Echoes from a Sanctuary (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1892 Excerpt: ... IV. ON RENEWAL OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. T HAVE adopted this word of St. Paul as a fair motto for the opening day of the Christian year; and I will begin this meditation by inviting you, first of all, to consider with me three manifestations of the new life. First, it implies and includes new aims and new aspirations; and the lower aims of the past are exchanged for the higher aims of the present and future. Secondly, this new life also demands a daily renewal of faith and trust. The old faith, once delivered to the saints, is to be passionately cherished, while ever-new rays from its infinite brightness must shed fresh light upon our upward path. Thirdly, this new life means for us an increase and enlargement of that Divine gift of hope, which only becomes more precious when the treasures of the world are vanishing and melting away. This morning I will take you to some further illustrations of the presence and power of the new life in our progress towards perfection. It is, we must remember, a life of genuine and simple sincerity. So strongly did St. Paul feel the need of this grace of sincerity for the Christian life, that he prayed for his Philippian converts that they might be sincere and without offence until the day of Christ. We are too apt to associate sincerity with the many ordinary moral gifts which belong to the level of any commonplace human life; but St. Paul exalts it into a high spiritual virtue, which is to be jealously watched and guarded until the day of Christ's coming. And, indeed, it is a priceless jewel in the crown of religious life. The very word itself is full of meaning. It implies translucence and transparency. When we look into a diamond we may say that it is sincere, so perfectly can it admit the light to shine into its inmost cor...