Fri.-Sabbath, 8/2-4/13 Devotion

Sunday IS coming! Yippee. Here is some brilliant genius from Thomas Watson, as it is found in his profound work, entitled, "The Art of Divine Contentment." Pastor Watson is dealing with Paul's assertion, as it is found in Php. 4:11:

"This word, 'I have learned,' is a word that imports difficulty; it shows how hardly the apostle came by contentment of mind; it was not bred in nature. St Paul did not come naturally by it, but he had learned it. It cost him many a prayer and tear, it was taught him by the Spirit. Whence our second doctrine: GOOD THINGS ARE HARD TO COME BY. The business of religion is not so facile [easy] as most do imag-ine. 'I have learned,' says St Paul. Indeed you need not teach a man to sin; this is natural, (Ps. 58. 3)--and therefore facile. It comes as water out of a spring, It is an easy thing to be wicked. Hell will be taken with-out storm; but matters of religion must be learned. To cut the flesh is easy, but to prick a vein, and not to cut an artery, is hard. The trade of sin needs not to be learned, but the art of divine contentment is not achieved without holy industry: 'I have learned.' "