Organ of Ihe Norih Carolina Conference.
SIXTIETH YEAR.
RALEIGH, N. C, JUNE 4, 1914.
NUMBER 17.
m
Jesus Brings Spiritual Life
ITH the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ something came
into the world at large which had not been there before;
at His touch something awoke in human experience
which had not been felt before. Human nature, under
His influence, discovered itself to be both greater and
fouler than it had hitherto known, and as the believer
mounted through the gateway of repentance, atonement, sanctifi
cation, he was ushered into the realms of blessedness and holy joy,
such as the best and wisest of mankind had never glimpsed till
then. "Verily I say unto you," said the Master, "that many pro
phets and righteous men have desired to see these things which ye
see, and have not seen them, and to hear the things which ye hear,
and have not heard them.1' Yes, exiled humanity has often longed
for its spiritual hope without knowing what it wanted ; in Jesus the
revelation has been given. The spiritual consciousness has awak
ened on higher levels than heretofore, and has laid hold of and as
similated eternal realities in a way that, apart from the gospel,it
had never been able to do. This is a note which you have never
heard me strike so plainly, but I cannot help it. It is becoming ever
clearer to me that the grace of God in Jesus Christ has produced
unique effects in the world; it is a thing by itself, an importation
of life and power not to be accounted for on any other grounds
than that it is the eternally perfect, the Kingdom of heaven, break
ing its way through to the plane of flesh and sense, irradiating,
transforming and uplifting the soul that yields itself to it. It is the
Spirit of Christ that creates the sense of sin and makes us aware of
our need for redemption, but it is the same Spirit that furnishes the
assurance of repentance and reveals to us the high calling of God.
-R. J. Campbell.
j