And what are the actings of spiritual life ? The voluntary pushing onward of the soul, through the visible to the invisible world; its ascension from earth to heaven; its passing the boundaries of time and sense, to roam amidst things unseen and eternal; faith in an unseen Saviour; the love of an unseen God, and the hope of an unseen heaven. This is walking in the Spirit, walking with God, and visibly walking with him; enjoying him as the chief good, seeking him as the supreme end, and obeying him as the Sovereign Ruler. I know no other art by which spiritual life is so clearly distinguished from merely rational life, as it is by its tending, as by a law of spiritual gravitation, towards God in Christ, as its centre. The apostle in one short sentence has described this new nature: "for me to live is Christ." The Spirit's work in the New Testament, and in the Old Testament too, is to testify of Christ, and to glorify him; and His work in the believer's heart has the same object, to lead him to live before the world, for the honour of the Saviour; and for this purpose, to enable him to derive all his supplies from the fulness in Him, that Christ may be seen to be all in all to him. This is spiritual walking, the soul's escaping from the region, and rising above the influence, of earthly objects, and dwelling in a sphere of spiritual things, and finding these to be its vital atmosphere, its native element, its beloved home.
—John Angell James
