Spiritual advisor

“ Spiritual guidance is definitely and positively a scientific task. The mastery of one fact may lead to the correlation of a psychic law. When a minister can help a soul to overcome temptation, and a parent to bring up a child, he is in touch with two final human problems. As he gradually enlarges his careful and illuminating work, his church becomes in time a body of spiritually well-educated communicants, thoroughly grounded in doctrinal, ethical, and social ideals, well taught in public and in private duties. ”

“ Christian life in the people will seldom rise above the spiritual level of the pastor; it is, therefore, of primary moment that the minister’s own soul be “in the Spirit”—humble, fervent, and believing. Noise and zeal and declamation and management can be no substitute for the Holy Spirit in the soul. 2. As a revival of life in the church is ordinarily the condition of an awakening among the unconverted, the preaching at first should be specially adapted to search the experience and life of Christians, and lead to increase in personal holiness and personal activity. ”

“ Each soul that enters the kingdom of experience through the work of the Life-giving Spirit is builded into this invisible expanding Church of the ages, and is endowed with some "gift" to become an organ of the Divine Head. All spiritual service arises through the definite call and commission of God, and the persons so called and commissioned are rightly prepared for their service, not by election and ordination, but by inward compulsion and illumination through the Word of God. The preacher possesses no magical efficacy. ”

“ But is any one more out of place than the priest who seems to know no more than we do of what we desire to know most? We demand that a poet should be heaven-born; why should we not require equivalent evidence of fitness from our spiritual advisers?
And yet, on the other hand, when the conviction of fitness or mission exists, what calling is there which offers to-day more opportunities for usefulness than the ministry? The growing tendency of the Church is toward wider issues and a broader scope. ”

“ Though learning does not seem necessary for discretion, my opinion has always been, and will be, that every Christian should continue to be guided by a learned director if he can, and the more learned the better. They who walk in the way of prayer have the greater need of learning; and the more spiritual they are the greater is that need. Let them not say that learned men not given to prayer are not fit counsellors for those who pray: that is a delusion. ”

“ The ministering personality of the guardian seraphim, the God presence of the indwelling Adjuster, the encircuited action of the Holy Spirit, and the Son-consciousness of the Spirit of Truth are all divinely correlated into a meaningful unity of spiritual ministry in and to a mortal personality. ”

“ The Lord's command means this, that we should adopt the spirit of the Saviour's ministry, and abide in such a spiritual attitude as will draw men unto us. Itinerancy should not be allowed to clip the wings of divine Science. Mind demonstrates omnipresence and omnipotence, but Mind revolves on a spiritual axis, and its power is displayed and its presence felt in eternal stillness and immovable Love. The divine potency of this spiritual mode of Mind, and the hindrance opposed to it by material motion, is proven beyond a doubt in the practice of Mind-healing. ”

“ "In forming a judgment of ourselves now," Edwards writes, "we should certainly adopt that evidence which our supreme Judge will chiefly make use of when we come to stand before him at the last day. ... There is not one grace of the Spirit of God, of the existence of which, in any professor of religion, Christian practice is not the most decisive evidence. ... The degree in which our experience is productive of practice shows the degree in which our experience is spiritual and divine." ”

“ We feel the responsibility that is resting upon us, and we wish to save this people, if they will listen to our counsel, both temporal and spiritual. I have to restrain myself, many times, from speaking of things which pass through my mind. ”

“ But ask the ministers of Christ to-day—the ministers of that religion which is claimed to have brought "life and immortality to light"—about the spiritual world. Ask them in what condition we may expect to find ourselves when we shall have "shuffled off this mortal coil." Ask them if we shall still be in the human form, having eyes, ears, hands, feet, and other bodily organs;—if we shall retain the power of thinking, reasoning, remembering, loving, conversing and enjoying. ”

“ But in and through all this material and spiritual creation there is a vast stage whereon the Infinite Spirit and his spirit offspring show forth the combined mercy, patience, and everlasting affection of the divine parents towards the intelligent children of their co-operative devising and making. Everlasting ministry to mind is the essence of the Spirit's divine character. And all the spirit offspring of the Conjoint Actor partake of this desire to minister, this divine urge to service. ”

“ It is true that many excellent ways of persevering in the grace of God may be recommended to souls; for instance, avoiding occasions of sin frequenting the sacraments, resisting temptation, listening to sermons, meditating on the eternal truths, etc., all of which are most salutary practices, as every one must admit but, I ask, of what good are sermons, meditations, and the other means suggested by the masters of the spiritual life, without prayer? ”

“ Speaking from personal experience, I would say that whilst soul-saving is hard work, it appears equally difficult to persuade professors of religion to definitely seek deliverance from inward sin, and to attain those spiritual realizations which we speak of as 'Full Salvation' or 'The Blessing of Holiness'. ”

“ Obedience to the Master means, that we shall make the will of the Master our will, and shall confirm in all wave to the will of the Divine, setting aside the wills of self, which are but psychic distortions of the one Divine Will. The constant effort to obey in all the ways we know and understand, will reveal new ways and new tasks, the evidence of new growth of the Soul. Nothing will do more for the spiritual man in us than this, for there is no such regenerating power as the awakening spiritual will. ”

“ He adopted the doctrine of a divine guidance of the faithful believing soul, and held that prayer, meditation and spiritual worship were necessary to the maintenance of the spiritual life; while gentleness, self-denial and purity were requisite in order to bring men into union with the Divine Spirit.
Like other theistic teachers, he was ready to acknowledge the beauty of the life and example of Christ, and the moral value of His teaching, but he regarded Him as a mere man. ”

“ These investigations have a practical interest for every man who desires to be the "captain of his soul." The relation in which institutional religion does or should stand to the spiritual life is also in part a matter for psychology; which is here called upon to deal with the religious aspect of the social instincts, and the problems surrounding symbols and cults. These chapters lead up to a discussion of the personal aspect of the spiritual life, its curve of growth, characters and activities ”

“ In fact, the selection once made, you should look upon your spiritual guide more as a guardian angel than as a mere man. You place your confidence not in him but in God, for it is God who will lead and instruct you through his instrumentality by inspiring him with the sentiments and words necessary for your guidance. ”

“ I mean, Spiritual Power in Preaching. Who that knows the Lord, and contemplates the preacher's work, does not long for Spiritual Power? By that longing he means no ambitious wish to be remarkable, nor any unwholesome craving to be a leader in scenes of religious excitement. He means the deep desire to be an effectual messenger of his Master ”

“ They should not be without a teacher, a guide; one Advocate, one Comforter would be withdrawn, but another would take His place. There would be a friend still, an adviser ever near to take them by the hand, to whisper into their ears, to prepare, to instruct, to protect, to fortify, to guide them into all truth. Another comforter. Yes; and yet not another. There would not be less of Christ, but more of Christ, when Christ was gone. This is the spiritual paradox which is assured to the disciples by the promise in the text—"He shall take of Mine, and show it unto you. ”

“ If then we wish to explore all those mental resources which can be turned to the purposes of the spiritual life, this is one which we must not neglect. The religious idea, rightly received into the mind and reinforced by the suggestion of regular devotional exercises, always tends to realize itself. ”

“ We see that the first four gifts of the spirit will govern the adjustment of man to his earthly life: that they will immensely increase the value of his personality in the social order, will clarify his mind and judgment, confer nobility on his aims. The last three gifts—those called Counsel, Understanding and Wisdom—will govern his intercourse with the spiritual order. ”

“ It is therefore necessary the aspirant or seeker of the truth should test the guide for a period of seven days otherwise he should abandon his guide and prevent his life from being destroyed. It may be that his guide is imperfect or that the seekers fortune lies elsewhere or it may be the seeker's "land is infertile". Should the seeker be unable to gain spiritual benevolence from any where then he should try to attain spiritual benevolence from the shrine of a perfect spiritual guide. ”

“ There is a knowledge essential to them as Ministers, and this is not human learning, though that is not to be despised, but it is the influence of the Spirit upon the mind, giving them to see, clearer than others, the plan of salvation, the depravity of human nature, the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the nature of the law, the glories of the Saviour, the danger of a form of godliness, without the power ”

“ Go [Pg 130] to that man who, as a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, has been spending his days and nights in prayer and toilsome labours to promote the spiritual interests of the flock committed to his care, and then visit him after he has been acting four or five years in the capacity of a professor or president of a college, and see if he does not recognize the truth of this doctrine, see if he does not sigh for that spirituality and burning love for souls, which once bore him on so cheerfully in his labours. ”

“ The ministers and church members have a clearer understanding of the proprieties of church order and discipline.
The public services of the Lord’s day have grown quiet and devotional, a deeper tone of reverence pervades the preaching, and mere emotion has been succeeded by intelligent conviction and a reasonable faith.
3d. There is a more direct aim for the best spiritual results. The conversion of the heart and the saving of the lost is more and more the end and the aim of preaching. ”

“ Far more important is a humble willingness to try the method, give it a chance. That which reason may not grasp, the deeper mind may seize upon and realize; always provided that the intellect does not set up resistances. This is found to be true in medical practice, and religious teachers have always declared it to be true in the spiritual sphere; holding obedience, humility, and a measure of resignation, not spiritual vision, to be the true requisites for the reception of grace, the healing and renovation of the soul. ”

“ They will put us in the volitional attitude, the emotional mood, where the meaning is able to penetrate. Just as all the world acknowledges that there is an essential connection between good manners and good morals, between military discipline and physical courage, so there is a connection between a devotional service and the gifts of the spiritual life. Such a service not merely strengthens belief in the High and Holy One, it has a real office in creating, in making possible, that belief itself. ”

“ He insists, in all his interpretations of salvation, upon the vital interior work of the Holy Spirit and upon the necessity of re-living the Christ-life in all its heights and depths. All the truths of religion, he constantly urges, must be known and verified in experience, and those who are to be effective ministers of the Gospel in any age must know that they are divinely sent and must be taught by the inward Word of God rather than by human science. ”

“ Besides the ordinary occasions of Confirmation and Sickness, the minister may be called upon to give spiritual advice or comfort to persons whom he knows to be living evil lives or to be at enmity with their neighbours, or who are troubled in conscience about coming to Holy Communion, or generally about their spiritual state. ”

“ I know what I can know, and have no apprehensions regarding that which I cannot know. I am satisfied; perfect harmony and clearness reign in my soul, and a new and more glorious spiritual existence begins for me.
My entire complete vocation I cannot comprehend; what I shall be hereafter transcends all my thoughts. A part of that vocation is concealed from me; it is visible only to One, to the Father of Spirits, to whose care it is committed. I know only that it is sure, and that it is eternal and glorious like Himself. ”