We often speak about the importance of “discernment” and being “discerning”. But for many Christians, this means nothing more than being careful. Sure, being careful rather than being careless when it comes to Christian teaching is a good thing. But having a cautious or tentative approach is not yet discernment, anymore than chewing slowly and carefully will prevent you from ingesting poison.
To be discerning, we have to have some standard that we measure things against. We have to know the outline and boundary of the faith to know if something has transgressed that line. Particularly, we need to know the outline of the fundamentals or essentials of the faith. When we read devotional classics from all corners of the Christian world, a discerning Christian weighs up whether the errors in a work are truly catastrophic, serious, systemic, or tolerable.
Thomas Kelly’s A Testament of Devotion has errors, from my point of view, just as Augustine’s Confessions, Calvin’s Institutes, or Edwards’ Religious Affections all have errors. Kelly was a Quaker, and some of the Quaker errors are serious: a denigration of ecclesiology, a reliance on inward impressions instead of Scripture, unstructured worship and church life, and even some universalism.
For all that, I recommend believers at least once read Kelly’s chapter “The Light Within” in his book A Testament of Devotion. Here is an extraordinary piece of writing. Kelly calls on believers to live in unbroken communion with God, and believes it is possible to do so. He describes the life of continuous communion, and describes the path to get there. He writes as one who has struggled and yet found it possible, not as a tour guide pointing to places he has never been.
Many other devotional works emphasise living in God’s presence – The Practice of the Presence of God, The Calvary Road, The Pursuit of God – but none deal with this subject with such dead-earnestness as Kelly. Kelly promotes nothing less than unremitting communion with God. His vision is high, even austere. And yet he provides a way to get there.
Perhaps few will climb where Kelly insists we should all dwell. If just a few Christians actually began the ascent, we would likely see a great renewal of lively joy in God in our churches.