad company: let nothing
seduce you into it. Though you may be laughed at for your strictness;
though you may lose thereby amusements which you would like to partake
of; though you may thereby be ignorant of much which others know, and may
appear to disadvantage when they are talking together; though you appear
behind the rest of the world; though you be called a coward, or a child,
or narrow-minded, or superstitious; whatever insulting words be applied
to you, fear not, falter not, fail not; stand firm, quit you like men; be
strong. They think that in the devil's service there are secrets worthy
our inquiry, which you share not: yes, there are secrets, and such that
it is a shame even to speak of them; and in like manner you have a secret
which they have not, and which far surpasses theirs. "The secret of the
Lord is with them that fear Him." Those who obey God and follow Christ
have secret gains, so great, that, as well might we say heaven were like
hell, as that these are like the gain which sinners have. They have a
secret gift given them by their Lord and Saviour in proportion to their
faith and love. They cannot describe it to others; they have not
possession of it all at once; they cannot have the enjoyment of it at
this or that time when they will. It comes and goes according to the
will of the Giver. It is given but in small measure to those who begin
God's service. It is not given at all to those who follow Him with a
divided heart. To those who love the world, and yet are in a certain
sense religious, and are well contented with such a religious state, to
them it is not given. But those who give themselves up to their Lord and
Saviour, those who surrender themselves soul and body, those who honestly
say, "I am Thine, new-make me, do with me what Thou wilt," who say so not
once or twice merely, or in a transport, but calmly and habitually; these
are they who gain the Lord's secret gift, even the "white stone, and in
the stone a new name written which no man knoweth, saving he that
receiveth it[9]." Sinners think that they know all that religion has to
give, and over and above that, they know the pleasures of sin too. No,
they do not, cannot, never will know the secret gift of God, till they
repent and amend. They never will know what it is to see God, till they
obey; nay, though they are to see Him at the last day, even that will be
no true sight of Him, for the sight of that