Hints and helps in pastoral theology by William S Plumer (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Chapter 21 (Religious excitements).
Now Plumer discusses religious excitements.
He states nine sound and fixed principles:
(i) the human mind is so constituted that it must be excited in order to act;
(ii) although man is an active being, yet his action is produced by his volitions, and his volitions depend on his affections - desires or aversions - and these affections are nothing but excited feelings;
(iii) there is also a proportion between the energy of the action and the strength of the feeling excited;
(iv) all true religion has its seat in excited feelings;
(v) purely religious affections can not be too much excited;
(vi) on account of the union between our souls and our bodies, and on account of their reciprocal influence on each other, the mind can never be excited without producing some effect on the body;
(vii) there is danger, however, lest these bodily agitations become epidemic, and when they do, they are frequently regarded as supernatural visitations;
(viii) it follows that those preachers are not to be blamed under whose ministry bodily agitations are witnessed, provided there be nothing but reasonable and evangelical truth presented;
(ix) yet is there nothing to be dreaded more than a spirit of wild fanaticism.
I found helpful this point about our religious affections: 'Purely religious affections can not be too much excited. In this matter, the measure of our duty is the very highest degree of affection of which we are capable. No man can have his heart too much excited in love to God ; for the law is, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength." Nor can we be too sorry for having sinned against God, nor too much ashamed of our base ingratitude toward him. Nor can we rejoice too much in his grace and mercy manifested in the gift of his Son. Nor should this state of excitement be temporary or transient. We have the authority of an inspired apostle for saying, " It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing." If our excitement be purely religious and holy, it can not be excessive. Alas ! that it should be so defective. There has always been too little of it. There is too little of it now. '
Yes, our real problem is not that we are too excited for God, but that we aren't excited enough!
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
No comments:
Post a Comment