"The test of real character is to be sought in each man's experience. He who has never exercised faith, repentance, love, humility, hope, and joy, cannot be profited by his theories and speculations on these subjects. All knowledge which is unfelt and inoperative puffs up the mind and hardens the heart. It is better to have the workings of gracious affections than to be able to define them,or to speak ever so learnedly respecting them. The great use of a large part of divine truth is rightly to affect our minds and hearts, and so to control our practice."
These are the opening words to Vital Godliness: A Treatise on Experimental and Practical Piety, by William S. Plumer, published in 1864, and republished through Sprinkle Publications (1993).
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