A Sermon

BY THE REV. JOHN R. MACKAY, M.A., INVERNESS.
(Taken down by a Hearer.)

YOU will find the portion of God’s Word to which I desire to direct your attention for some time this evening, as the Spirit of God may be pleased on the present occasion to enable me, in the Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, third chapter, and third verse: “Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.”

There was scarcely, dear friends, a place where the Apostle Paul was honoured to plant a Church of Christ but he was shortly afterwards harassed with errorists of one kind or another, trying to lead the people away from the simplicity of the Gospel, and Corinth was no exception. It would seem, besides, that stranger errorists, coming to turn away the people from the purity of the faith, were in the habit of coming to the Church in Corinth with recommendations—testimonials, that is—from professed Christians in some other parts of the Church of Christ, and that, coming with testimonials of that kind, they the more easily gained the attention of unsuspecting people. Not only so; but when they left Corinth they seem to have made it a rule to ask a testimonial of some professing Christians there also, that they might thus get the readier access to the next place visited by them. But now the Apostle says here that, for his own part and for the part of those that worked in unison of spirit with him, there was no need of letters of commendation to the Corinthians or from the Corinthians. “Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?” The answer is, of course, a negative, and the reason for this negative—the reason that he assigns for saying that he did not need these testimonials—was that the Corinthians themselves were a sufficient testimonial to him. Yea, he speaks of them as an epistle, and as, in a sense, a testimonial to him. “Ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men.” Then he goes on to say, in the words of our text, “Ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” And, therefore, we are warranted to say that this is one of the ways in which the Holy Ghost sets before us the nature and character of the true Church of God—that they are a remarkable epistle or letter. Epistle just means a larger letter. And you see that he not simply speaks of them as an epistle, but he condescends to great details, so that the idea is, as it were, fastened upon the mind of the thoughtful reader that we are entirely—if we would understand the nature of the work of God in the souls of His people—warranted to look at the matter from this point of view, that they are an epistle, a letter. And you will find that just the very same questions that would naturally occur in connection with the writing of any letter occur in connection with this letter, and answers are given to these questions. Now-a-days, no doubt, every one is adept at letter-writing, and letter material is so ready to hand, that perhaps we do not analyse, as it were, all the questions that have to be answered before we send off a letter to our friends. Perhaps analysis would come home to our grandfathers more readily than to ourselves, for then not every one could write a letter, and writing material was not so easily got as it is now-a-days; but as to the essence of the matter, it remains now just as it was in the days of our grandfathers.

I.—Well, the first question of all, then, that is to be put by us with regard to letter-writing in a literal sense, and with regard to this letter-writing, is—Who is it that writes the letter?

When education was not compulsory it was oftentimes a thought to people—if they intended to send a letter to a friend—who they could get to write the letter for them. And that is the first question that arises here: Who is it that will write this letter?

II.—The next question that arises is—Have we writing material, have we paper to write upon?

And the same question is to be considered with regard to this letter: What is the material on which the letter must be written?

III.—Then the next question would be whether there was any ink in the house.

And so, although it is not ink that is used in this case, there is something that we may say is corresponding to it, and in a very glorious manner does for these letters what ink does in the matter of a letter such as you or I might write.

IV.—The fourth question is—Is there a pen to hand?

And the same question arises here: Is this epistle written with a pen or pens, and if this epistle is written with a pen or pens, what are they?

V.—And then comes the question—the most important in a manner, perhaps, of any of them, although from other points of view perhaps not so marvellous as some other of the questions that are raised—What shall be the contents of the letter; what shall be written in the letter?

These, then, are the questions that, as we dwell for a little time this evening on the work of God in the souls of men, as it is represented to us under the figure of an epistle, we should like to answer, and to conclude with a word of exhortation and application.

I.—Well, then, the first question is about the letter writer.

Although the Apostle Paul speaks of the Corinthian believers as, in a sense, his epistle, he does not mean by that that he is the writer of that epistle which believers are. He takes a subordinate place—a very essential place, indeed, but a subordinate place. He does not assume to himself, or to any that work in sympathy with him, the place of being the real writer of the letter, for he tells us distinctly that in this case the writer is Christ Himself. “Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ,” “ministered,” no doubt, “by us,” but yet we are not the author, he says. The real author is Christ. And the Lord’s people are spoken of in another place as “epistles that may be read of all men.” Now, Christ did not write much, in the ordinary sense of writing, and the only writing that we hear Him do in the days of His flesh was at the time that the woman taken in adultery was brought before Him, and He wrote upon the ground; and it would seem—as a worthy minister in the north of Scotland once put it—that He was just writing guilt on the consciences of her accusers and writing pardon on the poor creature’s own conscience. And so far as the writing of the inspired Word of God is concerned, He left that, in a manner, to others; and thus He had Matthew and Mark and Luke and John and the Apostle Paul and others—or if we speak of them as the penmen, the Holy Ghost may be said to have been the author of those letters. But here you find that Christ Himself is mentioned as the one who writes this letter which believers are. They are Christ’s epistle, and one’s handwriting is almost like one’s photograph. That is to say, there are few things that one learns more readily than to identify a friend’s handwriting. If you are wont to hear from any person, whenever you see that person’s handwriting you are as satisfied that that letter is from some known friend to you as you are after you read his name over which the letter is written, and you at once think of the person. A person’s handwriting will just bring the person before you almost as vividly as if his photograph were shown you. And this may be said with regard to Christ as a letter writer: His letters, his workmanship, remind one at once of Himself.

There was once a pious although somewhat weak-minded man from Wales, Timothy Nathan, to name, who wandered a good deal about the Highlands of Scotland, and he had a very great admiration for the late Mr. M’Coll of Lochalsh. As I was told, he would speak of him in this way: “Oh, it is Jesus Himself that is good; but Mr. M’Coll has some likeness to him.” No doubt, that was a great recommendation of Mr. M’Coll, that a spiritually-minded man should recognise in him a likeness to Christ Himself. And I believe that in the case of all God’s people—as He brings His own image upon them, and as they shall meet one another in the countless ages of eternity—they cannot refrain from addressing one another in this manner: “Oh, how like you are to Jesus Christ! I think I see Jesus Christ Himself in you.” “For he will appear glorious in his saints, wonderful in them that believe.” Christ is a pretty letter writer. There are some men and their penmanship is so beautiful that it attracts your attention at once. Well, Christ is such a letter writer, such a scribe, as it is written, “All that see them shall acknowledge them that they are the Lord’s workmanship; that they are the people whom he hath blessed.”

II.—The next question that comes up for consideration is this: Where is the writing material to be found?

What has Christ, the letter writer, for paper? And our text supplies us with the answer to that question also, when it is said that this epistle was not written “in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” It is very likely that, when he speaks about writing in stone, he refers to the writing which the Son of God Himself executed when He wrote with His own fingers the ten commandments upon the two tables of stone, and that was a very wonderful and glorious thing. Yet if we should consider the matter properly, we would reckon that this was a still more wonderful thing in a manner. Of course, in the olden times they did write on the rock. You find Job speaks about his words “being graven in the rock for ever”; and in modern times there have been discovered large inscriptions written in a language that seemed for a long time a language that could not be deciphered, but it is now understood as the writing upon the rock. It is not, however, upon paper in the ordinary sense, nor upon parchment, nor upon clay, nor upon stones, that Christ writes His epistle, but we are told that He writes it upon the fleshy tables of the heart. And thus you may say that believing men and women are what He has for writing paper, and especially He refers to the heart, for if you do not have a person’s heart, you do not have the person at all. The heart is, as it were, the very centre of our being. It is the fountain of all the activities for which, as responsible creatures, we are responsible; and it is upon material of this kind that Christ writes His epistle. And there is no question that when he speaks not only about the heart but about the “fleshy tables of the heart,” he means us to understand that this heart has undergone a change, so that it should no longer be a “heart of stone” but a “heart of flesh.” For the teaching of God’s Word is that all mankind without a single exception—not simply very notorious sinners—are under the power of a heart of stone, and reason itself might teach us that there is nothing more unfeeling than the stone, and nothing more hard to melt, in fact, than the stone. You would find it more easy to melt iron than to melt a stone; and thus it is with regard to men in their natural state. It is not without reason that the Holy Ghost speaks of them as having a heart of stone, and that is brought out in the fact that men will not tremble at God’s threatenings, neither will they rejoice at His promises, and least of all are they disposed to fall in with God’s way of salvation through a crucified and now exalted Mediator. And, dear friend, if it is the case, with regard to yourself, that you would rather that the armies of Britain, strong as they are to-day, were opposed to you than that God’s Word were opposed to you, it indicates that, in a way deeper than you are conscious of, the Spirit of God has indeed visited you and taken away this heart of stone that could not tremble at God’s threatenings nor rejoice at God’s promises. Are you, as it were, on the lookout for the least intimation of favour from God as you read His Word or as you hear it expounded? It is a token of a heart of flesh—a token that the heart of stone has been removed. You see, it is not without pains that we have writing paper to write our letters on, and neither can we get it without paying something for it; but there was never material got at such a price as was the material Christ uses in writing His epistle. As He says, “Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price.” And that price is not corruptible things, as silver and gold; but the precious blood of Christ Himself—as of a lamb without spot and without blemish—bought what He uses for paper, and as Christ bought it with His own blood, so He transformed it by the power of His own Spirit, so that it might be susceptible of receiving the contents that He intended should be written there. We are not given to an imaginative way of speaking at all. We are seriously endeavouring to understand what the Spirit of God teaches us when He speaks of believers as an epistle of Christ. We may put it to your own heart and understanding if it is not the truth to say that as Christ is the letter writer, so what He has as material to write upon is a renewed heart, a heart of flesh—that is, an understanding heart—and especially a heart that will tremble at His own word.

III.—But the third question that is to be put is this—What has this Letter-Writer for ink?

And in a sense, we may say that of all the answers evoked by the questions suggested by our text, there is no answer more marvellous than the answer that the Apostle gives to that question, for although Christ does not make use of ink in order to write His epistle, He has something infinitely more excellent that He uses in place of ink, and what is that? “Written not with ink,” says our text, “but with the Spirit of the living God.”

You have heard about letters of gold. I have seen a sermon of Mr. Spurgeon’s printed in letters of gold to signify that his sermons had been published for fifty years without a break, but although it is reckoned to be something very precious to have a letter written in characters of gold, even gold itself shadows into insignificance in comparison with what the Lord Jesus Christ makes use of when He writes an epistle, for He writes “not with ink,” we are told, “but with the Spirit of the living God.” And this subject of the Spirit of the living God is altogether so mysterious that for the most part we may say He instructs us concerning His own person, nature and office by means of figures and symbols drawn from nature or from art. One of the very commonest figures in which the Holy Spirit in His work is set before us is that of water. For instance, He says, “I will pour water upon the thirsty and floods upon the dry ground,” that is, “I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thine offspring: and they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water-courses, so that one shall say, I am the Lord’s; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and surname himself by the name of Israel.” And it is no wonder that the Spirit of God should be compared to water. In nature, if a shower of rain did not come upon the earth all the year round, it would be in vain that we sowed seed in the fields. That is felt very much in hotter climates when there may be nearly half a year before a drop of rain visits them, and the farmers have to wait for the rainy season before they begin to sow seed, because it is the rain that mollifies the earth and renders it fruitful, and so it is with regard to the indispensable activities of the Spirit of God. It is, indeed, in vain that the gospel should be preached at all apart from the promise of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is compared, not only to rain, but compared to rivers, because ordinarily you will find that flourishing cities are found built upon rivers, perhaps at the mouth of the river. You see Glasgow owes much, under the hand of God, to the Clyde; New York to the Hudson, and London to the Thames, and so on. And so is it with regard to the Spirit of God, the Comforter. As the Psalmist says, “There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God.” And that is the Holy Spirit of God.

The Holy Spirit is also compared to wind. “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” And the Holy Spirit is compared to eyesalve. You know doctors sometimes use drops which they instil into the eye that does not see very well in order to restore sight, and the Holy Ghost is eyesalve to restore vision to the blind. But here you may say that if the Holy Ghost is not compared wholly to ink—for we are told that the letter is not written with ink—yet to this extent we may say that the Holy Ghost is compared to ink, inasmuch as the purpose that on a low platform ink serves for an ordinary letter-writer, on the higher platform of Christ’s work the Spirit of the living God serves that high purpose even in Christ’s hands, and, therefore, these letters are said to be written “not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.” And, dear friends, this is a very principal glory of the gospel—that it is the ministration of the Holy Ghost. The gospel gets two names. One name of the gospel is that it is the ministration of righteousness. You see we have lost all righteousness through the fall and through sin. It is said of us that we are a people that are “free from righteousness,” as if we were quite strangers to it, and had nothing to do with it, and apart from righteousness there can be no forgiveness, but this was the provision of God, that in virtue of the incarnation and obedience unto death of the Son of God, there should an end be made of sin, finishing of transgressions, reconciliation made for iniquities and an everlasting righteousness brought in, and this is the righteousness which is the ground of a sinner’s pardon and acceptance so that God is not simply said to pardon believers in Jesus Christ, but to justify them, and that is as much as to say that God, the Judge of all, should declare His law is magnified in respect of them, His justice is satisfied in respect of them. And this is the reason why the gospel is the power of God unto salvation—that this righteousness that God provided and that God proceeds upon is brought near to us in the gospel. Therefore, the gospel is said to be the “power of God unto every one that believeth,” for the righteousness of God is therein revealed, as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” But the gospel has another title over and above its being called the ministration of righteousness. It is also called the ministration of the Holy Ghost. And I believe that wheresoever there is the pure gospel, more or less in results the Holy Spirit of God does accompany that gospel, for the gospel is the ministration of the Spirit and it has not changed its nature from the days of the Apostles down to the present day. You see Adam in innocence had the Spirit and if Adam had not fallen, we should all have been born in the image of God and we should also, just as our first covenant-head had the Holy Spirit, have all the Holy Spirit. But then Adam lost the Spirit and it was not for himself alone that he lost the Holy Spirit, but he lost the Spirit for the whole race, and the Spirit of God is not given in connection with the covenant of works any more. You see, when man sinned and God drove our first parents out of Eden, that did not mean that God, the unchangeable God, would not bring back any of us any more to nearness to Himself, but it did mean this that on the ground of the covenant of works, or of the law as a covenant, not a single human being would ever return to God any more; neither does God give the Holy Ghost in virtue of the law as a covenant, in virtue of the covenant of works, but He does give the Holy Ghost in virtue of the covenant of grace and in virtue of the gospel and this is the very glory of Christ. As John the Baptist pointed out, “He it is that baptiseth with the Holy Ghost,” and this Holy Ghost it is who indeed by His infinite power turns the flinty rock to be a pool of water and the ground that was dried up to be springs of water, who takes away the stony heart and gives a heart of flesh. But that is not all that has to be done. The material, so to say, was not prepared without His infinite omnipotent operations, but there is something in addition to this in order that the letter should be written. And one may, without going at least far away from the figure used in our text, make use of an illustration given to us towards the end of this same chapter in order to show how this letter is being written, for it is a marvellous process. Sometimes, if you go into the printing-house of a generous owner, he may shew you some of the marvels about the way that they print say their newspaper. Well, the Apostle Paul was led to give at least some indications of the process by which these letters are being written, when he says:—”We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” For it just means this—if you were standing before a looking-glass, the first thing of all that you would see is yourself. But then it would be quite possible that one that you never saw in the flesh might come in behind you, and you might see his face reflected in the looking-glass. And thus it is with regard to the way in which these letters are being written. The Word of God, you may say, is the looking-glass, and in that Word we find ourselves, at least first of all, lost—lost in the light of God’s law—but then, what more do we see? Christ the Saviour, as one that we never saw with our fleshly eyes, coming as it were behind us, and shewing Himself to us, as His image is reflected in the looking-glass of His own Word. “We behold, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord.” And what effect has this upon us? It has this effect upon us, “How unlike am I myself to Jesus Christ! How desirable it is that I should be like Jesus Christ! He is fairer than the children of men. My heart’s desire goes out in aspiration that I might use Him for forgiveness; that I might use Him for acceptance, yea, that I might have the boldness to use Him for adoption. Although I deserve to be in the lowest hell, for Christ’s sake I am exalted to the glory of coming to the place of God’s children, as it is written:—”To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” And not only so, but I desire that I might use Him for holiness, for sanctification—that I might be like Him!” To see Christ as with transforming power is the work of the Holy Ghost. Were it not for the omnipotent, gracious operations of the Holy Spirit, we should have no vision to see the glory of Christ, but even after He has restored vision to us, He must constantly be to us as eyesalve, for there is much with us that tends to blind our vision. Therefore, the Church was praying that “her eyes might be opened to see wonderful things out of His law.” We shall not, however, follow that theme further, but truly it is a most marvellous thing in connection with this letter-writing, that the great Letter-Writer, Jesus Christ, should, instead of ink, have the Spirit of the living God, and this Spirit He gives in measure. He is, as it were, instilled into our very eyes, into our heart, giving us at least glimpses, so that we may be said to “see the King in His beauty and the land that is very far off.” The hearts of God’s people go to heaven before they are there actually themselves.

IV.—But then another question is of this nature.

If the Letter-Writer in this case is the Lord Jesus Christ; if what He has for paper are believing men and women, with special reference to their hearts; and if that which he has for ink is the Holy Spirit, does He make use of pens in writing this epistle? Well, He does, and that is marvellous. But it is His way to be making use of means where means are available, and even of creatures. You see when He raised Lazarus from the dead, He did not perform a miracle in opening the grave for that could be done by men, but they could not make Lazarus live and He wrought a miracle in that case. Well, Christ makes use of pens, and we may say that He has been using large and small pens. What are the large pens that He uses? You may say that they are the prophets and apostles. This is what the Apostle means when he says:—”Manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us.” That is to say, we have been as pens. You remember that the Psalmist distinctly compares himself to a pen, “My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.” And these pens were very full of the ink of the Holy Ghost. “The Spirit of God spake by me,” says David, and although he was but a mere man, yet he was as a pen in a sense through which the Holy Spirit flowed, and by means of which these epistles have been written. And, as I have said, He makes use of little pens too. What do we mean by little pens? Well, we mean this, that Christ has instituted a ministry in the Church, and that ministry may be compared to little pens. As Augustine said:—

“The lofty mountains shall bring forth
Unto the people peace,
Likewise the little hills the same
Shall do by righteousness.”

Augustine, in commenting on this verse, said that as in nature the lofty mountains break the clouds first, and then when they are brought down nearer the earth, the little hills break them next, and thus the fields are watered, so in grace the lofty mountains may be said to be the prophets and apostles, those who were inspired of God to write the Old and New Testaments, and the little hills to be Christ’s ministers, to the end of time, by which the blessings of Christ were spread out so as to reach His people. The Lord’s people may have oftentimes been in circumstances when this process of writing was being done entirely by the larger pens, as it were. Perhaps they had no public ministry to wait upon at all, yet they had the Bible, but we are not on that account to disparage the smaller pens. That is a most marvellous thing which the Apostle says to the Galatians:—”He, therefore, that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?” And I believe that he refers there to the miracles, gifts, that were common in the days of the Apostles. You see the Apostles gave the Spirit through the laying on of hands, and they wrought miracles, and it is to that the Apostle refers. Although these extraordinary gifts are not now given to the Church since the canon of inspiration was closed, that does not mean that the Spirit is not given in any sense, for the Spirit is given as a cleansing, sanctifying, and comforting Spirit to the Church of God to the end of time, and there have been times when the Lord’s people felt that this blessing reached themselves, and they became united in one body just through what they felt of the power of God accompanying His word through His ministers. You find the character of those whom Christ made use of as pens and will make use of as pens to the end of time, for there can be no question at all that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, and where the Spirit of God is given, that will be a ministry in which the breath, the life of the preaching will be Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

V.—But, in a word, let me refer to the contents of this letter.

What is the end of all this? We have, in substance, told it already, but it is just this—that in some measure believers might become like Jesus Christ Himself. “We are changed into the same image,” especially that we should be like Him. And in what ways will they be like Him? Well, there is no doubt that they will be like Him in holiness, as He says Himself, “Be ye holy, as I am holy.” I remember, although it is many years since, I heard a very judicious and worthy man speak at a fellowship meeting in the north of Scotland, in connection with this portion: “This people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise.” He compared the Lord’s people in-process of sanctification to children at school, and when he was at school where he used to be, the teacher himself would write the headline and then the children would try and write as like to that as they could. The headline the teacher wrote on his copy was, “Be ye holy, as I am holy.” And very touching and affecting it was to hear this worthy man speak of the sorrows of the scholars. Those that were careless had to be punished, and even those that did their best came far short.

But even in seeking holiness itself, it is in an evangelical way the people of God seek it. That is to say, they seek it through the Cross of Christ, that as “they are planted in the likeness of his death” for justification, “they should be planted in the likeness of his resurrection” for sanctification. It is not by the works of the law that they expect to be sanctified, although the law is the perfect standard according to which they are to be sanctified; but it is through Christ, and through their being enabled to put off the old man, that they become like Him in holiness. This, then, is the first lesson that they learn from Him—“that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.”

They also become like Him in lowliness of spirit. “Learn of me,” He says, “for I am meek and lowly in heart.” A proud Christian is a great contradiction. And they are like Him also in lovableness of character, as He says, “Be ye ready to forgive one another, even as God, for Christ’s sake, forgives you.”

These, then, are some of the traits of the Lord’s people which they are being made to bear, until at last they shall be made quite like Himself, and when they shall be made quite like Himself they shall be immediately raised into glory. And although their bodies will rest in the grave for a little time, the time is not long until they shall be like Him, not only in their souls but also in their bodies.

Now, dear friends, we should consider that it is about ourselves—if we are according to our profession—that we are speaking when we are speaking of the epistles of Christ. One of the ends of the ministry is just to go forth, as it were, among the people, asking for writing material. That is what we are out for, so to speak. The Lord says, “Give me thine heart.” And if you give your heart you give writing material, for Christ never got a heart but He wrote part of His epistle upon that heart. And will you not, then, give Him your heart? You will say, “I do not think my heart is worth His taking.” Well, I will use this homely figure. You know there are men going about whom we call ragmen, and they are asking for rags. And do you know what is the use that is being made of these rags? They are largely used for writing-paper. They are turned into pulp, and the pulp is turned into writing-paper; and there never was a time when there was such a price for rags as there is just now. Well, if you should have the feeling that your own heart and life are but as filthy rags, let not that keep you from giving yourself over to Christ, for He will turn you into the best of paper, and you will be used on the King’s table. He will write what will be to His own glory upon your heart, and you will have reason to thank His blessed Spirit that delivered you from the imaginations of Satan, by which a counterfeit of godly fear and of honouring His law would have kept you from giving your heart, that is but as rags, to Him. This, then, is the one main end of the ministry—asking, as it were, for writing material. Give Him your heart as it is; He will look Himself to the rest of it. He will turn it into good paper; He will write what will be for your good and for His own glory on that heart.

May He bless to us our meditation on His Word!

ONE reason why the Gospel is so unsuccessful at this day is, because the simplicity of preaching is neglected. A due application of Scripture is the best preaching; for confirming which it is remarkable, that though God may make use of the words of man in letting into the meaning of it, yet it is the very Scripture word whereby He ordinarily conveys the comfort or advantage of whatever sort; it is the tool of God’s own framing that works the effect.—Rev. Thomas Halyburton.

A SAINT is three times born. He is born into this world at his birth, he is born into the kingdom of grace at conversion, and he will be born into the kingdom of glory at death.—Rev. William White.