Wilberforce: Christian diligence

Thursday, July 30, 2020
    Commemoration of William Wilberforce, Social Reformer, 1833
Meditation:
    Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
    Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
    —John 6:28-29 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Bountiful as is the hand of Providence, its gifts are not so bestowed as to seduce us into indolence, but to rouse us to exertion; and no one expects to attain to the height of learning, or arts, or power, or wealth, or military glory, without vigorous resolution, and strenuous diligence, and steady perseverance. Yet we expect to be Christians without labour, study or inquiry! This is the more preposterous, because Christianity, being a revelation from God, and not the invention of man, discovering to us new relations, with their correspondent duties; containing also doctrines, motives, and precepts, peculiar to itself; we cannot reasonably expect to become proficients in it by the accidental [encounters] of life, as one might learn insensibly the maxims of worldly policy, or a scheme of mere morals.
    ... William Wilberforce (1759-1833), A Practical View, Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1829, p. 79-80 (see the book)
    See also John 6:26-29; Deut. 6:5; 11:13-15; Ps. 119:60; 1 Cor. 15:58; 2 Tim. 4:2; Heb. 11:6; 2 Pet. 1:5-8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the strength to teach my body to do Your will. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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