Ephesians 4:19

Ephesians 4:19

Spiritual Insensibility.

I. There is a certain pitch of wickedness at which moral insensibility comes on; and when thatcomes on, the case becomes almost hopeless. There is little prospect of repentance or reformation then. No matter how bad any poor sinner has been, there is still some hope so long as you can get him to feel. It is one of the last and worst symptoms of the soul's condition when feeling is gone. That is arrived at by most men only after a long continuance in iniquity; and thatis an indication which gives sad ground for fearing that the Holy Ghost, without whom we can never feel anything as we ought, has ceased to strive with that hardened soul, has left that obdurate heart alone. We all run a great risk of becoming so familiar with spiritual truths that we shall understand them and believe them without feeling them, without really feeling what their meaning is, and without that degree of emotion being excited by them that ought to be excited. And if it be true that even the converted man, in whom what we may call the organs of spiritual perception have been quickened from their native paralysis, and the capacity of spiritual emotion in some good measure developed, by the working of Divine grace, has to wonder and lament that he believes so much, but feels it so little, we need hardly be surprised to find that in the case of most unconverted men living in a Christian country, and probably frequenting a Christian church, there is a perfect numbness of soul; as regards spiritual things they are, in the full sense of the words, "past feeling."

II. While we never forget that in the case of even a true Christian it is a sad thing when as years go his religion appears to be always growing more a thing of the head and less a thing of the heart, and while we are well assured that no one will lament thatmore than the true Christian himself, let us remember that such a train of thought must not be pushed too far. It would be very wrong if the aged believer were to fancy that because his religious feelings are growing less keen, less easily excited than in former years, he must, therefore, conclude that he is backsliding from his God and leaving his first love. He is causing for himself needless sorrow when he so acts and thinks. It is just that he has grown older, and so less capable of all emotion; but his choice of Christ may be just as firm and his religious convictions as deep as ever.

III. It is only to such as have really some good ground for hoping that they have believed in Christ that all this should be any ground of comfort. But if a man be not a believer, and if when he listens to the declaration of the doctrines of the Cross he understands them, but does not feel them; if he knows thoroughly well that whosoever does not betake himself to the great atonement of Christ must perish eternally, and if he knows too that he himself has never gone to Christ and never prepared to die; and if, with all this, he does not care ah, thenthere is a sad and a fearful explanation of how he comes to be so. Let it be your earnest prayer and endeavour at once to go to Him who came to seek and save the lost, lest the Holy Spirit, without whom you can do nothing, may be finally grieved away.

A. K. H. Boyd, The Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson,p. 106.

References: Ephesians 4:19. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. iv., p. 305; Preacher's Monthly,vol. vi., p. 166. Ephesians 4:20. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, The Life of Duty,vol. ii., p. 164.