A Practical Directory for Young Christian Females | Page 9

and perhaps
deeply; but they know not why they feel. Such religious feeling is to be suspected as
spurious. It may be the delusion of the devil. By persuading people to rest upon this
spurious religious feeling, he accomplishes his purpose as well as if he had kept them in
carnal security. And the clearer our views of truth, the more spiritual and holy will be our
religious affections. Thus, godly sorrow arises from a sight of our own depravity, with a
sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, as committed against a holy God, and against
great light and mercy. Faith is produced by a spiritual view of the atonement of Christ,
and of his infinite fulness as a complete and perfect Saviour. Love is excited by a
discovery of the excellence of God's moral perfections. Holy fear and reverence arise
from a sight of the majesty and glory of his natural attributes, and a sense of his presence.
Joy may come from a sense of the infinite rectitude of his moral government; from the
sight of the glory of God, in his works of providence and grace; or from a general view of
the beauty and excellence of divine truth. Comfort may be derived from evidence of the
divine favor; and confidence, from an appropriation of God's promises to ourselves. And
in many other ways, also, the Holy Spirit produces spiritual feelings through the
instrumentality of the truth. But all religious feeling, produced by impulse, without any
rational view of the truth, is to be suspected. It may be the work of Satan, who is very
busy in counterfeiting religious experiences for those he wishes to deceive. Every
religious affection has its counterfeit. Thus, sorrow may be produced by the fear of hell,
without any sense of the evil of sin; a presumption of our own good estate may be
mistaken for faith, and this will produce joy; we may exercise a carnal or selfish love to
God, because we think he loves us, and has made us the objects of his special favor; and
the promises of God, so far as they concern the personal good of the believer, may
administer as much comfort to the hypocrite as to the real saint.
How exceedingly important is it, then, that you should not only exercise a general belief
of the great doctrines of the gospel, but that you should have a right apprehension of them.
The truth is so necessary in the Christian warfare, that it is called the sword of the Spirit.
But of what benefit is the sword to the soldier who knows not how to use it? The sword is
used as much to ward off the blows of the enemy, as to attack him. But the novice, who
should engage an enemy, without knowing the use of his weapon, would be thrust
through in the first onset. Hence, the peculiar force of the prayer of our Lord, "Sanctify
them through thy truth." It is by the use of the truth, as the "sword of the Spirit," in the

Christian warfare, that the work of satisfaction is carried on.
But, as the frame-work of a building, though complete in all its parts, would be no house
without a covering; so we may have a perfect knowledge of the abstract doctrines of the
Christian religion, and be no Christians. It is the practical and experimental application of
these doctrines to our own hearts and lives, that makes the building complete. Regard
yourself as a subject of God's moral government, and the doctrines of the Bible as the
laws of his kingdom; and you will feel such a personal interest in them, that you cannot
rest in abstract speculation. Study these doctrines, that you may know how to live to the
glory of God.
I will now give you a few simple directions for obtaining a correct knowledge of the
doctrines of the Bible.
1. Approach the subject with the spirit of a little child. "As new-born babes desire the
sincere milk of the word." "Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall
not enter into the kingdom of heaven." A little child is always satisfied of the truth of
what his father tells him. "My father says so," is reason enough for him. He does not say,
"I will not believe it, because I cannot understand it." So it should be your first object to
ascertain what the Bible teaches, and then submit to it with the confidence of a little child.
You cannot expect fully to comprehend the ways of an infinite Being. You can see but a
very small part of the system of his moral government. It cannot be strange, then, if you
are unable to discover the reasonableness of every