er of that death,
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and will remain under it forever, unless raised by the power of
God. Hence we hear Christ say "I am the resurrection and the life;
be that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live, and
he that liveth and believeth in me shall never die. I am the way and
the truth and the life. Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man
and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." He therefore who
would have spiritual life is to look to Christ for it. He is to seek,
through faith in Christ, that baptism of the Holy Ghost which will
cleanse him from sin; or in other words, raise him up from his
spiritual death, and make him alive to the love and enjoyment of
God. That same God who first breathed into man the breath of
spiritual life, so that he became a living soul-must again by the
power of that same Spirit breathe spiritual life anew, or the sinner
will remain dead in sin forever. All his contemplations of the love of
God, without this Baptism of the Holy Ghost, this resurrection
from spiritual death by the power of Christ, will avail nothing. Men
will by such contemplations, become no better than whited
sepulchres. If the outside is beautiful, the uncleanness will all
remain within. "If ye believe not that I am he," said Christ "ye shall
die in your sins." "And whither I go ye cannot come." If ye believe
not that I am who? Why the Savior whom God promised to send
into the world; and whose "name was called Jesus, because he
should save his people from their sins."
The question then, for you to settle, my hearers, is this. Have
you been baptised by the Holy Ghost? Have you been raised up by
the power of Christ's spiritual resurrection from the death of sin
and made alive unto God, and had that kingdom of God
established within you which "is righteousness, peace, and joy in
the Holy Ghost." If not you are dead in sin, and your expectation
of going where Christ is, in your present state, will avail you
nothing. To the Jews, Christ said, ye will not come unto me that ye
may have life. Coming to the doctrine of Universal Salvation then,
will not cleanse men from sin, and give them spiritual life. They
must come to Christ for it by faith, and receive it by the power of
the Holy Ghost, for "the kingdom of God is not in word but in
power." I beseech you therefore my hearers to abandon all
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hope of salvation from sin from the doctrine of Un