A Personal Testimony 347 " i f ANY MAN BE IN CHRIST, HE IS A NEW CREATURE" In the years that have elapsed I have come to a bet ter understanding of the tremendous change which took place that night—though only in eternity will I fully com prehend it. Certainly it was life from the dead. Spiritual things from that moment became realities, and took a place in my thought and consciousness. The things that once had a hold upon me began to lose their attraction. I soon learned by a happy experience that if a man be in Christ, there is a new creation—an entirely new environment—that old things have passed away, and all things have become new; and that all things are of God (2 Cor. 5:17, 18). In a very short time the habits of my life, as well as the occupations of my heart and mind, underwent a great change. The habit of daily Bible reading, and of morning and evening prayer, was immediately established. Often previously I had tried to pray, as I felt the pressure of misery and distress of mind; and innumerable times both publicly and privately, I had “said my prayers;” but it was not praying, for I was in unbelief. I did not believe the Word of God, but criticized and rejected it. I did not believe in the virgin birth of our Lord, nor in His vicarious death, nor in His physical resur rection. The doctrine of His blood-shedding for the sins of others, and of His being made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21) I regarded as unphilosophical and unworthy of belief. The only God I knew was the god of materialism, a creature of man’s vain imagination. I had no knowledge of “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” DOUBTS AND DIFFICULTIES SWEPT AWAY Perhaps the most wonderful change which was manifest to my consciousness, when my mind began to resume its normal activity and to inquire into what had happened, was
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