"Born of the Spirit;" or, Gems from the Book of LifeOsborne, Zenas
Religion
"Born of the Spirit;" or, Gems from the Book of Life
Osborne, Zenas
Free Methodist Church of North America; Osborne, Zenas
The Bible is positive in all its statements. The religion of
Jesus Christ is positive. All the work of the Spirit is positive;
conviction, regeneration, the witness of the Spirit, pardon and
purity, are alike positive; and so in every step in grace, from
its beginning to its consummation in glory. Thinking, hoping, and
guessing, that I am a child of God, is dispensed with in the work
of grace. The real child of God has passed from the doubtful,
misty, uncertainties, to a glorious realization of facts. We hear
him exclaim, I know that my redeemer liveth, Glory to God! Again,
whereas I was once blind, I now see. Once more, I am crucified with
Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and
the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the
Son of God. Brother, sister, dispose of your uncertain experiences,
and get a positive, Bible holiness, bearing its legitimate
fruit--righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
XXXV.
THE DEAD LINE.
During the great Rebellion, the rebels had, at Andersonville, a
prison, or stockade, where our fathers, brothers, and sons were
unmercifully murdered. Within this stockade was drawn a line,
marking the utmost limits of their freedom, and this was called “The
Dead-line.” It said to the prisoners, “Thus far thou shalt go, and no
farther.” The penalty of death was inflicted upon all that approached
this line. Many received the deadly bullet for daring to tread
forbidden ground.
_The Dead-line_ fairly represents this world, and the utmost limits
of our freedom. When God created man, he placed him in Paradise,
and put around him the “dead-line,” saying “In the day thou eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die.” Adam transgressed the command of
God, and received the death-penalty. _Adam died._
_The Dead-line_ is still visible, and laid down in the great Statute
Book, as the “broad way that leads to death.” We see almost every
day, men and women approaching the Dead-line, and death ensues.
“Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world, is the enemy
of God.” Was it not strange, that our boys in blue, in seeing their
comrades shot down daily for approaching this line, would go in the
same direction, and receive their fate?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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