“The Expulsive Power of a New Affection” quotation by Thomas Chalmers

The object of the gospel is both to pacify the sinner’s conscience and to purify his heart; and it is of importance to observe that what mars the one of these objects mars the other also. The best way of casting out an impure affection is to admit a pure one, and, by the love of what is good, to expel the love of what is evil.

Thus it is that the freer the gospel, the more sanctifying is the gospel; and the more it is received as a doctrine of grace, the more it will be felt as a doctrine according to godliness. This is one of the secrets of the Christian life, that the more a man holds of God as a pensioner, the greater is the payment of service that he renders back again.

Thomas Chalmers, Crossway Short Classics p. 65