it are through
that Word. Those who are renewed and sanctified by the Holy Spirit are
those who have been influenced by this regenerating and sanctifying
Word.

This blessed Word of God, _quick, powerful, able to save the
soul_, because of the life-giving Spirit connected with it, is not
only to be read, but to be preached and heard. This is God's own
arrangement. From the days of Enoch, Noah, the patriarchs and
prophets, down to Jesus and the apostles, and from them to the end of
the Gospel dispensation, He has had and will have His preachers of
righteousness.

Our Lord preached His own Gospel, the words of spirit and life.
He commissioned His apostles to preach the same Gospel. They "_went
everywhere preaching the Word_." The Church called and sent others,
whose life-work it was to "_preach the Word, to be instant in season
and out of season, reproving, rebuking, exhorting_." And this divine
arrangement is to continue. Rom. x. 13-15: _"For whosoever shall call
on the name of the Lord, shall be saved; how then shall they call on
Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him
of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a
preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent?"_ 1 Cor. i.
21: "_It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe_;" Rom. x. 17: "_So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God_." Therefore, according to Rom. x. 6-8, let no one
say, "_Who shall ascend into heaven_ (_i.e._, to bring Christ down
from above), _or who shall descend into the deep_?" (_i.e._, to bring
Christ up again from the dead) for "_the Word is nigh thee ... that is
the Word of faith which we preach_." This then is evidently God's
order of the application of divine Grace.

And yet, notwithstanding these plain declarations, men try all
sorts of measures and methods to bring Christ near, because they
cannot understand that when they have the Word, they have the Spirit,
and when they have the Spirit, they have Christ. In Luke xi. 27, we
read how a woman called down a blessing on the mother of our Lord
because she was privileged to have borne Him. But Jesus answered,
"_Yea, rather blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep
it_." Because that Word carries the Spirit to the hearer, and
through it converts the sinner and sanctifies the saint. In the Acts
of the Apostles also we read how again and again the Spirit was given
th