Romans 15:5-7 Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:… The time when Venn passed from the state of nature into the state of grace seems to have been, not when he threw away his cricket bat, but when, in the exercise of his ministerial function, he was arrested by an expression in the Form of Prayer, which he had been accustomed to employ, without, however, apprehending its true import. "That I may live to the glory of Thy name," was the expression. As he read it, the thought forcibly struck him, "What is it to live to the glory of God's name? Do I live as I pray? What course of life ought I to pursue to glorify God?" The prosecution of the inquiries thus suggested led to a juster conception of "the chief end of man," which, with characteristic conscientious energy, he straightway followed out by a corresponding change in his mode of life. We can imagine with what depth of sympathy and interest this circumstance would be listened to by Lady Glenorchy, who, at a later period of his life, was Venn's intimate friend, and whose religious life, like his, was dated from her serious attention to the noble answer given to the question which stands first in the Assembly's Shorter Catechism, "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever." Parallel Verses KJV: Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: |
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