Eternal life is the present possession of the believer. -- John iii: 36; v. 24; vi: 47, etc. He who looks lives; his perfect recovery is assured, if not immediate. He who was struck with death now lives. He is passed from death unto life, into life. The germs of all the future purity and glory are in him already; and it is now only a question of development. Eternal life is to be judged primarily by quality, not quantity; the first is a matter of regeneration, the second of sanctification. The perfect saint is potentially in the penitent sinner from the instant of his looking unto Jesus. - A. T. Pierson, Seed Thoughts for Public Speakers (1900)