I stand, and from the mountain top
See all the land below.
Rivers of milk and honey rise,
And all the fruits of paradise
In endless plenty grow.”
XXXIV.
Be Positive.
The Bible is positive in all its statements. The religion of Jesus Christ is positive. All the work of the Spirit is positive; conviction, regeneration, the witness of the Spirit, pardon and purity, are alike positive; and so in every step in grace, from its beginning to its consummation in glory. Thinking, hoping, and guessing, that I am a child of God, is dispensed with in the work of grace. The real child of God has passed from the doubtful, misty, uncertainties, to a glorious realization of facts. We hear him exclaim, I know that my redeemer liveth, Glory to God! Again, whereas I was once blind, I now see. Once more, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. Brother, sister, dispose of your uncertain experiences, and get a positive, Bible holiness, bearing its legitimate fruit—righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
XXXV.
The Dead Line.
During the great Rebellion, the rebels had, at Andersonville, a prison, or stockade, where our fathers, brothers, and sons were unmercifully murdered. Within this stockade was drawn a line, marking the utmost limits of their freedom, and this was called “The Dead-line.”It said to the prisoners, “Thus far thou shalt go, and no farther.” The penalty of death was inflicted upon all that approached this line. Many received the deadly bullet for daring to tread forbidden ground.
The Dead-line fairly represents this world, and the utmost limits of our freedom. When God created man, he placed him in Paradise, and put around him the “dead-line,” saying “In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.” Adam transgressed the command of God, and received the death-penalty. Adam died.