April 27 Daily Devotional

"For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country."
     "Hebrews 11:14.

Devotional

Words are important, but they are not enough to declare what we are. It was the practice of the patriarchs that made plain their desires and affections.

Most people are lavishing their time and thought upon the things and interests of this world. Worldliness in some shape or other pervades all the generations of men. This sphere of existence is the only scene on which their hopes rest, and its atmosphere is the only air they breathe.

Where is that man who is carrying on, with deep concern and zeal, his personal interest in that country where dwell the spirits of the just made perfect? One of the strongest evidences of our depravity is that we rear our only resting place on the quicksands of time and give ourselves over to the delusion that the place on which we stand is firm and secure. Do we not know for a certainty that a few little years will witness its total dissolution?

The faith spoken of in Scripture is more than profession. A mere notion in the head will not bear one upward into heaven if his treasure and his heart is not there already. The title-deed to heaven is not seized by the mere understanding of the truth of God, though this is indispensable. It is most necessary for a sinner to get straight the way of justification before God, but this understanding by itself with no embracing of the truth is not enough. The faith which is unto salvation is more than a bare recognition of truth.

A true recognition of God's way of salvation is not meant to be a substitute for practice and perseverance, but the condition of it. Can that man be said to be on the way to glory who gives no evidence in his life that he feels himself to be a stranger and a pilgrim in this present world? In many there is nothing which declares plainly, as with the patriarchs of old, that they are seeking a country whose builder and maker is God. What more can we say of such an impotent faith than that it is only a pleasant idea in the mind rather than the power of godliness.

In these days the faith set forth in the Scriptures is distorted. It is often made to exclude the doing of God's will as expressed in His Word. In the present church conflict many are content to do nothing. There is no stirring. These need to be reminded of the apostolic description of faith.

Certainly much that is called faith is not the kind of faith exhibited in the enumeration of those Old Testament worthies described in the above passage of Scripture.

(to be continued)