by The religion of the true believer is experimental–it is the religion of the heart. He has no dealings with an unknown, imaginary God.
He does not know God from the hearing of the ear, or from the reading of books, or from the religious conversation of others merely; but he knows Him from personal acquaintance, from heartfelt experience, from close and constant dealings. There has been a manifestation of God in Christ to his soul, and with Job he can say, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees You!” And with the converted Samaritans, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.” John 4:42
Oh to be a true, an experimental Christian!
The religion of the ear, or of the eye, or of the imagination, or of the intellect–will not, and cannot bring the soul to Heaven! The abodes of endless woe are peopled with souls who went down to its regions of despair with no better religion than this!
Oh, give me . . . the sincere humility of the publican, the trembling faith of the diseased woman, the flowing tears of the penitent Magdalene, the last petition of the dying thief, rather than the most intellectual religion or the most gorgeous ceremonial that the mind ever invented, or the eye ever beheld.
Standing For God 