A paradox & an apparent contradiction

Back to Next Part Man's religion & God's religion 2

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A Christian is a paradox and an apparent contradiction both to himself and to others.

At one time, none more earnest, more diligent, more active, more zealous, more bent upon every good word and work—and yet at another time, how slothful, how indifferent, how cold, lifeless, and dead—as if he had neither a grain of grace nor a spark of spiritual feeling. Sometimes he is as watchful as a sentinel in the face of an advancing enemy—and at another time drops asleep in the sentry box, overcome with weariness and listlessness.

Sometimes so filled with the Spirit of prayer as if he would seize heaven by storm—and then at another time seeming scarcely to have a breath of prayer in his soul. Sometimes he loathes and abhors himself in dust and ashes as exceedingly vile, the very worst and basest of all sinners—then again is puffed up with a sense of his own importance as if there were no such saint as he; or if a minister, no minister like him for gifts and abilities, and usefulness.

Sometimes his affections are so fixed on things above, that it seems as if he had no desire for anything but the presence, love, favour, and glory of God—then at another time his heart is as cold as ice and as dead as a stone.

Sometimes the things of eternity lie so weightily and yet so warmly upon his bosom, that it seems as if nothing else were worth a single thought—and then come trooping in the cares and anxieties of this present life to engross his mind and carry him away to the very ends of the earth. Thus the Christian is a contradiction to himself.