View source for 'Practical atheists', we daily -'

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<p><strong> 'Practical atheists', we daily prove ourselves to be.<br />
  </strong><br />
  We profess to believe in an All-mighty, All-present, <br />
  All-seeing God. But we would be highly offended <br />
  if a person said to us, &quot;You do not <strong>really</strong> believe <br />
  that God sees everything—that He is everywhere <br />
  present—that He is an Almighty Jehovah.&quot; We <br />
  would almost think that he was taking us for <br />
  an atheist! <strong>And yet</strong> <strong>'practical atheists', we <br />
    daily prove ourselves to be. <br />
  </strong><br />
  For instance, we profess to believe that <strong>God sees <br />
    everything.</strong> And yet we are plotting and planning <br />
  as though He saw nothing. <br />
  <br />
  We profess to know that <strong>God can do everything. </strong><br />
  And yet we are always cutting out schemes, and <br />
  carving out contrivances, as though He were like <br />
  the gods of the heathen, looking on and taking <br />
  no notice. <br />
  <br />
  We profess to believe that <strong>God is everywhere <br />
    present</strong> to relieve every difficulty and bring His <br />
  people out of every trial. And yet when we get<br />
  into the difficulty and into the trial—we speak, <br />
  think, and act, as though there were no such <br />
  omnipresent God, who knows the circumstances <br />
  of our case, and can stretch forth His hand to <br />
  bring us out of it.<br />
  <br />
  Thus the Lord is obliged to thrust us into trials <br />
  and afflictions, because <strong>we are such blind fools</strong>, <br />
  that we cannot learn what a God we have to deal <br />
  with—until we come experimentally into those spots <br />
  of difficulty and trial, out of which none but such a <br />
  God can deliver us.<br />
  <br />
  This, then, is one reason why the Lord often plunges <br />
  His people so deeply into a sense of <strong>sin</strong>. It is to show <br />
  them what a wonderful salvation from the guilt, filth,<br />
  and power of sin, there is in the Lord Jesus Christ. <br />
  <br />
  For the same reason, too, they walk in such scenes <br />
  of <strong>temptation</strong>. It is in order to show them what a <br />
  wonder-working God He is, in bringing them out. <br />
  <br />
  This too is the reason why many of them are so <br />
  <strong>harassed and plagued</strong>. It is that they may not <br />
  live and act as though there were . . .<br />
  no God to go to,<br />
  no Almighty friend to consult,<br />
  no kind Jesus to rest their weary heads upon.<br />
  It is in order to teach them experimentally and <br />
  inwardly those lessons of grace and truth which <br />
  they never would know until the Lord, as it were, <br />
  thus compels them to learn—and actually forces <br />
  them to believe what they profess to believe.<br />
  <br />
  Such pains is he obliged to take with us—<strong>such poor <br />
    scholars, such dull creatures we are.</strong> No child at<br><br>
a school ever gave his master a thousandth part of <br />
  the trouble that we have given the Lord to teach us.<br />
  <br />
  In order, then, to teach us what a merciful and <br />
  compassionate God He is—in order to open up the <br />
  heights, and depths, and lengths, and breadths of <br />
  His love—He is compelled to treat, at times, His <br />
  people very roughly—and handle them very sharply.<br />
  He is obliged to make very great use of His rod,<br />
  because He sees that &quot;foolishness is so bound up <br />
  in the hearts&quot; of His children—that nothing but the<br />
  repeated &quot;rod of correction will ever drive it far <br />
  from them.&quot;
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