The Masters Indwelling | Page 3

saying, is that this carnal state
may be found in existence in connection with great spiritual gifts. There is a difference
between gifts and graces. The graces of the Spirit are humility and love, like the humility
and love of Christ. The graces of the Spirit are to make a man free from self; the gifts of
the Spirit are to fit a man for work. We see this illustrated among the Corinthians. In the
first chapter Paul says, "I thank God that you are enriched unto all utterance, and all
knowledge, and all wisdom." In the 12th and 14th chapters we see that the gifts of
prophecy and of working miracles were in great power among them; but the graces of the
Spirit were noticeably absent.
And this may be in our days as well as in the time of the Corinthians. I may be a minister
of the Gospel; I may teach God's Word beautifully; I may have influence, and gather a
large congregation, and yet, alas! I may be a carnal man; a man who may be used by God,
and may be a blessing to others, and yet the carnal life may still mark me. You all know
the law that a thing is named according to what is its most prominent characteristic. Now,
in these carnal Corinthians there was a little of God's Spirit, but the flesh predominated;
the Spirit had not the rule of their whole life. And the spiritual men are not called so
because there is no flesh in them, but because the Spirit in them has obtained dominance,
and when you meet them and have intercourse with them, you feel that the Spirit of God
has sanctified them. Ah, let us beware lest the blessing God gives us in our work deceive
us and lead us to think that because he has blessed us, we must be spiritual men. God may
give us gifts that we use, and yet our lives may not be wholly in the power of the Holy
Ghost.
My last mark of the carnal state is that it makes a man unfit for receiving spiritual truths.
That is what the apostle writes to the Corinthians: "I could not preach to you as unto

spiritual; you are not fit for spiritual truth after being Christians so long; you can not yet
bear it; I have to feed you with milk." I am afraid that in the church of the nineteenth
century we often make a terrible mistake. We have a congregation in which the majority
are carnal men. We give these men spiritual teaching, and they admire it, understand it,
and rejoice in such ministry; yet their lives are not practically affected. They work for
Christ in a certain way, but we can scarce recognize the true sanctification of the Spirit;
we dare not say they are spiritual men, full of the Holy Spirit.
Now, let us recognize this with regard to ourselves. A man may become very earnest,
may take in all the teaching he hears; he may be able to discern, for discernment is a gift;
he may say, "That man helps me in this line, and that man in another direction, and a
third man is remarkable for another gift;" yet, all the time, the carnal life may be living
strongly in him, and when he gets into trouble with some friend, or Christian worker, or
worldly man, the carnal root is bearing its terrible fruit, and the spiritual food has failed to
enter his heart. Beware of that. Mark the Corinthians and learn of them. Paul did not say
to them, "You can not bear the truth as I would speak it to you," because they were
ignorant or a stupid people. The Corinthians prided themselves on their wisdom, and
sought it above everything, and Paul said: "I thank God that you are enriched in utterance,
in knowledge, and in wisdom; nevertheless, you are yet carnal, your life is not holy; your
life is not sanctified unto the humility of the life of the Lamb of God, you can not yet take
in real spiritual truth."
We find the carnal state not only at Corinth, but throughout the Christian world to-day.
Many Christians are asking, "What is the reason there is so much feebleness in the
Church?" We can not ask this question too earnestly, and I trust that God Himself will so
impress it upon our hearts that we shall say to Him, "It must be changed. Have mercy
upon us." But, ah! that prayer and that change can not come until we have begun to see
that there is a carnal root ruling in believers; they are living more after the flesh than the
Spirit; they are yet carnal Christians.
There is a