The New Life

The New Life.
Thee, and that they should always hold converse
with Thee in that faith. Lord, let it be the one
thing in which I seek my happiness, to honor and to
please Thee by a faith that firmly holds Thee, the Invisible,
and trusts Thee in all things. Amen.
1. There is indeed something marvelous in the new life. It is
difficult to make it clear to the young Christian. The Spirit of
God teaches him to understand it after he perseveres in grace.
Jesus has laid the foundation of that life in the first word of the
Sermon on the Mount "
: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven ;
" a feeling of deep poverty and of
royal riches, of utter weakness and of kingly might exist
together in the soul. To have nothing in itself, to have all in
Christ—that is the secret of faith. And the true secret of faith
is to bring this into exercise, and, in hours of barrenness and
emptiness, still to know that we have all in Christ.
2. Forget not that the faith, of which God's word speaks so
much, stands not only in opposition to works, but also in opposition
to feeling, and therefore that for a pure life of faith you
must cease to seek your salvation, not only in works, but also in
faith. Therefore let faith always speak against feeling. When
feeling says, " In myself, I am sinful ; I am dark ; I am weak ;
I am poor ; I am sad ; " let faith say, " In Christ, I am holy ; I
am light ; I am strong ; I am rich ; I am joyful."
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