It is by the work of the Holy Spirit with us that we obtain a personal interest in the work wrought on Calvary for us.  If our sins are canceled, they are also crucified.  If we are reconciled in Christ, we fight against our God no more.  This is the fruit of faith.  “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness.”  May the Lord inspire in every one of us that saving principle!

But those who have been restored to the divine favor may sometimes be cast down and dejected.  They have passed through the sea, and sung praises on the shore of deliverance; but there is yet between them and Canaan “a waste howling wilderness,” a long and weary pilgrimage, hostile nations, fiery serpents, scarcity of food, and the river of Jordan.  Fears within and fightings without, they may grow discouraged, and yield to temptation and murmur against God, and desire to return to Egypt.  But fear not, thou worm Jacob!  Reconciled by the death of Christ; much more, being reconciled, thou shalt be saved by His life.  His death was the price of our redemption; His life insures liberty to the believer.  If by His death He brought you through the Red Sea in the night, by His life He can lead you through the river Jordan in the day.  If by His death He delivered you from the iron furnace in Egypt, by His life He can save you from all perils of the wilderness.  If by His death He conquered Pharaoh, the chief foe, by His life He can subdue Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, the king of Bashan.  “We shall be saved by his life.”  Because He liveth, we shall live also.  “Be of good cheer!” The work is finished; the ransom is effected; the kingdom of heaven is open to all believers.  “Lift up your heads and rejoice,” “ye prisoners of hope!” There is no debt unpaid, no devil unconquered, no enemy within your hearts that has not received a mortal wound!  “Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ!”

SCHLEIERMACHER

CHRIST’S RESURRECTION AN IMAGE OF OUR NEW LIFE

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Friedrich Ernst Daniel Schleiermacher, German theologian and philosopher, was born at Breslau in 1768.  He was brought up in a religious home and in 1787 went to the University of Halle, and in 1789 became a Privat-Docent.  In 1794 he was ordained and preached successively at Landsberg and Berlin.  The literary and philosophical side of his intellect developed itself in sympathy with the Romanticists, but he never lost his passion for religion, a subject on which he published five discurses in 1799.  We find in them a trace of the pantheism of Spinoza.  His translation of Plato, accomplished between 1804 and 1806, gave him high rank as a classical scholar.  In 1817 he joined the movement toward the union of the Lutheran and Reformed churches.  As a preacher he was unprepossessing in appearance, being sickly and hunchbacked, but his simplicity of manner, and his clear, earnest style endeared him to many thousands.  He died in Berlin in 1834.