'Can the Ethiopian change his skin?'--JER. xiii. 23. 'If any man be in
Christ, he is a new creature.'--2 COR. v. 17. 'Behold, I make all
things new.'--REV. xxi. 5.
Put these three texts together. The first is a despairing question to
which experience gives only too sad and decisive a negative answer. It
is the answer of many people who tell us that character must be
eternal, and of many a baffled man who says, 'It is of no use--I have
tried and can do nothing.' The second text is the grand Christian
answer, full of confidence. It was spoken by one who had no superficial
estimate of the evil, but who had known in himself the power of Christ
to revolutionise a life, and make a man love all he had hated, and hate
all he had loved, and fling away all he had treasured. The last text
predicts the completion of the renovating process lying far ahead, but
as certain as sunrise.