Fuel for your Flame -- Catherine Booth

As yet another follow up to the September 27 posting below, here’s still more fuel for your inner flame from one of our hottest firebrands – Catherine Booth. In spite of the fact that she wrote these words more than a century ago, trust me – you’ll still feel the heat her godly passion generates.

“Heat burns. Hot saints set on fire the hearts of other saints. They singe the consciences of sinners, burn the fingers of Pharisees, melt the hearts of backsliders, and warm up those who have left their first love.

“Hot saints are mighty The Spirit is not given by measure to them. They may not be very intellectual or learned, but their heat makes more impression on the hearts of sinners, and stirs more opposition from hell that all the intellect and learning of a whole generation of lukewarm professors… Hot saints are more than a match for their enemies. Satan himself is afraid of them…

“To be hot ensures opposition from the world. The world hates hot saints, because the look with contempt on its pleasures, set at naught its maxims and customs, trample on its ambition and applause, ignore its rewards, abjure its spirit, and live altogether above its level… [The world] can tolerate lukewarm religionists – rational, decent people, who appreciate this world as well as the next, and can see how to make the best of it; but these ‘hot,’ ‘pestilent,’ ‘mad,’ ‘fools,’ who obtrude their religion everywhere who are at everybody about their souls, who are always talking about God, death, judgement, heaven and hell – ‘Away with them! They are not fit to live...’

"Let me remind you, in conclusion, that to be hot ensures God’s special favor, protection, and fellowship, and our final victory… Whereas to be lukewarm is to be spewed out of His mouth, which indicates special dislike, disgrace, and final abandonment. WHICH WILL YOU BE, HOT OR LUKEWARM?”

– Catherine Booth
Practical Religion

Keep your fire hot and your altar ready…!

Willis