[Feb. 24th, 1878.]
Few words in the New Testament are of more frequent occurrence or of more varied application than the word grace. All its specific meanings spring from its primary sense of undeserved love. The love of a parent is not grace; but the love of a superior to an inferior, and especially to the undeserving, is grace. Hence the love of God to sinners is grace. It is a wonderful and glorious attribute; not mere compassion, but love, delight in its object. Hence any gift flowing from this undeserved love is grace, as repentance, faith, etc., etc. Hence, also, the great gift, the influence of the Spirit, is pre-eminently grace; then the effect which the Spirit produces, , spiritual-mindedness, i.e., the new heart, the law on the mind. The word has, therefore, an objective and a subjective sense. Here it is used in the latter sense. To grow in grace is to grow in piety.
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The new nature is a new life, and all life is progression; vegetable, animal, rational and spiritual. All these have their limits. Spiritual life does not reach its limit in this world. Paul says, when he was a child, he had not the perfection of a man.
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Wherein this growth consists. It consists mainly in increase of knowledge and increase of strength; strength to resist evil and to do good, to preserve a right state inwardly and a right action outwardly.
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The conditions of growth, are nourishment, air, exercise, light and heat. It is so in plants, in animals, in rational life, and in spiritual life. The nourishment of spiritual life is truth. Exercise is bringing into action all Christian graces, action inward and outward. Light and heat are the presence and communion of God and Christ. The air is the constant sense of nearness to God.
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Cultivation, in this case, is the diligent use of the means of grace. The farmer must labor; so must the student, and so also the Christian. Good fruit will not grow of itself; neither will the mind, nor will piety.
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Connection of growth in grace and knowledge of Christ. In one sense they are identical. In another, the latter is the means of the former. We grow in grace as we grow in the knowledge of Christ.
Importance of this subject:
We go back unless we go forward.
We go forward only by labor.
We cannot float up stream.
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