Oft it causes anxious thought;
Do I love the Lord or no,
Am I His or am I not?
Mr. Spurgeon made a humorous parody of the verse by making it read:—
'Tis a point I long to know,
Oft it causes anxious thought;
Do I love my wife or no,
Am I hers or am I not?
Uncertainty about our religious condition is quite as unsatisfactory as any doubt about our most sacred domestic relationships. Sureness is vital to peace, and the truly sanctified soul will live in the region of certainty, Divine things and Divine revelations becoming definite and real to him. Temptations to doubt and fear will arise; but, in spite of them, those who are sanctified realize that the Blood cleanses and the Holy Spirit dwells within.
I will not ask whether you have any religion or not, because most of you are professors of religion, but I do ask, Has your religion got this element of 'sureness' in it? We must settle that point. You may say, 'If I am to be sure, I must have evidence'. Quite so. We will, therefore, glance together at several things about which you can either say, 'It is so', or 'It is not so', and thus arrive at a reasonable conclusion as to where you are. I will classify the evidence in this way:—