GREENWICH, JUNE 27TH, 1893

GREENWICH, JUNE 27TH, 1893

Mr. Hoare.

My Dear Brother, — I thank you for your letter — and agree substantially with what you say — and readily accept the counsel which you offer, but at the same time I think I can truly say that the object before me in what I have sought to maintain has not been to carry a point — but to resist what I believe to be a wrong and commonly prevalent thought in many minds in regard to what is spoken of as the communication of life in new birth. I believe the idea in communication of life was, in its first use, substantially right and employed in opposition to the Wesleyan notion of new birth as an effect produced by preaching that might appear and disappear, but as time has gone on new birth has come to convey to many minds the idea of the communication of life as a distinct and substantive quantity, and thus the true work of the Spirit in the soul is clouded. I believe new birth to be the work of the Spirit in man’s moral being by which, so far as it goes, moral affinity to God is begotten in the man, which is evidenced by a craving after God, but which leaves the person still undelivered and under the judgment of death, and from this state he has to find relief and life in Christ. I trust I may have the pleasure some time of seeing you at Weston. With kind love in the Lord to Mrs. Hoare and yourself.

Believe me,
Your affectionate brother,
F. E. Raven.