June 30

Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. — Rom 6:11

It is a wonderful suggestion, as a scheme of life, that we shall reckon ourselves to be dead unto sin. A dead man cannot sin.

A story is told of an old shoemaker who had been a wicked man. He had a terrible temper, and in his fits of anger would throw his hammer, or a last, or anything within his reach, at the person who had excited his feeling. But after his conversion he never got angry any more. “I am dead,” he would say. “A dead man cannot get into bad temper. A dead man cannot throw a hammer.”

If we would train ourselves to be dead to all that is wrong, we should soon get away from many very unlovely things. Then we should also reckon ourselves to be alive unto God.

It is not enough to suppress evil – we must also nourish whatever is good. It is not enough not to be bad–tempered; we must become sweet in our spirit, and be gentle, forgiving, and kind. All the best possibilities in us should be called out by the love of Christ in us.