Bible Truths Illustrated by J. C. Ferdinand Pittman

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BIBLE TRUTHS ILLUSTRATED
result in utter failure. From the great fountain of holiness must
flow the crystal stream into our own lives, until we become
possessed, in full measure, of the "divine nature," and are at
one with God.
769. Progress in sanctification may, in fact, be going on when
you don't see it ;
perhaps when it seems going back. Take comfort
! "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation." . . .
Like a patient who, through the power of returning life, begins
to feel and complain of his pains, when we think we are growing
worse, we may actually be growing better, and making no little
progress when we seem to be making none. Be not cast down !
Progression is the ordinary law of God's government. It is
star by star that the hosts of night march out; it is minute by
minute that morn's grey dawn brightens up into perfect day; it
is ring by ring that the oak grows into the monarch of the
forest ; it is inch by inch and foot by foot that the tide,
which bears navies on its bosom, comes creeping in on the
shore. And not, like justification,- an act, our sanctification,
being a work of God's free grace, is under the same law of
progress. More or less rapid, it is a thing of steps and
stages.
Guthrie.
770. A man may, in a fit of passion, strike his fellow ; he
commits a crime by doing so : he is punishable, and may be
thrown into prison for that breach of law. He has remained
there a certain time, and the prison doors are opened before him
he walks out and there is no more in the law to detain him.
He has satisfied the law ; but when the man comes out from
prison, he is not a whit better fitted for society than before
he went in ;
he
he took in ; the
brings out all the bad passions with him that
man is justified, but he wants sanctifying.
I can imagine some one going into hell itself, and putting
out the flames, but would that make the persons in hell
happy? No. There is a fire within that must be put
out ; and "without holiness, no man shall see the Lord."
Beaumont.
771. Mr. Meyer says that he was one time paying a pastoral
visit to a poor washerwoman who had just gotten out a line
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