My Bonfire of Vanities by Alexander
Smiley from On the Secret Place 1907 Many who became believers confessed
their sinful practices. A number of them who'd been practicing
sorcery brought their books and burned them at a public bonfire.
The value of the books was several million dollars. Acts chapter
19 verse 18 and 19. No conflagration could be more
desirable and more beneficial. I trust that it is paralleled
and repeated in my own experience, for I am no Christian until it
is. When I burn my bad books, when
I turn from my old delights, then the expulsive power of a
new affection drives me irresistibly from the sinful life which I
used to live. That is conversion. It is evidence
and token that a supernatural and radical change has transformed
me. It is proof that the Holy Spirit
is at work in the citadel of my being. Never shall I relinquish
a darling sin, never sacrifice that which brought me an iniquitous
profit and an unholy pleasure, until he comes in his mightiness
and revolutionizes my nature through and through. From the
soul which should have been God's temple, but which I have debased
into a den of robbers, he scourges the traffickers, and the desecrated
place is renovated into the shrine and residence of the King of
Kings. When I burn my bad books, when
before all men I turn from my former ways, when I range myself
openly on his part, whom I once despised and hated, that means
confession. I am on the Lord's side, is what
I say, fearlessly, publicly, without abatements or concealments
or regrets. No true friend of Jesus Christ
can conceal his faith. It will reveal itself. It will
be discerned by the onlookers, whether they be sympathizers
or disapprove. Through all hindrances, all timidities,
all plausible excuses for keeping silence, my affection for him
will make its avowal. When I burn my bad books, when
I declare that henceforth I am a pilgrim travelling heavenward,
when transports move and thrill me to which I was a stranger
until now, that means consecration. Christ alone is the master of
my transfigured history. I cannot tolerate what he disapproves. I cannot harbour guests and tenants
who are out of harmony with his purity and perfectness. Where
he goes, I will go, and where he lodges, I will lodge. His people will be my people,
and his God will be my God. Nothing but death will part him
and me. Nay, death will not terminate
my loyalty, but will only render it more absolute and complete. In spirit and soul and body,
in my work and in my rest, Lord, what will you have me do? That
is a blessed day on which I kindle my bonfire of vanities. It cannot dawn too soon, and
the fire cannot burn with too white a flame. you