Formality and Fanaticism

DEAD formality and seething fanaticism—the rock Charybdis and the whirlpool Scylla—are both alike to be avoided. The successful navigator must carefully sail between the two. He must not fear the whirlpool so much as to dash his vessel upon the rocks, neither must he, to shun the rocks, rush into the whirlpool. Death is imminent on either hand; but there is a channel through which the mariner may steer his vessel in safety.

The formalist trusts in a lifeless form of words and ceremonies; the fanatic in the teaching of the Spirit. Both have a spirit, but neither of them the Spirit of God. Those who would worship God acceptably must worship him in spirit and in truth. The word of truth is necessary, and the spirit of truth is no less so.

There is such a thing as a person unrenewed, having the carnal mind, conforming in a measure to the outward acts of religion, and at the same time being a stranger to the Spirit of God and experimental religion. On the other hand, there may be a remarkable experience, and impressions supposed to be from the Spirit of God, and yet the person be laboring under a delusion, not being led by the Spirit of God, but by the wild spirit of fanaticism. The one cries, "The word, truth, duty;" the other, "The Spirit, impressions, experience." Both are wrong; the one is being driven upon the rock, the other is being drawn into the whirlpool.

"Genuine sanctification follows the channel of Bible truth. It is not grounded on flights of feeling, but on the immutable truths of God's word. It is the truth received through the mind and practically carried out in the life. When the truth is thus received and carried out, there is a radical work, a change indeed; and those who receive and obey the truth are not destitute of good feeling. They have an inward satisfaction arising from a consciousness of well-doing, and enjoy the approbation and blessing of the Lord to encourage and strengthen them in their great and glorious work."

What we experience from the Spirit of God is for our own encouragement, and not for an evidence to others that we are truly converted. The best evidence possible to others is a life in harmony with the word of God; and this too is the best evidence to ourselves, for we may well doubt the most rapturous and ecstatic experience that flows from some other source than a sincere endeavor to know and do the revealed will of God.

It is good to enjoy the approving smiles of Heaven, the witness of the Spirit that we are truly converted. Let all seek and enjoy this. But when we are favored with some rich experience which is new to ourselves, let us not conclude from this that our brethren have never been converted to God. We should encourage a heart work, but our experience is not the measuring line. We have a better one in the word of God: "By their fruits ye shall know them." Our words and actions are the fruit we bear.