Page:Some Reflections on the Importance of a Religious Life.djvu/25

 the full benefit of such efforts is not derived. It is the power of the Lord which not only converts but purifies the soul; and a gentle, humbling sense of that power may be, and often is lost, through a creaturely activity in the things of religion. In the economy of divine Providence, a growth in the spiritual life does not appear to be ordinarily very rapid; in grace, as in nature, we see that as the advance is steady, it becomes most durable and substantial, and there is the greatest fitness for service and usefulness in the church.

As we are preserved humble and serious, in bowedness of spirit before the Lord, in our assemblies for divine worship, we are most likely to be prepared to join in public prayer, when rightly uttered, or to be edified by the ministry which we may hear. The offerings of those who may be called to exercise such gifts amongst us, are not to be judged of as the mere productions of the human understanding. The ministry which our religious Society acknowledges, is that which comes from the immediate influence of the Holy Spirit; which is not to be prepared or premeditated in the wisdom of man, but to be delivered to the congregation, through the fresh unfoldings of the Spirit of Truth. Those who are rightly called to preach the Gospel, and it is a great blessing to have such as are so called, have a strong claim on the