It is not enough to cut loose from the old life: the young Christian must enter the new life. Leaving the service of one master, he must enlist in that of another. Withdrawing his heart’s affections from one class of objects, he must fix them upon another class. Ceasing to do evil, he must also learn to do well. No longer a servant of sin, he must become a servant of righteousness. Mere repentance is not enough: giving up one’s wicked ways is but half of conversion: there must also be a devotement of the life to Christ. The heart cannot be left empty.
“When St. Boniface had hewn down the sacred oak worshiped by the savages in the tangled forests of Germany, he did not stop with destroying it, but when it was felled built out of its fallen and splintered fragments the chapel of St. Peter, and in the room of the worship of Thor the Thunderer left the worship of Christ the crucified. ‘To replace is to conquer;’ and the theology of the forests fled back abashed before the theology of the cross.”
When we break with the world, we must straightway bow before Christ; indeed, we can be freed from the dominion of the old master only by the coming into our hearts of the new. The only way we can turn from sin is by turning to Christ. He then becomes first, Deliverer and Saviour; afterwards, King and Lord. As such he must be accepted, and the whole allegiance of the life should instantly be transferred to him.
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