New Christian

“ We cannot expect anything other or better than what we have, i.e. what the people, or the young Christian community, related about the life of the founder of the new religion, unless it were a record from the hand of the founder of our religion himself; for even the apostles are only depicted as men, and their comprehension is represented as purely human and often very fallible. ”

“ As from a good seed springs up good fruit, so from the Word and Sacraments should spring up within us the noble life of regeneration, or the new birth; the new, holy, and spiritual man; or, to speak all in one word, a true and real Christian. For he that is a Christian, must needs be born again of the Spirit, the Word, and the Sacraments, and believe and live in Christ, as in the primary principle of the life of grace. As certainly as a child is begotten by his father, so truly must the Christian be begotten of God and of Christ, through faith. ”

“ That new man is not only new, but is perpetually being renewed with a renovation penetrating more and more deeply, and extending more and more widely, in the Christian's nature. It is continually [132] advancing in knowledge, and tending towards perfect knowledge of Christ. It is being fashioned, by a better creation than that of Adam, into a more perfect likeness of God than our first father bore in his sinless freshness. The possession of it gathers all Christians into a unity in which all distinctions of nationality, religious privilege, culture, or social condition, are lost. ”

“ In all things; in knowledge, love, faith, and all the parts of the new man. We should grow up towards maturity, which is opposed to being children. Those are improving Christians who grow up into Christ. The more we grow into an acquaintance with Christ, faith in him, love to him, dependence upon him, the more we shall flourish in every grace. He is the head; and we should thus grow, that we may thereby honour our head. The Christian's growth tends to the glory of Christ. ”

“ With the first conversions to the new religion, arose the problem: What human feelings, what loves and interests of this world, shall the believer recognize as according with his faith, and as offering no obstacle to the love of God and the attainment of eternal life? A practical answer was given by the growth of an indeterminate asceticism within the Christian communities, which in the fourth century went forth with power, and peopled the desert with anchorites and monks. ”

“ When every individual man becomes Christian in spirit—repudiate the name, if you like—when every individual man becomes as prayerful as Christ was, as loving and forgiving towards enemies as Christ was, as self-sacrificing as Christ was, then these little units, these little individualities, will coalesce and combine together by the natural affinity of their hearts; and these new creatures, reformed, regenerated, in the child-like and Christ-like spirit of devotion and faith, will feel drawn towards each other, and they shall constitute a real Christian church, a real Christian nation. ”

“ The personality, then, but not the tripersonality of God—his absolute oneness in essence and in person, in Whom, nevertheless, are three inseparable essentials—this, coupled with the assumption and glorification of the human by the Divine, is the central doctrine of the true Christian religion, according to the teachings of the New Church. ”

“ So those that are renewed by the Word, and Spirit, and Faith of Christ, are said to be regenerated, converted, and transformed, to put off the old man, and put on the new man, and to be new creatures; but they are not said to become another substance, to be transubstantiated; for men thus converted are still the same human body, and the same rational soul as before, though in a far better state and condition, as every Christian will acknowledge. ”

“ To become new men means losing what we now call ‘ourselves’. Out of our selves, into Christ, we must go. His will is to become ours and we are to think His thoughts, to ‘have the mind of Christ’ as the Bible says. ”

“ Or consider the following inspiring cases of young men who because of the power of the new life that was imparted to them were not afraid or ashamed to be known as Christians. Rather they counted all their former social position and ease and wealth as so much rubbish compared with the great joy and peace that had come to them through the personal knowledge of Jesus Christ. ”

“ This is the burning question with all of us, with you in the desert as with us up here under the Pole. To me it seems that we need One who will make our religion new—not merely a new prophet, but a new God. ”

“ To this end instructions were delivered to them, that under the divine tuition "they might be renewed in the spirit of their mind; and put on the new man which after God's image, is created in righteousness and true holiness." ”

“ The end for which God created man, according to the belief and teaching of the New Church, was, that there might be a heaven of angels from the human race—a countless host of rational, wise and loving creatures, images and likenesses of Himself, capable of receiving his own life, and of being made unspeakably and eternally happy in the mutual and reciprocal impartation of that life. ”

“ In reality there is but one kind of Church growth that is to be cared for, or that is possible, and that is the growth of the character and spirit, the wisdom and love of the Lord Jesus in the minds and hearts of men. ”

“ Blessed be God, the salvation of the children of God is completed without this, but we must be born again to know this salvation is ours; and to pretend to lay claim to such Salvation, without being born again, is most daring presumption! This new Birth is a change of heart and life; the formation of a new man; an infusion of holy principles—all new—every thing; that is, every principle which the Holy Spirit inspires is new; new views, new sensations, new ideas, new pursuits; and new trials; all is become new. If any man be in Christ Jesus he is become new. ”

“ The fact that he changes his name as soon as he throws himself into public and active life, is but gathering into one picturesque symbol his great principle; 'If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away and all things are become new.'
So, dear brethren, we may, from this incident before us, gather this one great lesson, that the central heart of Christianity is the possession of a new life, communicated to us through faith in that Son of God, Who is the Lord of the Spirit. Wheresoever there is a true faith, there is a new nature. ”

“ And instead of telling us the height and depth of the blessing of having the nature and life of Christ derived into us, they can only teach us, what kind of word regeneration is—that it is a figurative expression—and that our Saviour may be justified, for having made use of it. What learned pains do people take, to root up the belief of our having a new life in Christ? ”

“ Is it possible for us sufficiently to divest ourselves of our inherited and acquired prejudices, our theology, our thought-forms and the accepted standards of conduct, to enter into an appreciation of the experience of those to whom the words and presence of Jesus came as a new experience? ”

“ Our past work and opportunities are but a drop in the bucket compared with our present opportunities for work. As never before, it behooves us to raise the banner of New Testament Christianity as a standard to rally and reorganize the divided, confused and retreating hosts of Christ. ”

“ Performing all our common every-day duties faithfully, honestly, conscientiously, and in the spirit of true neighborly love—at the same time inwardly and humbly acknowledging that it is the Lord who gives us the power and the disposition thus to live and act—this, according to the belief and teaching of the New Church, is living a religious life. ”

“ Like medieval Christianity, it calls for a new Reformation--not a new creed but a new heart, the heart of a little child, humble, self-distrustful, not quick to resent, or even to see a slight, eager to love, delighting to serve. ”

“ We shall love the Father as He does and the Holy Ghost will arise in us. He came to this world and became a man in order to spread to other men the kind of life He has—by what I call ‘good infection’. Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else. ”

“ These words plainly teach us, that Christianity implies an entire change of nature: that as our birth was to us the beginning of a new life, and brought us into a society of earthly enjoyments, so Christianity is another birth, that brings us into a condition as new as when we first saw the light. ”

“ You will hear very little about the new birth in modern preaching. Modern missionaries will tell you, you must give up the thought of winning individual converts in mission lands. For the new birth they are inclined to substitute "the social gospel." ”

“ That in reality we unite with Christ's Church only as we become unselfish and pure, and are new-born babes into the Life that is Truth, casting out error and healing the sick, thus re-establishing the Christianity of ancient Prophet and Apostle. ”

“ He sees quite clearly that Christianity is to be a new life, a new social and ethical manifestation in the world, because Christians believe that God has made plain to them in Jesus Christ His character, nature, and redemptive purposes, and has given, by His Spirit, a practical power to their wills to correspond with the truth revealed to their intelligences and hearts. ”

“ But I hear (added he) you preach to a great number of people every night and morning. Pray, what would you do with them? Whither would you lead them? What religion do you preach? What is it good for?” I replied, “I do preach to as many as desire to hear, every night and morning.” You ask, “What I would do with them?” I would make them virtuous and happy, easy in themselves, and useful to others. “Whither would I lead them?” To heaven; to God the Judge, the lover of all, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant. “What religion do I preach?” The religion of love; ”

“ We feel very thankful to you for your visit to us, to shew us how wretched and miserable we are in our present condition, and to tell us what the Great Spirit would have us do to make us wise, good, and happy; for my part I am ready and willing to become a Christian. I hope that all my young men will become good and wise, and serve the Great Spirit. ”

“ But I trust it will be seen that what is contained in this book is at least a self-consistent whole: every arc of the circle implies every other. It only remains to reiterate my conviction that the movement represented by the New Theology is only incidentally theological at all; it is primarily a moral and spiritual movement. It is one symptom of a great religious awakening which in the end will re-inspire civilisation with a living faith in God and the spiritual meaning of life. ”

“ A new Age is ushered in by the influx of new life and the revelation of new and higher truth. From underneath the cloud of the letter—out from the living soul of Scripture—the Sun of righteousness arises with healing in his wings. And thus, to humble and open minds, the incarnate God comes and reveals Himself anew—comes with new power and glory in the clouds. Agreeable to his own prophetic declaration: "And they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." ”

“ And even after he had felt the spiritual change, which forms the great line of distinction in the human character, he retained, for a long time, too many of his old prejudices against them. But, becoming an active agent of the Bible Society, he was unexpectedly brought into contact with some whom he found to be men of sense, of piety, of zeal, and of candour; more disposed to disseminate the pure faith of Christianity, than propagate their own peculiar tenets. ”

“ I had cut loose from conditions unfriendly to Christian experience, and I was trying to be a Christian. But I was still in the fog.
For the next three days I worked very hard trying to be a Christian. I attended a meeting each night, rose for prayer, prayed, did everything I was told to do, and as much more as I could think of. The burden of my prayer and of my requests for prayer was that I might have faith. I wanted to get something that I thought every Christian had, or must have in order to be a Christian, and so far as I knew, I was willing to pay the price. ”

“ July 11th.—A man from a neighbouring village was present to-day, who has been a constant attendant for some time. He was asked why he had expressed a wish to become a Christian? He answered, ‘For the sake of salvation.’ What had he heard, that should induce him to hope for salvation in Christianity? He said, ‘He had never heard of any whose birth corresponded with that of Christ; that to raise the dead, and himself to rise from the dead, proved him to be the Son of God, and able to give remission of sins. He to-day took his meal with the Christians, by which his caste is gone. ”

“ The man of all others, however, in that community who would most have delighted in and gladly accepted those views, so old and yet so new, was not there, although almost in hearing of the preacher, who, with such eloquence and power, was setting forth the primitive gospel. ”

“ Thus oneness in faith and in love, participation in the memorial feast and in devotional acts bound the new converts to the original believers, and trained them towards maturity. These are still the methods by which a sudden influx of converts is best dealt with, and babes in Christ nurtured to full growth. Alas! that so often churches do not know what to do with novices when they come in numbers. ”

“ So that if we think and act as Christians, we act suitably to these terms of our condition, fearing and avoiding all the motions of our corrupted nature, cherishing the secret inspirations of the Holy Spirit, opening our minds for the reception of the divine light, and pressing after all the perfections of our new birth. ”