Do Not Be Ashamed of the Feelings Associated with Experiential Religion

[This is no reference to the emotionalism of some of the Charismatics, but vital godliness, and experimental religion should be one of feeling and emotions and conflicts in those things or there is nothing to overcome, and one is left with a formal, dead faith. Jesus felt--Jesus Wept]

To talk about Christian Experience is, by some people considered little short of enthusiasm. To try to enlist the affections on the side of Christianity is by others deemed extravagance. In their view, the sober-minded Christian is one who attends to the duties of his station, is a strict observer of religious ordinances, and distributes of his substance to the poor and needy. To speak to them about the corruption of the heart, the inward conflict, the power of faith, the energy of love, the work of the Spirit, the grace of the Savior, is like talking about an unknown religion.
It was not so with the blessed Paul. He could say, “I know the one in whom I trust.” He was taught of God to know, by sweet experience, the efficacy of Christ’s atonement, the sufficiency of his grace, and the prevalency of his intercession. His ardent desire was “to know Christ, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; if by any means he might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”

With such declarations of the Apostles, recorded in the Sacred Scriptures for our encouragement and pursuit after holiness, we need not be ashamed of Experimental Religion. The world’s shame is the Christian’s glory.

I am now a pilgrim journeying through the wilderness. The manna is daily descending; and the water of life continually flowing to sustain and refresh me. Jesus, the true bread from heaven, is freely given; the Holy Spirit, as a living stream, is graciously supplied from the fountain of eternal love. Oh! how great is the goodness, truth, and mercy, of my covenant God, Father, Son, and Spirit, to an unworthy worm of the earth. Lord, make me grateful. Give me a believing and a loving heart. Preserve me from self-will and self-seeking; from selfsufficiency and self-pleasing. Mold my will into yours; and enable me in all things to seek your glory.
Guide me, O great Jehovah, in safety through this desert-land. Shield me by your power. Cheer me with your presence. Uphold my goings in your way. Let me not turn aside into crooked paths; nor dread any danger, while in the path of duty. Keep me as the apple of your eye. Hide me under the shadow of your wings. Impart that spiritual illumination which will direct me aright; that spiritual strength, which will enable me to endure unto the end; that assurance of faith, which will animate me to the conflict; and that experience of your love, which will support me under every trial, and cause me to die, rather than deny you before men. O grant these inestimable blessings, for your own mercy and truth’s sake; for you, O Lord, alone are the God of my salvation.
—Thomas Reade ‘The Believer’s Companion in Solitude’