Saintliness

By A.W Tozer.  ~( excepts from the book: 'The Dwelling Place of God').

The man who has passed on into the divine Presence in actual
inner experience will not find many who understand him. A certain
amount of social fellowship will of course be his as he mingles
with religious persons in the regular activities of the church, but
true spiritual fellowship will be hard to find. But he should not
expect things to be otherwise. After all he is a stranger and a
pilgrim, and the journey he takes is not on his feet but in his heart.
He walks with God in the garden of his own soul - and who but
God can walk there with him? He is of another spirit from the
multitudes that tread the courts of the Lord's house. He has seen
that of which they have only heard, and he walks among them
somewhat as Zacharias walked after his return from the altar when
the people whispered, "He has seen a vision."

 

The truly spiritual man is indeed something of an oddity. He lives
not for himself but to promote the interests of Another. He seeks
to persuade people to give all to his Lord and asks no portion or
share for himself. He delights not to be honored but to see his
Savior glorified in the eyes of men. His joy is to see his Lord
promoted and himself neglected. He finds few who care to talk
about that which is the supreme object of his interest, so he is
often silent and preoccupied in the midst of noisy religious
shoptalk. For this he earns the reputation of being dull and
over serious, so he is avoided and the gulf between him and
society widens. He searches for friends upon whose garments he
can detect the smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory
palaces, and finding few or none, he, like Mary of old, keeps these
things in his heart.
 

The weakness of so many modern Christians is that they feel too
much at home in the world. In their effort to achieve restful
"adjustment" to unregenerate society they have lost their pilgrim
character and become an essential part of the very moral order
against which they are sent to protest. The world recognizes them
and accepts them for what they are. And this is the saddest thing
that can be said about them. They are not lonely, but neither are
they saints.
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