“Modern” Consecration

In book two, chapter eight

” There is much talk today of ‘consecration’, and many are termed ‘consecrated people’ who do not really know about consecrated living.  Much modern consecration falls far below the Scribputre standard. in the same way that there is much praying today without any real prayer in it, there is much so-called consecration in the Church that has no real consecration in it.  Much that passes for consecration in the Church and recieves the praise of superficial, formal professors, totally misses the mark.

In the church today, there is much hurrying to and fro, here and there, much fuss and feathers, much going about and doing many things, and those who busy themselves in this way are often called consecrated men and women.  The central trouble with all this false consecration is that there is no prayer in it. Neither is it in any sense the direct result of praying. People can do many excellent and commendable things in the Church and be utter stagers to a life of consecration, just as they can do many things and be prayerless.”

Later on he also wrote,

“Today’s church is filled with machinery, organizations, committees, departments, and societies. So much so, that hte power it has is altogether insufficent to run the machinery, or to furnish life sufficient to do all this external work. Consecration has much higher and nobler end than merely to expend itself in these external things.”

He writes of ‘today’s’ church. While I don’t know when he wrote these particular words, I do know that E. M. Bounds died in 1913. His biggest change in the views of the church came after his involvement and participation in the Civil War. Concerning that after so many years perhaps the same words can be spoken about today’s church.