Sometimes, being out in the public and traveling as extensively as I do (especially in the medical communities), you get tired of seeing all the lying, the deceiving, and how everyone does whatever they wish, and not to mention people who profess to be Christians doing as they please under the name of grace. Because of this, I have been thinking about this tract again today. It is entitled, “Others May, You Cannot“, by G. D. Watson. *UPDATE March 2024: This has been out of print for some time; however, I have decided to reprint this and make available.
A Personal Note.
When my life of depravity and sin, depression and loneliness, pride and anger had been drastically remade by the grace and mercy, the love and propitiation, the sacrifice and cross of the Lord Jesus the Christ, I became a new creation. The despair, the depression, the anger, the selfishness was removed, and I was given joy, peace, true love (agape), grace, mercy, and so much more.
Was I perfect? No.
Was I justified in Christ? Yes.
Was I knowledgeable in all things Christian and able to live out everything I was learning? No.
These things require sanctification – knowledge, conviction, obedience, and time.
I remember, in the early days especially, I would ask myself, “How is it that I see others doing things that I feel convicted I cannot do?” (Much could be debated about this I understand). However, for me, this short tract by G.D. Watson was a huge help and means of grace in my life. I often refer back to this and I am quickly reminded that regardless of anyone else, it is I who will answer to the Lord of glory in the future, and this – regardless of everything and everyone else around me.
For this reason, I believe it is fitting to reprint and share with all.
May God bless you and bring you into conformity of our dear Savior and great King, Christ Jesus.
Amen.
Others May: You Cannot
By G.D. Watson | 1845-1924
If God has called you to be really like Jesus He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility, and put upon you such demands of obedience, that you will not be able to follow other people, or measure yourself by other Christians, and in many ways He will seem to let other people do things which He will not let you do.
Other Christians and ministers who seem very religious and useful, may push themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out their plans, but you cannot do it, and if you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.
Others may boast of themselves, of their work, of their successes, of their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing, and if you begin it, He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.
Others may be allowed to succeed in making money, or may have a legacy left to them, but it is likely God will keep you poor, because He wants you to have something far better than gold, namely, a helpless dependence upon Him, that He may have the privilege of supplying your needs day by day out of an unseen treasury.
The Lord may let others be honored and put forward, and keep you hidden in obscurity, because He wants to produce some choice fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be produced in the shade. He may let others be great, but keep you small. He may let others do a work for Him and get the credit for it, but He will make you work and toil on without knowing how much you are doing; and then to make your work still more precious He may let
others get credit for the work which you have done, and thus make your reward ten times greater when Jesus comes.
The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you, with a jealous love, and will rebuke you for little words and feelings or for wasting your time, which other Christians never feel distressed over. So make up your mind that God is an Infinitely Sovereign Being, and has a right to do as He pleases with His own. He may not explain to you a thousand things which puzzle your reason in His dealings with you, but if you absolutely sell yourself to be His love slave, He will wrap you up in Jealous Love, and bestow upon you many blessings which come only to those who are in the inner circle.
Settle it forever, then that you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit, and that He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue, or chaining your hand, or closing your eyes, in ways that He does not seem to use with others. Now, when you are so possessed with the living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, then you will have found the vestibule of Heaven.
-G.D. Watson (1845-1924).
Jeremy B. Strang 
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