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Nothing but an evident progress in knowledge and holiness should satisfy the Christian. God expects from him a constant ripening towards perfection. But the duty is plain enough. And the subject of inquiry to which I would rather direct attention is, whether in our long continued enjoyment of religious privileges, there has been any apparent profiting.

I. And the first test by which we may judge that we have grown in grace will be found IN AN INCREASING CONVICTION OF OUR SINFULNESS AND WEAKNESS BY NATURE. The young convert's views of sin may be more startling, because new; but that which flashes before his eyes works its way down into the very heart of the more mature Christian, and assumes there the shape of an abiding, humbling assurance of utter sinfulness and helplessness in himself. Here, then, Christians, is a mark by which to measure whether we have grown in grace. Have years of acquaintance with ourselves made us feel our depravity more deeply? When we hear any boasting of the goodness of human nature, do we listen as a sick man does, who knows death is at his vitals, to one complimenting him upon his good looks? If we realize our sinfulness more and more the longer we live, then we may be sure that there "our profiting appears."

II. Another point of contrast between our present and our former state, our early and our mature experience, will be found in our VIEWS OF CHRIST AND DEPENDENCE UPON HIM. A young Christian rests indeed upon Christ, but it is as the newly laid wall rests upon the foundation, while the cement is fresh, and when a little blow will cause it to totter; but the mature Christian is like that wall when it settles down, and the uniting medium hardens, so that wall and foundation seem but one solid structure. In our early experience we said much of our dependence on the Saviour, now we feel it.

III. If there be any profiting to appear, it will seem again in our INCREASED CHARITY. A young Christian is often a young bigot, filled with self-conceit and pride, and disposed to severity of censure and condemnation. Like a young watch-dog, he means well for his master's interests, but will often snarl at his master's friends, and upon such as an elder guardian would recognize and welcome. An advanced Christian will grieve more over the dissensions of Christians, and pray earnestly for the time when all shall be one.

IV. AND THERE ARE VARIOUS OTHER POINTS IN WHICH "OUR PROFITING WILL APPEAR," IF WE HAVE GROWN IN GRACE. A young Christian is much troubled by the remembrance of particular acts of sin. A young Christian, again, sets a very high value on religious sensibility, on excited feeling, on gifts, and estimates his own religious character by his fervours in devotion, his tears for sin. The piety of the young believer, again, depends very much on external aid. It must be fed by constant converse with fellow-Christians, and its warmth must be sustained by frequent attendance on religious meetings. But our "profiting will appear," if we have learned to delight more in our own private meditations on God's Word, and in communion with Him, and to be less dependent on our Christian ministers and our Christian brethren. "The mature Christian, like the sack well filled, can stand alone, while the young convert must be held up in his emptiness." The young Christian lives much upon the opinion of others. To the young Christian, one or two doctrines of God's Word seem exclusively important, and he would he glad if every sermon were upon conversion and faith in Christ, and is apt to regard a preacher as not evangelical who dwells upon the moral duties of life; but our "profiting will appear," if we have learned to magnify all God's Word, to feel that all should be unfolded, and to love it as a whole. And there will be, if our profiting is apparent, an increased dependence on prayer and all the means of grace. But of all other points an increasing heavenly-mindedness will appear as the most striking evidence of a growing Christian. So small is our improvement, however, that most of us are obliged to say, we hardly know at times whether we are any better than we were years ago. When a ship is moving slowly into port, so that we can scarcely perceive that she advances at all, it is pleasant to fix our eye upon some landmark, and watch it till we can exclaim, Oh, yes, I do see now that we move a little; and these marks which I have given may help us to know whether we are progressing at all towards the haven of peace. Happy are they who can thus perceive an advance in the Divine life. It is a comfort in itself, because every degree of progress in holiness is like every step in recovery from sickness, attended with positive and present pleasure.

(W. H. Lewis, D. D.)

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KJV: Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.

WEB: Be diligent in these things. Give yourself wholly to them, that your progress may be revealed to all.