! "I give <*^i jS«ft*i*
hfo* tie founding of a. Colltgt in. tAifMefoxy!

Gift of

Mx^ciy^ y190~b'

Q^M^G^atk

£A^^

THE NEW
AND LIVING WAY
AN ORDERLY ARRANGEMENT AND EXPOSITION

DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIAN
EXPERIENCE
ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES

BY
MILTON S. TERRY, D.D., LL.D.
Professor of Christian Doctrine in Garrett Biblical Institute

'Oddf Trpoocparog nai ^uaa

NEW YORK: EATON & MAINS
CINCINNATI: JENNINGS & PYE

Copyright by
EATON & MAINS,
1902.

TO MY WIFE
WHO IN THE CHARM OF A PURE AND NOBLE LIFE HAS
FOR FORTY YEARS EXEMPLIFIED THE BEAUTY OF THE
NEW AND LIVING WAY

PREFACE.

This treatise aims to supply a desideratum in our
religious literature, and yet it covers a series of topics
on some of which more books and discussions have
been written than on almost any other set of related
themes. Our desire is to furnish a brief but compre
hensive statement of the main facts of Christian ex
perience, to formulate them in true logical order, and
to expound them after the method of a strictly biblical
theology. At the same time each doctrine is treated
with due regard to its proportionate claims to the
attention of the Christian believer. In order to appre
ciate fully these expositions of vital doctrine and to
profit by the study, the reader ought to have his Bible
(Revised Version) constantly at hand, and to note the
position and relations of the chief proof-texts em
ployed. Only as we observe how a biblical statement
is set in its context, and how much it may be affected
by the personality of the writer who put it on record,
are we always able to judge of its real value as a
proof-text of fundamental doctrine. Strictly speak
ing, our present work is a piece of biblical dogmatics
rather than a section of systematic theology.
The above statement is in substance our apology
for offering a new book on a group of doctrines al
ready so extensively treated in the current literature
of the Church. So far as I know, they have never
been treated altogether in this conspicuously scrip
tural way. We have almost any number of separate
discussions of the doctrines of sin, justification, per
sonal assurance, sanctifkation, and the sacraments;
and so it has come to pass that some of these subjects
have received a notably disproportionate share of at
tention. We have scores of books on sanctifkation
5

6 Preface.
or on holiness to one on some other aspects of Chris
tian experience that stand in equal need of exposition.
Bishop S. M. Merrill's little volume on Aspects of
Christian Experience (Cincinnati, 1882) stands quite
alone as an attempt to set forth all these related doc
trines in their logical relations, and to give each
topic its due proportion of attention. Bishop R. S.
Foster's lectures on the Philosophy of Christian Ex
perience (New York, 1891) cover much the same
ground, but, as the title indicates, they assume the
form of a philosophical discussion. All these sub
jects are treated also more or less fully in the standard
works on systematic theology. But on the doctrine
of sanctifkation we possess an exceptionally large
amount of literature, and much of it, strange to say,
is of a decidedly polemic character. Among the books
of special value, written by Methodist authors, we
mention The Scripture Doctrine of Christian Perfec
tion, by George Peck (New York, 1842) ; The Cen
tral Idea of Christianity, by Jesse T. Peck (Boston,
1856) ; Christian Purity, by R. S. Foster (New York,
1869) ; Possibilities of Grace, by Asbury Lowrey (New
York, 1884) ; Growth in Holiness Toward Perfection,
by James Mudge (New York, 1895) ; Sin and Holi
ness; or, What Is It to be Holy, by D. W. C. Hunting
ton (Cincinnati, 1898). Back of all these, and holding
a noteworthy authority among Methodists, is John
Wesley's Plain Account of Christian Perfection, and
also his various sermons on this subject and on other
related doctrines. Among the many special treatises
on justification we need name only the extensive dis
cussions of Faber, Owen, and Ritschl.
In all this literature, and in very much more of the
same class, we fail to find a treatise in which these
vitally related doctrines are presented in due propor-

Preface. 7
tion and in logical order, and at the same time ex
pounded after the methods of modern biblical theology.
Some of the books above mentioned pay little or no
atterition to the exegesis and bearing of the scriptural
teachings, and nearly all of them devote a large amount
of argument to the issues of old Calvinistic and Ar-
minian controversies, which ought to be now consid
ered obsolete. In some writers we find pages given up
to the discussion of such a question as whether entire
sanctifkation is a permanent repression or a total
eradication of human depravity. Others employ half
a volume in disputing whether Wesley taught this or
that particular form of the doctrine. Such discussions
have a certain historical interest and value and may
please speculative theologians, but they may well be
ignored when we set ourselves to the single task of
ascertaining solely what the Scriptures teach. And we
have, accordingly, endeavored to avoid even the use
of words and phrases which savor of old controversies.
We go to the original texts of the Bible, and try to
bring forth from them precisely what they have to tell
us of the blessed experiences and possibilities of the
New and Living Way which Jesus, the great Priest
over the house of God, has opened for us into the Holy
of Holies (Heb. x, 19-21). We have aimed to depict
this Way in its whole beautiful outline, not giving to
justification, or to sanctifkation, or to the sacraments,
or to any other one feature a disproportionate space,
but assigning to every hallowed work of grace, its true
scriptural place and portion.
We have, furthermore, written with the hope and
aim of supplying a manual adapted to a number of use
ful purposes. This little volume may serve as a pro
bationer's guide to a scriptural understanding of the
most vital truths of our holy religion. It may furnish

8 Preface.
topics as well as a course of reading and study for
various meetings of the Epworth League. It may be
helpful as a class leader's manual to enhance the neces
sity of cultivating all the phases and possible experi
ences of a well-rounded Christian life. At the same
time it may to some extent come in as a substitute
for the now almost defunct catechisms of the Church.
The various topics discussed are those which can be
tested by personal experience as well as by the
Scriptures, but the more transcendent doctrines of
one ever-living God and Father, the saving media
tion of Jesus Christ, and the mission and ministry
of the Holy Spirit are everywhere assumed as
fundamental. We have tried to keep clear of all
religious shibboleths, and while making reasonable
use of common theological terms, we have studied
to avoid unnecessary technical words and dogmatic
forms of speech. It is sincerely hoped that the work
may be found thoroughly scientific and critical in its
exegetical method, and also equally adapted to meet
the wants of the unlearned reader. Even youthful
adults of ordinary intelligence are not to be supposed
incapable of understanding language analogous to that
of the Scriptures themselves, and they will not be at
all disturbed by the occasional citation of Hebrew or
Greek words where the subject under discussion war
rants it, and where the learned readdr will be accommo
dated by it. Even these citations, which are in nearly
all instances put in parentheses or in footnotes, may
have an incidental educational value for some readers
who expect at some time to acquaint themselves with
the original languages of the Bible. They will enhance
the value of the book with many, and in no case need
they detract in the least from its real worth to any class
of readers.

Contents.

CONTENTS. CHAPTER I.
Preliminary Statements Touching Sin and Death.
TAGE
i. Primary Realities.  13
2. Necessary Limitations of Knowledge  14
3. Appeal to Facts  14
4. Human Sinfulness.  15
(1) Human Personality  15
(2) Capacity for Originating Evil  16
(3) Origin of Sin not Otherwise Accounted for. . 16
(4) Sense of Guilt and Shame Explained by Freedom
of Volition.  17
5. Sin Conceived as Lawlessness  17
6. Pauline Doctrine of Sin  18
7. Guilt not Transmissible.  20
8. Degrees of Guilt  21
9. The Way of Life  22
CHAPTER II.
Conviction of Sin, Repentance, and Conversion.
1. The Universal Consciousness of Sin  24
2. Conviction of Sin.  25
(1) Expressed in Penitential Psalms  25
(2) Described in Rom. vii  27
3. Repentance.  29
4. Conversion  30

10 Contents.
CHAPTER III.
The Doctrine of Faith.
PAGE
i. Doctrine of Paul  33
(i) Meaning of Eph. ii, 8  33
(2) Concept of Faith in the Epistle to Romans. . 34
2. Doctrine of Faith in the Epistle of James. ... 36
3. Concept of Faith in the Epistle to the Hebrews. . . 37
4. Doctrine of Faith in the Gospels. .... 38
5. Confession  40
CHAPTER IV.
Forgiveness of Sins, Justification, and Reconcilia
tion.
1. Greek Words for Remission.  42
2. Peculiarity of Paul's Doctrine of Justification. . . 43
3. The Idea of Reconciliation  45
CHAPTER V.
New Birth and New Life.
1. Idea of New Birth in the Old Testament ... 48
2. Doctrine of John iii, 3-8  49
(1) Born from Above.  49
(2) Teaching of Titus iii, 5, and Eph. v, 26. . . 51
3. The Mystery of Spiritual Life  56
4. Passing out of Death into Life  59
CHAPTER VI.
Sonship, Adoption, Assurance, and Spiritual Free
dom.
1. A New Relationship  60
2. Heirs, Sons, Children, and Beloved Children of God. . 62

Contents. n

PAGE

3. The Witness of the Spirit  64
4. Boldness and Confidence  65
5. Full Assurance  66
6. Christian Freedom.  67
CHAPTER VII.
Progress in Spiritual Life.
1. New Life Involves Growth.  71
2. Elements of Spiritual Growth  72
3. Argument of Rom. vi.  74
4. Doctrine of 1 John iii, 9, 10.  75
5. Sanctification and Holiness.  77
6. Righteousness  80
(1) In the Teaching of Jesus  80
(2) The Doctrine of James  81
(3) The Doctrine of Peter  83
7. Christian Perfection  85
8. The Christian Virtues, Especially Perfect Love. . . 87
9. Continual Cultivation and Growth  91
10. The Discipline of Trial  92
CHAPTER VIII.
Means and Methods of Promoting Spiritual Life.
1. The Fellowship of the Church  96
2. Aim of all Churchly Ministries  98
3. The Christian Sacraments  100
(1) Christian Baptism.  102
(2) The Lord's Supper  105
4. The Ministry of the Word  106
5. Exercise in Works of Practical Godliness. . . .111
6. Prayer.  m

12

Contents.

CHAPTER IX.
Eternal Life.
i. Meaning of the Phrase " Eternal Life."
2. Spiritual Light 
3. Paul's View of Light and Liberty.
4. A Present Possession 
5. Endless Permanence in Life (in John's Gospel).
6. Eternal Life in Synoptic Gospels.
7. The Teaching of the Epistles. . .

PAGE 117Il8119121122I23124

CHAPTER X.
Concluding Words.
1. Blessedness of the Way  127
2. Well Called the New Way  127
3. Well Called the Living Way.  128
4. Full of Comfort  129
5. Call to Deeper Interest in the Heavenlies. . . .129

THE NEW AND LIVING WAY.

CHAPTER I.

PRELIMINARY STATEMENTS TOUCHING SIN AND
DEATH.
To a thinking being there can be nothing more real
or more certain than his own existence. The imme
diate consciousness of his own personal experiences
is a matter beyond which it is vain to carry any ra
tional appeal. Man has also along with this assurance
of his own personal being immediate cognizance of a
world about him which is not himself, but of which he
feels himself to be a part. He finds himself one of an
innumerable company who exist amid conditions and
experiences like his own. There comes with the grow
ing knowledge of his own personality a perception of
his dependence and his limitations. His various feel
ings, perceptions, and activities are to every man the
most real things in the world. And there are also
certain convictions, ideas, or truths, which command
the assent of all thinking men. They find expression
everywhere and always as the unanimous judgment of
mankind. They command recognition in all our con
tinued processes of thought, and whatsoever contra
dicts them can possess no authority over the human
soul. 13

14 The New and Living Way.
At the same time there are many profound ques
tions of religion which force themselves upon our
Necessary limit* attention and yet may be seen to lie so
tions- far beyond the limits of our knowledge
and of our faculties of knowledge that it is impossible
for us to answer them. It is therefore important that
we duly recognize both our capabilities and our limita
tions. There have been dogmaticians who seem never
to have been disturbed with a suspicion of their own
competency to unravel all mysteries and all knowledge.
They never stoop to analyze closely the principles or
the methods of their own logical procedure; indeed,
those who dogmatize most authoritatively seem gener
ally quite unconscious of the need of logical method.
They are even puzzled and confused when one ques
tions their right to certain assumptions, or declines to
accept their unverified conclusions.
We shall seek in this little volume to direct the read
er's attention to well-attested facts of Christian experi
ence. Abstaining from all appearance
Appeal to facts. . , . , , , . , . .
of metaphysical speculation, and making
continual appeal to that which may be repeatedly veri
fied in the life of men,1 we shall endeavor to outline
1 In his epoch-making Kritik of Pure Reason Immanuel Kant points
out the paralogisms of reason in all "transcendental dialectic,*' and
maintains the impossibility of rational psychology, as transcending the
powers of human reason, and so admonishes us that "nothing remains
but to study the soul under the guidance of experience, and to keep
ourselves within the limits of questions which do not go beyond the
line where the material can be supplied by possible internal experience"
(Max Mailer's translation, pp. 309, 310. London, 1896). We may take
appeal to personal experience there seems no ground for doubt. The
exception to some of Kant's positions, but as to the necessity of the

Human Sinfulness. 15
the order and relations of the mighty working of the
Holy Spirit whereby man enters into conscious favor
and fellowship with God, becomes a coworker with
him, and realizes his highest possibilities. Inasmuch
as these doctrines of practical religious experience are
of a nature to be verified by appeal to facts, we are not
called upon in this presentation of them to entertain
questions relating more specifically to the Godward
side of the work of man's salvation. That this great
salvation is the gift of God through the mediation of
Jesus Christ is assumed throughout this entire exposi
tion. The supernatural working of the Holy Spirit as
the ever-living and immediate agent of "God in Christ
reconciling the world unto himself" is both a fact and a
doctrine of fundamental importance ; but, like the doc
trine of God, the Father Almighty, it lies -outside the
plan and scope of this volume, which deals exclusively
with positive facts of human experience.
We have first of all to make some note of the facts
of human sinfulness. Our limits and scope do not
permit us to enter upon a detailed dis- Human sinfulness.
cussion of these various facts, but we
must keep in mind that the personality of each human
being consists of the self-conscious unity of intelli
gence, sensibility, and the power of volition. The pos
session of these godlike faculties exalts man above all
other living creatures of the earth, and stamps him
real experiences of sane men are not illusions, but the material out
of which our understanding must formulate and estimate all truths
that may be known.

16 The New and Living Way.
with "the image and likeness of God." He is the
creation and offspring of God. But along with this
superior nature there exists in man the capacity for
originating and perpetuating moral evil. Temptations
of manifold character may assail the sensibility and
the intellect, but these by themselves need not injure
the moral nature; when promptly resisted they serve
rather to strengthen the moral powers. But when by
his own unnecessitated act of volition man knowingly
transgresses the will of God there follows at once the
consciousness of guilt. And so sin has entered into
the world and is as widespread as the human race. It
is an evil too terrible and too deeply seated in the
human heart to be ignored. Man's natural constitution
was made for goodness, and for the exercise of all
pure and noble qualities, but sin in its working has
brought all manner of moral disorder into the life and
activities of the human race. It is not a mere matter
of physical disturbance, or of bodily weakness and
pain. It cannot be satisfactorily explained as arising
from the necessary limitations and consequent imper
fection of man as a dependent being; for then must
it be necessarily inseparable from all creature life. The
notion that matter is essentially evil, and that man's
contact with material elements is the cause . or the
explanation of his sinfulness, is incompatible with the
real nature of sin. For sinfulness, wickedness, trans
gression, and guilt are meaningless terms when ap
plied to material elements ; they are predicable only of
the spiritual nature of man. Similarly unsatisfactory

Human Sinfulness. 17
and insufficient are all theories which seek to explain
the facts of sin as necessary stages in the processes of
human development. The only adequate explanation
of sin, as we know it in personal experience, is that
which traces it to free and responsible volition, and
this explanation accords with the teaching of Scripture
and the universal moral sense of mankind.
The fact of guilt and shame as a consequence of
transgression has its explanation, accordingly, in
man's moral freedom. The power of the will to accept
or reject an offered good, to keep or violate a given
law, is a fundamental fact of our spiritual nature. It is
implied in every commandment, warning, admonition,
and exhortation to accept God's mercy or to obey the
word of truth. According to 1 John iii, 4, "sin is law
lessness" {avofiia), and a strict construction of this
statement implies that sin is not only transgression of
law, but also all contempt of law, and Sin concelved as
all disconformity to law. The law of "»wie.«ie».
God takes cognizance not of outward acts only, but
also of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It
searches the desires, the emotions, and all that enters
into the moral life of man, and condemns every de
parture from its perfect standard of righteousness.
And so "all unrighteousness (ddiicia) is sin" (1 John
v, 17), and lawlessness and transgression must needs
place the sinner in a condition of separation from God.
Conceived in the highest sense, the law of God is but
a revelation of the nature of the Holy One himself,
and must needs be "holy, and righteous, and good"

18 The New and Living Way.
(Rom. vii, 12) ;' and therefore any personal discon-
formity thereto involves alienation from God.
Such alienation from God naturally begets an en
mity toward God and a controlling, selfishness. The
persistent sinner puts himself in the place of his Crea
tor, and produces rebellion and disorder' in the moral
Pauline doctrine world- According to the teaching of
ofsin- Paul, the entire human race is under
the general condemnation of sin. A sort of taint or
corruption of the moral nature originated with the
trespass of the first man, and has been universally
propagated in the world.2 A spiritual deadness, "death
through sin," is an idea which readily connects with
the apostle's peculiar doctrine of "sin in the flesh."
"When we were in the flesh," he says, "the sinful pas
sions, which were through the law, wrought in our
members to bring forth fruit unto death" (Rom. vii,
5). He speaks of the "likeness of the flesh of sin," of
"walking after the flesh," and "minding the things of
the flesh." He declares that "the mind of the flesh is
1 So Wesley in his sermon on the text cited above: "This law
is an incorruptible picture of the high and holy One that inhabiteth
eternity. ... It is the face of God unveiled; God manifested to
his creatures as they are able to bear it. . . . It is the heart
of God disclosed to man. Yea, in some sense we may apply to this
law what the apostle says of his Son, it is the streaming forth of his
glory, the express image of his person." — Sermons, vol. i, p. 309. New
York, 1854.
2 It is worthy of note that the peculiar concept of sin as originating
with one man and passing thence unto all men, "for that all sinned"
(Rom. v, 12), is peculiar to Paul. No other biblical writer has set
forth such a doctrine as that "through the one man's disobedience the
many were made sinners" (verse 19). Compare, however, Fourth
Ezra iii, 7; Apocalypse of Baruch xvii, 3; xxiii, 4; Ecclesiasticus xxv,
24; and see Meyer's and Sanday's Commentaries on Romans, in loco.

Pauline View of Sin. 19
death," and "if ye live after the flesh, ye must die"
(Rom. viii, 3-6, 13). In these and other parallel state
ments the word flesh evidently denotes the lower, sen
suous nature of man, dominated by sin, and thus exer
cising control over the conscience and the spiritual life.
The apostle does not think of sin as originating in the
sensuous nature; much less does he hold the doctrine
of an inherent and necessary sinfulness of the flesh,
or conceive of matter as essentially sinful. His doc
trine is profound and far-reaching. He makes use of
those Greek words (djuoprta, Trapdfiaoig, napdnTUna) which
designate sin as a culpable missing of the mark, a
violation, transgression, and trespass of known law
through the exercise of personal volition. Sin thus
entered the world by the trespass of one man; it has
abounded through many trespasses and "reigned in
death," and, accordingly, the sinfulness of man is rep
resented as a state of death. Those who live in the
lusts of the flesh are "dead through trespasses and
sins" (Eph. ii, 1, 5; comp. v, 14; Col. ii, 13); and
"the mind of the flesh is death" (Rom. viii, 6). James
also tells us that "sin, when it is full-grown, bringeth
forth death" (i, 15). When, therefore, Paul speaks of
death as "the wages of sin" (Rom. vi, 23), and as
having passed unto all men because of sin (v, 12),
he contemplates, not the separation of man's body and
soul in physical death, but the alienation of the spirit
ual nature of man from God, which is the sure result
of sin. "The sting of death is sin" (1 Cor. xv, 56),
and sin, in order to manifest its destructive nature as

20 The New and Living Way.
sin, works so as to bring about spiritual death through
a righteous law deeply written in the moral nature of
man (Rom. vii, 13). This condition of spiritual death,
as the penal consequence of sin, involves "wrath and
indignation, tribulation, and anguish upon every soul
of man that worketh evil" (Rom. ii, 8, 9), and the
certain death announced as the penalty of man's first
disobedience (Gen. ii, 17) is to be understood as the
moral and spiritual deadness which follows willful
transgression and constitutes the fearful curse of sin.1
The universal sinfulness of man is a fact everywhere
recognized in the Scriptures, and is often spoken of as
the common depravity of the race. It is depicted by
psalmists and prophets as congenital with every one
that is born of woman. There are certain forms of
Guilt not trans- evil which may be perpetuated by
missibie. heredity, and God is said to "visit the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the
third and upon the fourth generation" (Exod. xx, 5 ;
Num. xiv, 18). But such visitation of evil upon suc
cessive generations is not to be construed as an im
putation of personal guilt. It is impossible in the
1 The widespread notion that physical death is a penal consequence
of Adam's sin has been a natural inference, perhaps, from our familiar
ity with the death penalty for capital crime, and with its solemn
sanction in the Mosaic laws. But this is a mistaken inference. The
law of decay and dissolution is a part of the order stamped on the
nature of all living organisms, both animal and vegetable. Ages be
fore man appeared on earth this law was working in all such organisms,
and there is no sufficient reason to suppose that, if sin had never
entered the world, man would have been any exception to this univer
sal law. Physical death may at times take on aggravated forms by
reason of sin in the sufferer, but in itself need not be considered an
evil or a necessary result of sin.

Degrees of Sin and Guilt. 21
nature of things that either guilt or righteousness
should be transmitted from parent to child. Hence it
is written, "The fathers shall not be put to death for
the children, neither shall the children be put to death
for the fathers : every man shall be put to death for his
own sin" (Deut. xxiv, 16; 2 Kings xiv, 6; Jer. xxxi,
29, 30). "The soul that sinneth, it shall die: the son
shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall
the father bear the iniquity of the son ; the righteous
ness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the
wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him" (Ezek.
xviii, 20). Hence we should avoid the unscriptural
and misleading notion that depravity, as transmitted
or inherited, carries with it elements of personal guilt.
Only as the free conscious soul personally appro
priates the depravity, and makes it part and parcel of
his own individual life, can any punishable guilt be
justly imputed.1
Different degrees of sin and guilt are recognized
in the Scriptures and in the moral sense of man. Sin
becomes deepened and strengthened in
. ,.,,." Degrees of guilt.
the heart by continuous disobedience
and resistance of the calls of God, and most culpable
obduracy is the result. Degrees of guilt are estimated
by the position, knowledge, abilities, and relative re
sponsibility of individuals and of communities. Jesus
spoke of those who should be "beaten with many
1 Compare Whedon on the Will, in his able chapter on "The Free
Appropriation of Our Depraved Nature," pp. 338-343. New York,
1892. Also Miley, Systematic Theology, on the "Doctrine of Native
Demerit," vol. i, pp. 510-533.

22 The New and Living Way.
stripes and with few stripes" (Luke xii, 47), and he
declared that it would be more tolerable in the judg
ment for Sodom and Gomorrah than for the city that
rejected his Gospel (Matt, x, 15). A persistent hard
ening of one's heart may be carried to the extreme of
quenching the Holy Spirit (1 Thess. v, 19), and in
volving oneself in the guilty bonds of "an eternal sin"
(Mark iii, 29). For a fixed habit of willful rejection of
God's open truth results in an unchangeableness of
character which daringly closes the only door of hope,
keeps crucifying Christ afresh, and faces with stoical
indifference "a certain fearful expectation of judgment
and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the ad
versaries" (Heb. vi, 4-8; x, 26, 27).
Our survey of the "new and living way" which leads
into "the secret place of the Most High" must first
of all take cognizance of these facts of human sinful
ness. Out of all this darkness, culpability, and wretch
edness of sin and death there is "a
The way of life. pure highway, and it is called the
way of holiness" (Isa. xxxv, 8). It is "the way
of the tree of life" (Gen. iii, 24) ; "the way
of the righteous" (Psa. i, 6), and "the way of
Jehovah" (Jer. v, 4) ; "the way of peace" (Isa. lix, 8;
Luke i, 79), and "the way of the truth" (2 Pet. ii, 2) ;
"the way of salvation" (Acts xvi, 17), "the narrow
(or straitened)2 way that leadeth unto life" (Matt.
1 So the Septuagint, odor icadapi, which here seems to evince a better
text than that of the Masorites.
» The Greek word is TeMifi/zevr;, compressed, restricted. Clement of
Alexandria, about the beginning of the third century, wrote: "The Gos-

The Way of Life. 23
vii, 14), "the way of the Lord," and "the way of God"
(Acts xviii, 25, 26), which, in the Acts of the Apostles,
is repeatedly called "the way" (ix, 2 ; xix, 9, 23 ; xxii,
4; xxiv, 14, 22), as if thereby to emphasize the Chris
tian religion as the only true path of life. Jesus calls
himself "the way, and the truth and the life" (John
xiv, 6), because, as Paul puts it (Eph. ii, 18),
"Through him we have our access in one Spirit unto
the Father."
pel supposes two ways, one narrozv and confined, which is circumscribed
according to commandments and prohibitions, and the opposite one,
which leads to destruction, is broad and roomy." — Stromata, book v,
chap. v. Compare the opening words of the Teaching of the Twelve-
Apostles: "Two ways there are, one of life and one of death."

24 The New and Living Way.

CHAPTER II.
CONVICTION, REPENTANCE, AND CONVERSION.
According to the foregoing chapter our study of
the way of salvation must needs take <iue notice of
universal con- man's universal consciousness of sin.
sciousness of sin. We are by nature moral and religious
beings, but have so fallen as to be conspicuously under
the dominion of sin. From the condemning power
of this dominion no individual of the race appears to
be exempt. But it is often seen that during the period
of childhood pious example and careful religious train
ing turn the tender heart toward God. The habit and
sentiments of prayer may be inculcated as soon as the
child learns to speak and is able to distinguish between
good and evil. Such early piety may blossom into
beautiful young manhood and womanhood, attain in
time an admirable maturity, and exhibit a human life
remarkably separate from sin and sinners. But such
examples are exceedingly rare. Jesus Christ is repre
sented as holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from
sin all his life, and is entitled to be called "the Right
eous One." We have no sufficient knowledge to affirm
the actual existence of one such perfect being in the
world to-day, or that there ever has been one such per
son aside from the man Christ Jesus. We find, on the
contrary, that those whose lives have from childhood

Consciousness of Sin. 25
shown remarkable freedom from all appearances of
evil confess their consciousness of errors, blameworthy
weaknesses, and culpable shortcomings. Some of the
most eminent saints of history were sometime slaves
of sin.
We shall, accordingly, begin our inquiry into the
origin and development of spiritual life in the indi
vidual with a due recognition of his personal con
sciousness of sin. The sense of guilt, awakened in
the soul by a revelation of God's truth
...... . . ,, . Conviction of sin.
and of his wrath against all ungodli
ness and unrighteousness of men" (Rom. i, 18), is
properly among the very first experiences of the sinner
who would have peace with God, and is appropriately
called conviction of sin. It arises from a vivid per
ception of the nature of sin and of the holiness of God.
A living, moving contact of the Spirit of God with the
heart of his human offspring flashes strong light upon
his understanding, and in that light he sees and feels
his personal alienation from Him that is holy and just
and good, and he becomes deeply troubled. Such con
tact of Gad's Spirit and truth with our spiritual nature
may be effected in many unseen ways ; we cannot dis
cern the process ; but the result is always to compel the
man to see himself a sinner before God. The power of
this conviction will naturally vary according to the
measure of guilt. Some of the clearest expressions
of the sense of sinfulness and guilt The Pcnltential
found in the Old Testament Scriptures PsaIms-
appear in the penitential psalms. Not infrequently

26 The New and Living Way.
the anguish bewailed appears to be intensified by the
belief that the bitter sufferings of mind and body are
direct judgments of God, the rebukes of his hot dis
pleasure and chastenings on account of sins and short
comings. Thus in Psa. xxxviii, 1-4, an agonizing
penitent exclaims :
" O Jehovah, rebuke me not in thy wrath:
Neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
For thine arrows stick fast in me,
And thy hand presseth me sore.
There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine indignation;
Neither is there any peace in my bones because of my sin.
For mine iniquities are gone over mine head:
As an heavy burden they are too heavy for me."
In Psa. Ii, 1-3, we note the humble acknowledg
ment of transgressions, iniquity, and sin. These three
terms may be here regarded as possess
ing distinctive significance. The first
denotes actual trespasses, deliberate acts of sin, among
which was some terrible "bloodguiltiness" mentioned
in verse 14. The second suggests the inbred corrup
tion of a depraved nature, which the supplicant con
ceives as cleaving to him from his birth (verse 5)-
The third is a more generic word (nNttn), and may here
refer not only to the idea of failure, a missing of the
mark, but also to the accumulated sinfulness of an
impure heart and a long course of wicked conduct.
How the awakened conscience abhors such a hideous
load! It looks like a mass of broken bones (verse 8).
But the most terrible fact in this poetic picture of a
crushed and broken heart is the sinner's knowledge

Seventh of Romans. 27
that he has done all this evil in the very eyes of God.
"Against thee, thee only, have I sinned" (verse 4).
The most profound conception and conviction of the
exceeding sinfulness of sin is that which sees it as
open opposition to the Holy One. So in his deep
contrition David cried, "I have sinned against Jeho
vah" (2 Sam. xii, 13).
The most remarkable description of conviction of sin
found in the New Testament is that which is given by
Paul in the seventh chapter of Romans. Kom. vii.
Verses 7-13 inform us how the law of
God operates as a holy revealer of sin, and verses 14-25
are a vivid word picture of the inner struggles of an
awakened sinner. The real meaning and purpose of
this remarkable passage have been greatly obscured
by the bare question of its fitness or unfitness to repre
sent the experiences of a regenerate man. It serves
rather to show the power of the holy law of God to
reveal the knowledge of sin to human consciousness.
This is so obvious in verses 7-13 that no one calls it in
question. The statement of verse 9 is suggestive: "I
was alive apart from law once ; but the commandment
coming (like that which prohibits coveting, verse 7),
sin sprung up into life, and I died." That is to say:
There was a former time (ttote), which seems now like
a far-off blessed memory of childhood innocence, when
I had no sense of sin and guilt ; but the law said to me,
"Thou shalt not covet;" whereupon sin found a base
of operation (d(f>opfirjv), a great opportunity, and
"through the commandment wrought in me all manner

28 The New and Living Way.
of coveting" (verse 8) ; and so, to the same extent
that "sin sprung up into life," my better nature died.
"Did then the good become death to me?" he asks in
verse 13. No, no, he answers, but by the operation of
the good and holy law sin itself has been displayed
as preeminently sinful. Its true nature, its deadly
working, is thus brought to light, and the law of God
in its inmost essence is recognized as spiritual, divine,
possessing the power and character of the Holy Spirit
for the work of conviction of sin (comp. John xvi, 8).
In verse 14 we notice a change of tense from past to
present. It serves the purpose of rhetorical emphasis,
and aims to set as in. a living picture before the read
er's eye the life and death struggle of an awakened
sinner. The writer continues the use of the first per
son, for he undoubtedly is giving his own personal
experience as memory and deep emotion combine to
make it very present to his thought. The three words
employed in verses 15, 18, and 21 — "I understand not"
(ov yivuxTKu), "I know" (olda), "I find" (evpioKu)
— are suggestive of various aspects of the struggle,
and may perhaps be regarded in their connection as
involving an enslavement of the understanding, the
affections, and the will. For in verses 14-17 Tie repre
sents his understanding as in some sort of bonds; in
18-20 he shows how the fleshly nature has dominion
over him; and in 21-24 tne law in his members which
wars against the law of his mind keeps bringing him
into such a bitter consciousness of captivity to the law
of sin that he cries out in agony of spirit, "O wretched

Repentance. 29
man that I am !" He conceives himself bound fast to
a dead body, the body of a sinful human nature, which
he has already, in vi, 6, spoken of as "our old man"
and "the body of sin."
Such an analysis of the conviction of sin in a human
soul could be made only by a mind of deep spiritual
insight. It is a diagnosis of personal experience which
only the most gifted and spiritual among men can
fully appreciate. But a similar conviction of sin,"
wrought in the heart by the Spirit of God, yet varying
greatly with different individuals, has been the experi
ence of millions. To some extent it is manifest in the
little child when he first comes to know good and evil ;
it is often very powerful in the wayward youth, when
arrested by some call of God and brought to acknowl
edge his sin and folly; it is sometimes overwhelming
in a hardened sinner, who has long stifled convictions
of truth and right, and at last comes to genuine re
pentance. Such great varieties of personal experience
are capable, however, in the last analysis, of such a
portrayal as that found in Rom. vii.
When such conviction of sin is accompanied by a
real sorrow of heart and strong desire to escape from
its condemnation and turn unto God it Repentance.
becomes what is called repentance.
This term is commonly defined as a godly sorrow for
sin, a definition warranted by the language of 2 Cor.
vii, 10 : "Godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salva
tion ;" although in this statement the apostle has promi
nently in mind the sadness (Xvirfj) and mourning

30 The New and Living Way.
(ddvpfiog) which his former epistle had caused the
Corinthians. The New Testament word for repent
ance is fierdvoca, and means a change of mind; but
in usage it means more than a mere change of opinion
or sentiment. It is a moral change, and involves not
only a deep sorrow for sin, but also an abhorrence of
it ; a loathing of its guilt and shame, and a yearning to
be delivered from its power. In fact, the usage of the
word in the New Testament seems to presuppose that
the truly penitent soul always turns to God and finds
forgiveness of sin. It may, then, be inferred that as a
rule every sinner, in whom God's holy law reveals the
damning power of sin, and who truly repents of his
sins, experiences a change of mind and of spiritual^
character. To use words peculiar to John, he "passes
out of -death into life" (i John iii, 14; John v, 24).
Therefore the change is spoken of in Acts xi, 18, as
a "repentance unto life," and in 2 Tim. ii, 25, as "re
pentance unto a full knowledge of truth." It is a
change of heart that at once tends toward life, and
leads unto the knowledge of God's truth and love.
Such turning unto God which accompanies re
pentance is called conversion (kmorpofyrj.) We observe
that the exhortation of Acts iii, 10,
Conversion. 7
is, "Repent ye therefore, and turn ye
(kmoTpeipare, be ye converted), that your sins may
be blotted out." The conversion of men to
Christ by the ministry of the apostles is called a
"turning unto the Lord" (Acts ix, 35 ; xi, 21 ;
xv, 19). The preaching of Paul, both to Jews and

Conversion. 31
Gentiles, was "to open their eyes and to turn them
from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan
unto God, that they might receive remission of sins."
His declaration was "that they should repent and turn
to God, doing works worthy of repentance" (Acts
xxvi, 18-20). "The conversion of the Gentiles" (Acts
xv, 3) means their turning away from their former
habits of life, from the sins and immoralities to which
they had been addicted, and from the service of idols,
to the adoption of a new and better life (comp. 1 Thess.
i, 9; Eph. ii, 11-13; iv, 17-25; v, 8; Col. i, 21). Thus
conversion, in the full Christian sense, involves re
pentance and a turning from sin to the service of the
living God. It involves a radical revolution of the
course of life, by which a new direction is given to all
the activities of mind and soul and heart. Hence its
necessary connection with remission of sins as well
as with conviction of sin and the godly sorrow which
true repentance shows.
In Rom. ii, 4, Paul speaks of the goodness of God
as leading (dya>, in the sense of moving and direct
ing) unto repentance, and in Acts v, 31 ; xi, 18; 2 Tim.
ii, 25, repentance is referred to as a gift of God. But
if it be a gift of God some one will ask why then man
should be called on to repent and turn to God. The
matter explains itself when we keep in mind the doc
trine of conviction of sin as already described. There
can be no genuine repentance in the soul without an
antecedent conviction of sin by the revealing law and
Spirit of God. In thinking of repentance as God's gift

32 The New and Living Way.
we have in mind the indispensable gracious conditions
which lead to repentance. God first flashes light upon
the darkened understanding ; he reveals the knowledge
of sin, and by the working of his Holy Spirit begets a
longing for deliverance from sin. All this is the neces
sary preliminary to a godly sorrow for sin, and may
well be spoken of as the gift of God. But when all
this work of conviction is wrought in the heart it yet
remains for the conscious soul with its own freedom
of will to respond to such calls to repentance as we
find in Matt, iii, 2, 8; iv, 17; Mark i, 15 ; Luke xiii, 3,
5 ; Acts ii, 38 ; iii, 19 ; viii, 22. After this manner we
also see both the self-consistency and the significance
of such apparently contradictory statements as those
of Jesus in John vi, 44, and v, 40 : "No man can come
to me, except the Father draw him," and "Ye will not
come to me, that ye may have life." It is the part of
God first to draw and lead by the convicting operations
of his Spirit; and after this is done, or rather in con
nection with it, the penitent sinner must himself repent
and turn unto God. So repentance may be conceived
and spoken of both as a responsible act of the con
victed sinner and also as a gracious gift of God.

The Doctrine of Faith. 33

CHAPTER III.
THE DOCTRINE OF FAITH.
There is a somewhat mystical doctrine of faith
peculiar to the writings of Paul. We read in Eph.
ii, 8, "By grace have ye been saved Doctrlne o£ Paul
through faith ; and that not of your- Eph- "• 8-
selves ; God's is the gift." Some interpreters here un
derstand the demonstrative tovto, that, to refer to the
word faith immediately preceding ; but in that case we
surely should have had the feminine avrr] to corre
spond with mong, which is always feminine. The
pronoun refers rather to the idea of being saved (the
oeouafiivov elvai) by grace which is made emphatic in
the preceding clause. The foregoing context shows
that this gracious gift of salvation is a quickening and
raising up into spiritual life of those who were "dead
through trespasses and sins." The merit and glory of
it all are ascribed to the mercy, love, kindness, and
grace of God in Jesus Christ. This way of salvation
is spoken of in Eph. iii, 10-12, as an exhibition of "the
manifold wisdom of God, according to a purpose of
the ages which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord,
in whom we have boldness and access in confidence
through our faith in him." Repentance leads unto this
great salvation, but the saving grace must, according
to Paul, be appropriated by an act of faith in God.
3

34 The New and Living Way.
"Repent ye, and believe in the Gospel," says Jesus
(Mark i, 15). Hence it is obviously improper to call
faith a gift of God when the word is used in reference
to a responsible act and attitude of an individual.1
Faith that appropriates the saving grace of God and
leads to salvation is a free act of the soul. Man is
called upon to "have faith in God," to "believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ," and the belief required is not
merely an assent of the mind to that which is good,
nor the exercise of reason and judgment in approving
wholesome doctrines. It is a conscious willing sur
render of the heart to the righteous claims of God, and
a throwing oneself, so to speak, in full confidence
on the divine Saviour. In the highest and holiest
sense, faith is trust.2
1 The different concepts and shades of meaning which attach to the
word TrvBTic in the New Testament is a question by itself. In some
passages it may connote the antecedents and consequences of the act
of saving faith, and be spoken of as a divine possession (i Cor. xii, 9;
James ii, *, 14); in others it seems to be used as meaning the substance
of the Gospel itself (Gal. i, 23; Eph. iv, 13; Jude, verses 3 and 20;
and perhaps 1 Tim. i, 19; iv, 1; v, 8); in others it suggests the idea
of fidelity (Titus ii, 10; Gal. v, 22). These secondary and modified
meanings of the word have no necessary connection with the Pauline
doctrine of faith as means and condition of salvation. See Lightfoot's
dissertation on "The Words Denoting Faith" in his Epistle to the
Galatians, pp. 154-158. London, 1890.
2 "The term faith can scarcely be said to occur at all in the Hebrew
Scriptures of the Old Testament. It is indeed a characteristic token
of the difference between the two covenants, that under the law the
'fear of the Lord' holds very much the same place as 'faith in God,'
'faith in Christ,' under the Gospel. Awe is the prominent idea in the
earlier dispensation, trust in the later. At the same time, though .the
word itself is not found in the Old Testament, the idea is not absent;
for indeed a trust in the Infinite and Unseen, subordinating thereto
all interests that are finite and transitory, is the very essence of the
higher spiritual life." — Lightfoot, Epistle to the Galatians, p. 159.

Fourth of Romans. 35
The great theme of the Epistle to the Romans is the
doctrine that the Gospel "is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone who believes." Epist]e t0 tne
Having shown that the whole world is Komans-
fallen under the condemning judgment of God, the
apostle announces as a fundamental truth that "now,
apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been
manifested, being witnessed by the law and the
prophets ; even the righteousness of God through faith
in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe" (iii, 21, 22).
Here is presented in substance the whole Pauline idea
of the attainment of personal righteousness. It is not
by the performance of the works of the law ; it comes
not by way of merit from anything which fallen man
can do ; it comes solely by an act of faith in the efficacy
of "the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, whom God
set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his
blood." The faith which is here contemplated is a sort
of means and condition of receiving the benefit of re
demption. It is an act and also a subjective state or
attitude of the soul for which the person hoping to be
saved is held responsible.
In the fourth chapter of Romans this idea of saving
faith is illustrated in a number of points by the ex
ample of Abraham. It is pointed out
r Rom. iv.
(1) that the patriarch's trust in God
"was reckoned unto him for righteousness." It was,
accordingly, not by works, but by an act of faith, that
he was accounted righteous before God, and his sub
jective relation to the judgment of God was clearly a

36 The New and Living Way.
faith-righteousness (verses 1-5). (2) A confirmation
of this doctrine is also found in David's words (Psa.
xxxii, 1, 2), where they are pronounced blessed
"whose sins are covered," and "to whom the Lord
will not reckon sin" (6-8). (3) The apostle next
shows that this blessedness came to Abraham before he
had received the sign and seal of circumcision, and must
therefore be independent of such outward rites (9-12).
(4) For the same reason this righteousness of faith
is also apart from works of law, for it cannot be
attained through that which works wrath by its
fearful revelation of the damning guilt of sin (13-17).
(5) Abraham's faith, moreover, was an example of
unwavering confidence in God's word. "Believing in
hope against hope," and having his heart set on God's
promise, "he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed
strong through faith, giving glory to God, and being
fully assured that what he had promised he was able
also to perform" (18-22). Finally, (6) he alleges that
this sublime example of faith in God stands written in
the Scriptures as a monumental witness for all be
lievers in Jesus Christ (23-25). This example of
Abraham is also adduced in the Epistle to the Gala
tians (iii, 6-29), and is there made to establish the same
doctrine of faith as the means of justification.
But in the Epistle of James (ii, 21-23) the ^a'tn °f
Abraham as shown in his readiness to offer Isaac upon
„ „ . « T the altar is brought forward to prove
Doctrine of James. ° r
that faith is not only essential to initiate
the believer in righteousness, but also to carry forward

Paul and James. 37
the new life of devotion to God. In this later example
written in the history of Abraham it is seen "that the
faith wrought with his works, and (as a result issu
ing) from the works the faith was made perfect." The
substance of doctrine in both Paul and James is cer
tainly in accord with the fundamental truth that any
and every soul of man who has been convicted of sin,
and repents and turns unto God in faith, must also
"do works worthy of repentance" (Acts xxvi, 20;
comp. Matt, iii, 8; Luke iii, 8). Paul makes it very
emphatic that one who becomes dead to sin cannot any
longer live therein (Rom. vi, 1). It is not, therefore,
in any fundamental way that James and Paul differ
in their teaching about faith and justification before
God. But they do differ, and each writer is to be
studied and estimated by a careful attention to his
peculiar point of view. James wishes to give strong
testimony against such as are forgetful hearers and
not actual doers of the word of truth (i, 22-25), and
he insists rightly that the only faith which is genuine
and profitable is that which is shown by good works
(ii, 14-18). This is an aspect of faith which Paul,
according to Gal. v, 6, could certainly not oppose.
Still another concept of faith is set forth in the
Epistle to the Hebrews, and definitely described as
the "substance of things hoped for, a Epistle t0 tne
conviction of things not seen" (xi, 1). Hebrews-
As the etymology of the Greek word translated sub
stance (vnoaracFig) suggests, faith is here conceived as
the underlying basis of the believer's hopes, and at the

38 The New and Living Way.
same time as a profound inward conviction (eAey^oc,
proof) of' the reality of things not seen by fleshly eyes.
This conception of faith, as illustrated by the examples
of ancient worthies mentioned in this chapter, contem
plates that holy trust in God which leads to active and
loving obedience. It is, perhaps, more closely related
to the doctrine of James than to the Pauline idea of a
faith apart from the works of the law. Nevertheless,
the faith by which we apprehend the work of God in
creation (verse 3) is essentially the same as that by
which we apprehend the grace of God in Jesus Christ.
The faith of Abel is conceived as the means "through
which he had witness borne to him that he was right
eous" (verse 4). And all the godly acts and heavenly
hopes of the long list of worthies were inspired by a
conviction and assurance of invisible realities akin to
what the repentant sinner realizes when he accepts the
redemption of Christ. In every case "the one who
comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a
rewarder of them that seek after him" (verse 6).
Such faith ever tends "to a preserving of the soul"
(elg nepinoiriaiv ipv%r\g, Heb. x, 39). Whether exercised
by the penitent sinner or by the hopeful saint, it unites
the confiding soul with God.
The doctrine of faith occupies a prominent place in
the teaching of Jesus. His earliest preaching was,
Doctrine of faith "Repent ye, and believe in the gospel"
in Gospels. (Mark {> I5)j and his ,atest commjs.
sion, according to Mark xvi, 16, "He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved ; but he that disbelieveth

Jesus' Teaching on Faith. 39
shall be condemned." Here faith is obviously an act
and responsible attitude of trust, and is made a condi
tion of salvation. A corresponding passage in John's
Gospel (iii, 36) is in noticeable harmony with the
main elements of the Pauline doctrine: "He that be
lieveth on the Son hath eternal life ; but he that obeyeth
not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God
abideth on him."
In his works of healing Jesus made much of the
faith in him which was exercised by those who sought
his help. "O woman, great is thy faith !" he exclaimed
before the Canaanitish woman who besought him for
her daughter (Matt, xv, 28; comp. viii, 10; ix, 2, and
Luke vii, 9). To another woman he said, "Daughter,
be of good cheer ; thy faith hath saved thee. And the
woman was saved from that hour" (Matt, ix, 22).
To the blind men who cried for his favor he said,
"According to your faith be it done unto you. And
their eyes were opened" (Matt, ix, 29). He taught his
disciples that they might remove mountains by faith
(Matt, xvii, 20; xxi, 21; Mark xi, 23; comp. 1 Cor.
xiii, 2), and said in the same connection, "All things,
whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall
receive." He seems almost to employ hyperbole when
he declares, "All things are possible to him that be
lieveth" (Mark ix, 23). Many other examples in the
Synoptic Gospels teach the same doctrine of faith, as a
condition and means of obtaining the gracious help of
God and of Christ.
In the Gospel of John, as the one passage already

40 The New and Living Way.
cited shows, faith is essential to salvation in Christ.
"The right to become children of God" is given "to
them that believe on his name" (i, 12; comp. ii, 23;
iii, 18 ; 1 John iii, 23 ; v, 13). * The great text in iii, 16,
affirms that "whosoever believeth on" the only begotten
Son of God shall not perish, but have eternal life. In
v, 24, it is declared that "he who heareth my word and
believeth on him that sent me, hath eternal life, and
cometh not into judgment." The same truth is reiter
ated in one form and another so as to be a characteris
tic formula of this Johannine Gospel (comp. vi, 29, 35,
47; vii, 38; ix, 35-38; xi, 25, 26; xiv, 1, 11, 12). In
fact this Gospel claims to have been written "that ye
may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God;
and that believing ye may have life in his name"
(xx, 31).
The act of personal confession may also well be
mentioned in connection with this doctrine of faith.
The two are closely associated in Rom.
Confession. J
x, 9, 10 : "If thou wilt confess the word
with thy mouth, that Jesus is Lord, and wilt believe in
thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved; for with the heart one believes unto
righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation." Some such confession of Christ is
spoken of in Luke xii, 8, 9, as opposed to a denial in
the presence of men (comp. Matt, x, 32; 1 John iv,
1 It is worthy of note that the word faith (ttiotic) does not occur in
John's Gospel, and appears only once in the Epistle (i John v, 4), where
it is called "the victory that overcame the world."

Confession. 41
2, 3, 15). In the initial experience of salvation con
fession of sins must needs accompany the act of faith
and the confession of Jesus Christ as Lord ; for "if we
confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive
us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteous
ness" (1 John i, 9; comp. Matt, iii, 6).

42 The New and Living Way.

CHAPTER IV.
FORGIVENESS OF SINS, JUSTIFICATION, AND
RECONCILIATION.
According to the words of Acts iii, 19, repentance
and conversion are essentially preliminary to the blot-
Greek, words for ting out of sins (Td VSffo&W" ™?
remission. djuaprtac), and the personal act of faith
is the means whereby this blessed result is realized.
But this idea of a removel of sin as a blotting out,
wiping off, erasure, or obliteration (efaA«</>6>) of the
sins of a human soul calls for separate, examination.
There are two Greek words in the New Testament
which especially deserve our attention in connection
with this subject, namely, dtpeaig (dfiapnuv) and Swaiou.
The former may be translated remission, pardon, or
forgiveness of sins ; the latter means rather to justify,
acquit, clear from guilt, pronounce righteous. Both
terms contain a measure of forensic and juridical sig
nificance, and suggest the idea of a prisoner, a debtor,
or a guilty person, whose merited penalty is discharged
by order of a competent court. When such an act of
pardon restores friendly relations between the offender
and the party who has been wronged, it not only
remits the penalty, but may also include the further
idea of personal forgiveness, so that reconciliation is
effected between those who were at enmity. Applying
these analogies to the relations between a guilty sin-

Justification. 43
ner and the most holy God, we may discern a wonder
ful depth of meaning in such a statement as that of
2 Cor. v, 19 : "God was in Christ reconciling the world
unto himself, not reckoning unto them their tres
passes." The trespasses are blotted out, removed,
reckoned as if they had not been. According to Paul
the sinner is freely justified through faith by the grace
of God (Rom. iii, 24), and being thus justified he has
"peace with God," and access into a state of blessed
and glorious hope, having the love of God shed abroad
in his heart by the Holy Spirit (Rom. v, 1-4). "We
reckon therefore," he says (iii, 28), "that a man is
justified by faith apart from the works of the law."
He maintains (vii, 6) that "we have been discharged
from the law, having died to that in which we were
held down, so as to serve in newness of spirit." The
wretched captive, whose struggle we saw depicted in
Rom. vii, 15-25, accepts by faith the gracious pardon,
obtains remission of sins, and "thanks God through
Jesus Christ our Lord."
The chief peculiarity of Paul's doctrine of justifica
tion by faith is the intensity with which he conceives
it as proceeding from the saving grace Peci,iiarity of
r 1- 1 tx -it. „~.„1« ^t Paul's doctrine.
of God. He sees in the example ot
Abraham that "faith was reckoned unto him for right
eousness" (Rom. iv, 3), and the whole gospel of
Christ is to him the revelation of "a righteousness
of God" (Siitaioovvri ¦deov, Rom. i, 17). It is "a right
eousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto
all them that believe" (Rom. iii, 22). The word

44 The New and Living Way.
"righteousness" here is not to be understood as an
attribute of God in the sense of his divine justice; it
is a righteousness which proceeds from God, and is
extolled as a "free gift" (xdpiofia), and a "gift in grace"
(dwped kv xdpin, Rom. v, 15-17). He calls it in Phil.
iii, 9, "that which is through faith in Christ, the right
eousness from God (kic ¦deov) on the condition of faith."
This righteousness or justification (for both these ideas
run together in the word) is the gracious state which
results immediately from the acquittal which goes
with the forgiveness of sin.1 If it seem astonishing
that the "righteous Judge of all the earth," who re
vealed himself to Abraham as one who will distinguish
between the righteous and the wicked (Gen. xviii, 25),
should be declared by Paul to be God who "justifieth
the ungodly" (Rom. iv, 5), let it be observed that the
divine justification goes forth only "to him that be
lieveth." "The righteousness which is of faith" insists
that God's free gift comes not to every sinner; only
to him who makes the needful confession, and "with
the heart believeth unto righteousness" shall the salva
tion of God'be given (Rom. x, 6-10). To all such
"God reckons righteousness apart from works" (Rom.
iv, 6, 11) in the fact that he reckons faith for right
eousness, as in the case of Abraham. The sinner who
1 In the strict legal sense, as Merrill has observed, "pardon differs
from acquittal. The latter term is applied where guilt is charged but
not established. The innocent man, when found to be innocent, is
acquitted. He is not pardoned, but justified as an innocent man. In
such case there is ho forgiveness. But the sinner is not innocent. The
dreadful fact of his guilt is established, and cannot be ignored." —
Aspects of Christian Experience, p. 79. Cincinnati, 1^82.

Reconciliation. 45
"believes unto righteousness" is accordingly treated by
God as freed from guilt and "from the law of sin and
of death" (Rom. viii, 2). The act of faith on the part
of the convicted and penitent sinner is accordingly
followed by the gracious act of justification on the part
of God.
The result of this divine act of pardon is a state of
reconciliation and peace between God and the believer.
We have seen that, according to Paul,
«ii • 1 r .1 n . • . ,. Reconciliation.
the mind of the flesh is enmity (?##pa)
against God" (Rom. viii, 7) ; but "being justified by
faith we have peace with God through Jesus Christ"
(Rom. v, 1). This peace (eip^vrj) involves the removal
of the enmity, and the infusion of holy love and joy
within the heart. This blessed result of heavenly
grace is called in Rom. v, 11, "the reconciliation"
(¦}) KaraXXayq)j and in the immediate context the apostle
writes : "If, being enemies, we were reconciled to God
through the death of his Son, much more, being recon
ciled, shall we be saved in his life" (verse 10). This
idea of reconciliation finds further expression in 2 Cor.
v, 18-20 ; "All things are of God who reconciled us to
himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of
reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ recon
ciling the world unto himself, not reckoning unto them
their trespasses, and having placed in us the word of
the reconciliation."1 This "word of the reconciliation"
1 "The apostle starts from his personal experience of reconciliation,
that God in Christ graciously changed him, the enemy and persecutor,
into the preacher of his work of reconciliation." — Beyschlag, New
Testament Theology, vol. ii, p. 161.

46 The New and Living Way.
is a sacred deposit in the hearts of those who lfke Paul
had received a commission to preach this doctrine of
reconciliation. They became ambassadors of Christ,
and went about entreating men to "be reconciled to
God." Such a ministry of reconciliation was not differ
ent from that "word which God sent unto the children
of Israel, preaching good tidings of peace by Jesus
Christ," mentioned in Acts x, 36. The preaching of
this reconciliation is the preaching of "peace with God
through Jesus Christ" which follows the free pardon of
sin. This work of reconciliation through Christ is
spoken of in Eph. ii, 14-18, as a removal of enmity
between Jew and Gentile, and effecting peace between
them both and God; thereby Christ "reconciled them
both in one body unto God through the cross, having
slain the enmity thereby; and he came and preached
good tidings of peace to you that were far off (Gen
tiles), and peace to them that were nigh (Jews) ; for
through him we both have access in one Spirit unto
the Father." In a similar way, we are told in Col.
i, 20-22, of God's "reconciling all things unto him
self, having made peace through the blood of the
cross," so that those who were once aliens and enemies
in their evil works had become reconciled to him so as,
to be "presented before him holy and without blemish
and unreprovable."1 This happy reconciliation with
God is something to be received (Rom. v, 11 : Xafifidvw,
1 The word employed in these passages in Ephesians and Colossians is
a/KOKxnaT^Acou, to reconcile completely and thoroughly. It seems to
be a somewhat stronger form of expressing the main idea in karaTiTiiaaa.

Reconciliation. 47
lay hold of; claim and take into possession as one's own
blessed boon). But though appropriated by the act of
faith, it is a gracious provision coming from the love
of God for his enemies (Rom. v, 10). It is, in per
sonal experience, the result of conviction of sin, repent
ance, turning to God, believing in Christ, receiving
forgiveness of sins and justification before God.
According to Cremer, KXtTaXkdcau "is the setting up of a relationship
of peace not before existing, awoKaraXldaau is the restoration of a
relationship of peace which has been disturbed." — Biblico-Theological
Lexicon of New Testament Greek.

48 The New and Living Way.

CHAPTER V.
NEW BIRTH AND NEW LIFE.
But all these personal experiences of conviction,
repentance, faith, forgiveness of sin and reconciliation
with God do not exhaust the mighty
Other truths. . b. J
working of the power from on high
whereby sinful man is brought into conscious favor
and fellowship with God. Other truths vitally con
nected with these experiences of the soul appear in the
biblical writings and are attested by an innumerable
company of Christian believers. Chief among these is
that mysterious work of the Holy Spirit which we com
monly call regeneration, or the new birth.
The idea of a new spiritual life, begotten as by a
special creative act of God, appears in various parts
New heart in old of the °ld Testament. It is suggested
Testament. ^y the metaphor of the circumcision of
the heart in Deut. x, 16; xxx, 6; Jer. iv, 4. It seems
implied in 1 Sam. x, 9, where God gives Saul "another
heart." It finds strong expression in the penitential
psalm (li, 10), "Create for me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me." It is set forth in
language of remarkable spiritual depth and beauty in
Ezek. xi, 19, and xxxvi, 26: "I will give you a new
heart, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I
will take away the heart of stone from your flesh, and

Begotten from Above. 49
will give you a heart of flesh ; and my Spirit will I put
within you." All these scriptures imply a radical
change in the spiritual nature of man ; not of course the
creation of new substance, but such a quickening of all
the forces of spiritual life as to produce another mode
of life.
The most direct and positive teaching in the New
Testament on this subject is found in the Gospel of
John (iii, 3-8), where Jesus says, "Ex-
, , , ;» John iii, 3-8.
cept a man be born from above (avu&ev),
he cannot see the kingdom of God." The word dvwdev
in this connection seems to mean from above rather
than again, as frequently translated. It occurs again
in verse 31 of the same chapter in the statement, "He
that cometh from above is above all." In John xix, 11,
Jesus says to Pilate, "Thou wouldest have no power
against me, except it were given thee from above."
The word has also this meaning in the Epistle of James,
where it is said that "every perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of lights" (i, 17) and
where the wisdom is extolled "which cometh down
from above" (iii, 15, 17). And so we understand that
the new birth, of which Jesus speaks in John iii, 3-8,
is the originating of a new life in the soul by the infu
sion of a living germ from above, that is, "from God,"
"from heaven," or "out of heaven," whence Jesus him
self came (comp. verses 2 and 13, and John vi, 38, 41,
42, 50). The mystery of this generation from above
is deepened by the statement of verse 5 : "Except a
man be born of water and Spirit he cannot enter into
4

50 The New and Living Way.
the kingdom of God." The common interpretation,
which makes the words "born of water" mean the out
ward performance of baptism in water, has never been
able to make itself thoroughly satisfactory.. It seems
inexplicably strange that our Lord should have thus
spoken of Christian baptism to "a ruler of the Jews"
at the time and under the circumstances supposed.1
That he should have aimed to set him thinking deeply
on "heavenly things" (rd knovpdvia, verse 12), is every
way supposable, and accords with his remarkable
spiritual language to the woman of Samaria and to
others. But for him, in a conversation with Nicode
mus, to declare most solemnly that the outward cere
mony or rite of baptism with water is essential in order
to enter into the kingdom of God, is certainly amazing.
It is not only out of harmony with the profound
spiritual teaching of John's Gospel, but it also stands
in conflict with the letter and spirit of Jesus's words
against the "blind Pharisee," who seeks only to
"cleanse the outside of the cup and the platter" (Matt.
xxiii, 25, 26 ; Luke xi, 39 ; Mark vii, 4) . That baptism
with water is indeed a symbol of the "washing of re
generation" (Titus iii, 5) is true enough, but to co
ordinate it with regeneration, so as to make it a neces-
1 Bernhard Weiss, in his edition of Meyer's Handbook on John, affirms
that "it is historically inconceivable that Jesus should have spoken to
Nicodemus of Christian baptism." Weiss maintains that water and Spirit
"are simply coordinated, the water being conceived in its essence as a
purifying factor, the Spirit as the efficient creative principle of the new
life." But the main trouble is to recognize the water of ritual baptism
as a "coordinate" factor along with the creative power of the Spirit.
Some think that the words "water and" are an early interpolation.

Washing of Regeneration. 51
sary condition of entrance into the kingdom of God, is
to teach "baptismal regeneration" and a "sacramen-
tarian salvation," which are repudiated by all Protes
tant Christendom. Post-apostolic connotations of bap
tism and of other external ordinances have been so long
read into words and phrases of the New Testament
that to question a current interpretation is to expose
oneself to the charge of a lack of candor. So it has
come to pass that the phrases "washing Tih]s m 5 and
of regeneration" (Titus iii, 5) and "the ep"-v-2|5-
washing of the water in the word" (Eph. v, 26) are
claimed with an air of authority to refer necessarily to
Christian baptism.1 But in the first passage it is said
that "God our Saviour, not by works in righteousness
which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy
saved us through washing of regeneration and renew
ing of the Holy Spirit which he poured out upon us
richly." Now this washing of regeneration is no more
an outward washing with water than is the "purifying
unto himself a people for his own possession" by "our
great God and Saviour Jesus Christ," in Titus ii, 14,
an external act or ceremony. To a New Testament
writer the conjunction of the two ideas of "washing of
regeneration" and "renewing of the Spirit" would be
far more likely to suggest the language and thought
of Ezek. xxxvi, 25, 26, than any form or ceremony
1 So, for example, Ellicott, Commentary, on Eph. v, 26 : "The refer
ence to baptism is clear and distinct, and the meaning of tovrpdv, laver;
indisputable." But the word ?Lovrp6v, is never used in the Septuagint
as a translation of the Hebrew word for laver OVS). Again, on Titus
iii, 5, he writes: "Less than this cannot be said by a candid interpreter."

52 The New and Living Way.
of baptism. As little can we believe that there is any
direct reference to the outward rite of baptism in Eph.
v, 26, where Christ is said to have "loved the Church,
and to have given himself up for her, in order that
he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the wash
ing of the water in the word, that he himself might
present to himself the Church glorious, not having spot
or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be
holy and without blemish." Here it is the Church
{if kKKXrfaia), not the individual believer, that is held
before the mind. Christ himself does the cleansing and
the washing, though, according to John iv, 2, "Jesus
himself baptized not." To suppose that Christ's own
cleansing and sanctifying of his Church is done by the
water of baptism is to magnify an outward ordinance
above the word and the Spirit. Those who suppose "the
washing of the water" (Eph. v, 26) to refer directly
to baptism naturally find great difficulty in determining
both the meaning and the connection of the phrase
iv prjfian, in the zvord.1 But nothing is clearer than
that this pfjfia is God's word (p'rjria ¦&eov) which in chapter
vi, 17, is called "the sword of the Spirit:" that is, the
mighty instrument with which the Spirit works all
cleansing and sanctifying. In chapter i, 13, it is called
"the word (Ao'yoc) of the truth, the gospel of your salva
tion." This word is the "power of God unto salvation"
1 This is the frank confession of Ellicott in his notes on the passage.
But he rejects, as "scarcely probable," that meaning of ev jyii/iaTL which
he calls "the ancient and plausible reference to the words used in
baptism." It is amazing to find him writing in the same note that the
"idea" of sanctifying in the word "is scarcely doctrinally tenable."

Cleansing in the Word. 53
(Rom. i, 16), active, sharp, and penetrating (Heb. iv,
12), sanctifying in the truth (John xvii, 17-19). In
view of this clear and uniform teaching of the New
Testament, the connection of the phrase "in the word"
with what precedes it need not seem difficult. Both the
sanctifying and the cleansing is wrought in, or by the
instrumentality of, the word of truth. This being the
fundamental doctrine, the use of the metaphor of
cleansing by the washing of water no more points spe
cifically to baptism in this connection than does the like
metaphor of sprinkling with clean water in the lan
guage of Ezek. xxxvi, 25. That the metaphor may
suggest the analogy of any kind of external ablution
need not be questioned at all. So in Eph. v, 26, there
may be, as some maintain, an allusion to the bathing
of a bride before marriage.1 But whatever the particu
lar source of the metaphor of washing in Eph. v, 26,
and Titus iii, 5, the real sanctifying, cleansing, and
regenerating in the word and Spirit of God can be no
outward washing of the body. No legitimate inference
from these texts can warrant the sacramentarian doc
trine of "baptismal regeneration," or of the necessity
of baptism in order to enter the kingdom of God.
Recurring now to the statement in John iii, 5, we
inquire after the source and significance of the mystic
1 This was an ancient custom, and the presentation mentioned in verse
27, and the adorning of a bride for her husband in Rev. ,xxi, 2, favor
the supposition of such an allusion. But the sacramentarian, who in-
sists that Ttmrrpdv must mean laver rather than the washing, and that
the reference is to the basin, font, or baptistry rather than to the idea
or the act of cleansing, naturally makes more account of the bath tub
than the bathing.

54 The New and Living Way.
words, "Except one be born of water and Spirit." The
concept of birth, generation, a coming into being and
life, involves necessarily to some extent the idea of a
new creation. It is noteworthy that in
A new creation. . ...
the Pauline epistles this new spiritual
life which a Christian believer receives from God
through faith is called a new creation (/caivr) uriotg).
In Gal. vi, 15, he exalts this ideal above carnal ordi
nances by saying that "neither circumcision is any
thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature." In
2 Cor. v, 17, he says that "if any man is in Christ, he
is (or there is) a new creature ; the old things are
passed away ; behold, they are become new." In Eph.
ii, 10, we read : "We are his workmanship (tom/jimi),
created in Christ Jesus for good works ;" and in iv, 23,
24, we have the exhortation to "be renewed in the spirit
of your mind, and put on the new man, which after
God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of
truth." So again in Col. iii, 9, 10, the constant putting
away of all kinds of sinfulness is based upon the con
sideration "that ye have put off the old man with his
doings, and have put on the new man, who is being
renewed in knowledge after the image of him that
created him."1 In all these passages the result of the
mighty working of God in the soul of man, whereby
one is brought from the death of sin into the life of
1 "The new creation of the spirit into fullness of knowledge and truth
is regarded by the apostle as analogous to man's first creation. As he
was then made in the image of God, so now; but it was then naturally,
now spiritually in eniyvuatc ... It is not to restore the old, but
to create the new, that redemption has been brought about." — Alford,
Greek Testament, notes in loco.

The New Creation. 55
righteousness, is conceived as a new creation.1 It is,
accordingly, most natural to associate this idea of cre
ation with being "born of God." It may be that the
truest, clearest concept of creation in the highest sense
is that of a begetting, a genesis, and to understand the
real import of John iii, 5, we should recognize in the
mystic and -metaphorical language of Jesus an allusion
to the primeval creation as read in the first chapter of
Genesis. There we have the picture of a series of
creative acts set forth as a succession of births pro
duced by the word of God, and they are called "genera
tion of the heavens and the earth." At the beginning
"darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit
of God was brooding upon the face of the waters."
And when "God said, Let there be light ; and there was
light," we get our first and sublimest concept of a
divine creative birth kl- vdarog ical irvevfiarog, from
water and Spirit. As in that primeval creation light
came forth out of the darkness by the word of God,
begotten as it were from the waters and the Spirit that
brooded over them, so the new life and light of God
are brought forth in the heart of man by the working
of the same Spirit from above. The "being born of
water," therefore, in John iii, 5, is not the ceremony
of baptism, but a mystic allusion to the brooding of
the Spirit over the waters and the breaking of the light
out of the "darkness that was upon the face of the
1 So in fact many interpreters translate the word kt'icic, which may
mean either creature or creation. According to Schottgen, Horae
Hebraicae, vol. i, pp. 328, 704, the proselyte who was converted from
idolatry to Judaism was called ftffllrl !TP1Si » new creation.

56 The New and Living Way.
deep." This seems to have been the thought of Paul
when he says that "God, who said, Light shall shine
out of the darkness, shined in our hearts to give the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. iv, 6). Here we have a true
concept of the new birth and the new creation in Christ
Jesus. Such generation, or regeneration, is necessarily
a work of God in man. It is the gracious product of
the life of the Spirit from above (dvuftev). Conviction
of sin, repentance, and faith are essential conditions of
this transition into heavenly life, and in all these condi
tions the human soul cooperates with the life-giving
Spirit ; and so we read in John i, 12, 13 : "As many as
received him, to them gave he power (kijovoiav, author
ity, right) to become children of God, even to them
that believe on his name : who were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but
of God."
The mystery of this new birth is recognized in John
Mystery of spirit, »>» 8> and compared to the wind1 which
uaiiife. blows where it will, and makes itself
heard, but no one knows whence it comes nor whither
1 Bengel (Gnomon of the New Testament, in loco) does not allow the
meaning of wind to to irvEVfia in this verse, but translates: "The Spirit
breatheth where it will, and thou hearest its voice, but knowest not
¦whence it comes and whither it goes; so is every one who is born of
the Spirit." The Sinaitic MS. reads in the last sentence: "So is every
one who is born of water and Spirit." The fact that •Kvebp.a is used,
like the Hebrew f"n*% both for wind and spirit, occasions ambiguity.
The illustration drawn from the mystery of the wind may have been
suggested by Gen. i, 2: "The Spirit of God brooded upon the face of
the waters," where some render QiflblK WO 0 wind of God. Comp.
Gen. viii, 1.

New Life from Above. 57
it goes. There is mystery connected with "that which
is born of the flesh," as such scriptures as Eccles. xi,
5, and Psa. cxxxix, 14, 15, confess; much deeper the
mystery of spiritual and heavenly things. This much,
however, seems to be beyond contradiction, that in all
the world of living things no form or kind of life is
known to come into existence except as the outgrowth
of some antecedent germ of life. No changing of sub
stances, no modifications of environment, no chemical
compounds, no forces of electricity or of any kind of
energy known to man, can endow one atom of the
material world with the principle of life. And so we
may say of any form of inanimate matter in the world,
Except some germ of life be imparted to it from above,
that is, from some higher power or nature having life
in itself, it cannot enter the realm of life at all.1 In
accordance with this analogy, so invariable and univer
sal in the world of nature, there can come no spiritual
element of life in man, who is "dead in trespasses and
in sins," except it be given him from above. There
must be some living germ implanted by a power not
ourselves, and it must be nourished by appropriate con
ditions. The Spirit of God, brooding over the great
deep of man's elementary possibilities, quickens his
spiritual nature into heavenly life and light, and re
leases him from the darkness of sin. Thus, to use the
metaphor drawn from the first creation, he is "born of
water and Spirit," he is "called out of darkness into
1 See Henry Drummond's suggestive chapter on "Biogenesis" in his
Natural Law in the Spiritual World, pp. 61-94. New York, 1887.

58 The New and Living Way,
marvelous light" (i Pet. ii, 9) ; he has put off the
old man of sin, with the fleshly lusts and passions of
the depraved nature, and has become a new creation by
power from on high. There is chaos no longer in his
soul, but peace with God through Jesus Christ. He is
now dead unto sin, but alive unto God (Rom. vi, 2, 10,
11). The germ of new and heavenly life abides and
develops into the eternal life of God. And so we read
in 1 John iii, 9 : "Whosoever is begotten of God doeth
no sin, because his seed (ompfia avrov; that is, God's
seed, an element of the divine nature as a creative germ
of new and higher life) abideth in him." This idea of
being born or begotten of God, and thereby becoming
separate from sin, is peculiarly Johannine (comp. 1
John ii, 29; iv, 7; v, 1, 4, 18). But it is deeply rooted
in the language of 2 Pet. i, 4: "Ye may become par
takers of the divine nature, having escaped from the
corruption that is in the world by lust." It is involved
in such Pauline expressions as "newness of life"
(Rom. vi, 4) ; "the Spirit giveth life" (2 Cor. iii, 6) ;
"it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me"
(Gal. ii, 20) ; "your life is hid with Christ in God"
(Col. iii, 3). In fact the doctrine of divine life be
gotten in the heart of man by the Spirit of God is so
common to all the New Testament writers that it seems
needless to point out incidental and favorite forms of
expression peculiar to any one author.
The new birth, then, is a passing out of darkness
into light, and "out of death into life" (John v, 24;
1 John iii, 14). This transition is necessary for en-

Life in Christ. 59
trance into the kingdom of God. Heirs of God and
partakers of the inheritance of the saints Passlng out of
in light must be begotten of God, born deatn int0 life-
from above. In language peculiar to John, "the wit
ness is this, that God gave us eternal life, and this life
is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath the life ; and
he that hath not the Son hath not the life" (1 John v,
11, 12).
While, therefore, all men by reason of their religious
constitution and personality are "offspring of God"
{yivog tov deov, Acts xvii, 28, 29), no one of these off
spring enters into conscious and happy fellowship with
God except he be "born from above." There is a new
and special impartation of heavenly life, given upon
conditions of contrition and turning unto God in faith.
This new birth quickens all the spiritual possibilities
within man's nature, and, in the mystic Pauline phrase,
his life becomes hidden with Christ in God.1
1 The simple facts, sufficiently recognized in the Scriptures, of man's
religious nature and possibilities, would seem to leave no ground for
the controversies which have been raised over the bearing of the doc
trine of regeneration on the universal fatherhood of God. The terms
employed, such as regeneration, justification, a new creation, passing
out of death into life, contain an obvious figurative element, but describe
facts of experience. But no new person is created by this heavenly
change. It is the same individual whose conversion is as life from the
dead. It is a prodigal son, who forfeited his right to be called a son,
and who made himself a child of the devil, selling himself to work un
godliness, that is restored to his father's love, dead but alive again, lost
but at length found again; and the witness of his real sonship is of the
nature of an adoption, because he had become an alien by his wicked
works. So one may say after the manner of Paul in i Tim. iv, 10,
that God is the Father of all men, especially of them that believe.

6o The New and Living Way.

CHAPTER VI.
SONSHIP, ADOPTION, ASSURANCE, AND
SPIRITUAL, FREEDOM.
Before passing on to consider the further develop
ment of this new life of God in man, we should make
„i„*.™ note, at this point, of the New Testa-
A ne w relation- > ^ '
sMp- ment teaching on the subject of the real
relationship which such newborn children of God sus
tain to him. This heavenly birth, which is conceived
as a new creation, is an introduction to something more
than natural creaturehood. It is not a relationship
which can be propagated from parent to child. It is
designated in several Pauline epistles by the word
adoption, vlo&eala, so that it is conceived as a con
stituted, not a natural, sonship (a son by #s<kc, not by
(pvatg).1 It is based upon all that work of repentance
and faith and regeneration which we have expounded
1 According to Eph. ii, 1-3, all who are "dead through trespasses and
sins" were "sons of disobedience," and "we all once lived in the lusts
of our flesh, . . . and were by nature (0{i<r«) children of wrath."
Such, though begotten of God by a sort of spiritual resurrection, a
"quickening together with Christ" (verse 5), become beloved children
by adoption rather than by generation. Like the prodigal, they are
welcomed into the family life, but the reception is not so much a second
birth as a new creation, and life from the dead: "the dead is alive; the
lost is found" (Luke xv, 32).

Adoption of Sons. 6i
in the foregoing pages, and in the light of those
spiritual experiences we can understand the apostle
when he writes : "Ye are all sons of God through faith
in Jesus Christ." "God sent forth his Son . . . that
we might receive the adoption of sons. And because
ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into
our hearts, crying, Abba, Father" (Gal. iii, 26; iv, 5).
Similarly in Rom. viii, 14-16: "As many as are led by
the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For ye re
ceived not the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but
ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry,
Abba, Father. The Spirit himself beareth witness with
our spirit that we are children of God." In Eph. i, 5,
it is said that God "foreordained us unto adoption
through Jesus Christ unto himself, according 'to the
good pleasure of his will." This sonship which enables
one to "cry out, Abba, Father," is not, according to
Paul, a relationship which comes by birth or genera
tion. It is a new relation to God which the believer
receives through Jesus Christ, so that in the good
pleasure of the heavenly Father he is placed, set apart,
constituted, and reckoned as a son (deo&ai vlov). The
idea may have been suggested by the divine adoption
of Israel as the chosen nation to be unto Jehovah a
peculiar possession (comp. Exod. iv, 22; xix, 5) ; for in
Rom. ix, 4, the apostle speaks of the Israelites as God's
favored ones, "whose is the adoption, and the glory,
and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the
service, and the promises." In all these passages we
note the same conception of a God-given boon, a recep-

62 The New and Living Way.
tion into the relationship of sons, graciously bestowed
on those who accept and obey the Gos-
HeirsofGod. . ,
pel. The person thus received is thence
forth treated as a child in the family of God, entitled to
all the rights, privileges, and blessings of the household.
"If children," says Paul, in Rom. viii, 17, "then heirs;
heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." The rela
tionship is constituted after the manner of adoption;
the heirship and all related privileges are as genuine
and certain as if the sonship itself were that of an only
begotten of a father.1
But while the word adoption is peculiar to Paul, and
his idea of the relation it implies is somewhat governed
by his conception of the relation of the Gospel to the
law, "sons of God" and "children of
Sons of God. ' .
God are terms which appear in other
scriptures as describing a true and blessed relationship
to God as the heavenly Father. The peacemakers "shall
be called sons of God" (Matt, v, 9), and those who
love their enemies and pray for their persecutors are
praiseworthy sons of their Father who is in heaven
(Matt, v, 45). The righteous who "shall shine forth
as the sun in the kingdom of their Father" are the
good ones who in this world are called "sons of the
1 In contrast with those theologians who study to make fine distinc
tions between the ideas of divine and human adoption, Ritschl observes
that "we ought rather to ascertain the harmony between the two. Such
harmony cannot be found in the idea of the establishment of a right of
inheritance for a person of alien descent. For those persons who in
the Christian sense have been adopted by God as his children attain this
rank also only under the presupposition that in a certain real sense they
derive their being from God, that is, that they have been created in his
image." — Justification and Reconciliation, p. 96. Edinburgh, 1900.

Children of God. 63
kingdom" (Matt, xiii, 38, 43). These same are also
called appropriately "sons of light" (Luke xvi, 8; John
xii, 36; 1 Thess. v, 5) and "children (rmva) of light"
(Eph. v, 8), and being "imitators of God" they show
themselves "beloved children" (Eph. v, 1), "children
of God without blemish in the midst of
... ... Beloved children.
a crooked and perverse generation
(Phil, ii, 15). In such texts the filial relation is
thought of in connection with the blessedness which it
has in itself, and not with reference to the adoption of
sons. In one passage (Rom. viii, 23) Paul uses the
word adoption with reference to a future and final
glorification, "the redemption of our body" to which
believers look forward in longing expectation, and he
says (verse 19) that "the earnest expectation of the
creation is waiting for the revealing of the sons of
God." And this accords closely with the beautiful sen
timent in 1 John iii, 1-3 : "Behold what manner of love
the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be
called children of God; and such we are. For this
cause the world knoweth us not, because it knew him
not. Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is
not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know
that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him;
for we shall see him even as he is. And every one that
hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is
pure." In this conception of the sonship John is not
essentially different from Paul, but in substantial
agreement. This sonship is not by nature, but of grace
and love. Its distinguishing mark is the quality of

64 The New and Living Way.
righteousness; for "he that is begotten of God doeth
no sin" (verses 9 and 10). On the contrary, he that
doeth sin is a child of the devil, even like Cain, who
"was of the evil one, and slew his brother" (verse 12).
Coincident with this .adoption as sons of God there
is the removal of the servile spirit of fear. There is no
Witness of the lonSer a miserable sense of a "law in
spirit. my members warring against the law of
my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law
of sin which is in my members" (Rom. vii, 23) ; "for
the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me
free from the law of sin and of death" (viii, 2). This
is like an experience of life from the dead, a new crea
tion in Christ, and, according to Paul, the believer re
ceives along with the adoption a twofold assurance of
the fact : "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our
spirit that we are children of God" (Rom. viii, 16).
God's Spirit and man's spirit bear united testimony to
the new and heavenly relationship. The mighty work
of God which brings about the release from sin and the
newness of life carries along with it its own. proper and
peculiar assurance to the human self-consciousness.
Such a passing from death into life cannot remain hid
den from the knowledge of the new man in Christ.
The living Spirit makes his own unmistakable impres
sion on the soul, and in quick concurrent response
thereto the human spirit witnesses its own sense of the
heavenly fellowship.1 These concurrent testimonies
1 "Paul distinguishes from the subjective self-consciousness: I am the
child of God, the therewith accordant testimony of the objective Holy

Witness of the Spirit. 65
resolve themselves into a matter of personal self-
knowledge as to one's own spiritual experience. "Who
among men knoweth the things of a man, save the
spirit of the man, which is in him? even so the things
of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God. But we
received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit that
is from God, that we might know the things that were
freely given to us of God" (1 Cor. ii, 11, 12).
This concurrent witness of God's Spirit and man's
spirit, testifying to the believer the fact of his adoption,
is a conception peculiar to Paul; but Boldness and con.
the doctrine of a personal experience Mence-
which it involves is common to Paul and other
writers. It is implied in the steadfast boldness
(nappTioia) with which the child of God "approaches
the throne of grace," and enters into the holy places
(Heb. iv, 16; x, 19). In the First Epistle of John this
boldness is spoken of not only as a present and abiding
fearlessness toward God, but a like feeling of confi
dence in view of the day of judgment ; "because as he is,
even so are we in this world" (ii, 28; iii, 21; iv,
17; v, 14). Paul also writes of our boldness in Christ
and "access in confidence through our faith in him"
(Eph. iii, 12). The faithful minister gains "great bold
ness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus" (1 Tim.
»i» 13).
Spirit: thou art the child of God. The latter is the yea to the' former;
and thus it comes that we cry the Abba in the spirit of adoption."
— Meyer," Critical and Exegetical Handbook, in loco. See John Wes
ley's three sermons on "The Witness of the Spirit," in Sermons, vol. i,
pp. 83-107. New York, 1854.
5

66 The New and Living Way.
Still more emphatic is the expression of "all riches
of the full assurance of understanding" in the mystery
of God, in Col. ii, 2, and the "full assur-
Full assurance. , , r <¦ -,i »
ance {p\r\po$opia) of hope and of faith,
in Heb. vi, 1 1 ; x, 22. Such assurance is begotten in
the heart by the personal fellowship with God which
his true children enjoy. They have the confidence of
little children, and every faculty of the feeling, the
understanding, and the will attests the heavenly union.
Here also belong those confirmations of personal ex
perience of which John speaks: "We know that we
have passed out of death into life, because we love the
brethren" (1 John iii, 14). "Hereby we know that we
are of the truth, and shall assure our heart before him"
(verse 19; comp. verse 24, and iv, 13, 17). Such as
surance is no vain boast of self-delusion, but the simple
acknowledgment of an inward trust, a confidence in
God whose saving power has been realized in the soul.
And this confidence is strengthened by the continuous
and unwavering "testimony of our conscience, that in
holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom,
but by the grace of God, we have behaved ourselves in
the world" (2 Cor. i, 12). Thus all the experiences
of transition from the life of sin into the peace and
fellowship of God are matters of positive knowledge.1
1 "The witness of the Spirit is sacred to the person who enjoys it. It
is the most precious jewel of the heart. It is the hidden treasure, the
pearl of great price. It is the secret of the Lord, committed to the
believer in trust, not to be despised, nor to be treated as a common
thing. It is, therefore, to be spoken of with carefulness in the presence
of those who appreciate it, and not boastfully before the multitude." —
Merrill, Aspects of Christian Experience, p. 179.

Liberty in Christ. 67
There are mysteries of the invisible about them all, but
the facts of personal feeling and intelligent conviction
bear their own witness to the conscious soul. We may
not tell whence the wind comes, nor whither it goes
(John iii, 8), but at the same time we may have the
most unquestionable evidences of its actual movement
and effect; and "so is every one that is born of the
Spirit." Along with the boldness and assurance which come
to the soul in the blessed experiences of pardon, re
generation, and adoption, we must notice also that
"liberty in Christ" which Paul and
, , . , , , . Christian freedom.
others magnify as a glory of the true
Christian life. In Gal. v, 1, it is written, "For freedom
did Christ set us free ;m and in verse 13, "Ye, brethren,
were called for freedom." Also in the allegory of Gal.
iv, 24-26, where the two covenants are contrasted, those
who are in Christ Jesus and walk after the Spirit are
conceived as children of the free and heavenly mother
Jerusalem, and not to be "entangled again in a yoke of
bondage." They are free citizens of a spiritual and
heavenly commonwealth, and not to be thought of as
bound fast in any system of servitude other than that
of voluntary and most honorable loyalty to Jesus Christ.
And so we further read, in 2 Cor. iii, 17, that the Lord
Jesus is the living Spirit and power by which the entire
1 Some render, "With freedom did Christ set us free," on which
Alford comments: "That is, free men is your rightful name and ought
to be your estimation of yourselves, seeing that freedom is your inherit
ance by virtue of Christ's redemption of you." — Greek Testament, in
loco.

68 The New and Living Way.
work of redemption and of revelation is accomplished,
"and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."
This ideal of spiritual freedom is still further brought
out in the Epistle to the Romans, vi-viii. We are ad
monished that one may be a bondservant either of sin
or of obedience to God in Christ. If one obeys sin, he
is the slave of sin ; if he obeys God, he is the servant of
righteousness. "Thanks be to God," says the apostle,
"that whereas ye were bondservants of sin, ye became
obedient from the heart to that form of teaching where-
unto ye were delivered ; and being made free from sin,
ye became bondservants of righteousness" (Rom. vi,
17, 18). Further on he adds (verse 22), "Now, being
made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye
have your fruit unto sanctifkation, and the end eternal
life."- And after depicting the mighty struggle for de
liverance from "captivity under the law of sin," which
is so vividly set forth in Rom. vii, he declares in viii, 2,
that "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made
me free from the law of sin and of death." This is the
liberty of a free human spirit, that has broken with
sin, and laid hold on Christ, and passed into the new
life of conscious peace and fellowship with God. "The
liberty of the glory of the children of God," referred to
in Rom. viii, 21, is the same royal estate of Christian
freedom, only conceived, perhaps, in a later stage of
glorious revelation.
This same idea of liberty as realized in a blessed
service of God appears in the language of 1 Pet. ii, 16,
where those who are notable for welldoing are spoken

Spiritual Freedom. 69
of as ''free, and not using their freedom for a cloak
of wickedness, but as bondservants of God." James
also speaks of the Gospel as "the word of truth," and
calls it "the perfect law, the law of liberty" (i, 18, 25).
He who looks into this law with a steady, continuous,
loving devotion, "being not a hearer that forgetteth,
but a doer that worketh, this man shall be blessed in his
doing." This spiritual freedom, then, is in its inmost nature
the realization of a fast fellowship with God and a lov
ing obedience. It brings the soul aloft out of all sense
of groveling bondage to sin, and breaks away from
mere forms and ceremonies, as from a bondage of the
letter that killeth (comp. 2 Cor. iii, 6). Rites, ritual
services, fasts, pilgrimages, all such merely outward
forms and a mechanical "observance of days, and
months, and seasons, and years" (Gal. iv, 10), are com
paratively like "weak and beggarly rudiments," and
one who is dependent on them, or unable to rise above
them into a pure personal communion with the living
God, is entangled in a yoke of bondage. He knows
not the light and the liberty of the sons of God. With
him rites are an end rather than a means to an end.
Such outward forms are utterly insufficient to release a
human soul from the bondservice of sin. He only is
the true Christian freeman whom the truth of Christ
makes free, and he abides, not as a servant, but as a
son, in the house of his heavenly Father. He walks and
talks familiarly with God. Hence the saying of Jesus
in John viii, 36 : "If the Son shall make you free, ye

70 The New and Living Way.
shall be free indeed." Compare also the whole context
in verses 31-38/
1 According to Ritschl, "Melanchthon enumerates four grades of
freedom — freedom from sin and the wrath of God, the freedom of the
new life inspired by the Holy Ghost, freedom from the Mosaic law,
and freedom from the yoke of human ordinances in the worship of the
Church. Calvin omits the first and the third of these, and puts in the
forefront another aspect of freedom, to which he was necessarily led
from regard to the true nature of justification. It is just the other side
of justification by faith, that nothing of law or legal works should play
a part in it. To this fundamental principle we must reduce the last of
the aspects of Christian freedom, the right, namely, to regard human
ordinances in the Church as indifferent." — Justification and Reconcilia
tion, p. 115. Edinburgh, 1900.

Progress in Spiritual Life.' 71

CHAPTER VII.
PROGRESS IN SPIRITUAL LIFE.
Having attained the adoption of sons of God, we
are at the first only as little children, "babes in Christ,"
and we have seen that the new birth New li£e involves
from above does not produce another erowth-
personality. The subject of the marvelous change
from death unto life is still the same in all the elements
of natural constitution. The personal identity attach
ing to body, soul, intellect, and power of volition re
mains unchanged ; but "the new (veog) man, who is be
ing renewed unto knowledge after the image of him
that created him" (Col. iii, 10), henceforth "walks in
newness of life" and "serves in newness of spirit"
(Rom. vi, 4; vii, 6). By the regeneration of the Spirit
he becomes a "new kind of man" (tcaivbg dvQpunog, Eph.
iv, 24), a new creature, or a "new kind of creation"
(Kaivr) ttrioig, Gal. vi, 15; 2 Cor. v, 17). In the early
period of this new kind of spiritual life he is without
mature knowledge of the things of God, and of course
needs instruction in "heavenly things" (John iii, 12).
Hence we find in many a scripture exhortations to "go
on unto full growth" {releidTtig, Heb. vi, 1), to "grow
up into Christ in all things" (Eph. iv, 15), to "increase
in the knowledge of God," and "increase with the in
crease of God" (Col. i, 10; ii, 19), that is, with such

72 The New and Living Way.
increase in all spiritual attainments as God in his own
ways confers. In i Pet. ii, i, 2, it is written : "Putting
away all wickedness, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and
envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, long
for the spiritual guileless milk, that ye may grow
thereby into salvation." In 2 Pet. iii, 18, it is also
urged, "Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ." The faith of the Thessa-
lonians is spoken of as "growing exceedingly," and
their love toward one another as "abounding" (2
Thess. i, 3). In the Old Testament we meet the
familiar figure of the righteous man, who is "like a
tree planted by streams of water, that brings forth its
fruit in its season, and its leaf withers not" (Psa. i, 3).
"The . righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he
shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon" (Psa. xcii, 12).
And so of every one who passes out of the death of
sin into the life of righteousness it may be said, in the
beautiful words of Hosea (xiv, 5, 6) concerning re
stored Israel: "He shall blossom as the lily, and cast
forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread,
and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell
as Lebanon." Such ideals of a vigorous life and a
healthy growth and fruitage naturally associate them
selves together in the scriptural presentation of Chris
tian character.
The divers elements involved in spiritual growth
Elements m spirit- appear in the New Testament teaching
uai growth. as we cannot expect to find them in
the Old. For though the law, the prophets, and the

Spiritual Growth. 73
psalms contain expressions and suggestions of the most
blessed fellowship with God and of the most profound
spiritual struggles, these heavenly truths have a much
clearer and richer setting forth in the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. Hence Paul could speak confidently of this
latter as a ministration of the spirit and of righteous
ness which far surpassed in glory and excellence the
older Mosaic ministration, which was "written and en
graven on stones," and was relatively a ministration of
condemnation and of death (2 Cor. iii, 6-1 1). One of
the first things to be realized in the personal growth of
the newly adopted child of God is a sloughing off, so
to speak, of the tissues of the old sensual "body of sin"
(Rom. vi, 6). As the living germ in the grain of seed-
corn throws off its outer husk and hull, and as the
kernel of the acorn casts off its shell when the new
plant shoots forth, so is the putting off of the old man
essential to the putting on and development of the new
man in Christ. While the new life may be imparted
in a moment of time, the getting clear from the old
body of sin and of death may not be the work of an
hour or a day. In many cases it is the work of years.
Along with this breaking away from the old conditions
there must be a vigorous putting forth of the new life
of righteousness, and this will speedily show its inde
pendence of external ritual and superiority to all such
"bondage of the letter." There must follow instruction
in the way of righteousness, and increase of knowledge
and wisdom. The passion of holy love will manifest
itself from the first and intensify the hunger and thirst

74 The New and Living Way.
after righteousness and true holiness. Personal sanc
tity and holiness of heart and life must needs accom
pany and further this life of God in the soul, and hal
low all its stages of advance. The continual working
and illumination of the Holy Spirit must needs enhance
all possible spiritual attainments in such "children of
light," and the activities, discipline, and matured ex
periences of advancing age work together unto the
perfection or practicable completeness of Christian
character. Some of these experiences call for a more
detailed discussion here.
In the sixth chapter of Romans we have an argument
intended to show the incompatibility of sin with the
new life of righteousness which is re-
Rom, vi. &
ceived through faith in Christ. Three
most important considerations are advanced, which we
may briefly state as follows: (i) Death unto sin and
life in Jesus Christ involves such a crucifixion of the
old man that the former bondage to sin is utterly
broken, and the passions and lusts which held the
higher nature down like a dead body imprisoning a
living spirit (comp. vii, 24) are done away (Karapyridq,
annulled, abolished, put an end to). This means a
thoroughgoing emancipation from the bondage of sin
(verses 1-11). (2) Therefore, the argument proceeds,
sin is no longer to reign in the body, and sinful lusts
must be no more obeyed, but the members of the body
are thenceforth to be consecrated unto God as "instru
ments of righteousness," just as if the body itself were
alive from the dead (verses 12-14). (3) It follows,

Sin and Righteousness. 75
then, that, as a matter of logical necessity, servants of
righteousness cannot be servants of sin. The servant
of sin may indeed be free as regards righteousness,
(verse 20; but what a wretched slavery such free
dom ! ) but it is clear that the servant of righteousness
is made free from sin. And the outcome of it all is
that "now being made free from sin, and become serv
ants of God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification,
and the end eternal life" (verses 15-23). There is no
mistaking the main points in this argument. Sin and
righteousness are opposites. We cannot live in both
at the same time, and therefore deliverance from the
one involves subjection to the other. With the new
birth the entire life of the individual takes a new trend.
There is no burden of condemnation crushing down
upon them that have obtained pardon and remission of
sins, but, according to Rom. viii, 1-11, the Spirit of
heavenly life, by whose potent agency the new birth is
accomplished from above (dvuSev), triumphs over the
flesh, and the adopted child of God is thenceforth to
be led and governed by the Spirit which sanctifies
the whole nature and ultimately glorifies it in eternal
life. This same doctrine is written in Johannine style in
1 John iii, 9, 10. The necessary opposition of sin and
righteousness is conceived as so com-
& 1 John m, 9, 10.
plete that the two cannot coexist and
control the human spirit at one and the same time.
"Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin, because
his seed abideth in him : and he cannot sin (ov dvvarai

76 The New and Living Way.
ajiaprdveiv), because he is begotten of God." In verse
6 of the same chapter it is affirmed that "whosoever
abideth in him (that is, in Christ) sinneth not; whoso
ever sinneth hath not seen him, neither knoweth him."
There is, in this apostle's thought, an irreconcilable an
tagonism between the life of the sinner and that of the
child of God who "abides in the Son and in the Father"
(ii, 24; comp. i, 3, and John xiv, 23). It was not in
his mind to affirm that a child of God can never under
any circumstances fall into sin, and bring condemna
tion upon himself ; nor does he teach that the religious
life of all the children of God must needs be uniform
in light and power. He elsewhere contemplates the
case of a "brother sinning a sin not unto death" and
receiving life from God (v, 16), and he declares to his
little children (rsKvia), whom he would deter from sin,
that "if any man sin, we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the pro
pitiation for our sins" (ii, 1). He admonishes against
saying that "we have no sin," and "have not sinned,"
and says that "if we confess our sins, he is faithful and
righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness" (i, 8-10). We cannot sup
pose, therefore, that this apostle shut his eyes to the
great variety of human experiences, and intended to
maintain that the believer in Christ, once forgiven of
sin and "cleansed from all unrighteousness," could
never thereafter grieve the Spirit and lapse into sin
again. He simply does not entertain such questions
in his epistle, although, as we have just shown, he

Sanctifi cation. yj
recognizes a "propitiation for our sins" amply sufficient
to meet all special situations. His main contention is
the fundamental truth that fellowship with the Father
and with Jesus Christ is utterly inconsistent with the
doing of sin (noiibv rfjv dfiapriav, iii, 4).1 Whosoever
abideth and would continue to abide in the blessed
heavenly fellowship does not, must not, cannot commit
sin. His sins are supposed to be sent away (dipirifu),
and his spiritual nature cleansed from all unrighteous
ness, and in possession of a blessed hope he "purifieth
himself, even as God is pure" (iii, 3; comp. 2 Cor.
vii, 1).
Such purification from sin is clearly indicated in the
scriptural use of the words for sanctification and holi
ness (dyidfa; dyiaopog ; dymavvn ; 6atog; Sanctlnoation and
baiorrjg). All who have the life in Christ holiness-
are regarded as sanctified (Acts xx, 32; xxvi, 18),
that is, set apart and consecrated to a holy purpose in
life.2 And thus in Old Testament thought the Sabbath
day, the place of worship, the priests, and the people
Israel were spoken of as sanctified (t)Tp). But in the
New Testament, as applied to believers in Christ, the
1 Verse 6 affirms that "whosoever ahideth in him sinneth not; whoso
ever sinneth hath not seen him, neither knoweth him" (mix i&pouuv avrbv
ovSt HyvwKEV avTov). The perfect tense here employed contemplates, as
in ii, 3, the condition described as continuing into the present. It refers
to the prevailing character and habit of "every one that sinneth" (7rac
6 atiaprdvuv). This habitual sinner is not thought of as a man who has
suddenly fallen and turned temporarily from the light, hut one who
has not seen and does not know the Lord Jesus. To all such the Lord
himself can also say, as in Matt, vii, 23, "I never knew you."
2 Compare the like use of the word in = Tim. ii, 21; Heb. ii, 11; x,
10, 14.

78 The New and Living Way.
word sanctify means not only a consecration to a holy
purpose but also an inner purifying of the soul. Both
ideas may be included in the prayer of Jesus that his
disciples might be sanctified in the truth (John xvii,
17). According to Eph. v, 25-27, "Christ loved the
Church, and gave himself up for her, that he might
sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of
water in the word, that he might present the Church to
himself as a glorious thing, not having spot or wrinkle
or any such, but that she should be holy and without
blemish." Here obviously the idea of cleansing from
all defilement is the prominent thought, and so it is
again in the somewhat similar language of 1 Thess.
v, 23 : "The God of peace himself sanctify you wholly;
and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved
entire, without blame, in the presence of our Lord
Jesus Christ." Such sanctification is a work of the
Holy Spirit (2 Thess. ii, 13; 1 Pet. i, 2), and consists
in personal holiness of heart and life. The heart of
every one who would "increase and abound in love" is
to be "established unblamable in holiness before our
God and Father in the presence of our Lord Jesus with
all his holy ones" (1 Thess. iii, 13). The believer must
"present his members as servants to righteousness unto
sanctification" (Rom. vi, 19; comp. verse 22), and "ab
stain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul"
(1 Pet. ii, 11). All this is confirmed by the words of
1 Thess. iv, 3-7: "This is the will of God, even your
sanctification, that ye abstain from fornication ; that
each one of you know how to possess himself of his

Holiness. 79
own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the pas
sion of lust. . . . For God called us not for un-
cleanness, but in sanctification." The apostle appeals
to his own holy, righteous, and blameless behavior as
an example (1 Thess. ii, 10), and in 2 Cor. vii, 1, he
admonishes and exhorts in the following strong and
significant words : "Having these promises, beloved, let
us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and
spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." All
this accords with the doctrine of "the new man," al
ready described (above, p. 54), "who after God has
been created in righteousness and holiness of truth"
(Eph. iv, 24), and it fits the lofty thought of this same
epistle that God "chose us in Christ before the founda
tion of the world, that we should be holy and without
blemish before him in love" (i, 4). All these scriptures
imply a thorough clearance from the old sinful life, and
the attainment of a state of personal purity. It in
volves the cultivation and growth of positive virtues,
as we shall see; but the main thought in the Spirit's
work of "cleansing from all unrighteousness" is rather
an ideal of release from the old bondage of the flesh ;
a freedom from the dominion of sin. This emancipation
may not be the work of a few days. The struggle may
be a long one. The "cleansing from all defilement of
flesh and spirit" may require repeated washings from
above. And yet, in some hearts, this great work may
be speedily accomplished. Habits, temperament, and
training may condition many of the operations of the
Spirit.

80 The New and Living Way.
In order, then, that the inner cleansing of the sancti
fication be genuine and permanent, there must be along
with it the positive knowledge and practice of right
eousness. A holy life is impossible apart
Righteousness. .....
from a righteous life, and it is important
that our concept of righteousness be accurate and
exalted. "Except your righteousness (diKaioavvrj) be
something more than that of the scribes and Pharisees,
ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven."
If one may not even enter the kingdom without such
superior righteousness, much less can he be reckoned
great in the kingdom of heaven without the true knowl
edge and possession of what Christ means by righteous
ness. He means no mere outward observance of the
letter of the law; no Pharisaic show of worship, and
fasting, and sacrificing at the temple; no saying and
doing not (Matt, xxiii, 3). No tithing of small herbs,
nor even of all one's income (Luke xviii, 12), can be
made a substitute for those "weightier matters of the
law, justice, and mercy, and faith" (Matt, xxiii, 23).
A cleansing of the outside, while the heart is ready for
extortion and excess, is like the whited
Christ's teaching. sepulcher, "outwardly beautiful, but in
wardly full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanli-
ness" (verses 25-28) . The righteousness of the king
dom of heaven sees in the old prohibition of murder a
sblemn admonition for "every one who is angry with
his brother" (Matt, v, 21, 22; comp. 1 John iii, 15).
Not only the act of adultery is a violation of the law,
"but every one that looketh on a woman to lust after

Personal Righteousness. 8i
her hath committed adultery already with her in his
heart" (Matt, v, 28). The old law of retaliation is
for the individual supplanted by the higher law of non-
resistance of evil, doing good for evil, loving your
enemies and praying for your persecutors (verses
38-45). True brotherly love must not grow cold upon
forgiving an offender seven times ; it will not thus set
a limit to its pure affection, not even "until seventy
times seven" (Matt, xviii, 22) ; and such forgiveness
must come freely "from the heart" (verse 35). For,
according to the old proverb, "as one thinks in his soul,
so is he" (Prov. xxiii, 7). The true, pure inner feeling
and purpose give character to the outward act. "The
good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth
forth that which is good" (Luke vi, 45), and God
knows the hearts of all men (Luke xvi, 15), and the
righteousness which endures his gaze must be no out
ward show, but the genuine feeling and purpose of the
soul. The doctrine of righteousness in the Epistle of James
is in substantial agreement with the teaching of Jesus.
"The wrath of man works not the Doctrine of James.
righteousness of God" (i, 20), that is,
the kind of righteousness which God wills, and which
will be acceptable in his sight. The attainment of such
righteousness requires the "putting away of all filthiness
and overflowing of wickedness." It is the outgrowth
of "the implanted word, which is able to save the soul."
The man who exemplifies this righteousness is a faith
ful doer, not a forgetful hearer of the word of truth
6

82 The New and Living Way.
by which he was brought forth into the light and life
of God (comp. verse 18). "He that looketh into the
perfect law, the law of liberty, and so continueth, be
ing not a hearer that forgetteth, but a doer that work-
eth, this man shall be blessed in his doing" (verse 25).
This perfect law of liberty is in some sense identical
with the "word of truth" (verse 18), but that "word"
is in the writer's thought no other than the law and the
prophets as summed up, explained, and enhanced in the
teaching of Jesus. It embodies the "royal law accord
ing to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself" (ii, 8). The doing of it is a fulfilling (reXelv,
nXrjpibaai) of the law in the present ethical sense, even
as Jesus did (comp. Matt, v, 17) ; a consummation of
the inmost ideals of moral excellence. It is a perfect
law, inasmuch as it is, like the word of God's holiest
revelations, a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. It allows no stumbling even in one thing;
"for whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet
stumble in one (commandment), has become guilty of
all" (ii, 10). It is a law of liberty to the man who
looks into its real spiritual nature, sees the blessedness
of doing its commandments from a pure heart, and
obeys out of unfeigned love of the truth. In perfect
love and obedience of this sort of law the soul enjoys
its highest freedom. The righteousness of this law is
manifest in the bridling of the tongue (i, 26), in visit
ing the fatherless and widows in their affliction (27),
in showing one's faith by his works (ii, 14-26), and
in exercising the heavenly wisdom which is "pure,

Christian Perfection. 83
peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy
and good fruits, without variance, without hypocrisy.
And the fruit of (such) righteousness is sown in
peace for them that make peace" (iii, 17, 18). Such
a personal righteousness is no empty appearance of
piety, like "the leaven of the Pharisees" (Luke xii, 1),
but a deep inworking principle of obedience to the
truth. Similarly in the First Epistle of Peter the life of
holiness is inseparable from devout obedience to the
word of truth. The "sanctification of Doctrine of First
the Spirit" operates "unto obedience Peter-
and sprinkling of the blood of Christ" (i, 2). Chris
tians are regarded "as children of obedience," who are
to be "holy in all manner of living" (i, 14, 15). They
are to "purify their souls in the obedience of the truth
unto unfeigned brotherly love, loving one another
from the heart fervently" (i, 22), and showing forth
"the excellencies (dperdg, virtues, powers, perfections)
of him who called you out of darkness into his mar
velous light" (ii, 9). It is blessed to "suffer for right
eousness' sake," and to "have a good conscience" and a
"good manner of life in Christ" (iii, 14, 16). Having
died unto sin, we should, after the example of Christ,
live unto righteousness (ii, 24).
This doctrine of a loving obedience to the truth and
a personal uprightness of life is common to all the
New Testament writings, but may be christ!an perfec.
further enforced and illustrated by the tlon'
ideals of perfection in the excellencies of Christian

84 The New and Living Way.
character which meet us here and there. It almost
startles us to find Jesus saying, "Ye shall be perfect as
your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt, v, 48). But
should it be more remarkable than the commandment,
"Sanctify yourselves, and be ye holy, for I am holy"?
(Lev. xi, 44; xix, 2; xx, 7, 26; xxi, 8; 1 Pet. i, 16.)
We are admonished by Zophar that we cannot "find
out the Almighty to perfection" (Job xi, 7), and it
would be preposterous in a finite being to presume to
equal the perfections of the Infinite. But we may feel
assured that the saying of Jesus involves no such un
reasonable presumption. There is a perfection predi
cable of the highest possible Christian life, and its
noblest ideals are to be attained by an imitation of God.
No defective model is offered by Christ, but rather that
of the heavenly Father who is good, and true, and
righteous altogether : "As you have a perfect heavenly
Father, who sends rain on the just and the unjust, imi
tate him, love as he loves, that you may be true sons
of your Father who is in heaven, perfect sons as he is
a perfect Father." The young man who thought he
had observed all the commandments lacked something
yet. "Jesus said unto him, If thou wouldst be perfect
(reXeiog), go, sell thy possessions, and give to the poor,
and thou shalt have treasure in heaven ; and come fol
low me" (Matt, xix, 21). Here is the ideal of an at
tainable perfection, and it involves a perfect surrender
of all things that would hinder the complete following
of Christ. James employs similar language at the be
ginning of his epistle (i, 4) : "Let patience have its

Teaching of Paul. 85
perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, lacking
in nothing." The ideal here presented to the mind is
a practicable attainment. Every possible grace and
virtue is to be acquired, and so a completeness of char
acter, that is not wanting in any good thing, will fol
low as a blessed consummation. The fact that this
ideal is not realized in numerous examples is no proof
that the perfection contemplated is unattainable. This
very practical "servant of God and of the Lord Jesus
Christ" reveals no symptom of fanaticism, and has no
liking for a religion or a faith that does not verify it
self by works. "In many things," he says (iii, 2), "we
all stumble." But he immediately adds, "If any stum-
bleth not in word, the same is a perfect man, able to
bridle the whole body also."
Paul does not scruple to speak of perfection as the
goal of Christian life, although with him it is mainly
a future consummation. He expresses r Teaching of Paul.
his confidence that he who began a
good work in them would perfect it until the day of
Jesus Christ." He prays that their "love may abound
yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment,"
and that they may be "filled with the fruits of right
eousness" (Phil, i, 6, 9, 11). He himself disclaims any
assumption of having "already obtained" his highest
ideal of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, and
of conformity to his death, for that can be consum
mated only in the resurrection ; but he says : "One
thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and
stretching forward to the things which are before, I

86 The New and Living Way.
press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus." The goal (aiumog, thing
looked at) toward which he pressed on was an object
in the distance on which his eye was steadily fixed,
and upon reaching which he expected to obtain the re
ward of his heavenly calling in Christ. The imagery
employed is substantially the same as that ofi Cor.
ix, 24-26, and the thought is of the running a race in
the games in which the successful runner receives the
prize of a crown. The apostle conceived himself en
gaged in such a contest, and, having "finished his
course," he would in due time receive "the crown of
righteousness" (2 Tim. iv, 7, 8). Nevertheless, though
the goal be yet in the distance, he speaks in Phil, iii, 15
(the verse immediately following the statement of his
"pressing on toward the goal") of himself and of those
who share his feeling and opinion as being in some
sense "perfect," and he exhorts the Philippian brethren
to imitate him as an example of Christian conduct.
He admonishes them that their citizenship (noXiTevfia)
is in heaven (iii, 20), and further on adds (iv, 8, 9) :
"Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever
things are honorable, whatever things are just, what
ever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, what
ever things are of good report; if there be any virtue
and if there be any praise, think on these things ; what
things also ye learned and received and heard and saw
in me, these things do ; and the God of peace shall be
with you." Surely, the constant meditation and prac
tice of such things must needs lead to a high state of

Christian Virtues. 87
Christian perfection. The apostle elsewhere calls those
who are mature in power and penetration of mind per
fect (reXeioi, full-grown; 1 Cor. ii, 6; xiv, 20). It is
his ambition and hope to "present every man perfect in
Christ," and with that glorious end in view he labors
and struggles with all the power which Christ supplies
(Col. i, 28, 29). It is the prayer of all the Christian
brotherhood that they "may stand perfect and fully as
sured in all the will of God" (Col. iv, 12). From all
this it appears that with Paul the goal of Christian per
fection is at the end of the Christian race. In that day
the persevering saint receives his crown, "the prize
of his high calling." Meantime we only know in part ;
we see in a mirror darkly; "but when that which is
perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done
away" (1 Cor. xiii, 10). Love, however, is "the bond
of perfectness" (Col. iii, 14), the greatest of all vir
tues, and is a present and abiding possession of the
Christian heart, and he who along with this priceless
possession has its associate virtues, may be called per
fect, complete, full-grown.
This relative perfection in Christian excellency is to
be further considered in the light of those specific vir
tues which altogether make up the completeness of full-
grown Christian character. In Gal. v, „ . ^.
D Christian virtues.
22, 23, we have a noteworthy list of
these graces of character set over against an extensive
enumeration of "the works of the flesh," and they are
called "the fruit of the Spirit." We observe that the
word "fruit" is in the singular (6 icapndg) as if to sug-

88 The New and Living Way.
gest that all the virtues named are one combined and
vitally inseparable product of the Holy Spirit, like one
bunch or mass of fragrant flowers. "The fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control." The
possession of all these holy and godlike qualities fills
out the ideal of being perfect as our heavenly Father
is perfect, and they are represented here as living fruit
in contrast with dead works of the flesh. In Eph. v,
8-1 1, we have a conception of these Christian qualities
as "the fruit of the light." The passage reads: "Ye
were once darkness, but now light in the Lord: walk
as children of light (for the fruit of the light is in all
goodness and righteousness and truth), proving what
is well-pleasing unto the Lord ; and have no fellowship
with the unfruitful works of darkness." The fruit of
the light must needs be what will bear close inspection
without any fear of damaging exposure. In the Epistle
to the Philippians sincerity and blamelessness of life
are commended along with abounding love and knowl
edge, and a "being filled with fruit of righteousness"
(i, 9-1 1 ) ; also steadfastness, and "progress and joy of
the faith" (i, 25). The ideal excellencies enumerated
in iv, 8, are to be exhibited along with the mind which
was in Christ Jesus, the loftiest possible example of
brotherly love and unselfish humility (ii, 2-8). The
true children of God are thus "blameless and harmless,
without blemish, in the midst of a crooked and perverse
generation, among whom they appear as luminaries in
the world" (ii, 15).

Perfect Love. 89
If we were to collect all the passages which mention
and extol the graces of Christian character, we might
transcribe a large portion of the New
0 r Love.
Testament. But of all the virtues love
is by far the greatest. It is the root and fountain of all
excellencies in personal life and character. It is "the
bond of perfection" (Col. iii, 14), the heavenly girdle
in which all other excellencies unite and are banded
together unto perfection. It is the essential element and
condition of all healthy development in spiritual life.
The first and greatest of all the commandments, be
cause it is the sum of all divine law and revelation, is
this, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
And a second like unto it is this, Thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself" (Matt, xxii, 37; comp. Luke x,
27; Deut. vi, 5; x, 12; xi, 13; Lev. xix, 18). This is
that "perfect love," which, according to 1 John iv,
16-19, gives boldness in the day of judgment, and casts
out fear and tormenting punishment. For "God is
love; and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and
God abideth in him." To him. who thus abides, "Love
your enemies" is not a hard commandment. Faith
works through love (Gal. v, 6), and the love of God
is perfected in him who keeps his word (1 John ii, 5).
In Eph. iii, 14-19, we note the remarkable prayer that
"the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on
earth is named, would grant you, according to the
riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power
through his Spirit in the inward man, that Christ may

90 The New and Living Way.
dwell-in your hearts through faith, in love being rooted
and grounded1 that ye may be strong to apprehend
with all the saints what is the breadth and length
and height and depth, and to know the love of
Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled
with all the fullness of God." Of all this perfection
in Christian faith and power and knowledge love is
the root and foundation and central bond, and here
with agrees the exhortation of v, i, 2, "Be ye there
fore imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk
in love, even as Christ also loved you." Such love
begets and strengthens the love of neighbor and
brethren. So far as inward feelings and outward acts may
exhibit perfection of Christian character, we find per
haps the most magnificent portraiture of love in I Cor.
xiii. All other gifts and powers are declared worth
less apart from love. Faith and hope command high
admiration, but love is greater still. "Love suffers
long, and is kind; love envies not; love vaunteth not
itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly,
seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account
of evil ; rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth
in the truth; covereth all things, believeth all things,
hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never
1 "The emphatically prefixed in love being rooted and grounded is
quite in keeping with the Pauline doctrine of the faith working through
love (Gal. v, 6; i Cor. xiii). Through the strengthening of their inner
man by means of the Spirit, through the dwelling of Christ in their
hearts, the readers are to become established in love, and, having been
established in love, are able to comprehend the greatness of the love of
Christ." — Meyer, Critical and Exegetical Handbook, in loco.

Continual Growth. 91
faileth" (verses 4-"8). In this forcible description the
word love is obviously employed by way of synecdoche
for the person in whom this heavenly grace abides,
and no comment is needed to make the portrayal more
impressive or more intelligible.
The high and holy attainments in spiritual life thus
far outlined are experiences that require continual cul-
tivation. The "Power from on high" Continual cultWa.
which originates the new life is indis- tlon and growth-
pensable in all the stages and forms of its develop
ment, and we may here apply the words of the psalmist
in their fullest possibility of meaning: "Jehovah God
is a sun and a shield: Jehovah will give grace and
glory : no good thing will he withhold from them that
walk uprightly" (Psa. lxxxiv, 11). His continuous
cooperation may therefore be counted on as matter of
course. But the Holy Spirit himself can do no perfect
work in the heart of man unless there be deep in that
heart a "hunger and thirst after righteousness" (Matt.
v, 6), and a faithful use of every means available for
discipline and "instruction in righteousness" (2 Tim.
iii, 16). Substantial progress can be made only in con
scientious fidelity to the truth, and the pure and earnest
heart will be on the constant search for truth. It will
seek the wisdom which cometh from above and be not
only willing but anxious to be taught. The apostle re
joiced in "the order and steadfastness of the faith in
Christ" which the Colossians showed, and he wrote
them these significant words of counsel : "As therefore
ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,

92 The New and Living Way.
rooted and builded up in him, and established in your
faith, even as ye were taught, abounding in it with
thanksgiving" (Col. ii, 5-7). By such a steadfast
course of life and training one comes to beautiful ma
turity and strength of Christian character. The babe
in Christ may "be holy and without blemish before
him in love/' but strength, wisdom, and maturity in
virtues come through the manifold discipline of a pro
tracted life.
The conflict with evil, the sufferings and persecu
tions to which the Christian confessor is often subject
ed, the battle for the right, the constant struggle to
propagate the Gospel, severe personal self-denial, the
increasing knowledge of God and of Christ and of
holy things which comes from diligent
Discipline of trial. J °
study of the truth — these all have much
to do in developing the virtues- of godliness and in
strengthening the heart in righteousness. Jesus fore
warned his disciples that the world would hate and
persecute them (John xv, 18-20; xvi, 33), but he
prayed, not that they might be taken out of the world,
but rather that they might be kept from the evil (xvii,
15). Exposure to severe trial puts one's faith to the
test, and affords occasions of noblest spiritual triumph.
Hence the words of James: "Count it all joy, my
brethren, when ye fall into manifold trials, knowing
that the proof of your faith worketh patience. And
let patience have its perfect work, that ye may be per
fect and entire, lacking in nothing. Blessed is the man
that endureth trial; for when he has been approved

Discipline of Trial. 93
(doKifiog, proved, tested), he shall receive the crown of
life" (James i, 2-4, 12). Similarly Peter: "Now for
a little time, if need be, ye have been put to grief in
manifold trials, that the proof of your faith, more
precious than gold that perishes though it is proved by
fire, might be found unto praise, glory, and honor in
the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. i, 6, 7). Again
in iv, 12, 13 : "Beloved, think it not strange concern
ing the fiery trial among you, which cometh upon you
to prove you, as though a strange thing happened unto
you ; but inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's suf
ferings, rejoice, that also in the revelation of his glory
ye may rejoice with exceeding joy." Paul speaks of
the churches of Macedonia, "how that in much proof
of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep
poverty abounded unto the riches of their singleness
of heart," as seen in their ready and liberal contribu
tions (2 Cor. viii, 2). Abraham's faith was most re
markably tested in his offering of Isaac ; and the heroes
of faith, "of whom the world was not worthy," "had
trial of mockings and scourgings and bonds and im
prisonment" (Heb. xi, 33-38). Such bitter trial, when
one even "resisteth unto blood, striving against sin,"
serves like paternal chastisement to discipline the sons
of God, and make them "partakers of his holiness"
(xii, 4-11). All such chastening seems grievous at the
time, "yet afterward it yields peaceable fruit to them
that have been exercised thereby, even the fruit of right
eousness." These teachings are further enhanced by
the suggestions of the apocalyptic vision of the great

94 The New and Living Way.
multitude "coming out of the great tribulation, wash
ing their robes and making them white in the blood
of the Lamb" (Rev. vii, 9-17). Thus all trials, all
spiritual discipline, all chastisements of the heavenly
Father, and all devout personal activity which these
may occasion serve to strengthen the moral character,
and to develop the graces of Christian maturity and
perfection. "Our light affliction, which is for the mo
ment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an
eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor. iv, 17). The moral
value of affliction was not unknown to the psalmist,
"It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I
might learn thy statutes" (cxix, 71).
We have thus shown that real growth and discipline
in spiritual life, according to the Scriptures, can be no
one-sided experience. And no one word appears suffi
cient to designate the manifold operations and results
of this spiritual development. Not even the terms
sanctification, holiness, and perfection cover the entire
portraiture of that "image of the heavenly" which is
the ideal of the blameless children of God. We must
recognize the elements of growth, the putting away of
all impurity of flesh and spirit, the essential antagonism
of a life of sin and the regenerate life, the positive facts
of sanctification, holiness, and righteousness, the pos
session of all Christian virtues, and of perfect love that
casts out fear. Nor must we fail to see how all the holy
virtues are cultivated by the discipline of trial in order
that we may be partakers of the holiness of God and
so be without blame before him in love. This broad,

Manifold Possibilities. 95
full, uplifting view of the manifold possibilities of
spiritual life in Christ leaves no room for doubtful and
confusing disputations, and all these elements of per
fection in the Christian life receive about equal promi
nence in the teachings of the New Testament.

96 The New and Living Way.

CHAPTER VIII.
MEANS AND METHODS OF PROMOTING SPIRITUAL
LIFE.
In connection with such growth and discipline as
we have described in the foregoing pages we notice
Fellowship of the furtner triose means and methods which
church. jjave Deen divineiy sanctioned for the
purpose of cultivating man's spiritual life, and which
have to do directly with personal experiences in re
ligious life. And first of all we emphasize the impor
tance of the fellowship of the pure and good. The true
religious life, according to the scriptural ideal, is best
promoted in connection with societies and communities
bound together by a common faith and practice. In
such a fellowship and communion of the sanctified we
perceive the true ideal of the Christian Church. To
such a company it may be said with the greatest solem
nity, "Ye are fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the
household of God, being built upon the foundation of
the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being
the chief corner stone ; in whom each several building,
fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the
Lord; in whom ye also are builded together for a
habitation of God in the Spirit" (Eph. ii, 19-22). Here
is a conception of the Church as comprehensive as it is
profound. The saints are citizens of one great com-

God's Household. 97
monwealth1 having heavenly interests and aims (comp.
Phil, iii, 20), and hence called family-relations (oheloi,
members of the household) of God. Then the thought
passes by a natural transition from the idea of a house
hold to that of the house as a great structure builded
by God, of which Jesus Christ himself is the chief
corner stone, and with the laying of which the apostles
and prophets of the New Testament were identified."
This great building of God (comp. 1 Cor. iii, 9) is con
tinually increasing and is destined to "grow into a holy
temple (vaog, sanctuary) in the Lord," embracing in
its communion all the members of God's household in
all the world and for all time ; but as a part and parcel
of this magnificent structure "each several building."8
every distinct congregation, or local church, like that
at Ephesus or at Corinth, "is builded together .for a
habitation of God in the Spirit." Each individual of
this "household of the faith" (Gal. vi, 10) is a child
of God, born from above, and receiving the spirit of
adoption, as explained above (pp. 62-64). The great
1 Compare the phrase "commonwealth of Israel" in verse 12.
s See on this subject my Biblical Hermeneutics, pp. 123-127.
8 The Greek naaa OLKodofify, which is the best authenticated reading
here, cannot be properly rendered the whole building, which would re
quire the article, •naaa y oiKodofty. The apostle means that every build
ing which consists of the members of any distinct community, is closely
joined together with all others of its kind, and thus grows into the one
great temple of God. Thus "each several building" here means, as
J. A. Beet says, the "various parts of the one great structure. Such
were the various churches, Jewish or Gentile. So Matt, xxiv, 1, the
buildings of the temple; that is, the various parts of the temple at
Jerusalem. Frequently a great building is begun at different points;
and in the earlier stages its parts seem to be independent erections; but
as it advances all are united into one whole. So there were in Paul's
day, as now, various churches." — Commentary on Ephesians, in loco.
1

'98 The New and Living Way.
practical purpose of this churchly fellowship is edifica
tion in Christian life and truth. In this same Epistle
to the Ephesians (iv, 11-16) we find a similar concept
of the Church as a great organism, "the body of
Christ," and the different members of this body are
knit together and builded up, and thus individually and
collectively make the increase of the body.1 The vari
ous ministers and ministries of the Church are
said to be given "for the perfecting of the saints,
unto the building up of the body of Christ: till
we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and
of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-
grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ: that we may be no longer chil
dren, tossed to and fro and carried about with every
wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness,
after the wiles of error; but speaking truth in love,
may grow up in all things into him, which is the head,
even Christ ; from whom all the body fitly framed and
knit together through that which every joint supplieth,
according to the working in due measure of each sev
eral part, maketh the increase of the body unto the
building up of itself in love."
This scripture especially declares the great aim of
the ministries of the Church. Apostles, prophets, evan-
pesign of an &elists» Pastors, and teachers serve at
tfhurchiy minis- least a sixfold purpose: (1) a correct-
 mg and training that will overcome the
'One may profitably compare the figure of the vine and its branches
in John xv, 1-8.

Manifold Ministries. 99
ignorance, instability, and errors of childhood; (2) the
perfecting of the saints for holy service; (3) the pro
motion of unity in faith and knowledge ; (4) the exhi
bition of truth and love; (5) due attention to each
several part of the body; (6) the increase of the body
as a whole. The positive value of this holy ministra
tion for the edification of the children of God is so ap
parent as to call for no extended discussion. In 1 Cor.
xii, 4-7, the apostle. teaches that "there are diversities
of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are diversities
of ministrations, and the same Lord. And there are
diversities of working's, but the same God, who work-
eth all things in all. But to each one is given the mani
festation of the Spirit to profit withal." The entire
chapter is given to explanations of this diversity of
gifts and ministrations. All believers are in one Spirit
baptized into one body of Christ, and all are made to
drink of one Spirit. Each particular member needs the
cooperation of every other member, and so apostles,
prophets, teachers, powers, gifts of healings, helps,
governments, kinds of tongues are set in the Church
for the edification of the whole body. The same lesson
is taught by means of the same figure in Rom. xii, 4-8.
The Church conceived as the body of Christ and per
fected in heavenly beauty and excellence is in itself a
glorious ideal, "not having spot or wrinkle or any
such thing" (Eph. v, 27), but in the actual conditions
of its development and working in this world, it is not
an end in itself, but rather a means to an end. As our
Lord said of the Sabbath (Mark ii, 27) so we may say

ioo The New and Living Way.
of the Church, it was made for man and not man for it.
The same is true of all sacred institutions. They exist
for the highest culture and advantage of the children
of God. The Church is the congregation and com
munion of those who are "called to be saints" (Rom.
i, 7),1 and the fellowship which the members enjoy
together, the solemn vows they take, the worship they
observe, the counsels and instruction they give and
receive, the "speaking one to another in psalms and
hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody
with the heart to the Lord and giving thanks always
for all things" (Eph. v, 19, 20; comp. Col. iii, 16), and
all the varied ministries of apostles and prophets and
teachers are so many direct means of cultivating the
religious spirit, and strengthening every element of
Christian character.
The sanctity of this churchly fellowship and the
solemnity of the bonds which knit all the members of
this body to one another are perpetually
The sacraments. evidenced by the two sacred rites of
Baptism and the Lord's Supper. These, being regard
ed as signs and seals of a holy covenant relationship
before God, are commonly called sacraments, because
they involve solemn obligations, like the taking of an
oath of allegiance and fidelity. Various forms and
ideals of baptism were current among the Jewish peo
ple before the time of Christ. The rite took on peculiar
solemnity in connection with the ministry of John, the
1 On the word imihjoia, church, see my Biblical Hermeneutics, pp.
74. 75-

Baptism. ioi
forerunner of Jesus, and the whole teaching and work
of that remarkable prophet is called "the baptism of
John" (Matt, xxi, 25; Mark xi, 30; Luke vii, 29; xx,
4 ; Acts i, 22 ; xviii, 25 ; xix, 3) , and "the baptism which
John preached" (Acts x, 37). It is also called "the
baptism of repentance unto remission of sins" (Mark
i, 4; Luke iii, 3). John baptized great multitudes of
the people, who confessed their sins, recognized John
as a prophet, and "were willing for a season to rejoice
in his light" (John v, 35). But the steadfast testimony
of John was that he himself was but a voice in the
wilderness to make ready the way of the Lord, and to
baptize with water unto repentance; but there was a
mightier one coming after him who should baptize with
the Holy Spirit. Jesus himself did not perform the
ceremony of baptism with water, but according to John
iv, 1, 2, his disciples made and baptized more converts
than John. This they would not have been likely to do
without his sanction, although, it is noticeable that not
a word is said about it in the Synoptic records of his
appointing and sending forth the twelve to preach the
Gospel of the new kingdom (Mark iii, 13-15 ; vi, 7-13;
Matt, x, 1-15; Luke vi, 12-19; ix> I_6; x, 1-16). In
the commission recorded in Matt, xxviii, 19, and Mark
xvi, 15, 16/ however, baptism receives distinctive men-
1 The last-named passage occurs in the appendix to Mark's Gospel, is
of uncertain origin, and certainly no part of the original Gospel accord
ing to Mark. See notes to the critical editions of the Greek Testament
by Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford, Westcott and Hort. Inasmuch, also,
as no use of the trinitarian formula for baptism occurs elsewhere in the
New Testament, and the common method of reference in the Acts of the
Apostles is to baptism "into the name of the Lord Jesus" (ii, 38; viii,

102 The New and Living Way.
tion, and the Acts of the Apostles show an apparently
uniform practice of baptizing all Chris-
Christian baptism. . . r „• „„ j
tian converts upon confession of sin and
of belief in Jesus the Christ (ii, 38, 41 ; viii, 12, 38; ix,
18 ; x, 48 ; xvi, 1 5, 33 ; xviii, 8 ; xix, 5 ) . A saving sig
nificance seems to be given to the water of baptism in
1 Pet. iii, 21, where it is called "an antitype" of the
water of the flood, by means of which Noah and his
family were saved. But the writer takes pains to say
that the baptism of which he speaks is "not a putting
away of the filth of the flesh, but a question of good
conscience toward God." No ritual washing in water
can save a soul from sin, and baptism, in this text as
in a number of other places, is best understood of that
inner washing and purification of which the outward
rite is only a symbolic sign. So, too, in those passages
in the Pauline epistles where the main reference is to
the death unto sin and the newness of life which the
believer realizes in Christ, the allusion to baptism is
metaphorical, the formal ceremony being mentioned as
the sign and symbol of the work of grace in the soul.
"As many as were baptized into Christ put on Christ"
(Gal. iii, 27). "In one Spirit we were all baptized into
one body" (1 Cor. xii, 13). "All we who were bap-
16; x, 48; xix, s), it is believed by some scholars that the language of
Matt, xxviii, 19, is not an exact version of the words of Jesus himself,
but a clothing of them in the words of a formula which came into early
use in the Church. Similarly, the doxology of the Lord's Prayer in
Matt, vi, 13, came to be interpolated, probably, from the common prev
alence of such formulas in acts of public worship. But these facts do
not in the least take from the value of the prayer, or from the nature
and purpose of the rite of baptism.

Baptism. 103
tized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.
We were buried with him through baptism into death"
(Rom. vi, 3, 4; comp. Col. ii, 12). As a suggestive
symbol of this profound conception of entrance into
the new life of Christ the rite of baptism in water was
divinely significant in the mind of Paul ; but apart from
the spiritual reality of which it is the sign the ceremony
in itself would be an empty form. The "one baptism"
referred to in Eph. iv, 5, is the one genuine baptism
"into Christ," and so necessarily supposes the baptism
of the Holy Spirit, for no immersion of the body in
water, nor any pouring or sprinkling of clean water on
the body, can effect a change of heart, or bring the soul
into fellowship with Jesus. Paul's mystic nature ap
prehended the deep spiritual truth figured in baptism,
but he was so far from exalting this rite above the
ministry of the word, that he declares that Christ sent
him "not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel" ( 1 Cor.
i> 17)-
The rite of baptism has been regarded as in some
sense taking the place of the older rite of circumcision.
Abraham "received the sign of circumcision, a seal of
the righteousness of the faith which he had while he
was in uncircumcision" (Rom. iv, 11 ; comp. Gen. xvii,
10, 11), and the ceremony obtained formal recognition
in the Mosaic legislation (Exod. xii, 48; Lev. xii, 3).
It was also conceived as a symbol of the purification of
the heart before God (Deut. x, 16 ; xxx, 6 ; Jer. iv, 4 ;
Rom. ii, 29). So far, therefore, as both these rites
symbolize heart-purity, and are signs and seals of a

104 The New and Living Way.
covenant relation, and tokens of formal union with the
people of God, they serve to illustrate each other. But
the older rite of circumcision has been abrogated by the
Gospel of Christ, and all the purpose it may have
served as the sign and seal of covenant relations and
of sanctification of heart is now met by the simpler and
more suitable rite of baptism in water. Specific con
firmation of this is, perhaps, to be recognized in the
language of Col. ii, n, 12: "Ye were circumcised with
a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off
the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ;
having been buried with him in baptism, wherein ye
were also raised with him through faith in the working
of God, who raised him from the dead." The deep
spiritual experience expressed by these figures of death
and resurrection in Christ supersedes all the carnal
ordinances of Judaism. The rite of baptism has re
ceived almost universal recognition in the Christian
Church, and even without the authority of a specific
commandment of the Lord, would be a beautiful and
appropriate form of public initiation into the covenants
and fellowship of the children of God. But it is the
more impressive and binding by reason of the sanction
it received from Christ and the apostles, and the rever
ential observance it has commanded through all the
Christian centuries.1
1 The age of serious controversy over the questions of time, place,
subjects, and mode of baptism seems to be past. The allusions to im
mersion, affusion, and sprinkling are numerous in the Scriptures, and all
these modes of ceremonial purification have their sufficient warrant to
justify the personal choice of the individual believer. In the Teaching

Lord's Supper. 105
As the rite of baptism in the Christian Church takes
in some measure the place of circumcision in the
Jewish community, so the Lord's Supper
. „ „ . _ Lord's Supper.
(KvpiaKov demvov, 1 Cor. xi, 20) takes
the place of the Jewish feast of Passover. According
to Paul, Christ has become the Christian's paschal lamb
(1 Cor. v, 7), and in the mystic symbolism of the
Lord's Supper the believer signifies in a formal way
the vital union he enjoys in Christ. This blessed union
is forcibly expressed in the words of Gal. ii, 20 : "I am
crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live,
but Christ liveth in me : and that life which I now live
in the flesh I live in faith, which is in the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself up for me." In the
light of this confession we perceive the deep spiritual
import of 1 Cor. x, 16, 17: "The cup of blessing which
we bless, is it not a communion (noivwvia) of the blood
of Christ ? The bread which we break, is it not a com
munion of the body of Christ? — seeing that we, who
are many, are one bread, one body : for we all partake
of the one bread" (e« tov kvog dprov, share from the
one common bread), and so participate in the one com-
of the Twelve Apostles (chap, vii) it is commanded to baptize in run
ning water; but if that is not at hand, other water may be used, either
cold or warm. It is also permitted to perform the rite by pouring water
on the head. The practice of infant baptism is without any specific
commandment, and also without the record of any clear example, in the
New Testament, It has, however, been inferred from the mention of
household baptisms, and from the analogy of circumcision, and may
find a sufficient reason for itself in the obvious propriety of a public
and formal consecration of children to God. We hold, accordingly,
that, with or without scriptural warrant, it "is to be retained in the
Church,"

106 The New and Living Way.
mon life of one great organism. The spiritual unity
of all believers is. thus most plainly affirmed, as also the
fact that they all derive their spiritual subsistence from
one common source. Paul himself has given us the
earliest record we possess of the institution of the
Lord's Supper (see i Cor. xi, 23-26), and it agrees in
substance with that of the Synoptic Gospels (comp.
Matt, xxvi, 26-29 5 Mark xiv, 22-25 ; Luke xxii, 14-20).
The Passover was a memorial of Israel's deliverance
out of the bondage of Egypt; the Lord's Supper is a
memorial- of our redemption "with the precious blood
of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without
spot" (1 Pet. i, 19). In the observance of this sacred
rite the believer recognizes a divinely ordained means
of showing forth his faith in the atoning death of
Christ, and his abiding spiritual fellowship with him.
In the mystic way of stating it, he eats the flesh and
drinks the blood of the Son of man, and so comes to
have life in himself (John vi, 53).
The fellowship and communion, which are enhanced
by these symbolic signs of the new covenant, must
Ministry of the needs be very helpful to develop the
word' spiritual life of the children of God.
But far more important than the formal observance of
any outward rites is the faithful ministry of the word
of God, a preaching and teaching of the great eternal
truths which have to do with the moral and religious
nature of man. Many of these are treasured in the
Scriptures of the Old Testament, and, according to
Paul, "were written for our learning" (Rom. xv, 4).

Profitableness of Scripture. 107
"Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for
teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction
which is in righteousness ; that the man of God may be
complete, furnished completely unto every good work"
(2 Tim., iii, 16, 17). The law, the prophets, and the
psalms may therefore be profitably searched for re
ligious instruction and edification. The record of crea
tion in Genesis is full of richest suggestions touching
the personality and power of God. The promise to the
woman (iii, 15), and the symbols of judgment and
mercy in flaming sword and cherubim (iii, 24) are
prophetic of a divine purpose to redeem from sin and
death. The familiar story of Cain and Abel is freight
ed with moral lessons of imperishable value. The
covenant with Noah and its symbolic sign of the bow
in the cloud (ix, 9-17) illustrate the ancient ideals of
divine compassion and the doctrine of communion be
tween God and man.1 The various rites of the Levit-
ical worship, the vows and the purifications, the Sab
bath, the new moons, the sacred seasons and pilgrim
ages and fasts, the solemn assemblies and the sacrifices,
all witness to the religious culture of the Israelitish peo
ple, and along with the lively oracles of the prophets
and the spiritual songs of the psalmists furnish numer
ous lessons for, instruction in righteousness. Or if we
look for special illustrations from individual life and
character, we may cite the examples of Enoch, who
walked with God ; of Abraham, the friend of God ; of
1 See these lessons more fully indicated in my Biblical Apocalyptics,
pp. 38-67.

108 The New and Living Way.
Jacob and his wrestling with the angel ; of Joseph, the
honored servant of God ; of Moses, who spoke face to
face with Jehovah; of Samuel, the venerable prophet,
and David, the man after God's own heart. The psalms
and prophets abound with pious utterances which show
that at various periods of the Old Testament history
human hearts in Israel were led through remarkable
experiences of conviction of sin, repentance, faith, and
turning unto God. The symbolical rites and the laws
for personal purification inculcated the doctrine of
holiness, and the necessity of "clean hands and a pure
heart" in every one who would approach unto God
(Psa. xxiv, 3, 4).
In these and many other ways the scriptures of the
Old Testament afford instruction in divine truth; but
we find the teaching embodied in the New Testament a
still fuller and clearer revelation of the word of God.
Jesus himself is the supreme Teacher. His parable
of the sower and the seed illustrates the nature of the
"word of the kingdom," and how differently it is re
ceived by different human hearts. His parable of the
good seed and the tares is even more suggestive. "He
that soweth the good seed is the Son of man," and his
coming into the world was a going forth to sow. The
enemy sows evil seed, and the different sowings pro
duce "sons of the kingdom," and "sons of the evil one."
It is, therefore, a matter of the greatest possible mo
ment how we hear and what we hear and receive as the
word of God. The incarnation, life, teaching, ministry,
miracles, death and resurrection of Jesus are a revela-

Faithful Instruction. 109
tion of "the good word of God and the powers of the
age to come" (Heb. vi, 5). Every manifestation of
divine truth from the beginning is in some sense the
word of God, who has spoken at sundry times, in
diverse manners and by different portions (Heb. i, 1).
Thus the Gospel, the word of the kingdom, the truth
as it is in Jesus (Eph. iv, 21), who himself is "the way
and the truth and the life" (John xiv, 6)— even the
eternal word who was in the beginning with God and
was God — this word of God, so inexhaustible in depth
and fullness, is the light of the world, and a most effi
cient instrument for building up the child of God in
righteousness and in all virtues.
Great zeal in religious life may often display itself
without correct knowledge of the truth (Rom. x, 2),
and a fervent piety is often seen in persons who are
lamentably deficient in their acquaintance with "the
word of the kingdom." But such facts admonish us
the more that all sound and commendable Christian
growth must be according to faithful instruction in the
truth. The ancient priests of Israel were required to
teach the statutes which Jehovah had spoken (Lev. x,
10, 11). "The priest's lips should keep knowledge,
and they should seek the law at his mouth" (Mai. ii, 7).
Wise and useful proverbs were sought out and set in
order that men might "know wisdom and instruction,
and discern the words of understanding" (Prov. i, 2).
In accordance with the great Teacher's example and
counsels the apostles of the early Church gave great
attention to teaching (Acts ii, 42) and "the ministry of

no The New and Living Way.
the word" (vi, 4). "Paul and Barnabas tarried in An-
tioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord"
(xv, 35). Paul in founding the church of Corinth
"dwelt there a year and six months, teaching the word
of God among them" (xviii, n), and for the space of
three years he labored in Ephesus, "teaching publicly
and from house to house," and "shrinking not from de
claring the whole counsel of God" (xx, 20, 2"j). He
wrote the Corinthians about his supreme desire to profit
them by speaking to them "either by way of revelation,
or of knowledge, or of prophesying, or of teaching"
( 1 Cor. xiv, 6). He admonished the churches of Gala-
tia that he received the Gospel through revelation of
Jesus Christ, and made the same known unto them in
the ministrations of his divine apostleship, and he em
phasized the work of religious instruction by saying,
"Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto
him that teacheth in all good things" (Gal. vi, 6). He
wrote Timothy and Titus that the minister of Christ
must be "apt to teach," "speak the things which befit
the sound teaching," "hold to the faithful word which
is according to the teaching, that he may be able both
to exhort in the sound teaching, and to convince the
gainsayers" ( 1 Tim. iii, 2 ; 2 Tim. ii, 2 ; Titus i, 9 ; ii 2).
Luke wrote his gospel that Theophilus might be in
formed "concerning all that Jesus began both to do and
to teach,". and "might know the certainty concerning
the words wherein he had been instructed" (Acts i, I ;
Luke i, 4). And thus it appears that without diligent'
instruction and study in the truth of God there can be

Practical Godliness. i i i
no healthful growth "in the grace and knowledge of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Pet. iii, 18).
Numerous forms of religious activity may be viewed
as means of promoting spiritual life and cultivating
the virtues of Christian character. A Pl.3Ctical godli.
vigilant guarding of oneself against all ness-
kinds of evil is an essential accompaniment of the peti
tion, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from
the evil." Such vigilance should care to keep the body
from all defilement (1 Cor. vi, 19, 20; ix, 27; 2 Cor.
vii, 1 ; 1 Pet. ii, n); to practice faithfulness with an
erring brother (Matt, xviii, 15-17; Gal. vi, 1), to bear
the infirmities of the weak (Rom. xv, 1; Gal. vi, 2),
to give of one's means liberally and distribute readily
according as one is prospered ( 1 Cor. xvi, 2 ; 2 Cor.
vii, 2, 7; 1 Tim. vi, 18), to show love and hospitality
to the stranger (Heb. xiii, 2; Rom. xii, 13), to redeem
the time and observe diligence in business (Eph. v, 16;
Col. iv, 5 ; Prov. xxii, 29), and to be faithful in the dis
charge of all duties in the family and household (Eph.
v, 22-vi, 9; Col. iii, 18-iv, 1; 1 Pet. ii, 18-iii, 7). All
these and other like activities of practical godliness are
essential to a strong and beautiful development of the
Christian life ; but they are all implied in what has al
ready been said of the elements of growth and the cul
tivation of personal excellencies in Christian perfection.
But among all the means of grace the direct personal
approach of the soul of God in prayer
is preeminent. It is a sort of instinct
in the religious nature of man to "cry out unto the liv-

112 The New and Living Way.
ing God," and this fact is an evidence that we are the
offspring of God. The Scriptures abound with exam
ples of prayer, and no ritual of worship, no offering of
sacrifices, no intercession of priests ever seem to have
proved sufficient to release the individual heart from
the sense of need and of obligation to seek personally
unto God. Prayer in the broadest sense includes ac
knowledgment of past mercies and thanksgiving for
all divine favors, confession of sin and unworthiness,
supplication for all manner of temporal and spiritual
benefits, and ascription of praise to God. In the He
brew Psalter we meet with all these forms of prayer
and praise, and not a few of them are examples of the
deepest and most thorough searching of heart before
God. The supplications of Moses, as recorded in Exod.
xxxiii, 12-16, and Num. xi, n-15, are remarkable for
the boldness of their appeals to Jehovah. Abraham's
intercession for Sodom (Gen. xviii, 23-32) is no less
notable. The struggle of Jacob at Peniel is unsur
passed as a picture of prevailing prayer alone with God
(Gen. xxxii, 24-30). Jesus taught his disciples to pray
and enhanced his teaching by his own example. He
supplied a model prayer, and uttered parables to show
that men ought always to pray. "What man is. there,"
he argued, "who, if his son ask him for a loaf, will give
him a stone; or if he ask for a fish, will give him a
serpent ? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good
gifts unto your children, how much more shall your
Father who is in heaven give good things to them that
ask him?" Hence his own command: "Ask, and it

DocTRiNE of Prayer. 113
shall be given unto you ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock,
and it shall be opened unto you" (Matt, vii, 7-1 1 ; comp.
xviii, 19; xxi, 22; Mark xi, 24; Luke xxi, 36; John
xv, 7 ; xvi, 23, 24) . The apostolic teaching on this sub
ject is no less explicit. According to James, "if any of
you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all
liberally and upbraideth not ; and it shall be given him.
But let him ask in faith, nothing doubting." "Confess
your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that
ye may be healed. The supplication of a righteous man
availeth much in its working" (i, 5 ; v, 16). "Be ye of
sound mind," says Peter, "and be sober unto prayers"
(1 Pet. iv, 7). And John writes : "This is the boldness
which we have toward him, that, if we ask anything
according to his will, he heareth us" (1 John v, 14).
"Brethren, pray for us," says Paul; "pray without
ceasing; in nothing be anxious; but in everything by
prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your re
quests be made known unto God ; praying at all seasons
with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and
watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication
for all the saints" (1 Thess. v, 17, 25 ; Phil, iv, 6; Eph.
vi, 18).
From these scriptures and others of a like nature it
is evident that God is a living presence in the world.
He even notices the sparrow that falleth on the ground
and numbers the hairs of our head (Matt, x, 29) . The
uniformities we see in nature can offer no valid objec
tion to the doctrine of prayer, for those uniformities are
themselves of his ordaining and have in him their per-
8

114 The New and Living Way.
manent support. His infinite wisdom and power are
doubtless competent to make all things work together
for good to them that love him and are called according
to his purpose (Rom. viii, 28). We may often pray
unwisely ; "we know not how to pray as we ought, but
the Spirit helpeth our infirmity" (verse 26). David
prayed for the life of the child, and his desire was not
granted him (2 Sam. xii, 16-18). Jesus prayed in
Gethsemane that the cup might pass, but he drank it in
amazement of soul and amid drops of blood. Paul be
sought the Lord thrice that the thorn in his flesh might
depart (2 Cor. xii, 8), but the weakness remained.
Yet no such fervent inworking prayer of the heart to
God goes without some blessed answer. The child is
not spared, but comfort of soul is given. The cup of
Gethsemane is not taken away, but an angel comes to
strengthen. The thorn in the flesh remains, but there
comes the sweet assurance, "My grace is sufficient for
thee : for my power is made perfect in weakness." The
true idea of prayer implies that in the nature of the
act we defer to an infinite Intelligence above us, whose
wisdom and goodness may often answer our supplica
tion in ways we thought not of. The thing for which
we ask may be conditioned on other wills whose free
action we cannot influence, and God himself will not
coerce. Or we may ask for a seeming and real good
which, if given, would effectually prevent our subse
quent attainment of a higher boon.
And so the human heart, with its ineradicable im
pulse to pray, may come to God in boldness, and in con-

Value of Prayer. 115
fidence, nothing doubting, and may ask for any good
thing. No such earnest "supplication in the Spirit"
goes unanswered. It may not be the specific answer
we desire; for the Infinite Wisdom has his ways and
his thoughts, which are far above ours (Isa. Iv, 9).
But the Infinite Wisdom is also the Infinite Love, who
"withholdeth no good thing from them that walk up
rightly" (Psa. lxxxiv, n). If that good thing for
which we pray seems to be withholden, some other and
greater good is given in ways we think not of. The
spiritual nature that seeks the presence and help of
God with a pure longing must needs receive of the in
finite fullness, for such the Father seeks to be his wor
shipers (John iv, 23). And thousands of thousands
of such true worshipers have received most blessed
answers to their prayers. The heart is enlarged in its
sympathies by the habit of prayer. Its hunger and
thirst after righteousness receive thereby the deeper
satisfaction. The consciousness of a personal fellow
ship and communion with the living God exalts the
spiritual life and prepares it for the fuller vision of
God. In all these means of grace we surely recognize a
divine provision for the cultivation of the spiritual life
of man. The child of the kingdom, born from above,
a new creation in Christ, receiving the spirit of adop
tion, holy and without blame, perfected in love, is cer
tainly an ideal worthy of all possible struggle to attain.
The exhortation of Heb. x, 19-25, in which the writer
passes from the doctrinal to the practical part of his

116 The New and Living Way.
epistles, contains a sevenfold admonition. Those who
would enter into what this writer conceives as the
heavenly holy of holies in the house of God must have
(i) a true and purified heart, (2) a body washed from
all defilement, (3) a full assurance of faith, (4) an un
wavering confession of hope, (5) a watching of one
another for good, (6) assembling together for worship
and fellowship, and (7) faithful exhortation. "Hav
ing therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy
place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedi
cated for us, a new and living way, through the veil,
that is to say, his flesh ; and having a great priest over
the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart
in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience, and having our body washed with
pure water, let us hold fast the confession of our hope
that it waver not ; for he is faithful that promised ; and
let us consider one another to provoke unto love and
good works; not forsaking our own assembling to
gether, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one
another ; and so much the more, as ye see the day draw
ing nigh."

Eternal Life. 117

CHAPTER IX.
ETERNAL LIFE.
Our studies thus far into the origin and development
of new spiritual life in man have prepared the way for
further inquiry into the heavenly nature The phrase rah
and destination of this life. The phrase a'ii>vu>s-
eternal life (aluviog farf), which is conspicuous in the
writings of John but by no means confined to them,
demands our first attention. It has become so much
associated in Christian thought with the doctrine of
future existence that an important part of its signifi
cance is overlooked. The new birth from above intro
duces the believer into a new element of spiritual life,
and is spoken of as a passing out of death into life (see
above, p. 58), so that "he that hath the Son hath the
life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not the
life" (1 John v, 12). Here "the life" is contemplated
as a present actual possession; "God gave unto us
eternal life, and this life is in his Son" (verse n) ;
and the statement is strictly parallel with John iii, 36:
"He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life ; but he
that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life, but the
wrath of God abideth on him." Equally explicit and
unmistakable is the language of John v, 24 : "He that
heareth my word and believeth him that sent me, hath
eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath

n8 The New and Living Way.
passed out of death into life." In John vi, 54, we meet
with this declaration of profound mysticism: "He that
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal
life ; and I will raise him up at the last day." In xvii,
3, we read what bears to some extent the manner of a
definition: "This is eternal life, that they should know
thee, the only true God, and him whom thou didst send,
Jesus Christ." The eternal life which is thus contem
plated as a present possession is no other than the
blessed life of God in the soul begotten by the heavenly
birth and nourished by living communion with God.
It is not merely the knowledge of God and of Christ ;
it is rather vital union with them, as that of the
branches with the vine, so that the disciples "shall
know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in
you" (John xiv, 20). The knowledge of God that
comes of such vital union and fellowship is a partaking
of the divine nature, and, to use a Pauline expression,
the "life is hid with Christ in God" (Col. iii, 3).
This eternal kind of life is closely associated with
the idea of light shed abroad through all the spiritual
and intellectual faculties of men. "In
pin ua ig . j^.m wag j.^ an(j ^ j.£e wag ^ jjgjj^
of men" (John i, 4). That is, the impartation of new
life from above brings along with the life a heavenly
illumination. He who is begotten of God should be
quick to learn that "God is light, and in him is no dark
ness at all. And if we walk in the light, as he is in the
light, we have fellowship one with another, and the
blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1

In the Heavenlies. 119
John i, 5, 7). Such are true "children of light," and
such divine illumination develops the eternal life as the
light of the sun promotes the growth of many living
tilings in the natural world.
The mystic element in the writings of Paul is scarce
ly less noticeable than that of the Johannine books.
No New Testament writer exhibits pro- Paul,svi6wonigDt
founder conceptions of spiritual life and and Ill)erty-
fellowship with God. He thinks and speaks of believers
as risen with Christ, and seeking things above where
Christ is seated on the right hand of God (Col. iii, 1).
Their citizenship is in heaven (Phil, iii, 20), and they
sit with Christ in the heavenlies (ev rolg t-rrovpavioig,
Eph. ii, 6).1 He, too, knows the power of heavenly
illumination, "seeing it is God that said, Light shall
shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. iv, 6). "Ye were
once darkness, but are now light in the Lord; walk
as children of light" (Eph. v, 8). This surpassing
light which accompanies the knowledge of the glory
of God in Christ is conceived by Paul as a product
of the Spirit of the Lord, and a reflection of the glory
of the Lord Christ as seen in the mirror of the Gospel.
The highest liberty of the soul is attained in this
transforming light. It is the freedom of which Jesus
speaks in John viii, 32, 36: "Ye shall know the truth
and the truth shall make you free. If the Son shall
make you free, ye shall be free indeed." This holy
1 Compare my Biblical Hermeneutics, p. 276.

120 The New and Living Way.
spiritual liberty exalts the soul above all slavish fear,
and enables one to apprehend the living Christ as the
light of the world.1 Paul puts it in contrast with the
bondage and darkness which so blinded the spiritual
insight of the heart of Israel in his time that they
could not apprehend "the illumination (^unafvog) of
the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image
of God" (2 Cor. iv, 4). Spiritual illumination dispels
the darkness of sin and error, and brings the real
freedom. Accordingly we read (2 Cor. iii, 17, 18) :
"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
And we all, with unveiled face (that is, not veiled as
was the heart of Israel, verses 14-16), beholding as
in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed
into the same image from glory to glory." The be
liever who receives this liberty-giving Spirit of the
Lord beholds the glory of his Lord as it is reflected
in the mirror of the Gospel, which he calls in this
same connection (iv, 4) "the gospel of the glory of
Christ." This vision of Christ is a present experience
of the soul, and consists in devout and appreciative
contemplation of the person and glory of the Lord
Jesus. Such a vision of glory has the effect of trans
forming the devout beholder into the same likeness.
He becomes Christlike. He "puts on the new man,
who is being renewed unto knowledge after the image
of him that created him" (Col. iii, 10). The trans
formation is not the work of a moment, but may be
1 Compare the doctrine of Christian freedom as stated on pp. 67-70 of
this volume.

Nature of Eternal Life. 121
a long-continuing process, as is suggested by the
words "from glory to glory." The eternal life in
Christ of which he has "laid hold" (1 Tim. vi, 12)
becomes in him an increasing spiritual power, and
advances from one degree of glory to another. It is
also a transformation from the vision of glory which
one sees in the mirror of Christ's Gospel into a glory
of personal fellowship with God, which is "as the
dawning light that shineth more and more unto the
perfect day" (Prov. iv, 18).
Eternal life, then, is to be understood primarily
of the free, pure, permanent, and ever increasing
spiritual life of Christ-likeness. It is a A ^resent posses.
present possession and a glorious reality slon-
to the believer, who can say with Paul, "The law of
the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from
the law of sin and of death" (Rom. viii, 2). As
spiritual death is the direct penal consequence of sin,
so is spiritual life the direct product of the work of
the Holy Spirit in the believer's heart ; and as the one
is a reality of positive knowledge and conviction, so is
the other. "The wages of sin is death; but the free
gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord"
(Rom. vi, 23). We have already observed (pp. 18-22)
that the penalty of sin is a ruin of the spiritual
nature of man, the blighting of religious life, the
self-destructive alienation of the soul from the fel
lowship of God. When this condition becomes fixed
and permanent the blighted nature is guilty of eternal
sin. Such fixedness in evil character is in itself a

122 The New and Living Way.
penal consequence of persistent sinning. On the other
hand, eternal life may be viewed as a fixedness of
opposite character. The children of light have laid
hold of the eternal life which is God's free gift; and
"the fruit of the light is in all goodness and right
eousness and truth" (Eph. v, 9).
But in the Gospel of John we find eternal life con
templated also as an ultimate reward, a future glory,
Endless perma- as wdl aS a PreSent Possession. The
nenceinlife. i;fe jn Christ is eternal in that it en
dures in eternal permanence. It has a destination
that runs on not only "from glory to glory" but also
from eon to eon. Jesus speaks of the water of life .
which becomes in him who drinks thereof "a fountain
of water springing up unto eternal life" (iv, 14).
Again in verse 36 he speaks of "gathering fruit unto
life eternal," and in vi, 27, of food "which abideth
unto life eternal." In xii, 25, we have the strong and
peculiar words which remind us both of Matt, xvi,
25, and Luke xiv, 26 : "He that loveth his soul loseth
it ; and he that hateth his soul in this world shall keep
it unto life eternal." The eternal life is so exalted in
thought that everything which stands in the way of
its attainment seems in comparison so mean and des
picable as to be an object of hatred. The sordid
soul-life, animal life (^vxn), which seeks all its good
in this world is hateful when seen in its antagonism
to the life eternal which aims at permanent satisfac
tion, and seeks things above this world "where Christ
is seated on the right hand of God" (Col. iii, 1). In

Eternal Life. 123
all these passages in John's Gospel the eternal life
contemplated is some future glorious boon, an endless
permanence in the life and light of God.
In the Synoptic Gospels the phrase "eternal life"
also connotes a future reward or inheritance. In
Mark x, 29, 30, Jesus says: "There is „.- .... .
' -" ° ' J J Eternal life in syn-
no man that hath left house, or breth- 0Dtists-
ren, or sisters, or mother, or father, or children, or
lands, for my sake and for the gospel's sake, but he
shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses,
and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children,
and lands, with persecutions; and in the age to come
life eternal." The parallel passage in Matt, xix, 29,
reads, "shall receive manifold, and shall inherit life
eternal." In Luke xviii, 30, the reading is "shall
receive manifold more in this time, and in the age to
come life eternal." Furthermore, in Matt, xix, 16;
Mark x, 17; Luke x, 25; xviii, 18; eternal life is
spoken of as an inheritance, and this An inheritance.
word involves the idea of a property
or blessedness to be received at some future time.
The phrases "in this time," "in this world," and "on
the earth" as contrasted with "in the age to come"
imply experiences in life in some other world or age
beyond the present. In the picture of eternal judg
ment, which is written in Matt, xxv, 31-46, the right
eous who go "into eternal life" "inherit the kingdom
prepared for them from the foundation of the world."
That inheritance is an entrance into the joy and glory
of the King himself.

124 The New and Living Way.
In the various epistles the ideal of a glorious in
heritance in eternal life is frequently presented. No
unrighteous person can inherit the
In the epistles. . °
kingdom of God (Gal. v, 21 ; 1 Cor.
vi, 9, 10; Eph. v, 5), but those who "by patience in
welldoing seek for glory and honor and incorrup-
tion" shall receive eternal life as reward rendered by
the righteous judgment of God (Rom. ii, 7). Grace
reigns through righteousness unto eternal life (Rom.
v, 21), and they who are "made free from sin and be
come servants to God, have their fruit unto sanctifica
tion, and the end (final result and consummation)
life eternal" (vi, 22). So, too, "he that soweth unto
the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap eternal life" (Gal.
vi, 8). In the Acts of the Apostles (xx, 32; xxvi, 18)
Paul speaks of "the inheritance among all them that
are sanctified." In the Epistle to the Hebrews we
read of "them that shall inherit salvation" (i, 14), arid
of them that "receive the promise of the eternal in
heritance (ix, 15). In 1 Pet. i, 4, the writer tells his
readers that God has begotten them unto a living
hope, "unto an inheritance incorruptible, and unde-
filed, and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for
them." In Col. i, 12, the apostle "gives thanks unto
the Father who made us meet (licav6h>, fit, sufficient,
competent) to be partakers of the inheritance of the
saints in light;" and in Eph. i, 13, 14, he speaks of
"being sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which
is an earnest (dppaf3wv, pledge and part payment) of
our inheritance, unto the redemption of God's own

Eternal Life. 125
possession;" that is, unto the final consummation of
the redemption of all those whom God claims as his
peculiar treasure and the people of his own posses
sion (comp. 1 Pet. ii, 9; Exod. xix, 5; Deut. vii, 6).
From all these scriptures it becomes apparent be
yond controversy that the spiritual life begotten in
the heart of man by the power of the Holy Spirit is
part and parcel of a glorious inheritance. It is a
possession of manifold fullness, and is conditioned in
a fitness of character, a godliness (svoefieia, reverent
piety and beautiful religious conduct) which "has
promise of the life which now is, and of that which
is to come" (1 Tim. iv, 8). There can be no living
this life apart from God, for it is begotten in the soul
by a heavenly birth and is continually nourished and
strengthened by the Spirit of God. The child of
God receives the spirit of adoption, is made a par
taker of the divine nature, and cries out, Abba, Father.
This heavenly relationship, vitally uniting the soul of
man with the eternal Spirit, is of the nature of eternal
life. It brings great blessedness in this life and in
this world; but it is as abiding as the nature of God.
It is continually springing up into eternal life. It is,
in a Johannine way of thinking, a life unlimited by
time and place, but ever abiding in fellowship with
the Holy One, and with his Son Jesus Christ. But
in no way inconsistent with this concept it is also
thought of as an everlasting inheritance. "If children
of God, then also heirs of God, and joint heirs with
Christ" (Rom. viii, 17) ; and if "sufficient to be made

126 The New and Living Way.
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light"
(Col. i, 12), their portion is an ever-continuing fel
lowship with the Eternal One. And so by every in
ference and suggestion of these Scriptures each indi
vidual life, whose "fellowship is with the Father, and
with his Son Jesus Christ" (1 John i, 3), continues
eternally in that blessed companionship. Both in this
age and in that which is to come, in this world or in
any other to which he may pass on, on the earth or
in the heavens, the child of God abides in life, and in
love, and therefore in endless conscious bliss. We
may accordingly add one word to the beatitude, and
say, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall
eternally see God."

Concluding Words.

127

CHAPTER X.
CONCLUDING WORDS.
We have now taken our scriptural survey of the
new and living way which leads unto eternal life. It
is a narrow way, and to enter it one B]essedn6SS of tne
must enter through a narrow gateway way-
(Matt, vii, 14). But it leads through many a charm
ing scene, over green pastures, and beside restful
waters. "O the manifold blessedness of the man that
walketh not in the counsel of the wicked, nor standeth
in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of scof
fers" (Psa. i, 1), but delighteth rather in the high
way of Jehovah, "the way of holiness," over which
the ransomed walk with singing, and receive the
blessing of everlasting joy upon their heads (Isa.
xxxv, 8-10).
This way of holiness is well called new. The vig
orous activity it inspires makes the life of him that
walks therein like the new wine which mWell called new.
bursts old wine-skins and must needs
have a vessel fresh and expansive like itself (Matt.
ix, 17). The old leaven of malice and wickedness
must be purged out and give place to a new lump of
the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Cor.
v, 7, 8). For we have seen that he who walks this
highway of the heavenly King is a new creature in

- 128 The New and Living Way.
Christ Jesus, a new creation. With him "the old
things are passed away; behold, they are become new'
(2 Cor. v, 17). He has been "renewed in the spirit
of his mind and has put on the new man, who after
God has been created in righteousness and holiness
of truth" (Eph. iv, 24). Upon him, " he that is holy,
he that is true, he that hath the key of David" writes
the name of his God, and the name of the new Jeru
salem, and his own new name (Rev. iii, 7, 12), and
he thus purchases out of the earth and glorifies all
his undefiled ones that they may "sing a new song
before the throne" (Rev. xiv, 3).
This way into the most holy place of the heavenlies
is also appropriately called the living way, for it is
the way into the presence and fellow-
Wsll called living. J r .
ship of the living God. He is not the
God of the dead, but of the living" (Mark xii, 27).
He is the heavenly giver of the "living bread," the
"living water," and the "living oracles;" and, to be
holy and acceptable before him, we must present our
bodies a living sacrifice (Rom. xii, 1), and ourselves
"as alive from the dead" (Rom. vi, 13). According
to Peter we are "begotten unto a living hope," and are
also, "as living stones," builded up into a spiritual
house (1 Pet. i, 3; ii, 5). Everything that pertains
to this way is instinct with life. To enter it is to
enter into life, to have one's name written in the book
of life, to take of the water of life freely, and to eat
of the tree of life which is in the garden of God. He
that is pure in heart and holy in life has in his own

The Heavenly Things. 129
experience of fellowship with God the unmistakable
witness "that God gave unto us eternal life, and this
life is in his Son," who ever liveth to make interces
sion for us. "This is life eternal, that they should
know thee the only true God, and him whom thou
didst send, even Jesus Christ" (John xvii, 3).
We should, accordingly, comfort one another with
these precious truths. There is no excuse for anyone
fainting by the way. "Though our
& J J . & Full of comfort.
outward man is decaying, yet our in
ward man is renewed day by day" (2 Cor. iv, 16).
Fresh and new with every morning come the inspira
tions of the living God, and the witness of the holy
comforter, the Spirit of truth, is an abiding and con
tinuous helper. He speaks in the message of the
prophet, and "thine ears shall hear a word behind
thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it" (Isa.
xxx, 21). Though beset with a thorn in the flesh,
and buffeted by the powers of evil, we, like the
apostle, may hear the living Spirit say, "My grace is
sufficient for thee" (2 Cor. xii, 9).
We have written the foregoing pages in the hope
of promoting a deeper interest in "the heavenly
things" (rd eirovodvia, Tohn iii, 12)
s v v ' J ._,.,, Call to deeper in-
and "the heavenly places in Christ terestinthe heav-
(Eph. i, 3). It has been shown that
these heavenly things in Christ are blessed realities to
be received now and here in this present life. There is
no part of the new and living way here outlined which
is not entitled to be called holy. And yet we have seen

130 The New and Living Way.
that there are particular phases of experience therein
which are appropriately called "perfect love," "holi
ness of heart," and "Christian perfection." Some are
accustomed to call these aspects of personal attain
ment and piety in Christ "the higher life." All these
terms are definitive and sufficiently scriptural, and the
doctrine and experience to which they point should
certainly commend themselves to all right-minded peo
ple who have any practical knowledge of the mysteries
of the kingdom of God. We should all covet earnestly
the best gifts, and above all else that gift of perfect
love which has been felicitously called "the central
idea of Christianity." At the same time we should
carefully and prayerfully guard ourselves against the
danger of disparaging any element or aspect of posi
tive Christian experience. How goodly and how beau
tiful to behold the convicted sinner turn from his evil
way, repent, have faith in God through Jesus Christ,
obtain remission of sins, justification unto life, and
reconciliation with God! How marvelous the new
birth from above and the new life which is at once a
new creation, and a passing out of death into eternal
life! Sonship, adoption, assurance, communion with
God, loving him with all the heart and our neighbor
as ourselves, attaining unto righteousness, and sancti
fication of spirit, and hallowing discipline through trial,
and conscious partaking of the divine nature, and the
actual possession of the eternal kind of life — surely
these are all unspeakable gifts, and in every one we
may behold some charming aspect of "the beauty of

All One in God. 131
holiness." No one of them is seen at its best unless
viewed in the one common heavenly light which illu
minates them all. And what more need we say, except
to repeat the prayer of Jesus that all who live and be
lieve in him "may be one, even as thou, Father, art in
me, and I in thee, that they may be perfected into one ;
that the world may know that thou didst send me, and
lovedst them, even as thou lovedst me" ?

O blessed life, unspeakably divine 1
This, this is heaven. Our opened eyes now see
The mystery of God in ecstasy
Of vision far transcending all confine
That needs the light of sun and moon to shine.
The temple of the living God are we.
Henceforth in this pure, new, and living way
Walk, O my soul. The sons of light are here,
And from their faces God wipes every tear,
And from his presence they shall never stray.
See how they gather at the heavenly throne I
They banquet by the streams of Paradise,
And sing new songs that ravish all the skies.
Risen with Christ in God they all are one.

INDEX.

Abraham, faith of, 35, 93.
Adoption, 60.
Alford, 54, 67, 101.
Assurance, 66.
Baptism, 100-104.
Baptismal regeneration, 53.
Baruch, 18.
Beet, 97.
Bengel, 56.
Beyschlag, 45.
Calvin, 70.
Childhood piety, 24.
Church fellowship, 96.
Circumcision of heart, 48.
Confession, 40.
Conversion, 30.
Conviction of sin, 25-29.
Creation, new, 54.
Cremer, 46.
Death, spiritual, 19, 20.
Degrees of sin, 21.
Depravity, 18-21.'
Drummond, 57.
Ecclesiasticus, 18.
Ellicott, 51, 52.
Ezra, Fourth, 18.
Faith, doctrine of, 33-40.
Fatherhood of God, 59.
Forgiveness, 42.
Freedom, Christian, 67-70, 119.

Growth, spiritual, 71-73, 91.
Guilt, 17, 20.
Healing by Jesus, 39.
Holiness, 79.
Hort, 101.
Instruction, Christian, 109.
James and Paul on faith, 37.
Justification, 42, 43.
Kant, 14.
Law of God, 17.
Liberty in Christ, 67-70, 119.
Lightfoot, 34.
Limitations, human, 14.
Love, perfect, 89, 90.
Melanchthon, 70.
Merrill, 44, 66.
Meyer, 18, 50, 65, 90.
Miley, 21.
New creation, 54.
Paul and James on faith, 37.
Penitential psalms, 26.
Perfect love, 89.
Perfection, 83, 84.
Practical godliness, in.
Prayer, doctrine of, 111-115.
Reconciliation, 45, 46.

134

Index.

Regeneration, 49-59.
Remission of sins, 42.
Repentance, 29.
Righteousness, 80.
Ritschl, 62, 70.
Sacraments, 100.
Salvation God's gift, 55.
Sanctification, 77.
Sanday, 18.
Schottgen, 55.
Self-consciousness, 13.
Sin, Paul's doctrine, 18, 19.
Sinfulness, human, 15, 16.
Spirit, fruit of, 88.
Spirit, witness of, 64, 65.

Teaching of the Twelve, 23, 105.
Temptation, 16.
Tischendorf, 101.
Tregelles, 101.
Trial, discipline of, 92.
Virtues, Christian, 87. ,
Volition, 16, 17.
Weiss, 50.
Wesley, 17, 65.
Westcott, 101.
Whedon, 21.
Will, freedom of, 16, 17.
Witness of the Spirit, 64, 65.

\ ,.;, ,:,-'»' ^"tV'vERSITYLIBRARY

3 9002 08867 6094