“What a rare thing godliness is! It is not airy and puffed up, but solid, and such as will take up the heart and spirits. Godliness consists in an exact harmony between holy principles and practices.”
“Policy without piety is profound madness.”
Thomas Watson, The Godly Man’s Picture
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Poor Mr. Watson got lost in the kerfuffle, I think. I like this idea that “Godliness consists in an exact harmony between holy principles and practices.” If we know the right things to do, we must do them. And if we’re doing the right things, we must be doing them for the right reasons.
One danger of Internet discourse is that we so often see principles without practices. Not that the practices are always absent, but we can’t blithely assume that their present amongst folks we don’t know except on screen. Writing alone — whether in books or online — isn’t sufficient for discipleship. We need flesh-and-blood examples living out truth in plain sight. We need families and we need churches. We need godly parents and godly shepherds. God sets the standard this principle by sending us not only His written Word, but His incarnate Word.
Dear Nancy,
I like to read Thomas Watson as well, maybe you would like to see my “sketched notes” on his book “The Art of Divine Contentment”
Happy Thanksgiving!
Becky.