38.Expulsive power!
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(J. C. Ryle, "The Gospel of John")
The woman left her water jar beside the well
and went back to the village and told everyone,
"Come and meet a man who told me everything
I ever did! Can this be the Messiah?" John 4:28-29
She had left her home for the express purpose
of drawing water. She had carried a large vessel
to the well, intending to bring it back filled.
But she found at the well a new heart,
and new objects of interest.
She became a new creature!
Old things passed away!
All things became new!
At once everything else was forgotten for the time.
She could think of nothing but the truths she had
heard, and the Savior she had found. In the fullness
of her heart she "left her water jar," and hastened
away to tell others.
We see here the expulsive power of the grace
of the Holy Spirit. Grace once introduced into
the heart drives out old tastes and interests.
A converted person no longs cares for what
he once cared for!
A new tenant is in the house!
A new pilot is at the helm!
The whole world looks different!
All things have become new!
Conduct like that here described is doubtless
uncommon in the present day. Rarely do we
see a person so entirely taken up with spiritual
matters, that attention to this world's affairs is
made a secondary matter, or postponed.
And why is it so?
Simply because true conversions to God are
uncommon. Few really feel their sins, and flee
to Christ by faith. Few really pass from death
to life, and become new creatures.
Yet these few are the real Christians of the world.
What are WE ourselves? This is the question, after
all, which demands our notice. Do we feel the supreme
importance of spiritual things, and the comparative
nothingness of the things of the world?
Where is the reality of OUR Christianity?
Let us take heed lest we awake too late, and find
that we are lost forever, a wonder to angels and
devils, and, above all, a wonder to ourselves,
because of our own obstinate blindness and folly.
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