While the agent of renovation is the Divine Spirit, and the condition of renovation is our cleaving to Christ, the medium of renovation and the weapon which the transforming grace employs is "the word of the truth of the gospel," whereby we are sanctified.

The apostolic church thought more about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ than about death and heaven. The early Christians were looking, not for a cleft in the ground called a grave but for a cleavage in the sky called Glory.

Don't waste your sorrows

Do not let the loud utterances of your own wills anticipate, nor drown, the still, small voice in which God speaks. Bridle impatience till He does. If you cannot hear His whisper, wait till you do. Take care of running before you are sent. Keep your wills in equipoise till God's hand gives the impulse and direction.

Let the current of your being set towards God, then your life will be filled and calmed by one master-passion which unites and stills the soul.

You cannot put patience and experience into a parenthesis, and, omitting them, bring hope out of tribulation.

Embrace in one act the two truths-thine own sin, and God's infinite mercy in Jesus Christ.