Life is a pilgrimage which men undertake and accomplish upon very different principles and to very different results and ends. In this parenthesis St. Paul very succinctly and very impressively describes the nature of that pilgrimage which he had adopted and with which he was satisfied.

I. THE WALK WITH WHICH THAT OF THE CHRISTIAN IS CONTRASTED. This, which is that of the unenlightened and unrenewed, is the walk by sight; i.e. by repressing the spiritual nature and walking by the light which earth offers, by the mere guidance of the senses, by the influence of society, the approval and esteem of men, by considerations drown from earth and limited to earth. This is a course of life in which there is no satisfaction, no safety, and no blessed prospect.

II. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WALK OF FAITH. Faith in itself is neutral; its excellence depends upon its object. The Christian regulates his course through this life of temptation, danger, and discipline by:

1. Faith in the existence of God, the God who possesses all. moral excellences as his attributes.

2. Faith in Providence; i.e. in the personal interest and care of him who is called Friend and Father.

3. Faith in God as a Saviour, which is faith in Christ, the salvation of the Lord revealed to man.

4. Faith in a righteous and authoritative taw.

5. Faith in ever-present spiritual aid - guidance, protection, bounty, etc.

6. Faith in Divine promises, by which the pilgrim is assured that he shall reach home at last.

III. THE ENCOURAGEMENTS TO UNDERTAKE AND TO PERSEVERE IN THE WALK OF FAITH.

1. It is the one principle enjoined throughout revelation, from the day of Abraham, the father of the faithful, down to the apostolic age.

2. The possibility of the walk by faith has been proved by the example of the great and the good who have gone before us (vide Hebrews 11.).

3. To those who live by faith life has a meaning and. dignity which otherwise cannot possibly attach to it.

4. Faith can sustain amidst the trials and sorrows of earth.

5. And faith is the blossom of which the vision of the glorified Saviour shall, be the heavenly and immortal fruit. - T.

I. WHAT WE ARE TO UNDERSTAND BY THE TEXT.

1. The apostle did not mean that he "laboured" —(1) To make any atonement for his sins. That had been high treason against the sovereign authority of Him who "by one offering hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified."(2) To add to the righteousness of Christ; for if he and all the saints of God had attempted to add to it, it had been to defile it.(3) To be more a child of God than he was; for he had taught that "we are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." Labour is lost here.

2. Then in what sense did he "labour"? All things that are spiritual are acceptable to God. He loves a spiritual mind; it is the reflection of Himself. Observe, there is a regular climax, an ascending gradation of expression, in these three passages (Romans 12:1, 2; 1 Thessalonians 4:1.; Colossians 1:9, 10). God loves high and holy service, the obedient spirit and the quiet heart, those who "follow on to know Him." The apostle did desire these things, and "laboured" for their attainment. Oh! with what deep self-renunciation did he labour! (1 Corinthians 15:10.)

II. WHO IT IS THAT GIVES THIS REMARKABLE DECLARATION. Was he a whir behind the very chiefest of the apostles? The Lord signally owned him. But did his apostleship, his ministry, satisfy him? This is what he says, "Wherefore we labour," etc. The apostle had been "caught up into the third heaven"; he had heard things which "it was not lawful for him to utter." Was he satisfied with revelations? He counted them all as nothing, compared with this object of his soul's desire. Paul was a man of no small attainment either, yet he said, "We labour."

III. THE REMARKABLE EXPRESSION HE CONNECTS WITH IT. "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ." No one could ever say these words that had not both his feet standing firmly upon the atonement. Conclusion: There is not one but is "labouring" for something. It may be but the floating bubble in the water. Is it pleasure? friends? intellectual attainment? the grosser or the purer walks of life? — but still without God? Oh! solemn thought I If we saw a man with his house on fire, labouring to save his goods, and then we saw him burning with his goods, no one could look without shuddering at the sight. And yet we see thousands of sinners doing it all around us.

(J. H. Evans, M. A.)

I. WE MUST NOT ONLY DO THINGS WHICH ARE ACCEPTABLE TO GOD FOR THE MATTER, BUT THIS MUST BE OUR FIXED END AND SCOPE.

1. We cannot be sincere unless this is the case. One main difference between the sincere and the hypocrite is in the end and scope. The one seeketh the approbation of men, and the other the approbation of God (2 Corinthians 1:12).

2. This makes us serious and watchful, and to keep close to our duty — the fitness of means is judged of by the end. Let a man fix upon a right end, and he will soon understand his way, and will address himself to such means as are fitted to that end, and make straight towards it without any wanderings.(1) Consider how many impertinencies are cut off if I be true to my end and great scope; e.g., when I remember that my business is to be accepted of God at the last, can I spend my time in ease and idleness, or carnal vanities and recreations? (Ecclesiastes 2:2.)(2) It will cut off all inconsistencies with our great end (Genesis 39:9).

3. This gives us comfort under the difficulties of obedience, and the hardships of our pilgrimage. The end sweetens the means. Now, what greater encouragement can there be than to think how God will welcome us with a "Well done"? (Matthew 25:21, 23.)

II. THIS MUST BE OUR WORK AS WELL AS OUR SCOPE; and this design must be carried on with the greatest seriousness, as our great care and business. "We labour." There is a double notion of great use in the spiritual life: making religion our business, and making religion our recreation. It must be our business in opposition to slightness; it must be our recreation in opposition to wearisomeness. The word in the text hath a special signification. We should with no less earnestness endeavour to please God than they that contend for honour in the world; we should make it our constant employment that God may like us for the present and take us home to Him at length into His blessed presence. What is all the world to this?

III. WE MUST NOT ONLY TAKE CARE THAT WE BE ACCEPTED OF GOD AT LAST, WHEN WE GO OUT OF THE BODY, BUT WE MUST STRIVE TO BE ACCEPTED OF HIM NOW.

1. How else can we long for the coming of Christ, if before we pass to our judgment we know not whether we shall be accepted, yea or no?

2. Else we cannot comfortably enjoy communion with God for the present. How can we come before Him if we know not whether He will accept an offering at our hands?

3. We cannot have a cheerful fruition of the creature and worldly enjoyments till God accepteth us (Ecclesiastes 9:7). Till we are in a reconciled estate, all our comforts are but as stolen waters, and bread eaten in secret, like Damocles' banquet, while a sharp sword hung over his head by a slender thread.

4. That which maketh us more lively and active in our course of pleasing God is —(1) The future judgment (ver. 10). Whom should we please, and with whom should we seek to be accepted? A vain world, or frail man, or the God to whom we must strictly give an account?(2) The hope of our presence with Him, and the beatifical vision and fruition of Him; for in the context he speaketh of presence and sight, and then he saith, "Wherefore we labour." Conclusion:

1. Some reasons of the point.(1) We were made and sent into the world for this end, that by a constant course of obedience we might approve ourselves to God, and finally be accepted of Him, and received into His glory (John 6:38).(2) We were redeemed to this end (Revelation 5:9).(3) Our entering into covenant with God implieth it.(4) The relations which result from our covenant interest. There is the relation between us and Christ of husband and spouse (Hosea 2:19). Now the duty of the wife is to please the husband (1 Corinthians 7:34). The relation of children and father (2 Corinthians 6:18). Now the duty of children is to please the parents. Masters and servants (Ezekiel 16:8). They that please themselves carry themselves as if they were their own, not God's.

2. Some study to please men.(1) How can these comply with the great duty of Christians, which is to please the Lord? (Galatians 1:10.)(2) There is no such necessity of the approbation of men as of God. Please God, and no matter who is your enemy (Proverbs 16:9).

3. Is this your great scope and end?(1) Your end will be known by your work.(2) If this be your end, it will be known by your solace (2 Corinthians 1:12).(3) If God's glory be your scope, any condition will be tolerable to you, so as you may enjoy His favour.

(T. Manton, D. D.)

I. THE SPHERE OF LABOUR TO WHICH THESE WORDS REFER. There can be nothing more prejudicial to a truly religious life than the supposition that there is any sphere into which we are not to carry our religion, and where the eye of the Master takes no cognizance of the deeds that are done. "Holiness unto the Lord must be written upon the bells of the horses." We must give an account of all the things done in the body. Every province of our life belongs to the kingdom of Christ.

1. The servant or workman has another Master besides the human master that he serves, and all his secular work is done to Christ (Colossians 3:22). The workman then, as such, is a servant of Christ.

2. The master, too, has a Master as well as the workman, to whom he shall have to render an account of the deeds done in the body (Colossians 4:1).

3. This sphere of labour also embraces trade and commerce.

4. Kings and subjects, as such, are also to serve Christ.

5. Our sphere of labour also embraces all the relationships of life which we sustain, and the works of benevolence to which we are called. The love of parents for their children and of children for their parents is service rendered to God.

6. I need scarcely add that this sphere embraces what we are accustomed specially to call religious life and work. We are to labour in prayer and self-culture; to keep our hearts with all diligence and our bodies under subjection: this requires self-denial and toil. We are to strive daily to grow in grace.

II. THE MOTIVE BY WHICH WE ARE TO RE INFLUENCED AND ANIMATED IN OUR WORK, "that we may be accepted of Him." It was this that stimulated the apostle's heart and strengthened his hands and fired his zeal.

1. This will make our work pleasant. How much pleasanter the ordinary duties of life would become if we could feel that in doing them we serve Christ!

2. We shall also enjoy the presence and favour of Christ. The man who serves Christ in everything will find Christ in everything.

3. Service done from this motive will at length receive its full reward.

1. Let us learn, then, from this subject that religion enters into every department of human life. There is nothing secular in the sense that it is not also sacred.

2. How diligent and conscientious this should make us in the discharge of every duty! He sees us, He examines us, He rewards us.

(A. Clark.)

I. THE SUPREME AIM OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. To be "accepted," "well-pleasing"; not merely that we may be accepted, but that we may bring a smile into Christ's face, and some delight in us into His heart. Set that two-fold aim before you, else you will fail to experience the full stimulus of this thought.

1. Now such an aim implies a very wonderful conception of Christ's present relations to us. We may minister to His joy. Just as really as you mothers are glad when you hear from a far-off land that your boy is doing well, so Christ's heart fills with gladness when He sees you and me walking in the paths in which He would have us go. That we may please Him "who pleased not Himself," is surely the grandest motive on which the pursuit of holiness and the imitation of Christ can ever be made to rest. Oh! how much more blessed such a motive is than all the lower reasons for which men are sometimes exhorted to be good! What a difference it is when we say, "Do that thing because it is right," or "Do that thing because you will be happier if you do," or when we say, "Do it because He would like you to do it." Transmute obligation into gratitude, and in front of duty and appeals to self put Christ, and all the difficulty and burden of obedience become easy, and a joy.

2. This one supreme aim can be carried on through all life in every varying form, great or small. A blessed unity is given to our whole being when the little and the big, the easy and the hard things, are all brought under the influence of the one motive and made co-operant to the one end. Drive that one steadfast aim through your lives like a bar of iron, and it will give the lives strength and consistency, not rigidity, because they may still be flexible. Nothing will be too small to be consecrated by that motive; nothing too great to own its power. You can please Him everywhere and always. The only thing that is inconsistent is to sin against Him. If we bear with us this as a conscious motive in every part of our day's work, it will give us a quick discernment as to what is evil which nothing else will so surely give.

II. THE CONCENTRATED EFFORT WHICH THIS AIM REQUIRES. The word rendered "labour" is very seldom employed in Scripture. It means literally, to be fond of honour, or to be actuated by a love of honour; and hence it comes, by a very natural transition, to mean, to strive to gain something for the sake of the honour connected with it. We ought, as Christians —

1. To cultivate this ambition. Men have all got the love of approbation deep in them. God put it there, not that we might shape our lives so as to get others to pat us on the back, and say, "Well done!" but that, in addition to the other solemn motives for righteousness, we might have this highest ambition to impel us on the road. That will take some cultivation. It is a great deal easier to shape our courses so as to get one another's praise. A prime condition of all Christ-pleasing life is a wholesome disregard of what anybody says but Himself. The old Lacedaemonians used to stir themselves to heroism by the thought: "What will they say of us in Sparta?" The governor of some English colony minds very little what the people think about him. He reports to Downing Street, and it is the opinion of the Home Government that influences him. You report to headquarters. Never mind what anybody else thinks of you. Be deaf to the tittle-tattle of your fellow-soldiers in the ranks. It is your Commander's smile that will be your highest reward.

2. To strive with the utmost energy in the accomplishment of it. Paul's notion of acceptable service was service which a man suppressed much to render, and overcame much to bring. Look at his metaphors — a warfare, a race, a struggle, a building up of some great temple structure, and the like — all suggesting the idea of patient, persistent, continuous toil, and most of them suggesting also the idea of struggle with antagonistic forces and difficulties, either within or without. So we must set our shoulders to the wheel, put our backs into our work. But then do not forget that deeper than all effort, and the very spring and life of it, there must be the opening of our hearts for the entrance of His life and spirit by the presence of which only are we well-pleasing to Christ. According to the old illustration, the refiner sat by the furnace until he could see in the molten metal his own face mirrored, and then he knew it was pure. So what pleases Christ in us is the reflection of Himself. And how can we get that except by receiving into our hearts the Spirit that was in Christ Jesus, that will dwell in us, and will produce in us in our measure the same image that it formed in Him? "Work out your own salvation," because "it is God that worketh in you."

III. THE UTTER INSIGNIFICANCE TO WHICH THIS AIM REDUCES ALL EXTERNALS.

1. What differences of condition are covered by that parenthetical phrase — "present or absent!" He talks about it as if it was a very small matter. If the difference between life and death is dwarfed, what else do you suppose will remain? Whether we be rich or poor, solitary or beset by friends, young or old, it matters not. The one aim lifts itself before us, and they in whose eyes shine the light of that great issue are careless of the road along which they pass.

2. Then remember that this same aim and this same result may be equally pursued and attained whether here or yonder. On earth, in death, through eternity, such a life will be homogeneous, and of a piece; and when all other aims are forgotten and out of sight, then still this will be the purpose, and yonder it will be the accomplished purpose of each, to please the Lord Jesus Christ.

(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Corinthians, PaulAchaia, CorinthAbsent, Accepted, Agreeable, Aim, Ambition, Ambitious, Body, Exile, Home, Labor, Labour, Perfectly, Please, Pleasing, Present, Purpose, Reason, Well-pleasing, Wherefore, Whether, Zealous1. That in his assured hope of immortal glory,
9. and in expectation of it, he labors to keep a good conscience;
12. not that he may boast of himself,
14. but as one that, having received life from Christ,
17. endeavors to live as a new creature to Christ only,
18. and by his ministry of reconciliation, to reconcile others also in Christ to God.

2 Corinthians 5:9

     8409   decision-making, and providence
     8441   goals
     8460   pleasing God

2 Corinthians 5:1-10

     5339   home

2 Corinthians 5:6-10

     9315   resurrection, of believers

2 Corinthians 5:6-14

     5109   Paul, apostle

2 Corinthians 5:8-10

     5136   body

2 Corinthians 5:9-10

     6030   sin, avoidance
     8245   ethics, incentives
     8332   reputation

2 Corinthians 5:9-12

     5910   motives, examples

August 1. "For we must all Appear Before the Judgment Seat of Christ; that Every one May Receive the Things done in his Body, According to that He Hath Done" (ii Cor. v. 10).
"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done" (II Cor. v. 10). It will not always be the day of toil and trial. Some day, we shall hear our names announced before the universe, and the record read of things that we had long forgotten. How our hearts will thrill, and our heads will bow, as we shall hear our own names called, and then the Master shall recount the triumph and the services which we had …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

The Work and Armour of the Children of the Day
'Let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet the hope of salvation.'--1 THESS. v. 8. This letter to the Thessalonians is the oldest book of the New Testament. It was probably written within something like twenty years of the Crucifixion; long, therefore, before any of the Gospels were in existence. It is, therefore, exceedingly interesting and instructive to notice how this whole context is saturated with allusions to our Lord's teaching, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Great Reconciliation
"God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." 2 COR. V. 19. Such considerations as we have had before us, are of far more than theoretical interest. They are of all questions the most practical. Sin is not a curious object which we examine from an aloof and external standpoint. However we regard it, to whatever view of its nature we are led, it is, alas, a fact within and not merely outside our experience. And so we are at length brought to this most personal and most urgent inquiry, …
J. H. Beibitz—Gloria Crucis

Tent and Building
For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.'--2 COR. v. 1. Knowledge and ignorance, doubt and certitude, are remarkably blended in these words. The Apostle knows what many men are not certain of; the Apostle doubts as to what all men now are certain of. 'If our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved'--there is surely no if about that. But we must remember that the first Christians, …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)

The Love that Constrains
'The love of Christ constraineth us.'--2 COR. v. 14. It is a dangerous thing to be unlike other people. It is still more dangerous to be better than other people. The world has a little heap of depreciatory terms which it flings, age after age, at all men who have a higher standard and nobler aims than their fellows. A favourite term is 'mad.' So, long ago they said, 'The prophet is a fool; the spiritual man is mad,' and, in His turn, Jesus was said to be 'beside Himself,' and Festus shouted from …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)

Pleasing Christ
'We labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of Him.'--2 COR. v. 2. We do not usually care very much for, or very much trust, a man's own statement of the motives of his life, especially if in the statement he takes credit for lofty and noble ones. And it would be rather a dangerous experiment for the ordinary run of so-called Christian people to stand up and say what Paul says here, that the supreme design and aim towards which all their lives are directed is to please Jesus Christ. …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)

The Entreaties of God
'Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech ... by us: we pray ... in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.'--2 COR. v. 20. These are wonderful and bold words, not so much because of what they claim for the servants as because of what they reveal of the Lord. That thought, 'as though God did beseech,' seems to me to be the one deserving of our attention now, far rather than any inferences which may be drawn from the words as to the relation of preachers of the Gospel to …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)

The Patient Workman
'Now He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God.'--2 COR. v. 5. These words penetrate deep into the secrets of God. They assume to have read the riddle of life. To Paul everything which we experience, outwardly or inwardly, is from the divine working. Life is to him no mere blind whirl, or unintelligent play of accidental forces, nor is it the unguided result of our own or of others' wills, but is the slow operation of the great Workman. Paul assumes to know the meaning of this protracted …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)

The Old House and the New
'We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.'--2 COR. v. 8. There lie in the words of my text simply these two things; the Christian view of what death is, and the Christian temper in which to anticipate it. I. First, the Christian view of what death is. Now it is to be observed that, properly speaking, the Apostle is not here referring to the state of the dead, but to the act of dying. The language would more literally and accurately …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)

The Sacrifice of Christ.
Preached June 23, 1850. THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. "For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that He died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again."--2 Corinthians v. 14, 15. It may be, that in reading these verses some of us have understood them in a sense foreign to that of the apostle. It may have seemed that the arguments ran thus--Because Christ …
Frederick W. Robertson—Sermons Preached at Brighton

The Believer a New Creature
We have two great truths here, which would serve us for the subject of meditation for many a day: the believer's position--he is "in Christ;" and the believer's character--he is a "new creature." Upon both of these we shall speak but briefly this morning, but may God grant that we may find instruction therein. I. First, then, let us consider THE CHRISTIAN'S POSITION--he is said to be "in Christ." There are three stages of the human soul in connection with Christ: the first is without Christ, this …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 15: 1869

The Great Assize
Beside that direct testimony, it should be remembered there is a convincing argument that so it must needs be, from the very fact that God is just as the Ruler over men. In all human governments there must he an assize held. Government cannot be conducted without its days of session and of trial, and, inasmuch as there is evidently sin and evil in this world, it might fairly be anticipated that there would be a time when God will go on circuit, and when he will call the prisoners before him, and …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 18: 1872

Substitution
Note the doctrine; the use of it; the enjoyment of it. I. First, THE DOCTRINE. There are three persons mentioned here. "He (that is God) hath made him (that is Christ) who knew no sin, to be sin for us (sinners) that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Before we can understand the plan of salvation, it is necessary for us to know something about the three persons, and, certainly, unless we understand them in some measure, salvation is to us impossible. 1. Here is first, GOD. Let every …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 3: 1857

Christ --Our Substitute
Little however, did I think I should live to see this kind of stuff taught in pulpits; I had no idea that there would come out a divinity, which would bring down God's moral government from he solemn aspect in which Scripture reveals it, to a namby-pamby sentimentalism, which adores a Deity destitute of every masculline virtue. But we never know to-day what may occur to-morrow. We have lived to see a certain sort of men--thank God they are not Baptists--though I am sorry to say there are a great …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 6: 1860

A Solemn Embassy
"Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."--2 Corinthians 5:20. THERE has long been war between man and his Maker. Our federal head, Adam, threw down the gauntlet in the garden of Eden. The trumpet was heard to ring through the glades of Paradise, the trumpet which broke the silence of peace and disturbed the song of praise. From that day forward until now there has been no truce, no treaty between God and …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 62: 1916

"But if the Spirit of Him that Raised up Jesus from the Dead Dwell in You, He that Raised up Christ from the Dead Shall Also
Rom. viii. 11.--"But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." It is true the soul is incomparably better than the body, and he is only worthy the name of a man and of a Christian who prefers this more excellent part, and employs his study and time about it, and regards his body only for the noble guest that lodges within it, and therefore it is one of the …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The Life of Mr. Hugh Binning.
There being a great demand for the several books that are printed under Mr. Binning's name, it was judged proper to undertake a new and correct impression of them in one volume. This being done, the publishers were much concerned to have the life of such an useful and eminent minister of Christ written, in justice to his memory, and his great services in the work of the gospel, that it might go along with this impression. We living now at so great distance from the time wherein he made a figure in …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Of Meditating on the Future Life.
The three divisions of this chapter,--I. The principal use of the cross is, that it in various ways accustoms us to despise the present, and excites us to aspire to the future life, sec. 1, 2. II. In withdrawing from the present life we must neither shun it nor feel hatred for it; but desiring the future life, gladly quit the present at the command of our sovereign Master, see. 3, 4. III. Our infirmity in dreading death described. The correction and safe remedy, sec. 6. 1. WHATEVER be the kind of …
Archpriest John Iliytch Sergieff—On the Christian Life

Death and Judgement.
TO THE AUTHOR OF THE GUARDIAN. Sir, THE inclosed is a faithful translation from an old author, which if it deserves your notice, let the reader guess whether he was a Heathen or a Christian. I am, Your most humble Servant. "I cannot, my friends, forbear letting you know what I think of death; for, methinks, I view and understand it much better, the nearer I approach to it. 1 am convinced that your fathers, those illustrious persons whom 1 so much loved and honoured, do not cease to live, though they …
Joseph Addison—The Evidences of the Christian Religion, with Additional Discourses

The Inwardness of Prayer
The Inwardness of Prayer It is difficult and even formidable thing to write on prayer, and one fears to touch the Ark. Perhaps no one ought to undertake it unless he has spent more toil in the practice of prayer than on its principle. But perhaps also the effort to look into its principle may be graciously regarded by Him who ever liveth to make intercession as itself a prayer to know better how to pray. All progress in prayer is an answer to prayer--our own or another's. And all true prayer …
P. T. Forsyth—The Soul of Prayer

The Work of Regeneration.
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold all things are become new."--2 Cor. v. 17. In our former article we contended that regeneration is a real act of God in which man is absolutely passive and unable, according to the ancient confession of the Church. Let us now reverently examine this matter more closely; not to penetrate into things too high for us, but to cut off error and to clear the consciousness. Regeneration is not sacramentally effected …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

But this Being the Case, How to this Opinion that Should not be Contrary...
2. But this being the case, how to this opinion that should not be contrary which the Apostle says, "For we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, that each may receive according to the things he hath done by the body, [2710] whether good or bad;" [2711] this, thou signifiest, thou dost not well see. For this apostolic sentence doth before death admonish to be done, that which may profit after death; not then, first, when there is to be now a receiving of that which a person shall have …
St. Augustine—On Care to Be Had for the Dead.

In the Work of the Redemption of Man, not Only the Mercy, but Also the Justice, of God is Displayed.
In the work of the Redemption of man, not only the mercy, but also the justice, of God is displayed. 15. Man therefore was lawfully delivered up, but mercifully set free. Yet mercy was shown in such a way that a kind of justice was not lacking even in his liberation, since, as was most fitting for man's recovery, it was part of the mercy of the liberator to employ justice rather than power against man's enemy. For what could man, the slave of sin, fast bound by the devil, do of himself to recover …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

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