criptures encourage us forward, bidding us leave the word of the
beginning of Christ and go (not crawl) on unto perfection.

"He gave the power to become the children of God"; the margin suggests
"right" or "privilege." Theologically this seems a high calling; but
we are not to deny things because they are high. "The devil's darling
sin is the pride that apes humility," and this affectation of humility
is one of the ways in which souls are constantly kept out of blessing;
it has been so throughout the history of the Church. In the matter of
the forgiveness of sins, it is not so long since people said that if a
man knew his sins were forgiven, it would make him conceited; and some
people still hold it to be a presumption; at other times that eternal
life, which consists in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ whom
He has sent, is denied; because it is presumptuous for a man to say
that he knows God in the same simple matter-of-fact way that he is
acquainted with a friend. And nowadays this spiritual affectation
takes the form of the denial of holiness, because, if you were kept
from sin, you would be sure to be proud of it; as if God were likely to
humble a man and make his heart a temple of His own, and then suffer
him to be lifted up over the fact. They do not seem to see the
contradiction. The Lord is pretty sure to humble us a good deal before
He gives us anything to be proud of. People say it is presumptuous to
be "blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke," and more
humble--to be something else. Humility is one of those things that lie
right in the line of our obedience; or, as a dear friend once said to
me,--"the righteousness I am striving after, includes humility."

It is a false humility that refuses those good things which God has
laid up for those who love Him. The true humility says, when the Lord
has made a feast and bidden His guests, "I shall go and take the lowest
place"; but the affected humility says, "Oh! it's too good for me; I
shall sit down outside"; and so, practically, it becomes numbered
amongst those of whom it is said, "They shall not taste of My supper."
We need to be like Paul, ready to take our place amongst the saints,
though less than the least of them; or it may be among the apostles,
though not worthy to be called an apostle.

God gives us power for what He wants us to be; _i.e._ power for the
next step; and all our future life is conditioned upon that. We sa