Homilist Ezekiel 18:31 Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby you have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit… I. Soul reformation is an IMPERATIVE WORK. 1. It is practicable. 2. It is essential. (1) Man's present heart is his guilt and ruin. He has given himself the "stony heart," the heart that stands hard as granite against the Divine influences of love and truth. (2) All other reformations are worthless unless the heart be renewed. II. Soul reformation is SELF-WORK. No one can do this work for you. You may build houses, plant farms, educate your children by proxy, but this is work that you yourself must do, and no one else. But how is it to be done? What is the way? Concentrated thought upon the infinite loving tenderness of that God against whom we have sinned, as demonstrated in the biography of Christ. 1. Such thought is adapted to the end. Ah! millions of stony hearts have been transformed into flesh as they have mused on Calvary. 2. Men have the power of giving this concentrated thought. All men are thinkers, and all men are thinking upon some subjects with more interest than on others. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? |
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