We here pass from public to private relations. Still in the civic sphere, viewing men as men, not as Christian brethren. And reminded by thought just advanced, the thought of tribute, custom, etc., as being "due" to those in power, that there are dues also which we owe each one to his neighbour. And it is of the very essence of justice that we "render to all their dues;" or, in the words of the eighth verse, that we "owe no man anything." Here, then, we may consider the justice which binds together human society; and the love by which the justice is fulfilled.

I. JUSTICE. Justice is the bond of human society. To do to others as we may reasonably expect them to do to us is indeed the golden rule which conserves all security and peace among men. To be just towards them is to respect their rights, And what are the rights of man? God has set them forth strongly, in their essentials, in that Decalogue which was the Divine code of justice for a barbarous nation. Think of them - rights without which life amongst others would be intolerable.

1. The right of life. "Thou shalt not kill." Sacredness of existence; but frailty. So precious, and yet so easily destroyed. And in wantonness, or in malice, man may destroy his brother-man. But the "Thou shalt not kill" sounds in his ears, a spoken law of God: the right of life must be conserved.

2. The right of sacred relationship, dearer than the right of life. "Thou shalt not commit adultery." Organic union of men. Relationships interwoven into human nature husband and wife, parent and child, brother and brother. The conjugal relation the foundation of the rest. Any tampering with this relation is, in its degree, adultery, and loosens the whole relational fabric; any violation of the sacrament of this relation, "They twain shall be one flesh," is in the highest degree adultery, and goes far to destroy the whole relational fabric. But the "Thou shalt not commit adultery" sounds in our ears, a spoken law of God: the rights of sacred relationship must be conserved.

3. The right of property. "Thou shalt not steal." An instinctive acquisitiveness in man; he lords it over the world. This acquisitiveness sanctioned by God: "have dominion." Same acquisitiveness, perverted from its proper use, may lead us to acquire that to which we have no right, to "steal" the property of our brother. But the "Thou shalt not steal" sounds in our ears: God utters his sanction of the sacredness of property.

4. Fundamental to all these main rights of man is the right to be secure from even the unlawful desire of a brother. "Thou shalt not covet." For "out of the heart proceed," etc. (Matthew 15:19). So to covet another's life, or wife, or property, even in the first faint beginning of desire, is to allow the lust from which all evil flows; and, as against "sin in its beginning," the "Thou shalt not covet" of God is uttered with solemn emphasis as the last commandment.

II. LOVE. The last commandment? Nay, for Christ has said, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another." We have seen how this is the bond of the new brotherhood in Christ; it is set forth here as the Christian's own safeguard of the rights of man. As a man amongst men you must respect the rights of men, i.e. you must fulfil the law; as a Christian amongst men you must love them for the Lord's sake, and so you assure your respect for all their rights, for "love is the fulfilment of the Law." Need this be proved? Law says sternly, "No ill to one's neighbour;" love says, "Give all good." Ah! here is a yet Diviner impulse, and covering a broader ground. And the Christian will be content with nothing less than this Diviner impulse and broader ground. But if there be the higher impulse, the lower shall be secure; if there be the wider range, the narrower shall be covered. Yes; love men, and you will work no ill. The importance of justice amongst men demands that, as good citizens, we see to it that justice is everywhere advanced; hence our parliaments, our courts. But that justice may be advanced, to say nothing of yet higher ends, let us, as Christians, cherish this principle which constitutes the second great commandment, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." - T.F.L.

It comprehends —

I. THE WHOLE LAW.

II. THE LETTER AND THE SPIRIT.

III. OUR NEIGHBOUR AS OURSELVES.

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

I. THE OBJECT OF THE AFFECTION. Love of our neighbour, or benevolence, seeks the good of others, and in its noblest form is the perfection of God.

II. ITS PROPER EXTENT. "As ourselves." This implies —

1. That it is to be of the same kind. We have a common interest in others and in ourselves.

2. That it is to bear a certain proportion to our love for ourselves. What this proportion is to be is not easily decided, for affection is not easily measured; but as to actions, the expression of affection, the more others occupy our thoughts the better, provided we neglect not ourselves.

3. That it is to equal our love for ourselves, No ill consequences can ensue from this, for —(1) Men have other affections for themselves not felt for others.(2) They are specially interested in themselves.(3) They have a particular perception of their own interest, so that there is no fear of self neglect.

III. ITS INFLUENCE ON OUR GENERAL TEMPER.

1. To produce all charitableness.

2. To fit men for every relation and duty.

3. To moderate party feeling.

4. To prevent or heal all strife.

IV. WHAT IT INCLUDES — all virtue. It prompts men —

1. To seek the greatest happiness of all, which is itself a discharge of all our obligations.

2. To the practice of all personal virtues — temperance, etc., and certainly a neglect of these virtues implies a deficiency of love to others.

(Bp. Butler.)

I. LOVE IS ESSENTIALLY AN ACTIVE PRINCIPLE.

II. WORKS NO ILL.

1. In deed.

2. In word.

3. In thought.

III. MUST WORK GOOD.

1. Wherever it has opportunity.

2. To the extent of its ability.

IV. IS THEREFORE THE FULFILLING OF THE LAW.

1. Negatively.

2. Positively.

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

The Arabian commentators of Mahomet attempted to make a law applicable to every relation in life. They published, it is said, a code containing seventy-five thousand rules; but cases soon arose to which none of these rules would apply. The New Testament adopts another method. It deals in broad and fundamental principles capable of universal application. It gives us in plain words a law of love. This suggests principles which are universal and eternal. It gives a life rather than a rule.

I. "LOVE WORKETH NO ILL TO HIS NEIGHBOUR." This is a broad truth. One's neighbour is primarily the one near — the near dweller, any one with whom we have to do. Christ has for ever answered the question, "Who is my neighbour?"

1. The spirit of this statement strikes a blow at all kinds of business which injure one's neighbour. It meets the servant and the master, the maid and her mistress; it enters the counting-house and the workshop; it confronts the lawyer and his client, the physician and his patient, the pastor and his people. It enters the social circle and hushes the voice of the slanderer. It stands like an incarnate conscience across the track of the vile wretch who would rob youth of purity and glory. It lifts a voice against the man who destroys his neighbour with strong drink. It thunders its condemnation in the ear of the gambler. It lifts before us the great white throne, and enables us to anticipate its final decisions.

2. This law of love also opposes all forms of bad example. The man who desecrates God's day, disbelieves God's book, and disobeys God's Son, is an enemy to his neighbour. No man has a right to set a bad example before men. The man who misleads the young may blight the lives of coming generations.

3. This law reaches those who are only negatively good. No man has a right to remain in that position. Your good name, while you remain in that attitude to God, makes your influence the greater and your condemnation the heavier. Have you accepted Christ as your personal Saviour? Then come to the Church. For the sake of your neighbour come into the ranks. Confess Christ; march in line with His people. Thus will you work no ill to your neighbour.

II. But it is clearly implied that LOVE WORKS WELL TO ONE'S NEIGHBOUR. This is a step in advance. It cannot rest in the mere negative condition. Love does not simply do no ill; it does well. It understands that to withhold good when it might be done, is as truly sin as to devise evil. Paul (1 Corinthians 13.) shows that it is the principle without which all other gifts are worthless. The Corinthian chapter is the inspired commentary on the Roman text. What a world this would be if this love dominated all the actions of men! Social life would be regenerated; commercial life be consecrated; heaven would be begun on earth.

(R. S. Macarthur, D.D.)

Love is —

I. THE BEST EXPOSITOR OF THE LAW. It teaches us to keep it —

1. Conscientiously as in the sight of God.

2. Sincerely with the whole heart.

3. Fully in every point.

4. Perfectly, not merely negatively.

II. THE BEST KEEPER OF THE LAW. It fulfils it with —

1. Delight.

2. All its strength.

3. Constancy.

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

I. REACHES THE FULL EXTENT OF THE LAW.

1. It keeps the whole law; not only its prohibitions, but also its precepts.

2. Keeps it perfectly, not only with the hands, but with the heart.

3. Is never weary.

II. MAKES ITS PERFORMANCE EASY.

1. It draws help from a Divine source.

2. Supplies Divine strength.

3. Guarantees the Divinest reward.

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

because it —

I. TEACHES EVERYTHING.

1. It unfolds the spirit of the law.

2. Strengthens the voice of conscience.

3. Resolves all difficult questions.

II. DOES EVERYTHING.

1. Is not contented with the appearance.

2. Does not stop short half-way.

3. Seeks not for reward.

III. REWARDS EVERYTHING.

1. The good intention.

2. The secret act.

3. The greatest sacrifice.

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

because the love of God and man is the soul of every outward duty, and a cause that will produce these as effects.

(R. Baxter.)

A religion which can announce this as its distinctive principle needs bring no further credentials of its heavenly origin. Michael Angelo need not carve his name on his own statuary, nor Raphael write his on his pictures. The song tells you what is the bird which sings. And so our text is unlike the trees that spring out of merely human soil. Its fragrance and its fruit announce it to be a slip from the tree that grows in the midst of the Paradise of God, and whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.

I. LOVE IS THE SUBSTANCE OF THE DEMANDS OF THE LAW; it is their very essence and quintessence.

1. A tree may have a thousand branches, and ten thousand leaves, all of them having a different direction and shape; but they all arise out of life. So all the commandments are but the outward forms of an inward spirit, and that spirit is love.

2. Law does not fall so pleasantly on the ear as love. It is like a spiked wall between us and tempting fruit; or like the warning guide-post, "No road this way," precisely at the spot where the path seems to lose itself in the most enchanting scenery. But this is a false view of law. Love could not be the fulfilling of it if it were of this nature, but the abolishing of it. For what is law? A wanton restraint, a needless burden, the arbitrary exaction of a superior authority, and thus superfluous circumscription of our liberty, and wilful limitation of our pleasures? No! It is but such a limitation and restraint as secures for each man the largest sweep of liberty. It is true that if there were no human laws, certain individuals would be able to indulge their wills and passions over a much wider field; but what of the people generally? The man who can go beyond his just bounds of right, can only do so by invading the bounds of another. This is the essence of tyranny. Liberty can only live where law is the supremest thing. No man resents a just law, but he who is at heart an enemy to the righteous claims of his fellow-men. Law is a hedge; but no hedge is thorny and repulsive to a man who does not wish to break through and trample upon the sacred privileges of his neighbour.

3. Can you find a law of God which is in itself, and on all sides of it, a dark and repulsive thing? I know of no law of His which has not in its very heart this command, "Be happy." This has ever been the view of good men. "Oh! how love! Thy law! it is daily my delight." "Great peace have they that love Thy law." "Of law," Hooker has said, "there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world; all things in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power; both angels and men, and creatures of what condition soever, though each in differing sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent, admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy."

II. OBEDIENCE IS TO ARISE FROM LOVE.

1. There may be what men esteem the fulfilling of a law for which they have no respect. There is the fulfilling —(1) Which arises from fear, and despots may feel flattered and feel safer as they see a population pale with terror at their power. But that power is always the safest which inspires love. The law of God can never be obeyed through terror. Only think of a man obeying God because he dreads Him. Think of him saying, "If God were not as powerful as He is, I would set my heel upon His laws; but I am no match for Him, and therefore I submit and obey." Nay, you neither submit nor obey. You might do this in the case of an earthly king, whose laws are satisfied if they receive an external obedience. But God is a King and a Father, who says, "Thou shalt love"; not, "Thou shalt dread the Lord thy God." He is a Monarch whose laws you cannot obey except by loving Him. He clearly discriminates between what seems obedience and what is. "This people draweth nigh unto Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me." You fathers know that it is not worth the name of obedience if your child serve you from dread of consequences.(2) Which is prompted by a mere sense of interest. This is little better than that we have just considered. Of course obedience brings sooner or later its own reward. But there is a great difference between pursuing a course which is profitable, and pursuing it because it is profitable. A faithful servant of a monarch may be paid for his service; but if he serves only for his pay, he is not a faithful servant. Will it be said that this seems to strike against the promises of the joys and glories of Heaven? No, they are far more gracious gifts than wages. When Christ says, "I will make thee ruler over many things," it is not because we have deserved it. And hence the saints in heaven cast their crowns at the feet of Him that sits upon the throne, saying, "Thou art worthy, O Lord," etc. And the crowns are not given to those who have served for gain; they are given to those who have served from love. The fulfilling of the law from love creates now its own heaven within the man.

2. The law of service is the law of love. This was so with Christ. "I delight to do Thy will, O God." And the service we render to Christ must be like that. "Lovest thou Me?" etc. And this truth applies equally to our relations to our fellow-men. "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." There is far too much of the spirit, in these times, which regards men as so many competitors on the great arena of life, each one feeling that he loses what another gains, and that he must do the best for himself, leaving the weaker to go unpitied to the wall. But Christ came to teach us a holier and more blessed law, viz., that we are all brethren, brethren in nature, brethren in Him, because He partook our nature, and "is not ashamed to call us brethren."

(E. Mellor, D.D.)

I. THE NATURE OF TRUE LOVE. It is —

1. Universal, extending to being in general, or to God and all His creatures.

2. Impartial. It regards every proper object of benevolence according to its apparent worth and importance in the scale of being.

3. Disinterested. Mercenary love can never form a virtuous character.

II. TRUE LOVE IS THE FULFILLING OF THE LAW.

1. It conforms the heart to God. God is love. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." If the moral perfection of man consists in conformity to the moral perfection of God, and the moral perfection of God consists in love, then love must be the fulfilling of the law.

2. It answers the full demand of the law. When a certain man asked our Saviour, "Which is the great commandment in the law?" He replied, "Thou shalt love," etc. So Paul says, "The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart." By this he declares that charity or true love fully answers the spirit and design of the law.

3. It makes us feel and act in every respect just as God requires. So far as we possess it, we shall both internally and externally obey every Divine command.

4. It restrains men from everything which God forbids.

(N. Emmons, D.D.)

Paul, RomansRomeAdultery, Another's, Bear, Briefly, Command, Commandment, Commandments, Commit, Comprehended, Covered, Covet, Death, Desire, Fellow, Kill, Love, Lovest, Lust, Married, Murder, Namely, Neighbor, Neighbour, Order, Precepts, Rule, Saying, Sentence, Steal, Summed, Testimony, Thyself, Untrue, Whatever, Witness1. Subjection, and many other duties, we owe to the authorities.
8. Love is the fulfillment of the law.
11. The acts of darkness are out of season in the time of the Gospel.

Romans 13:9

     5040   murder
     5061   sanctity of life
     5555   stealing
     5871   greed, response to
     6604   acceptance, human
     8716   dishonesty, examples

Romans 13:6-10

     5289   debt

Romans 13:8-9

     5867   golden rule

Romans 13:8-10

     5380   law, and gospel
     8296   love, nature of

Romans 13:9-10

     6134   coveting, prohibition
     8412   decisions

November 23. "It is High Time to Awake Out of Sleep" (Rom. xiii. 11).
"It is high time to awake out of sleep" (Rom. xiii. 11). One of the greatest enemies to faith is indolence. It is much easier to lie and suffer than to rise and overcome; much easier to go to sleep on a snowbank and never wake again, than to rouse one's self and shake off the lethargy and overcome the stupor. Faith is an energetic art; prayer is intense labor; the effectual working prayer of the righteous man availeth much. Satan tries to put us to sleep, as he did the disciples in the garden; but …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

October 25. "Now it is High Time to Awake Out of Sleep. Let us Cast Off the Works of Darkness and Let us Put on the Armor of Light" (Rom. xiii. 11, 12).
"Now it is high time to awake out of sleep. Let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light" (Rom. xiii. 11, 12). Let us wake out of sleep; let us be alert; let us be alive to the great necessities that really concern us. Let us put off the garments of the night and the indulgences of the night; the loose robes of pleasure and flowing garments of repose; the festal pleasures of the hours of darkness are not for the children of the day. Let us cast off the works of darkness. …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
Text: Romans 13, 8-10. 8 Owe no man anything, save to love one another: for he that loveth his neighbor hath fulfilled the law. 9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment, it is summed up in this word, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; love therefore is the fulfilment of the law. CHRISTIAN LOVE AND THE COMMAND TO LOVE. 1. This, like the two …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

Salvation Nearer
'... Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.'--ROMANS xiii. 11. There is no doubt, I suppose, that the Apostle, in common with the whole of the early Church, entertained more or less consistently the expectation of living to witness the second coming of Jesus Christ. There are in Paul's letters passages which look both in the direction of that anticipation, and in the other one of expecting to taste death. 'We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord,' he says twice in one …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)

The Soldier's Morning-Call
'Let us put on the armour of light.'--ROMANS xiii. 12. It is interesting to notice that the metaphor of the Christian armour occurs in Paul's letters throughout his whole course. It first appears, in a very rudimentary form, in the earliest of the Epistles, that to the Thessalonians. It appears here in a letter which belongs to the middle of his career, and it appears finally in the Epistle to the Ephesians, in its fully developed and drawn-out shape, at almost the end of his work. So we may fairly …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)

Love and the Day
'Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. 9. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 10. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. 11. And that, knowing the time, that now …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)

1 Peter iv. 8
And above all things have fervent Charity among your selves: for Charity shall cover the multitude of Sins. THE Design which I am now prosecuting, obligeth me to take notice of such Passages of Scripture as any professed Christians may, on any Account, be apt to interpret to a very bad Purpose: that is, to the giving themselves Encouragement to hope for God's future Mercy; for the Sake of his Son: even whilst they continue in the habitual Practice of known Sins. And the Words which I have now read …
Benjamin Hoadly—Several Discourses Concerning the Terms of Acceptance with God

The Beauty and Excellency of this World Consists, not Only in the Perfection and Comeliness...
The beauty and excellency of this world consists, not only in the perfection and comeliness of each part in it, but especially in the wise and wonderful proportion and union of these several parts. It is not the lineaments and colours that make the image or complete beauty, but the proportion and harmony of these, though different severally. And truly that is the wonder, that such repugnant natures, such different parts, and dissentient qualities, do conspire together in such an exact perfect unity …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Twenty-Seven Articles Respecting the Reformation of the Christian Estate.
Now though I am too lowly to submit articles that could serve for the reformation of these fearful evils, I will yet sing out my fool's song, and will show, as well as my wit will allow, what might and should be done by the temporal authorities or by a General Council. 1. Princes, nobles and cities should promptly forbid their subjects to pay the annates and should even abolish them altogether. For the Pope has broken the compact, and turned the annates into robbery for the harm and shame of the …
Martin Luther—First Principles of the Reformation

The North African Church under the Vandals.
THE wild tribes of the Vandals--which, although outwardly professing Christianity, yet, instructed and guided by ignorant and fanatical priests, seem to have had no idea of its essence--overran North Africa, under their cruel and despotic king, Geiserich. A fanatical hatred to the confessors of another form of doctrine (the Vandals being the adherents of Arianism) was united with an insatiable avarice, for which it served as an apology. The depravity of the nominal Christians in the rich cities of …
Augustus Neander—Light in the Dark Places

Letter Lxi (A. D. 1138) to Louis the Younger, King of the French.
To Louis the Younger, King of the French. He endeavours to defend the election of Geoffrey, Prior of Clairvaux, to the See of Langres; to which the King had appeared adverse. 1. If the whole world were to conjure me to join it in some enterprise against your royal Majesty, I should still through fear of God not dare lightly to offend a King ordained by Him. Nor am I ignorant who it is that has said, Whosoever resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God (Rom. xiii. 2). Nor yet do I forget how …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

A Sketch of the Life of St. Augustin.
It is a venturesome and delicate undertaking to write one's own life, even though that life be a masterpiece of nature and the grace of God, and therefore most worthy to be described. Of all autobiographies none has so happily avoided the reef of vanity and self-praise, and none has won so much esteem and love through its honesty and humility as that of St. Augustin. The "Confessions," which he wrote in the forty-fourth year of his life, still burning in the ardor of his first love, are full of the …
St. Augustine—The Confessions and Letters of St

Concerning the Power of the Civil Magistrate in Matters Purely Religious, and Pertaining to the Conscience.
Concerning the Power of the Civil Magistrate in Matters purely Religious, and pertaining to the Conscience. Since God hath assumed to himself the power and Dominion of the Conscience, who alone can rightly instruct and govern it, therefore it is not lawful [1226] for any whosoever, by virtue of any authority or principality they bear in the government of this world, to force the consciences of others; and therefore all killing, banishing, fining, imprisoning, and other such things which are inflicted …
Robert Barclay—Theses Theologicae and An Apology for the True Christian Divinity

That Sometimes Lighter vices are to be Left Alone, that More Grievous Ones May be Removed.
But since, when the sickness of two vices attacks a man, one presses upon him more lightly, and the other perchance more heavily, it is undoubtedly right to haste to the succour of that through which there is the more rapid tendency to death. And, if the one cannot be restrained from causing the death which is imminent unless the other which is contrary to it increase, the preacher must be content by skilful management in his exhortation to suffer one to increase, to the end that he may keep the …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

One Metaphor and Two Meanings
'I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day: the night cometh when no man can work.'--JOHN ix. 4. 'The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.'--ROMANS xiii. 12. The contrast between these two sayings will strike you at once. Using the same metaphors, they apply them in exactly opposite directions. In the one, life is the day, and the state beyond death the night; in the other, life is the night, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

"If we Say that we have no Sin, we Deceive Ourselves, and the Truth is not in Us. "
1 John i. 8.--"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." "The night is far spent, the day is at hand," Rom. xiii. 12. This life is but as night, even to the godly. There is some light in it,--some star light, but it is mixed with much darkness of ignorance and sin, and so it will be, till the sun arise, and the morning of their translation to heaven come. But though it be called night in one sense, in regard of that perfect glorious perpetual day in heaven, …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

"Therefore, Brethren, we are Debtors, not to the Flesh, to Live after the Flesh,"
Rom. viii. 12.--"Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh," &c. All things in Christianity have a near and strait conjunction. It is so entire and absolute a piece, that if one link be loosed all the chain falls to the ground, and if one be well fastened upon the heart it brings all alongst with it. Some speak of all truths, even in nature, that they are knit so together that any truth may be concluded out of every truth, at least by a long circuit of deduction …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Concerning Christian Liberty
CHRISTIAN faith has appeared to many an easy thing; nay, not a few even reckon it among the social virtues, as it were; and this they do, because they have not made proof of it experimentally, and have never tasted of what efficacy it is. For it is not possible for any man to write well about it, or to understand well what is rightly written, who has not at some time tasted of its spirit, under the pressure of tribulation. While he who has tasted of it, even to a very small extent, can never write, …
Martin Luther—First Principles of the Reformation

St. Augustine (Ad 354-430)
PART I The church in the north of Africa has hardly been mentioned since the time of St. Cyprian (Chapter VIII). But we must now look towards it again, since in the days of St. Chrysostom it produced a man who was perhaps the greatest of all the old Christian fathers--St. Augustine. Augustine was born at Thagaste, a city of Numidia, in the year 354. His mother, Monica, was a pious Christian, but his father, Patricius, was a heathen, and a man of no very good character. Monica was resolved to bring …
J. C. Roberston—Sketches of Church History, from AD 33 to the Reformation

How Christ is to be Made Use Of, in Reference to the Killing and Crucifying of the Old Man.
Having thus shortly pointed out some things in general, serving to the clearing and opening up the way of our use-making of Christ for sanctification, we come now more particularly to the clearing up of this business. In sanctification we must consider, first, The renewing and changing of our nature and frame; and, next, The washing and purging away of our daily contracted spots. The first of these is commonly divided into two parts, viz. 1st, The mortification, killing, and crucifying of the …
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

How to Use the Present Life, and the Comforts of It.
The divisions of this chapter are,--I. The necessity and usefulness of this doctrine. Extremes to be avoided, if we would rightly use the present life and its comforts, sec. 1, 2. II. One of these extremes, viz, the intemperance of the flesh, to be carefully avoided. Four methods of doing so described in order, sec. 3-6. 1. BY such rudiments we are at the same time well instructed by Scripture in the proper use of earthly blessings, a subject which, in forming a scheme of life, is by no mean to be …
Archpriest John Iliytch Sergieff—On the Christian Life

The Holy Spirit Forming Christ Within Us.
It is a wonderful and deeply significant prayer that Paul offers in Eph. iii. 16-19 for the believers in Ephesus and for all believers who read the Epistle. Paul writes, "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, that ye may be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inward man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that ye, being rooted and …
R. A. Torrey—The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit

Concerning Christian Liberty
Christian faith has appeared to many an easy thing; nay, not a few even reckon it among the social virtues, as it were; and this they do because they have not made proof of it experimentally, and have never tasted of what efficacy it is. For it is not possible for any man to write well about it, or to understand well what is rightly written, who has not at some time tasted of its spirit, under the pressure of tribulation; while he who has tasted of it, even to a very small extent, can never write, …
Martin Luther—Concerning Christian Liberty

Letter Lvii to the Duke and Duchess of Lorraine
To the Duke and Duchess of Lorraine [87] He thanks them for having hitherto remitted customs [or tolls, but asks that they will see that their princely liberality is not interfered with by the efforts of their servants. To the Duke and Duchess of Lorraine, Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, sends greeting, and prays that they may so lovingly and purely rejoice in each other's affection that the love of Christ alone maybe supreme in them both. Ever since the needs of our Order obliged me to send for necessaries …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

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