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Christ’s Object Lessons
be received by the sinner before he can be fitted for the kingdom of
glory. All the culture and education which the world can give will fail
of making a degraded child of sin a child of heaven. The renewing
energy must come from God. The change can be made only by the
Holy
“Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the
law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep His testimonies,
and that seek Him with the whole heart. They also do no
iniquity: they walk in His ways. Thou hast commanded
us to keep Thy precepts diligently. O that my ways were
directed to keep Thy statutes!”
Psalm 119:1-5
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Spirit. All who would be saved, high or low, rich or poor, must submit
to the working of this power.
As the leaven, when mingled with the meal, works from within
outward, so it is by the renewing of the heart that the grace of God
works to transform the life. No mere external change is sufficient to
bring us into harmony with God. There are many who try to reform by
correcting this or that bad habit, and they hope in this way to become
Christians, but they are beginning in the wrong place. Our first work
is with the heart.
A profession of faith and the possession of truth in the soul are two
different things. The mere knowledge of truth is not enough. We may
possess this, but the tenor of our thoughts may not be changed. The
heart must be converted and sanctified.
The man who attempts to keep the commandments of God from
a sense of obligation merely—because he is required to do so—will
never enter into the joy of obedience. He does not obey. When the
requirements of God are accounted a burden because they cut across
human inclination, we may know that the life is not a Christian life.
True obedience is the outworking of a principle within. It springs from
the love of righteousness, the love of the law of God. The essence of
all righteousness
“For ever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven. Thy
faithfulness is unto all generations: Thou hast established
the earth, and it abideth. ... I will never forget Thy pre-
cepts: for with them Thou hast quickened me. ... I have