The New Life

The New Life.
The corn belongs to God ; the chaff is his own. He
sifts and sifts continually, and all that falls through
"with the chaff he endeavors to take for himself.
And many a Christian is there who does fall through
in a terrible fashion, and who, were it not for the
intercession of his Lord, would perish for ever.^
Satan has more than one sieve. The first is generally
worldly-mindedness—the love of the world.
Many a one is pious in his time of poverty, but when
he becomes rich, he again eagerly strives to win the
world. Or in the time of conversion and awakening
he appears very zealous, but through the care of the
world he is led astray.^
A second sieve is self-love and self-seeking. Whenever
any one does not give himself undividedly to
serve his Lord and his neighbor, and to love his
neighbor in the Lord, it soon appears that the principal
token of a disciple is lacking in him. It will be
manifest that many a one, with a fair
profession of
being devoted to the service of God, fails utterly on
this point, and must be reckoned with the chaff.
Lovelessness is the sure token of the power of Satan.^
Yet another sieve, a very dangerous one, is selfconfidence.
Under the name of following the Spirit^
one may listen to the thoughts of his own heart.
He
is zealous for the Lord, but with a carnal zeal, in
which the gentleness of the lamb of God is not seen.
Without being observed, the movements of the flesh
' I Cor. V. 5 ; i Tim. i. 20.
8 Matt. iv. 9, xiii. 22; i Tim. vi. 9, 10; 8 Tim. iv. 10.
'John viii. 44
; i John ii. 10, 15, iv. 20.
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