From Octavius Winslow's "Soul Heights"

The highest life of an unregenerate man
is, in a spiritual sense, but a low life!

He lives in the depths of sin and selfishness,
of enmity against God, and of ruin against
his own being.

Take the most intellectual pursuit, the most
refined enjoyment; be it science, or art, or
music; viewed as bounded only by the present
life, as ending in self, having no relation to the
higher interests of the soul, the claims of eternity,
and the glory of God; how low the life!

In the strong language of inspiration,
"He feeds on ashes"  "feeds on wind."

Is this life worthy of a rational, responsible,
immortal being? Is it worthy of one soon to
confront death, judgement, and eternity?
soon to appear at Christ's bar, to give an
account of a stewardship of intellect, and
of rank, and of wealth, and of time, and of
influence?

Is this the life you are living, my reader?

Is this the mere existence in which you vegetate?

Don't you know that, "we must all appear before
the judgement seat of Christ, to give account of
the deeds done in the body"?  That "every one
must give account of himself to God"?

Rise to a higher life, a nobler
purpose, a more glorious end!

But conversion reverses this sad picture.

When the soul is 'born again,' it emerges
from its lower life, and ascends into a new,
a divine, a heavenly life; a life from God,
and for God; a life in Christ, and by Christ,
and with Christ; a life best described by
the language of one who lived it fully, lived
it nobly, lived it until crowned with a martyr's
diadem; "For me to live is Christ."

Oh, upon what a 'high place' does the soul
born from above now walk! Truly, it is a new
birth, a re-creation! Old things have passed
away, and God's Spirit has made all things
in that life new.

How revolutionized the whole soul!

It has awakened as from a dream, a trance,
a death, and finds itself in a new world of
thought and feeling, of life, holiness, and love!

It never really lived until now. Oh the blessedness
of now truly living, and of living for God!