3. The Means Those Who Desire to Grow in Grace Most Use
J C Ryle
The words of James must never be forgotten: “Every good and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights” (Jas 1:17). This is no doubt as true of growth in grace as it is of everything else. It is the “gift of God”. But still it must always be kept in mind that God is pleased to work by means. God has ordained means as well as ends. He that would grow in grace must use the means of growth.2
This is a point, I fear, which is too much overlooked by believers. Many admire growth in grace in others, and wish that they themselves were like them. But they seem to suppose that those who grow are what they are by some special gift or grant from God. They suppose that, as this gift is not bestowed on themselves, they must be content to sit still. This is a grievous delusion, and one against which I desire to testify with all my might. I wish it to be distinctly understood that growth in grace is bound up with the use
1The first part of the final section, with editing, of a chapter from Ryle’s volume, Holiness. The previous part, in the October issue, gave “marks by which growth may be known”.
2Experience will tell every Christian that, the more strictly, closely and constantly he walks with God, the stronger he grows in duty. Infused habits are advantaged by exercise. As the fire that kindled the wood for sacrifices upon the altar first came down from heaven, but then was to be kept alive by the care and labour of the priests, so the habits of spiritual grace are indeed infused from God, and must be maintained by daily influences from God, yet with a concurrence also of our own labours, in waiting upon God, and exercising ourselves with godliness. And the more a Christian does so exercise himself, the stronger he shall grow.
John Collinges
of means within the reach of all believers and that, as a general rule, growing souls are what they are because they use these means.
Let me ask for your special attention while I try to set forth, in order, the means of growth. Cast away for ever the vain thought that, if a believer does not grow in grace, it is not his fault. Settle it in your mind that a believer, a person made alive by the Spirit, is not a mere dead creature, but a being of mighty capacities and responsibilities. Let the words of Solomon sink down into your heart: “The soul of the diligent shall be made fat” (Prov 13:4).
(a) One thing essential to growth in grace is diligence in the use of private means of grace. By these I understand such means as a man must use by himself alone, and no one can use for him. I include under this head private prayer, private reading of the Scriptures, private meditation and self-examination. The man who does not take pains about these three things must never expect to grow. Here are the roots of true Christianity. Wrong here, a man is wrong all the way through. Here is the whole reason why many professing Christians never seem to make progress. They are careless and slovenly about their private prayers. They read their Bibles but little, and with very little heartiness of spirit. They give themselves no time for self-inquiry and quiet thought about the state of their souls.
It is useless to conceal from ourselves that the age we live in is full of special dangers. It is an age of great activity, and of much hurry, bustle and excitement in religion. Many “run to and fro”, no doubt, and “knowledge [is] increased” (Dan 12:4). Thousands are ready enough for public meetings, sermon-hearing, or anything else in which there is “sensation”. Few appear to remember the absolute necessity of making time to commune with our hearts “and be still” (Ps 4:4). But without this there is seldom any deep spiritual prosperity. I suspect that English Christians 200 years ago read their Bibles more, and were more frequently alone with God, than they are in the present day. Let us remember this point: private religion must receive our first attention, if we wish our souls to grow.
(b) Another thing which is essential to growth in grace is care in the use of public means of grace. By these I understand such means as a man has within his reach as a member of Christ’s visible Church. Under this head I include the ordinances of regular Sabbath worship: uniting with God’s people in prayer and praise, the preaching of the Word, and the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. I firmly believe that the manner in which these public means of grace are used has much to say about the prosperity of a believer’s soul. It is easy to use them in a cold and heartless way. The very familiarity of them is apt to make us careless. The regular return of the same voice and the same kind of words is likely to make us sleepy, callous and unfeeling.
Here is a snare into which too many professing Christians fall. If we would grow we must be on our guard here. Here is a matter in which the Spirit is often grieved and saints receive great damage. Let us strive to hear the old truths preached and come to the Lord’s table with as much freshness and appetite as in the year we first believed. It is a sign of bad health when a person loses relish for his food, and it is a sign of spiritual decline when we lose our appetite for means of grace. Whatever we do about public means, let us always do it “with our might” (Ecc 9:10). This is the way to grow.
(c) Another thing essential to growth in grace is watchfulness over our conduct in the little matters of everyday life. Our tempers, our tongues, the discharge of our several relations of life, our use of time – each and all must be vigilantly attended to if we wish our souls to prosper. Life is made up of days, and days of hours, and the little things of every hour are never so little as to be beneath the care of a Christian. When a tree begins to decay at its root or heart, the damage is first seen at the extreme end of the little branches. “He that despises little things”, says an uninspired writer, “shall fall by little and little.” That witness is true. Let others despise us, if they like, and call us precise and over-careful. But let us patiently hold on our way, remembering that we “serve a precise God”, that our Lord’s example is to be copied in the least things as well as the greatest, and that we must take up our cross daily and hourly, rather than sin. We must aim to have a Christianity which, like the sap of a tree, runs through every twig and leaf of our character and sanctifies all. This is one way to grow.
(d) Another thing which is essential to growth in grace is caution about the company we keep and the friendships we form. Nothing perhaps affects a man’s character more than the company he keeps. We catch the ways and tone of those we live and talk with, and unhappily get harm far more easily than good. Disease is infectious, but health is not.
Now if a professing Christian deliberately chooses to be intimate with those who are not friends of God and who cling to the world, his soul is sure to be harmed. It is hard enough to serve Christ under any circumstances in such a world as this. But it is doubly hard to do so if we are friends of the thoughtless and ungodly. Mistakes in friendship or marriage-engagements are the whole reason why some have entirely ceased to grow. “Evil communications corrupt good manners.” “The friendship of the world is enmity with God” (1 Cor 15:33, Jas 4:4). Let us seek friends that will stir us up about our prayers, our Bible-reading and our use of time, about our souls, our salvation and a world to come. Who can tell the good that a friend’s word in season may do, or the harm it may stop? This is one way to grow.3
3Let them be your choicest companions that have made Christ their chiefest compan-
(e) There is one more thing which is absolutely essential to growth in grace, and that is regular, habitual communion with the Lord Jesus. In saying this, let no one suppose for a minute that I am referring to the Lord’s Supper. I mean nothing of the kind. I mean that daily habit of communion between the believer and his Saviour which can only be carried on by faith, prayer and meditation. It is a habit, I fear, of which many believers know little. A man may be a believer and have his feet on the rock, and yet live far below his privileges. It is possible to have union with Christ, and yet to have little, if any, communion with Him. But, for all that, there is such a thing.
The names and offices of Christ, as laid down in Scripture, seem to me to show unmistakably that this communion between the saint and his Saviour is something real, not a mere fancy. Between the Bridegroom and His bride, between the Head and His members, between the Physician and His patients, between the Advocate and His clients, between the Shepherd and His sheep, between the Master and His scholars, there is evidently implied a habit of familiar communion, of daily application for things needed, of daily pouring out and unburdening our hearts and minds. Such a habit of dealing with Christ is clearly something more than a vague general trust in the work that He did for sinners. It is getting close to Him and laying hold on Him with confidence, as a loving, personal Friend. This is what I mean by communion.
Now I believe that no man will ever grow in grace who does not know something experimentally of the habit of communion. We must not be content with a general, orthodox knowledge that justification is by faith and not by works, and that we put our trust in Christ. We must go further than this. We must seek to have personal intimacy with the Lord Jesus, and to deal with Him as a man deals with a loving friend. We must realise what it is to turn to Him first in every need, to talk to Him about every difficulty, to consult Him about every step, to spread before Him all our sorrows, to get Him to share in all our joys, to do all as in His sight, and to go through every day leaning on and looking to Him.
This is the way that Paul lived: “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God”; “To me to live is Christ” (Gal 2:20, Phil 1:21). It is ignorance of this way of living that makes so many see no beauty in the Song of Solomon. But it is the man who lives in this way, who keeps up constant communion with Christ – this is the man, I say emphatically, whose soul will grow.
ion. Do not so much eye the outsides of men as their inside; look most to their internal worth. Many persons have their eyes upon the external garb of a professing Christian. But give me a Christian that minds the internal worth of persons, that makes such as are most filled with the fulness of God his choicest and chiefest companions. Thomas Brooks