The New Life

The New Life.
The assurance of faith is indispensable to a healthy,
powerful growth in the Lord.i
The second point which this word teaches you is :
you are still very weak— weak, as new-born children.
The joy and the love which a young convert sometimes
experiences do indeed make him think that he
is very strong. He runs the risk of exalting himself,
and of trusting in what he experiences. He must
nevertheless learn much of how he must become
strong in his I,ord Jesus. Endeavor to feel deeply
that you are still young and weak.'^ Out of this sense
of weakness comes the humility which has nothing*
in itself, and therefore expects all from its Lord.*
The third lesson is : l/ie young- Christian 7nust
not reniaift weak; he must grow and increase in
grace; he must make progress and become strong.
God lays it upon us as a command. His word gives
Tis, concerning this point, the most glorious promises.
It lies in the nature of the thing : a child of God must
and can make progress. The new life is a life that is
healthy and strong : when a disciple surrenders himself
to it, the growth certainly comes.*
The fourth and principal lesson—the lesson which
young disciples of Christ have most need of—is : it is
through the milk of the word that God's 7iew-born infants
can grow. The new life from the Spirit of God
lEph. V. 8 ; Col. ii. 6 ; i Pet. i. 14, 19.
'i Cor. iii. i, 13 ; Heb. v. 13, 14.
'Matt. V. 3 Rom. xii. 3, 10 ; ; Eph. iv. 2 ;
Phil. ii. 3, 4 ; Col. iii. 12.
*Matt. viii. 8, 15, 27, 28.
* Judg. V. 31 ; Ps. Ixxxiv. 8, xcii. 13, 14 ;
Prov. iv. 18 ; Isa. xl
31 ; Epli. iv. 14 ; I Thess. iv. i ;
2 Pet iii. 18.
*i8