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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, God's Plan with Men, by T. T. (Thomas
+Theodore) Martin
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: God's Plan with Men
+
+
+Author: T. T. (Thomas Theodore) Martin
+
+
+
+Release Date: July 5, 2008  [eBook #25974]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GOD'S PLAN WITH MEN***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Stacy Brown, David Garcia, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+GOD'S PLAN WITH MEN
+
+by
+
+T. T. MARTIN, Evangelist
+
+    "For every sentence, clause and word,
+    That's not inlaid with thee, my Lord,
+    Forgive me, God! and blot each line
+    Out of my book that is not thine.
+    But if, 'mongst all, thou find'st here one
+    Worthy thy benediction,
+    That one of all the rest shall be
+    The glory of my work and me."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+New York Chicago Toronto
+Fleming H. Revell Company
+London and Edinburgh
+
+Copyright, 1912, by
+Fleming H. Revell Company
+
+New York: 158 Fifth Avenue
+Chicago: 17 N. Wabash Ave.
+Toronto: 25 Richmond St., W.
+London: 21 Paternoster Square
+Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+Not new truths, but old truths properly emphasized, is one of the
+great needs of our times and of all times. The object of this book is
+not to start something new, but to specially emphasize some old truths
+and their relations to each other. The aim of the book is to help two
+classes: those who are seeking to be saved, and those who are already
+saved; the one, by showing simply and plainly God's way of salvation;
+the other, by showing simply God's way of dealing with men after they
+are saved. The author hopes, moreover, that the book may be of some
+special help to honest sceptics. For this purpose, the Introduction is
+addressed to them; and the hope is cherished that Chapter I will aid
+in disarming prejudice against God and the Bible; for while the
+Bible's teaching of degrees of punishment in Hell does not detract
+from the horrors of future punishment, but rather adds thereto, it
+effectually does away with the charge of the injustice of future
+punishment.
+
+The enquirer and young convert may omit the parts marked "For Further
+Study" at the close of each chapter and not lose connection. These are
+added for Bible students who wish to go further into the subject
+treated.
+
+And now, the author lays the book at the Master's feet and prays His
+blessings upon it, that it may be a blessing to those who read it.
+
+T. T. Martin.
+
+Blue Mountain, Miss.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+   I. Sin and Its Punishment--God's Justice--Degrees In Hell      17
+
+  II. Sins Not Excused, nor the Penalty Ever Remitted Without
+      Redemption                                                  32
+
+ III. Jesus the Christ as Sin-bearer--God's Justice and Love      38
+
+  IV. The New Relation--The New Motive                            60
+
+   V. The Sins of God's Children--Forgiveness--Chastisements      86
+
+  VI. Rewards--Degrees in Heaven                                 101
+
+ VII. How to be Saved--Repentance and Faith                      125
+
+VIII. The Meaning of "Believe On" or "Believe In" Christ         135
+
+  IX. Eternal Life the Present Possession of the Believer        158
+
+   X. Development of Character in the Redeemed                   175
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+     "Come now and let us _reason together_, saith the Lord."--Isaiah.
+
+     "If any man willeth to do his will, _he shall know_ of the
+     teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from my
+     self."--Jesus.
+
+     "And ye shall seek me and find me _when ye shall search for me with
+     all your heart_."--Jeremiah.
+
+     "Then _shall we know_ if we follow on to know the Lord."--Hosea.
+
+
+This work is not written for sceptics; yet while preparing to write
+for the benefit of others than sceptics, the author's heart has gone
+out toward that large class of his fellow-men who are sceptical; who,
+from different causes, have been led to doubt or deny the Bible's
+being a revelation from God; and he has yearned to say something that
+would at least arouse the attention of this class sufficiently to
+cause them to give an earnest investigation, or re-investigation, to
+the question. The _bare possibilities_ that there is a Hell and a
+Heaven, that the soul can never cease to exist, and that Jesus is the
+real Saviour, are enough to cause every doubting one to give the most
+earnest consideration to any evidence bearing on these questions, and
+to undertake the most careful investigation of anything that promises
+to lead to certainty. It will be admitted by every honest disbeliever
+that no writer has ever made it _certain_ that there is no future
+existence; that there is no Heaven; that there is no Hell; that Jesus
+was not the Saviour. The most that such writers have been able to
+produce is doubts. If, now, there is _the possibility_ of reaching
+_certainty_ on the other side, surely the reader should be willing
+and anxious to undertake a calm, searching examination, or
+re-examination, of the question. If there is no Heaven or Hell, no
+future existence, no one will ever find it out, before or after death;
+and there would be but little, if anything, gained if one could find
+it out. But if there is a Heaven and a Hell, and Jesus is the Saviour,
+then there is everything to be gained by finding it out and everything
+to be lost by neglecting to find it out. So important are the issues
+at stake that you, reader, should be willing to take years, if need
+be, to make a thorough investigation of the matter; you should be
+willing to read and study many books, and there are many that would
+help you; but I wish to urge you to read _two books only_, before
+reading this book. Surely your eternal destiny and the destinies of
+those over whom you have an influence (for "none of us liveth to
+himself") are enough to cause you to give earnest attention to the
+reading of three small books. The bare possibility that the reading of
+the three books may lead to your making sure of Heaven as your eternal
+home, is enough to prompt you to read them and to read them most
+carefully and prayerfully. The first is "The Wonders of Prophecy," by
+John Urquhart. The second is "The Philosophy of the Plan of
+Salvation," by J. B. Walker (American Edition). Having read these two
+books prayerfully and carefully, then give this book a careful
+reading.
+
+But let the reader consider God's plan for investigating. It is often
+said by a certain class of sceptics that the Bible is against honest
+investigation, that it shuts off the use of one's reason. Let the
+word of God speak for itself, "Come now and let us _reason_ together,
+saith the Lord."--Is. 1:18. The trouble with many sceptics is that
+they are not willing to "reason _together_," to reason to get with
+God, but that they reason _against_ God and to _get away from God_.
+Jesus said, "Take heed _how_ ye hear." Watch your heart's attitude
+when you hear. The attitude of being against God will warp your
+reasoning when you hear. God's promise is plain to the earnest, honest
+seeker after God. "And ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall
+search for me _with all your heart_."--Jer. 29:13. One who is
+half-hearted, indifferent, prejudiced against God or against truth,
+has no right to expect to find God or to find truth. But the promise
+is positive that the one who seeks with all the heart shall find. Let
+the reader put God to the test. How can an earnest, honest man refuse
+to make an earnest, honest investigation?
+
+It was against those who would not make such an investigation that
+Jesus spoke, Matt. 12:42, "The queen of the south shall rise up in the
+judgement with this generation and shall condemn it: for she came from
+the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold a
+greater than Solomon is here." The heathen woman who went to so much
+trouble and expense, and took so much time to make a thorough, honest
+investigation for the truth, will condemn those who do not make an
+earnest persevering investigation; "And behold a greater than Solomon
+is here," with His promise, "If any man willeth to do his will _he
+shall know_."
+
+Reader, will you carelessly refuse to take the time and to go to the
+trouble and expense of getting and reading earnestly _two books_ that
+_may_ lead you to the truth? Oh, reader, outstrip the heathen queen in
+search of light. Give your life-time, if need be, to an earnest
+investigation of this matter. Picture two men, one giving his
+life-time to earnest, honest, searching for the truth concerning sin
+and salvation through Christ; the other, from indifference, or pride,
+or prejudice, or love of the world, or secret sin, never making an
+earnest, honest investigation; the one dying and going to Heaven; the
+other dying and going to Hell. Which shall it be in your case, reader?
+There is absolutely no uncertainty as to the result _if only_ you will
+be honest, and earnest and persevering in your search for the truth.
+Listen to Jesus: John 7:17, "If any man _willeth_ to do his will, he
+_shall know_ of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak
+from myself." Whether you, reader, are ignorant or learned cuts
+absolutely no figure in this case. Jesus throws the assurance open to
+_any man_. The one condition is if he "_willeth to do his will_." No
+man wills to do God's will who will not go to the extreme of earnest,
+honest, prayerful investigation. If you do, then the veracity, the
+very character, of Jesus is at stake. Consider, then, reader, the
+awful responsibility that rests upon you, if you do not give attention
+to a thorough, earnest, honest, prayerful investigation for the truth.
+
+Another promise of equal certainty comes from the Old Testament: Hosea
+6:3, "Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord." Many make
+a slight search and cease. The promise is not to them, but to those
+who persevere. If we use the light as we receive it, and follow it up,
+_we shall know_. Again certainty is promised. Does not God, because He
+is God, deserve such earnest consideration from you, reader? Have you
+any right to expect anything from Him if you approach Him in a
+half-hearted, indifferent way?
+
+The following cases in point may encourage the reader: Two learned men
+decided to prove that the Bible was not from God, and that Jesus
+Christ was not the Saviour; but they were in earnest and they were
+honest. They had vast libraries at their service. They gave months to
+investigation. They were both convinced and accepted the Saviour and
+wrote their books in defence of the Bible, instead of against it.
+
+Second, one of the greatest scholars of Europe, probably the greatest,
+stated in a public lecture in America, that, of the thirty leading
+sceptics of the nineteenth century, men who had written brilliant
+books in their young manhood against the Bible, he knew twenty-eight
+in their old age, and that every one of the twenty-eight, after mature
+investigation, had accepted the Lord Jesus as Saviour.
+
+Again, in one of the prominent smaller cities of America, a club of
+sceptics, leading business and professional men, had held weekly
+meetings for many years. They challenged any one to meet one of their
+widely known lecturers in a public debate on Christianity and
+Infidelity. A preacher accepted the challenge. During the debate some
+of the sceptics became Christians. The president of the debate, a
+sceptic, is now an earnest follower of the Lord Jesus, having been
+convinced and having accepted Him as Saviour. The debate was held
+years ago. So convincing, so overwhelming, was the evidence produced
+by the defender of Christianity, that the club of sceptics has never
+held a meeting since the debate.
+
+Similar facts could be produced indefinitely, but these three are
+sufficient to show the most discouraged, the most hopeless sceptical
+reader, that there is at least a possibility of his yet finding the
+truth. Is not a bare possibility, where there are so tremendously
+important eternal issues at stake, sufficient to cause him to at once
+begin a thorough, prayerful, honest investigation?
+
+A reflection before closing the Introduction: one hundred years from
+now, and you, reader, will not be among the living. Where will you be?
+God has given you a will and the power of choice. Will you will, will
+you choose, to make an honest, persistent investigation? Tremendous
+consequences turn on your decision,--your own future destiny, the
+destinies of others over whom you have an influence. Do not dally with
+delay. Begin now an honest, earnest, painstaking, prayerful
+investigation. Get and read the two books suggested, and then finish
+reading this book. If this course does not settle your difficulties,
+read on, study on, pray on, and God's promise is sure, that you shall
+find, that you "shall know"!
+
+_FOR FURTHER STUDY_: A brief list is here given of books that will be
+helpful to sceptical readers: "Why Is Christianity True?" by E. Y.
+Mullins. (One of the most learned Presbyterian theological professors
+in America, asked to give the names of six of the best books to
+convince sceptics, replied, "I shall not do it; I shall give
+one,--'Why Is Christianity True?' by President Mullins of the Southern
+Baptist Theological Seminary; that is sufficient"); "The Fact of
+Christ," by Simpson; "The Meaning and Message of the Cross," by H. C.
+Mabie; "The Resurrection of Our Lord," by W. Milligan; "Many
+Infallible Proofs," by A. T. Pierson; "The Cause and Cure of
+Infidelity," by Nelson; "The Word and Works of God," by Bailey; "The
+Character of Jesus," by Bushnell; "Hours with a Sceptic," by Faunce;
+"The Miracles of Unbelief," by Ballard; "Creation," by Arnold Guyot;
+"The Collapse of Evolution," by Townsend; "The Problem of the Old
+Testament," by James Orr; "Did Jesus Rise?" by J. H. Brookes; "Reasons
+for Faith in Christianity," by Leavitt; "The Gospel of John;" "The
+Young Professor," by E. B. Hatcher; "The Resurrection of Jesus," by
+James Orr.
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+SIN AND ITS PUNISHMENT--GOD'S JUSTICE--DEGREES IN HELL
+
+     "All have _sinned_."--Rom. 3:23.
+
+     "Every transgression and disobedience received a _just_ recompense
+     of reward."--Heb. 2:2.
+
+     "A _just_ God."--Is. 45:21.
+
+     "It shall be _more tolerable_ for the land of Sodom in the day of
+     judgement, than for thee."--Matt. 11:24.
+
+
+Reader, what you and I need to know concerning God's plan with the
+sinner, the lost, is not what some people think, nor what some teach,
+nor what some desire; but what God teaches. God is _just_. Fasten that
+in your mind; never lose sight of it. Over and over again is this fact
+impressed in the Scriptures. Yet lurking in the minds of multitudes is
+a vague suspicion or dread that God will be unjust in sending some to
+Hell, and that He will be unjust in the way He will punish. Many who
+are thus disturbed lose sight of the fact that God is just; that
+whatever God does in regard to the lost, one thing is certain,--_He
+will do no injustice_. With my loved ones, with your loved ones, with
+the most obscure, worthless creature, with the most refined, delicate
+nature, with the most cruel, debased creature that ever lived, God
+will do no wrong. Many have turned away to infidelity, not on account
+of the Bible's complete teaching as to future punishment, but because
+they have taken some one passage of Scripture and warped it or gotten
+from it a distorted idea of the Bible's teachings as to Hell; or they
+have taken some preacher's views as to the Bible's teachings on the
+subject. For example, here is a boy fifteen years of age, whose mother
+died when he was an infant, whose father is a drunkard and gambler and
+infidel, who has given the boy but little moral training; and here is
+a man seventy years of age who had a noble father and mother, who gave
+their boy every advantage, the best of training, under the best of
+influences; yet he when a boy turned away from all these influences
+and spent his life in sin and debauchery, and in leading others into
+sin. These two, the unfortunate boy and the old hardened sinner, die.
+With many the idea is that God consigns them to a common punishment in
+Hell. But, reader, remember that _God is just_; and if that is
+justice, what would injustice be? They were different in light and in
+opportunity and in sins, and yet punished alike? _The Bible does not
+teach it._
+
+But let us go back and consider this question of sin. "All have
+sinned." That includes you, reader. "To him that knoweth to do good
+and doeth it not, to him it is sin."--James 4:17. All have done this,
+have failed to live up to the light they have had; hence, "All have
+sinned." Two questions arise: first, ought sin to be punished? Second,
+ought all sin to be punished, or only the coarser, grosser, more
+offensive sins? As to the first, ought sin to be punished? There is a
+strong drift toward the teaching that sin ought to be punished only
+for the purpose of reforming the sinner. Intelligent men endorse this
+teaching without realizing that it is spiritual anarchy and absolutely
+horrible and detestable. A woman and four little children are
+murdered in cold blood by three robbers for the purpose of robbing the
+home. When the three are arrested, the first is found to be thoroughly
+penitent, thoroughly reformed, broken-hearted, over his horrible
+crime. If sin should be punished only to reform the sinner, this man
+should not be punished at all, though he murdered five people in cold
+blood; for he is already reformed. The second is such a hardened
+criminal that he never can be reformed, and the more he is punished
+the more hardened he will become. Then if sin is punished only to
+reform the sinner, he should not be punished at all, though guilty of
+the murder of five people in cold blood. The third is tender-hearted
+and easily influenced, and by sending him to prison for thirty days,
+he will be thoroughly reformed, though guilty of five cold-blooded
+murders. On this principle of punishing sin only to reform the sinner,
+all a sinner would have to do to make sure of Heaven would be to
+become such a hardened sinner that he could never be reformed, and
+then he would go to Heaven without any punishment at all.
+
+People need to call a halt and realize that sin ought to be punished
+because it is right to punish it, because it is just. But this means
+the punishment of all sins, the sins of the refined as surely as the
+sins of the debased, the smaller sins as surely as the greater sins.
+Hence the teaching of God's word, Rom. 1:18, "The wrath of God[1] is
+revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of
+men," But we need to keep in mind that it is discriminating wrath, and
+God's word makes this plain, Heb. 2:2, "Every transgression and
+disobedience received a _just recompense of reward_." "A just
+God."--Is. 45:21.
+
+    [1] Many sneer at a "God of wrath" and say they believe in a "God of
+    all love." God is love, but He is just as surely a God of wrath; and
+    were He not a God of wrath, He would not be God, but a fiend. He who
+    loves purity and chastity and has no wrath against impurity and
+    unchastity, but loves them, too, is a moral leper. He who loves the
+    defence of the poor and the helpless, but has no wrath against the
+    cold-blooded murderer, the one crushing the defenceless, but loves
+    him, too, is a fiend. Character, from God to Devil, can only be
+    told by what one loves and what one hates.
+
+Notice how clearly the Saviour teaches this same great truth, Matt.
+11:20-24, "Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his
+mighty works were done, because they repented not. Woe unto thee,
+Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been
+done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would have
+repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, _It
+shall be more tolerable_ for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgement
+than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt
+be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works which have been done
+in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
+But I say unto you that _it shall be more tolerable_ for the land of
+Sodom in the day of judgement, than for thee." Notice, "more
+tolerable," difference in punishment.
+
+The same teaching Jesus gives in Mark 12:40. "These shall receive
+_greater condemnation_" Jesus revealed to Pilate God's judgment of a
+difference in sin, John 19:11, "He that delivered me unto thee hath
+the _greater sin_."
+
+And Paul teaches the same, Gal. 6:7, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that
+shall he also reap," the reaping according to the sowing.
+
+Let the reader notice the clear teaching: the punishment of sin will
+be graded, first, according to light and opportunity. A writer, a
+great scientist, held that heredity and environment largely determine
+one's destiny. That is what Jesus taught. The people of Sodom were
+more wicked than those of Capernaum; but heredity and environment were
+against them. The people of Capernaum had not sinned so terribly as
+the people of Sodom, but they had more light and opportunity; they had
+better heredity, better environment; Jesus says that therefore the
+people of Capernaum shall be punished more severely than the people of
+Sodom. And that is right; that is just.
+
+Those to whom Jesus spoke were born under better conditions than those
+of Sodom; they grew up under more favorable surroundings; hence, they
+were more responsible; hence, they are to receive greater punishment
+at the judgment. Apply to your own case, reader: for every added ray
+of light, for every added opportunity, there will be that much added
+punishment for your sins. And that is just; that is right. The
+opportunities that wealth brings, the light that education and culture
+bring, will but add to the punishment at the judgment. The most highly
+educated, the most refined, the most wealthy, those who have lived
+under the most favorable influences, will suffer most at the judgment.
+
+But punishment will be further graded by the number of the
+sins,--"_Every_ transgression received a just recompense." Hence, the
+more one sins, the greater the punishment. If one knew that he was
+going to Hell, corrupt human nature would say, "Sin and enjoy while
+you live," but reason and Scripture would say, "Stop! add no more to
+the degree of Hell."
+
+Punishment for sin will be further graded by the character of the sin.
+"He that betrayed me to thee hath the greater sin." While a small sin
+is just as surely sin as a great sin, yet God recognizes degrees in
+sin, and as a consequence, there are degrees in the punishment of sin.
+Following from degrees in the punishment of sin comes inevitably the
+fact that no wrong will be done any one at the judgment; that no one
+will be treated wrong in Hell. _He who fears only injustice and wrong,
+has nothing to fear from the judgment or in Hell._
+
+Two reflections for the reader:--If you have heretofore rebelled
+against the idea of future punishment, what can you say when now you
+see that God will make all just allowance for surroundings and
+conditions, and will take into consideration the number and kinds of
+sins? God has a right to have laws; His laws are right; a law without
+a penalty amounts to no law; the penalty, God assures us, will be
+absolutely just. _What can you say when you stand before such a judge
+and receive such a sentence?_
+
+The other reflection for the reader: Let not this teaching of the
+Bible lead you into thinking that Hell, then, will not be so terrible
+after all, and that you need not fear it. Instead of letting it allay
+all dread of the future, it is enough to make the blood run cold
+through your veins; for those who will have the most terrible
+suffering will be the most enlightened, the most cultured.
+
+Another thought: not some far distant, cold, harsh, unsympathetic God
+will be the judge at the Judgment Day, but the Lord Jesus, "touched
+with the feeling of our infirmities," will be the one who will judge
+you and condemn you and give you your just degree of punishment in
+Hell. Hear Him: John 5:22, "Neither doth the Father judge any man, but
+he hath given all judgement to the Son." Peter reveals the same fact,
+Acts 10:42, "He commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify
+that this is he who hath been ordained of God to be the judge of
+living and dead." Remember, that he whom the world praises as so good,
+so just, so discriminating, so loving, so tender, will be the judge at
+the Great Day, who will pronounce each sentence. Oh, reader, the very
+fact that the Lord Jesus will be the judge is absolute proof that no
+one will be treated wrong, that no one will be punished unjustly in
+Hell; and the bare possibility that He may pronounce your eternal doom
+is enough to cause you to turn to-day. "Turn ye, turn ye, for why will
+ye die?"
+
+_FOR FURTHER STUDY_: The fear of Abraham is the fear of the human
+race, Gen. 18:25, "Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?" As
+soon as God revealed to Abraham that he was going to deal with Sodom
+and Gomorrah because of their sin, Abraham at once suspects that God
+may do wrong in punishing sin. It has been so down the ages, that we
+suspect that God will do wrong in punishing sin. Great denominations
+have been formed to keep God from doing wrong in punishing sin. Men
+have proven untrue to their denominations and turned traitors to God's
+word, because they have, Abraham-like, suspected God of wrongdoing in
+the punishment of sin. It is not that the proof is not ample that the
+Bible is God's word, _but the hatred of the human heart for the Bible
+teaching about Hell_, that has brought in so much of modern religious
+vagaries and New Theology and Higher Criticism. As Abraham presses his
+plea for God to do right, God by degrees reveals Himself as a God who
+will do right. It must have been a marvellous revelation to Abraham.
+And so God's plan for the punishment of sin will be to the honest
+seeker for truth when he perceives the real teaching of God's word. As
+God's doing right with Sodom and Gomorrah went far beyond where
+Abraham's sense of right halted; so God's doing right with sinners in
+Hell will go far beyond what we would ask.
+
+But there are other objectors to Hell. They began by pressing the
+teaching of God's mercy without any reference to His justice; and in
+order to get rid of the teaching as to Hell, which they thought
+unjust, they rejected the Scriptures as God's word; and finally ended
+in rejecting the teaching that "Christ died for our sins" (1 Cor.
+15:3); that He "his own self bare our sins in his own body upon the
+tree" (1 Peter 2:24). As a result of their fighting against God's
+punishing sin, they have become so blinded as to right principle, and
+so morally corrupt, as to be supported in pulpits, college
+professorships and seminary professorships by the hard-earned money of
+earnest believers in God's word, while they are undermining the faith
+of the children of their supporters.
+
+The Heaven that such men teach is the Hell of the Bible. Rejecting
+complete redemption through Christ dying for our sins as our
+substitute, they teach salvation by character, or that one's destiny
+beyond the grave will be according to the way he has lived here. That
+is their Heaven, but that is the Bible's Hell, exactly, absolutely.
+Infidelity, Judaism, Christian Science, Universalism, Unitarianism,
+Higher Criticism, New Theology and all who reject Christ dying for our
+sins, as our substitute, as our complete Redeemer, because of their
+hatred of God's punishing sinners in Hell, have made their Heaven to
+be the result of their life here on earth; and as a consequence, have
+made their Heaven the Bible's Hell; for Hell will be exactly the
+result of the life here on earth; and, as a result, they have in
+theory, and, alas! will have in fact, the Bible's Hell which they
+label Heaven, without any real Heaven at all. As an example, consider
+Mr. R. G. Ingersoll's words, "I believe in the gospel of justice, that
+we must reap what we sow (Bible's Hell without any Heaven). I do not
+believe in forgiveness (Bible's Hell without any Heaven). If I rob
+Smith and God forgives me, how does that help Smith? If I cover some
+poor girl with the leprosy of some imputed crime and she withers away
+like a blighted flower and afterward I get forgiveness, how does that
+help her? If there is another world, we have got to settle (admitting
+that we do not settle in this life), and for every crime you commit
+here (hence, the more the crimes, the more you must suffer, exactly
+the Bible's teaching), you must answer to yourself and to the one you
+injure. And if you have ever clothed another as with a garment of
+pain, you will never be quite as happy as though you had not done that
+thing." "No forgiveness; eternal, inexorable, everlasting justice,
+that is what I believe in." Any Christian would be willing to take Mr.
+Ingersoll's place, or the place of any one else, in Hell, if God
+varies one pang from what Mr. Ingersoll himself calls for. But it is
+the Bible's Hell, pure and simple, without any Heaven.
+
+But the objector who rejects the teaching of Hell, and also Christ
+dying for our sins as our substitute, may say that he does not agree
+with Mr. Ingersoll, as to no forgiveness; that he believes in
+forgiveness. To reject Christ's dying for our sins as our substitute,
+as our Redeemer from all iniquity, and yet, in order to avoid
+believing in Hell, to profess to believe in the forgiveness of sins,
+makes one far worse than Mr. Ingersoll, a spiritual anarchist. Mr.
+Ingersoll at least believed in law, but to believe in forgiveness,
+without substitution, without redemption through Christ, means to down
+with law and to become an anarchist in principle. As to the justice of
+substitution, the reader is referred to Chapter III.
+
+Concerning the objection to the Bible's teaching of eternal punishment
+in Hell, a mistranslation has misled many, and before the correct
+translation, as given by the Revised Version, all objections fall to
+the ground. The old version of Rev. 22:11 reads, "He that is unjust
+let him be unjust still"; but the Revised Version gives what the
+Greek says, "He that is unrighteous let him _do unrighteousness
+still_!" And that inevitably means eternal punishment. It is God's
+last sentence on the sinner. The objector may say that it is horrible
+to let men sin beyond the grave, in Hell. Not one particle more
+horrible is it than to let them sin in this life and continue in sin
+in this life. A reflection for the unsaved reader: what will your
+moral character be one thousand years after you die, with no holy
+Spirit, no Bible, no Christians, no churches, to restrain you?
+
+Again, this passage, Rev. 22:11 (R. V.), can have no meaning if the
+wicked are to be blotted out, cease to exist.
+
+Another objection that is pressed, is that the Bible teaches a Hell of
+literal fire, and is therefore wrong. The denominations that reject
+the Bible's teachings as to Hell, without exception, try to force on
+the Bible language the meaning of literal fire. Yet they do not try to
+force on the language of the Bible concerning Hell, that it means
+literal worm when it says "to be cast into Hell where their worm dieth
+not and the fire is not quenched." They do not try to force the
+literal meaning on language when Jesus said, "I am the door"; "I am
+the vine"; or the Scriptures state, "That rock was Christ." One thing
+is true, that, the language being figurative, the reality must be
+terrible.
+
+Men sneer at the thought of becoming Christians from fear of Hell.
+Such men are not honest with God, and are simply trying to browbeat
+God on the subject of Hell. Proof: the same men will flee to safety
+from fear of smallpox, from fear of yellow fever, etc. Shall men be
+looked upon as sensible when they flee to safety for their bodies, and
+be scorned for fleeing to safety for their souls?
+
+People are ever asking, "Will the heathen be lost without the gospel?"
+Let God's word answer, Rom. 2:12, 14, "As many as have sinned without
+the law shall also perish without the law"; "For when Gentiles that
+have not the law do by nature the things of the law, these not having
+the law are the law unto themselves, in that they show the work of the
+law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness
+therewith, and their thoughts one with another accusing or else
+excusing themselves." But the objector says, "Will God condemn a man
+when he has no light?" There never lived such a man. Listen to God:
+John 1:19, "That was the true light that lighteth every man coming
+into the world." Again, Rom. 1:20, "The invisible things of him since
+the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through
+the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; so
+that they are without excuse." But the objection is raised that they
+have never heard of Christ, and that it is wrong for people to be
+lost, condemned, who never heard of Christ. They are not condemned for
+not believing in Christ when they have never heard of Him; they are
+condemned for their sins, for doing what, from their light, they knew
+was wrong. It is not the lack of the remedy that kills, but the
+disease. They have not as much light as others, and their punishment
+will be accordingly. The man who dies in his sins in a Christian land
+will be punished far, far more than the one who dies a heathen. Their
+punishments will be almost as far apart as the east is from the west.
+
+The Scripture, "There is no difference," Rom. 3:22, has often been
+pressed to mean that all sinners are alike before God, or will suffer
+alike in Hell. By close attention to the passage the reader will see
+that the expression "there is no difference" has reference to what
+goes before, for it is connected by the word "for," pointing back to
+what had just been said, that there is a "righteousness of God through
+faith in Jesus Christ unto all that have faith: _for_ there is no
+difference," that all that have faith are equally certain of
+salvation, "for there is no difference." To join the expression,
+"there is no difference," with what follows makes it clearly
+contradict our Saviour, who said plainly that there is a
+difference,--"He that delivered me unto thee hath the greater
+sin,"--there is a difference in sin, says the Saviour.
+
+The teaching of James 2:10, "For whosoever shall keep the whole law
+and yet offend in one point is guilty of all," must not be made to
+contradict the plain teaching of the Saviour that there is a
+difference in sinners, and different degrees in their punishment. The
+meaning is that the law is a unit, and that he that offends in one
+point has broken the law as a whole. A chain of ten links is as surely
+broken when one link is broken as when all ten links are broken.
+
+In accord with this are the words of the great American scholar,
+theologian, teacher, preacher, Jno. A. Broadus: "Especially notice
+Luke 12:47 f. (R. V.), 'And that servant which knew his lord's will,
+and made not ready, nor did according to his will, shall be beaten
+with many stripes; but he that knew not, and did things worthy of
+stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes.' This teaching has been in
+many cases grievously overlooked. Taking images literally, men have
+found that the 'Gehenna of fire' (Matt. 5:22) will be the same place
+and the same degree of punishment for all. But the above passage and
+many others show that there will be differences. The degrees of
+punishment must be as remote as the east is from the west. All
+inherited proclivities, 'taints of blood,' all differences of
+environment, every privilege and every disadvantage, will be taken
+into account. It is the Divine Judge that will apportion punishment,
+with perfect knowledge and perfect justice and perfect goodness. This
+great fact, that there will be _degrees_ in future punishment--as well
+as future rewards--ought to be more prominent in religious
+instruction. It gives some relief in contemplating the awful fate of
+those who perish. It might save many from going away into
+Universalism; and others from dreaming of a 'second probation' in
+eternity (comp. on 12:32); and yet others from unjustly assailing and
+rejecting, to their own ruin, the gospel of salvation."
+
+On the other hand, many a sermon on Hell (and there are too few on the
+subject), it could possibly be said the average sermon on the subject,
+is a slander on a just and holy God. The sermon is drawn largely from
+Dante's Inferno or the distorted imagination of the preacher, with no
+reference to the fact that God will punish sinners differently
+according to their light and their sins, but only justly.
+
+The trouble is not with the Bible teaching as to Hell, but with
+modern inadequate conceptions of the evil and guilt of sin, and with
+many, the almost lost sense of justice, and of "stern moral
+indignation against wrong." (Broadus.)
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+SINS NOT EXCUSED, NOR THE PENALTY EVER REMITTED WITHOUT REDEMPTION
+
+     "Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no
+     wise pass away from the law."--Jesus.
+
+     "Apart from shedding of blood there is no remission."--Heb. 9:22.
+
+     "For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to
+     you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the
+     blood that maketh atonement."--Lev. 17:11.
+
+     "It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take
+     away sins."--Heb. 10:4.
+
+     "Every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of
+     reward."--Heb. 2:2.
+
+
+When one faces the question of his sins, and realizes that they
+deserve just punishment, one of the first impulses is to pray and beg
+of God to be let off, to be forgiven; and, alas! much of the religious
+instruction to the sinner is to the same effect. Jesus to Nicodemus
+gave no such instruction (John 3:14-16); Philip to the Eunuch gave no
+such instruction (Acts 8:29-39); Paul and Silas to the jailer gave no
+such instruction (Acts 16:30, 31); Peter to the household of Cornelius
+gave no such instruction (Acts 10:42, 43); the gospel of John, the one
+book specially given to lead a sinner to be saved (John 20:30, 31),
+gives no such instruction.
+
+But the objection is at once brought up that in the Lord's Prayer we
+are taught to pray, "Forgive us our sins." That prayer begins "Our
+Father," and God is not the Father of sinners ("Ye are all the
+children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."--Gal. 3:26); and the
+prayer was given by the Saviour to disciples (Luke 11:1, 2), and not
+to sinners.
+
+But the objection is further raised that the Bible says, "If we
+confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins."
+That is from the first epistle of John, and was not written to
+sinners, but to believers. John says (1 John 5:13), "These things have
+I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even
+_unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God_." (R. V.) God
+can and does forgive the believer on confession, because the believer
+is a child of God. With the sinner it is a question of law, of
+justice, of right. Hence, the Lord Jesus said, "Till heaven and earth
+pass away, one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law"
+(Matt. 5:18). "Every transgression and disobedience received _a just
+recompense of reward_" (Heb. 2:2); but there is no "_just recompense
+of reward_" at all, if God lets the sinner off from the just penalty
+of his sins because he prays and begs and cries to be let off, or
+because priests or preachers pray and beg for him to be let off. "It
+is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin"
+(Heb. 10:4), because there is no "just recompense of reward" in such
+cases. Much less can the sins be taken away when there is no
+recompense of reward at all in the case, but simply the praying and
+begging of the sinner to be forgiven, to be let off, and the praying
+and begging of some priest or preacher that the sinner be forgiven,
+let off. God has given a plain warning, "Apart from shedding of blood
+there is no remission."--Heb. 9:22. Among what are called evangelical
+denominations it would be looked upon as worse than folly for a Jew,
+a Unitarian or a Universalist, who had asked God to forgive his sins,
+or had confessed the sins, to claim that therefore he was forgiven and
+was sure to go to Heaven. But it is just as fatal a delusion among
+others as among Jews, Unitarians and Universalists. Every
+transgression must have "_a just recompense of reward_," however sorry
+the sinner may be, however much he may pray and beg to be forgiven,
+let off; however much the priest or preacher or friends may pray for
+him to be forgiven, to be let off. A man who has violated the state
+law falls on his knees before the judge, confesses his sin and begs
+the judge to forgive him, to let him off; and he calls men from the
+audience to come and help him beg. The judge replies, "If I should
+yield to these petitions I would be a perjurer; I would trample on
+law. Every transgression must receive a just recompense of reward."
+Would that all could realize that every prayer from sinner, priest, or
+preacher, for a sinner to be forgiven, let off, is a prayer to God to
+become a perjurer. If sinners could realize that, after all their
+kneeling every night and confessing their sins, and praying to be
+forgiven, to be let off, every sin ever committed is still there, and
+that "Apart from shedding of blood there is no remission," they would
+then realize their real need of a Saviour, a Redeemer.
+
+One question for the reader: If God forgives, lets a sinner off,
+simply because he is sorry and cries and prays and begs to be let off,
+or because the priest or preacher cries, prays and begs for him to be
+forgiven, to be let off, _why did Jesus die_?
+
+_FOR FURTHER STUDY_: The word translated forgiveness in the Bible
+means simply to send away, without reference to how the sin is sent
+away; but God's word states plainly that sins are forgiven, sent away,
+by Christ bearing them. "Behold the lamb of God that taketh away the
+sin of the world."--John 1:29. "Who his own self bare our sins in his
+own body on the tree."--1 Peter 2:24; "Christ died for our sins."--1
+Cor. 15:3. Concerning the justice of Christ dying for our sins, see
+the next chapter.
+
+The prayer of the publican in the old version, "God be merciful to me
+the sinner," Luke 18:13, has misled many. If that was really the
+prayer of the publican, how _could_ the Saviour have said, "This man
+went down to his house _justified_"? The margin of the Revised Version
+gives what the Greek says, "Be thou propitiated." It is the same Greek
+word that in Heb. 2:17 is translated, "to make reconciliation for the
+sins of the people." President Strong of Rochester Theological
+Seminary gives the exact meaning of it when he renders it, "Be thou
+propitiated to me the sinner by the sacrifice whose smoke was then
+ascending in the presence of the publican while he prayed." And Jesus
+shows what the publican said when He added, "This man went down to his
+house _justified_."
+
+It is said that a young man ran away from his widowed mother and was
+gone for years. One stormy night sitting near the window sewing, while
+the rain was beating against the window pane, she thought she heard a
+noise. Looking up she saw the shaggy, bearded face of a ragged tramp
+pressed against the window pane, but it faded back into the storm as
+she looked up. Faint lines in the face aroused memory. As the needle
+was plied the mind was busy. Again a slight noise caused her to look
+up, and again the shaggy, bearded face of the tramp faded back into
+the storm. This time she knew that she was not mistaken. The shaggy
+beard could not hide the lines in the face of her long-lost boy.
+Throwing up the window she cried, "Come in, William, oh, come in."
+Stepping to where the light fell full in his face, while the tears
+coursed down his cheeks, he said, "Mother, I can't come in till my sin
+has been put out of the way." There was honor left in the tramp yet.
+There ought to be honor enough in every human being not to wish to go
+to Heaven, not to try to go to Heaven, at the expense of God's
+justice. Jesus said, John 10:1, 7, "He that entereth not by the door
+into the fold of the sheep, but climbeth up some other way, the same
+is a thief and a robber." "Verily, verily I say unto you, I am the
+door." Jesus says, then, that those who confess their sins, and pray
+for forgiveness and claim it, and yet reject Him as the door, are
+thieves and robbers. God does forgive the redeemed, for they are His
+children (Gal. 4:4-7), on confession (1 John 1:9); but for those who
+are under the law, His word is plain, "Apart from shedding of blood
+there is no remission."--Heb. 9:22.
+
+God's word states plainly how our sins are put away; not by, or
+because of, the praying and weeping and confession of the sinner, nor
+the praying and weeping and interceding of others for the sinner, for
+God to forgive him; "but now once in the end of the world hath he
+appeared to put away sin by the _sacrifice of himself_."--Heb. 9:26.
+Concerning the justice of putting away sin in this way, see next
+chapter. On this point Walker well says, "If the holiness of the law
+was not maintained, that sense of guilt and danger could not be
+produced which is necessary in order that man may have a spiritual
+Saviour."--_Walker, in "The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation."_
+
+Again he says, "When He reveals His perfect law, that law cannot, from
+the nature of its author, allow the commission of a single
+sin."--_Walker, in "The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation."_
+
+Further, he says, "God ought not to allow one sin; if He did, the law
+would not be holy, nor adapted to make men holy."--_Walker, in "The
+Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation."_
+
+Equally to the point are the words of James Denny, "It is an immediate
+inference, then, from all that we have seen in the New Testament, that
+where there is no atonement there is no gospel. To preach the love of
+God out of relation to the death of Christ, or to preach the love of
+God in the death of Christ, but without being able to relate it to
+sin, or to preach that forgiveness of sins as the free gift of God's
+love while the death of Christ has no special significance assigned to
+it, is not, if the New Testament is the rule and standard of
+Christianity, to preach the gospel at all."--_Denny, in "The Death of
+Christ."_
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+JESUS THE CHRIST AS SIN-BEARER--GOD'S JUSTICE AND LOVE
+
+     "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that
+     whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal
+     life."--John 3:16.
+
+     "That he might himself be just and the justifier of him that hath
+     faith in Jesus."--Rom. 3:26.
+
+     "He was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our
+     iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with
+     his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we
+     have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him
+     the iniquity of us all."--Is. 53:5, 6.
+
+     "Christ died for our sins."--1 Cor. 15:3.
+
+     "Our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins."--Gal. 1:3,
+     4.
+
+     "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree."--1
+     Peter 2:24.
+
+     "Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the
+     unrighteous."--1 Peter 3:18.
+
+     "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to
+     minister and to give His life a ransom for many."--Matt. 20:28.
+
+     "There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
+     who gave himself a ransom for all."--1 Tim. 2:5, 6.
+
+     "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a
+     curse for us."--Gal. 3:13.
+
+     "Our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might
+     redeem us from all iniquity."--Titus 2:13, 14.
+
+     "By which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the
+     body of Jesus Christ once for all."--Heb. 10:10.
+
+     "For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are
+     sanctified."--Heb. 10:14.
+
+     "Nor yet by the blood of goats and bulls, but through his own blood
+     entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained
+     eternal redemption."--Heb. 9:12.
+
+     "This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many
+     unto the remission of sins."--Matt. 26:28.
+
+     "And they sing a new song, saying, Worthy art thou to take the book
+     and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and didst
+     purchase unto God with thy blood men of every tribe and tongue and
+     people and nation."--Rev. 5:9.
+
+     "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and
+     sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."--1 John 4:10.
+
+     "The Son of God who loved me, and gave himself up for me."--Gal.
+     2:20.
+
+
+Reader, God's justice and love are both shown in the Saviour dying for
+our sins. Substitution is the _only way_ of salvation when justice and
+love are both considered. It was God's justice that made it necessary
+for Christ to die for our sins. "Even so _must_ the Son of man be
+lifted up,"--John 3:14;--"that he might himself be _just_ and the
+_justifier_ of him that hath faith in Jesus."--Rom. 3:26. And it was
+God's love that let Him die for our sins, "for God so loved the world
+that he gave his only begotten Son."--John 3:16. What you, reader,
+ought to desire to know, is simply God's way. The Scriptures at the
+beginning of the chapter, if language can make anything plain, show
+clearly that the sinner's only escape from the just punishment of his
+sins lies in Jesus dying in his place to set him free from the just
+penalty due his sins; and they make it plain that this settles the
+_full_ penalty for _all sins_.
+
+But the objection is raised and pressed with all the force of human
+ingenuity and scholarship, backed by the prestige of some occupying
+the highest positions in literary and theological institutions, that
+it is morally wrong for the innocent to suffer the penalty of the
+guilty. With a zeal deserving a better cause, many who stand high as
+professed Christians and teachers join hands with the rankest, most
+blatant infidels, and press this, to them, unanswerable objection to
+Christ dying for our sins as our substitute. This friendship between
+infidelity and professed Christian teachers reminds one of another
+occasion when our Saviour was set at naught and two became friends
+with each other that very day (Luke 23:11, 12). Let us face this
+objection honestly and earnestly, for our eternal destiny turns on
+this one point. _Is it morally wrong for the innocent to bear the sins
+of the guilty?_ In the first place it is _not_ morally wrong, because
+God would not do morally wrong, and God _did_ let the innocent suffer
+the penalty of the guilty. The language of Scripture teaching that
+Jesus suffered the penalty of our sins for us is plain and simple, and
+all efforts to take from the Scripture language its simple, plain,
+natural meaning are pitiable, and if contempt were ever justifiable,
+would deserve the contempt of all honest men. Let the reader turn back
+and read the Scriptures at the head of this chapter and decide for
+himself as to their obvious, intended meaning.
+
+Now, because God's word tells us plainly that God gave His only
+begotten Son, that He might be just, and thus the justifier of him who
+believes in Jesus, that Christ died for our sins, that He gave Himself
+for our sins, the just for the unjust,--it is right for the innocent
+to suffer the penalty of the guilty. To any honest, candid man, which
+is the correct way to reason? This thing is wrong; God did this thing;
+therefore, God did wrong? or, God does right; God did let Christ, the
+innocent, suffer and die for our sins, to _redeem_ from _all
+iniquity_; therefore it is right for the innocent to suffer the
+penalty of the guilty?
+
+Nor is Christ suffering as our substitute the Great Exception, as some
+timid ones have granted. It is in line with _God's Plan with Men_; it
+is in line with the best and noblest there is in man; and the opposite
+teaching, that it is wrong to let the innocent bear the penalty of the
+guilty, is not only wrong, but horrible and the extreme of
+heartlessness. Two men passing along the street at night hear groaning
+in the gutter; striking a match, they see two men lying in the gutter
+with their faces all gashed and bleeding. In a drunken street fight
+they have almost killed each other. Who did the sinning? Those two men
+lying in the gutter; they deserve to suffer the penalty of their
+sinning. But these other two men join hands, pay for a physician, a
+nurse and the hospital bill. In principle that is the innocent paying
+the penalty of the guilty. To say that this is wrong would mean to
+condemn the community to pass by day after day and see those ghastly,
+festering wounds, those parched lips and bloodshot eyes, and to listen
+to those dying groans. And yet in principle that is exactly what those
+demand for this sinful, sin-injured human race, when they say that it
+is morally wrong for Jesus the Saviour to suffer the penalty of our
+sins. A son becomes a drunkard; his drunkenness and debauchery utterly
+wreck his health. Some night the father finds his drunken son down in
+the street, a helpless invalid. The son did the sinning; he deserves
+to suffer the penalty of his sins; but the father takes him to his
+home and cares for him and supports him. In principle that is the
+innocent bearing the penalty of the guilty. To say that this is
+morally wrong would be to condemn that father to pass by day after day
+and see his son suffering the just consequences of his sin, to see him
+slowly starving to death, to see him gasping in death, and not be
+allowed to come to the rescue. Yet when men object to Christ bearing
+the penalty of the sinner's sins they are, in principle, taking that
+stand; for in principle Jesus, dying for our sins, did what the father
+did with the son. A prominent woman in America was dying from lack of
+blood; back of it somewhere was violation of some law of God, some
+law of health. Her noble husband had the surgeon join their arteries,
+and every beat of his noble heart drove his well blood into the body
+of his dying wife, and he saved her life. These objectors praise that
+act; they see nothing morally wrong in it. Yet when Jesus, in
+principle, did the same thing for sinners in order to save them, these
+same men, with a haughty, scornful tone, say that it is morally wrong
+for the innocent to suffer in place of the guilty. "Nay but, O man,
+who art thou that repliest against God?"--Rom. 9:20. Had the objectors
+said that it was wrong to _force_ the innocent to suffer the penalty
+of the guilty, that would have been true, but Jesus was not forced.
+Listen to Him, John 10:17, 18, "Therefore doth the Father love me,
+because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one taketh it
+away from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down
+and I have power to take it again."
+
+Nor is Christ dying for our sins, as taught by the Scriptures, a
+makeshift, but, rather, a real, full _redemption, ransom_. Just as a
+captain can honorably, honestly be given as a ransom for a number of
+private soldiers in an exchange of prisoners; just as a diamond can
+redeem a debt of many dollars; just as one man is allowed to pay
+another's debt; just as one man is allowed to pay another's fine in a
+courtroom; so our Lord and Saviour "gave himself for us, that he might
+_redeem_ us from _all iniquity_." All illustrations of Deity fall
+short, but just as a man could ransom all the ants that crawl upon the
+earth, were they under moral law and had violated it; just as a man
+could, on account of the vast difference in the scale of being, suffer
+in his own body all that all the ants upon earth could suffer; so
+Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, redeemed us from "all iniquity." It was
+not merely the nails driven through His quivering flesh, nor the
+physical pangs, but "the Lord hath laid on him _the iniquity_ of us
+all." Hence, that awful cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
+me?" He was in the sinner's place, suffering the sinner's penalty for
+sin. "He hath made him to be sin for us."--2 Cor. 6:21.
+
+Instead of proudly cavilling and warping and trying to avoid the
+simple, plain meaning of God's word, should you not rather, reader,
+bow in reverence before such love, realize that it was for you, yes,
+_you_, and that through His suffering and in no other way, you may
+escape the just punishment of your sins and spend eternity in Heaven?
+The world weeps over the story of the noble fireman who gave his life
+to rescue a little girl from a burning building, but it coldly scorns
+and proudly rejects salvation through the redemption of Jesus the
+Christ. Oh, the pride and wickedness of the human heart! Be not you,
+reader, of those who sit in the seat of the scornful, but the rather
+of those who at the last day will sing, Rev. 5:9, "Worthy art thou to
+take the book and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and
+didst purchase unto God with thy blood, men of every tribe and tongue
+and people and nation."
+
+Let us consider carefully what it really means when we are told that
+"Christ died _for our sins_,"--1 Cor. 15:3, that He "gave himself _for
+our sins_,"--Gal. 1:4; that "his own self bare our sins in his own
+body upon the tree,"--1 Peter 2:24; that "Christ also suffered for
+sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous."--1 Peter 3:18. God's
+word explains it clearly: "That he might himself be _just_ and the
+_justifier_ of him that hath faith in Jesus."--Rom. 3:26. "_That he
+might be just._" Notice it carefully, "_That he might be just._" Take
+it in its full meaning, "That he might be just." A question: How
+_could_ God be _just_ and _justify_ any sinner apart from the fact
+that "Christ died for our sins," that "the Lord hath laid on him the
+iniquity of us all"? Reader, no man, however learned, will ever answer
+that question. He may sneer; he may cavil; he may warp; he may try to
+confuse; but he will never come out in the open and answer that
+question. He may say that it is morally wrong for the innocent to bear
+the penalty of the guilty, but that objection is met and answered
+above in this chapter.
+
+Let us face a trilemma; three, and only three plans, were possible for
+God with man:--
+
+First, To have been just with man, without any love or mercy; hence,
+for every sinner to have suffered the just penalty for his sins,
+without any redemption. That would have meant Hell for every
+responsible human being, without any Heaven at all.
+
+Second, To have been all mercy and all love and no justice. That would
+have meant no moral laws; for why have moral laws, if there would be
+no penalty, no justice? That would have meant a premium on crime. That
+would have meant the debased, the debauched, the immoral, the drunken,
+the fiend, on a level with the chaste, the pure, the upright, the
+true. That would have meant unbridled rein to passion and lust and
+every other evil inclination, and no penalty following. That would
+have meant Hell in trying to get rid of Hell.
+
+Third, There was left but one other possible plan, to be just and at
+the same time extend love to the sinners. In the nature of the case,
+real redemption, without any makeshift, was the only way this _could_
+be done. "Even so _must_ the Son of man be lifted up,"--John 3:14;
+"that he himself might be _just_ and the _justifier_ of him that hath
+faith in Jesus,"--Rom. 3:26; "God so _loved_ the world that he gave
+his only begotten Son,"--John 3:16; "Herein is love, not that we loved
+God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be _the propitiation
+for our sins_."--1 John 4:10.
+
+This leads to another question: How can God be _just_ and _not_
+justify "him that hath faith in Jesus"? Again men may quibble and
+warp, and ridicule, but no one will ever answer the question. And the
+reason why this question will never be answered leads to another
+question:
+
+From how many of his sins is the one "that hath faith in Jesus"
+_justified_? We have now gotten to the very centre of the whole
+problem of salvation. Let us give it most careful consideration.
+
+In not one of the Scriptures cited at the head of this chapter is
+there one word that limits the number of sins for which Christ died,
+or from which the believer is justified. That of itself is sufficient
+warrant for us to conclude that Christ died for _all_ of the sins of
+the believer, that when He "gave himself for our sins" (Gal. 1:4), it
+included _all_ of our sins, and that the believer is justified from
+_all_ of his sins. One man promises another that he will pay his
+debts. That of itself means all of his debts, unless the one making
+the promise was simply juggling with words. While this of itself would
+be sufficient, God in His word has made it positive and absolute as to
+how many of the believer's sins were laid on Christ ("the Lord hath
+laid on him the iniquity of us all."--Is. 53:6); for how many of our
+sins Christ gave Himself ("Who gave himself for our sins."--Gal. 1:4);
+for how many of our sins Christ died (1 Cor. 15:3); from how many of
+his sins the believer is _justified_, ("that he might himself be
+_just_ and the _justifier_ of him that hath faith in Jesus."--Rom.
+3:26). In Lev. 16:21, 22, God gives us a picture, foreshadowing the
+Saviour, of laying the sins on the substitute: "And Aaron shall lay
+both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him
+_all_ the iniquity of the children of Israel, and _all_ their
+transgressions, even _all_ their sins; and he shall put them upon the
+head of the goat and shall send him away by the hand of a man that is
+in readiness into the wilderness: And the goat shall bear upon him
+_all_ their iniquities." "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh [or
+beareth] away the sins of the world."--John 1:29. _But how many_ of
+our sins? Let God's word answer: Titus 2:13, 14, "Our Saviour Jesus
+Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might _redeem_ us from _all
+iniquity_." Look at it again, reader; grasp its full meaning; let it
+be impressed indelibly upon your soul: "Our Saviour Jesus Christ; who
+gave himself for us, that he might _redeem_ us from _all_ iniquity."
+Then as certainly as the believer is redeemed by Him, he is redeemed
+from _all_ iniquity; and as certainly as he is redeemed from all
+iniquity, that certainly the believer is going to Heaven, for there is
+nothing left that can cause him to be lost. Hence God, through Paul,
+has told us "By him every one that believeth is _justified_ from _all_
+things."--Acts 13:39.
+
+If our Saviour Jesus Christ gave Himself for us that he might _redeem_
+us from _all_ iniquity (Titus 2:13, 14), how can God be _just_ and
+_not_ justify every one that believes from _all_ things (Acts 13:39)?
+And if the believer is _justified_ from _all_ things (Acts 13:39), he
+is certain to go to Heaven. This is _God's plan_; this is God's will;
+"by the which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the
+body of Jesus Christ _once for all_."--Heb. 10:10. "_For by one_
+offering he hath _perfected forever_ them that are sanctified."--Heb.
+10:14. "Nor yet by the blood of goats and calves, but through his own
+blood entered in _once for all_ into the holy place, having obtained
+_eternal redemption_."--Heb. 9:12. Hence Jesus said, "Verily, verily I
+say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent
+me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but is
+passed from death to life."--John 5:24.
+
+While thus is manifested God's justice, and the _only_ way that God
+_could_ be "just and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus"
+(Rom. 3:26), for Jesus Himself said it ("Even so _must_ the Son of man
+be lifted up."--John 3:14); let the reader not forget that it equally
+manifests God's love, and the Saviour's love. "Herein is love, not
+that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the
+propitiation for our sins."--1 John 4:10. "The Son of God who loved me
+and gave himself for me."--Gal. 2:20. If God's love is amazing in
+sending His Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:10), if
+the Saviour's love is amazing in loving us and giving Himself for us
+(Gal. 2:20), how infinitely more amazing is this love when we see that
+it has obtained _eternal redemption_ for us (Heb. 9:12); that it has
+redeemed us from _all_ iniquity (Titus 2:14), and that every one that
+believes is _justified_ from _all_ things (Acts 13:39)?
+
+Reader, the greatest crime that is ever committed on this earth is to
+reject this "so great salvation" (Heb. 2:3); this redemption from all
+iniquity (Titus 2:14), and to trifle with the amazing love that
+provided a way by which He Himself might be just and the justifier of
+him that hath faith in Jesus (Rom. 3:26). We shudder at the horrible
+crimes reported in the daily papers, at those recorded in history; but
+far greater, far blacker, more terrible, is the crime of a human being
+rejecting this great provision of God's love. Only intellectual pride,
+religious prejudice, family or race ties, love of the world, or secret
+sin, can be the cause of the reader taking such a fatal step; and
+fearful will be the consequences of letting any one of these cause the
+rejection of the only salvation that God's love and justice could
+provide. The reader cannot plead that God has not given sufficient
+proof that He has given us a revelation in His word (let the reader go
+back and read again the Introduction and the reference for further
+study); nor can he plead that God's word does not make the message
+plain (let the reader go back and study the Scriptures at the
+beginning of this chapter). It is a solemn and awful step, reader, one
+never to be retraced, to decide to reject this salvation, and to go
+out into the dark, unending future beyond the grave, unredeemed from
+iniquity, with no certain hope, when God has warned you, "Apart from
+shedding of blood there is no remission,"--Heb. 9:22. It is an awful,
+eternal crisis, when you see God's only provision for you, so
+complete, so perfect, so sure, and then face His warning, "I call
+heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set
+before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore
+choose _life_."
+
+_FOR FURTHER STUDY._--There are those who deny God's justice in Christ
+dying for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3), in Christ giving Himself for our
+sins (Gal. 1:4), in Christ redeeming us from all iniquity (Titus
+2:14). Expressions from the two most prominent rejecters will show the
+principal reasons given by all other rejecters of redemption through
+Christ:--
+
+"Moral justice cannot take the innocent for the guilty, even if the
+innocent would offer itself."--_The "Age of Reason" by Thomas Paine._
+"The outrage offered to the moral justice of God, by supposing Him to
+make the innocent suffer for the guilty."--_The "Age of Reason," by
+Thomas Paine._
+
+"An execution is an object for gratitude; the preachers daub
+themselves with the blood, like a troop of assassins, and pretend to
+admire the brilliancy it gives them."--_The "Age of Reason," by Thomas
+Paine._
+
+The other is Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy in her "Science and Health, with
+Key to the Scriptures": "One sacrifice, however great, is insufficient
+to pay the debt of sin. The atonement requires constant
+self-immolation on the sinner's part." Again, "Another's suffering
+cannot lessen our own liability." Again, "The time is not distant when
+the ordinary theological views of atonement will undergo a great
+change,--a change as radical as that which has come over popular
+opinions in regard to predestination and future punishment. Does
+erudite theology regard the crucifixion of Jesus chiefly as providing
+a ready pardon for all sinners who ask for it and are willing to be
+forgiven? Does spiritualism find Jesus's death necessary only for the
+presentation, after death, of the material Jesus, as a proof that
+spirits can return to earth? Then we must differ from them both." It
+is not to be wondered at that she takes her stand with Thomas Paine in
+rejecting the teaching that Christ died for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3),
+and that He redeemed us from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), when she says,
+"Does divine love commit a fraud on humanity by making man inclined to
+sin and then punishing him for it?" Again, "In common justice we must
+admit that God will not punish man for doing what He created man
+capable of doing, and knew from the outset that man would do." Again,
+"The destruction of sin is the divine method of pardon. Being
+destroyed, sin needs no other pardon." There is one vast difference
+between these two who reject Jesus as our sin-bearer, our
+Redeemer,--Thomas Paine does not masquerade under the name
+"Christian." Why should others who stand with him in rejecting
+complete redemption through Christ?
+
+Catholics by the sacrifice of the mass, the unbloody sacrifice, the
+elevation of the host, teach that the wafer is changed into the real
+"body, blood, soul and divinity" of Jesus Christ, and that it is then
+offered as a sacrifice. They thereby reject the complete redemption
+through Christ dying for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3), redeeming us from all
+iniquity (Titus 2:14). They thereby deny that He "offered one
+sacrifice for sin forever,"--Heb. 10:12, and that "by one offering he
+hath perfected forever them that are sanctified."--Heb. 10:14. Having
+rejected Him as complete Redeemer, they have no real Saviour at all.
+But those who make salvation dependent on moral character, or baptism,
+or church membership, just as surely as the Catholics reject the
+completeness of the redemption.
+
+There are some who sneer at this teaching as the "commercial view" of
+redemption, in the face of God's word that declares, "ye were _bought
+with a price,"_--1 Cor. 6:20; "worthy art thou to take the book and to
+open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and didst _purchase_ unto
+God with thy blood men of every tribe and tongue and people and
+nation."--Rev. 5:9. (R. V.)
+
+Consider the testimony of three over against the two quoted against
+this teaching of God's word:--
+
+"I saw that if Jesus suffered in my stead, I could not suffer, too;
+and that if He bore all my sin, I had no more sin to bear. My iniquity
+must be blotted out if Jesus bore it in my stead and suffered all its
+penalty."--_C. H. Spurgeon._
+
+"If you believe on him, I tell you you cannot go to Hell; for that
+were to make the sacrifice of Christ of none effect. It cannot be
+that a sacrifice should be accepted and yet the soul should die for
+whom that sacrifice had been received. If the believing soul could be
+condemned, then why a sacrifice? Every believer can claim that the
+sacrifice was actually made for him: by faith he has laid his hands on
+it, and made it his own, and therefore he may rest assured that he can
+never perish. The Lord would not receive this offering on our behalf
+and then condemn us to die."--_C. H. Spurgeon._
+
+"The law of God was more vindicated by the death of Christ than it
+would have been had all the transgressors been sent to Hell. For the
+Son of God to suffer for sin was a more glorious establishment of the
+government of God than for the whole race to suffer."--_C. H.
+Spurgeon._
+
+"It is the obvious implication of these words (the Righteous One for
+the unrighteous ones) that the death on which such stress is laid was
+something to which the unrighteous were liable because of their sins,
+and that in their interest the Righteous One took it on
+Himself."--_Denny, in "The Death of Christ."_
+
+"This is his gospel, that a Righteous One has once for all faced and
+taken up and in death exhausted the responsibilities of the
+unrighteous, so that they no more stand between them and
+God."--_Denny, in "The Death of Christ."_
+
+"If Christ died the death in which sin had involved us, if in His
+death He took the responsibility of our sins upon Himself, no word is
+equal to this which falls short of what is meant by calling Him our
+substitute."_--Denny, in "The Death of Christ."_
+
+"I do not know any word that conveys the truth of this if 'vicarious'
+or 'substitutionary' does not; nor do I know any interpretation of
+Christ's death which enables us to regard it as a demonstration of
+love to sinners, if this vicarious or substitutionary character is
+denied. There is much preaching _about_ Christ's death which fails to
+be a preaching _of_ Christ's death, and therefore to be in the full
+sense of the term Gospel Preaching, because it ignores this. The
+simplest hearer feels that there is something irrational in saying
+that the death of Christ is a great proof of love to the sinful unless
+there is shown at the same time a rational connection between that
+death and the responsibilities which sin involves, and from which that
+death delivers. Perhaps one should beg pardon for using so simple an
+illustration, but the point is a vital one, and it is necessary to be
+clear. If I were sitting on the end of a pier on a summer day,
+enjoying the sunshine and the air, and some one came along and jumped
+into the water and got drowned to prove his love to me, I should find
+it quite unintelligible. I might be much in need of love, but an act
+in no relation to any of my necessities could not prove it. But if I
+had fallen over the pier and were drowning and some one sprang into
+the water and at the cost of making my peril, or what but for him
+would be my fate, his own, saved me from death, then I should say,
+'Greater love hath no man than this.' I should say it intelligently,
+because there would be an intelligible relation between the sacrifice
+which love made and the necessity from which it redeemed."--_Denny, in
+"The Death of Christ."_
+
+"Christ died for sins once for all, and the man who believes in
+Christ and in His death has his relation to God _once for all
+determined not by sin but by the atonement_."--_Denny, in "The Death
+of Christ."_
+
+"One who knew no sin had, in obedience to the Father, to take on Him
+the responsibility, the doom, the curse, the death of the sinful.
+And if any one says that this was morally impossible, may we not
+ask again, What is the alternative? Is it not that the sinful
+should be left alone with their responsibility, doom, curse, and
+death?"--_Denny, in "The Death of Christ."_
+
+"Redemption, it may be said, springs from love, yet love is only a
+word of which we do not know the meaning till it is interpreted for us
+by redemption."--_Denny, in "The Death of Christ."_
+
+"Unless we can preach a finished work of Christ in relation to sin, a
+reconciliation or peace which has been achieved independently of us at
+infinite cost, and to which we are called in a word of ministry of
+reconciliation, we have no real gospel for sinful men at
+all."--_Denny, in "The Death of Christ."_
+
+"If the evangelist has not something to preach of which he can say,
+'If any man makes it his business to subvert this, let him be
+anathema,' he has no gospel at all."--_Denny, in "The Death of
+Christ."_
+
+"_As there is only one God, so there can be only one Gospel. If God
+has really done something in Christ on which the salvation of the
+world depends, and if He has made it known, then it is a Christian
+duty to be intolerant of everything which ignores, denies, or explains
+it away. The man who perverts it is the worst enemy of God and
+men._"--_Denny, in "The Death of Christ."_
+
+"We should remember, also, that it is not always intellectual
+sensitiveness, nor care for the moral interests involved, which sets
+the mind to criticise statements of the Atonement. There _is_ such a
+thing as pride, the last form of which is unwillingness to become
+debtors even to Christ for forgiveness of sins."--_Denny, in "The
+Death of Christ."_
+
+But the Saviour could not have been a _Redeemer_, if He had not been
+God manifest in the flesh, for two reasons:--
+
+First, if He had not been Deity, God manifest in the flesh, His dying
+for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3) would not have been _Redemption_, but a
+mere makeshift. "It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats
+should take away sins."--Heb. 10:4. Why not? Because in that case
+there would have been no real _redemption_, but only a makeshift.
+Second, had the Saviour been anything other than God manifest in the
+flesh, He would have _won_ men _from_ God and alienated them from God.
+On this point let the reader consider well the following from Walker,
+in "The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation":--"As God was the author
+of the law, and as He is the only Proper Object both of supreme love
+and obedience; and as man could not be happy in obeying the law
+without loving its Author, it follows that the thing now necessary, in
+order that man's affections might be fixed upon the proper object of
+love and obedience, was, that the Supreme God should, by self-denying
+kindness, manifest spiritual mercy to those who felt their spiritual
+wants, and thus draw to Himself the love and worship of mankind. _If
+any other being should supply the need, that being would receive the
+love_; it was therefore necessary that _God Himself_ should do it, in
+order that the affections of believers might centre upon the proper
+object." "Now, suppose Jesus Christ was not God, nor a true
+manifestation of the Godhead in human nature, but a man, or angel,
+authorized by God to accomplish the redemption of the human race from
+sin and misery. In doing this, it appears, from the nature of the
+thing, and from the Scriptures, that He did what was adapted to, and
+what does, draw the heart of every true believer, as in the case of
+the apostles and the early Christians, to Himself as the supreme or
+governing object of affection. Their will is governed by the will of
+Christ; and love to Him moves their heart and hands. _Now, if it be
+true that Jesus Christ is not God, then He has devised and executed a
+plan by which the supreme affections of the human heart are drawn to
+Himself, and alienated from God_, the proper object of love and
+worship: and God, having authorized this plan, _He has devised means
+to make man love Christ, the creature, more than the creator_, who is
+God over all, blessed for evermore.
+
+"But it is said that Christ having taught and suffered by the will and
+authority of God, we are under obligation to love God for what Christ
+has done for us. It is answered, that this is impossible. We cannot
+love one being for what another does or suffers on our behalf. We can
+love no being for labors and self-denials on our behalf, but that
+being who valiantly labors and denies himself. It is the kindness and
+mercy exhibited in the self-denial that move the affections; and the
+affections can move to no being but the one that makes the
+self-denial, because it is the self-denial that draws out the love of
+the heart.
+
+"It is said, that Christ was sent by God to do His will and not His
+own; and therefore we ought to love God, as the being to whom
+gratitude and love are due for what Christ said and suffered.
+
+"Then it is answered: If God willed that Christ, as a creature of His,
+should come, and by His suffering and death redeem sinners, we ought
+not to love Christ for it, because He did it as a creature in
+obedience to the commands of God, and was not self-moved nor
+meritorious in the work; and we cannot love God for it, for the labor
+and self-denial were not borne by Him. And further: If one being, by
+an act of his authority, should cause another innocent being to
+suffer, in order that he might be loved who had imposed the suffering,
+but not borne it, it would render him unworthy of love. If God had
+caused Jesus Christ, being His creature, to suffer, that He might be
+loved Himself for Christ's sufferings, while He had no connection with
+them, instead of such an exhibition, on the part of God, producing
+love to Him, it would procure pity for Christ and aversion towards
+God. So that, neither God, nor Christ, nor any other being, can be
+loved for mercy extended by self-denials to the needy, unless those
+self-denials were produced by a voluntary act of mercy upon the part
+of the being who suffers them; and no being, but the one who made the
+sacrifice, could be meritorious in the case. It follows, therefore,
+incontrovertibly, that if Christ was a creature--no matter of how
+exalted worth--and not God; and if God approved of His work in saving
+sinners, _He approved of treason against His own government_; because,
+in that case, the work of Christ was adapted to draw, and did
+necessarily draw, the affections of the human soul to Himself, as its
+Spiritual Saviour and thus alienated them from God, their rightful
+object. And Jesus Christ Himself had the design of drawing men's
+affections to Himself in view, by His crucifixion; says He, 'And I, if
+I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.' This He
+said signifying what death He should die: thus distinctly stating that
+it was the self-denials and mercy exhibited in the crucifixion that
+would draw out the affections of the human soul, and that those
+affections would be drawn to Himself as the suffering Saviour. But
+that God would sanction a scheme which would involve treason against
+Himself, and that Christ should participate in it, is absurd and
+impossible, and therefore cannot be true. But if the Divine Nature was
+united with the human in the teaching and work of Christ, if God was
+in Christ (drawing the affections of men, or) 'reconciling the world
+unto himself'--if, when Christ was lifted up, as Moses lifted up the
+serpent in the wilderness, He drew, as He said He would, the
+affections of all believers unto Himself; and then, if He ascended, as
+the Second Person of the Trinity, into the bosom of the Eternal
+Godhead--He thereby, after He had engaged, by His work on earth, the
+affections of the human soul, bore them up to the bosom of the Father,
+from whence they had fallen. Thus the ruins of the Fall were rebuilt,
+and the affections of the human soul again restored to God, the
+Creator, and proper Object of Supreme love."
+
+Finally, let the reader give most earnest thought to the inevitable
+conclusion drawn by the same author:
+
+"How, then, could God manifest that mercy to sinners by which love to
+Himself and to His law would be produced, while His infinite holiness
+and justice would be maintained? We answer, in no way possible, but by
+some expedient by which His justice and mercy would both be exalted.
+If, in the wisdom of the Godhead, such a way could be devised by which
+God Himself could save the soul from the consequences of its
+guilt,--by which He Himself could, in some way, suffer and make
+self-denials for its good; and by His own interposition open a way for
+the soul to recover from its lost and condemned condition, then the
+result would follow inevitably, that every one of the human family who
+had been led to see and feel his guilty condition before God, and who
+believed in God thus manifesting Himself to rescue his soul from
+spiritual death, every one thus believing would, from the necessities
+of his nature, be led to love God his Saviour; and mark, the greater
+the self-denial and the suffering on the part of the Saviour in
+ransoming the soul, the stronger would be the affection felt for
+Him."--_Walker, in "The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation."_
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE NEW RELATION--THE NEW MOTIVE
+
+     "What things soever the law saith, it saith _to them who are under
+     the law_; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may
+     become guilty before God."--Rom. 3:19.
+
+     "Ye are not under the law."--Rom. 6:14.
+
+     "The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we
+     might be justified by faith, but _after that faith is come we are
+     no longer under a schoolmaster_. For ye are all the children of God
+     by faith in Jesus Christ."--Gal. 3:24-26.
+
+     "When the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son born of
+     a woman, born under the law, to redeem them that were under the
+     law, _that we might receive the adoption of sons_. And because ye
+     are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your
+     hearts, crying Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant,
+     but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ."--Gal.
+     4:4-7.
+
+     "Having in love predestinated us for adoption as sons through Jesus
+     Christ to himself."--Eph. 1:5.
+
+     "The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if
+     one died for all, then all died; and he died for all, that they who
+     live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who
+     died for them and rose again."--2 Cor. 5:14, 15.
+
+     "There was a certain creditor who had two debtors; the one owed
+     five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing
+     to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore which of
+     them will love him most?"--Luke 7:41, 42.
+
+     "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not
+     love, I am become as sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And
+     though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries,
+     and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could
+     remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I
+     bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to
+     be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing."--1 Cor.
+     13:1-3.
+
+
+_In God's plan with men_, His purpose in giving the law has been sadly
+misunderstood. To the Jews the law was given on tablets of stone and
+copied in their sacred writings; to the Gentiles the law was written
+in their hearts. The one class had more light than the other, and
+therefore will be judged differently.
+
+"As many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law; and
+as many as have sinned under the law shall be judged by the
+law."--Rom. 2:12. "For when the Gentiles, who have no law, do by
+nature the things of the law, these, having no law, are a law unto
+themselves; who show the works of the law written in their hearts,
+their conscience also bearing witness, and their reasonings mutually
+accusing or even excusing them."--Rom. 2:14. Whether Jew or Gentile,
+God had one purpose in giving the law, "Now we know that what things
+soever the law saith, it saith to those who are under the law, that
+_every_ mouth may be stopped and _all the world_ be under judgement to
+God." God's plan with the law includes "every mouth," "all the world,"
+whether the law was written in their hearts or in sacred writings; and
+His purpose is, not that they should be saved by keeping the law, for
+then no one would be saved, for "all have sinned and come short of the
+glory of God,"--Rom. 3:23; but that they might be brought under
+judgment to God, every mouth stopped, guilty, and thus be brought to
+realize their need of a Redeemer. On this point God's word makes His
+purpose very plain: "The Scripture hath shut up all under sin, that
+the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that
+believe. But before faith, we were confined under law, shut up unto
+the faith about to be revealed. Wherefore the law was our tutor [or
+schoolmaster] unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But
+after that faith is come we are no longer under a tutor [or
+schoolmaster]."--Gal. 3:23-25.
+
+God's word is plain, that God put men under the law, not that they
+should be saved by keeping it, but that they might be led to see their
+need of a Saviour, one to redeem them from the curse of the law:
+"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
+for us,"--Gal 3:13; and then, having redeemed them from the curse of
+the law, and from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), to adopt them as His own
+children, "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ."--Rom. 8:17. So
+wonderful is the plan that it is hard for a human being to grasp it.
+_God's plan with men_ is not simply to save them, but to put them
+above all other created beings. "Unto which of the angels said he at
+any time, Thou art my Son?"--Heb. 1:5. Yet, "having in love
+predestinated us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to
+himself,"--Eph. 1:5 (1911 Bible), "heirs of God and joint heirs with
+Christ,"--Rom. 8:17, He puts us far above angels; "for ye are all sons
+of God through faith in Christ Jesus."--Gal. 3:26. But men can only
+come into this higher relation to God as sons by being redeemed from
+under the lower relation, under the law. Hear God's word: "When the
+fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman,
+born under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, _that we
+might receive the adoption of sons_."--Gal. 4:4, 5. This higher
+relation as sons of God can be attained only by men coming out from
+under the law; and men can come out from under the law only by being
+redeemed from under the law.
+
+God's word teaches clearly, then, that when one is redeemed, he is no
+longer under the law. "Ye are not under the law,"--Rom. 6:14; "What
+things soever the law saith, it saith to _those who are under the
+law_."--Rom. 3:19. Then some are under the law and some are not under
+the law; "Wherefore the law was our tutor unto Christ that we might be
+justified by faith. But after the faith is come, _we are no longer
+under a tutor_."--Gal. 3:24, 25. Pause, reader, and try to grasp the
+meaning of this. If the believer is redeemed from all iniquity (Titus
+2:14), and is not under the law, (Rom. 6:14), then he is sure of
+Heaven; for "sin is not reckoned when there is no law."--Rom. 5:13. It
+is not reckoned or imputed because it has all been reckoned or imputed
+to Christ (Is. 53:6, Titus 2:14). Why, then, serve God? Not from fear
+of the law; not from fear of Hell; but from love to Him who redeemed
+us from the curse of the law, having been made a curse for us (Gal.
+3:13).
+
+Just as clearly God's word teaches that those who are redeemed from
+the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), from all iniquity (Titus 2:14),
+become the sons of God; for that purpose "God sent forth his Son, born
+of a woman, born under the law, to redeem them that were under the law
+that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons,
+God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying,
+Abba, Father."--Gal. 4:4-6. "For ye are all the sons of God through
+faith in Christ Jesus."--Gal. 3:26.
+
+But there is, in _God's plan with men_, beyond this a still more
+blessed, wonderful teaching: "Wherefore, thou art no more a servant,
+but a son."--Gal. 4:7. The one who is redeemed from under the law
+(Gal. 3:13) never gets back under the law again,--"Wherefore thou art
+no more a servant, but a son." That means, then, certainty of going to
+Heaven, certainty of being a son of God forever. And this new
+relation, and this certainty of Heaven are settled for men, not when
+they die, nor when they have united with some church, or have been
+baptised, but the moment men repent from their sins and accept the
+Saviour as their Redeemer from all iniquity; for God's word says, "He
+that believeth on the son _hath_ everlasting life."--John 3:36; and
+"Ye _are_ all the sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus."--Gal.
+3:26.
+
+This new relation with God gives men a new motive. Under the law,
+guilty, condemned by it, the motive was fear. But when men have been
+redeemed from under the law and adopted as sons of God, the motive of
+fear is no more the motive of life. "Ye have not received the spirit
+of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption,
+whereby we cry, Abba, Father."
+
+The motive of the son towards the father is not fear, but love. And
+this love is produced by the fact that God, in love, provided this
+great, wonderful plan for men, "having in love predestinated us for
+adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself,"--Eph. 1:5, and the
+fact that the Saviour loved us and gave Himself for us (Gal. 2:20).
+Hence, Paul tells us, "The love of Christ [not the fear of the law,
+nor the fear of Hell] constrains us; because we thus judge, that if
+one died for all, then all died; and he died for all, that they who
+live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died
+for them, and rose again." Our Saviour, the night before His
+crucifixion, made clear that this was to be the motive in the life of
+God's children. In instituting the Lord's supper He said, "This is my
+blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for the remission of
+sins."--Matt. 26:28; then, following this, before leaving the supper
+room, He said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments,"--John 14:15,
+not, "if ye are afraid of the law, keep my commandments"; not, "if ye
+are afraid of going to Hell, keep my commandments"; not, "if ye wish
+to make sure of going to Heaven, keep my commandments"; but, "if ye
+love me." But why love Him? Because "this is my blood of the new
+covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins." That this
+love, and that _this kind of love_ is clearly the motive power of the
+real Christian life, notice the teaching of the Saviour in Luke 7:41,
+43, "There was a certain creditor who had two debtors; the one owed
+five hundred pence and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to
+pay he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them
+will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom
+he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou has rightly judged." This
+is no mere theory, that love _ought_ to be the controlling motive, but
+it _is_ the controlling motive. And it is not a mere theory that love
+_ought_ to constrain the real Christian, the real believer, but the
+love of Christ _does_ constrain us (2 Cor. 5:14).
+
+One may be moral, of deep piety, and yet if the motive power of his
+life is not this love, he is lost, not a real Christian. God's word
+makes this plain, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of
+angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a
+clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and
+understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all
+faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am
+nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though
+I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me
+nothing."--1 Cor. 13:1-3. Two of the mightiest preachers of all times,
+men whose tongues were those nearest to angels in preaching, Chalmers
+and Wesley, after years of most powerful preaching, came out and
+stated that during all those years they were lost, not Christians.
+Why? They had not been really redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14);
+they had not been forgiven most; the motive had not been the motive of
+him who is forgiven most,--"Though I speak with the tongues of men and
+of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a
+clanging cymbal." Why? Because eloquent, powerful preaching cannot
+redeem from iniquity, and God has said plainly, "Apart from shedding
+of blood there is no remission."--Heb. 9:22. Men may write great books
+explaining the mysteries of God's word, commentaries, Sunday-school
+lesson helps, instructions to Christians; yet if the motive power of
+their lives is not love based on the fact that they are forgiven most
+(Luke 7:43), redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), they are lost,
+not real Christians,--"though I have the gift of prophecy, and
+understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all
+faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am
+nothing." Why? Because there is nothing in understanding all
+mysteries, and all knowledge, in writing commentaries and other
+helpful books, to redeem from all iniquity. And God has said plainly,
+"Apart from shedding of blood there is no remission." The great
+capitalist, the multi-millionaire, may turn philanthropist, and spend
+all his wealth in building schools, or libraries, or houses for the
+poor, or in feeding hundreds of thousands in times of widespread
+drouth; the Catholic nun or Protestant or Baptist nurse may give her
+life in the epidemic in nursing the sick; and the heroic fireman give
+his life in rescuing others from the flames; yet they are all lost,
+unless the motive power of life is love, produced by the fact that
+they are forgiven most, redeemed from all iniquity,--"Though I bestow
+all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,
+and have not love, it profiteth me nothing." Why? Because there is
+nothing in giving away money to care for the poor, nor in giving up
+life for others, to redeem from iniquity. And God has said plainly,
+"Apart from shedding of blood there is no remission."--Heb. 9:22.
+
+When God, "That he might be just and the justifier of him that hath
+faith in Jesus,"--Rom. 3:26, "so loved the world that he gave his only
+begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
+have everlasting life,"--John 3:16, men must not, they _must not_,
+from intellectual pride, religious prejudice, family or race ties, nor
+from any other motive, trifle with God and presume to dictate terms to
+the Most High. Were it one poor, obscure man who presumed to do this,
+men would say that he deserved to be left to answer for his own sins
+before God at last. But vast numbers, whole religious denominations
+and university titles cannot change the Most High. God does not go by
+majorities. Earth's respectability does not pass current in Heaven.
+"The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God."--1 Cor. 3:19.
+
+Who is this being to whom puny men in their pride and prejudice
+presume to dictate terms as to how they may escape the just penalty
+for their sins, as to how their sins should be taken away? "Who hath
+measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven
+with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure,
+and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who
+hath directed the spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath
+taught him? With whom took he counsel? And who instructed him, and
+taught him in the path of judgement, and taught him knowledge, and
+showed to him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a
+drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance;
+behold, he taketh up the hills as a little thing." "All nations before
+him are as nothing, and they are counted by him less than nothing, and
+vanity." "It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the
+inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the
+heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in;
+that bringeth the princes to nothing; that maketh the judges of the
+earth as vanity."--Is. 40:12-15, 17, 22, 23.
+
+A professor in a great university has recently said that to the
+"modern mind," untrained, as the Jews, to daily sacrifices, unused, as
+those of ancient times, to blood-atonement,--remission of sins by
+blood,--substitution does not commend itself. If he and those who
+think like him do not care enough as to their eternal destiny to
+strive to become acquainted with blood-atonement, to realize their
+need of it, and to see that God, in love, has provided it, complete
+and eternal, then there is nothing left but for them to go out into
+eternity to meet the just penalty of their sins; for even then God
+will be just to them. No one, barbarian or civilized, will ever be
+treated unjustly by the Most High.
+
+But it is objected that, if men are taught and believe that they have
+been redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), that they are not
+after that under the law (Rom. 6:14), that they have been adopted as
+God's sons (Gal. 4:4, 5), and that they are no more servants, but sons
+(Gal. 4:7), they will not serve God from love of Christ for dying for
+them (2 Cor. 5:14, 15), but that they will become careless and not try
+to live Christian lives. That is true with hypocrites; they will
+profess to believe that they are thus redeemed, saved, and will live
+careless, worldly lives. But really redeemed men _will_ love most
+(Luke 7:43), and live better lives from love. The Saviour said, "If a
+man love me he _will_ keep my words,"--John 14:23; "If God were your
+father ye _would_ love me."--John 8:42. And John, writing to believers
+only (1 John 5:13), says: "Behold what manner of love the Father hath
+bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such
+we are. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
+Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it doth not yet appear
+what we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear we shall be
+like him, for we shall see him as he is. And _every one_ that hath
+this hope on him purifieth himself, even as he is pure."--1 John
+3:1-3.
+
+The one who is thus redeemed and adopted as a son of God not only
+purifies himself because prompted by love to the Saviour for redeeming
+him from all iniquity, but because he is born again, and this new
+nature leads him to hate sin and to love holiness. "Whosoever
+believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God."--1 John 5:1.
+"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by
+the word of God which liveth and abideth forever."--1 Peter 1:23. This
+is no mere theory, no mere theological dogma. Cases innumerable
+throughout the Christian era could be cited, where the most wicked men
+and women in a moment have been completely changed by simply being led
+to accept Jesus Christ as their Saviour, as their Redeemer from all
+iniquity.
+
+In the author's work as an evangelist he has seen the most debased,
+hopeless men and women revolutionized morally, not by gradual
+processes, but in a moment, by leading them to repentance and faith in
+the Saviour as their complete Redeemer from all iniquity. And the
+moral revolution was not temporary, but permanent. Science cannot
+account for these moral revolutions brought about in a moment.
+Infidelity cannot account for them. God's word does account for them,
+that they have been born again, born of God, and have been taken from
+under the law and have been given a new relation to God and placed
+under a new motive power. In a city a great mass-meeting for infidels
+was widely advertised; a large audience assembled. The leader asked
+all the men in the audience who had once been down in the depths of
+sin, everything gone, hopeless, and had been led to accept the Saviour
+as their Redeemer from sin, please to arise. Between three hundred and
+four hundred well-dressed business men and workingmen arose. The
+leader then asked all who had been down in the depths of sin,
+everything gone, hopeless, and they had then been led to believe in
+infidelity and it had made better men of them, please to arise. One
+lone man staggered to his feet and he was drunk! Science and
+infidelity cannot explain this difference. God's word does explain it.
+There is no other explanation.
+
+It may be objected that many who profess to be thus redeemed from all
+iniquities, to be born again, do not continue to live better lives.
+God's word explains every one of these cases: "They went out from us,
+but they were _not of us_; for if they had been of us, they would have
+continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest;
+because not all are of us."--1 John 2:19.
+
+In closing this chapter, reader, pause and consider:--are you yet
+under the law? Have you been redeemed from the curse of the law? Have
+you been adopted as a child of God? It is one thing to _say_ "Our
+Father"; it is quite a different thing to be really a child of God,
+and heir of God and joint heir with Christ.
+
+Is the motive of your life love of Christ because He has redeemed you
+from all iniquities? Do not be deceived by calling the motive love
+when really it is not love. If you have been trying to serve God,
+thinking that if you continued to serve Him, continued to try to do
+your Christian duty, you would go to Heaven after this life, but that
+if you failed to serve Him and do your Christian duty, you would not
+be saved, then your motive has not been love, and you are lost. If you
+have been trying to serve God and do your Christian duty, fearing
+that if you failed you would be lost, then your motive has not been
+love, and you have never been redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14),
+and adopted as the child of God (Gal. 4:4, 5). Let not pride nor
+prejudice prevent your coming out from under the law and becoming
+really a child of God. "My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel
+is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have
+a _zeal of God_, but not _according to knowledge_. For being
+_ignorant of God's righteousness_, and _going about to establish
+their own righteousness_, they have not submitted themselves unto
+the righteousness of God. For Christ is _the end of the law for
+righteousness to every one that believeth._"--Rom. 10:1-4. "As many as
+_received him_, to them gave he power to become the children of God,
+even to them that believe on his name."--John 1:12.
+
+_FOR FURTHER STUDY_: Men are prone to mix the law and redemption
+through Christ. They are separate and distinct. They are two separate
+roads to Heaven. If a man keeps the law from birth to death he will go
+to Heaven without any redemption; he needs no redemption. "Moses
+describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man that
+doeth those things shall live _by them_,"--Rom. 10:5; not by Christ as
+the Redeemer; he needs no redemption. "And the law is not of faith;
+but the man that doeth them shall live in them."--Gal. 3:12. There is
+no Christ in this; there is no need of Christ if a man "doeth them,"
+the law. Such a man cannot trust Christ to save him; for if he has
+never broken the law, there is nothing from which he needs to be
+redeemed. "The soul that sinneth, _it_ shall die"; but if one has kept
+the law, there is no penalty, no redemption is needed. "The doers of
+the law _shall be justified_."--Rom. 2:13. But "all have sinned and
+come short of the glory of God,"--Rom. 3:23; hence, there is need of
+redemption; for "apart from shedding of blood there is no
+remission."--Heb. 9:22. The other road to Heaven, therefore, is that
+"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
+for us."--Gal. 3:13. The Saviour, as well as the Apostle Paul, taught
+clearly the two roads; the first, when "One came and said unto him,
+Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?
+And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but
+one, that is God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the
+commandments."--Matt. 19:16, 17. The question was what good thing the
+enquirer should do in order to have eternal life as the result of what
+he did. The answer was exactly what Paul taught afterwards,--"The man
+that doeth them, shall live in them."--Gal. 3:12. On the other hand,
+to the penitent woman in Simon's house the Saviour said, "Thy faith
+hath saved thee; go in peace."--Luke 7:50. The trouble is that many
+men try to make a third road to Heaven, partly by obeying the law and
+partly by redemption through Christ; or rather, they try to combine
+the two separate and distinct ways and make them one. But this is
+fatal. "If by grace, then it is no more of works; otherwise grace is
+no more grace. But if it is of works, then it is no more grace;
+otherwise work is no more work."--Rom. 11:6. Jesus said, "Come unto
+me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you
+rest."--Matt. 11:28. And God's word declares plainly, "He that hath
+entered into his rest himself also hath rested from his own works, as
+God did from his."--Heb. 4:10. No one has rested, ceased, from his own
+works who thinks that keeping the law or trying to keep the law is a
+part of the salvation through Christ as Redeemer. One _must_ cease
+from his own works, from looking to obeying the law to help in
+salvation, before he _can_ be saved through Christ as Redeemer. "To
+him that worketh not, but believeth on him that _justifieth_ the
+ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."--Rom. 4:5. Hence,
+all who are trying to get to Heaven by obedience, are under the law,
+are yet unredeemed, unsaved, not real Christians. "As many as are of
+the works of the law [obeying the law to be saved] are under the
+curse,"--Gal. 3:10; they have not been really redeemed.
+
+Of this class are all those who believe and teach "Salvation by
+character,"--they are yet under the law; they are yet under the
+curse.--Gal. 3:10. Further, they fly in the face of the Lord Jesus,
+who said to men who had character, "The publicans and the harlots go
+into the kingdom of God before you."--Matt. 21:31. They fail to see
+that the Saviour takes men without character, justifies them from all
+things (Acts 13:39), redeems them from the curse of the law (Gal.
+3:13), redeems them from all iniquities (Titus 2:14), and then
+develops in them a character that will stand the test of the ages;
+that He takes a Jerry McAuley, an S. H. Hadley, a Harry Monroe, and a
+Melville Trotter and makes of them four of the most useful men of
+modern times. They fail to see that character is formed by deeds; that
+the character of the deed can be determined _only_ by the motive
+prompting the deed; that the controlling motive for the deed must, in
+the sight of God, be love (1 Cor. 13:1-3); that the motive of love is
+produced by being forgiven most (Luke 7:42, 43); that the forgiveness
+comes from the Saviour having given Himself for our sins (Gal. 1:4),
+to redeem us from all iniquity (Titus 2:14).
+
+Because of this failure to consider the motive back of the deed, many
+books on morals and ethics are absolutely pernicious. In comparing the
+morals and ethics of Christianity with the morals and ethics of
+heathen religions, they fail to take into consideration the _motive
+back of the deed_. Two young men are trying to win a young woman in
+marriage; their deeds, outwardly, are the same; the one is prompted by
+pure, manly love for the young woman; the other has his eye on her
+father's bank account. You drop your handkerchief as you are passing
+along the street; a man from pure kindness picks it up and hands it to
+you. Again you drop it, and another picks it up and hands it to you,
+but his motive is that he may win your confidence and pick your
+pocket. Four sons are equally dutiful, in outward deed, toward their
+fathers; one, that he may get all the money he wishes from his
+father; the second, from a cold sense of duty; the third, from fear
+that his father might kill him or disinherit him if he were not
+dutiful; the fourth, from tender love for the father. In these four,
+many authors see no difference, or make no distinction, and yet they
+profess to be teachers of morals and ethics! Four men, outwardly, are
+living the same moral lives; one, hoping to get to Heaven by it; the
+second, from a cold sense of duty; the third, from fear of Hell; the
+fourth, from love because One died for him (2 Cor. 5:14, 15), and
+redeemed him from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), from all iniquity
+(Titus 2:14). Only the last one will ever enter Heaven; only the last
+one is really a Christian, redeemed (Heb. 9:12), saved (Eph. 2:8).
+
+As men are prone to mix law and redemption through Christ, so they are
+prone to mix law and sonship. They fail to see that redemption from
+the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), redemption from all iniquity (Titus
+2:14), redemption from under the law (Rom. 6:14), means to be placed
+in a higher, more sacred relationship to God. Even in nature God has
+two grades of existence, a lower and a higher, for some insects, even;
+the mosquito, first in the water; then by a simple process it rises
+into the higher kingdom; the caterpillar, a creeping worm, then the
+butterfly. But were there no analogies in nature, God has clearly
+revealed a higher relation for those who are redeemed from the curse
+of the law (Gal. 3:13), "God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born
+under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might
+receive the adoption of sons,"--Gal. 4:4, 5; "Having in love
+predestinated us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to
+himself."--Eph. 1:5. Where is man in the scale of being? "Thou hast
+made him a little lower than the angels."--Ps. 8:5. But even the
+angels, who are above man in the scale of being, are not the sons of
+God. "Unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my
+son?"--Heb. 1:5. But to _every man_ who has been redeemed from the
+curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), from under the law (Gal. 4:5), God says,
+"Ye are _all_ the sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus."--Gal.
+3:26. "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his
+Son into your hearts crying, Abba, Father."--Gal. 4:6. "Ye have
+received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father."--Rom.
+8:15.
+
+Much of the confusion concerning the higher relationship of the
+redeemed with God has been caused by teaching the redeemed and the
+unredeemed to pray what is called the Lord's Prayer. The Saviour did
+not teach the unredeemed to pray in this manner. They cannot pray it
+truthfully, honestly, for they are not the children of God. "They that
+are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of
+God."--Rom. 9:5. If they are not, then they cannot truthfully say "Our
+Father," "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son
+whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as
+with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if
+ye be without chastening, whereof all are partakers, then are ye
+bastards, and not sons."--Heb. 12:6-8. The language, "bastards and not
+sons," has some meaning, but it can have no meaning if God is the
+Father of all human beings, and all have a right to say "Our Father."
+It is true, that in the Old Testament God is referred to as a Father,
+but it is only as Father of Israel, the redeemed. "Have we not all
+one father? Hath not one God created us?"--Mal. 2:10. But who are
+the "we"? "The burden of the word of the Lord to _Israel_ by
+Malachi,"--Mal. 1:1;--Israel, God's redeemed people.
+
+God's word makes it plain that what is called the Lord's Prayer was
+not taught by the Saviour to the unsaved. "As he was praying in a
+certain place, when he ceased, _one of his disciples_ said unto him,
+Lord, teach _us_ to pray as John also taught his disciples, and he
+said unto _them_ [His disciples], When ye [His disciples] pray, say,
+'Our Father.'" How did they become disciples? "As many as received
+him, to them gave he power _to become_ the children of God, even to
+them that believe on his name."--John 1:12. "Ye are all the sons of
+God by faith in Christ Jesus."--Gal. 3:26. Concerning this prayer the
+_Southern Baptist Sunday School Teacher_ says, "It is a special gift
+to believers only." "We cannot too earnestly insist that the Lord's
+Prayer is beyond the use of mere worldlings. They have no heart for
+it. It is the possession and badge of the disciples of Christ. It
+belongs to those who can offer it in humble and hearty faith." The
+_Sunday School Teacher_, published by the American Baptist Publication
+Society, says: "This is a prayer that befits only Christian lips and
+was given to the disciples only, and so it is addressed to 'Our
+Father.'" D. L. Moody, in "The Way Home," "But who may use this
+prayer, 'Our Father which art in Heaven'? Examine the context. The
+disciples when alone with Jesus said, 'Lord, teach us to pray,' and
+this was the answer they got; they were taught this precious prayer:
+'In this manner pray ye: Our Father, which art in Heaven.' It was
+taught by Jesus to His chosen disciples; then it is only for
+Christians. No man who is unconverted can or has a right to pray thus.
+Christ taught _His disciples_, not all men, not the multitude, to pray
+like this. A man must be born again before he has any right to breathe
+this prayer. What right has any man living in sin and in open enmity
+with God, to lift up his voice and say, Our or My Father? It is a lie
+and nothing else for him to say this."
+
+The Saviour was very explicit on this point: "Ye do the deeds of your
+father. Then said they to him, We are not born of fornication; we have
+one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father,
+ye would love me; for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither
+came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech?
+Even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the
+devil."--John 8:41-44. Here are the unredeemed calling God their
+Father. If He is their Father, here was the time for the Great Teacher
+to make it plain. If He is their Father, _in any sense_, here was the
+opportunity to make it plain. The Saviour does not reply, "Yes, He is
+your Father in one sense, but I am speaking of another and a higher
+sense." His answer is plain and unequivocal.
+
+There are those who fly in the face of the Saviour's plain teaching.
+Hear two of them:--Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy, in "Science and Health,"
+"God is the Father of All." "Man is the offspring of Spirit." "Spirit
+is his primitive and ultimate source of being; God is his Father and
+Life is the law of his being." "He recognized Spirit, God, as the only
+creator, and therefore as the Father of all"; "demonstrating God as
+the Father of men." Another makes his meaning just as plain: "He
+[Jesus] was the son of God in like manner that every other person is;
+for _the Creator is the father of all_."--_Thomas Paine, in "The Age
+of Reason."_
+
+The issue is joined between these two on the one side and the Lord
+Jesus and Paul on the other, and men are lining up on one side or the
+other, and many of them will spend eternity with the ones whose
+teaching they are following _now_, with whom they are lining up; and
+the reader may as well face the fact that many of them will not spend
+eternity in the same place with the Saviour and Paul. With many the
+question as to whether the Saviour, when He said, "Ye are of your
+father the devil," told the truth, or was a wilful liar and deceiver,
+or a deluded fanatic and ignoramus, is merely a matter of taste, or
+preference, or opinion. It may be claimed by some that "Ye are of your
+father the devil," grates on refined ears and finer sensibilities. But
+it is more than a question whether it is pride, or religious
+prejudice, or refined sensibilities, when the sensibilities and
+feelings are so coarse and hardened that without indignation, often
+with complacency, they see Him who "spake as never man spake," God's
+"only begotten Son," branded as a liar and deceiver. Such scholarship
+and finer sensibilities and such refinement will fill their
+possessors with horror and remorse in that day when the sun shall
+become black as sackcloth of hair, and the full moon shall become as
+blood, and the heavens shall depart as a scroll when it is rolled
+together; and every mountain and island shall be moved out of their
+places, and the kings of the earth, and the great men and the rich men
+and the chief captains and the mighty men and every bondman and every
+freeman shall hide themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the
+mountains and say to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us
+from the face of him who sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of
+the Lamb; for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be
+able to stand?"--Rev. 6:12-17; "for the Father judgeth no man, but
+hath committed all judgement unto the Son, that all men should honor
+the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son
+honoreth not the Father who sent him."--John 5:22, 23. "And he
+commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he
+who hath been ordained of God to be the judge of living and
+dead."--Acts 10:42.
+
+If all men who are unredeemed would just stop and realize their real
+position in the scale of being, and that they really have no Heavenly
+Father, and that "as many as received him to them gave he power to
+become the children of God, even to them that believe on his
+name,"--John 1:12, there would fall upon this world such a feeling of
+orphanage as it has never known since the Saviour hung on the cross.
+But in their pride or religious prejudice, or love of the world, or
+secret sin, blinded by "Our Father," they go on through life
+repeating it, and die, never having been redeemed from the curse of
+the law (Gal. 3:13), and adopted as God's sons (Gal. 4:4-7).
+
+Teaching the unredeemed that God is their Father, and to say "Our
+Father" is the incubator of religious error and the hot-bed of
+infidelity. Many religious denominations that are fundamentally in
+error, that really have no Redeemer, and therefore no Saviour, have as
+their foundation teaching that God is the Father of the human race;
+and there is scarcely an infidel but that was taught "Our Father."
+Teach a person that God is his Father, that his Heavenly Father is far
+better than his earthly father, and then teach him that his Heavenly
+Father is going to send him to an eternal Hell, and, if he thinks, he
+is far on the road to infidelity, or he is ready for some modern
+church that denies that there is any Hell.
+
+It is said that a missionary to one of the heathen lands, after
+laboring for some time among the people, employed a learned heathen to
+help him translate the New Testament into the heathen language. The
+missionary would read and the heathen would translate and write it
+down. They finally came to the first epistle of John. One morning as
+they began their work, having finished the second chapter, the
+missionary read, "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
+upon us." The heathen translated and wrote it down. The missionary
+read, "that we should be called the children of God." The heathen
+bowed his head upon the table and began weeping. Gaining control of
+his feelings, he said, "Teacher, don't make me put it that way; I know
+our people; that is too good for us; we don't deserve it. Put it this
+way, 'That we may be allowed to kiss his feet,' That is good enough
+for our people." He had listened to the story of God giving His Son
+for us; of His life, of His teachings, of His death for our sins; and
+the thought that, beyond this, God makes the redeemed His children,
+was too much for him. But in enlightened, so-called Christian lands,
+many who have never even claimed to have been born of God ridicule the
+teaching that God is the Father of the redeemed only, and they
+blatantly proclaim God to be the Father of all human beings, of the
+drunkard, of the thief, the murderer, whereas, even the angels do not
+call Him Father. "Unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou
+art my son?" But when men are redeemed (Heb. 9:12), and born again of
+the Spirit (John 3:8; 1 John 5:1), they are really God's children
+(Gal. 3:26). Then they are above angels in the scale of being, "heirs
+of God and joint heirs with Christ" (Rom. 8:17),--the highest, most
+exalted of all beings in the universe. Oh, that men would put their
+heels upon their pride, be redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal.
+3:13), and become God's real children (Gal. 4:4-7).
+
+But just as many mix and confuse the teachings as to two roads to
+Heaven, and as to law and sonship, so they mix and confuse the old
+motive of fear under the law (Rom. 8:15), and of love as sons. _The
+new motive of love could be produced in no other way than by real
+Redemption._ Let the reader give close study to the following
+principles laid down in Walker's "Philosophy of the Plan of
+Salvation":
+
+"1, The affections of the soul move in view of certain objects or in
+view of certain qualities believed to exist in those objects. The
+affections never move, in familiar words, the heart never loves,
+unless love be produced by seeing, or by believing that we see, some
+lovely and excellent qualities in the object. When the soul believes
+those good qualities to be possessed by another, and especially when
+they are exercised towards us, the affections, like a magnetized
+needle, tremble with life, and turn towards their object.
+
+"2, The affections are not subject to the will; neither our own will
+nor any other will can directly control them.... An effect could as
+easily exist without a cause as affection in the bosom of any human
+being which was not produced by goodness or excellence seen, or
+believed to exist, in some other being.
+
+"3, The affections, although not governed by the will, do themselves
+greatly influence the will. All acts of will produced entirely by pure
+affection for another are disinterested.... So soon as the affections
+move towards an object, the will is proportionally influenced to
+please and benefit that object, or, if a superior being, to obey his
+will.
+
+"4, All happy obedience must arise from affection. Affectionate
+obedience blesses the spirit which yields it, if the conscience
+approve the object loved and obeyed.
+
+"5. When the affections of two beings are reciprocally fixed upon each
+other they constitute a band of union and sympathy peculiarly strong
+and tender,--those things that affect the one affecting the other in
+proportion to the strength of affection existing between them. One
+conforms to the will of the other, not from a sense of obligation
+merely, but from choice; and the constitution of the soul is such that
+the sweetest enjoyment of which it is capable rises from the exercise
+of reciprocal affections.
+
+"6. When the circumstances of an individual are such that he is
+exposed to constant suffering and great danger, the more afflictive
+his situation the more grateful love will he feel for affection and
+benefits received under such circumstances. If his circumstances were
+such that he could not relieve himself, and such that he must suffer
+greatly or perish, and while in this condition, if another, moved by
+benevolent regard for him, should come to aid and save him, his
+affection for his deliverer would be increased by a sense of the
+danger from which he was rescued.
+
+"The greater the kindness and self-denial of a benefactor manifested
+in our behalf, the warmer and the stronger will be the affection which
+his goodness will produce in the human heart."
+
+And this further statement by Walker will be at once accepted by all
+honest seekers after truth:--
+
+"Here, then, are two facts growing out of the constitution of human
+nature. First, the soul must feel its evil and lost state, as the
+prerequisite condition upon which alone it can love a deliverer;
+secondly, the degree of kindness and self-denial in a benefactor,
+temporal or spiritual, graduates the degree of affection and gratitude
+that will be awakened for him."--_Walker, in "The Philosophy of the
+Plan of Salvation."_
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE SINS OF GOD'S CHILDREN--FORGIVENESS--CHASTISEMENTS
+
+     "Our Father who art in Heaven ... forgive us our sins."--Luke
+     11:1-4.
+
+     "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our
+     sins."--1 John 1:9.
+
+     "Ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto
+     sons. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor
+     faint when thou art rebuked of him; for whom the Lord loveth he
+     chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure
+     chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he
+     whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastening,
+     whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
+     Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh who corrected us, and
+     we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection
+     under the Father of spirits and live? For they verily for a few
+     days chastened us as seemed right to them; but he for our profit,
+     that we might be partakers of his holiness."--Heb. 12:5-10.
+
+     "Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the
+     earth. My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant
+     shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure
+     forever, and his throne as the days of heaven. If his children
+     forsake my law and walk not in my judgements; if they break my
+     statutes and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their
+     transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes.
+     Nevertheless, my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him,
+     nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break,
+     nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn
+     by my holiness that I will not lie unto David."--Ps. 89:27-35.
+
+
+In coming to the question of God's plan concerning the lives of men
+redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), redeemed from all
+iniquity (Titus 2:14), from under the law (Rom. 6:14), and adopted as
+God's sons (Gal. 4:4-7), let the reader keep in mind that it is not
+concerning the sins of unredeemed men, whether professing Christians
+or not. God's plan with the sins of unredeemed men has been shown in
+Chapter I. Hence it is not a question of the sins of hypocrites, or
+other professing Christians who are not really God's children.
+
+It has been shown in Chapter IV that when men are redeemed from the
+curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), they are
+no longer under the law; "Ye are not under the law."--Rom. 6:14. God's
+word lays down a principle recognized and endorsed by all enlightened
+nations,--"Sin is not reckoned [imputed] when there is no law."--Rom.
+5:13. Those who have been redeemed from under the law are adopted as
+God's children,--"God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under
+the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive
+the adoption of sons."--Gal. 4:4, 5. God thenceforth deals with them
+as father with children, and not as judge with transgressors of law.
+Earthly children commit two kinds of sins against their earthly
+fathers; they sin under temptation and are penitent, and confess their
+sins and are forgiven. Second, they sin wilfully and are chastised.
+God's children sin in like manner; they sin under temptation, are
+penitent, confess their sins and are forgiven. Second, they become
+backsliders, sin wilfully and are chastised. Let us consider the two
+classes of sins of God's children and _God's plan with men_ for them.
+
+Our Saviour taught His disciples, God's children, to pray "Our Father
+... forgive us our sins,"--Luke 11:1-4; Paul and Silas taught the
+jailer, a man under the law, unredeemed, not a child of God, "Believe
+on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved."--Acts 16:31. John
+taught the believers (1 John 5:13), those who were redeemed from the
+curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), and were God's children (1 John 3:1, 2),
+"If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our
+sins,"--1 John 1:9; Paul taught the unredeemed, those who were
+not God's children, "To him that worketh not, but believeth on
+him that _justifieth the ungodly_, his faith is counted for
+righteousness."--Rom. 4:5.
+
+Many believe and teach that if any one, the unredeemed man as well as
+the son of God, confesses his sins, God will be faithful and just to
+forgive his sins. A Mohammedan, a Jew, a Christian Scientist, a
+Unitarian, a Universalist, confess their sins,--are they forgiven? To
+these and all others under the law, God has said, "Apart from shedding
+of blood there is no remission."--Heb. 9:22. "Till heaven and earth
+pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till
+all be fulfilled."--Matt. 5:18. John is writing to believers only (1
+John 5:13), to those who are God's children (1 John 3:1, 2), and to
+_them_ he says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to
+forgive us our sins."--1 John 1:9. Men unredeemed, under the law, can
+never get rid of their sins by confession. To them God has one
+message,--"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
+so _must_ the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth on him
+should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world
+that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him
+should not perish, but have everlasting life."--John 3:14-16.
+
+The Saviour taught the _disciples_ to pray, "Our Father, ... forgive
+us our sins"; but so widespread is the misconception that it applies
+to all, redeemed and unredeemed, that all over the world vast
+multitudes of the unredeemed kneel down every night and say, "Our
+Father, ... forgive us our sins," and lie down to sleep deluded with
+the thought that they are forgiven. If they are forgiven, why was
+there any need of Christ dying for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3)? But the
+real child of God can pray, "Our Father, ... forgive us our sins," and
+he is really forgiven. Why the difference? With the unredeemed, those
+yet under the law (Rom. 3:19), God is dealing as judge with violators
+of law, and law knows no forgiveness. With the redeemed, those who
+have been adopted as God's children (Gal. 4:4-7), God is dealing as
+father with son. Let those who are redeemed, who are really God's
+children, realize the blessed fact that "If we confess our sins, he is
+faithful and just to forgive us our sins."--1 John 1:9.
+
+But there is another class of sins committed by God's children, "If
+his children _forsake_ my law" (Ps. 89:30), wilful sins. For these God
+chastises His children, just as an earthly father chastises his wilful
+and disobedient children. "Ye have forgotten the exhortation which
+speaketh unto you as unto sons, My son, despise not thou the
+chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him; for
+whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he
+receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons,
+for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be
+without chastening, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards
+and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh who
+corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be
+in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live? For they verily for
+a few days chastened us as seemed right to them; but he for our
+profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness."--Heb. 12:5-10.
+
+Chastisement or punishment of God's children is for correction; "for
+our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness" (Heb. 12:10);
+punishment of the unredeemed is to carry out law, for justice: "that
+he might be _just_" (Rom. 3:26); "every transgression received a
+_just_ recompense of reward."--Heb. 2:2. The unredeemed, those under
+the law (Rom. 3:19), are punished beyond this life, in the Day of
+Judgment,--"verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the
+land of Sodom and Gomorrah _in the day of judgment_, than for that
+city."--Matt. 10:15; God's children receive their chastisements in
+this life,--"If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with
+sons."--Heb. 12:7. Professing Christians who are not redeemed, not
+really God's children, do not receive chastisements; hence, they are
+punished in the day of judgment with the other unredeemed. "But if ye
+be without chastening, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards
+and not sons."--Heb. 12:8.
+
+He has observed to little purpose who has not noticed that redeemed
+people, God's children, suffer more in this life than the unredeemed.
+God says that His children endure chastenings and others who are not
+His children do not. The difference can be easily seen by any one who
+will observe closely. The Psalmist observed it and was greatly
+disturbed by it until he understood the cause of the difference.
+"Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.
+But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh
+slipped. For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of
+the wicked. For there are no bands in their death, but their strength
+is firm. _They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they
+plagued like other men._ Therefore pride compasseth them about as a
+chain; violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with
+fatness, they have more than heart could wish. They are corrupt, and
+speak wickedly concerning oppression; they speak loftily. They set
+their mouths against the heavens and their tongue walketh through the
+earth. Therefore, his people return hither, and waters of a full cup
+are wrung out to them. And they say, How doth God know? And is there
+knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper
+in the world; they increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed my heart
+in vain and washed my hands in innocency. For _all the day long have I
+been plagued, and chastened every morning_. If I say, I will speak
+thus: behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.
+When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; _until I went
+into the sanctuary of God: then understood I their end_. Surely, thou
+didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into
+destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment?
+They are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awaketh;
+so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image. For my
+heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins. So foolish was I,
+and ignorant; I was as a beast before thee. Nevertheless, I am
+continually with thee; thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou
+shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to
+glory."--Ps. 73:1-24.
+
+That chastisement in this life for wilful sins is God's plan with
+redeemed men, His real children, is clearly revealed even in the Old
+Testament. God swore by His holiness to David that this would be His
+plan with redeemed men:--"Also, I will make him my firstborn, higher
+than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him forevermore,
+and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make
+to endure forever and his throne as the days of Heaven. If his
+children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break
+my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their
+transgressions with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.
+Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor
+suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor
+alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my
+holiness that I will not lie unto David."--Ps. 89:27-35. David himself
+was a case in point. After his terrible sin, God sent word to him by
+the prophet Nathan, "Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of
+the Lord, to do evil in his sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite
+with the sword and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain
+him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword
+shall never depart from thine house."--2 Sam. 12:9, 10. "And David
+said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said
+unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not
+die."--2 Sam. 12:13. God has but one way of putting away sin. "Apart
+from shedding of blood is no remission."--Heb. 9:22. "For the life of
+the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar
+to make an atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh
+an atonement for the soul."--Lev. 17:11. But God does not stop there.
+"Howbeit because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the
+enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto
+thee shall surely die."--1 Sam. 12:14. (Let the reader notice that
+God, foreseeing that people would ridicule the idea of God saving
+David, calls it blasphemy and calls those who do it "the enemies of
+the Lord.") David fasted and prayed for the child. On the seventh day
+the child died, "But when David saw that his servants whispered, David
+perceived that the child was dead; therefore David said unto his
+servants, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead. Then David
+arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself, and changed his
+apparel, and came into the house of the Lord and worshipped: then he
+came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him
+and he did eat. Then said his servants unto him, What thing is this
+that thou hast done? Thou didst fast and weep for the child, while it
+was alive; but when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread.
+And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I
+said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child
+may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring
+him back again? _I shall go to him._"--2 Sam. 12:19-23. How could
+David be thus sure? He had God's word on which to rest, "The life of
+the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it upon the altar to make
+atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh atonement
+for the soul."--Lev. 17:11. But because of his sin God chastened him
+as long as he lived. "Now therefore the sword shall never depart from
+thine house."
+
+Solomon is another case in point. Concerning Solomon God said to
+David, "I will be his father and he shall be my son. If he commit
+iniquity, I will chastise him with the rod of men, and with the
+stripes of the children of men; but my mercy shall not depart away
+from him."--2 Sam. 7:14, 15.
+
+In chastening, God uses as a rod loss of loved ones (2 Sam. 12:14;
+Amos 4:10), loss of property (Amos 4:6-9), loss of health (1 Cor.
+11:30), death (1 Cor. 11:30; Amos 4:11; Deut. 32:48-52). Consider the
+case of Moses and Aaron: God told them to speak to the rock that it
+might bring forth water for the children of Israel. But they wilfully
+disobeyed, and instead of speaking to the rock, struck it in anger.
+For this wilful sin, as a chastisement, God said to Moses, "Get thee
+up into this mountain Abarim, unto Mt. Nebo, which is in the land of
+Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan,
+which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession: and die in
+the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people; as
+Aaron thy brother died in Mt. Hor, and was gathered unto his people:
+_because ye trespassed against me_ among the children of Israel at
+the waters of Meribah Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin."--Deut.
+32:49-52. Though Moses was thus severely chastened for his wilful sin,
+he was not lost, for he was with Elijah on the mountain at the
+transfiguration of the Saviour (Matt. 17:1-3).
+
+The lesson needs to be learned by God's children that as certainly as
+a redeemed man sins wilfully, whether the sin be great or small, the
+chastening rod is sure to fall. "If his children _forsake my law ...
+then will_ I visit their transgressions with the rod and their
+iniquity with stripes."--Ps. 89:30-32. But God does not send the
+chastening in wrath, nor in justice. "Whom the Lord _loveth_ he
+chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."--Heb. 12:6.
+
+There are many who profess to be redeemed, to be God's children,
+professed Christians, church members, who sin wilfully, and God never
+sends chastisements to them; but God explains about them, "But if ye
+be without chastening, whereof all are partakers, then are ye
+bastards, and not sons."--Heb. 12:8. He does not chasten this class;
+in Hell they will receive their punishment, but it will be just. God
+will treat no human being wrong. With some it may seem severe that God
+should chasten and scourge His children. That is not as severe as to
+send them to Hell for their wilful disobedience after they become His
+children, and that is the belief of many. There are but three plans
+that God could have for those who have been redeemed from the curse of
+law (Gal. 3:13) and adopted as His children (Gal. 4:4-7), and
+afterward sin wilfully:--
+
+First, beyond this life punish them in the judgment (Matt. 10:15) for
+their sins, send them to Hell. That would mean, (1) if Christ redeemed
+them from _all_ iniquity (Titus 2:14), that God would force the same
+debt to be paid twice. "Shall not the judge of all the earth do
+right?" (2) That would mean that God would punish, by law, those who
+have been redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), and who are
+not under the law (Rom. 6:14), and would violate God's own principle,
+"Sin is not reckoned [imputed] when there is no law" (Rom. 5:13). (3)
+That would mean a child of God, redeemed and adopted (Gal. 4:4-7), and
+born again (1 Peter 1:23), born of the Holy Spirit (John 3:8), sent to
+Hell. (4) That would mean to make the Saviour unreliable and
+untruthful in His statements. "Many will say unto me in that day,
+Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have
+cast out demons? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then
+will I profess unto them, I _never_ knew you."--Matt. 7:22, 23. These
+are the professing Christians at the judgment who are lost, and Jesus
+says, "I never knew you," that not one of them was ever really
+redeemed and adopted as a child of God. (5) It would mean for God to
+violate His own oath (Ps. 89: 27-35).
+
+Second, the second plan possible to God in dealing with those who sin
+wilfully after they have been redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14),
+from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), and adopted as God's children
+(Gal. 4:4-7), would be to let them continue to sin wilfully, and
+neither punish them beyond this life, at the judgment, in Hell, nor
+chastise them in this life. That would mean for some of them to
+eventually develop characters most fearfully warped by sin.
+
+Third, there is but one other possible plan left for God with redeemed
+men, redeemed from the law and adopted as His children (Gal. 4:7), who
+sin wilfully; and that is to chasten, chastise them in this life. That
+is God's plan with the redeemed, His own children; and however severe
+the chastening, He does it in love. In love He planned to adopt us as
+His children. "Having _in love_ predestinated us for the adoption as
+sons through Jesus Christ to himself."--Eph. 1:5 (1911 Bible), and in
+love He chastises. "Whom the Lord _loveth_, he chasteneth and
+scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."--Heb. 12:6.
+
+Reader, the issue is before you: shall you remain under the law (Rom.
+3:19) to be punished justly in the judgment (Matt. 11:22-24) and to
+continue to sin in Hell (Rev. 22:11, R. V.), or will you accept
+redemption through Christ the Saviour from the curse of the law (Gal.
+3:13), be adopted as a child of God forever (Gal. 4:4-7), to be
+forgiven when you sin against your Father in Heaven and confess your
+sin (1 John 1:9); to be chastened when you sin wilfully (Ps.
+89:27-34), and to spend eternity in Heaven with Him who loved you and
+gave Himself for you (John 14:1-3; Gal. 2:20), free forever from sin
+(Rev. 21:24-27; Rev. 22:3)? You do not intend, reader, to be wrapped
+in a Christless shroud, to be laid away in a Christless grave, to
+spend eternity in a Christless Hell. Decide _now_.
+
+_FOR FURTHER STUDY_:--The teaching that God interposes in human
+affairs to chastise His disobedient children (Heb. 12:5-8; Ps.
+89:27-34), to chasten with the rod of the children of men (2 Sam.
+7:14, 15; 1 Cor. 11:30), will frighten, or arouse the contempt of,
+"the modern mind" with its self-inflated wisdom, which _just knows_
+that "the laws of nature are immutable laws." Is there a being called
+"Nature" who made these laws? Who revealed to "the modern mind" that
+these laws were immutable? Where did "the modern mind" get its
+authority (it takes for granted that it has the power) to drive God
+from His universe, or to make Him powerless, or inactive? Can "the
+modern mind" prove absolutely that because God's law of gravitation
+causes objects to fall toward the earth, He has no right and no power
+to make Elijah's body go up instead of down (2 Kings 2:11)? Does "the
+modern mind" absolutely know that God is now inactive and must remain
+inactive? "Dr. Mason Goode observes that worlds and systems of worlds
+are perpetually disappearing, that within the period of the last
+century no less than thirteen in different constellations seem to have
+perished and _ten new ones have been created_."--_"Origin of the
+Globe."_ If God is active out in space, who shall deny Him the right
+or the power to be active on this planet? And if active on this planet
+at all, then in the individual lives of His children? And in His word,
+backed up by fulfilled prophecies, to prove that He _is_ dealing with
+us, He tells us that He is. Is "the modern mind" too scholarly, too
+self-opinionated, to consider the following words from Prof. James Orr
+in his "The Resurrection of Jesus" ("the modern mind" is very careful
+not to attempt a thorough reply to Professor Orr's "Problem of the
+Old Testament," nor his "Resurrection of Jesus"--for obvious reasons)?
+"The question is not, Do natural causes operate uniformly? But _are
+natural causes the only causes that exist or operate_? For miracle, as
+has frequently been pointed out, is precisely the assertion of the
+interposition of a _new_ cause; one, besides, which the theist must
+admit to be a _vera causa_."
+
+If when we become God's children, we are no longer under the law (Rom.
+6:14), we are redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), we are no more
+servants but sons (Gal. 4:7), the question arises, why pray to Our
+Father in Heaven to be forgiven? The child does not ask his father's
+forgiveness in order to be his child, but to have the disturbed
+fellowship restored. The unforgiven child is still a child, but will
+be chastened. It is fellowship of the Heavenly Father with the child
+that is restored by forgiveness, and is sought in forgiveness, and not
+a destroyed relationship. On this point hear James Denny in his "The
+Death of Christ": "Christ died for sins once for all, and the man who
+believes in Christ and in His death has his relations to God once for
+all determined not by sin but by the Atonement. The sin for which a
+Christian has daily to seek forgiveness is not sin which annuls his
+acceptance with God."
+
+There needs to be kept in mind, in considering that God chastens His
+children, the distinction that while chastenings are sufferings, all
+sufferings are not chastisements. The expression, "whom the Lord
+loveth he chasteneth" (Heb. 12:6), has been widely misused and sadly
+misapplied. Because David's babe was taken from him as a chastisement
+(2 Sam. 12:14), many thoughtlessly conclude that every babe's death is
+meant for a chastisement for the father and mother; and many apply
+"Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth" to all of the sorrows and
+sufferings of God's children. But there is another purpose
+accomplished by some sufferings, in "that the trial of your faith
+being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be
+tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the
+appearing of Jesus Christ."--1 Peter 1:7. "And he shall sit as a
+purifier and refiner of silver."--Matt. 3:3. The silver is not to
+blame for the dross; nevertheless, it needs to be burned out. A child
+stole a piece of bread; the father chastised the child for it. That
+chastening was suffering. But the same child was born a cripple. In
+straightening the foot, the father forced many weeks of fearful
+suffering on the child, but the suffering was not chastisement.
+Chastisements are sufferings of God's children for wrongdoing to
+correct them; but there are sufferings that are not chastisements for
+wrongdoing, but are to take out of us defects, or to develop us.
+Hence, to say to some one who is suffering from sorrow or affliction,
+"Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth," is often cruel and untrue.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+REWARDS--DEGREES IN HEAVEN
+
+     "I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish."--John
+     10:28.--"Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven."--Matt. 6:20.
+
+     "By grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of
+     yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any one
+     should boast."--Eph. 2:8, 9.--"Each man shall receive his own
+     reward _according to his own labor_."--1 Cor. 3:8.
+
+     "Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus
+     Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver,
+     costly stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made
+     manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be
+     revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what
+     sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon,
+     he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he
+     shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through
+     fire."--1 Cor. 3:11-15.
+
+     "But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be
+     required of thee; then whose shall those things be, which thou hast
+     provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not
+     _rich_ toward God."--Luke 12:20, 21.
+
+     "Whosoever would save his life shall lose _it_; and whosoever shall
+     lose his life for my sake shall find _it_. For what shall a man be
+     profited if he shall gain the whole world and forfeit his life, or
+     what shall a man give in exchange for his life? For the Son of man
+     shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels, and then
+     shall he render unto every man _according to his deeds_."--Matt.
+     16:25-27 (R. V.)
+
+     "Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give each one
+     _according as his work shall be_."--Rev. 22:12.
+
+
+The teaching of God's word of degrees in future punishment ("These
+shall receive greater condemnation,"--Mark 12:40) according to
+heredity and environment ("It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and
+Sidon at the day of judgment than for you;" "it shall be more
+tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for
+thee,"--Matt. 11:22, 24), and according to sin ("Every transgression
+and disobedience received a just recompense of reward,"--Heb. 2:2),
+commends itself to the judgment, to the conscience, of every honest
+man. The companion teaching to this in God's word is that there will
+be different degrees, or rewards, in Heaven. Just as the degree of
+man's punishment in Hell will be determined by his life here; so the
+degree of a man's reward in Heaven will be determined by his life
+here. The dividing line is redemption.
+
+With many, salvation and rewards mean the same thing, but the Saviour
+made a clear distinction. "I give unto them eternal life, and they
+shall never perish."--John 10:28 ("He that believeth on me hath
+everlasting life."--John 6:47);--"Lay up for yourselves treasures in
+Heaven."--Matt. 6:20. Our salvation is a gift and depends upon the
+Saviour; our treasures in Heaven must be laid up by ourselves. Paul
+makes the distinction equally clear. "By grace have ye been saved
+through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not
+of works, lest any man should boast."--Eph. 2:8, 9 (R. V.).--"Each man
+shall receive his own reward according to his own labor."--1 Cor. 3:8.
+But by rewards for service God's word does not mean God's blessings on
+the faithful Christians in this life. It means rewards beyond this
+life. Jesus said, "When thou makest a dinner or a supper call not thy
+friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen nor thy rich neighbors,
+lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee. But when
+thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind;
+and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee, for thou
+shalt be recompensed _at the resurrection of the just_."--Luke
+14:12-14.
+
+If "each man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor"
+(1 Cor. 3:8), there will, then, be different rewards or degrees in
+Heaven; for doubtless no two redeemed people ever served God in
+exactly the same degree of faithfulness. Paul makes this distinction
+clear, as well as the difference between salvation and rewards. He
+uses the illustration of building houses out of different material. He
+has been speaking of preachers and their work, and then seems to turn
+and apply his teaching to every one, for he says, "Let every man take
+heed how he buildeth thereupon."--1 Cor. 3:10. Whether he is speaking
+only of preachers and their work, or applies it to every man; whether
+he is speaking of building in the lives of others by what we teach or
+do, or whether he makes a turn and applies it to every man and his
+building in his own life, he draws the clear distinction between the
+foundation on which the building rests and the building built
+thereupon, between salvation alone through Christ, and rewards for
+service: "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which
+is Jesus Christ. Now, if any man build upon this foundation gold,
+silver, costly stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be
+made manifest; for the day shall declare it; because it shall be
+revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort
+it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall
+receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer
+loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire."--1 Cor.
+3:11-15. Why is he saved? Because he has been redeemed from the curse
+of the law, Christ having been made a curse for him (Gal. 3:13);
+because he has been redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14); because
+he has been redeemed from under the law (Rom. 6:14); and God means His
+promise, "Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved" (Acts
+16:31), and he means the promise of the Saviour, "Verily, verily I say
+unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me
+hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation; but is
+passed from death unto life."
+
+But when the redeemed man's works shall be burned, though he himself
+shall be saved (1 Cor. 3:15), he shall suffer loss (1 Cor. 3:15), and
+the loss shall be irreparable, eternal, and so great that no human
+being in this age can fully realize it. Here the old translation, the
+King James' version, has misled us. The oft-quoted sentence, "What is
+a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul? or
+what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" is a mistranslation.
+The Revised Version translates it correctly: "What shall a man be
+profited, if he shall gain the whole world and forfeit his life, or
+what shall a man give in exchange for his life?"--Matt. 16:26. By
+noticing verse 25, and verse 27 the reader can see what the Saviour
+meant: "whosoever would save his life shall lose _it_," not his soul,
+but his life, "and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall
+find _it_," his life not his soul; "whosoever shall lose his life for
+my sake,"--men do lose their lives for His sake, but no one loses his
+soul for the Saviour's sake. Following immediately He says, verse 26,
+"For what shall a man be profited, if he shall gain the whole world
+and forfeit his life? or what shall a man give in exchange for his
+life?" In verse 27 the Saviour makes plain how a man who would save
+his life, loses it, and how the one who shall lose his life for the
+Saviour's sake shall find it,--in the rewards that he loses by trying
+to save his life, or gains by losing his life for the Saviour's sake,
+"For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his
+angels; and then shall he render unto every man according to his
+deeds." What deeds? Deeds of losing his life for the Saviour's sake.
+For all eternity he will have no reward for the life he lived here--he
+has lost his life. Now, the Saviour says that if a man "shall gain the
+whole world," and in doing so shall "forfeit his life,"--shall have no
+reward in eternity as a result of his life (the principle laid down by
+Paul, whether of preachers or of all, "if any man's work shall be
+burned he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved."--1 Cor.
+3:15), he has made a fearful mistake. But if the one who "shall gain
+the whole world" and in doing so "shall forfeit his life," shall have
+no reward for it, makes a fearful mistake, how much greater mistake
+does the one make who forfeits his life to have no reward throughout
+eternity, in order to gain a very small part of the world, as so many
+are doing? But if the one who "shall forfeit his life,"--have no
+reward in eternity,--in order to gain but a very small part of the
+world, makes such a fearful, such a great mistake, far worse is the
+bargain made by the unredeemed man who loses not only his life but
+also loses his soul in order to gain a very small part of "the whole
+world"; and yet this is what the vast majority of men are doing. We
+cannot grasp it, we cannot realize it, but Jesus says that the
+rewards (not salvation--1 Cor. 3:15) that men are losing are more than
+"the whole world."
+
+Another teaching of the Saviour along this line has been widely
+misapplied: "He spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a
+certain rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought within
+himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to
+bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my
+barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my
+goods, and I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up
+for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God
+said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of
+thee; then whose shall those things be, which thou hast
+provided?"--Luke 12:16-20. At once many rush to the conclusion that he
+was lost, that he went to Hell; and they proceed to warn men against
+laying up treasures in this life and losing their souls. But God said,
+"This night thy soul shall be required of thee," not "this night thy
+soul shall go to Hell." Let the Saviour make His own application: "So
+is he that layeth up treasures for himself and _is not rich toward
+God_."--Luke 12:21. "If any man's work abide which he hath built
+thereupon he shall receive a reward" (1 Cor. 3:14), he is rich toward
+God; "if any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss" (1 Cor.
+3:15), he is a fool; he spent a life here on earth and has no reward
+in eternity as a result of it;--"but he himself shall be saved, yet so
+as through fire."--1 Cor. 3:15. (If in the passage 1 Cor. 3:11-15,
+Paul is speaking only of preachers and their work in building on the
+foundation of Christ in the lives of others by their teaching, he yet
+shows that some whose work abides will be rewarded, and that others
+whose work shall be burned shall suffer loss and yet shall be saved;
+so that the principle applies with all Christians). Two cases in
+point:--
+
+A great American statesman was told by his physician that in a few
+days he must die. That afternoon a minister called to see the dying
+statesman and asked as to his hope beyond the grave. The dying
+statesman replied, "Mr. Blank, I am going to Heaven when I die." The
+minister asked the dying man on what he based his hope. He replied:
+"Mr. Blank, I am ashamed to say that I am a Christian; but now that
+the time has come, I must not deny my Saviour. When I am dead tell
+your people that days before I died, when my mind was calm and clear,
+I gave my dying testimony that I was going to Heaven, redeemed by the
+blood of Christ." The minister pressed the question, why he thought he
+was a Christian. The statesman said to the negro man who was nursing
+him, "Jack, go into my library and bring me my Bible." Turning to the
+minister he said, "Mr. Blank, as I said to you, I am ashamed to say
+that I am a Christian, but now that the time has come, I must not deny
+my Saviour. Long years ago, back in the old red hills of Georgia, when
+I was a young man, one Sunday in an old country church I heard a
+Baptist preacher preach, and I understood him. He showed that God
+honestly loves this world, that Jesus Christ, God's Son, died for our
+sins, and that He died for all of our sins; and that every one who
+would repent and trust Christ to save him was certain to go to Heaven.
+Out there in that old country church in the red hills of Georgia I
+accepted Jesus Christ as my Redeemer and Saviour that Sunday morning,
+and trusted Him to save me. I came west and became overwhelmed in
+business and politics. I have wasted my life." Just then the negro man
+returned and handed the Bible to the dying statesman. He turned the
+leaves and finally stopped, and turning to the minister he said, "Mr.
+Blank, I am ashamed to say it, but I don't know much about this book;
+but I do know that this is God's word; and I do know that out in the
+old country church in the red hills of Georgia that Sunday morning,
+when I heard and understood the country preacher, I did, as a guilty,
+lost, justly condemned sinner, accept Jesus Christ as my Saviour and
+Redeemer and trust Him to save me. Listen, Mr. Blank: 'He that
+believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.' Mr. Blank, God says I
+have everlasting life, and I am going to Heaven when I die." And
+turning, the great statesman buried his face in his pillow and sobbed
+out his grief and remorse. He did go to Heaven, "but God said unto
+him, Thou fool ... so is he that layeth up treasures for himself and
+is not rich toward God."--Luke 12:20, 21.
+
+The second case in point:--
+
+A rich banker in the West a few weeks before Christmas sent a check
+for three hundred and fifty dollars to his brother in the East, a poor
+country preacher, telling him to come and bring all of his family and
+spend Christmas with him. They had not seen each other since boyhood.
+The preacher and family arrived Christmas eve morning. That afternoon
+in carriages the two families drove over the banker's beautiful farm
+of a thousand acres of rich land. Coming in late in the afternoon,
+they came by the pasture and saw the beautiful herd of blooded cattle.
+After a sumptuous supper the banker's daughters gave them some
+splendid music and the two families went upstairs to sleep. The two
+white-haired brothers, the banker and the poor country preacher,
+remained downstairs, and for hours talked of boyhood days in the old
+country home in the East. At last the conversation, like the fire in
+the fireplace, had about died out. Finally the banker turned and said,
+"Brother John, may I say something to you and you not get angry?" Said
+the preacher, "Why, brother James, you can say anything you wish to me
+and I will not get angry." Said the banker, "Brother John, you and I
+were poor boys back in the old country home in the East and we agreed
+to be partners for life. One day you came to me and told me that you
+were called to preach. I told you then that you were a fool. What a
+fool you have been! Do you remember that rich farm of a thousand acres
+you saw this afternoon? Paid for with honest money, John. This
+comfortable home for my old age, paid for with honest money, John. The
+fifty thousand dollars I have in the bank in the city where I am
+president of the bank, every dollar of it honest money, John. John,
+you could have had as much as I have. What a fool you have been! Why,
+I had to send you the three hundred and fifty dollars to bring you and
+your family that I might see them before I die. And look at your
+daughters; they are dressed in such a shabby way that I am ashamed for
+my neighbors to see my children's cousins. And look at you with your
+old seedy, worn suit and your patched shoes; I am ashamed to take you
+to town day after to-morrow and introduce you to my business
+associates. What a fool you have been! Now, John, I am not saying this
+to wound your feelings; for I love you, John. But I don't want you to
+let any of your boys be such fools as you have been. You know you have
+been a fool, John." Then there was silence for some time. The tears
+were trickling down the cheeks of the old country preacher. At last he
+broke the silence, "Brother James, may I say something to you and you
+not get angry?" "Why, certainly, John, I did not say what I did to
+make you angry, but to keep you from letting any of your boys be such
+fools as you have been, for you know you have been a fool, John." "I
+know," replied the old preacher, "that it looks like I have been a
+fool from this end of the line, brother James. But, brother James, we
+are both old men and we must soon go. Don't be angry with me, brother
+James, but what have you got up yonder?" Again there was silence,
+which was suddenly broken by the banker sobbing, "Oh, John, I am a
+pauper at the judgment bar of God." "So is he that layeth up treasures
+for himself and is not rich toward God." They are dying all over the
+world, men who are redeemed, going to Heaven, but paupers. "If any
+man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall
+be saved, yet so as through fire,"--1 Cor. 3:15. But far better be a
+pauper, and saved without any reward, than be a rich man in Hell (Luke
+16:22, 23): for they are dying all over the world who not only lived
+for this life, but from pride, or religious prejudice, or love of the
+world, or secret sin, would not repent and be redeemed from the curse
+of the law (Gal. 3:13) and be saved (Acts 16:31).
+
+With this teaching, that there are rewards in Heaven, there is another
+most helpful teaching and blessed fact, that the poorest, most
+ignorant and obscure can have just as great rewards as the richest,
+most learned, most applauded. "Each man shall receive his own reward
+_according to his own labor_,"--1 Cor. 3:8, not according to what he
+accomplishes. "Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to
+give each one _according as his work shall be_,"--Rev. 22:12; not
+according as his success shall be. "And Jesus sat over against the
+treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury; and
+many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow,
+and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto
+him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That
+this poor widow hath cast in more than all they that have cast into
+the treasury."--Mark 12:41-43. The wealthy, the mighty, the renowned
+who serve faithfully after they were redeemed from the curse of the
+law (Gal. 3:13), from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), shall receive their
+reward. But the poor, the weak, the obscure who serve faithfully after
+they are redeemed shall receive equally as great rewards; and if they
+have been more faithful, however small their sphere, they shall
+receive even greater rewards. "Two mites that make a farthing," but it
+was all she could do; "Verily I say unto you that this poor widow hath
+cast in more than all they that have cast into the treasury."--Mark
+12:42, 43. In an American city, one morning a man apparently sixty or
+seventy years of age, dressed as a plain business man, walked into the
+dining-room of one of the leading hotels and sat down to breakfast.
+Some men at the adjoining table were talking of a sad case of
+suffering, as reported in the morning paper; a poor widow with five
+children was very sick, who had, since her husband's death a few years
+before, struggled and made a living for herself and children; but now,
+having been down sick for some time, everything was gone and they were
+suffering. The stranger listened to the sad story; and, having
+finished breakfast, he called a newsboy and bought a paper. The
+account gave the street address of the poor widow. He went to the
+street address, a street of poor cottages, and, knocking at the door,
+was led into the sick room by a child. He saw the condition of affairs
+and heard the widow's story. Sitting by the bedside, he talked in a
+fatherly, cheerful way and tried to encourage the poor widow; and
+quietly slipping something under the pillow, as he was talking, he
+told the widow to use that as she needed it. Then taking out a little
+book from his pocket, he wrote something and tore the paper out of the
+little book and slipped the paper under a book and told the widow to
+use that when she needed it. Then calling down God's blessings upon
+the widow and her fatherless children, he bade them good-bye. As the
+door closed, the widow slipped her hand under the pillow and drew out
+a roll of money, to her a large sum. Then she reached for the piece of
+paper under the book on the table. There was a check for a goodly sum,
+signed by one of America's Christian millionaires. The glow in his
+soul as he walked away from the widow's cottage was not the only
+reward--"thou shalt be _recompensed at the resurrection of the
+just_."--Luke 14:14. But the following Sunday a poor widow working in
+a sweatshop to make a living for her fatherless children, listened to
+an appeal for foreign missions, to get the gospel to those who have
+never heard, and she threw in ten cents, all she could give, "two
+mites that make a farthing."--"Verily I say unto you, That this poor
+widow hath cast in more than all they that have cast into the
+treasury."--Mark 12:42, 43. All over the world, by the multiplied
+millions, there are graves where lie sleeping the bodies of those who,
+down the ages, because they were redeemed, gave their lives in
+service. They went down to their graves, their praises unsung by the
+world. Many of them went down to their graves, never realizing that
+there were rewards for them; simply rejoicing in their salvation
+through Him who loved them and gave Himself for them (Gal. 2:20).
+
+    "The desert rose, though never seen by man;
+      Is nurtured with a care divinely good;
+    The ocean pearl, though 'neath the rolling main,
+      Is ever brilliant in the eyes of God.
+
+    "Think not thy worth and work are all unknown
+      Because no partial pensman paint thy praise;
+    Man may not see nor care, but God will own
+      Thy worth and work; thy thoughts and deeds and ways."
+
+Riding along a lonely country road one Sunday afternoon, many years
+ago, returning from a country church, a young preacher was talking to
+his companion, a young man eighteen years of age, telling him of God's
+love and of _God's plan with men_. The conversation had ended, and for
+some minutes they had been riding along in silence, when suddenly the
+young man spurred his horse up to the young preacher's horse, and
+seizing the reins, stopped both horses. Dropping the reins, he threw
+both arms around the preacher's neck, and as he began sobbing said,
+"Oh, R----, how good God is!" How little men consider God's goodness.
+How good God is to have ever brought us into being! How good God is,
+though we have all sinned against Him (Rom. 3:23), "that he might be
+just and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus" (Rom. 3:26),
+to have provided complete redemption for us from all iniquity (Titus
+2:14)! How good God is to have "in love predestinated us for adoption
+as sons through Jesus Christ to himself"!--Eph. 1:5. How good God is
+to chastise us in love (Heb. 12:5, 6) instead of punishing us in Hell
+for our sins after we become His children (Ps. 89:27-34)! How good God
+is to place us where we will serve Him from love, and not from fear of
+punishment (2 Cor. 5:14, 15)! How good God is, in addition to our
+salvation, to provide rewards in Heaven for the services we render
+here (Matt. 6:20)! How good God is to provide that the poor, the
+ignorant, the obscure, can have just as great rewards as the more
+fortunate ones (Mark 1:41, 42)! How good God is to say, "if any man's
+work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be
+saved, yet so as through fire"!--1 Cor. 3:15.
+
+_FOR FURTHER STUDY_:--The objection that the teaching of rewards in
+Heaven makes Christianity too matter-of-fact is not well taken.
+Punishments or rewards last through all eternity; with the unredeemed,
+in added degrees to the punishment in Hell; with the redeemed, in
+added rewards in Heaven. And they need to realize that with both
+classes this applies to the smallest deeds: "But I say unto you, That
+every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account
+thereof in the day of judgment."--Matt. 12:36. "And whosoever shall
+give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only
+in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise
+lose his reward."--Matt. 10:42.
+
+Neither is the objection well taken that to teach men to aim to have
+rewards in Heaven is appealing to an unworthy motive. Jesus taught it
+(Matt. 6:20), Paul taught it (1 Cor. 3:11-15), Moses endorsed it (Heb.
+11:26), and the objector himself prays for God's blessings here in
+this life.
+
+Nor is the objection well founded, that for people to aim to have
+rewards will destroy the motive of love. Rather, it adds to the motive
+of love. A father gives his son, yet not of age, a fine farm. That
+arouses the boy's love. The father tells the boy that, though not of
+age, he may have the full reward of his labor on the farm, beginning
+at once. This does not destroy the motive of love. So, the Saviour,
+having died for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3), and given us eternal life
+(John 10:28, 29), arouses our love; to give us the privilege of having
+rewards in addition to salvation (Matt. 6:20), does not destroy our
+love, but increases it.
+
+There is one limitation God's word makes to our deeds being rewarded:
+"Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men to be seen of
+them: else ye have no reward with your Father who is in Heaven. When
+therefore thou doest alms, sound not a trumpet before thee, as the
+hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have
+glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have received their reward.
+But when thou doest alms let not thy left hand know what thy right
+hand doeth; that thine alms may be in secret; and thy Father who seeth
+in secret shall recompense thee."--Matt. 6:1-4. If a redeemed man does
+his righteous deeds in order to get glory as reward here, he gets it,
+but none in Heaven,--the wrong motive prevents his receiving rewards
+in Heaven. _God rewards according to the motive._
+
+There seems to be one other limitation to receiving rewards in Heaven
+for the deeds of this life: "Whosoever therefore shall break one of
+these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called
+the least in the kingdom of Heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach
+them the same shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven."--Matt.
+5:19. The teaching seems to be that for one to deliberately break even
+the least commandment, while he will be saved ("The least _in the
+kingdom of Heaven_") yet he will have no reward ("_The least_ in the
+kingdom of Heaven").
+
+There is one passage of Scripture that some have thought contradicts
+the teaching of different rewards in Heaven: "The kingdom of Heaven is
+like unto a man, an householder, who went out early in the morning to
+hire laborers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the
+laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he
+went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the
+market place, and said unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard and
+whatsoever is right I will give you, and they went their way. Again he
+went out about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, and did likewise.
+And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing
+idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They
+say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye
+also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye
+receive. So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto
+his steward, Call the laborers, and give them their hire, beginning
+from the last unto the first. And when they came that were hired about
+the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first
+came, they supposed that they should have received more, and they
+likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received it,
+they murmured against the goodman of the house, saying, These last
+have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, who
+have borne the burden and heat of the day. But he answered one of them
+and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong; didst not thou agree with me for
+a penny? Take that thine is and go thy way; _I will give unto this
+last even as unto thee_."--Matt. 20:1-14. From this the conclusion is
+drawn that there are no different rewards in Heaven; that all are
+rewarded alike. But not only does God's word elsewhere teach different
+rewards in Heaven, but the Saviour made His teaching on this point
+very plain. In the parable of the pounds, the servant who with one
+pound gained ten pounds is rewarded with authority over ten cities.
+But the one who with one pound gained only five pounds is rewarded
+with only five cities (Luke 19:16-19). This shows clearly a difference
+in rewards. If, now, this passage in Matthew teaches no difference in
+rewards, then we have a positive contradiction. But consider the two
+parables: the parable of the pounds is where men have the same
+opportunity, each one a pound; then they are rewarded according to
+what they accomplish. The parable of the vineyard is where the
+laborers work different lengths of time; in the morning, boys and
+girls, six, eight, ten, twelve years of age, becoming Christians and
+going into the vineyard; the third hour, young people, fifteen,
+eighteen, twenty years of age, becoming Christians and going into the
+vineyard; the sixth hour, young men and young women, twenty-five,
+thirty, thirty-five years of age, becoming Christians and going into
+the vineyard; the ninth hour, men and women past middle life, forty,
+forty-five, fifty years of age, becoming Christians and going into
+the vineyard; the eleventh hour, old men and women, sixty, seventy,
+eighty years of age, becoming Christians and going into the vineyard.
+But does the Saviour mean all old men and women who become Christians
+in old age and begin working in the vineyard? No, for He limits it to
+those in old age who can say, "_No man hath hired us_." Then the
+Saviour means by the eleventh hour laborers in the parable those who
+in old age had never before had the opportunity of going into the
+vineyard; who had never before heard or understood the way to be
+saved, and enter God's service. With these, the Saviour reserves the
+sovereign right to give them just as great rewards as though they had
+entered the vineyard "early in the morning"; not that those who "have
+borne the burden and heat of the day" shall receive less, but that
+those who did not have the opportunity of entering the vineyard
+sooner, shall not lose because of it. Some one may think that there
+are no old men and women who do not know the way to be saved and enter
+the vineyard. Even in professedly Christian lands there are many old
+men and women who, because of wrong religious teaching, have never
+seen the real way to be saved; and in China and Africa there are vast
+numbers who can say, "No man hath hired us." To take a case: a mere
+child becomes a Christian and serves in the vineyard for seventy
+years; an old Chinaman eighty years of age hears the gospel for the
+first time, and becomes a Christian and works in the vineyard only one
+year and dies. He will receive as great a reward as the one who served
+God seventy years. Apply this principle to the redeemed who died in
+early life: if those who entered at the eleventh hour, "because no man
+hath hired us" receive for one hour as much as those who have labored
+throughout the day, then those who entered the third hour and the Lord
+of the vineyard himself took them out the fourth hour, will receive as
+great rewards as though they had been left to bear the burden and heat
+of the day. Blessed consolation to those who have lost loved ones who
+were taken early in life.
+
+Three of the Saviour's parables are closely connected in their
+teaching concerning rewards: The parable of the pounds, where each
+servant has a pound and one gains ten pounds and another five; one
+receives authority over ten cities, the other receives authority over
+five cities, just half the reward of the other, because he was just
+half as faithful (Luke 19:16-19). This parable represents that class
+of men who have equal opportunity in life (each one a pound) and
+teaches that their reward will be in proportion to what they
+accomplish. The second is the parable of the vineyard, representing
+the length of time of service when the laborers were not to blame for
+not entering the vineyard earlier; showing that they shall not lose
+because they could not get into the vineyard to work earlier. The
+third is the parable of the talents, where the one with five talents
+gained five other talents and the one with two talents gained two
+other talents, and they both received the same commendation, the same
+reward, "I will make thee ruler over many things" (Matt. 25:20-23);
+teaching that the one with small opportunity (two talents) if he uses
+it faithfully, will receive as great reward as the one with great
+opportunity (five talents) who uses it faithfully.
+
+A widely misunderstood passage of Scripture bearing on the subject of
+rewards is 1 Cor. 9:24-27: "Know ye not that they that run in a race
+run all, but only one receiveth the prize? So run that ye may obtain.
+And every contestant in the games is temperate in all things. They,
+indeed, do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
+I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that
+beateth the air; but I buffet my body and bring it into subjection;
+lest that by any means, after having preached to others, I myself
+should be disapproved."--The 1911 Bible. The Authorized Version reads
+"a castaway"; the Revised Version reads "rejected." Many have thought
+that Paul was striving that he might not be a castaway (or rejected)
+from salvation. But notice the passage; he was striving not to be a
+castaway (or rejected) from something that is secured as a result of
+one's own efforts, "so run that ye may obtain." Salvation is not
+secured as a result of one's efforts; "to him that _worketh not_ but
+believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for
+righteousness."--Rom. 4:5. Rewards are secured as a result of one's
+own efforts; "each man shall receive his own reward according to his
+own labor."--1 Cor. 3:8. Again, what Paul was striving not to be a
+castaway (or rejected) from, is something that one receives after the
+race is finished; but salvation comes at the beginning of the race
+course, "He that believeth on the Son _hath_ everlasting life,"--John
+3:36; "by grace _have ye been_ saved."--Eph. 2:8. Rewards do come
+after the race is finished;--"thou shalt be recompensed _at the
+resurrection of the just_."--Luke 14:14. Again, in saying "I buffet my
+body," he has no reference to buffeting his body to keep it from sin,
+but from _comforts and privileges that are not sinful_. In the entire
+chapter he has referred only to his not eating and drinking; not
+leading about a wife as well as other apostles and the brethren of the
+Lord and Cephas; not being supported by those to whom he preached (1
+Cor. 9:4-14); and in each case he says that he has a right to these
+things. Was Paul buffeting his body against having a wife lest he
+should be a castaway (or rejected) from salvation? Then only the Roman
+Catholic priests, among the preachers, will be saved. Was Paul
+buffeting his body against being supported by those to whom he
+preached, and working with his own hands for his living, lest he
+should be a castaway (or rejected) from salvation? Then the Roman
+Catholic priests and almost all of the Protestant and Baptists
+preachers will be lost. Will a man be a castaway (or rejected) from
+salvation for enjoying comforts and privileges that are not sinful and
+to which he has a right? But let Paul state for himself what he means:
+"For if I do this thing willingly _I have a reward_."--1 Cor. 9:17. He
+then urges the Corinthian Christians to run in the race that they may
+receive the prize. "I buffet my body and bring it into subjection
+(from enjoying these sinless comforts and privileges); lest that by
+any means, after having preached (R. V. margin "have been a herald")
+to others (preaching or heralding to run in the race and so run as to
+obtain the prize, the reward) I myself should be disapproved" (a
+castaway, rejected,--from the prize, the reward). "If any man's work
+abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any
+man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall
+be saved, yet so as through fire."--1 Cor. 3:14, 15.
+
+But does Paul teach that there are rewards for bodily sufferings and
+self-denials? Let him explain: "Though I am free from all men, yet
+have I made myself servant unto all, _that I might gain the more_."--1
+Cor. 9:19. That, by giving up these comforts and privileges he might
+win more people to be saved (1 Cor. 9:20-22).
+
+There is the prize, there are rewards, for those who bring their
+bodies under from comforts and privileges that they may thereby win
+others to be saved. With the coppers in the foreign mission envelope
+from an orphan newsboy was found a note written in a child's awkward
+handwriting, "Starved a meal to give a meal." He would not have been a
+castaway from salvation had he bought and eaten his lunch that day;
+but there will be, at the resurrection of the just (Luke 14:14), the
+prize for having brought his body into subjection that he might gain
+the more.
+
+During a collection for foreign missions, a poor, ragged, one-legged
+negro hobbled down the aisle and laid three packages of money on the
+table: "Dat's fur my wife; dat's fur my boy; dat's fur me." When the
+collector saw the amount, he protested, saying that it was too much
+for a poor crippled man to give. As a matter of fact, it meant weeks
+of sacrificing, sometimes with no meat on the table. As the tears
+trickled down the black cheeks, the negro said, "Oh, Boss, de Lord's
+cause must go on, and I may soon be dead"; and turning he hobbled back
+to his seat. He was only a poor, ignorant, one-legged negro, but he
+ran in the race, and at the resurrection of the just he will receive
+the prize.
+
+A Christian Chinaman sold himself to some mine owners that he might go
+down in the mines and while working lead his fellow-Chinamen to be
+saved. He had no support from those to whom he preached, but worked
+with his own hands. He ran in the race, and will receive the prize.
+
+If the young Catholic priest was redeemed who turned from the comforts
+and privileges of a wife and home and gave himself for the lepers,
+there will be the prize at the resurrection of the just.
+
+The world says that a man is a fool to make such sacrifices; Jesus
+said: "Thou fool ... so is he that layeth up treasures for himself and
+is not rich toward God."--Luke 12:20, 21. "If any man's work abide
+which he hath built thereupon he shall receive a reward. If any man's
+work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be
+saved, yet so as through fire."--1 Cor. 3:14, 15.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+HOW TO BE SAVED--REPENTANCE AND FAITH
+
+     "Repent ye and believe the gospel."--Mark 1:15.
+
+     "Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus
+     Christ."--Acts 20:21.
+
+     "And ye when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might
+     believe him."--Matt. 21:32.
+
+     "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."--Luke 13:3.
+
+     "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
+     the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should
+     not perish, but have eternal life."--John 3:14,15.
+
+     "Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the
+     Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved."--Acts 16:30, 31.
+
+
+Wherever repentance and faith are mentioned in God's word without one
+exception, repentance comes before faith. There is a faith that comes
+before repentance; but it is pure historical faith, and does not
+result in salvation. "He that cometh to God must believe that he
+is,"--Heb. 11:26; the demons believe in God's existence, that He is;
+Thomas Paine believed in God's existence, that He is. But the faith
+that results in salvation invariably comes after repentance; "And ye
+when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, _that ye_ might believe
+him."--Matt. 21:32. If, therefore, the faith that saves must come
+after repentance, then those who have no saving faith after
+repentance, have no salvation, are not really redeemed. Not only so,
+but if saving faith must come after repentance, then those who place
+the only faith they claim, before repentance, do not understand what
+saving faith is.
+
+Jesus preached, "Repent ye and believe the gospel."--Mark 1:15. Paul
+preached "repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus
+Christ."--Acts 20:21. What does "repent" or "repentance" mean?
+
+God's word teaches that one must repent _in order to believe_. "And ye
+when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, _that ye might believe
+him_."--Matt. 21:32. "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise
+perish."--Luke 13:3. Then whatever "repentance" or "repent" means, it
+is something that must take place before one can be saved, before he
+can "believe the gospel" (Mark 1:15); before he can have "faith toward
+our Lord Jesus Christ."--Acts 20:21. The Saviour gives a complete,
+perfect picture of salvation, and in that picture we can find what
+repentance means: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
+even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in
+him should not perish, but have eternal life."--John 3:14, 15. Jesus
+says "As," "even so"; then in the case of the serpent in the
+wilderness we have a complete, perfect picture of the way of
+salvation. By seeing what came back there before the lifting up of the
+serpent, we can see what comes before believing in Him, or "faith
+toward our Lord Jesus Christ." Notice the incident to which the
+Saviour referred as showing the complete picture of the way of
+salvation: "And they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red
+Sea, to compass the land of Edom: And the soul of the people was much
+discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against God, and
+against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in
+the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water; and
+our soul loatheth this light bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents
+among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel
+died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned,
+for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the
+Lord that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the
+people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and
+set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass, that every one that is
+bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent
+of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a
+serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he
+lived."--Num. 21:4-9. These people realized that they had sinned
+against God; that their sins deserved punishment; that they were
+justly condemned--"we have sinned";--that they were helpless, "Pray
+unto the Lord that _he_ take away the serpents from us"; and in their
+helpless condition they turned from their sins and turned to God.
+There had been, then, an entire change of mind and purpose, or they
+would never have turned from their sins to God. When they faced the
+fact that they had sinned and were justly condemned, there resulted
+sorrow, and their sorrow led to the change of mind and purpose to turn
+from their sins to God. Had there been no conviction of sin, no
+realization that they had sinned and were justly condemned, there
+would have been no change of mind, or purpose to turn from sin to
+God. Here, then, we have what repentance is,--a conviction of sin,
+such a realization of the fact that one has sinned and is justly
+condemned that it produces such sorrow as leads to an entire change of
+mind and purpose to turn from sin and turn to God. God then provided
+the easiest way for them, "every one that is bitten, when he looketh
+upon it [the brazen serpent] shall live."--Num. 21:8. The Saviour
+says, "Even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever
+believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life."--John
+3:15.
+
+Notice the case of the jailor, Acts 16:22-34. When the jailor fell
+down before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said, "Sirs, what
+must I do to be saved?" (Verse 30), they did not say, "Repent"; they
+said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved."--Verse 31.
+But God's word teaches plainly that we must repent in order to believe
+(Matt. 21:32; Luke 13:3). Then repentance must have already taken
+place,--he must have already repented,--or they would have taught him
+"repentance toward God" as well as "faith toward our Lord Jesus
+Christ."--Acts 20:21. Go back and notice the jailor's case: the night
+before, he had taken Paul and Silas with their backs bloody from the
+beating they had received, and had not washed their stripes (Verse
+33), had given them no supper (Verse 34), and had thrust them into the
+inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks. He was utterly
+hardened. The praying and singing hymns to God by Paul and Silas, the
+sudden earthquake, Paul's crying out against his committing suicide,
+had convicted him of sin, such a conviction as had produced sorrow,
+for he came trembling and fell down before them; and the sorrow had
+led to an entire change of mind and purpose, and he said, "Sirs, what
+must I do to be saved?"--"what," anything God would have me do I am
+ready to do,--he had turned from his sins and had turned to God. Hence
+they did not say "Repent," for he had repented; but they said,
+"Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved."--Acts 16:31.
+
+Having seen what the Saviour meant by repentance, let us go to the
+meaning of the word translated "repent." "This word," says J. P.
+Boyce, the great theologian, in his systematic theology, "means to
+reconsider, perceive afterwards and to change one's view, mind or
+purpose, or even judgment, implying disapproval and abandonment of
+past opinions and purposes, and the adoption of others which are
+different." B. H. Carroll, President Southwestern Baptist Theological
+Seminary: "We may therefore give as the one invariable definition of
+New Testament repentance that it is a change of mind." B. H. Carroll,
+again, "Repentance is a change of mind toward God concerning a course
+of sin leading rapidly down to death and eternal ruin." Once more from
+B. H. Carroll: "If in one moment the soul is contrite enough to turn
+in abhorrence of sin against God from all self-help to our Lord Jesus
+Christ by faith, it is sufficient." John A. Broadus, the great
+American scholar and teacher: "To repent, then, as a religious term of
+the New Testament, is to change the mind, thought or purpose as
+regards sin and the service of God--a change naturally accompanied by
+deep sorrow for past sins, and naturally leading to a change of
+outward life."
+
+As the Bible teaches that no man can be saved who has not repented
+("Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."--Luke 13:3), and as
+no one has repented who has not been convicted of sin, who has not
+seen himself a guilty, justly condemned sinner, it follows that no one
+is saved, no one can be saved, who does not believe that God will and
+ought to punish sin. But to those who have repented, the way to be
+saved is simple, easy, sure: "Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt
+be saved."--Acts 16:31.
+
+_FOR FURTHER STUDY_:--There has been much misunderstanding about
+repentance. Some men, as Moody, Harry Moorehouse, J. H. Brookes, etc.,
+have been charged with not preaching enough repentance, simply because
+they did not use the words "repent" and "repentance" as much as
+others; whereas, others who use the words often, and tell touching
+incidents, are said to preach "old-fashioned repentance." It is not
+the word repentance that God requires, but the thing repentance, and a
+sinner must repent or he cannot believe (Matt. 21:32) and he will
+perish (Luke 13:3). The gospel of John is the only book of the Bible
+given specifically to sinners to lead them to be saved. The way of
+salvation can be found in many of the books of the Bible, and is
+taught in them; but the gospel of John is the only book of the Bible
+given for the special, specific purpose of leading a sinner to be
+saved. "Many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his
+disciples which are not written in this book: but these are written
+that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and
+that believing ye might have life through his name."--John 20:30, 31.
+In this book, given specifically to lead a sinner to be saved, the
+word "repentance" or "repent" does not occur, but the thing repentance
+does (John 3:14, 15).
+
+On the difference between the thing repentance and the word
+repentance, give attention to the words of John A. Broadus, the great
+American scholar and teacher already quoted: "Great difficulty has
+been found in translating this Greek word 'metanoein' into languages.
+The Syriac version, unable to give the precise meaning, falls back
+upon 'turn,' the same word as the Hebrew. The Latin version gives
+'Exercise penitence' (poenitentiam agere). But this Latin penitence,
+apparently connected by etymology with _pain_, signifies grief or
+distress, and is rarely extended to a change of purpose, thus
+corresponding to the Hebrew word which we render 'repent,' but _not_
+corresponding to the terms employed in Old Testament and New Testament
+exhortations. Hence a subtle and pernicious error, pervading the whole
+sphere of Latin Christianity, by which the exhortation of the New
+Testament is understood to be an exhortation to _grief_ over sin, as
+the primary and principal idea of the term. One step farther and
+penitence was contracted into _penance_, and associated with mediæval
+ideas unknown to the New Testament, and the English Version made by
+Romanists now represents John and Jesus and Peter as saying
+(poenitentiam agere) do penance. From a late Latin compound
+(repoenitere) comes our English word 'repent,' which inherits the
+fault of the Latin; making grief the prominent element, and change of
+purpose secondary, if expressed at all. Thus our English word
+corresponds exactly to the second Greek word (metamelesthai), and to
+the Hebrew word rendered repent, but sadly fails to translate the
+exhortation of the New Testament."
+
+Repentance is not a price that the sinner pays for salvation; neither
+is the sorrow that leads to repentance a price that he pays for
+salvation. And repentance does not make the sinner a fit subject for
+salvation; nor does the sorrow that leads to repentance make him a fit
+subject for salvation. No one can see that he has violated God's just
+and holy law and is guilty, justly condemned, helpless, without its
+producing sorrow and this sorrow will lead to repentance, to an entire
+change of mind and purpose, to turning from sin, and, as B. H. Carroll
+expressed it, from all self-help ("repentance from dead works,"--Heb.
+6:1) to God.
+
+Some are sometimes troubled as to how much sorrow there must be. There
+are different degrees of sorrow in different people, but there must be
+enough sorrow to lead to repentance, to an entire change of mind and
+purpose.
+
+"In both the Old Testament and the New Testament exhortation the
+element of grief for sin is left in the background, neither word
+directly expressing grief at all, though it must in the nature of
+things be present."--_Jno. A. Broadus._
+
+"To repent is to change your mind about sin and Christ and all the
+good things of God. There is sorrow implied in this; but the main
+point is the turning of the heart from sin to Christ. If there be this
+turning you have the essence of the repentance, even though no alarm
+and no despair should ever have cast their shadow upon your
+mind."--_C. H. Spurgeon._
+
+"Conviction of sin is just the sinner seeing himself as he is and as
+God has all along seen him."--_H. Bonar, in "God's Way of Peace."_
+
+"The object of the Holy Spirit's work in convincing of sin is to alter
+the sinner's opinion of himself and so to reduce his estimate of his
+own character, that he shall think of himself as God does, and so
+cease to suppose it possible that he can be justified by any
+excellence of his own. Having altered the sinner's good opinion of
+himself, the Spirit then alters his evil opinion of God, so as to make
+him see that the God with whom he has to deal is really the God of all
+grace."--_Bonar._
+
+"It is impossible, therefore, in the nature of things, for a sinful
+being to appreciate God's mercy unless he first feels His justice as
+manifest in the holy law."--_Walker, in "Philosophy of the Plan of
+Salvation."_
+
+"Man cannot repent and turn from sin till he is convicted of sin in
+himself."--_Walker, in "Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation."_
+
+"The more we feel the want of a benefactor, temporal or spiritual, and
+the more we feel our inability to rescue ourselves from existing
+difficulties and impending dangers, the more grateful love will the
+heart feel for the being who, moved by, and in despite of, personal
+sacrifices, interposes to assist and save us."--_Walker, in
+"Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation."_
+
+"As a feeling of want was necessary in order that the soul might love
+the being that supplied that want, and as Jesus came to bestow
+spiritual mercies upon mankind, _how could men be brought to feel the
+want of a spiritual Benefactor and Saviour?_"... "According to the
+constitution which God has given the soul, it must feel the want of
+the spiritual mercies before it can feel love for the giver of those
+mercies. And just in proportion as the soul feels its lost, guilty,
+and dangerous condition, in the same proportion will it exercise love
+to the being who grants spiritual favor and salvation. How then could
+the spiritual want be produced in the souls of men in order that they
+might love the spiritual benefactor?"... "The only possible way by
+which man could be made to hope for and appreciate spiritual mercies
+and to love a spiritual deliverer would be to produce a conviction in
+the soul itself of its evil condition, its danger as a spiritual
+being, and its inability, unaided, to satisfy the requirements of a
+_spiritual law_, or to escape its just and spiritual penalty.
+If man could be made to perceive that he was guilty and needy; that
+his soul was under the condemnation of the holy law of the holy God,
+he would then, necessarily, feel the need of a deliverance from
+sin and its consequences; and in this way only, could the soul of
+man be led to appreciate spiritual mercies, or love a spiritual
+benefactor."--_Walker, in "Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation."_
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+THE MEANING OF "BELIEVE ON" OR "BELIEVE IN" CHRIST
+
+     "God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son, that
+     whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal
+     life."--John 3:16 (R. V.).
+
+     "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath
+     sent."--John 6:27.
+
+     "He that believeth on me shall never thirst."--John 6:35.
+
+     "To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name
+     whosoever believeth on him shall receive remission of sins."--Acts
+     10:43.
+
+     "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved."--Acts 16:31.
+
+     "John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto
+     the people that they should believe on him that should come after
+     him, that is, on Jesus."--Acts 19:4.
+
+     "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the
+     ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness."--Rom. 4:5.
+
+     "Whosoever liveth and believeth in [into] me shall never die.
+     Believest thou this?"--John 11:26.
+
+     "We have believed in [into] Jesus Christ, that we might be
+     justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the
+     law."--Gal. 2:16 (R. V.).
+
+     "I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is
+     able to guard that which I have committed unto him against that
+     day."--2 Tim. 1:12 (R. V.).
+
+
+If language can be made plain, if it can be used to express a fact
+clearly, then God's word teaches clearly, unmistakably, that the one
+who believes on Christ is going to Heaven. One may think it to be too
+good to be true, when he reads what God's word says along this line;
+he may be honestly tempted to suspect that there must be many hidden,
+suppressed conditions, which, if expressed, would make the meaning
+different; or from religious prejudice, he may warp the meaning or
+bring in other conditions;--but God's word is plain.
+
+"God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that
+whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal
+life."--John 3:16.
+
+It does not say, whosoever believeth on him and unites with the right
+church, or is baptized the right way, or lives the right kind of a
+life; it simply says, "whosoever believeth on him"; and then the
+promise is plain and absolute, "should not perish."
+
+Jesus said, "he that believeth on me shall never thirst."--John 6:35.
+He did not say, he that believeth on me and unites with the right
+church, or is baptized the right way, or lives the right kind of a
+life; he said plainly, simply, "he that believeth on me," and then
+added "shall never thirst."
+
+Peter to the household of Cornelius said, "To him give all the
+prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth on him
+shall receive remission of sins."--Acts 10:43. He did not say,
+whosoever believeth on him and unites with the right church, or is
+baptized the right way, or lives the right kind of a life; but simply,
+"whosoever believeth on him," and then adds the plain promise, "shall
+receive remission of sins."
+
+When the jailor came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and
+brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" they
+answered, simply, plainly, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt
+be saved."--Acts 16:31. They did not say, believe on the Lord Jesus
+and unite with the right church, or be baptized the right way, or live
+the right kind of a life; they said simply, "Believe on the Lord
+Jesus, and thou shalt be saved."
+
+When Paul wrote to the Romans, "To him that worketh not, but
+believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned
+for righteousness,"--Rom. 4:5, he did not say, believeth on him that
+justifieth the ungodly and unites with the right church, or is
+baptized the right way, or lives the right kind of a life; but simply,
+"To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the
+ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness."
+
+Jesus to the grief-stricken sister of Lazarus said, "Whosoever liveth
+and believeth in [into] me shall never die."--John 11:26. He did not
+say, whosoever liveth and believeth in me and unites with the right
+church, or is baptized the right way, or lives the right kind of life;
+but simply and plainly, "whosoever liveth and believeth in me," and
+then He adds His plain promise, "shall never die."
+
+When Paul said to the Galatians, "we have believed in [into] Jesus
+Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ,"--Gal.
+2:16, he did not say, we have believed in Jesus Christ and united with
+the right church and been baptized the right way, that we might be
+justified by faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. Instead
+of this, he puts it in simple, plain language.
+
+In all of these cases, these conditions could have been expressed just
+as easily by the Saviour and Peter and Paul as they are expressed by
+religious teachers to-day. Why did not the Saviour and Peter and Paul
+express these conditions? There can be but one answer,--because they
+are not conditions of salvation. How could the Saviour and Peter and
+Paul have left out these conditions if they are conditions of
+salvation?
+
+But the question arises, if being baptized the right way and living
+the right kind of a life are not conditions of salvation, why do these
+things? Not from fear of Hell; God desires no service from that
+motive. Let the Saviour tell why. When He instituted the Lord's
+supper, He said, "This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed
+for many, for the remission of sins,"--Matt. 26:28; and then before
+leaving the upper room He said to His disciples: "if ye love me, keep
+my commandments."--John 14:15. Why love Him? Love Him because He shed
+His blood for the remission of their sins. Let Paul tell us why serve
+Him: "The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge that
+if one died for all, then all died; and he died for all, that they who
+live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died
+for them, and rose again."--2 Cor. 5:14, 15.
+
+Now comes the all-important question, what do these parallel
+expressions, "believe on Christ" or "believe in [into] Christ" mean?
+Many, when they see how simple and plain is the teaching, say, "Why,
+almost every one believes on Christ." No; they believe _about_ Christ,
+but not _on_ Christ. A wealthy man deposits a large sum of money in
+the bank and promises to pay the debts of all the poor people who will
+trust him to pay their debts. They all may believe him, may believe
+about him; but only those who believe on him, depend on him, rely on
+him to pay their debts, will have their debts paid. So Christ died
+for all our sins (1 Cor. 15:3); He gave Himself for us that He might
+redeem us from all iniquity (Titus 2:14); but only those who _believe
+on_ Him, _depend on_ Him, _rely on_ Him to save them, will ever be
+saved. The man who is depending on Christ and his baptism or Christ
+and his church, or Christ and his good life to save him, will be lost;
+for he is not believing on, depending on, relying on, Christ to save
+him; but only partly on Christ and partly on something else; and
+_there is no promise in God's word that those who partly believe on
+Christ shall be saved_. The very fact that a man depends partly on
+Christ and partly on something else to save him, shows that he has
+never believed that the Saviour "gave himself for us that he might
+redeem us from all iniquity" (Titus 2:13, 14); the Saviour he is
+depending on is not the Saviour God's word reveals; and hence he has
+no Saviour at all.
+
+Notice Paul's instruction to the Romans concerning believing on
+Christ: "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth
+the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness."--Rom. 4:5.
+Consider the simple but vital teaching of this passage: He justifieth
+the ungodly. How? "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation
+through faith in his blood ... to declare, I say, at this time his
+righteousness, that he might be _just_ and the _justifier_ of him that
+believeth in Jesus" (Rom. 3:25, 26); "being now justified by his
+blood."--Rom. 5:9. And He justifies us from all sin, "Our Saviour
+Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from
+_all_ iniquity" (Titus 2:13, 14); redeems us from the curse of the
+law (Gal. 3:13), redeems us from under the law (Rom. 6:14), and this
+makes us God's children (Gal. 4:4-7).
+
+Consider further: He justifies _the ungodly_. If He justifies the
+ungodly then all efforts to become godly _in order to be saved_, are
+worse than wasted and are in rebellion against _God's plan for men_.
+"When we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the
+_ungodly_."--Rom. 5:6. "God commendeth his own love toward us, in that
+_while we were yet sinners_, Christ died for us."--Rom. 5:8. "_When we
+were enemies_ we were reconciled to God by the death of his
+Son."--Rom. 5:10. Why? Because Christ justifies the ungodly. The
+Saviour did not say to Nicodemus, "Whosoever becomes godly should not
+perish," but "Whosoever believeth on him." Why? Because He justifies
+_the ungodly_. Paul and Silas did not say to the jailor, a hardened
+sinner, "Become godly and thou shalt be saved"; but "Believe on the
+Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved." Why? Because He justifies _the
+ungodly_. On what condition does He justify the ungodly? "To him that
+_worketh_ not, but _believeth_ on him." Here is the work of the soul
+to be saved; Paul says to cease working at the task, and believe on,
+depend on, Him--He justifies the ungodly. God gave men ten
+commandments to keep. God's word says, "The man that doeth them shall
+live by them."--Gal. 3:12. But all men have failed to keep them; "all
+have sinned and come short of the glory of God."--Rom. 3:23. To
+illustrate: A father gives a little boy ten rows of corn to work out
+and says to him, "Willie, if you will work out the ten rows of corn
+to-day, I will pay you five dollars; but it will take steady work all
+day." About nine o'clock some boys persuade Willie to play, and he
+plays with them for two hours. Now he cannot get the task done, and so
+is sure to lose the five dollars. His grown brother comes to him and
+says, "Willie, I saw the trouble you were getting into, and had a talk
+with father. Father says that the work must be done or you will lose
+the five dollars. But father agreed to let me do the work for you. Now
+if you will quit working at the task and trust me, depend on me, I
+will see that the work is done, and that you get the five dollars."
+The little brother quits working at the task, and gets out of the
+field. He believes on, depends on, trusts, his big brother. If, now,
+there is any failure, it will be the big brother's failure, and not
+the little brother's. So, "To him that worketh not, but believeth on
+him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for
+righteousness." If, then, the sinner will quit working at the task of
+his salvation and believe on, depend on Christ, trust the whole work
+of salvation to Him, He will "justify the ungodly" from "all iniquity"
+(Titus 2:14). If, then, there should be any failure of being saved, it
+would be Christ's failure, for He said, "Him that cometh unto me, I
+will in no wise cast out."--John 6:37. Why, then, should the one who
+has thus trusted Christ ever be baptized, or live a faithful, godly
+life? Go back to the illustration: As the little brother quits working
+at the task in the field and believes on, depends on, trusts, the big
+brother to have the task done, a man meets him and says, "Willie,
+your brother was good to you. But to do your work for you, that you
+might not lose the five dollars, he left his field, and it needs work
+badly. If I were in your place, from love to my big brother, I would
+go and work in his field for him." The little brother says, "I will do
+it, sir." He goes over into his big brother's field and works harder
+than ever, not from fear of losing the five dollars, but from love to
+his big brother. So the Saviour, after we have believed on Him,
+trusted Him to save, justify us, says, "If ye love me, keep my
+commandments."--John 14:15. "Go work to-day in _my_ vineyard,"--Matt.
+21:28; not "in _your own_." All the work that the redeemed, the saved,
+man does is not in his own field, to get the task done, that he may be
+saved; but in the big brother's field, from love to the big brother
+for having relieved him of the entire responsibility for the task.
+
+To follow up the illustration: The big brother sees the little brother
+working in the big brother's field and he goes to him and says,
+"Willie, I appreciate this, for you are doing it from love to me. If
+you were doing it from fear lest I might not keep my promise, it would
+hurt me; for that would show that you did not trust me. But you cannot
+work for me for nothing. I will pay you fifty cents for every hour you
+work in my field. Now, work hard and have a large reward for your
+labor." So the Saviour says, "Whosoever shall give to drink unto one
+of these little ones a cup of water only in the name of a disciple,
+verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward."--Matt.
+10:42. And he says, "Lay up for yourselves treasures in
+Heaven."--Matt. 6:20. "He shall reward every man according to his
+works."--Matt. 16:27. The reward of fifty cents for every hour's work
+does not destroy the motive of love that moves the little brother; it
+only increases the motive of love.
+
+But do not redeemed people, God's children, sometimes become
+backsliders? Yes. Go back to the illustration of the little brother
+and his task. As he is working from love to his big brother, in the
+big brother's field, the bad boys follow him and tempt him, and
+prevail on him to leave the big brother's field and to mistreat the
+big brother. The father sees it all; goes and takes the little brother
+out into the forest and reproves him for his wrong to his big brother,
+and then chastises him and sends him back to the big brother's field.
+So, when God's redeemed, saved children backslide, do wrong wilfully,
+He chastises them. "My son, despise not thou the chastening of the
+Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him; for whom the Lord loveth
+he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."--Heb. 12:5,
+6. "Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the
+earth. My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant
+shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure
+forever, and his throne as the days of heaven. If his children forsake
+my law and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and
+keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgression with
+the rod and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my loving
+kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness
+to fail."--Ps. 89:27-33.
+
+Reader, which field are you working in? Are you working in your own
+field? trying to accomplish a task, now that you have sinned, you can
+never accomplish?--Meet _all_ of God's just laws and requirements, and
+develop a character that will entitle you to a home in Heaven? Heed
+the message, "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that
+justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness."
+Believe on Him, depend on Him, to justify you from all iniquity (Titus
+2:14). The moment you do, your eternal destiny is settled, "Verily,
+verily I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him
+that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into
+condemnation, but is passed from death unto life."--John 5:24. Then,
+from love to the big brother, go into his field and work till the day
+is done.
+
+In telling of his own salvation, Paul again makes plain what "believe
+on the Lord Jesus" means: "I know him whom I have believed and am
+persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him
+against that day." Notice this declaration as to the apostle's
+salvation: "I know him." A man must "know him" or he cannot "believe
+on" Christ. He can _risk_ Him without knowing Him, but he cannot
+_believe on_ Him, cannot _trust_ Him for salvation. It does not mean,
+know Him in every respect, as to how His divine and human nature could
+be united; as to how He could have had eternal existence; as to how
+His resurrected body could appear and disappear, etc., but to know Him
+in His character as Saviour. In trusting money to a bank one does not
+need to know how much German or French or English blood there is in
+the bank officials. In trusting one's case to a physician, one does
+not need to know the different nationalities from which he is
+descended, but he needs to know him in his character as physician. So
+men must know Jesus in His character as Saviour, or they cannot
+believe on, trust Him to save them. They must, then, know Him as the
+Messiah, the promised Saviour, the complete sin-bearer, or they cannot
+believe on Him. But after one knows the bank, he must commit his money
+to the bank, else the bank is not responsible for it. After one knows
+the physician, he must commit his case to the physician, else the
+physician is not responsible. And so Paul says, "I am persuaded that
+he is able to keep that which I _have committed unto him against that
+day_." No one, then, is redeemed, is saved, who has not committed his
+salvation to Christ against that day. Let the reader get clearly the
+meaning of "commit." No one has committed money to the bank who yet
+holds to the money; no one has committed a package to the express
+company who yet holds to the package; no one has committed a letter to
+the post-office for delivery who yet holds to the letter. So no one
+has committed his salvation to Christ, no one is redeemed, is saved,
+who yet holds to the work of his salvation. He must _commit_ it to
+Christ.
+
+Further, no one has _committed_ his money to the bank who has not left
+the entire responsibility for the money's safety to the bank, leaving
+no further responsibility whatever upon himself for the safety of the
+money. No one has _committed_ a package to the express company, who
+has not left the whole responsibility for the delivery of the package
+entirely to the company, leaving no responsibility whatever upon
+himself for its safe delivery. No one has _committed_ a letter to the
+post-office who has not left the entire responsibility for its safe
+delivery to the government, leaving no responsibility whatever upon
+himself for its safe delivery. Even so, no one has _committed_ his
+salvation to Christ, no one is redeemed, is saved, who has not left
+the entire responsibility of his salvation to Christ, leaving no
+responsibility whatever for his salvation upon himself.
+
+But one may have committed his money to the bank and yet not really
+have trusted the bank, but only _risked_ the bank; one may have
+committed a package to the express company and yet not really have
+trusted the express company, but only _risked_ it; one may have
+committed a letter to the post-office and yet not really have trusted
+the post-office, but only _risked_ it. So, one may have committed his
+salvation to Christ, and yet be unredeemed, unsaved, because he only
+_risked_ Christ and did not _trust_ Him. Hence Paul says, "I know him
+whom I have _believed_," _trusted, taken at His word_.
+
+One other fact needs to be considered as to what believing on Christ
+means in Paul's case. He says, "I am persuaded that he is able to keep
+that which I have committed to him _against that day_." It is not a
+committal of one's salvation to Christ a moment at a time, nor till
+one can see how he will afterwards feel; nor till one can see whether
+he is going to be able to live a Christian life. It is to commit one's
+salvation to Christ "_against that day_." And the moment one does
+what Paul did, commits his salvation to Christ against that day, God's
+word says he is saved, redeemed: "Verily, verily I say unto you, He
+that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me, hath
+everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed
+from death unto life."--John 5:24.
+
+_FOR FURTHER STUDY_:--When Paul says, "To him that worketh not, but
+believeth on him that justifieth _the ungodly_, his faith is counted
+for righteousness,"--Rom. 4:5, he is in line with the teaching of the
+Saviour when He said, "The publicans and the harlots go into the
+kingdom of God before you,"--Matt. 21:31; and if the teaching of the
+Saviour and Paul on this point is true, then there is not left one
+square inch of ground on which the teachers of "salvation by
+character" may stand. They are not in agreement with the Saviour and
+Paul on this point, but there is one with whom they are here in strict
+agreement; "I hope for happiness beyond this life"; "I believe that
+religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and
+endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy"; "The only true
+religion is deism, by which I then meant and now mean the belief of
+one God, and an imitation of his moral character, or the practice of
+what are called moral virtues; and that _it was upon this only_ (so
+far as religion is concerned) _that I rested my hopes of happiness
+hereafter_. So say I now, and so help me God." These are exact
+quotations from "The Age of Reason," by Thomas Paine. And those who
+preach "salvation by character" thus line up with Paine against the
+Saviour and Paul. They fail to see that there can be no proper
+character without proper motive, and that there can, in the sight of
+God, be no proper motive till one is redeemed, saved, and thus placed
+where the motive will be love, the purest motive possible to human
+beings. And they fail to see that _God's plan with men_ is to save
+irrespective of character, and then to develop in the redeemed man the
+real character for all eternity.
+
+God has not two ways of salvation; He has not two ways of believing on
+Christ. What is essential to one man's salvation is essential to the
+salvation of every man. What is "believing on Christ" for one man, is
+believing on Christ for every man. When Paul says "I know him whom I
+have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I
+have committed to him against that day,"--2 Tim. 1:12 (R. V.), he has
+given the pattern of saving faith. "I know him." Man _must_ know Him
+in His real character as Saviour or he cannot commit to Him against
+that day the matter of his eternal destiny, cannot believe on Him.
+What are the essential things, then, that must be included in "I know
+him" in His character as Saviour, in order that one can believe on
+Him, be saved by Him, be a real Christian? First, one must know Him as
+the promised Messiah, in order to really believe on Him, to be really
+a Christian. The high priest asked, "Art thou the Christ, the Son of
+the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am."--Mark 14:61, 62. The woman at the
+well said, "I know that Messiah cometh, who is called Christ: When he
+is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that
+speak unto thee, am he."--John 4:25, 26. As Ballard, in "The Miracles
+of Unbelief," has clearly pointed out, either (1) He was the Messiah;
+or (2) He was the illegitimate son of a fallen woman and the vilest
+deceiver the world has ever known, or (3) He was the illegitimate son
+of a fallen woman, and a poor, simple-minded ignoramus, who claimed to
+be the Messiah and honestly thought He was, but was simply ignorant
+and deluded. Men in their intellectual pride or religious prejudice
+may sneer and try to avoid this issue, but every honest thinking man
+will see and confess that only these three conclusions are possible,
+that one of the three is inevitable: and every honest man will take
+one of the three positions. Voltaire said "curse the wretch." He is to
+be commended as compared with the man who tries to avoid the issue.
+
+Second, one must know Him as complete Redeemer in order to believe on
+Him, in order to commit one's salvation to Him against that day. There
+is no middle ground. He was either no redeemer at all, or He "gave
+himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity."--Titus
+2:14. To try to avoid the issue here is as fatal as to try to avoid
+the issue as to His being the Messiah. To believe on, to commit one's
+salvation to, a partial Redeemer, is to have no redeemer at all, to be
+left unredeemed, unsaved.
+
+Third, to know Him in order to believe on Him, to commit one's
+salvation to Him against that day, one must know Him as having been
+really raised from the dead. _Belief in the real resurrection of the
+Saviour is essential to salvation._ For one to be heralded abroad as a
+great preacher and theologian who yet denies the literal, real
+resurrection of the Saviour, cannot change God's word that all such
+are yet unredeemed, lost, not real Christians. God's word is plain on
+this point: "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and
+_shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead_,
+thou shalt be saved."--Rom. 10:9. "If Christ hath not been raised your
+faith is vain; _ye are yet in your sins_."--1 Cor. 15:17.
+
+Chalmers, the great Scotch preacher, in a letter to a friend made
+plain what believing on Christ means: "I must say that I never had so
+close and satisfactory a view of the gospel salvation, as when I have
+been led to contemplate it in the light of a simple offer on the one
+side, and a simple acceptance on the other. It is just saying to one
+and all of us, There is forgiveness through the blood of My Son: Take
+it, and whoever believes the reality of the offer takes it.... We are
+apt to stagger at the greatness of the unmerited offer and cannot
+attach faith to it till we have made up some title of our own. This
+leads to two mischievous consequences: It keeps alive the presumption
+of one class who will still be thinking that it is something in
+themselves and of themselves which confers upon them a right of
+salvation; and it confirms the melancholy of another class, who look
+into their own hearts and their own lives, and find that they cannot
+make out a shadow of a title to the divine favor. The error of both
+lies in their looking to themselves when they should be looking to the
+Saviour. 'Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the
+earth.'--Is. 45:22. The Son of man was so lifted up that whosoever
+believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John
+3:14, 15). It is your part simply to lay hold of the proffered boon.
+You are invited to do so; and you are entreated to do so; nay, what is
+more, you are commanded to do so. It is true, you are unworthy, and
+without holiness no man can see God; but be not afraid, only believe.
+You cannot get holiness of yourself, but Christ has undertaken to
+provide it for you. It is one of those spiritual blessings of which He
+has the dispensation, and which He has promised to all who believe in
+Him. God has promised that with His Son He will freely give you all
+things (Rom. 8:32); that He will walk in you, and dwell in you (2 Cor.
+6:16); that He will purify your heart by faith (Acts 15:9); that He
+will put His law in your mind and write it in your heart (Heb. 8:10).
+These are the effects of your believing in Christ, and not the
+services by which you become entitled to believe in Him. Make a clear
+outset in the business, and understand that your first step is simply
+confiding acceptance of an offer that is most free, most frank, most
+generous, and most unconditional. If I were to come as an accredited
+agent from the upper sanctuary with a letter of invitation to you,
+with your name and address on it, you would not doubt your warrant to
+accept it. Well, here is the Bible, your invitation to come to Christ.
+It does not bear your name and address, but it says 'Whosoever,' that
+takes you in; it says 'all,' that takes you in; it says 'if any,' that
+takes you in. What can be surer or freer than that?"
+
+Equally helpful are the words of Horatius Bonar in "Words for the
+Inquiring":--"If you object that you cannot believe, then this
+indicates that you are proceeding quite in a wrong direction. You are
+still laboring under the idea that this believing is a work to be done
+by you, and not the acknowledgment of a work done by another. You
+would fain do something in order to get peace, and you think that if
+you could do this great thing 'believing,' if you could but perform
+this great act called faith, God would at once reward you by giving
+you peace. Thus faith is reckoned by you to be the price, in the
+sinner's hand, by which he buys peace, and not the mere holding out of
+the hand to get a peace which has already been bought by another. So
+long as you are attaching any meritorious importance to faith, however
+unconsciously, you are moving in a wrong direction--a direction from
+which no peace can come. Surely faith is not a work. On the contrary,
+it is a ceasing from work. It is not a climbing of the mountain, but a
+ceasing to attempt it, and allowing Christ to carry you up in His own
+arms. You seem to think that it is your act of faith that is to save
+you, and not the object of your faith, without which your act, however
+well performed, is nothing. Accordingly, you bethink yourself, and
+say, 'What a mighty work is this believing--what an effort does it
+require on my part--how am I to perform it?' Herein you sadly err, and
+your mistake lies chiefly here, in supposing that your peace is to
+come from the proper performance on your part of an act of faith;
+whereas, it is to come entirely from the proper perception of Him to
+whom the Father is pointing your eyes, and in regard to whom He is
+saying, 'Behold my servant whom I have chosen, look at Him, forget
+everything else--everything about yourself, your own faith, your own
+repentance, your own feelings--and look at Him! It is in Him, not out
+of your poor act of faith, that salvation lies; and out of Him, not
+out of your own act of faith, is peace to come.' Thus mistaking the
+meaning of faith and the way which faith saves you, you get into
+confusion, and mistake everything else connected with your peace: you
+mistake the real nature of that very inability to believe of which you
+complain so sadly. For that inability does not lie, as you fancy it
+does, in the impossibility of your performing aright the great act of
+faith, but of ceasing from all such self-righteous attempts to perform
+any act, or do any work whatsoever in order to your being saved. So
+that the real truth is, that you have not yet seen such a sufficiency
+in the one great work of the Son of God upon the cross, as to lead you
+utterly to discontinue your mistaken and aimless efforts to work out
+something of your own.
+
+"But perhaps you may object further, that you are not satisfied with
+your faith. No, truly, nor are you ever likely to be. If you wait for
+this before you take peace, you will wait till life is done. Not
+satisfaction with your own faith, but satisfaction with Jesus and His
+work, this is what God presses on you. You say, 'I am satisfied with
+Christ.' Are you? What more, then, do you wish? Is not satisfaction
+with Christ enough for you, or for every sinner? Nay, and is not this
+the truest kind of faith? To be _satisfied with Christ_, that is faith
+in Christ. To be satisfied with His blood, that is faith. What more
+could you have? Can your faith give you something which Christ cannot?
+Or will Christ give you nothing till you can produce faith of a
+certain kind and quality, whose excellences will entitle you to
+blessing? Do not bewilder yourself. Do not suppose that your faith is
+a price, or a bribe, or a merit. Is not the very essence of real faith
+just your being satisfied with Christ? Are you really satisfied with
+Him and with what He has done? Then do not puzzle yourself about your
+faith, but go on your way rejoicing, having thus been brought to be
+satisfied with Him who to know is peace, and life, and salvation....
+Faith, however perfect, has of itself nothing to give you either of
+pardon or of life. Its finger points you to Jesus. Its voice bids you
+look straight to Him. Its object is to turn away from itself and from
+yourself altogether, that you may behold Him, and in beholding Him be
+satisfied with Him and in being satisfied with Him have joy and
+peace."
+
+Likewise James Denny, in "The Death of Christ," teaches the same
+lesson: "It is this great Gospel which is the gospel to win
+souls--this message of a sin-bearing, sin-expiating love which pleads
+for acceptance, which takes the whole responsibility of the sinner,
+unconditionally, with no preliminaries, if only he abandon himself to
+it."
+
+A young person who felt that his time in this world was short, wrote
+to an eminent English preacher to write and tell a sinner what he must
+do to prepare to die--what is the preparation required by God--and
+when he is fit to die. The preacher wrote: "I urge you to cast
+yourself at once, in the simplest faith, upon the Lord Jesus Christ
+and you shall be saved. All your true preparation for death is
+entirely out of yourself and in the Lord Jesus. Washed in His blood,
+and clothed upon with His righteousness, you may appear before God
+divinely, fully, freely and forever accepted. The salvation of the
+chief of sinners is all prepared, finished and complete in Christ
+(Eph. 1:6; Col. 2:10). Again I repeat, your eye of faith must now be
+directed entirely out of and from yourself, to Jesus. Beware of
+looking for any preparation to meet death _in yourself_. It is _all in
+Christ_. God does not accept you on the ground of a broken heart, or a
+clean heart, or a praying heart, or a believing heart. He accepts you
+wholly and entirely on the ground of the atonement of His blessed Son.
+Cast yourself in child-like faith upon that atonement--'Christ dying
+for the ungodly' (Rom. 5:6)--and you are saved! Justification is this,
+a poor law-condemned, self-condemned, self-destroyed sinner, wrapping
+himself by faith in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, which
+is unto all them that believe (Rom. 3:22). He, then, is justified and
+is prepared to die, and he only, who casts from him the garment of his
+own righteousness and runs unto this blessed city of Refuge--the Lord
+Jesus--and hides himself there--exclaiming, 'There is therefore now no
+condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus' (Rom. 8:1). God is
+prepared to accept you in His blessed Son, and for His sake He will
+cast all your sins behind His back, and take you to glory when you
+die. Never was Jesus known to reject a poor sinner that came to Him
+empty and with nothing to pay. God will glorify His free grace by your
+salvation, and will therefore save you just as you are, without money
+and without price (Is. 55:1). I close with Paul's reply to the anxious
+jailor, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved' (Acts
+16:31). No matter what you have been, or what you are, plunged into
+the fountain opened for sin, and for uncleanness (Zech. 13:1), and you
+shall be clean, 'washed whiter than snow' (Ps. 51:7). Heed no
+suggestion of Satan, or of unbelief; cast yourself at the feet of
+Jesus, and if you perish, perish there! Oh, no! Perish you never will,
+for He hath said, 'Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out'
+(John 6:37). 'Come unto me' (Matt. 11:28) is His blessed invitation;
+let your reply be, 'Lord, I come! I come! I come! I entwine my feeble,
+trembling arms of faith around Thy cross, around Thyself, and if I
+die, I will die cleaving, clinging, looking unto Thee!' So act and
+believe and you need not fear to die. Looking at the Saviour in the
+face, you can look at death in the face, exclaiming with good old
+Simeon, 'Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace; for mine
+eyes have seen thy salvation' (Luke 2:29). May we through rich, free
+and sovereign grace, meet in Heaven, and unite in exclaiming, 'worthy
+is the Lamb, for he was slain for us' (Rev. 5:12)."
+
+    "Until I saw the blood 'twas Hell my soul was fearing;
+    And dark and dreary in my eyes the future was appearing,
+    While conscience told its tale of sin
+    And caused a weight of woe within.
+
+    "But when I saw the blood, and looked at Him who shed it,
+    My right to peace was seen at once, and I with transport read it,
+    I found myself to God brought nigh
+    And 'Victory' became my cry.
+
+    "My joy was in the blood, the news of which had told me,
+    That spotless as the lamb of God, my Father could behold me.
+    And all my boast was in His name
+    Through whom this great salvation came."
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+ETERNAL LIFE THE PRESENT POSSESSION OF THE BELIEVER
+
+     "Ye are not under the law."--Rom. 6:14.
+
+     "Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."--Gal.
+     3:26.
+
+     "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God."--1
+     John 5:1.
+
+     "By grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of
+     yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any one
+     should boast."--Eph. 2:8, 9 (1911 Bible and R. V.)
+
+     "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life."--John 3:36.
+
+     "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and
+     believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not
+     come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life."--John
+     5:24.
+
+     "God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He
+     that hath the Son hath the life."--1 John 5:11, 12.
+
+
+It is an awe-inspiring thought, a wonderful, blessed reality, that
+every real believer on the Lord Jesus has, here and now, _eternal
+life_, not simply the promise of it, but the eternal life itself. The
+human mind cannot fully take it in, that every man, the moment he is
+redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), redeemed from all
+iniquity (Titus 2:14), redeemed from under the law (Rom. 6:14), and
+adopted as a child of God (Gal. 4:4-7), has then and there
+_everlasting life_ (John 5:24), a new life that is never, never to
+end; a life that will outlast the stars; a life that he will be
+consciously enjoying when all the stars shall have burnt out. And yet
+when such a life is offered as a gift ("I give unto them eternal life,
+and they shall never perish,"--John 10:28) many men will not repent
+and accept the gift. Religious prejudice, pride, secret sin, love of
+the world,--for what puny trifles do men turn from the greatest of all
+gifts, the greatest of all blessings, eternal life! Reader, will you
+be among the number who make this foolish, this fatal mistake?
+
+But with some the greatness of this gift, and its blessed reality, are
+obscured by the teaching that the believer on Christ has not
+everlasting life _now_, but only the _promise_ of it. When God's word
+tells us that the redeemed one, the believer on Christ, is not under
+the law (Rom. 6:14), is a child of God (Gal. 3:26), _has been_ saved
+(Eph. 2:8, 9, 1911 Bible and R. V.), not _will be_ saved, it would be
+strange that, after all, the believer should have only a promise for
+the beyond and no reality here and now. But God's word goes further
+and says, "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ _is born of
+God_."--1 John 5:1. _There cannot be birth without new life._ It is
+not the old life; that would mean no birth. If, then, the new life is
+not _eternal_ life, _what life is it_?
+
+If language can be made to mean anything, God's word makes it plain
+that every redeemed man, every believer on Christ, has _here and now_,
+eternal life; for God's word tells us, not only that "by grace _have
+ye been saved_" (Eph. 2:8, 9, 1911 Bible and R. V.), but it states
+plainly, "he that believeth on the Son _hath_ everlasting life" (John
+3:36); "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and
+believeth on him that sent me, _hath_ everlasting life and shall not
+come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life."--John
+5:24. That God's word does not mean that the believer on Christ has
+simply the _promise_ of everlasting life, but that he really has the
+everlasting life, notice John 5:24, "_Hath_ everlasting life and shall
+not come into condemnation, but _is passed_ [here and now] from death
+unto life." The Revised Version (the more exact translation) makes it
+much stronger,--"_hath passed_ out of death _into life_." What life,
+if not eternal life? Before this plain, positive statement of God's
+word, the mere promise of eternal life theory cannot stand. But the
+fact that the believer on Christ really has now eternal life, is made
+plain by other Scriptures. "Whosoever hateth his brother is a
+murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life _abiding in
+him_."--1 John 3:15. Here we are shown that when one "hath eternal
+life" it is "eternal life _abiding in him_"; for there would be no
+meaning to the language if no one has eternal life abiding in him.
+Again, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the
+Son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth
+my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life."--John 6:53, 54.
+The Saviour had just taught in verse 35 what eating His flesh and
+drinking His blood meant: "I am the bread of life; he that cometh to
+me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never
+thirst." Here in verses 53, 54, the Saviour shows clearly that the
+eternal life that the believer on Him "_hath_" is "_in_" you--here and
+now.
+
+Let the unredeemed reader pause: in a moment, here and now, he can
+have _everlasting life_ with God's assurance that he "shall never
+perish" ("I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never
+perish."--John 10:28). It is a tremendous decision, and it may prove
+to be a fatal one, to turn away and not believe on Christ and have as
+a present possession eternal life. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he
+that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, _hath
+everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed
+from death unto life_."--John 5:24.
+
+_FOR FURTHER STUDY_:--Some who believe that the redeemed have only the
+_promise_ of eternal life, but that they have not eternal life, as a
+real present possession, base this belief on such Scriptures as, "In
+hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the
+world began" (Titus 1:2), in connection with, "Hope that is seen is
+not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we
+hope for what we see not, then do we with patience wait for it."--Rom.
+8:24, 25. Their thought is, if we live "in hope of eternal life," then
+we have not really eternal life as a present possession; that we
+cannot hope for what we already have. But Jesus said positively that
+the believer "_hath passed out_ of death _into_ life" (John 5:24, R.
+V.), and He contrasts the one who "_hath_ eternal life" with those to
+whom He says, "Ye have no life _in you_." A man can have eternal life
+here, and at the same time hope for it beyond the grave. A man has his
+wife and children _now_, and _hopes_ to have them next year; a man
+away from wife and children has his life _now_; and yet he lives in
+hope of his life (the same life, that part of it not yet lived) with
+his wife and children a month from now; an exile from home has his
+life now; yet lives in hope of his life (the same life, that part of
+it not yet lived) in his native land a year from now. So, the child
+of God's, the redeemed man's, citizenship is in Heaven (Phil. 3:20);
+he lives in hope of eternal life there; yet it is the same eternal
+life (that part of it not lived) that he has here and now.
+
+Another cause of stumbling at eternal life being now the actual
+possession of the redeemed man, is that many who claimed to have had
+eternal life, also claim to have lost it; and if it had been actually
+_eternal_ life it could not have stopped; for then eternal would not
+be really eternal; hence, it must have been simply the _promise_ of
+eternal life that they had, and they therefore only lost the _promise_
+and not really eternal life itself. But Jesus, foreseeing this class
+of professing Christians, said that they were never really redeemed,
+never really had eternal life: "Many will say to me in that day, Lord,
+Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast
+out demons? and in thy name done many wonderful works? and then will I
+profess unto them, I never knew you,"--Matt. 7:22, 23, not "you were
+redeemed, you did have eternal life, but you lost it; it stopped"; but
+"I never knew you," and John teaches the same thing in 1 John 2:19,
+"They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been
+of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they
+might be made manifest that they all are not of us." (R. V.)
+
+"There is no such thing as partly saved and partly lost; partly
+justified and partly guilty; partly alive and partly dead; partly born
+of God and partly not. There are but two states, and we must be in
+either the one or the other."--_Wm. Reid, in "The Blood of Jesus."_
+
+To many earnest men it seems dangerous to teach men that when they are
+redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), and adopted as God's
+children (Gal. 4:3-7), they then really have as an actual possession
+_eternal_ life, and that they shall never perish, "_hath_ everlasting
+life, and shall not come unto condemnation,"--John 5:24; "I give unto
+them _eternal_ life, and they shall never perish,"--John 10:28; they
+think that such a belief will be a temptation to sin; that it is
+liable to lead to presumptuous, wilful sinning. They think it much
+safer for men to believe that they have not really the eternal life
+itself as an actual present possession, but only the promise of it;
+and that by their sinning hereafter they may forfeit that promise and
+be lost. They think that this fear of being lost will act as a check,
+a safeguard, a restraining power. To the extent that it does, it
+produces service from the motive of fear of Hell, fear of losing
+Heaven, and not from the motive of love to Christ for having redeemed
+them from all iniquity (Titus 2:14). But God's word on this point is
+clear: "The love of Christ [_not_ the fear of Hell, nor the fear of
+losing Heaven] constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one
+died for all, then all died; and he died for all that they who live
+should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died for
+them, and rose again."--2 Cor. 5:14, 15.
+
+The teaching that the redeemed, saved man has now eternal life and
+shall never perish, will lead to wilful, presumptuous sinning on the
+part of hypocrites, and may lead to indifference and sin on the part
+of those who honestly think they are redeemed, saved, but who really
+are not; for such are not born again (1 Peter 1:23), and have not the
+motive power of love, because really redeemed, prompting their action.
+
+Those who think it is dangerous to teach a redeemed (1 Peter 1:18,
+19), saved (Eph. 2:8, R. V.) man, a child of God (Gal. 4:4-7), that he
+has here and now, as an actual possession, eternal life, and shall
+never perish (John 10:28), shall not come into condemnation (John
+5:24), lose sight of five facts in _God's plan with men_:--
+
+First, the redeemed man is born again, born of God, "Whosoever
+believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God."--1 John 5:1.
+"Therefore if any one is in Christ he is a new creature."--2 Cor.
+5:17. This is not a mere theory. All down the centuries since the
+Saviour came, there have been multitudes of notable cases where
+hardened men and women, deep down in sin, have actually become new
+creatures by being redeemed and being born again. Many are now living,
+whose names could be given, who are widely known, who were once
+notorious in sin, and they are now willingly and gladly wearing out
+their lives in God's service, and are living godly lives: and this
+change came in their lives, not by a gradual process, but in a moment.
+God's word says it is a new birth. There is no other explanation. But
+every one who is redeemed is thus born of God (1 John 5:1), and this
+new nature will lead one to hate sin, and prompt to a godly life.
+
+Second, the redeemed man is under the new motive of love to Christ
+("if ye love me, keep my commandments,"--John 14:15) to prompt him to
+a faithful Christian life. On this point James Denny in "The Death of
+Christ" says, "The love which is the motive of it acts immediately
+upon the sinful; gratitude exerts an irresistible constraint; His
+responsibility means our emancipation; His death, our life; His
+bleeding wound, our healing. Whoever says, 'He bore our sins,' says
+substitution; and to say substitution is to say something which
+involves an immeasurable obligation to Christ, and _has therefore in
+it an incalculable motive power_." Let the reader note well, that the
+purpose of God in saving men through Christ dying of their sins (1
+Cor. 15:3) is to _purify the motive power_ and _make it effective_.
+"He died for all, that they who live should not henceforth live _unto
+themselves_, but _unto him_."--2 Cor. 5:15.
+
+When men live in order that they may retain the promise of eternal
+life, that they may attain eternal life hereafter, from fear lest they
+should forfeit the promise and not attain eternal life hereafter, they
+"live unto themselves." When men live because they already have as an
+actual possession, eternal life, and realize that it is eternal, they
+live from love, and not unto themselves but "_unto Him_."
+
+And God's plan is effective. "The love of Christ constraineth us" (2
+Cor. 5:14), _it does constrain_. Hence, Jesus says, "if a man love me,
+_he will_ keep my words."--John 14:23. Again, "If God were your Father
+_ye would_ love me."--John 8:42. So important is this fact of the new
+motive power and its effectiveness, that the reader's attention will
+now be directed to the words of James Denny in "The Death of Christ"
+on this subject. That the reader may the better appreciate these
+words, his attention is first called to the estimates of Denny's great
+work by two of the leading religious editors of the world. The
+_Pittsburg Christian Advocate_: "To thoughtful students 'The Death of
+Christ' came as one of the most stirring books of the decade if not of
+the generation." The _New York Examiner_: "The most important
+contribution to the all-important doctrine of the atonement since the
+appearance of Dr. Dale's epoch-making book.... Exegetically
+considered, it is the most important book published within the memory
+of the younger generation of preachers." On the death of Christ for
+our sins (1 Cor. 15:3) being the motive power in the Christian life,
+and its being effective, Denny says: "The problem before us is to
+discover what it is in the death of Christ which gives it its power to
+generate such experience, to exercise on human hearts the constraining
+influence of which the apostle speaks; and this is precisely what we
+discover, in the inferential clause; 'so then all died.' This clause
+puts as plainly as it can be put the idea that His death was
+equivalent to the death of all; in other words, it was the death of
+all men which was died by Him."... "Their relation to God is not
+determined now _in the very least by sin or law_: it is determined by
+Christ, the propitiation, and by faith. The position of the believer
+is not that of one trembling at the judgment seat, or of one for whom
+everything remains somehow in a condition of suspense; it is that of
+one who has the assurance of a Divine love which has gone deeper than
+all his sins, and has taken on itself the _responsibility of them_,
+and _the responsibility of delivering him from them_."... "Take away
+the certainty of it and the New Testament temper expires. Joy in this
+certainty is not presumption; on the contrary, it is joy in the Lord,
+and such joy is the Christian's strength. It is the impulse and the
+hope of sanctification; and to deprecate it, and the assurance from
+which it springs, is no true evangelical humility, but a failure to
+believe in the infinite goodness of God who in Christ removes our sins
+from us as far as the east is from the west, and plants our life in
+His eternal reconciling love."... "An absolute justification is needed
+to give the sinner a start. He must have the certainty of 'no
+condemnation' of being, without reserve or drawback, right with God
+through God's gracious act in Christ, before he can begin to live the
+new life."... "_It is not by denying the gospel outright, from the
+very beginning, that we are to guard against the possible abuse of
+it._"... "To try to take some preliminary security from the sinner's
+future morality before you make the gospel available for him, is not
+only to strike at the root of assurance, it is to pay a very poor
+tribute to the power of the gospel. The truth is, morality is best
+guaranteed by Christ, and not by any precautions we can take before
+Christ gets a chance, or by any virtue that is in faith except as it
+unites the soul to Him."... "If it is our death that Christ died on
+the cross, there is in the cross the constraint of an infinite love;
+but if it is not our death at all--if it is not our burden and doom
+that He has taken on Himself there, then what is it to us?"... "He
+who has done so tremendous a thing as to take our death to Himself has
+established a claim upon our life. We are not in the sphere of
+mystical union, of dying with Christ and living with Him; but in that
+of love transcendently shown, and of gratitude profoundly felt."...
+"But this can only come on the foundation of the other; it is the
+discharge from the responsibilities of sin involved in Christ's death
+and appropriated in faith, which is the motive power in the daily
+ethical dying to sin."... "The new life springs out of the sense of
+debt to Christ."... "It is the knowledge that we have been bought with
+a price which makes us cease to be our own, and live for Him who so
+dearly bought us."... "But when its certainty, completeness, and
+freeness are so qualified or disguised that assurance becomes suspect
+and joy is quenched, the Christian religion has ceased to be."...
+"This is why St. Paul is not afraid to trust the new life to its own
+resources, and why he objects equally to supplanting it by legal
+regulations afterwards, or by what are supposed to be ethical
+securities beforehand. It does not need them, and is bound to repel
+them as dishonoring to Christ. To demand moral guarantees from a
+sinner before you give him the benefit of the atonement, or to impose
+legal restrictions on him after he has yielded to its appeal, and
+received it through faith, is to make the atonement itself of no
+effect."... "In any case, I do not hesitate to say that the sense of
+debt to Christ is the most profound and pervasive of all emotions in
+the New Testament, and that only a gospel which evokes this, as the
+gospel of atonement does, is true to primitive and normal
+Christianity."
+
+Let the reader consider two statements just here from another great
+work, concerning the effectiveness of love as the motive power in the
+redeemed man's life (in the writer's judgment no greater work,
+excepting the gospel of John [John 20:30, 31], has ever been written
+for honest sceptics, than Walker's "Philosophy of the Plan of
+Salvation"). "Just in proportion as the soul feels its lost, guilty
+and dangerous condition, in the same proportion will it exercise love
+to the being who grants spiritual favor and salvation."... "It may be
+affirmed, without hesitancy, that it would be impossible for the human
+soul to exercise full faith in the testimony that it was a guilty and
+needy creature, condemned by the holy law of a holy God, and that from
+this condition of spiritual guilt and danger Jesus Christ suffered and
+died to accomplish its ransom,--we say, a human being could not
+exercise full faith in these truths and not love the Saviour."
+
+Third, those who fear that if redeemed men, God's children, are taught
+that they have, here and now, eternal life as an actual present
+possession, and that it is eternal, it will be liable to lead them
+into presumptuous, wilful sin, lose sight of a third fact. The
+redeemed man, the real child of God, can be tempted, can be led into
+sin, and some of them do become backsliders, but God's word teaches
+that they will be chastised in this life. Let the reader turn back and
+read Chapter V. Two Scriptures there quoted make plain the chastening
+of God's disobedient children: "Also I will make him my firstborn,
+higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him
+forevermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also
+will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven.
+If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments, if they
+break my statutes and keep not my commandments, then will I visit
+their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes.
+Nevertheless, my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor
+suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor
+alter the thing that is gone out of my lips."--Ps. 89:27-34. Equally
+explicit is the New Testament: "Ye have forgotten the exhortation
+which speaketh unto you as unto sons. My son, despise not thou the
+chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him; for
+whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he
+receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons;
+for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be
+without chastening, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards
+and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, who
+corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be
+in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they verily for a
+few days chastened us as seemed right to them; but he for our profit,
+_that we might be partakers of his holiness_. Now no chastening for
+the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless
+afterwards it _yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness_ unto
+them that are exercised thereby."--Heb. 12:5-11. So that, the
+disobedient child of God will suffer for his sins, not in Hell, but in
+this life; and not as a just penalty for violated law, for he is not
+under the law ("Ye are not under the law,"--Rom. 6:14), but as
+chastening, for correction. It is not a theory merely, for God's word
+declares that God's plan works--"It yieldeth the peaceable fruit of
+righteousness."
+
+Fourth, those who fear that teaching redeemed men, God's children,
+that they have, as a present possession, eternal life and not simply
+the promise of it, and who think that the safer course is to teach
+them that they have only the promise of eternal life and may forfeit
+it by unfaithfulness, lose sight of another fact, that the unfaithful
+redeemed one will lose his reward. Let the reader turn back and read
+Chapter VI. The Scripture teaching is plain, "If any man's work abide
+which he has built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's
+work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be
+saved, yet so as through fire."--1 Cor. 3:14, 15. He loses his reward
+who is unfaithful, but not his eternal life, because it is eternal,
+and because he has been redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14).
+
+Fifth, those who, knowing that the redeemed man could not lose his
+eternal life, if he has it as a present possession, because it is
+eternal, believe that the redeemed have not really eternal life but
+only the promise of it and may forfeit the promise by unfaithfulness,
+and that it is dangerous to teach the redeemed that they really have
+eternal life because it might lead to wilful, presumptuous sin, lose
+sight of a fifth fact, that the child of God is not only redeemed
+from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), redeemed from under the law
+(Rom. 6:14), adopted as a child of God because redeemed from the law
+(Gal. 4:4-7), but that being redeemed, he is redeemed _from all
+iniquity_ ("Our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he
+might _redeem us from all iniquity_."--Titus 2:13, 14). How can God,
+because He is just, let the redeemed man, if he is redeemed _from all
+iniquity_, be lost? "A young minister was in the habit of visiting an
+aged Scotch woman in his congregation who was familiarly called 'Old
+Nanny.' She was bed-ridden and rapidly approaching the end of her
+'long and weary pilgrimage,' but she rested with undisturbed composure
+and full assurance of faith upon the finished work of Christ. One day
+he said to her, 'Now, Nanny, what if, after all your confidence in the
+Saviour and your watching and waiting, God should suffer your soul to
+be lost?' Raising herself on her elbow, and turning to him with a look
+of grief and pain, she laid her hand on the open Bible before her, and
+quietly replied, 'Ah, dearie me, is that the length you hae got yet,
+mon? God,' she continued earnestly, 'would hae the greatest loss. Poor
+Nannie would lose her soul, and that would be a great loss indeed; but
+God would lose His _honor_ and His _character_. Haven't I hung my soul
+upon His "exceeding great and precious promise"? and if He would break
+His word He would make Himself a liar, _and a' the universe would rush
+into confusion_.' This anecdote reveals the true ground of the
+believer's safety. It is as high as the honor of God; it is as
+trustworthy as His character; it is as immutable as His promises; it
+is as broad as the infinite merit of His Son's atoning blood."--_J. H.
+Brookes, in "The Way Made Plain."_
+
+If God, "that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth
+in Jesus" (Rom. 3:26), set forth Jesus Christ as a propitiation
+through faith in his blood (Rom. 3:25), and then should let one be
+lost who had been redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), would He
+not be as unjust in so doing as He would have been had He justified
+sinners without Christ dying for their sins (1 Cor. 15:3)?
+
+The blessed fact that the redeemed have as a present possession, here
+and now, eternal life, and that it is eternal, makes manifest another
+fact, that the redeemed are not unconscious, virtually out of
+existence, from death till the resurrection. The new life is eternal;
+it continues without cessation or intermission. Their bodies fall
+asleep; but their souls are still in conscious existence; it is
+_eternal life_. Paul makes this fact clear: "Whilst present in the
+body, we are absent from the Lord." "We are confident, I say, and well
+pleased rather to be absent from the body, and present with the
+Lord."--2 Cor. 5:6, 8. The same conscious life continues; it is
+eternal life. Again he makes it clear: "I am in a strait betwixt the
+two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far
+better: nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful on your
+account."--Phil. 1:23, 24. The same conscious life continues, the
+eternal life. To depart and to be with Christ he says "_is far
+better_." But even this is not the perfect state. It is the soul
+without the body, enjoying eternal life with Christ. But God's
+perfect being is a being of redeemed soul and redeemed body enjoying
+the reward of its labor. The body will not be redeemed until the
+resurrection (Rom. 8:23; 1 Cor. 15:42); and the soul, though enjoying
+eternal life and with Christ (Phil. 1:23) will receive no reward until
+the resurrection,--"Thou shalt be _recompensed at the resurrection of
+the just_."--Luke 14:14.
+
+Paul further makes clear the distinction between the body sleeping and
+the soul not sleeping, because it has eternal life and is with Christ:
+"If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that
+sleep in Jesus _will God bring with him_."--1 Thess. 4:14. Their
+bodies are asleep; their souls are "absent from the body and present
+with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:8); but at the resurrection of their bodies,
+these "will God bring with him." Then, "at the resurrection of the
+just" (Luke 14:14) will "each man receive his own reward according to
+his own labor."--1 Cor. 3:8. Let this blessed teaching be a comfort to
+some hearts: the redeemed loved ones who have died are "present with
+the Lord" which "is far better." Then it is cruel selfishness to wish
+them back.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+DEVELOPMENT OF CHARACTER IN THE REDEEMED
+
+     "_The God of Jacob_ is our refuge."--Ps. 46:7.
+
+     "Happy is he that hath _the God of Jacob_ for his help."--Ps.
+     146:5.
+
+     "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of
+     gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found
+     unto praise, and honor, and glory at the appearing of Jesus
+     Christ."--1 Peter 1:7.
+
+     "Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and
+     entire, wanting nothing."--James 1:14.
+
+     "And we know that _all things_ work together for good to them that
+     love God, to those who are the called according to his
+     purpose."--Rom. 8:28.
+
+
+"The God of Jacob!" Not the God of Israel. Wonderful God! Blessed
+assurance, that "_the God of Jacob_ is our refuge,"--the God who saves
+the man without character, irrespective of character,--makes of
+him,--Israel. Jacob, the supplanter, the trickster, the weak
+character, the warped character, the sinner, God takes, and through
+trials, tests, develops him and makes of him Israel,--a prince of God.
+That is _God's plan with men_. Consider it.
+
+There are two theories, the poles apart. The one is, salvation by
+character; that by acquiring a suitable character, by developing the
+right kind of a character, man can be saved, can go to Heaven; that
+one's character, if of the proper kind, entitles him to Heaven; that
+if one has lived right, he will go to Heaven. The other theory is,
+that God by grace, pure unmerited favor, saves irrespective of
+character. It is a tremendous issue. It is vital; one or the other is
+fatal. If those who hold one theory go to Heaven, all who hold to the
+other will be lost, will go to Hell. We would as well face the issue.
+They are two widely different ways of salvation, and God has but one.
+Jesus said, "_I am the way_" (John 14:6), not one way, _The Way_. And
+He leaves no possible ground for misunderstanding the meaning, "No man
+cometh unto the Father, but by me."--John 14:6. Either, then, He is
+_the only way_, or He was the vilest deceiver the world ever knew, or
+He was a simple-minded, ignorant fanatic, who honestly thought Himself
+"The Way" when He was not.
+
+Against this theory of salvation by character there are four serious,
+fatal charges:--
+
+First, it is utterly cruel, heartless and selfish. It is cruel,
+because to the weakest, most needy, most helpless class, the vast body
+of men, born of vicious, debased parents, reared amidst vice and sin,
+weakened by appetite and tied by habit, it does not give one-millionth
+the chance to be saved, to go to Heaven, that men have who were born
+of noble, godly parents, reared amidst moral, uplifting surroundings,
+and strengthened by noble aspirations and splendid training. Stand
+before you two young men representing these two classes, and tell them
+of life beyond this life, and of Heaven; and then tell them of
+salvation by character. To the one it would mean a bright, hopeful
+anticipation; to the other, it would mean but taunting him with his
+hopeless condition and prodding him with despair.
+
+The theory of salvation by character is heartless, because, wrapt in
+the robe of its own self-righteousness, it coolly condemns to hopeless
+despair a vast body of the human race. Go stand by the helpless,
+hopeless drunkard, and the drunken, sinful woman, and tell them of
+salvation by character, and hear the sob of despair or see the jeering
+look on their faces at the thought of salvation by character for such
+as they! Before a pastors' conference, the polished, brilliant, highly
+educated pastor of a wealthy, refined, intellectual congregation read
+a seemingly learned paper on "Salvation by Character." When he had
+finished reading the paper, some of his fellow-pastors endorsed the
+paper and gave it high praise. Finally, the pastor of a people who had
+been unfortunate in life, many of whom had gone far down in sin, and
+were fettered by habit, arose and said, "Brother Moderator, the
+brother has given us his wonderful paper on salvation by character. I
+would like to ask him, what would he preach if he were the pastor of a
+people who have no character?" The author of the paper arose and made
+the heartless reply, "Brother Moderator, my brother and I have been
+raised in such different intellectual atmospheres, that I don't
+suppose I could make it plain to my brother." The other replied, "That
+is doubtless true, Brother Moderator; but the trouble is, that he can
+never make it plain to any one else."
+
+It is selfish, because those who teach this theory are generally men
+of intelligence, refinement, and are considered, and they consider
+themselves, men of moral character. They thus provide for themselves
+by their theory, but leave a vast body of the race with a very slight
+hope or with no hope whatever.
+
+The second charge against those who hold this theory is that by their
+own theory none will be saved. If salvation is by character, by what
+kind of character, a perfect character, or an imperfect character? If
+by a perfect character, no one has it; no one even claims it. If by an
+imperfect character, how imperfect may it be and the man yet be saved?
+Where is the standard? If a man's character, in order to be saved by
+it, must be the best he can make it, no one has even that
+character,--no one's character is the best he could have made it.
+Hence, salvation by character is a chimera.
+
+The third charge against salvation by character is, that even if a
+man's character were perfect from man's standpoint, in the sight of
+God his character would still be corrupt. "All our righteousnesses are
+as filthy rags."--Is. 64:6. Why? Because motive is the measure of the
+character. "They that are in the flesh cannot please God."--Rom. 8:8.
+Why? Because they have not, and cannot have, the right motive. "Though
+I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am
+become as sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the
+gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and
+though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have
+not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the
+poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it
+profiteth me nothing."--1 Cor. 13:1-3. And no man has this love, no
+man can have this love, until he is saved by Christ dying for his
+sins (1 Cor. 15:3). "The love of Christ constraineth us; because we
+thus judge, that if one died for all, then all died; and he died for
+all, that they who live should not henceforth live unto themselves,
+but unto him who died for them, and rose again."--2 Cor. 5:14, 15.
+
+The fourth serious, fatal charge against the theory of salvation by
+character is that it is contrary to the teaching of the Saviour.
+"Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and
+the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you."--Matt. 21:31.
+Certain it is that the publicans and the harlots had worse characters
+than those to whom the Saviour was speaking; the fact is therefore
+evident that Jesus taught salvation without character, irrespective of
+character.
+
+Let the reader consider two cases that will show conclusively that the
+teaching of salvation by character is absolutely contrary to the
+teaching of the Saviour. "The chief priest, mocking him, with the
+scribes and elders, said: He saved others; himself he cannot save. If
+he is the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we
+will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he
+will have him; for he said, I am the Son of God. The thieves also that
+were with him, cast the same in his teeth."--Matt. 27:41-44. Let the
+reader notice that both the thieves "that were with him, cast the same
+in his teeth." Then "one of the malefactors that were hanged railed on
+him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other
+answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou
+art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the
+due reward of our deeds; but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he
+said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
+And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be
+with me in Paradise."--Luke 23:39-43. From the time that both thieves
+"cast the same in his teeth," to the time the one made his earnest
+plea, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom," there had
+been no time in which this thief could have formed, developed a
+character that merited salvation. Hence, when Jesus said, "To-day
+shalt thou be with me in Paradise," to this thief, He branded the
+teaching of salvation by character as not from Heaven. The one who
+does not see from this case that the cruel, heartless, selfish
+teaching of salvation by character contradicts the Lord Jesus, will
+never see anything contrary to his own preferences and preconceived
+opinions.
+
+The second case is just as conclusive. As the Saviour was reclining at
+meat in the house of Simon the Pharisee, a woman, noted as a sinner,
+came in and stood behind him weeping. "And he said to the woman, Thy
+faith hath saved thee; go in peace."--Luke 7:50. The Saviour said the
+woman was saved, yet she was of notorious character,--she had no
+character.
+
+That the Saviour saved irrespective of character is shown by two cases
+in the book of Acts. We have the accounts of the salvation of two men
+of opposite characters. One was "A devout man, and one that feared
+God with all his house, who gave much alms to the people and prayed to
+God always,"--Acts 10:2, a man of most excellent character. Among all
+the unredeemed men of the earth, not one could show a better
+character. If any man could be saved by character, here is the man.
+God sends word to him, "Send to Joppa and call for Simon, whose
+surname is Peter, who shall tell the words whereby thou and all thy
+house shalt be saved."--Acts 11:13. Notwithstanding his noble, unusual
+character, God tells him that he is unsaved. If he, with his character
+unexcelled among unredeemed men, was yet unsaved, how can any other
+unredeemed man hope for salvation by character? Peter's message to
+this man of irreproachable character was, "To him give all the
+prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth on him
+shall receive remission of sins."--Acts 10:43. Why is it necessary for
+this man of character to believe on Christ in order to be saved?
+Because, though of unusual character, he had sinned, "for all have
+sinned" (Rom. 3:23); and sin once committed can only be atoned for by
+blood, "apart from shedding of blood there is no remission" (Heb.
+9:22), and there is no blood of atonement in a noble character.
+
+Over against this case is that of the Philippian jailor, a man of
+hardened character; for he took two helpless, bleeding preachers who
+had been beaten by a mob, and "thrust them into the inner prison, and
+made their feet fast in the stocks" (Acts 16:24), and left them with
+their backs bloody and gave them no supper. When the earthquake came
+and the doors were opened, the hardened jailor started to commit
+suicide. Paul having called to him and prevented the suicide, the
+jailor "came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and brought
+them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"--Acts 16:30. If
+ever a man should be told of salvation by character, here was the
+opportunity, that he might at once begin the tremendous and all but
+hopeless task of changing, so late in life, a hardened character into
+one that would enable him to merit Heaven. Instead, they said,
+"Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved."--Acts 16:31. How
+similar the answer to the instructions of Peter to Cornelius, and yet
+how widely different the characters of the two men! Why this
+similarity? Because God has but one way of salvation, and that is
+irrespective of character. "He gathereth together _the outcasts_ of
+Israel" (Ps. 147:2), the God of Jacob.
+
+While the Saviour saves without character, and irrespective of
+character, God the Father does not leave them without character, but
+develops in them the right kind of a character. The man redeemed,
+saved, without character, does not remain without character. "And such
+_were_ some of you" (1 Cor. 6:11), but they did not remain such
+characters,--but "sanctified, called to be saints."--1 Cor. 1:2.
+_God's plan with men_, then, is to save irrespective of character, and
+then develop in the redeemed, saved man a character that shall "be
+found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus
+Christ."--1 Peter 1:7.
+
+Three ways in which God develops character in the redeemed are:
+
+First, by purifying the _motive_ of the life. Character is not formed
+by deeds, but by the motives prompting the deeds. Two men flag the
+night express train on two railroads; the deeds are the same, but one
+flags the train that he may warn, and save the lives of the people,
+because a bridge has been destroyed; the other flags the train that he
+may rob it. While the deeds are the same, the character of the deeds
+is different, and that difference is in the motive prompting the deed,
+and that motive affects, moulds the character of the one who performs
+the deed. No deed is right in the sight of God that is not performed
+from the motive of love (1 Cor. 13:1-3); hence, no character can be
+right in the sight of God if the deeds that formed that character were
+not prompted by the motive of love. All deeds performed from simply
+the motive of duty, or from the desire to be saved, to go to Heaven
+after this life, or from fear of Hell, are, in the sight of God,
+unworthy deeds, and the characters formed by such deeds are unworthy
+characters. And the Saviour defines clearly what love is: "There was a
+certain creditor who had two debtors; the one owed five hundred pence,
+and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay he frankly
+forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him
+most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave
+most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged."--Luke 7:41-43.
+And John likewise defines love: "Herein is love, not that we loved
+God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for
+our sins."--1 John 4:10. This explains why God says: "They that are
+in the flesh cannot please God."--Rom. 8:8. Their motive is wrong and
+they cannot have the right motive, because they have not been
+"forgiven most." Hence all characters are wrong in the sight of God
+that were formed by deeds whose prompting motive was a simple sense of
+duty, a desire to be saved, to go to Heaven, or from fear of Hell. And
+all who have such a character are lost, have never been redeemed, are
+not real Christians.
+
+Second, God develops character in the redeemed, His real children, by
+chastisements. Our earthly fathers "verily for a few days chastened us
+as seemed right to them; but he for our profit, that we might be
+partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth
+to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the
+peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised
+thereby."--Heb. 12:10, 11.
+
+Third, God moulds the character of the redeemed by afflictions,
+burdens, sorrows, etc. "Our light affliction, which is but for a
+moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of
+glory."--2 Cor. 4:17. "Let patience have its perfect work, that ye may
+be mature and complete, lacking in nothing."--James 1:14.
+
+The shallow conception of _God's plan with men_ that makes it His
+ultimate purpose simply to save men, leaves the life of the redeemed
+man here on earth an unsolved riddle, often an inexplicable tragedy.
+The heartaches, the disasters, the burdens, the afflictions, the
+sorrows,--what of all these, when God assures us that "all things work
+together for good to those that love God, to those who are the called
+according to his purpose" (Rom. 8:28), if the ultimate purpose is
+simply salvation? "He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."
+The silver has been mined, digged from the earth, but there is dross
+in it. The redeemed have been redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal.
+3:13); have had the spirit sent into their hearts ("because ye are
+sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts,
+crying, Abba, Father,"--Gal. 4:6); but there are defects from
+heredity, from environment. The purifying process, the development of
+character, comes, not in order to be saved, but after we are saved,
+because we are saved.
+
+With God as the Father of the redeemed, many of the afflictions, and
+sorrows of real Christians can be accounted for as chastisements; many
+of the severe, heavy afflictions in the lives of real Christians can
+be accounted for in this way. "Ye have forgotten the exhortation which
+speaketh unto you as unto sons, My son, despise not thou the
+chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him; for
+whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and _scourgeth every son_ whom he
+receiveth."--Heb. 12:5, 6. Scourging is severe, yet God says it is for
+_every son_.
+
+But there are many, many trials, afflictions, burdens, sorrows, which
+cannot be explained by chastisements; for chastisements are for wilful
+sins of God's children: "If his children _forsake_ my law ... then
+will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with
+stripes."--Ps. 89:30-32. In the lives of many of the redeemed who are
+living obedient lives there are some of the most severe trials and
+afflictions. If God is their Father and loves them, what can these
+severe trials and afflictions mean?
+
+    "One adequate support
+    For the calamities of mortal life
+    Exists, one only,--an assured belief
+    That the procession of our fate, however
+    Sad or disturbed, is ordered by a being
+    Of Infinite benevolence and power,
+    Whose everlasting purposes embrace
+    All accidents, converting them into good."
+
+    Wordsworth.
+
+God Himself hath said it, "All things work together for good to those
+that love God, to those who are the called according to his
+purpose."--Rom. 8:28. Had God said, "Some things," what confusion
+would have come to many of God's children! What enigmas would many
+things in the lives of many of the redeemed have been! But when God
+said "All things," He placed a key in the hands of every redeemed man,
+every real child of His, with which to unlock the door of every
+mystery; that every trial, every disaster, every accident, every
+burden, every humiliation, every disappointment, every affliction,
+every sorrow,--"All things work together for good to those that love
+God, to those who are the called according to his purpose";--"that the
+trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that
+perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise,
+and honor, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ."--1 Peter 1:7.
+
+Muscles are developed by trials; minds are developed by trials; God's
+redeemed people are developed by trials. To murmur against one's
+trials after being redeemed, means to murmur against being developed
+for one's eternal destiny. To give the muscles no trials, means for
+the body never to be developed; to give the mind no trials, means for
+the mind never to be developed; to give the redeemed man no trials,
+means for his character never to be developed. Two children are born
+into the world. The father and mother of one decide that he shall
+never be required to do any unpleasant things; that he shall never
+have any hardships. The father and mother of the other decide to give
+their child every unpleasant thing to do, every hardship and burden to
+bear, that will best develop him in body and mind. Often the redeemed
+plead with their Father in Heaven to give them only pleasant things,
+and He, the All-wise, All-powerful, in love gives them--trials.
+
+The trials of life for the redeemed are so various. If the muscles
+have only one trial, the body will never be fully developed. The
+muscles need various trials. If the mind has only one trial, it will
+never be fully developed. If the mind studies only one thing, it will
+never be trained, developed, educated. If the soul has only one kind
+of trial, it will never be developed. "Count it all joy, my brethren,
+when ye fall into manifold temptations."--James 1:2 (R. V. Margin,
+trials).
+
+But the redeemed, the children of God, often complain that their
+trials are so hard. Easy trials do not develop. The one who takes only
+light exercises for his muscles will never be fully developed
+physically. The boy who works the easy examples and skips the hard
+ones, will never be an educated man; he will be only a "hewer of wood
+and drawer of water." It takes hard trials to develop the body
+properly. It takes hard trials of the mind to develop it properly. It
+takes hard trials to develop the soul properly; "That the trial of
+your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth,
+_though it be tried with fire_." He who asks for only easy trials of
+his muscles, asks to remain undeveloped physically; he who asks for
+easy trials of his mind, asks to remain undeveloped mentally; he who
+asks, yearns, to have no hard trials spiritually, yearns to remain
+undeveloped in real character, in his spiritual nature. The hard
+trials are the ones that develop. And the more one's muscles have been
+developed, the harder should be the trials for those muscles; the more
+one's mind is developed, the harder should be the trials for the mind;
+the more the redeemed man's spiritual nature is developed, the harder
+his trials will be.
+
+That would be an unwise educator who, after training the pupil's mind
+up through geometry, would then put him back to studying the simple
+branches of mathematics, instead of taking him on into higher
+mathematics. Likewise the Heavenly Father does not, after partly
+developing the redeemed, His children, by hard trials, return them to
+lives of easy trials, but He leads them into yet harder trials. Take
+Elijah as an example (see F. B. Meyer's "Elijah"). He is sent to
+pronounce God's sentence against Ahab (1 Kings 17:1); he is then sent
+into obscurity (17:2, 3); he is left dependent on the ravens for food
+(17:4-6); he sees the brook dry up, his only hope for water, for life
+(17:7); he is submitted to the humiliation of being supported by a
+poor widow (17:8, 9); God delays answering his prayer (17:17-22); God
+requires him to expose himself to danger by showing himself to Ahab
+(18:1); he is led to face popular religious error, and in doing so is
+left to stand alone (18:19-38); God delays answer to his prayer till
+he prays seven times (18:42-45); he suffers the further humiliation of
+Elisha being anointed prophet in his room (19:15, 16); he is taken up
+by a whirlwind to Heaven (2 Kings 2:11). A study of these trials will
+show that they were all hard trials, and that they increased in
+severity. God tells us that Elijah was a man subject to like passions
+as we are (James 5:17); but by trials, hardships, burdens, God
+developed him into one of the noblest characters of all ages. God's
+redeemed people may expect, then, trials through their lives, and that
+the trials shall be increasingly severe, as they advance in the
+Christian life.
+
+Often God's children are discouraged because they cannot see any
+purpose in their trials. But God assures us that there is a purpose.
+The child cannot understand the purpose of the lessons at school, but
+the father has the purpose. Elijah, possibly filled with apprehension,
+sitting by the drying brook Cherith, did not see any purpose, but God,
+who makes all things work together for good to His people, had the
+purpose and accomplished it in the development of Elijah's character;
+and so, as F. B. Meyer has so aptly put it, the redeemed, sitting by
+the drying brook of health, of property, of reputation, of family
+happiness, may not see the purpose, but the Heavenly Father will
+work, in His plan for each, every trial into the warp or woof of each
+life. The Saviour said to Peter, "What I do thou knowest not now, but
+thou shalt know hereafter."--John 13:7.
+
+    "Behind our life the Weaver stands
+      And works His wondrous will;
+    We leave it all in His wise hands
+      And trust His perfect skill.
+    Should mystery enshroud His plan,
+      And our short sight be dim,
+    We will not try the whole to scan,
+      But leave each thread to Him."
+
+Who knows the defects, the weaknesses, of each character? Only God.
+Who knows what each character ought to be? Only God. Who knows how to
+develop each character properly? Only God. Who is able to so shape the
+circumstances of each life as to properly develop each character? Only
+God. And He has promised that He will. "We know that all things work
+together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called
+according to his purpose" (Rom. 8:28); "that the trial of your faith,
+being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be
+tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and honor, and glory at
+the appearing of Jesus Christ."--1 Peter 1:7. This is _the only_
+explanation of the many harassments of life.
+
+God has revealed that the standard by which character is measured is
+patience, endurance. "Let patience have its perfect work, that ye may
+be mature and complete, lacking in nothing."--James 1:4. If there
+were no harassments, no afflictions, no burdens, no sorrows, no
+disappointments, no sufferings, there could be no patience, endurance;
+and if there were no patience, no endurance, there could be no
+maturity and completeness of character. As to what trials are needed,
+and are best in each case, only God can decide. In our dimsightedness
+we think that many things are mistakes in God's plans, and that He
+cannot bring good out of them; but He will. A boy was born with a
+badly deformed foot. When he was eight years of age his father had two
+surgeons to operate and try to straighten the foot, but they failed.
+After a second operation, the foot was placed in a brace which was
+worn for months. But the foot remained as badly deformed as ever. The
+surgeons then informed the father that the foot could never be
+straightened. The father studied the deformed foot for many days, and
+then had a strange-looking box made with screws, felt taps and iron
+rods in different parts of it. He had the surgeons to operate again on
+the boy's foot, cutting the muscles and tendons in different places.
+The foot was then placed in the strange box; a screw was turned till
+the felt tap pressed against the foot at one place, almost breaking
+the bones; then another screw and felt tap were brought to bear on
+another deformed part of the foot, straightening the foot and almost
+breaking the bones in that part of the foot; then the iron rod was
+used to straighten another part. For months the boy's foot was kept in
+that box. The suffering, day and night for months, was indescribable.
+The child would weep for hours, the pain being all but unbearable;
+and when the father would come home the child would beg piteously for
+the box to be taken off and to be left a cripple. The father, mingling
+his tears with the tears of the suffering child, would turn the screws
+tighter than before, and the child would shriek in fearful agony.
+During those weeks and months of suffering he looked upon his father
+as being harsh and cruel and without love for him. Finally the father
+loosened all the screws and said, "Son, stand up," and for the first
+time in his life the boy stood erect. Often has that son, now a
+gray-haired man, stood over the grave of that father, long since dead,
+and bedewed the grave with his tears, and thanked God that he had a
+father who was true enough to continue the suffering until the
+terrible deformity was corrected. The father may have turned the
+screws one thread too much, but the Father in Heaven makes no
+mistakes, and far beyond the grave many of the redeemed will praise
+Him, when they understand, for the sufferings and afflictions and
+burdens they were led to endure here.
+
+    "Choose for us, Lord, nor let our weak preferring
+      Cheat us of good Thou hast for us designed.
+    Choose for us, Lord; Thy wisdom is unerring,
+      And we are fools and blind."
+
+With the reader this may seem mere theory; he may feel that it cannot
+explain all the seemingly unfathomable mystery of suffering in the
+lives of many of the redeemed, the real children of God. Let the
+reader consider two things: first, that as a juror, he would not form
+a judgment till all the evidence had been placed before the jury.
+God's purpose in each case, and what God actually accomplishes in each
+case, in the development of character,--these have not yet been placed
+before the jury; but, backed up by many fulfilled prophecies, by the
+character of Jesus Christ, by His resurrection, by what He has
+accomplished in the world, we have God's solemn assurance that _He
+will yet place this evidence before the jury_.
+
+Second, let the reader remember that with God character counts more
+than comfort. What father would prefer his son to be a brutal,
+ignorant pugilist, enjoying food and drink, physical life,--to a
+useful, noble, highly educated, refined, learned son who could "listen
+in the orange groves of Verona to the sweet vows of Juliet, or to the
+blind bard's harp as he strikes the chords but seldom struck
+harmonious with the morning stars, or to the music of the spheres as
+they hymn His praises around their Creator's throne"? Far more than
+the earthly father would choose the latter for his son, does the
+Heavenly Father value the soul and its development above that of the
+body.
+
+Could God's redeemed people only learn that perfection of character
+comes only through suffering, that as certain as God is true, a
+blessing will come from every sorrow, every burden, every affliction,
+every pang, every heartache!
+
+    "The ills we see--
+    The mystery of sorrow deep and long,
+    The dark enigmas of permitted wrong,
+    Have all one key--
+    This strange, sad world is but our Father's school;
+    All chance and change His love shall grandly overrule."
+
+Rarely has the author been stirred, thrilled, as he was while
+listening to an audience of a thousand colored people of the South
+sing the following hymn. Some of them had been slaves; many were poor;
+many uneducated; some Greek scholars; some were destitute; some were
+half-invalids; some were aged and infirm; but few had the comforts of
+life; all were heavy burden-bearers. White people from New York and
+Texas, from Mississippi and Kansas, were moved to tears, as that
+audience sang with such rhythm, such cadence, such pathos, such
+sweetness, such soul-power, as only they can sing:--
+
+    "We are tossed and driven
+    On the restless sea of time,
+    Sombre skies and howling tempest
+    Oft succeed the bright sunshine.
+    In that land of perfect day
+    When the mists have rolled away,
+    We will understand it better by and by.
+
+    "By and by when the morning comes
+    And all the saints of God are gathered home,
+    We'll tell the story, how we've overcome,
+    For we'll understand it better by and by.
+
+    "We are often destitute
+    Of the things that life demands,
+    Want of shelter and of food
+    Thirsty hills and barren lands.
+    We are trusting in the Lord,
+    And according to His word,
+    We will understand it better by and by.
+
+    "Trials dark on every hand,
+    And we cannot understand
+    All the ways that God would lead us
+    To the blessed promised land,
+    But He guides us with His eye
+    And we'll follow till we die,
+    For we'll understand it better by and by.
+
+    "Temptations, hidden snares,
+    Often take us unawares,
+    And our hearts are made to bleed
+    For a thoughtless word or deed,
+    And we wonder why the test
+    When we try to do our best,
+    But we'll understand it better by and by."
+
+But they are not the only ones who
+
+    "Wonder why the test
+    When we try to do our best."
+
+They are not the only ones who can say,
+
+    "Trials dark on every hand
+    And we cannot understand,"
+
+But they and all the redeemed, God's real children, can say,
+
+    "We will understand it better by and by."
+
+Till then they can rest upon His word, that "the trial of your faith,
+being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be
+tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the
+appearing of Jesus Christ,"--1 Peter 1:7; for "we know that all things
+work together for good to those that love God, to those who are the
+called according to his purpose."--Rom. 8:28.
+
+    "Thou art as much His care as if beside,
+    Nor man nor angel lived in Heaven or Earth."
+
+_FOR FURTHER STUDY_:--Some readers may conclude, because trials come
+to the lives of the unredeemed as well as the redeemed, to those who
+are not God's children, as well as to those who are God's children,
+that, therefore, their characters are likewise developed by trials.
+Let such readers consider two facts:--
+
+First, it is a creature of God being developed in one case; in the
+other, it is one who has been redeemed and adopted as a child of God
+(Gal. 4:4-7), and born of the Spirit (John 3:8), that is being
+developed.
+
+Second, the characters being developed in the two classes, while they
+may appear to men as similar, in the sight of God are as different as
+light and darkness are to men, as different as Heaven and Hell. Let
+it be remembered that character is dependent, not on the deed, but
+_on the motive back of the deed_ (1 Cor. 13:1-3).
+
+No unredeemed man can have that motive, because it springs from
+complete redemption through Christ (2 Cor. 5:14, 15). Hence, "they
+that are in the flesh cannot please God."--Rom. 8:8. Their motive
+power is all wrong and cannot be otherwise; hence their characters,
+however they may be developed, are all wrong in the sight of God.
+Jesus said, "Cleanse first the inside of the cup and of the platter,
+that the outside may be clean also."--Matt. 23:26. The child who, from
+love, bears trials and burdens placed upon him by the father, the
+slave who, from fear of the lash, bears trials and burdens placed upon
+him by the master, the hireling who, from desire for the wages, bears
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+must,--are developing altogether different characters. Even so, the
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+and burdens of life, the unredeemed one who, from fear of the law,
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+unredeemed one who, from what he hopes to gain thereby, a home in
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+trials and burdens of life, are developing widely different characters
+for eternity. Which shall it be in your case, reader?
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, God's Plan with Men, by T. T. (Thomas
+Theodore) Martin</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: God's Plan with Men</p>
+<p>Author: T. T. (Thomas Theodore) Martin</p>
+<p>Release Date: July 5, 2008  [eBook #25974]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GOD'S PLAN WITH MEN***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Stacy Brown, David Garcia,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span>
+<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p>
+
+<h1>GOD'S PLAN WITH MEN</h1>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="subhead2">By</p>
+
+<h2>T. T. MARTIN, <span class="smcap">Evangelist</span></h2>
+
+<table summary="For ever sentence, poem"><tbody><tr><td>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"For every sentence, clause and word,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That's not inlaid with thee, my Lord,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Forgive me, God! and blot each line<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Out of my book that is not thine.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But if, 'mongst all, thou find'st here one<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Worthy thy benediction,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That one of all the rest shall be<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The glory of my work and me."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+<p class="subhead2 padtop"><span class="smcap">New York &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Chicago &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Toronto</span><br />
+Fleming H. Revell Company<br />
+<span class="smcap">London &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; and &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Edinburgh</span></p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="subhead3 padtop">Copyright, 1912, by<br />
+FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY</p>
+
+
+<p class="subhead3 padtop">New York: 158 Fifth Avenue<br />
+Chicago: 17 N. Wabash Ave.<br />
+Toronto: 25 Richmond St., W.<br />
+London: 21 Paternoster Square<br />
+Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE</h2>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Not new truths, but old truths properly emphasized, is one of the
+great needs of our times and of all times. The object of this book is
+not to start something new, but to specially emphasize some old truths
+and their relations to each other. The aim of the book is to help two
+classes: those who are seeking to be saved, and those who are already
+saved; the one, by showing simply and plainly God's way of salvation;
+the other, by showing simply God's way of dealing with men after they
+are saved. The author hopes, moreover, that the book may be of some
+special help to honest sceptics. For this purpose, the Introduction is
+addressed to them; and the hope is cherished that Chapter I will aid
+in disarming prejudice against God and the Bible; for while the
+Bible's teaching of degrees of punishment in Hell does not detract
+from the horrors of future punishment, but rather adds thereto, it
+effectually does away with the charge of the injustice of future
+punishment.</p>
+
+<p>The enquirer and young convert may omit the parts marked "For Further
+Study" at the close of each chapter and not lose connection. These are
+added for Bible students who wish to go further into the subject
+treated.</p>
+
+<p>And now, the author lays the book at the Master's feet and prays His
+blessings upon it, that it may be a blessing to those who read it.</p>
+
+<p style="text-align: right;"><span class="smcap">T. T. Martin.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Blue Mountain, Miss.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>
+<br /></p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+<table summary="contents" style="width: 60%;"><tbody>
+<tr>
+   <td class="tl">I. <span class="smcap">Sin and Its Punishment&mdash;God's Justice&mdash;Degrees In Hell</span></td>      <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_17">17</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tl">II. <span class="smcap">Sins Not Excused, nor the Penalty Ever Remitted Without Redemption</span></td>      <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+ <td class="tl">III. <span class="smcap">Jesus the Christ as Sin-bearer&mdash;God's Justice and Love</span></td>      <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tl">IV. <span class="smcap">The New Relation&mdash;The New Motive</span></td>      <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_60">60</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+   <td class="tl">V. <span class="smcap">The Sins of God's Children&mdash;Forgiveness&mdash;Chastisements</span></td>      <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_86">86</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tl">VI. <span class="smcap">Rewards&mdash;Degrees in Heaven</span></td>      <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_101">101</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+ <td class="tl">VII. <span class="smcap">How to be Saved&mdash;Repentance and Faith</span></td>      <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_125">125</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td class="tl">VIII. <span class="smcap">The Meaning of "Believe On" or "Believe In" Christ</span></td>      <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_135">135</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tl">IX. <span class="smcap">Eternal Life the Present Possession of the Believer</span></td>      <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_158">158</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+   <td class="tl">X. <span class="smcap">Development of Character in the Redeemed</span></td>      <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_175">175</a></td>
+</tr>
+</tbody></table>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION"></a>INTRODUCTION</h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Come now and let us <i>reason together</i>, saith the Lord."&mdash;Isaiah.</p>
+
+<p>"If any man willeth to do his will, <i>he shall know</i> of the
+teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from my
+self."&mdash;Jesus.</p>
+
+<p>"And ye shall seek me and find me <i>when ye shall search for me with
+all your heart</i>."&mdash;Jeremiah.</p>
+
+<p>"Then <i>shall we know</i> if we follow on to know the Lord."&mdash;Hosea.</p></div>
+
+
+<p>This work is not written for sceptics; yet while preparing to write
+for the benefit of others than sceptics, the author's heart has gone
+out toward that large class of his fellow-men who are sceptical; who,
+from different causes, have been led to doubt or deny the Bible's
+being a revelation from God; and he has yearned to say something that
+would at least arouse the attention of this class sufficiently to
+cause them to give an earnest investigation, or re-investigation, to
+the question. The <i>bare possibilities</i> that there is a Hell and a
+Heaven, that the soul can never cease to exist, and that Jesus is the
+real Saviour, are enough to cause every doubting one to give the most
+earnest consideration to any evidence bearing on these questions, and
+to undertake the most careful investigation of anything that promises
+to lead to certainty. It will be admitted by every honest disbeliever
+that no writer has ever made it <i>certain</i> that there is no future
+existence; that there is no Heaven; that there is no Hell; that Jesus
+was not the Saviour. The most that such writers have been able to
+produce is doubts. If, now, there is <i>the possibility</i> of reaching
+<i>certainty</i> on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> other side, surely the reader should be willing
+and anxious to undertake a calm, searching examination, or
+re-examination, of the question. If there is no Heaven or Hell, no
+future existence, no one will ever find it out, before or after death;
+and there would be but little, if anything, gained if one could find
+it out. But if there is a Heaven and a Hell, and Jesus is the Saviour,
+then there is everything to be gained by finding it out and everything
+to be lost by neglecting to find it out. So important are the issues
+at stake that you, reader, should be willing to take years, if need
+be, to make a thorough investigation of the matter; you should be
+willing to read and study many books, and there are many that would
+help you; but I wish to urge you to read <i>two books only</i>, before
+reading this book. Surely your eternal destiny and the destinies of
+those over whom you have an influence (for "none of us liveth to
+himself") are enough to cause you to give earnest attention to the
+reading of three small books. The bare possibility that the reading of
+the three books may lead to your making sure of Heaven as your eternal
+home, is enough to prompt you to read them and to read them most
+carefully and prayerfully. The first is "The Wonders of Prophecy," by
+John Urquhart. The second is "The Philosophy of the Plan of
+Salvation," by J. B. Walker (American Edition). Having read these two
+books prayerfully and carefully, then give this book a careful
+reading.</p>
+
+<p>But let the reader consider God's plan for investigating. It is often
+said by a certain class of sceptics that the Bible is against honest
+investigation, that it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> shuts off the use of one's reason. Let the
+word of God speak for itself, "Come now and let us <i>reason</i> together,
+saith the Lord."&mdash;Is. 1:18. The trouble with many sceptics is that
+they are not willing to "reason <i>together</i>," to reason to get with
+God, but that they reason <i>against</i> God and to <i>get away from God</i>.
+Jesus said, "Take heed <i>how</i> ye hear." Watch your heart's attitude
+when you hear. The attitude of being against God will warp your
+reasoning when you hear. God's promise is plain to the earnest, honest
+seeker after God. "And ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall
+search for me <i>with all your heart</i>."&mdash;Jer. 29:13. One who is
+half-hearted, indifferent, prejudiced against God or against truth,
+has no right to expect to find God or to find truth. But the promise
+is positive that the one who seeks with all the heart shall find. Let
+the reader put God to the test. How can an earnest, honest man refuse
+to make an earnest, honest investigation?</p>
+
+<p>It was against those who would not make such an investigation that
+Jesus spoke, Matt. 12:42, "The queen of the south shall rise up in the
+judgement with this generation and shall condemn it: for she came from
+the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold a
+greater than Solomon is here." The heathen woman who went to so much
+trouble and expense, and took so much time to make a thorough, honest
+investigation for the truth, will condemn those who do not make an
+earnest persevering investigation; "And behold a greater than Solomon
+is here," with His promise, "If any man willeth to do his will <i>he
+shall know</i>."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p><p>Reader, will you carelessly refuse to take the time and to go to the
+trouble and expense of getting and reading earnestly <i>two books</i> that
+<i>may</i> lead you to the truth? Oh, reader, outstrip the heathen queen in
+search of light. Give your life-time, if need be, to an earnest
+investigation of this matter. Picture two men, one giving his
+life-time to earnest, honest, searching for the truth concerning sin
+and salvation through Christ; the other, from indifference, or pride,
+or prejudice, or love of the world, or secret sin, never making an
+earnest, honest investigation; the one dying and going to Heaven; the
+other dying and going to Hell. Which shall it be in your case, reader?
+There is absolutely no uncertainty as to the result <i>if only</i> you will
+be honest, and earnest and persevering in your search for the truth.
+Listen to Jesus: John 7:17, "If any man <i>willeth</i> to do his will, he
+<i>shall know</i> of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak
+from myself." Whether you, reader, are ignorant or learned cuts
+absolutely no figure in this case. Jesus throws the assurance open to
+<i>any man</i>. The one condition is if he "<i>willeth to do his will</i>." No
+man wills to do God's will who will not go to the extreme of earnest,
+honest, prayerful investigation. If you do, then the veracity, the
+very character, of Jesus is at stake. Consider, then, reader, the
+awful responsibility that rests upon you, if you do not give attention
+to a thorough, earnest, honest, prayerful investigation for the truth.</p>
+
+<p>Another promise of equal certainty comes from the Old Testament: Hosea
+6:3, "Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord." Many make
+a slight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> search and cease. The promise is not to them, but to those
+who persevere. If we use the light as we receive it, and follow it up,
+<i>we shall know</i>. Again certainty is promised. Does not God, because He
+is God, deserve such earnest consideration from you, reader? Have you
+any right to expect anything from Him if you approach Him in a
+half-hearted, indifferent way?</p>
+
+<p>The following cases in point may encourage the reader: Two learned men
+decided to prove that the Bible was not from God, and that Jesus
+Christ was not the Saviour; but they were in earnest and they were
+honest. They had vast libraries at their service. They gave months to
+investigation. They were both convinced and accepted the Saviour and
+wrote their books in defence of the Bible, instead of against it.</p>
+
+<p>Second, one of the greatest scholars of Europe, probably the greatest,
+stated in a public lecture in America, that, of the thirty leading
+sceptics of the nineteenth century, men who had written brilliant
+books in their young manhood against the Bible, he knew twenty-eight
+in their old age, and that every one of the twenty-eight, after mature
+investigation, had accepted the Lord Jesus as Saviour.</p>
+
+<p>Again, in one of the prominent smaller cities of America, a club of
+sceptics, leading business and professional men, had held weekly
+meetings for many years. They challenged any one to meet one of their
+widely known lecturers in a public debate on Christianity and
+Infidelity. A preacher accepted the challenge. During the debate some
+of the sceptics became Christians. The president of the debate, a
+sceptic, is now an earnest follower of the Lord Jesus, having<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> been
+convinced and having accepted Him as Saviour. The debate was held
+years ago. So convincing, so overwhelming, was the evidence produced
+by the defender of Christianity, that the club of sceptics has never
+held a meeting since the debate.</p>
+
+<p>Similar facts could be produced indefinitely, but these three are
+sufficient to show the most discouraged, the most hopeless sceptical
+reader, that there is at least a possibility of his yet finding the
+truth. Is not a bare possibility, where there are so tremendously
+important eternal issues at stake, sufficient to cause him to at once
+begin a thorough, prayerful, honest investigation?</p>
+
+<p>A reflection before closing the Introduction: one hundred years from
+now, and you, reader, will not be among the living. Where will you be?
+God has given you a will and the power of choice. Will you will, will
+you choose, to make an honest, persistent investigation? Tremendous
+consequences turn on your decision,&mdash;your own future destiny, the
+destinies of others over whom you have an influence. Do not dally with
+delay. Begin now an honest, earnest, painstaking, prayerful
+investigation. Get and read the two books suggested, and then finish
+reading this book. If this course does not settle your difficulties,
+read on, study on, pray on, and God's promise is sure, that you shall
+find, that you "shall know"!</p>
+
+<p><i>FOR FURTHER STUDY</i>: A brief list is here given of books that will be
+helpful to sceptical readers: "Why Is Christianity True?" by E. Y.
+Mullins. (One of the most learned Presbyterian theological professors
+in America, asked to give the names<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> of six of the best books to
+convince sceptics, replied, "I shall not do it; I shall give
+one,&mdash;'Why Is Christianity True?' by President Mullins of the Southern
+Baptist Theological Seminary; that is sufficient"); "The Fact of
+Christ," by Simpson; "The Meaning and Message of the Cross," by H. C.
+Mabie; "The Resurrection of Our Lord," by W. Milligan; "Many
+Infallible Proofs," by A. T. Pierson; "The Cause and Cure of
+Infidelity," by Nelson; "The Word and Works of God," by Bailey; "The
+Character of Jesus," by Bushnell; "Hours with a Sceptic," by Faunce;
+"The Miracles of Unbelief," by Ballard; "Creation," by Arnold Guyot;
+"The Collapse of Evolution," by Townsend; "The Problem of the Old
+Testament," by James Orr; "Did Jesus Rise?" by J. H. Brookes; "Reasons
+for Faith in Christianity," by Leavitt; "The Gospel of John;" "The
+Young Professor," by E. B. Hatcher; "The Resurrection of Jesus," by
+James Orr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h2>
+
+<p class="subhead1">SIN AND ITS PUNISHMENT&mdash;GOD'S JUSTICE&mdash;DEGREES IN HELL</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"All have <i>sinned</i>."&mdash;Rom. 3:23.</p>
+
+<p>"Every transgression and disobedience received a <i>just</i> recompense
+of reward."&mdash;Heb. 2:2.</p>
+
+<p>"A <i>just</i> God."&mdash;Is. 45:21.</p>
+
+<p>"It shall be <i>more tolerable</i> for the land of  of
+judgement, than for thee."&mdash;Matt. 11:24.</p></div>
+
+
+<p>Reader, what you and I need to know concerning God's plan with the
+sinner, the lost, is not what some people think, nor what some teach,
+nor what some desire; but what God teaches. God is <i>just</i>. Fasten that
+in your mind; never lose sight of it. Over and over again is this fact
+impressed in the Scriptures. Yet lurking in the minds of multitudes is
+a vague suspicion or dread that God will be unjust in sending some to
+Hell, and that He will be unjust in the way He will punish. Many who
+are thus disturbed lose sight of the fact that God is just; that
+whatever God does in regard to the lost, one thing is certain,&mdash;<i>He
+will do no injustice</i>. With my loved ones, with your loved ones, with
+the most obscure, worthless creature, with the most refined, delicate
+nature, with the most cruel, debased creature that ever lived, God
+will do no wrong. Many have turned away to infidelity, not on account
+of the Bible's complete teaching as to future punishment, but because
+they have taken some one passage of Scripture and warped it or gotten
+from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> it a distorted idea of the Bible's teachings as to Hell; or they
+have taken some preacher's views as to the Bible's teachings on the
+subject. For example, here is a boy fifteen years of age, whose mother
+died when he was an infant, whose father is a drunkard and gambler and
+infidel, who has given the boy but little moral training; and here is
+a man seventy years of age who had a noble father and mother, who gave
+their boy every advantage, the best of training, under the best of
+influences; yet he when a boy turned away from all these influences
+and spent his life in sin and debauchery, and in leading others into
+sin. These two, the unfortunate boy and the old hardened sinner, die.
+With many the idea is that God consigns them to a common punishment in
+Hell. But, reader, remember that <i>God is just</i>; and if that is
+justice, what would injustice be? They were different in light and in
+opportunity and in sins, and yet punished alike? <i>The Bible does not
+teach it.</i></p>
+
+<p>But let us go back and consider this question of sin. "All have
+sinned." That includes you, reader. "To him that knoweth to do good
+and doeth it not, to him it is sin."&mdash;James 4:17. All have done this,
+have failed to live up to the light they have had; hence, "All have
+sinned." Two questions arise: first, ought sin to be punished? Second,
+ought all sin to be punished, or only the coarser, grosser, more
+offensive sins? As to the first, ought sin to be punished? There is a
+strong drift toward the teaching that sin ought to be punished only
+for the purpose of reforming the sinner. Intelligent men endorse this
+teaching without realizing that it is spiritual anarchy and absolutely
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>horrible and detestable. A woman and four little children are
+murdered in cold blood by three robbers for the purpose of robbing the
+home. When the three are arrested, the first is found to be thoroughly
+penitent, thoroughly reformed, broken-hearted, over his horrible
+crime. If sin should be punished only to reform the sinner, this man
+should not be punished at all, though he murdered five people in cold
+blood; for he is already reformed. The second is such a hardened
+criminal that he never can be reformed, and the more he is punished
+the more hardened he will become. Then if sin is punished only to
+reform the sinner, he should not be punished at all, though guilty of
+the murder of five people in cold blood. The third is tender-hearted
+and easily influenced, and by sending him to prison for thirty days,
+he will be thoroughly reformed, though guilty of five cold-blooded
+murders. On this principle of punishing sin only to reform the sinner,
+all a sinner would have to do to make sure of Heaven would be to
+become such a hardened sinner that he could never be reformed, and
+then he would go to Heaven without any punishment at all.</p>
+
+<p>People need to call a halt and realize that sin ought to be punished
+because it is right to punish it, because it is just. But this means
+the punishment of all sins, the sins of the refined as surely as the
+sins of the debased, the smaller sins as surely as the greater sins.
+Hence the teaching of God's word, Rom. 1:18, "The wrath of God<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> is
+revealed from heaven against all <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>ungodliness and unrighteousness of
+men," But we need to keep in mind that it is discriminating wrath, and
+God's word makes this plain, Heb. 2:2, "Every transgression and
+disobedience received a <i>just recompense of reward</i>." "A just
+God."&mdash;Is. 45:21.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Many sneer at a "God of wrath" and say they believe in a
+"God of all love." God is love, but He is just as surely a God of
+wrath; and were He not a God of wrath, He would not be God, but a
+fiend. He who loves purity and chastity and has no wrath against
+impurity and unchastity, but loves them, too, is a moral leper. He who
+loves the defence of the poor and the helpless, but has no wrath
+against the cold-blooded murderer, the one crushing the defenceless,
+but loves him, too, is a fiend. Character, from God to Devil, can only
+be told by what one loves and what one hates.</p></div>
+
+<p>Notice how clearly the Saviour teaches this same great truth, Matt.
+11:20-24, "Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his
+mighty works were done, because they repented not. Woe unto thee,
+Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been
+done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would have
+repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, <i>It
+shall be more tolerable</i> for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgement
+than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt
+be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works which have been done
+in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
+But I say unto you that <i>it shall be more tolerable</i> for the land of
+Sodom in the day of judgement, than for thee." Notice, "more
+tolerable," difference in punishment.</p>
+
+<p>The same teaching Jesus gives in Mark 12:40. "These shall receive
+<i>greater condemnation</i>" Jesus revealed to Pilate God's judgment of a
+difference in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> sin, John 19:11, "He that delivered me unto thee hath
+the <i>greater sin</i>."</p>
+
+<p>And Paul teaches the same, Gal. 6:7, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that
+shall he also reap," the reaping according to the sowing.</p>
+
+<p>Let the reader notice the clear teaching: the punishment of sin will
+be graded, first, according to light and opportunity. A writer, a
+great scientist, held that heredity and environment largely determine
+one's destiny. That is what Jesus taught. The people of Sodom were
+more wicked than those of Capernaum; but heredity and environment were
+against them. The people of Capernaum had not sinned so terribly as
+the people of Sodom, but they had more light and opportunity; they had
+better heredity, better environment; Jesus says that therefore the
+people of Capernaum shall be punished more severely than the people of
+Sodom. And that is right; that is just.</p>
+
+<p>Those to whom Jesus spoke were born under better conditions than those
+of Sodom; they grew up under more favorable surroundings; hence, they
+were more responsible; hence, they are to receive greater punishment
+at the judgment. Apply to your own case, reader: for every added ray
+of light, for every added opportunity, there will be that much added
+punishment for your sins. And that is just; that is right. The
+opportunities that wealth brings, the light that education and culture
+bring, will but add to the punishment at the judgment. The most highly
+educated, the most refined, the most wealthy, those who have lived
+under the most favorable influences, will suffer most at the judgment.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p><p>But punishment will be further graded by the number of the
+sins,&mdash;"<i>Every</i> transgression received a just recompense." Hence, the
+more one sins, the greater the punishment. If one knew that he was
+going to Hell, corrupt human nature would say, "Sin and enjoy while
+you live," but reason and Scripture would say, "Stop! add no more to
+the degree of Hell."</p>
+
+<p>Punishment for sin will be further graded by the character of the sin.
+"He that betrayed me to thee hath the greater sin." While a small sin
+is just as surely sin as a great sin, yet God recognizes degrees in
+sin, and as a consequence, there are degrees in the punishment of sin.
+Following from degrees in the punishment of sin comes inevitably the
+fact that no wrong will be done any one at the judgment; that no one
+will be treated wrong in Hell. <i>He who fears only injustice and wrong,
+has nothing to fear from the judgment or in Hell.</i></p>
+
+<p>Two reflections for the reader:&mdash;If you have heretofore rebelled
+against the idea of future punishment, what can you say when now you
+see that God will make all just allowance for surroundings and
+conditions, and will take into consideration the number and kinds of
+sins? God has a right to have laws; His laws are right; a law without
+a penalty amounts to no law; the penalty, God assures us, will be
+absolutely just. <i>What can you say when you stand before such a judge
+and receive such a sentence?</i></p>
+
+<p>The other reflection for the reader: Let not this teaching of the
+Bible lead you into thinking that Hell, then, will not be so terrible
+after all, and that you need not fear it. Instead of letting it allay
+all dread<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> of the future, it is enough to make the blood run cold
+through your veins; for those who will have the most terrible
+suffering will be the most enlightened, the most cultured.</p>
+
+<p>Another thought: not some far distant, cold, harsh, unsympathetic God
+will be the judge at the Judgment Day, but the Lord Jesus, "touched
+with the feeling of our infirmities," will be the one who will judge
+you and condemn you and give you your just degree of punishment in
+Hell. Hear Him: John 5:22, "Neither doth the Father judge any man, but
+he hath given all judgement to the Son." Peter reveals the same fact,
+Acts 10:42, "He commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify
+that this is he who hath been ordained of God to be the judge of
+living and dead." Remember, that he whom the world praises as so good,
+so just, so discriminating, so loving, so tender, will be the judge at
+the Great Day, who will pronounce each sentence. Oh, reader, the very
+fact that the Lord Jesus will be the judge is absolute proof that no
+one will be treated wrong, that no one will be punished unjustly in
+Hell; and the bare possibility that He may pronounce your eternal doom
+is enough to cause you to turn to-day. "Turn ye, turn ye, for why will
+ye die?"</p>
+
+<p><i>FOR FURTHER STUDY</i>: The fear of Abraham is the fear of the human
+race, Gen. 18:25, "Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?" As
+soon as God revealed to Abraham that he was going to deal with Sodom
+and Gomorrah because of their sin, Abraham at once suspects that God
+may do wrong in punishing sin. It has been so down the ages, that we
+suspect <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>that God will do wrong in punishing sin. Great denominations
+have been formed to keep God from doing wrong in punishing sin. Men
+have proven untrue to their denominations and turned traitors to God's
+word, because they have, Abraham-like, suspected God of wrongdoing in
+the punishment of sin. It is not that the proof is not ample that the
+Bible is God's word, <i>but the hatred of the human heart for the Bible
+teaching about Hell</i>, that has brought in so much of modern religious
+vagaries and New Theology and Higher Criticism. As Abraham presses his
+plea for God to do right, God by degrees reveals Himself as a God who
+will do right. It must have been a marvellous revelation to Abraham.
+And so God's plan for the punishment of sin will be to the honest
+seeker for truth when he perceives the real teaching of God's word. As
+God's doing right with Sodom and Gomorrah went far beyond where
+Abraham's sense of right halted; so God's doing right with sinners in
+Hell will go far beyond what we would ask.</p>
+
+<p>But there are other objectors to Hell. They began by pressing the
+teaching of God's mercy without any reference to His justice; and in
+order to get rid of the teaching as to Hell, which they thought
+unjust, they rejected the Scriptures as God's word; and finally ended
+in rejecting the teaching that "Christ died for our sins" (1 Cor.
+15:3); that He "his own self bare our sins in his own body upon the
+tree" (1 Peter 2:24). As a result of their fighting against God's
+punishing sin, they have become so blinded as to right principle, and
+so morally corrupt, as to be supported<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> in pulpits, college
+professorships and seminary professorships by the hard-earned money of
+earnest believers in God's word, while they are undermining the faith
+of the children of their supporters.</p>
+
+<p>The Heaven that such men teach is the Hell of the Bible. Rejecting
+complete redemption through Christ dying for our sins as our
+substitute, they teach salvation by character, or that one's destiny
+beyond the grave will be according to the way he has lived here. That
+is their Heaven, but that is the Bible's Hell, exactly, absolutely.
+Infidelity, Judaism, Christian Science, Universalism, Unitarianism,
+Higher Criticism, New Theology and all who reject Christ dying for our
+sins, as our substitute, as our complete Redeemer, because of their
+hatred of God's punishing sinners in Hell, have made their Heaven to
+be the result of their life here on earth; and as a consequence, have
+made their Heaven the Bible's Hell; for Hell will be exactly the
+result of the life here on earth; and, as a result, they have in
+theory, and, alas! will have in fact, the Bible's Hell which they
+label Heaven, without any real Heaven at all. As an example, consider
+Mr. R. G. Ingersoll's words, "I believe in the gospel of justice, that
+we must reap what we sow (Bible's Hell without any Heaven). I do not
+believe in forgiveness (Bible's Hell without any Heaven). If I rob
+Smith and God forgives me, how does that help Smith? If I cover some
+poor girl with the leprosy of some imputed crime and she withers away
+like a blighted flower and afterward I get forgiveness, how does that
+help her? If there is another world, we have got to settle (admitting
+that we do not settle in this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> life), and for every crime you commit
+here (hence, the more the crimes, the more you must suffer, exactly
+the Bible's teaching), you must answer to yourself and to the one you
+injure. And if you have ever clothed another as with a garment of
+pain, you will never be quite as happy as though you had not done that
+thing." "No forgiveness; eternal, inexorable, everlasting justice,
+that is what I believe in." Any Christian would be willing to take Mr.
+Ingersoll's place, or the place of any one else, in Hell, if God
+varies one pang from what Mr. Ingersoll himself calls for. But it is
+the Bible's Hell, pure and simple, without any Heaven.</p>
+
+<p>But the objector who rejects the teaching of Hell, and also Christ
+dying for our sins as our substitute, may say that he does not agree
+with Mr. Ingersoll, as to no forgiveness; that he believes in
+forgiveness. To reject Christ's dying for our sins as our substitute,
+as our Redeemer from all iniquity, and yet, in order to avoid
+believing in Hell, to profess to believe in the forgiveness of sins,
+makes one far worse than Mr. Ingersoll, a spiritual anarchist. Mr.
+Ingersoll at least believed in law, but to believe in forgiveness,
+without substitution, without redemption through Christ, means to down
+with law and to become an anarchist in principle. As to the justice of
+substitution, the reader is referred to Chapter III.</p>
+
+<p>Concerning the objection to the Bible's teaching of eternal punishment
+in Hell, a mistranslation has misled many, and before the correct
+translation, as given by the Revised Version, all objections fall to
+the ground. The old version of Rev. 22:11 reads, "He that is unjust
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>let him be unjust still"; but the Revised Version gives what the
+Greek says, "He that is unrighteous let him <i>do unrighteousness
+still</i>!" And that inevitably means eternal punishment. It is God's
+last sentence on the sinner. The objector may say that it is horrible
+to let men sin beyond the grave, in Hell. Not one particle more
+horrible is it than to let them sin in this life and continue in sin
+in this life. A reflection for the unsaved reader: what will your
+moral character be one thousand years after you die, with no holy
+Spirit, no Bible, no Christians, no churches, to restrain you?</p>
+
+<p>Again, this passage, Rev. 22:11 (R. V.), can have no meaning if the
+wicked are to be blotted out, cease to exist.</p>
+
+<p>Another objection that is pressed, is that the Bible teaches a Hell of
+literal fire, and is therefore wrong. The denominations that reject
+the Bible's teachings as to Hell, without exception, try to force on
+the Bible language the meaning of literal fire. Yet they do not try to
+force on the language of the Bible concerning Hell, that it means
+literal worm when it says "to be cast into Hell where their worm dieth
+not and the fire is not quenched." They do not try to force the
+literal meaning on language when Jesus said, "I am the door"; "I am
+the vine"; or the Scriptures state, "That rock was Christ." One thing
+is true, that, the language being figurative, the reality must be
+terrible.</p>
+
+<p>Men sneer at the thought of becoming Christians from fear of Hell.
+Such men are not honest with God, and are simply trying to browbeat
+God on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> subject of Hell. Proof: the same men will flee to safety
+from fear of smallpox, from fear of yellow fever, etc. Shall men be
+looked upon as sensible when they flee to safety for their bodies, and
+be scorned for fleeing to safety for their souls?</p>
+
+<p>People are ever asking, "Will the heathen be lost without the gospel?"
+Let God's word answer, Rom. 2:12, 14, "As many as have sinned without
+the law shall also perish without the law"; "For when Gentiles that
+have not the law do by nature the things of the law, these not having
+the law are the law unto themselves, in that they show the work of the
+law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness
+therewith, and their thoughts one with another accusing or else
+excusing themselves." But the objector says, "Will God condemn a man
+when he has no light?" There never lived such a man. Listen to God:
+John 1:19, "That was the true light that lighteth every man coming
+into the world." Again, Rom. 1:20, "The invisible things of him since
+the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through
+the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; so
+that they are without excuse." But the objection is raised that they
+have never heard of Christ, and that it is wrong for people to be
+lost, condemned, who never heard of Christ. They are not condemned for
+not believing in Christ when they have never heard of Him; they are
+condemned for their sins, for doing what, from their light, they knew
+was wrong. It is not the lack of the remedy that kills, but the
+disease. They have not as much light as others, and their punishment
+will be accordingly. The man who dies in his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> sins in a Christian land
+will be punished far, far more than the one who dies a heathen. Their
+punishments will be almost as far apart as the east is from the west.</p>
+
+<p>The Scripture, "There is no difference," Rom. 3:22, has often been
+pressed to mean that all sinners are alike before God, or will suffer
+alike in Hell. By close attention to the passage the reader will see
+that the expression "there is no difference" has reference to what
+goes before, for it is connected by the word "for," pointing back to
+what had just been said, that there is a "righteousness of God through
+faith in Jesus Christ unto all that have faith: <i>for</i> there is no
+difference," that all that have faith are equally certain of
+salvation, "for there is no difference." To join the expression,
+"there is no difference," with what follows makes it clearly
+contradict our Saviour, who said plainly that there is a
+difference,&mdash;"He that delivered me unto thee hath the greater
+sin,"&mdash;there is a difference in sin, says the Saviour.</p>
+
+<p>The teaching of James 2:10, "For whosoever shall keep the whole law
+and yet offend in one point is guilty of all," must not be made to
+contradict the plain teaching of the Saviour that there is a
+difference in sinners, and different degrees in their punishment. The
+meaning is that the law is a unit, and that he that offends in one
+point has broken the law as a whole. A chain of ten links is as surely
+broken when one link is broken as when all ten links are broken.</p>
+
+<p>In accord with this are the words of the great American scholar,
+theologian, teacher, preacher, Jno. A. Broadus: "Especially notice
+Luke 12:47 f. (R. V.), 'And that servant which knew his lord's will,
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> made not ready, nor did according to his will, shall be beaten
+with many stripes; but he that knew not, and did things worthy of
+stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes.' This teaching has been in
+many cases grievously overlooked. Taking images literally, men have
+found that the 'Gehenna of fire' (Matt. 5:22) will be the same place
+and the same degree of punishment for all. But the above passage and
+many others show that there will be differences. The degrees of
+punishment must be as remote as the east is from the west. All
+inherited proclivities, 'taints of blood,' all differences of
+environment, every privilege and every disadvantage, will be taken
+into account. It is the Divine Judge that will apportion punishment,
+with perfect knowledge and perfect justice and perfect goodness. This
+great fact, that there will be <i>degrees</i> in future punishment&mdash;as well
+as future rewards&mdash;ought to be more prominent in religious
+instruction. It gives some relief in contemplating the awful fate of
+those who perish. It might save many from going away into
+Universalism; and others from dreaming of a 'second probation' in
+eternity (comp. on 12:32); and yet others from unjustly assailing and
+rejecting, to their own ruin, the gospel of salvation."</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, many a sermon on Hell (and there are too few on the
+subject), it could possibly be said the average sermon on the subject,
+is a slander on a just and holy God. The sermon is drawn largely from
+Dante's Inferno or the distorted imagination of the preacher, with no
+reference to the fact that God will punish sinners differently
+according to their light and their sins, but only justly.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p><p>The trouble is not with the Bible teaching as to Hell, but with
+modern inadequate conceptions of the evil and guilt of sin, and with
+many, the almost lost sense of justice, and of "stern moral
+indignation against wrong." (Broadus.)</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2>
+
+<p class="subhead1">SINS NOT EXCUSED, NOR THE PENALTY EVER REMITTED WITHOUT REDEMPTION</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no
+wise pass away from the law."&mdash;Jesus.</p>
+
+<p>"Apart from shedding of blood there is no remission."&mdash;Heb. 9:22.</p>
+
+<p>"For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to
+you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the
+blood that maketh atonement."&mdash;Lev. 17:11.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take
+away sins."&mdash;Heb. 10:4.</p>
+
+<p>"Every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of
+reward."&mdash;Heb. 2:2.</p></div>
+
+
+<p>When one faces the question of his sins, and realizes that they
+deserve just punishment, one of the first impulses is to pray and beg
+of God to be let off, to be forgiven; and, alas! much of the religious
+instruction to the sinner is to the same effect. Jesus to Nicodemus
+gave no such instruction (John 3:14-16); Philip to the Eunuch gave no
+such instruction (Acts 8:29-39); Paul and Silas to the jailer gave no
+such instruction (Acts 16:30, 31); Peter to the household of Cornelius
+gave no such instruction (Acts 10:42, 43); the gospel of John, the one
+book specially given to lead a sinner to be saved (John 20:30, 31),
+gives no such instruction.</p>
+
+<p>But the objection is at once brought up that in the Lord's Prayer we
+are taught to pray, "Forgive us our sins." That prayer begins "Our
+Father," and God is not the Father of sinners ("Ye are all the
+children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."&mdash;Gal. 3:26); and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> the
+prayer was given by the Saviour to disciples (Luke 11:1, 2), and not
+to sinners.</p>
+
+<p>But the objection is further raised that the Bible says, "If we
+confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins."
+That is from the first epistle of John, and was not written to
+sinners, but to believers. John says (1 John 5:13), "These things have
+I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even
+<i>unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God</i>." (R. V.) God
+can and does forgive the believer on confession, because the believer
+is a child of God. With the sinner it is a question of law, of
+justice, of right. Hence, the Lord Jesus said, "Till heaven and earth
+pass away, one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law"
+(Matt. 5:18). "Every transgression and disobedience received <i>a just
+recompense of reward</i>" (Heb. 2:2); but there is no "<i>just recompense
+of reward</i>" at all, if God lets the sinner off from the just penalty
+of his sins because he prays and begs and cries to be let off, or
+because priests or preachers pray and beg for him to be let off. "It
+is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin"
+(Heb. 10:4), because there is no "just recompense of reward" in such
+cases. Much less can the sins be taken away when there is no
+recompense of reward at all in the case, but simply the praying and
+begging of the sinner to be forgiven, to be let off, and the praying
+and begging of some priest or preacher that the sinner be forgiven,
+let off. God has given a plain warning, "Apart from shedding of blood
+there is no remission."&mdash;Heb. 9:22. Among what are called evangelical
+denominations it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> would be looked upon as worse than folly for a Jew,
+a Unitarian or a Universalist, who had asked God to forgive his sins,
+or had confessed the sins, to claim that therefore he was forgiven and
+was sure to go to Heaven. But it is just as fatal a delusion among
+others as among Jews, Unitarians and Universalists. Every
+transgression must have "<i>a just recompense of reward</i>," however sorry
+the sinner may be, however much he may pray and beg to be forgiven,
+let off; however much the priest or preacher or friends may pray for
+him to be forgiven, to be let off. A man who has violated the state
+law falls on his knees before the judge, confesses his sin and begs
+the judge to forgive him, to let him off; and he calls men from the
+audience to come and help him beg. The judge replies, "If I should
+yield to these petitions I would be a perjurer; I would trample on
+law. Every transgression must receive a just recompense of reward."
+Would that all could realize that every prayer from sinner, priest, or
+preacher, for a sinner to be forgiven, let off, is a prayer to God to
+become a perjurer. If sinners could realize that, after all their
+kneeling every night and confessing their sins, and praying to be
+forgiven, to be let off, every sin ever committed is still there, and
+that "Apart from shedding of blood there is no remission," they would
+then realize their real need of a Saviour, a Redeemer.</p>
+
+<p>One question for the reader: If God forgives, lets a sinner off,
+simply because he is sorry and cries and prays and begs to be let off,
+or because the priest or preacher cries, prays and begs for him to be
+forgiven, to be let off, <i>why did Jesus die</i>?</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p><p><i>FOR FURTHER STUDY</i>: The word translated forgiveness in the Bible
+means simply to send away, without reference to how the sin is sent
+away; but God's word states plainly that sins are forgiven, sent away,
+by Christ bearing them. "Behold the lamb of God that taketh away the
+sin of the world."&mdash;John 1:29. "Who his own self bare our sins in his
+own body on the tree."&mdash;1 Peter 2:24; "Christ died for our sins."&mdash;1
+Cor. 15:3. Concerning the justice of Christ dying for our sins, see
+the next chapter.</p>
+
+<p>The prayer of the publican in the old version, "God be merciful to me
+the sinner," Luke 18:13, has misled many. If that was really the
+prayer of the publican, how <i>could</i> the Saviour have said, "This man
+went down to his house <i>justified</i>"? The margin of the Revised Version
+gives what the Greek says, "Be thou propitiated." It is the same Greek
+word that in Heb. 2:17 is translated, "to make reconciliation for the
+sins of the people." President Strong of Rochester Theological
+Seminary gives the exact meaning of it when he renders it, "Be thou
+propitiated to me the sinner by the sacrifice whose smoke was then
+ascending in the presence of the publican while he prayed." And Jesus
+shows what the publican said when He added, "This man went down to his
+house <i>justified</i>."</p>
+
+<p>It is said that a young man ran away from his widowed mother and was
+gone for years. One stormy night sitting near the window sewing, while
+the rain was beating against the window pane, she thought she heard a
+noise. Looking up she saw the shaggy, bearded face of a ragged tramp
+pressed against the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> window pane, but it faded back into the storm as
+she looked up. Faint lines in the face aroused memory. As the needle
+was plied the mind was busy. Again a slight noise caused her to look
+up, and again the shaggy, bearded face of the tramp faded back into
+the storm. This time she knew that she was not mistaken. The shaggy
+beard could not hide the lines in the face of her long-lost boy.
+Throwing up the window she cried, "Come in, William, oh, come in."
+Stepping to where the light fell full in his face, while the tears
+coursed down his cheeks, he said, "Mother, I can't come in till my sin
+has been put out of the way." There was honor left in the tramp yet.
+There ought to be honor enough in every human being not to wish to go
+to Heaven, not to try to go to Heaven, at the expense of God's
+justice. Jesus said, John 10:1, 7, "He that entereth not by the door
+into the fold of the sheep, but climbeth up some other way, the same
+is a thief and a robber." "Verily, verily I say unto you, I am the
+door." Jesus says, then, that those who confess their sins, and pray
+for forgiveness and claim it, and yet reject Him as the door, are
+thieves and robbers. God does forgive the redeemed, for they are His
+children (Gal. 4:4-7), on confession (1 John 1:9); but for those who
+are under the law, His word is plain, "Apart from shedding of blood
+there is no remission."&mdash;Heb. 9:22.</p>
+
+<p>God's word states plainly how our sins are put away; not by, or
+because of, the praying and weeping and confession of the sinner, nor
+the praying and weeping and interceding of others for the sinner, for
+God to forgive him; "but now once in the end of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> world hath he
+appeared to put away sin by the <i>sacrifice of himself</i>."&mdash;Heb. 9:26.
+Concerning the justice of putting away sin in this way, see next
+chapter. On this point Walker well says, "If the holiness of the law
+was not maintained, that sense of guilt and danger could not be
+produced which is necessary in order that man may have a spiritual
+Saviour."&mdash;<i>Walker, in "The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation."</i></p>
+
+<p>Again he says, "When He reveals His perfect law, that law cannot, from
+the nature of its author, allow the commission of a single
+sin."&mdash;<i>Walker, in "The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation."</i></p>
+
+<p>Further, he says, "God ought not to allow one sin; if He did, the law
+would not be holy, nor adapted to make men holy."&mdash;<i>Walker, in "The
+Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation."</i></p>
+
+<p>Equally to the point are the words of James Denny, "It is an immediate
+inference, then, from all that we have seen in the New Testament, that
+where there is no atonement there is no gospel. To preach the love of
+God out of relation to the death of Christ, or to preach the love of
+God in the death of Christ, but without being able to relate it to
+sin, or to preach that forgiveness of sins as the free gift of God's
+love while the death of Christ has no special significance assigned to
+it, is not, if the New Testament is the rule and standard of
+Christianity, to preach the gospel at all."&mdash;<i>Denny, in "The Death of
+Christ."</i></p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2>
+
+<p class="subhead1">JESUS THE CHRIST AS SIN-BEARER&mdash;GOD'S JUSTICE AND LOVE</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that
+whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal
+life."&mdash;John 3:16.</p>
+
+<p>"That he might himself be just and the justifier of him that hath
+faith in Jesus."&mdash;Rom. 3:26.</p>
+
+<p>"He was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our
+iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with
+his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we
+have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him
+the iniquity of us all."&mdash;Is. 53:5, 6.</p>
+
+<p>"Christ died for our sins."&mdash;1 Cor. 15:3.</p>
+
+<p>"Our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins."&mdash;Gal. 1:3,
+4.</p>
+
+<p>"Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree."&mdash;1
+Peter 2:24.</p>
+
+<p>"Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the
+unrighteous."&mdash;1 Peter 3:18.</p>
+
+<p>"Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to
+minister and to give His life a ransom for many."&mdash;Matt. 20:28.</p>
+
+<p>"There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
+who gave himself a ransom for all."&mdash;1 Tim. 2:5, 6.</p>
+
+<p>"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a
+curse for us."&mdash;Gal. 3:13.</p>
+
+<p>"Our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might
+redeem us from all iniquity."&mdash;Titus 2:13, 14.</p>
+
+<p>"By which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the
+body of Jesus Christ once for all."&mdash;Heb. 10:10.</p>
+
+<p>"For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are
+sanctified."&mdash;Heb. 10:14.</p>
+
+<p>"Nor yet by the blood of goats and bulls, but through his own blood
+entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained
+eternal redemption."&mdash;Heb. 9:12.</p>
+
+<p>"This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many
+unto the remission of sins."&mdash;Matt. 26:28.</p>
+
+<p>"And they sing a new song, saying, Worthy art thou to take the book
+and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and didst
+purchase unto God with thy blood men of every tribe and tongue and
+people and nation."&mdash;Rev. 5:9.</p>
+
+<p>"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and
+sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."&mdash;1 John 4:10.</p>
+
+<p>"The Son of God who loved me, and gave himself up for me."&mdash;Gal.
+2:20.</p></div>
+
+
+<p>Reader, God's justice and love are both shown in the Saviour dying for
+our sins. Substitution is the <i>only way</i> of salvation when justice and
+love are both considered. It was God's justice that made it necessary
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>for Christ to die for our sins. "Even so <i>must</i> the Son of man be
+lifted up,"&mdash;John 3:14;&mdash;"that he might himself be <i>just</i> and the
+<i>justifier</i> of him that hath faith in Jesus."&mdash;Rom. 3:26. And it was
+God's love that let Him die for our sins, "for God so loved the world
+that he gave his only begotten Son."&mdash;John 3:16. What you, reader,
+ought to desire to know, is simply God's way. The Scriptures at the
+beginning of the chapter, if language can make anything plain, show
+clearly that the sinner's only escape from the just punishment of his
+sins lies in Jesus dying in his place to set him free from the just
+penalty due his sins; and they make it plain that this settles the
+<i>full</i> penalty for <i>all sins</i>.</p>
+
+<p>But the objection is raised and pressed with all the force of human
+ingenuity and scholarship, backed by the prestige of some occupying
+the highest positions in literary and theological institutions, that
+it is morally wrong for the innocent to suffer the penalty of the
+guilty. With a zeal deserving a better cause, many who stand high as
+professed Christians and teachers join hands with the rankest, most
+blatant infidels, and press this, to them, unanswerable objection to
+Christ dying for our sins as our substitute. This friendship between
+infidelity and professed Christian teachers reminds one of another
+occasion when our Saviour was set at naught and two became friends
+with each other that very day (Luke 23:11, 12). Let us face this
+objection honestly and earnestly, for our eternal destiny turns on
+this one point. <i>Is it morally wrong for the innocent to bear the sins
+of the guilty?</i> In the first place it is <i>not</i> morally wrong, because
+God<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> would not do morally wrong, and God <i>did</i> let the innocent suffer
+the penalty of the guilty. The language of Scripture teaching that
+Jesus suffered the penalty of our sins for us is plain and simple, and
+all efforts to take from the Scripture language its simple, plain,
+natural meaning are pitiable, and if contempt were ever justifiable,
+would deserve the contempt of all honest men. Let the reader turn back
+and read the Scriptures at the head of this chapter and decide for
+himself as to their obvious, intended meaning.</p>
+
+<p>Now, because God's word tells us plainly that God gave His only
+begotten Son, that He might be just, and thus the justifier of him who
+believes in Jesus, that Christ died for our sins, that He gave Himself
+for our sins, the just for the unjust,&mdash;it is right for the innocent
+to suffer the penalty of the guilty. To any honest, candid man, which
+is the correct way to reason? This thing is wrong; God did this thing;
+therefore, God did wrong? or, God does right; God did let Christ, the
+innocent, suffer and die for our sins, to <i>redeem</i> from <i>all
+iniquity</i>; therefore it is right for the innocent to suffer the
+penalty of the guilty?</p>
+
+<p>Nor is Christ suffering as our substitute the Great Exception, as some
+timid ones have granted. It is in line with <i>God's Plan with Men</i>; it
+is in line with the best and noblest there is in man; and the opposite
+teaching, that it is wrong to let the innocent bear the penalty of the
+guilty, is not only wrong, but horrible and the extreme of
+heartlessness. Two men passing along the street at night hear groaning
+in the gutter; striking a match, they see two men lying in the gutter
+with their faces all gashed and bleeding. In a drunken<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> street fight
+they have almost killed each other. Who did the sinning? Those two men
+lying in the gutter; they deserve to suffer the penalty of their
+sinning. But these other two men join hands, pay for a physician, a
+nurse and the hospital bill. In principle that is the innocent paying
+the penalty of the guilty. To say that this is wrong would mean to
+condemn the community to pass by day after day and see those ghastly,
+festering wounds, those parched lips and bloodshot eyes, and to listen
+to those dying groans. And yet in principle that is exactly what those
+demand for this sinful, sin-injured human race, when they say that it
+is morally wrong for Jesus the Saviour to suffer the penalty of our
+sins. A son becomes a drunkard; his drunkenness and debauchery utterly
+wreck his health. Some night the father finds his drunken son down in
+the street, a helpless invalid. The son did the sinning; he deserves
+to suffer the penalty of his sins; but the father takes him to his
+home and cares for him and supports him. In principle that is the
+innocent bearing the penalty of the guilty. To say that this is
+morally wrong would be to condemn that father to pass by day after day
+and see his son suffering the just consequences of his sin, to see him
+slowly starving to death, to see him gasping in death, and not be
+allowed to come to the rescue. Yet when men object to Christ bearing
+the penalty of the sinner's sins they are, in principle, taking that
+stand; for in principle Jesus, dying for our sins, did what the father
+did with the son. A prominent woman in America was dying from lack of
+blood; back of it somewhere was violation of some law of God, some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>
+law of health. Her noble husband had the surgeon join their arteries,
+and every beat of his noble heart drove his well blood into the body
+of his dying wife, and he saved her life. These objectors praise that
+act; they see nothing morally wrong in it. Yet when Jesus, in
+principle, did the same thing for sinners in order to save them, these
+same men, with a haughty, scornful tone, say that it is morally wrong
+for the innocent to suffer in place of the guilty. "Nay but, O man,
+who art thou that repliest against God?"&mdash;Rom. 9:20. Had the objectors
+said that it was wrong to <i>force</i> the innocent to suffer the penalty
+of the guilty, that would have been true, but Jesus was not forced.
+Listen to Him, John 10:17, 18, "Therefore doth the Father love me,
+because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one taketh it
+away from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down
+and I have power to take it again."</p>
+
+<p>Nor is Christ dying for our sins, as taught by the Scriptures, a
+makeshift, but, rather, a real, full <i>redemption, ransom</i>. Just as a
+captain can honorably, honestly be given as a ransom for a number of
+private soldiers in an exchange of prisoners; just as a diamond can
+redeem a debt of many dollars; just as one man is allowed to pay
+another's debt; just as one man is allowed to pay another's fine in a
+courtroom; so our Lord and Saviour "gave himself for us, that he might
+<i>redeem</i> us from <i>all iniquity</i>." All illustrations of Deity fall
+short, but just as a man could ransom all the ants that crawl upon the
+earth, were they under moral law and had violated it; just as a man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>
+could, on account of the vast difference in the scale of being, suffer
+in his own body all that all the ants upon earth could suffer; so
+Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, redeemed us from "all iniquity." It was
+not merely the nails driven through His quivering flesh, nor the
+physical pangs, but "the Lord hath laid on him <i>the iniquity</i> of us
+all." Hence, that awful cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
+me?" He was in the sinner's place, suffering the sinner's penalty for
+sin. "He hath made him to be sin for us."&mdash;2 Cor. 6:21.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of proudly cavilling and warping and trying to avoid the
+simple, plain meaning of God's word, should you not rather, reader,
+bow in reverence before such love, realize that it was for you, yes,
+<i>you</i>, and that through His suffering and in no other way, you may
+escape the just punishment of your sins and spend eternity in Heaven?
+The world weeps over the story of the noble fireman who gave his life
+to rescue a little girl from a burning building, but it coldly scorns
+and proudly rejects salvation through the redemption of Jesus the
+Christ. Oh, the pride and wickedness of the human heart! Be not you,
+reader, of those who sit in the seat of the scornful, but the rather
+of those who at the last day will sing, Rev. 5:9, "Worthy art thou to
+take the book and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and
+didst purchase unto God with thy blood, men of every tribe and tongue
+and people and nation."</p>
+
+<p>Let us consider carefully what it really means when we are told that
+"Christ died <i>for our sins</i>,"&mdash;1 Cor. 15:3, that He "gave himself <i>for
+our sins</i>,"&mdash;Gal.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> 1:4; that "his own self bare our sins in his own
+body upon the tree,"&mdash;1 Peter 2:24; that "Christ also suffered for
+sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous."&mdash;1 Peter 3:18. God's
+word explains it clearly: "That he might himself be <i>just</i> and the
+<i>justifier</i> of him that hath faith in Jesus."&mdash;Rom. 3:26. "<i>That he
+might be just.</i>" Notice it carefully, "<i>That he might be just.</i>" Take
+it in its full meaning, "That he might be just." A question: How
+<i>could</i> God be <i>just</i> and <i>justify</i> any sinner apart from the fact
+that "Christ died for our sins," that "the Lord hath laid on him the
+iniquity of us all"? Reader, no man, however learned, will ever answer
+that question. He may sneer; he may cavil; he may warp; he may try to
+confuse; but he will never come out in the open and answer that
+question. He may say that it is morally wrong for the innocent to bear
+the penalty of the guilty, but that objection is met and answered
+above in this chapter.</p>
+
+<p>Let us face a trilemma; three, and only three plans, were possible for
+God with man:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>First, To have been just with man, without any love or mercy; hence,
+for every sinner to have suffered the just penalty for his sins,
+without any redemption. That would have meant Hell for every
+responsible human being, without any Heaven at all.</p>
+
+<p>Second, To have been all mercy and all love and no justice. That would
+have meant no moral laws; for why have moral laws, if there would be
+no penalty, no justice? That would have meant a premium on crime. That
+would have meant the debased, the debauched, the immoral, the drunken,
+the fiend, on a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> level with the chaste, the pure, the upright, the
+true. That would have meant unbridled rein to passion and lust and
+every other evil inclination, and no penalty following. That would
+have meant Hell in trying to get rid of Hell.</p>
+
+<p>Third, There was left but one other possible plan, to be just and at
+the same time extend love to the sinners. In the nature of the case,
+real redemption, without any makeshift, was the only way this <i>could</i>
+be done. "Even so <i>must</i> the Son of man be lifted up,"&mdash;John 3:14;
+"that he himself might be <i>just</i> and the <i>justifier</i> of him that hath
+faith in Jesus,"&mdash;Rom. 3:26; "God so <i>loved</i> the world that he gave
+his only begotten Son,"&mdash;John 3:16; "Herein is love, not that we loved
+God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be <i>the propitiation
+for our sins</i>."&mdash;1 John 4:10.</p>
+
+<p>This leads to another question: How can God be <i>just</i> and <i>not</i>
+justify "him that hath faith in Jesus"? Again men may quibble and
+warp, and ridicule, but no one will ever answer the question. And the
+reason why this question will never be answered leads to another
+question:</p>
+
+<p>From how many of his sins is the one "that hath faith in Jesus"
+<i>justified</i>? We have now gotten to the very centre of the whole
+problem of salvation. Let us give it most careful consideration.</p>
+
+<p>In not one of the Scriptures cited at the head of this chapter is
+there one word that limits the number of sins for which Christ died,
+or from which the believer is justified. That of itself is sufficient
+warrant for us to conclude that Christ died for <i>all</i> of the sins of
+the believer, that when He "gave himself for our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> sins" (Gal. 1:4), it
+included <i>all</i> of our sins, and that the believer is justified from
+<i>all</i> of his sins. One man promises another that he will pay his
+debts. That of itself means all of his debts, unless the one making
+the promise was simply juggling with words. While this of itself would
+be sufficient, God in His word has made it positive and absolute as to
+how many of the believer's sins were laid on Christ ("the Lord hath
+laid on him the iniquity of us all."&mdash;Is. 53:6); for how many of our
+sins Christ gave Himself ("Who gave himself for our sins."&mdash;Gal. 1:4);
+for how many of our sins Christ died (1 Cor. 15:3); from how many of
+his sins the believer is <i>justified</i>, ("that he might himself be
+<i>just</i> and the <i>justifier</i> of him that hath faith in Jesus."&mdash;Rom.
+3:26). In Lev. 16:21, 22, God gives us a picture, foreshadowing the
+Saviour, of laying the sins on the substitute: "And Aaron shall lay
+both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him
+<i>all</i> the iniquity of the children of Israel, and <i>all</i> their
+transgressions, even <i>all</i> their sins; and he shall put them upon the
+head of the goat and shall send him away by the hand of a man that is
+in readiness into the wilderness: And the goat shall bear upon him
+<i>all</i> their iniquities." "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh [or
+beareth] away the sins of the world."&mdash;John 1:29. <i>But how many</i> of
+our sins? Let God's word answer: Titus 2:13, 14, "Our Saviour Jesus
+Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might <i>redeem</i> us from <i>all
+iniquity</i>." Look at it again, reader; grasp its full meaning; let it
+be impressed indelibly upon your soul: "Our Saviour Jesus Christ; who
+gave himself for us, that he might <i>redeem</i> us from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> <i>all</i> iniquity."
+Then as certainly as the believer is redeemed by Him, he is redeemed
+from <i>all</i> iniquity; and as certainly as he is redeemed from all
+iniquity, that certainly the believer is going to Heaven, for there is
+nothing left that can cause him to be lost. Hence God, through Paul,
+has told us "By him every one that believeth is <i>justified</i> from <i>all</i>
+things."&mdash;Acts 13:39.</p>
+
+<p>If our Saviour Jesus Christ gave Himself for us that he might <i>redeem</i>
+us from <i>all</i> iniquity (Titus 2:13, 14), how can God be <i>just</i> and
+<i>not</i> justify every one that believes from <i>all</i> things (Acts 13:39)?
+And if the believer is <i>justified</i> from <i>all</i> things (Acts 13:39), he
+is certain to go to Heaven. This is <i>God's plan</i>; this is God's will;
+"by the which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the
+body of Jesus Christ <i>once for all</i>."&mdash;Heb. 10:10. "<i>For by one</i>
+offering he hath <i>perfected forever</i> them that are sanctified."&mdash;Heb.
+10:14. "Nor yet by the blood of goats and calves, but through his own
+blood entered in <i>once for all</i> into the holy place, having obtained
+<i>eternal redemption</i>."&mdash;Heb. 9:12. Hence Jesus said, "Verily, verily I
+say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent
+me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but is
+passed from death to life."&mdash;John 5:24.</p>
+
+<p>While thus is manifested God's justice, and the <i>only</i> way that God
+<i>could</i> be "just and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus"
+(Rom. 3:26), for Jesus Himself said it ("Even so <i>must</i> the Son of man
+be lifted up."&mdash;John 3:14); let the reader not forget that it equally
+manifests God's love, and the Saviour's love. "Herein is love, not
+that we loved God, but that he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> loved us, and sent his Son to be the
+propitiation for our sins."&mdash;1 John 4:10. "The Son of God who loved me
+and gave himself for me."&mdash;Gal. 2:20. If God's love is amazing in
+sending His Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:10), if
+the Saviour's love is amazing in loving us and giving Himself for us
+(Gal. 2:20), how infinitely more amazing is this love when we see that
+it has obtained <i>eternal redemption</i> for us (Heb. 9:12); that it has
+redeemed us from <i>all</i> iniquity (Titus 2:14), and that every one that
+believes is <i>justified</i> from <i>all</i> things (Acts 13:39)?</p>
+
+<p>Reader, the greatest crime that is ever committed on this earth is to
+reject this "so great salvation" (Heb. 2:3); this redemption from all
+iniquity (Titus 2:14), and to trifle with the amazing love that
+provided a way by which He Himself might be just and the justifier of
+him that hath faith in Jesus (Rom. 3:26). We shudder at the horrible
+crimes reported in the daily papers, at those recorded in history; but
+far greater, far blacker, more terrible, is the crime of a human being
+rejecting this great provision of God's love. Only intellectual pride,
+religious prejudice, family or race ties, love of the world, or secret
+sin, can be the cause of the reader taking such a fatal step; and
+fearful will be the consequences of letting any one of these cause the
+rejection of the only salvation that God's love and justice could
+provide. The reader cannot plead that God has not given sufficient
+proof that He has given us a revelation in His word (let the reader go
+back and read again the Introduction and the reference for further
+study); nor can he plead that God's word does not make the message
+plain (let<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> the reader go back and study the Scriptures at the
+beginning of this chapter). It is a solemn and awful step, reader, one
+never to be retraced, to decide to reject this salvation, and to go
+out into the dark, unending future beyond the grave, unredeemed from
+iniquity, with no certain hope, when God has warned you, "Apart from
+shedding of blood there is no remission,"&mdash;Heb. 9:22. It is an awful,
+eternal crisis, when you see God's only provision for you, so
+complete, so perfect, so sure, and then face His warning, "I call
+heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set
+before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore
+choose <i>life</i>."</p>
+
+<p><i>FOR FURTHER STUDY.</i>&mdash;There are those who deny God's justice in Christ
+dying for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3), in Christ giving Himself for our
+sins (Gal. 1:4), in Christ redeeming us from all iniquity (Titus
+2:14). Expressions from the two most prominent rejecters will show the
+principal reasons given by all other rejecters of redemption through
+Christ:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Moral justice cannot take the innocent for the guilty, even if the
+innocent would offer itself."&mdash;<i>The "Age of Reason" by Thomas Paine.</i>
+"The outrage offered to the moral justice of God, by supposing Him to
+make the innocent suffer for the guilty."&mdash;<i>The "Age of Reason," by
+Thomas Paine.</i></p>
+
+<p>"An execution is an object for gratitude; the preachers daub
+themselves with the blood, like a troop of assassins, and pretend to
+admire the brilliancy it gives them."&mdash;<i>The "Age of Reason," by Thomas
+Paine.</i></p>
+
+<p>The other is Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy in her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> "Science and Health, with
+Key to the Scriptures": "One sacrifice, however great, is insufficient
+to pay the debt of sin. The atonement requires constant
+self-immolation on the sinner's part." Again, "Another's suffering
+cannot lessen our own liability." Again, "The time is not distant when
+the ordinary theological views of atonement will undergo a great
+change,&mdash;a change as radical as that which has come over popular
+opinions in regard to predestination and future punishment. Does
+erudite theology regard the crucifixion of Jesus chiefly as providing
+a ready pardon for all sinners who ask for it and are willing to be
+forgiven? Does spiritualism find Jesus's death necessary only for the
+presentation, after death, of the material Jesus, as a proof that
+spirits can return to earth? Then we must differ from them both." It
+is not to be wondered at that she takes her stand with Thomas Paine in
+rejecting the teaching that Christ died for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3),
+and that He redeemed us from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), when she says,
+"Does divine love commit a fraud on humanity by making man inclined to
+sin and then punishing him for it?" Again, "In common justice we must
+admit that God will not punish man for doing what He created man
+capable of doing, and knew from the outset that man would do." Again,
+"The destruction of sin is the divine method of pardon. Being
+destroyed, sin needs no other pardon." There is one vast difference
+between these two who reject Jesus as our sin-bearer, our
+Redeemer,&mdash;Thomas Paine does not masquerade under the name
+"Christian." Why should others who stand with him in rejecting
+complete redemption through Christ?</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p><p>Catholics by the sacrifice of the mass, the unbloody sacrifice, the
+elevation of the host, teach that the wafer is changed into the real
+"body, blood, soul and divinity" of Jesus Christ, and that it is then
+offered as a sacrifice. They thereby reject the complete redemption
+through Christ dying for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3), redeeming us from all
+iniquity (Titus 2:14). They thereby deny that He "offered one
+sacrifice for sin forever,"&mdash;Heb. 10:12, and that "by one offering he
+hath perfected forever them that are sanctified."&mdash;Heb. 10:14. Having
+rejected Him as complete Redeemer, they have no real Saviour at all.
+But those who make salvation dependent on moral character, or baptism,
+or church membership, just as surely as the Catholics reject the
+completeness of the redemption.</p>
+
+<p>There are some who sneer at this teaching as the "commercial view" of
+redemption, in the face of God's word that declares, "ye were <i>bought
+with a price,"</i>&mdash;1 Cor. 6:20; "worthy art thou to take the book and to
+open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and didst <i>purchase</i> unto
+God with thy blood men of every tribe and tongue and people and
+nation."&mdash;Rev. 5:9. (R. V.)</p>
+
+<p>Consider the testimony of three over against the two quoted against
+this teaching of God's word:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I saw that if Jesus suffered in my stead, I could not suffer, too;
+and that if He bore all my sin, I had no more sin to bear. My iniquity
+must be blotted out if Jesus bore it in my stead and suffered all its
+penalty."&mdash;<i>C. H. Spurgeon.</i></p>
+
+<p>"If you believe on him, I tell you you cannot go to Hell; for that
+were to make the sacrifice of Christ of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> none effect. It cannot be
+that a sacrifice should be accepted and yet the soul should die for
+whom that sacrifice had been received. If the believing soul could be
+condemned, then why a sacrifice? Every believer can claim that the
+sacrifice was actually made for him: by faith he has laid his hands on
+it, and made it his own, and therefore he may rest assured that he can
+never perish. The Lord would not receive this offering on our behalf
+and then condemn us to die."&mdash;<i>C. H. Spurgeon.</i></p>
+
+<p>"The law of God was more vindicated by the death of Christ than it
+would have been had all the transgressors been sent to Hell. For the
+Son of God to suffer for sin was a more glorious establishment of the
+government of God than for the whole race to suffer."&mdash;<i>C. H.
+Spurgeon.</i></p>
+
+<p>"It is the obvious implication of these words (the Righteous One for
+the unrighteous ones) that the death on which such stress is laid was
+something to which the unrighteous were liable because of their sins,
+and that in their interest the Righteous One took it on
+Himself."&mdash;<i>Denny, in "The Death of Christ."</i></p>
+
+<p>"This is his gospel, that a Righteous One has once for all faced and
+taken up and in death exhausted the responsibilities of the
+unrighteous, so that they no more stand between them and
+God."&mdash;<i>Denny, in "The Death of Christ."</i></p>
+
+<p>"If Christ died the death in which sin had involved us, if in His
+death He took the responsibility of our sins upon Himself, no word is
+equal to this which falls short of what is meant by calling Him our
+substitute."<i>&mdash;Denny, in "The Death of Christ."</i></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p><p>"I do not know any word that conveys the truth of this if 'vicarious'
+or 'substitutionary' does not; nor do I know any interpretation of
+Christ's death which enables us to regard it as a demonstration of
+love to sinners, if this vicarious or substitutionary character is
+denied. There is much preaching <i>about</i> Christ's death which fails to
+be a preaching <i>of</i> Christ's death, and therefore to be in the full
+sense of the term Gospel Preaching, because it ignores this. The
+simplest hearer feels that there is something irrational in saying
+that the death of Christ is a great proof of love to the sinful unless
+there is shown at the same time a rational connection between that
+death and the responsibilities which sin involves, and from which that
+death delivers. Perhaps one should beg pardon for using so simple an
+illustration, but the point is a vital one, and it is necessary to be
+clear. If I were sitting on the end of a pier on a summer day,
+enjoying the sunshine and the air, and some one came along and jumped
+into the water and got drowned to prove his love to me, I should find
+it quite unintelligible. I might be much in need of love, but an act
+in no relation to any of my necessities could not prove it. But if I
+had fallen over the pier and were drowning and some one sprang into
+the water and at the cost of making my peril, or what but for him
+would be my fate, his own, saved me from death, then I should say,
+'Greater love hath no man than this.' I should say it intelligently,
+because there would be an intelligible relation between the sacrifice
+which love made and the necessity from which it redeemed."&mdash;<i>Denny, in
+"The Death of Christ."</i></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p><p>"Christ died for sins once for all, and the man who believes in
+Christ and in His death has his relation to God <i>once for all
+determined not by sin but by the atonement</i>."&mdash;<i>Denny, in "The Death
+of Christ."</i></p>
+
+<p>"One who knew no sin had, in obedience to the Father, to take on Him
+the responsibility, the doom, the curse, the death of the sinful.
+And if any one says that this was morally impossible, may we not
+ask again, What is the alternative? Is it not that the sinful
+should be left alone with their responsibility, doom, curse, and
+death?"&mdash;<i>Denny, in "The Death of Christ."</i></p>
+
+<p>"Redemption, it may be said, springs from love, yet love is only a
+word of which we do not know the meaning till it is interpreted for us
+by redemption."&mdash;<i>Denny, in "The Death of Christ."</i></p>
+
+<p>"Unless we can preach a finished work of Christ in relation to sin, a
+reconciliation or peace which has been achieved independently of us at
+infinite cost, and to which we are called in a word of ministry of
+reconciliation, we have no real gospel for sinful men at
+all."&mdash;<i>Denny, in "The Death of Christ."</i></p>
+
+<p>"If the evangelist has not something to preach of which he can say,
+'If any man makes it his business to subvert this, let him be
+anathema,' he has no gospel at all."&mdash;<i>Denny, in "The Death of
+Christ."</i></p>
+
+<p>"<i>As there is only one God, so there can be only one Gospel. If God
+has really done something in Christ on which the salvation of the
+world depends, and if He has made it known, then it is a Christian
+duty to be intolerant of everything which ignores, denies, or explains
+it away. The man who perverts it is the worst<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> enemy of God and
+men.</i>"&mdash;<i>Denny, in "The Death of Christ."</i></p>
+
+<p>"We should remember, also, that it is not always intellectual
+sensitiveness, nor care for the moral interests involved, which sets
+the mind to criticise statements of the Atonement. There <i>is</i> such a
+thing as pride, the last form of which is unwillingness to become
+debtors even to Christ for forgiveness of sins."&mdash;<i>Denny, in "The
+Death of Christ."</i></p>
+
+<p>But the Saviour could not have been a <i>Redeemer</i>, if He had not been
+God manifest in the flesh, for two reasons:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>First, if He had not been Deity, God manifest in the flesh, His dying
+for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3) would not have been <i>Redemption</i>, but a
+mere makeshift. "It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats
+should take away sins."&mdash;Heb. 10:4. Why not? Because in that case
+there would have been no real <i>redemption</i>, but only a makeshift.
+Second, had the Saviour been anything other than God manifest in the
+flesh, He would have <i>won</i> men <i>from</i> God and alienated them from God.
+On this point let the reader consider well the following from Walker,
+in "The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation":&mdash;"As God was the author
+of the law, and as He is the only Proper Object both of supreme love
+and obedience; and as man could not be happy in obeying the law
+without loving its Author, it follows that the thing now necessary, in
+order that man's affections might be fixed upon the proper object of
+love and obedience, was, that the Supreme God should, by self-denying
+kindness, manifest spiritual mercy to those who felt their spiritual
+wants, and thus draw to Himself <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>the love and worship of mankind. <i>If
+any other being should supply the need, that being would receive the
+love</i>; it was therefore necessary that <i>God Himself</i> should do it, in
+order that the affections of believers might centre upon the proper
+object." "Now, suppose Jesus Christ was not God, nor a true
+manifestation of the Godhead in human nature, but a man, or angel,
+authorized by God to accomplish the redemption of the human race from
+sin and misery. In doing this, it appears, from the nature of the
+thing, and from the Scriptures, that He did what was adapted to, and
+what does, draw the heart of every true believer, as in the case of
+the apostles and the early Christians, to Himself as the supreme or
+governing object of affection. Their will is governed by the will of
+Christ; and love to Him moves their heart and hands. <i>Now, if it be
+true that Jesus Christ is not God, then He has devised and executed a
+plan by which the supreme affections of the human heart are drawn to
+Himself, and alienated from God</i>, the proper object of love and
+worship: and God, having authorized this plan, <i>He has devised means
+to make man love Christ, the creature, more than the creator</i>, who is
+God over all, blessed for evermore.</p>
+
+<p>"But it is said that Christ having taught and suffered by the will and
+authority of God, we are under obligation to love God for what Christ
+has done for us. It is answered, that this is impossible. We cannot
+love one being for what another does or suffers on our behalf. We can
+love no being for labors and self-denials on our behalf, but that
+being who valiantly labors and denies himself. It is the kindness and
+mercy exhibited in the self-denial that move the affections; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>and the
+affections can move to no being but the one that makes the
+self-denial, because it is the self-denial that draws out the love of
+the heart.</p>
+
+<p>"It is said, that Christ was sent by God to do His will and not His
+own; and therefore we ought to love God, as the being to whom
+gratitude and love are due for what Christ said and suffered.</p>
+
+<p>"Then it is answered: If God willed that Christ, as a creature of His,
+should come, and by His suffering and death redeem sinners, we ought
+not to love Christ for it, because He did it as a creature in
+obedience to the commands of God, and was not self-moved nor
+meritorious in the work; and we cannot love God for it, for the labor
+and self-denial were not borne by Him. And further: If one being, by
+an act of his authority, should cause another innocent being to
+suffer, in order that he might be loved who had imposed the suffering,
+but not borne it, it would render him unworthy of love. If God had
+caused Jesus Christ, being His creature, to suffer, that He might be
+loved Himself for Christ's sufferings, while He had no connection with
+them, instead of such an exhibition, on the part of God, producing
+love to Him, it would procure pity for Christ and aversion towards
+God. So that, neither God, nor Christ, nor any other being, can be
+loved for mercy extended by self-denials to the needy, unless those
+self-denials were produced by a voluntary act of mercy upon the part
+of the being who suffers them; and no being, but the one who made the
+sacrifice, could be meritorious in the case. It follows, therefore,
+incontrovertibly, that if Christ was a creature&mdash;no matter of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> how
+exalted worth&mdash;and not God; and if God approved of His work in saving
+sinners, <i>He approved of treason against His own government</i>; because,
+in that case, the work of Christ was adapted to draw, and did
+necessarily draw, the affections of the human soul to Himself, as its
+Spiritual Saviour and thus alienated them from God, their rightful
+object. And Jesus Christ Himself had the design of drawing men's
+affections to Himself in view, by His crucifixion; says He, 'And I, if
+I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.' This He
+said signifying what death He should die: thus distinctly stating that
+it was the self-denials and mercy exhibited in the crucifixion that
+would draw out the affections of the human soul, and that those
+affections would be drawn to Himself as the suffering Saviour. But
+that God would sanction a scheme which would involve treason against
+Himself, and that Christ should participate in it, is absurd and
+impossible, and therefore cannot be true. But if the Divine Nature was
+united with the human in the teaching and work of Christ, if God was
+in Christ (drawing the affections of men, or) 'reconciling the world
+unto himself'&mdash;if, when Christ was lifted up, as Moses lifted up the
+serpent in the wilderness, He drew, as He said He would, the
+affections of all believers unto Himself; and then, if He ascended, as
+the Second Person of the Trinity, into the bosom of the Eternal
+Godhead&mdash;He thereby, after He had engaged, by His work on earth, the
+affections of the human soul, bore them up to the bosom of the Father,
+from whence they had fallen. Thus the ruins of the Fall were rebuilt,
+and the affections of the human soul<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> again restored to God, the
+Creator, and proper Object of Supreme love."</p>
+
+<p>Finally, let the reader give most earnest thought to the inevitable
+conclusion drawn by the same author:</p>
+
+<p>"How, then, could God manifest that mercy to sinners by which love to
+Himself and to His law would be produced, while His infinite holiness
+and justice would be maintained? We answer, in no way possible, but by
+some expedient by which His justice and mercy would both be exalted.
+If, in the wisdom of the Godhead, such a way could be devised by which
+God Himself could save the soul from the consequences of its
+guilt,&mdash;by which He Himself could, in some way, suffer and make
+self-denials for its good; and by His own interposition open a way for
+the soul to recover from its lost and condemned condition, then the
+result would follow inevitably, that every one of the human family who
+had been led to see and feel his guilty condition before God, and who
+believed in God thus manifesting Himself to rescue his soul from
+spiritual death, every one thus believing would, from the necessities
+of his nature, be led to love God his Saviour; and mark, the greater
+the self-denial and the suffering on the part of the Saviour in
+ransoming the soul, the stronger would be the affection felt for
+Him."&mdash;<i>Walker, in "The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation."</i></p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2>
+
+<p class="subhead1">THE NEW RELATION&mdash;THE NEW MOTIVE</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"What things soever the law saith, it saith <i>to them who are under
+the law</i>; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may
+become guilty before God."&mdash;Rom. 3:19.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye are not under the law."&mdash;Rom. 6:14.</p>
+
+<p>"The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we
+might be justified by faith, but <i>after that faith is come we are
+no longer under a schoolmaster</i>. For ye are all the children of God
+by faith in Jesus Christ."&mdash;Gal. 3:24-26.</p>
+
+<p>"When the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son born of
+a woman, born under the law, to redeem them that were under the
+law, <i>that we might receive the adoption of sons</i>. And because ye
+are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your
+hearts, crying Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant,
+but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ."&mdash;Gal.
+4:4-7.</p>
+
+<p>"Having in love predestinated us for adoption as sons through Jesus
+Christ to himself."&mdash;Eph. 1:5.</p>
+
+<p>"The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if
+one died for all, then all died; and he died for all, that they who
+live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who
+died for them and rose again."&mdash;2 Cor. 5:14, 15.</p>
+
+<p>"There was a certain creditor who had two debtors; the one owed
+five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing
+to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore which of
+them will love him most?"&mdash;Luke 7:41, 42.</p>
+
+<p>"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not
+love, I am become as sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And
+though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries,
+and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could
+remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I
+bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to
+be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing."&mdash;1 Cor.
+13:1-3.</p></div>
+
+
+<p><i>In God's plan with men</i>, His purpose in giving the law has been sadly
+misunderstood. To the Jews the law was given on tablets of stone and
+copied in their sacred writings; to the Gentiles the law was written
+in their hearts. The one class had more light than the other, and
+therefore will be judged differently.</p>
+
+<p>"As many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law; and
+as many as have sinned under<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> the law shall be judged by the
+law."&mdash;Rom. 2:12. "For when the Gentiles, who have no law, do by
+nature the things of the law, these, having no law, are a law unto
+themselves; who show the works of the law written in their hearts,
+their conscience also bearing witness, and their reasonings mutually
+accusing or even excusing them."&mdash;Rom. 2:14. Whether Jew or Gentile,
+God had one purpose in giving the law, "Now we know that what things
+soever the law saith, it saith to those who are under the law, that
+<i>every</i> mouth may be stopped and <i>all the world</i> be under judgement to
+God." God's plan with the law includes "every mouth," "all the world,"
+whether the law was written in their hearts or in sacred writings; and
+His purpose is, not that they should be saved by keeping the law, for
+then no one would be saved, for "all have sinned and come short of the
+glory of God,"&mdash;Rom. 3:23; but that they might be brought under
+judgment to God, every mouth stopped, guilty, and thus be brought to
+realize their need of a Redeemer. On this point God's word makes His
+purpose very plain: "The Scripture hath shut up all under sin, that
+the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that
+believe. But before faith, we were confined under law, shut up unto
+the faith about to be revealed. Wherefore the law was our tutor [or
+schoolmaster] unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But
+after that faith is come we are no longer under a tutor [or
+schoolmaster]."&mdash;Gal. 3:23-25.</p>
+
+<p>God's word is plain, that God put men under the law, not that they
+should be saved by keeping it, but that they might be led to see their
+need of a Saviour, one to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> redeem them from the curse of the law:
+"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
+for us,"&mdash;Gal 3:13; and then, having redeemed them from the curse of
+the law, and from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), to adopt them as His own
+children, "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ."&mdash;Rom. 8:17. So
+wonderful is the plan that it is hard for a human being to grasp it.
+<i>God's plan with men</i> is not simply to save them, but to put them
+above all other created beings. "Unto which of the angels said he at
+any time, Thou art my Son?"&mdash;Heb. 1:5. Yet, "having in love
+predestinated us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to
+himself,"&mdash;Eph. 1:5 (1911 Bible), "heirs of God and joint heirs with
+Christ,"&mdash;Rom. 8:17, He puts us far above angels; "for ye are all sons
+of God through faith in Christ Jesus."&mdash;Gal. 3:26. But men can only
+come into this higher relation to God as sons by being redeemed from
+under the lower relation, under the law. Hear God's word: "When the
+fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman,
+born under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, <i>that we
+might receive the adoption of sons</i>."&mdash;Gal. 4:4, 5. This higher
+relation as sons of God can be attained only by men coming out from
+under the law; and men can come out from under the law only by being
+redeemed from under the law.</p>
+
+<p>God's word teaches clearly, then, that when one is redeemed, he is no
+longer under the law. "Ye are not under the law,"&mdash;Rom. 6:14; "What
+things soever the law saith, it saith to <i>those who are under the
+law</i>."&mdash;Rom. 3:19. Then some are under the law and some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> are not under
+the law; "Wherefore the law was our tutor unto Christ that we might be
+justified by faith. But after the faith is come, <i>we are no longer
+under a tutor</i>."&mdash;Gal. 3:24, 25. Pause, reader, and try to grasp the
+meaning of this. If the believer is redeemed from all iniquity (Titus
+2:14), and is not under the law, (Rom. 6:14), then he is sure of
+Heaven; for "sin is not reckoned when there is no law."&mdash;Rom. 5:13. It
+is not reckoned or imputed because it has all been reckoned or imputed
+to Christ (Is. 53:6, Titus 2:14). Why, then, serve God? Not from fear
+of the law; not from fear of Hell; but from love to Him who redeemed
+us from the curse of the law, having been made a curse for us (Gal.
+3:13).</p>
+
+<p>Just as clearly God's word teaches that those who are redeemed from
+the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), from all iniquity (Titus 2:14),
+become the sons of God; for that purpose "God sent forth his Son, born
+of a woman, born under the law, to redeem them that were under the law
+that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons,
+God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying,
+Abba, Father."&mdash;Gal. 4:4-6. "For ye are all the sons of God through
+faith in Christ Jesus."&mdash;Gal. 3:26.</p>
+
+<p>But there is, in <i>God's plan with men</i>, beyond this a still more
+blessed, wonderful teaching: "Wherefore, thou art no more a servant,
+but a son."&mdash;Gal. 4:7. The one who is redeemed from under the law
+(Gal. 3:13) never gets back under the law again,&mdash;"Wherefore thou art
+no more a servant, but a son." That means, then, certainty of going to
+Heaven, certainty of being a son of God forever. And this new
+relation, and this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> certainty of Heaven are settled for men, not when
+they die, nor when they have united with some church, or have been
+baptised, but the moment men repent from their sins and accept the
+Saviour as their Redeemer from all iniquity; for God's word says, "He
+that believeth on the son <i>hath</i> everlasting life."&mdash;John 3:36; and
+"Ye <i>are</i> all the sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus."&mdash;Gal.
+3:26.</p>
+
+<p>This new relation with God gives men a new motive. Under the law,
+guilty, condemned by it, the motive was fear. But when men have been
+redeemed from under the law and adopted as sons of God, the motive of
+fear is no more the motive of life. "Ye have not received the spirit
+of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption,
+whereby we cry, Abba, Father."</p>
+
+<p>The motive of the son towards the father is not fear, but love. And
+this love is produced by the fact that God, in love, provided this
+great, wonderful plan for men, "having in love predestinated us for
+adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself,"&mdash;Eph. 1:5, and the
+fact that the Saviour loved us and gave Himself for us (Gal. 2:20).
+Hence, Paul tells us, "The love of Christ [not the fear of the law,
+nor the fear of Hell] constrains us; because we thus judge, that if
+one died for all, then all died; and he died for all, that they who
+live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died
+for them, and rose again." Our Saviour, the night before His
+crucifixion, made clear that this was to be the motive in the life of
+God's children. In instituting the Lord's supper He said, "This is my
+blood of the new covenant which is shed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> for many for the remission of
+sins."&mdash;Matt. 26:28; then, following this, before leaving the supper
+room, He said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments,"&mdash;John 14:15,
+not, "if ye are afraid of the law, keep my commandments"; not, "if ye
+are afraid of going to Hell, keep my commandments"; not, "if ye wish
+to make sure of going to Heaven, keep my commandments"; but, "if ye
+love me." But why love Him? Because "this is my blood of the new
+covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins." That this
+love, and that <i>this kind of love</i> is clearly the motive power of the
+real Christian life, notice the teaching of the Saviour in Luke 7:41,
+43, "There was a certain creditor who had two debtors; the one owed
+five hundred pence and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to
+pay he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them
+will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom
+he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou has rightly judged." This
+is no mere theory, that love <i>ought</i> to be the controlling motive, but
+it <i>is</i> the controlling motive. And it is not a mere theory that love
+<i>ought</i> to constrain the real Christian, the real believer, but the
+love of Christ <i>does</i> constrain us (2 Cor. 5:14).</p>
+
+<p>One may be moral, of deep piety, and yet if the motive power of his
+life is not this love, he is lost, not a real Christian. God's word
+makes this plain, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of
+angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a
+clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and
+understand <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all
+faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am
+nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though
+I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me
+nothing."&mdash;1 Cor. 13:1-3. Two of the mightiest preachers of all times,
+men whose tongues were those nearest to angels in preaching, Chalmers
+and Wesley, after years of most powerful preaching, came out and
+stated that during all those years they were lost, not Christians.
+Why? They had not been really redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14);
+they had not been forgiven most; the motive had not been the motive of
+him who is forgiven most,&mdash;"Though I speak with the tongues of men and
+of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a
+clanging cymbal." Why? Because eloquent, powerful preaching cannot
+redeem from iniquity, and God has said plainly, "Apart from shedding
+of blood there is no remission."&mdash;Heb. 9:22. Men may write great books
+explaining the mysteries of God's word, commentaries, Sunday-school
+lesson helps, instructions to Christians; yet if the motive power of
+their lives is not love based on the fact that they are forgiven most
+(Luke 7:43), redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), they are lost,
+not real Christians,&mdash;"though I have the gift of prophecy, and
+understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all
+faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am
+nothing." Why? Because there is nothing in understanding all
+mysteries, and all knowledge, in writing commentaries and other
+helpful books, to redeem from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> all iniquity. And God has said plainly,
+"Apart from shedding of blood there is no remission." The great
+capitalist, the multi-millionaire, may turn philanthropist, and spend
+all his wealth in building schools, or libraries, or houses for the
+poor, or in feeding hundreds of thousands in times of widespread
+drouth; the Catholic nun or Protestant or Baptist nurse may give her
+life in the epidemic in nursing the sick; and the heroic fireman give
+his life in rescuing others from the flames; yet they are all lost,
+unless the motive power of life is love, produced by the fact that
+they are forgiven most, redeemed from all iniquity,&mdash;"Though I bestow
+all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,
+and have not love, it profiteth me nothing." Why? Because there is
+nothing in giving away money to care for the poor, nor in giving up
+life for others, to redeem from iniquity. And God has said plainly,
+"Apart from shedding of blood there is no remission."&mdash;Heb. 9:22.</p>
+
+<p>When God, "That he might be just and the justifier of him that hath
+faith in Jesus,"&mdash;Rom. 3:26, "so loved the world that he gave his only
+begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
+have everlasting life,"&mdash;John 3:16, men must not, they <i>must not</i>,
+from intellectual pride, religious prejudice, family or race ties, nor
+from any other motive, trifle with God and presume to dictate terms to
+the Most High. Were it one poor, obscure man who presumed to do this,
+men would say that he deserved to be left to answer for his own sins
+before God at last. But vast numbers, whole religious denominations
+and university titles cannot change the Most High. God does<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> not go by
+majorities. Earth's respectability does not pass current in Heaven.
+"The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God."&mdash;1 Cor. 3:19.</p>
+
+<p>Who is this being to whom puny men in their pride and prejudice
+presume to dictate terms as to how they may escape the just penalty
+for their sins, as to how their sins should be taken away? "Who hath
+measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven
+with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure,
+and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who
+hath directed the spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath
+taught him? With whom took he counsel? And who instructed him, and
+taught him in the path of judgement, and taught him knowledge, and
+showed to him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a
+drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance;
+behold, he taketh up the hills as a little thing." "All nations before
+him are as nothing, and they are counted by him less than nothing, and
+vanity." "It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the
+inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the
+heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in;
+that bringeth the princes to nothing; that maketh the judges of the
+earth as vanity."&mdash;Is. 40:12-15, 17, 22, 23.</p>
+
+<p>A professor in a great university has recently said that to the
+"modern mind," untrained, as the Jews, to daily sacrifices, unused, as
+those of ancient times, to blood-atonement,&mdash;remission of sins by
+blood,&mdash;substitution does not commend itself. If he and those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> who
+think like him do not care enough as to their eternal destiny to
+strive to become acquainted with blood-atonement, to realize their
+need of it, and to see that God, in love, has provided it, complete
+and eternal, then there is nothing left but for them to go out into
+eternity to meet the just penalty of their sins; for even then God
+will be just to them. No one, barbarian or civilized, will ever be
+treated unjustly by the Most High.</p>
+
+<p>But it is objected that, if men are taught and believe that they have
+been redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), that they are not
+after that under the law (Rom. 6:14), that they have been adopted as
+God's sons (Gal. 4:4, 5), and that they are no more servants, but sons
+(Gal. 4:7), they will not serve God from love of Christ for dying for
+them (2 Cor. 5:14, 15), but that they will become careless and not try
+to live Christian lives. That is true with hypocrites; they will
+profess to believe that they are thus redeemed, saved, and will live
+careless, worldly lives. But really redeemed men <i>will</i> love most
+(Luke 7:43), and live better lives from love. The Saviour said, "If a
+man love me he <i>will</i> keep my words,"&mdash;John 14:23; "If God were your
+father ye <i>would</i> love me."&mdash;John 8:42. And John, writing to believers
+only (1 John 5:13), says: "Behold what manner of love the Father hath
+bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such
+we are. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
+Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it doth not yet appear
+what we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear we shall be
+like him, for we shall see him as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> he is. And <i>every one</i> that hath
+this hope on him purifieth himself, even as he is pure."&mdash;1 John
+3:1-3.</p>
+
+<p>The one who is thus redeemed and adopted as a son of God not only
+purifies himself because prompted by love to the Saviour for redeeming
+him from all iniquity, but because he is born again, and this new
+nature leads him to hate sin and to love holiness. "Whosoever
+believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God."&mdash;1 John 5:1.
+"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by
+the word of God which liveth and abideth forever."&mdash;1 Peter 1:23. This
+is no mere theory, no mere theological dogma. Cases innumerable
+throughout the Christian era could be cited, where the most wicked men
+and women in a moment have been completely changed by simply being led
+to accept Jesus Christ as their Saviour, as their Redeemer from all
+iniquity.</p>
+
+<p>In the author's work as an evangelist he has seen the most debased,
+hopeless men and women revolutionized morally, not by gradual
+processes, but in a moment, by leading them to repentance and faith in
+the Saviour as their complete Redeemer from all iniquity. And the
+moral revolution was not temporary, but permanent. Science cannot
+account for these moral revolutions brought about in a moment.
+Infidelity cannot account for them. God's word does account for them,
+that they have been born again, born of God, and have been taken from
+under the law and have been given a new relation to God and placed
+under a new motive power. In a city a great mass-meeting for infidels
+was widely advertised; a large audience assembled. The leader asked
+all the men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> in the audience who had once been down in the depths of
+sin, everything gone, hopeless, and had been led to accept the Saviour
+as their Redeemer from sin, please to arise. Between three hundred and
+four hundred well-dressed business men and workingmen arose. The
+leader then asked all who had been down in the depths of sin,
+everything gone, hopeless, and they had then been led to believe in
+infidelity and it had made better men of them, please to arise. One
+lone man staggered to his feet and he was drunk! Science and
+infidelity cannot explain this difference. God's word does explain it.
+There is no other explanation.</p>
+
+<p>It may be objected that many who profess to be thus redeemed from all
+iniquities, to be born again, do not continue to live better lives.
+God's word explains every one of these cases: "They went out from us,
+but they were <i>not of us</i>; for if they had been of us, they would have
+continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest;
+because not all are of us."&mdash;1 John 2:19.</p>
+
+<p>In closing this chapter, reader, pause and consider:&mdash;are you yet
+under the law? Have you been redeemed from the curse of the law? Have
+you been adopted as a child of God? It is one thing to <i>say</i> "Our
+Father"; it is quite a different thing to be really a child of God,
+and heir of God and joint heir with Christ.</p>
+
+<p>Is the motive of your life love of Christ because He has redeemed you
+from all iniquities? Do not be deceived by calling the motive love
+when really it is not love. If you have been trying to serve God,
+thinking that if you continued to serve Him, continued to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> try to do
+your Christian duty, you would go to Heaven after this life, but that
+if you failed to serve Him and do your Christian duty, you would not
+be saved, then your motive has not been love, and you are lost. If you
+have been trying to serve God and do your Christian duty, fearing
+that if you failed you would be lost, then your motive has not been
+love, and you have never been redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14),
+and adopted as the child of God (Gal. 4:4, 5). Let not pride nor
+prejudice prevent your coming out from under the law and becoming really
+a child of God. "My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that
+they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a <i>zeal
+of God</i>, but not <i>according to knowledge</i>. For being
+<i>ignorant of God's righteousness</i>, and <i>going about to establish
+their own righteousness</i>, they have not submitted themselves unto
+the righteousness of God. For Christ is <i>the end of the law for
+righteousness to every one that believeth.</i>"&mdash;Rom. 10:1-4. "As many as
+<i>received him</i>, to them gave he power to become the children of God,
+even to them that believe on his name."&mdash;John 1:12.</p>
+
+<p><i>FOR FURTHER STUDY</i>: Men are prone to mix the law and redemption
+through Christ. They are separate and distinct. They are two separate
+roads to Heaven. If a man keeps the law from birth to death he will go
+to Heaven without any redemption; he needs no redemption. "Moses
+describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man that
+doeth those things shall live <i>by them</i>,"&mdash;Rom. 10:5; not by Christ as
+the Redeemer; he needs no redemption. "And the law is not of faith;
+but the man that doeth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> them shall live in them."&mdash;Gal. 3:12. There is
+no Christ in this; there is no need of Christ if a man "doeth them,"
+the law. Such a man cannot trust Christ to save him; for if he has
+never broken the law, there is nothing from which he needs to be
+redeemed. "The soul that sinneth, <i>it</i> shall die"; but if one has kept
+the law, there is no penalty, no redemption is needed. "The doers of
+the law <i>shall be justified</i>."&mdash;Rom. 2:13. But "all have sinned and
+come short of the glory of God,"&mdash;Rom. 3:23; hence, there is need of
+redemption; for "apart from shedding of blood there is no
+remission."&mdash;Heb. 9:22. The other road to Heaven, therefore, is that
+"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
+for us."&mdash;Gal. 3:13. The Saviour, as well as the Apostle Paul, taught
+clearly the two roads; the first, when "One came and said unto him,
+Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?
+And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but
+one, that is God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the
+commandments."&mdash;Matt. 19:16, 17. The question was what good thing the
+enquirer should do in order to have eternal life as the result of what
+he did. The answer was exactly what Paul taught afterwards,&mdash;"The man
+that doeth them, shall live in them."&mdash;Gal. 3:12. On the other hand,
+to the penitent woman in Simon's house the Saviour said, "Thy faith
+hath saved thee; go in peace."&mdash;Luke 7:50. The trouble is that many
+men try to make a third road to Heaven, partly by obeying the law and
+partly by redemption through Christ; or rather, they try to combine
+the two separate and distinct ways and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> make them one. But this is
+fatal. "If by grace, then it is no more of works; otherwise grace is
+no more grace. But if it is of works, then it is no more grace;
+otherwise work is no more work."&mdash;Rom. 11:6. Jesus said, "Come unto
+me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you
+rest."&mdash;Matt. 11:28. And God's word declares plainly, "He that hath
+entered into his rest himself also hath rested from his own works, as
+God did from his."&mdash;Heb. 4:10. No one has rested, ceased, from his own
+works who thinks that keeping the law or trying to keep the law is a
+part of the salvation through Christ as Redeemer. One <i>must</i> cease
+from his own works, from looking to obeying the law to help in
+salvation, before he <i>can</i> be saved through Christ as Redeemer. "To
+him that worketh not, but believeth on him that <i>justifieth</i> the
+ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."&mdash;Rom. 4:5. Hence,
+all who are trying to get to Heaven by obedience, are under the law,
+are yet unredeemed, unsaved, not real Christians. "As many as are of
+the works of the law [obeying the law to be saved] are under the
+curse,"&mdash;Gal. 3:10; they have not been really redeemed.</p>
+
+<p>Of this class are all those who believe and teach "Salvation by
+character,"&mdash;they are yet under the law; they are yet under the
+curse.&mdash;Gal. 3:10. Further, they fly in the face of the Lord Jesus,
+who said to men who had character, "The publicans and the harlots go
+into the kingdom of God before you."&mdash;Matt. 21:31. They fail to see
+that the Saviour takes men without character, justifies them from all
+things (Acts 13:39), redeems them from the curse of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> law (Gal.
+3:13), redeems them from all iniquities (Titus 2:14), and then
+develops in them a character that will stand the test of the ages;
+that He takes a Jerry McAuley, an S. H. Hadley, a Harry Monroe, and a
+Melville Trotter and makes of them four of the most useful men of
+modern times. They fail to see that character is formed by deeds; that
+the character of the deed can be determined <i>only</i> by the motive
+prompting the deed; that the controlling motive for the deed must, in
+the sight of God, be love (1 Cor. 13:1-3); that the motive of love is
+produced by being forgiven most (Luke 7:42, 43); that the forgiveness
+comes from the Saviour having given Himself for our sins (Gal. 1:4),
+to redeem us from all iniquity (Titus 2:14).</p>
+
+<p>Because of this failure to consider the motive back of the deed, many
+books on morals and ethics are absolutely pernicious. In comparing the
+morals and ethics of Christianity with the morals and ethics of
+heathen religions, they fail to take into consideration the <i>motive
+back of the deed</i>. Two young men are trying to win a young woman in
+marriage; their deeds, outwardly, are the same; the one is prompted by
+pure, manly love for the young woman; the other has his eye on her
+father's bank account. You drop your handkerchief as you are passing
+along the street; a man from pure kindness picks it up and hands it to
+you. Again you drop it, and another picks it up and hands it to you,
+but his motive is that he may win your confidence and pick your
+pocket. Four sons are equally dutiful, in outward deed, toward their
+fathers; one, that he may get all the money he wishes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> from his
+father; the second, from a cold sense of duty; the third, from fear
+that his father might kill him or disinherit him if he were not
+dutiful; the fourth, from tender love for the father. In these four,
+many authors see no difference, or make no distinction, and yet they
+profess to be teachers of morals and ethics! Four men, outwardly, are
+living the same moral lives; one, hoping to get to Heaven by it; the
+second, from a cold sense of duty; the third, from fear of Hell; the
+fourth, from love because One died for him (2 Cor. 5:14, 15), and
+redeemed him from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), from all iniquity
+(Titus 2:14). Only the last one will ever enter Heaven; only the last
+one is really a Christian, redeemed (Heb. 9:12), saved (Eph. 2:8).</p>
+
+<p>As men are prone to mix law and redemption through Christ, so they are
+prone to mix law and sonship. They fail to see that redemption from
+the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), redemption from all iniquity (Titus
+2:14), redemption from under the law (Rom. 6:14), means to be placed
+in a higher, more sacred relationship to God. Even in nature God has
+two grades of existence, a lower and a higher, for some insects, even;
+the mosquito, first in the water; then by a simple process it rises
+into the higher kingdom; the caterpillar, a creeping worm, then the
+butterfly. But were there no analogies in nature, God has clearly
+revealed a higher relation for those who are redeemed from the curse
+of the law (Gal. 3:13), "God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born
+under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might
+receive the adoption of sons,"&mdash;Gal. 4:4, 5;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> "Having in love
+predestinated us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to
+himself."&mdash;Eph. 1:5. Where is man in the scale of being? "Thou hast
+made him a little lower than the angels."&mdash;Ps. 8:5. But even the
+angels, who are above man in the scale of being, are not the sons of
+God. "Unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my
+son?"&mdash;Heb. 1:5. But to <i>every man</i> who has been redeemed from the
+curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), from under the law (Gal. 4:5), God says,
+"Ye are <i>all</i> the sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus."&mdash;Gal.
+3:26. "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his
+Son into your hearts crying, Abba, Father."&mdash;Gal. 4:6. "Ye have
+received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father."&mdash;Rom.
+8:15.</p>
+
+<p>Much of the confusion concerning the higher relationship of the
+redeemed with God has been caused by teaching the redeemed and the
+unredeemed to pray what is called the Lord's Prayer. The Saviour did
+not teach the unredeemed to pray in this manner. They cannot pray it
+truthfully, honestly, for they are not the children of God. "They that
+are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of
+God."&mdash;Rom. 9:5. If they are not, then they cannot truthfully say "Our
+Father," "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son
+whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as
+with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if
+ye be without chastening, whereof all are partakers, then are ye
+bastards, and not sons."&mdash;Heb. 12:6-8. The language, "bastards and not
+sons," has some meaning, but it can have no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> meaning if God is the
+Father of all human beings, and all have a right to say "Our Father."
+It is true, that in the Old Testament God is referred to as a Father,
+but it is only as Father of Israel, the redeemed. "Have we not all
+one father? Hath not one God created us?"&mdash;Mal. 2:10. But who are
+the "we"? "The burden of the word of the Lord to <i>Israel</i> by
+Malachi,"&mdash;Mal. 1:1;&mdash;Israel, God's redeemed people.</p>
+
+<p>God's word makes it plain that what is called the Lord's Prayer was
+not taught by the Saviour to the unsaved. "As he was praying in a
+certain place, when he ceased, <i>one of his disciples</i> said unto him,
+Lord, teach <i>us</i> to pray as John also taught his disciples, and he
+said unto <i>them</i> [His disciples], When ye [His disciples] pray, say,
+'Our Father.'" How did they become disciples? "As many as received
+him, to them gave he power <i>to become</i> the children of God, even to
+them that believe on his name."&mdash;John 1:12. "Ye are all the sons of
+God by faith in Christ Jesus."&mdash;Gal. 3:26. Concerning this prayer the
+<i>Southern Baptist Sunday School Teacher</i> says, "It is a special gift
+to believers only." "We cannot too earnestly insist that the Lord's
+Prayer is beyond the use of mere worldlings. They have no heart for
+it. It is the possession and badge of the disciples of Christ. It
+belongs to those who can offer it in humble and hearty faith." The
+<i>Sunday School Teacher</i>, published by the American Baptist Publication
+Society, says: "This is a prayer that befits only Christian lips and
+was given to the disciples only, and so it is addressed to 'Our
+Father.'" D. L. Moody, in "The Way Home," "But who may use this
+prayer, 'Our Father which art in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> Heaven'? Examine the context. The
+disciples when alone with Jesus said, 'Lord, teach us to pray,' and
+this was the answer they got; they were taught this precious prayer:
+'In this manner pray ye: Our Father, which art in Heaven.' It was
+taught by Jesus to His chosen disciples; then it is only for
+Christians. No man who is unconverted can or has a right to pray thus.
+Christ taught <i>His disciples</i>, not all men, not the multitude, to pray
+like this. A man must be born again before he has any right to breathe
+this prayer. What right has any man living in sin and in open enmity
+with God, to lift up his voice and say, Our or My Father? It is a lie
+and nothing else for him to say this."</p>
+
+<p>The Saviour was very explicit on this point: "Ye do the deeds of your
+father. Then said they to him, We are not born of fornication; we have
+one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father,
+ye would love me; for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither
+came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech?
+Even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the
+devil."&mdash;John 8:41-44. Here are the unredeemed calling God their
+Father. If He is their Father, here was the time for the Great Teacher
+to make it plain. If He is their Father, <i>in any sense</i>, here was the
+opportunity to make it plain. The Saviour does not reply, "Yes, He is
+your Father in one sense, but I am speaking of another and a higher
+sense." His answer is plain and unequivocal.</p>
+
+<p>There are those who fly in the face of the Saviour's plain teaching.
+Hear two of them:&mdash;Mrs. Mary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> Baker G. Eddy, in "Science and Health,"
+"God is the Father of All." "Man is the offspring of Spirit." "Spirit
+is his primitive and ultimate source of being; God is his Father and
+Life is the law of his being." "He recognized Spirit, God, as the only
+creator, and therefore as the Father of all"; "demonstrating God as
+the Father of men." Another makes his meaning just as plain: "He
+[Jesus] was the son of God in like manner that every other person is;
+for <i>the Creator is the father of all</i>."&mdash;<i>Thomas Paine, in "The Age
+of Reason."</i></p>
+
+<p>The issue is joined between these two on the one side and the Lord
+Jesus and Paul on the other, and men are lining up on one side or the
+other, and many of them will spend eternity with the ones whose
+teaching they are following <i>now</i>, with whom they are lining up; and
+the reader may as well face the fact that many of them will not spend
+eternity in the same place with the Saviour and Paul. With many the
+question as to whether the Saviour, when He said, "Ye are of your
+father the devil," told the truth, or was a wilful liar and deceiver,
+or a deluded fanatic and ignoramus, is merely a matter of taste, or
+preference, or opinion. It may be claimed by some that "Ye are of your
+father the devil," grates on refined ears and finer sensibilities. But
+it is more than a question whether it is pride, or religious
+prejudice, or refined sensibilities, when the sensibilities and
+feelings are so coarse and hardened that without indignation, often
+with complacency, they see Him who "spake as never man spake," God's
+"only begotten Son," branded as a liar and deceiver. Such scholarship
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> finer sensibilities and such refinement will fill their
+possessors with horror and remorse in that day when the sun shall
+become black as sackcloth of hair, and the full moon shall become as
+blood, and the heavens shall depart as a scroll when it is rolled
+together; and every mountain and island shall be moved out of their
+places, and the kings of the earth, and the great men and the rich men
+and the chief captains and the mighty men and every bondman and every
+freeman shall hide themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the
+mountains and say to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us
+from the face of him who sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of
+the Lamb; for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be
+able to stand?"&mdash;Rev. 6:12-17; "for the Father judgeth no man, but
+hath committed all judgement unto the Son, that all men should honor
+the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son
+honoreth not the Father who sent him."&mdash;John 5:22, 23. "And he
+commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he
+who hath been ordained of God to be the judge of living and
+dead."&mdash;Acts 10:42.</p>
+
+<p>If all men who are unredeemed would just stop and realize their real
+position in the scale of being, and that they really have no Heavenly
+Father, and that "as many as received him to them gave he power to
+become the children of God, even to them that believe on his
+name,"&mdash;John 1:12, there would fall upon this world such a feeling of
+orphanage as it has never known since the Saviour hung on the cross.
+But in their pride or religious prejudice, or love of the world, or
+secret sin, blinded by "Our Father," they go on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> through life
+repeating it, and die, never having been redeemed from the curse of
+the law (Gal. 3:13), and adopted as God's sons (Gal. 4:4-7).</p>
+
+<p>Teaching the unredeemed that God is their Father, and to say "Our
+Father" is the incubator of religious error and the hot-bed of
+infidelity. Many religious denominations that are fundamentally in
+error, that really have no Redeemer, and therefore no Saviour, have as
+their foundation teaching that God is the Father of the human race;
+and there is scarcely an infidel but that was taught "Our Father."
+Teach a person that God is his Father, that his Heavenly Father is far
+better than his earthly father, and then teach him that his Heavenly
+Father is going to send him to an eternal Hell, and, if he thinks, he
+is far on the road to infidelity, or he is ready for some modern
+church that denies that there is any Hell.</p>
+
+<p>It is said that a missionary to one of the heathen lands, after
+laboring for some time among the people, employed a learned heathen to
+help him translate the New Testament into the heathen language. The
+missionary would read and the heathen would translate and write it
+down. They finally came to the first epistle of John. One morning as
+they began their work, having finished the second chapter, the
+missionary read, "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
+upon us." The heathen translated and wrote it down. The missionary
+read, "that we should be called the children of God." The heathen
+bowed his head upon the table and began weeping. Gaining control of
+his feelings, he said, "Teacher, don't make me put it that way; I know
+our people; that is too<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> good for us; we don't deserve it. Put it this
+way, 'That we may be allowed to kiss his feet,' That is good enough
+for our people." He had listened to the story of God giving His Son
+for us; of His life, of His teachings, of His death for our sins; and
+the thought that, beyond this, God makes the redeemed His children,
+was too much for him. But in enlightened, so-called Christian lands,
+many who have never even claimed to have been born of God ridicule the
+teaching that God is the Father of the redeemed only, and they
+blatantly proclaim God to be the Father of all human beings, of the
+drunkard, of the thief, the murderer, whereas, even the angels do not
+call Him Father. "Unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou
+art my son?" But when men are redeemed (Heb. 9:12), and born again of
+the Spirit (John 3:8; 1 John 5:1), they are really God's children
+(Gal. 3:26). Then they are above angels in the scale of being, "heirs
+of God and joint heirs with Christ" (Rom. 8:17),&mdash;the highest, most
+exalted of all beings in the universe. Oh, that men would put their
+heels upon their pride, be redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal.
+3:13), and become God's real children (Gal. 4:4-7).</p>
+
+<p>But just as many mix and confuse the teachings as to two roads to
+Heaven, and as to law and sonship, so they mix and confuse the old
+motive of fear under the law (Rom. 8:15), and of love as sons. <i>The
+new motive of love could be produced in no other way than by real
+Redemption.</i> Let the reader give close study to the following
+principles laid down in Walker's "Philosophy of the Plan of
+Salvation":</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p><p>"1, The affections of the soul move in view of certain objects or in
+view of certain qualities believed to exist in those objects. The
+affections never move, in familiar words, the heart never loves,
+unless love be produced by seeing, or by believing that we see, some
+lovely and excellent qualities in the object. When the soul believes
+those good qualities to be possessed by another, and especially when
+they are exercised towards us, the affections, like a magnetized
+needle, tremble with life, and turn towards their object.</p>
+
+<p>"2, The affections are not subject to the will; neither our own will
+nor any other will can directly control them.... An effect could as
+easily exist without a cause as affection in the bosom of any human
+being which was not produced by goodness or excellence seen, or
+believed to exist, in some other being.</p>
+
+<p>"3, The affections, although not governed by the will, do themselves
+greatly influence the will. All acts of will produced entirely by pure
+affection for another are disinterested.... So soon as the affections
+move towards an object, the will is proportionally influenced to
+please and benefit that object, or, if a superior being, to obey his
+will.</p>
+
+<p>"4, All happy obedience must arise from affection. Affectionate
+obedience blesses the spirit which yields it, if the conscience
+approve the object loved and obeyed.</p>
+
+<p>"5. When the affections of two beings are reciprocally fixed upon each
+other they constitute a band of union and sympathy peculiarly strong
+and tender,&mdash;those things that affect the one affecting the other in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>
+proportion to the strength of affection existing between them. One
+conforms to the will of the other, not from a sense of obligation
+merely, but from choice; and the constitution of the soul is such that
+the sweetest enjoyment of which it is capable rises from the exercise
+of reciprocal affections.</p>
+
+<p>"6. When the circumstances of an individual are such that he is
+exposed to constant suffering and great danger, the more afflictive
+his situation the more grateful love will he feel for affection and
+benefits received under such circumstances. If his circumstances were
+such that he could not relieve himself, and such that he must suffer
+greatly or perish, and while in this condition, if another, moved by
+benevolent regard for him, should come to aid and save him, his
+affection for his deliverer would be increased by a sense of the
+danger from which he was rescued.</p>
+
+<p>"The greater the kindness and self-denial of a benefactor manifested
+in our behalf, the warmer and the stronger will be the affection which
+his goodness will produce in the human heart."</p>
+
+<p>And this further statement by Walker will be at once accepted by all
+honest seekers after truth:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Here, then, are two facts growing out of the constitution of human
+nature. First, the soul must feel its evil and lost state, as the
+prerequisite condition upon which alone it can love a deliverer;
+secondly, the degree of kindness and self-denial in a benefactor,
+temporal or spiritual, graduates the degree of affection and gratitude
+that will be awakened for him."&mdash;<i>Walker, in "The Philosophy of the
+Plan of Salvation."</i></p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2>
+
+<p class="subhead1">THE SINS OF GOD'S CHILDREN&mdash;FORGIVENESS&mdash;CHASTISEMENTS</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Our Father who art in Heaven ... forgive us our sins."&mdash;Luke
+11:1-4.</p>
+
+<p>"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our
+sins."&mdash;1 John 1:9.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto
+sons. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor
+faint when thou art rebuked of him; for whom the Lord loveth he
+chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure
+chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he
+whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastening,
+whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
+Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh who corrected us, and
+we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection
+under the Father of spirits and live? For they verily for a few
+days chastened us as seemed right to them; but he for our profit,
+that we might be partakers of his holiness."&mdash;Heb. 12:5-10.</p>
+
+<p>"Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the
+earth. My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant
+shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure
+forever, and his throne as the days of heaven. If his children
+forsake my law and walk not in my judgements; if they break my
+statutes and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their
+transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes.
+Nevertheless, my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him,
+nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break,
+nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn
+by my holiness that I will not lie unto David."&mdash;Ps. 89:27-35.</p></div>
+
+
+<p>In coming to the question of God's plan concerning the lives of men
+redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), redeemed from all
+iniquity (Titus 2:14), from under the law (Rom. 6:14), and adopted as
+God's sons (Gal. 4:4-7), let the reader keep in mind that it is not
+concerning the sins of unredeemed men, whether professing Christians
+or not. God's plan with the sins of unredeemed men has been shown in
+Chapter I. Hence it is not a question of the sins of hypocrites, or
+other professing Christians who are not really God's children.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p><p>It has been shown in Chapter IV that when men are redeemed from the
+curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), they are
+no longer under the law; "Ye are not under the law."&mdash;Rom. 6:14. God's
+word lays down a principle recognized and endorsed by all enlightened
+nations,&mdash;"Sin is not reckoned [imputed] when there is no law."&mdash;Rom.
+5:13. Those who have been redeemed from under the law are adopted as
+God's children,&mdash;"God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under
+the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive
+the adoption of sons."&mdash;Gal. 4:4, 5. God thenceforth deals with them
+as father with children, and not as judge with transgressors of law.
+Earthly children commit two kinds of sins against their earthly
+fathers; they sin under temptation and are penitent, and confess their
+sins and are forgiven. Second, they sin wilfully and are chastised.
+God's children sin in like manner; they sin under temptation, are
+penitent, confess their sins and are forgiven. Second, they become
+backsliders, sin wilfully and are chastised. Let us consider the two
+classes of sins of God's children and <i>God's plan with men</i> for them.</p>
+
+<p>Our Saviour taught His disciples, God's children, to pray "Our Father
+... forgive us our sins,"&mdash;Luke 11:1-4; Paul and Silas taught the
+jailer, a man under the law, unredeemed, not a child of God, "Believe
+on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved."&mdash;Acts 16:31. John taught
+the believers (1 John 5:13), those who were redeemed from the curse of
+the law (Gal. 3:13), and were God's children (1 John 3:1, 2), "If we
+confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>us our sins,"&mdash;1
+John 1:9; Paul taught the unredeemed, those who were not God's
+children, "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that
+<i>justifieth the ungodly</i>, his faith is counted for
+righteousness."&mdash;Rom. 4:5.</p>
+
+<p>Many believe and teach that if any one, the unredeemed man as well as
+the son of God, confesses his sins, God will be faithful and just to
+forgive his sins. A Mohammedan, a Jew, a Christian Scientist, a
+Unitarian, a Universalist, confess their sins,&mdash;are they forgiven? To
+these and all others under the law, God has said, "Apart from shedding
+of blood there is no remission."&mdash;Heb. 9:22. "Till heaven and earth
+pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till
+all be fulfilled."&mdash;Matt. 5:18. John is writing to believers only (1
+John 5:13), to those who are God's children (1 John 3:1, 2), and to
+<i>them</i> he says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to
+forgive us our sins."&mdash;1 John 1:9. Men unredeemed, under the law, can
+never get rid of their sins by confession. To them God has one
+message,&mdash;"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
+so <i>must</i> the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth on him
+should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world
+that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him
+should not perish, but have everlasting life."&mdash;John 3:14-16.</p>
+
+<p>The Saviour taught the <i>disciples</i> to pray, "Our Father, ... forgive
+us our sins"; but so widespread is the misconception that it applies
+to all, redeemed and unredeemed, that all over the world vast
+multitudes of the unredeemed kneel down every night and say, "Our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>
+Father, ... forgive us our sins," and lie down to sleep deluded with
+the thought that they are forgiven. If they are forgiven, why was
+there any need of Christ dying for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3)? But the
+real child of God can pray, "Our Father, ... forgive us our sins," and
+he is really forgiven. Why the difference? With the unredeemed, those
+yet under the law (Rom. 3:19), God is dealing as judge with violators
+of law, and law knows no forgiveness. With the redeemed, those who
+have been adopted as God's children (Gal. 4:4-7), God is dealing as
+father with son. Let those who are redeemed, who are really God's
+children, realize the blessed fact that "If we confess our sins, he is
+faithful and just to forgive us our sins."&mdash;1 John 1:9.</p>
+
+<p>But there is another class of sins committed by God's children, "If
+his children <i>forsake</i> my law" (Ps. 89:30), wilful sins. For these God
+chastises His children, just as an earthly father chastises his wilful
+and disobedient children. "Ye have forgotten the exhortation which
+speaketh unto you as unto sons, My son, despise not thou the
+chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him; for
+whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he
+receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons,
+for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be
+without chastening, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards
+and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh who
+corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be
+in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live? For they verily for
+a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> few days chastened us as seemed right to them; but he for our
+profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness."&mdash;Heb. 12:5-10.</p>
+
+<p>Chastisement or punishment of God's children is for correction; "for
+our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness" (Heb. 12:10);
+punishment of the unredeemed is to carry out law, for justice: "that
+he might be <i>just</i>" (Rom. 3:26); "every transgression received a
+<i>just</i> recompense of reward."&mdash;Heb. 2:2. The unredeemed, those under
+the law (Rom. 3:19), are punished beyond this life, in the Day of
+Judgment,&mdash;"verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the
+land of Sodom and Gomorrah <i>in the day of judgment</i>, than for that
+city."&mdash;Matt. 10:15; God's children receive their chastisements in
+this life,&mdash;"If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with
+sons."&mdash;Heb. 12:7. Professing Christians who are not redeemed, not
+really God's children, do not receive chastisements; hence, they are
+punished in the day of judgment with the other unredeemed. "But if ye
+be without chastening, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards
+and not sons."&mdash;Heb. 12:8.</p>
+
+<p>He has observed to little purpose who has not noticed that redeemed
+people, God's children, suffer more in this life than the unredeemed.
+God says that His children endure chastenings and others who are not
+His children do not. The difference can be easily seen by any one who
+will observe closely. The Psalmist observed it and was greatly
+disturbed by it until he understood the cause of the difference.
+"Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> a clean heart.
+But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh
+slipped. For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of
+the wicked. For there are no bands in their death, but their strength
+is firm. <i>They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they
+plagued like other men.</i> Therefore pride compasseth them about as a
+chain; violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with
+fatness, they have more than heart could wish. They are corrupt, and
+speak wickedly concerning oppression; they speak loftily. They set
+their mouths against the heavens and their tongue walketh through the
+earth. Therefore, his people return hither, and waters of a full cup
+are wrung out to them. And they say, How doth God know? And is there
+knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper
+in the world; they increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed my heart
+in vain and washed my hands in innocency. For <i>all the day long have I
+been plagued, and chastened every morning</i>. If I say, I will speak
+thus: behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.
+When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; <i>until I went
+into the sanctuary of God: then understood I their end</i>. Surely, thou
+didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into
+destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment?
+They are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awaketh;
+so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image. For my
+heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins. So foolish was I,
+and ignorant; I was as a beast before thee.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> Nevertheless, I am
+continually with thee; thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou
+shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to
+glory."&mdash;Ps. 73:1-24.</p>
+
+<p>That chastisement in this life for wilful sins is God's plan with
+redeemed men, His real children, is clearly revealed even in the Old
+Testament. God swore by His holiness to David that this would be His
+plan with redeemed men:&mdash;"Also, I will make him my firstborn, higher
+than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him forevermore,
+and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make
+to endure forever and his throne as the days of Heaven. If his
+children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break
+my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their
+transgressions with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.
+Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor
+suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor
+alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my
+holiness that I will not lie unto David."&mdash;Ps. 89:27-35. David himself
+was a case in point. After his terrible sin, God sent word to him by
+the prophet Nathan, "Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of
+the Lord, to do evil in his sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite
+with the sword and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain
+him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword
+shall never depart from thine house."&mdash;2 Sam. 12:9, 10. "And David
+said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said
+unto<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not
+die."&mdash;2 Sam. 12:13. God has but one way of putting away sin. "Apart
+from shedding of blood is no remission."&mdash;Heb. 9:22. "For the life of
+the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar
+to make an atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh
+an atonement for the soul."&mdash;Lev. 17:11. But God does not stop there.
+"Howbeit because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the
+enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto
+thee shall surely die."&mdash;1 Sam. 12:14. (Let the reader notice that
+God, foreseeing that people would ridicule the idea of God saving
+David, calls it blasphemy and calls those who do it "the enemies of
+the Lord.") David fasted and prayed for the child. On the seventh day
+the child died, "But when David saw that his servants whispered, David
+perceived that the child was dead; therefore David said unto his
+servants, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead. Then David
+arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself, and changed his
+apparel, and came into the house of the Lord and worshipped: then he
+came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him
+and he did eat. Then said his servants unto him, What thing is this
+that thou hast done? Thou didst fast and weep for the child, while it
+was alive; but when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread.
+And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I
+said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child
+may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> Can I bring
+him back again? <i>I shall go to him.</i>"&mdash;2 Sam. 12:19-23. How could
+David be thus sure? He had God's word on which to rest, "The life of
+the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it upon the altar to make
+atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh atonement
+for the soul."&mdash;Lev. 17:11. But because of his sin God chastened him
+as long as he lived. "Now therefore the sword shall never depart from
+thine house."</p>
+
+<p>Solomon is another case in point. Concerning Solomon God said to
+David, "I will be his father and he shall be my son. If he commit
+iniquity, I will chastise him with the rod of men, and with the
+stripes of the children of men; but my mercy shall not depart away
+from him."&mdash;2 Sam. 7:14, 15.</p>
+
+<p>In chastening, God uses as a rod loss of loved ones (2 Sam. 12:14;
+Amos 4:10), loss of property (Amos 4:6-9), loss of health (1 Cor.
+11:30), death (1 Cor. 11:30; Amos 4:11; Deut. 32:48-52). Consider the
+case of Moses and Aaron: God told them to speak to the rock that it
+might bring forth water for the children of Israel. But they wilfully
+disobeyed, and instead of speaking to the rock, struck it in anger.
+For this wilful sin, as a chastisement, God said to Moses, "Get thee
+up into this mountain Abarim, unto Mt. Nebo, which is in the land of
+Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan,
+which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession: and die in
+the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people; as
+Aaron thy brother died in Mt. Hor, and was gathered unto his people:
+<i>because ye trespassed against me</i> among the children of Israel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> at
+the waters of Meribah Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin."&mdash;Deut.
+32:49-52. Though Moses was thus severely chastened for his wilful sin,
+he was not lost, for he was with Elijah on the mountain at the
+transfiguration of the Saviour (Matt. 17:1-3).</p>
+
+<p>The lesson needs to be learned by God's children that as certainly as
+a redeemed man sins wilfully, whether the sin be great or small, the
+chastening rod is sure to fall. "If his children <i>forsake my law ...
+then will</i> I visit their transgressions with the rod and their
+iniquity with stripes."&mdash;Ps. 89:30-32. But God does not send the
+chastening in wrath, nor in justice. "Whom the Lord <i>loveth</i> he
+chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."&mdash;Heb. 12:6.</p>
+
+<p>There are many who profess to be redeemed, to be God's children,
+professed Christians, church members, who sin wilfully, and God never
+sends chastisements to them; but God explains about them, "But if ye
+be without chastening, whereof all are partakers, then are ye
+bastards, and not sons."&mdash;Heb. 12:8. He does not chasten this class;
+in Hell they will receive their punishment, but it will be just. God
+will treat no human being wrong. With some it may seem severe that God
+should chasten and scourge His children. That is not as severe as to
+send them to Hell for their wilful disobedience after they become His
+children, and that is the belief of many. There are but three plans
+that God could have for those who have been redeemed from the curse of
+law (Gal. 3:13) and adopted as His children (Gal. 4:4-7), and
+afterward sin wilfully:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>First, beyond this life punish them in the judgment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> (Matt. 10:15) for
+their sins, send them to Hell. That would mean, (1) if Christ redeemed
+them from <i>all</i> iniquity (Titus 2:14), that God would force the same
+debt to be paid twice. "Shall not the judge of all the earth do
+right?" (2) That would mean that God would punish, by law, those who
+have been redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), and who are
+not under the law (Rom. 6:14), and would violate God's own principle,
+"Sin is not reckoned [imputed] when there is no law" (Rom. 5:13). (3)
+That would mean a child of God, redeemed and adopted (Gal. 4:4-7), and
+born again (1 Peter 1:23), born of the Holy Spirit (John 3:8), sent to
+Hell. (4) That would mean to make the Saviour unreliable and
+untruthful in His statements. "Many will say unto me in that day,
+Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have
+cast out demons? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then
+will I profess unto them, I <i>never</i> knew you."&mdash;Matt. 7:22, 23. These
+are the professing Christians at the judgment who are lost, and Jesus
+says, "I never knew you," that not one of them was ever really
+redeemed and adopted as a child of God. (5) It would mean for God to
+violate His own oath (Ps. 89: 27-35).</p>
+
+<p>Second, the second plan possible to God in dealing with those who sin
+wilfully after they have been redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14),
+from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), and adopted as God's children
+(Gal. 4:4-7), would be to let them continue to sin wilfully, and
+neither punish them beyond this life, at the judgment, in Hell, nor
+chastise them in this life.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> That would mean for some of them to
+eventually develop characters most fearfully warped by sin.</p>
+
+<p>Third, there is but one other possible plan left for God with redeemed
+men, redeemed from the law and adopted as His children (Gal. 4:7), who
+sin wilfully; and that is to chasten, chastise them in this life. That
+is God's plan with the redeemed, His own children; and however severe
+the chastening, He does it in love. In love He planned to adopt us as
+His children. "Having <i>in love</i> predestinated us for the adoption as
+sons through Jesus Christ to himself."&mdash;Eph. 1:5 (1911 Bible), and in
+love He chastises. "Whom the Lord <i>loveth</i>, he chasteneth and
+scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."&mdash;Heb. 12:6.</p>
+
+<p>Reader, the issue is before you: shall you remain under the law (Rom.
+3:19) to be punished justly in the judgment (Matt. 11:22-24) and to
+continue to sin in Hell (Rev. 22:11, R. V.), or will you accept
+redemption through Christ the Saviour from the curse of the law (Gal.
+3:13), be adopted as a child of God forever (Gal. 4:4-7), to be
+forgiven when you sin against your Father in Heaven and confess your
+sin (1 John 1:9); to be chastened when you sin wilfully (Ps.
+89:27-34), and to spend eternity in Heaven with Him who loved you and
+gave Himself for you (John 14:1-3; Gal. 2:20), free forever from sin
+(Rev. 21:24-27; Rev. 22:3)? You do not intend, reader, to be wrapped
+in a Christless shroud, to be laid away in a Christless grave, to
+spend eternity in a Christless Hell. Decide <i>now</i>.</p>
+
+<p><i>FOR FURTHER STUDY</i>:&mdash;The teaching that God interposes in human
+affairs to chastise His disobedient <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>children (Heb. 12:5-8; Ps.
+89:27-34), to chasten with the rod of the children of men (2 Sam.
+7:14, 15; 1 Cor. 11:30), will frighten, or arouse the contempt of,
+"the modern mind" with its self-inflated wisdom, which <i>just knows</i>
+that "the laws of nature are immutable laws." Is there a being called
+"Nature" who made these laws? Who revealed to "the modern mind" that
+these laws were immutable? Where did "the modern mind" get its
+authority (it takes for granted that it has the power) to drive God
+from His universe, or to make Him powerless, or inactive? Can "the
+modern mind" prove absolutely that because God's law of gravitation
+causes objects to fall toward the earth, He has no right and no power
+to make Elijah's body go up instead of down (2 Kings 2:11)? Does "the
+modern mind" absolutely know that God is now inactive and must remain
+inactive? "Dr. Mason Goode observes that worlds and systems of worlds
+are perpetually disappearing, that within the period of the last
+century no less than thirteen in different constellations seem to have
+perished and <i>ten new ones have been created</i>."&mdash;<i>"Origin of the
+Globe."</i> If God is active out in space, who shall deny Him the right
+or the power to be active on this planet? And if active on this planet
+at all, then in the individual lives of His children? And in His word,
+backed up by fulfilled prophecies, to prove that He <i>is</i> dealing with
+us, He tells us that He is. Is "the modern mind" too scholarly, too
+self-opinionated, to consider the following words from Prof. James Orr
+in his "The Resurrection of Jesus" ("the modern mind" is very careful
+not to attempt a thorough reply to Professor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> Orr's "Problem of the
+Old Testament," nor his "Resurrection of Jesus"&mdash;for obvious reasons)?
+"The question is not, Do natural causes operate uniformly? But <i>are
+natural causes the only causes that exist or operate</i>? For miracle, as
+has frequently been pointed out, is precisely the assertion of the
+interposition of a <i>new</i> cause; one, besides, which the theist must
+admit to be a <i>vera causa</i>."</p>
+
+<p>If when we become God's children, we are no longer under the law (Rom.
+6:14), we are redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), we are no more
+servants but sons (Gal. 4:7), the question arises, why pray to Our
+Father in Heaven to be forgiven? The child does not ask his father's
+forgiveness in order to be his child, but to have the disturbed
+fellowship restored. The unforgiven child is still a child, but will
+be chastened. It is fellowship of the Heavenly Father with the child
+that is restored by forgiveness, and is sought in forgiveness, and not
+a destroyed relationship. On this point hear James Denny in his "The
+Death of Christ": "Christ died for sins once for all, and the man who
+believes in Christ and in His death has his relations to God once for
+all determined not by sin but by the Atonement. The sin for which a
+Christian has daily to seek forgiveness is not sin which annuls his
+acceptance with God."</p>
+
+<p>There needs to be kept in mind, in considering that God chastens His
+children, the distinction that while chastenings are sufferings, all
+sufferings are not chastisements. The expression, "whom the Lord
+loveth he chasteneth" (Heb. 12:6), has been widely misused and sadly
+misapplied. Because David's babe was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> taken from him as a chastisement
+(2 Sam. 12:14), many thoughtlessly conclude that every babe's death is
+meant for a chastisement for the father and mother; and many apply
+"Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth" to all of the sorrows and
+sufferings of God's children. But there is another purpose
+accomplished by some sufferings, in "that the trial of your faith
+being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be
+tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the
+appearing of Jesus Christ."&mdash;1 Peter 1:7. "And he shall sit as a
+purifier and refiner of silver."&mdash;Matt. 3:3. The silver is not to
+blame for the dross; nevertheless, it needs to be burned out. A child
+stole a piece of bread; the father chastised the child for it. That
+chastening was suffering. But the same child was born a cripple. In
+straightening the foot, the father forced many weeks of fearful
+suffering on the child, but the suffering was not chastisement.
+Chastisements are sufferings of God's children for wrongdoing to
+correct them; but there are sufferings that are not chastisements for
+wrongdoing, but are to take out of us defects, or to develop us.
+Hence, to say to some one who is suffering from sorrow or affliction,
+"Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth," is often cruel and untrue.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2>
+
+<p class="subhead1">REWARDS&mdash;DEGREES IN HEAVEN</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish."&mdash;John
+10:28.&mdash;"Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven."&mdash;Matt. 6:20.</p>
+
+<p>"By grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of
+yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any one
+should boast."&mdash;Eph. 2:8, 9.&mdash;"Each man shall receive his own
+reward <i>according to his own labor</i>."&mdash;1 Cor. 3:8.</p>
+
+<p>"Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus
+Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver,
+costly stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made
+manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be
+revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what
+sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon,
+he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he
+shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through
+fire."&mdash;1 Cor. 3:11-15.</p>
+
+<p>"But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be
+required of thee; then whose shall those things be, which thou hast
+provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not
+<i>rich</i> toward God."&mdash;Luke 12:20, 21.</p>
+
+<p>"Whosoever would save his life shall lose <i>it</i>; and whosoever shall
+lose his life for my sake shall find <i>it</i>. For what shall a man be
+profited if he shall gain the whole world and forfeit his life, or
+what shall a man give in exchange for his life? For the Son of man
+shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels, and then
+shall he render unto every man <i>according to his deeds</i>."&mdash;Matt.
+16:25-27 (R. V.)</p>
+
+<p>"Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give each one
+<i>according as his work shall be</i>."&mdash;Rev. 22:12.</p></div>
+
+
+<p>The teaching of God's word of degrees in future punishment ("These
+shall receive greater condemnation,"&mdash;Mark 12:40) according to
+heredity and environment ("It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and
+Sidon at the day of judgment than for you;" "it shall be more
+tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for
+thee,"&mdash;Matt. 11:22, 24), and according to sin ("Every transgression
+and disobedience received a just recompense of reward,"&mdash;Heb. 2:2),
+commends itself to the judgment, to the conscience, of every honest
+man. The companion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> teaching to this in God's word is that there will
+be different degrees, or rewards, in Heaven. Just as the degree of
+man's punishment in Hell will be determined by his life here; so the
+degree of a man's reward in Heaven will be determined by his life
+here. The dividing line is redemption.</p>
+
+<p>With many, salvation and rewards mean the same thing, but the Saviour
+made a clear distinction. "I give unto them eternal life, and they
+shall never perish."&mdash;John 10:28 ("He that believeth on me hath
+everlasting life."&mdash;John 6:47);&mdash;"Lay up for yourselves treasures in
+Heaven."&mdash;Matt. 6:20. Our salvation is a gift and depends upon the
+Saviour; our treasures in Heaven must be laid up by ourselves. Paul
+makes the distinction equally clear. "By grace have ye been saved
+through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not
+of works, lest any man should boast."&mdash;Eph. 2:8, 9 (R. V.).&mdash;"Each man
+shall receive his own reward according to his own labor."&mdash;1 Cor. 3:8.
+But by rewards for service God's word does not mean God's blessings on
+the faithful Christians in this life. It means rewards beyond this
+life. Jesus said, "When thou makest a dinner or a supper call not thy
+friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen nor thy rich neighbors,
+lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee. But when
+thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind;
+and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee, for thou
+shalt be recompensed <i>at the resurrection of the just</i>."&mdash;Luke
+14:12-14.</p>
+
+<p>If "each man shall receive his own reward according <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>to his own labor"
+(1 Cor. 3:8), there will, then, be different rewards or degrees in
+Heaven; for doubtless no two redeemed people ever served God in
+exactly the same degree of faithfulness. Paul makes this distinction
+clear, as well as the difference between salvation and rewards. He
+uses the illustration of building houses out of different material. He
+has been speaking of preachers and their work, and then seems to turn
+and apply his teaching to every one, for he says, "Let every man take
+heed how he buildeth thereupon."&mdash;1 Cor. 3:10. Whether he is speaking
+only of preachers and their work, or applies it to every man; whether
+he is speaking of building in the lives of others by what we teach or
+do, or whether he makes a turn and applies it to every man and his
+building in his own life, he draws the clear distinction between the
+foundation on which the building rests and the building built
+thereupon, between salvation alone through Christ, and rewards for
+service: "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which
+is Jesus Christ. Now, if any man build upon this foundation gold,
+silver, costly stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be
+made manifest; for the day shall declare it; because it shall be
+revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort
+it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall
+receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer
+loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire."&mdash;1 Cor.
+3:11-15. Why is he saved? Because he has been redeemed from the curse
+of the law, Christ having been made a curse for him (Gal. 3:13);
+because he has been redeemed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>from all iniquity (Titus 2:14); because
+he has been redeemed from under the law (Rom. 6:14); and God means His
+promise, "Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved" (Acts
+16:31), and he means the promise of the Saviour, "Verily, verily I say
+unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me
+hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation; but is
+passed from death unto life."</p>
+
+<p>But when the redeemed man's works shall be burned, though he himself
+shall be saved (1 Cor. 3:15), he shall suffer loss (1 Cor. 3:15), and
+the loss shall be irreparable, eternal, and so great that no human
+being in this age can fully realize it. Here the old translation, the
+King James' version, has misled us. The oft-quoted sentence, "What is
+a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul? or
+what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" is a mistranslation.
+The Revised Version translates it correctly: "What shall a man be
+profited, if he shall gain the whole world and forfeit his life, or
+what shall a man give in exchange for his life?"&mdash;Matt. 16:26. By
+noticing verse 25, and verse 27 the reader can see what the Saviour
+meant: "whosoever would save his life shall lose <i>it</i>," not his soul,
+but his life, "and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall
+find <i>it</i>," his life not his soul; "whosoever shall lose his life for
+my sake,"&mdash;men do lose their lives for His sake, but no one loses his
+soul for the Saviour's sake. Following immediately He says, verse 26,
+"For what shall a man be profited, if he shall gain the whole world
+and forfeit his life? or what shall a man give in exchange <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>for his
+life?" In verse 27 the Saviour makes plain how a man who would save
+his life, loses it, and how the one who shall lose his life for the
+Saviour's sake shall find it,&mdash;in the rewards that he loses by trying
+to save his life, or gains by losing his life for the Saviour's sake,
+"For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his
+angels; and then shall he render unto every man according to his
+deeds." What deeds? Deeds of losing his life for the Saviour's sake.
+For all eternity he will have no reward for the life he lived here&mdash;he
+has lost his life. Now, the Saviour says that if a man "shall gain the
+whole world," and in doing so shall "forfeit his life,"&mdash;shall have no
+reward in eternity as a result of his life (the principle laid down by
+Paul, whether of preachers or of all, "if any man's work shall be
+burned he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved."&mdash;1 Cor.
+3:15), he has made a fearful mistake. But if the one who "shall gain
+the whole world" and in doing so "shall forfeit his life," shall have
+no reward for it, makes a fearful mistake, how much greater mistake
+does the one make who forfeits his life to have no reward throughout
+eternity, in order to gain a very small part of the world, as so many
+are doing? But if the one who "shall forfeit his life,"&mdash;have no
+reward in eternity,&mdash;in order to gain but a very small part of the
+world, makes such a fearful, such a great mistake, far worse is the
+bargain made by the unredeemed man who loses not only his life but
+also loses his soul in order to gain a very small part of "the whole
+world"; and yet this is what the vast majority of men are doing. We
+cannot grasp it, we cannot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> realize it, but Jesus says that the
+rewards (not salvation&mdash;1 Cor. 3:15) that men are losing are more than
+"the whole world."</p>
+
+<p>Another teaching of the Saviour along this line has been widely
+misapplied: "He spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a
+certain rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought within
+himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to
+bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my
+barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my
+goods, and I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up
+for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God
+said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of
+thee; then whose shall those things be, which thou hast
+provided?"&mdash;Luke 12:16-20. At once many rush to the conclusion that he
+was lost, that he went to Hell; and they proceed to warn men against
+laying up treasures in this life and losing their souls. But God said,
+"This night thy soul shall be required of thee," not "this night thy
+soul shall go to Hell." Let the Saviour make His own application: "So
+is he that layeth up treasures for himself and <i>is not rich toward
+God</i>."&mdash;Luke 12:21. "If any man's work abide which he hath built
+thereupon he shall receive a reward" (1 Cor. 3:14), he is rich toward
+God; "if any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss" (1 Cor.
+3:15), he is a fool; he spent a life here on earth and has no reward
+in eternity as a result of it;&mdash;"but he himself shall be saved, yet so
+as through fire."&mdash;1 Cor. 3:15. (If in the passage 1 Cor. 3:11-15,
+Paul<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> is speaking only of preachers and their work in building on the
+foundation of Christ in the lives of others by their teaching, he yet
+shows that some whose work abides will be rewarded, and that others
+whose work shall be burned shall suffer loss and yet shall be saved;
+so that the principle applies with all Christians). Two cases in
+point:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>A great American statesman was told by his physician that in a few
+days he must die. That afternoon a minister called to see the dying
+statesman and asked as to his hope beyond the grave. The dying
+statesman replied, "Mr. Blank, I am going to Heaven when I die." The
+minister asked the dying man on what he based his hope. He replied:
+"Mr. Blank, I am ashamed to say that I am a Christian; but now that
+the time has come, I must not deny my Saviour. When I am dead tell
+your people that days before I died, when my mind was calm and clear,
+I gave my dying testimony that I was going to Heaven, redeemed by the
+blood of Christ." The minister pressed the question, why he thought he
+was a Christian. The statesman said to the negro man who was nursing
+him, "Jack, go into my library and bring me my Bible." Turning to the
+minister he said, "Mr. Blank, as I said to you, I am ashamed to say
+that I am a Christian, but now that the time has come, I must not deny
+my Saviour. Long years ago, back in the old red hills of Georgia, when
+I was a young man, one Sunday in an old country church I heard a
+Baptist preacher preach, and I understood him. He showed that God
+honestly loves this world, that Jesus Christ, God's Son, died for our
+sins, and that He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> died for all of our sins; and that every one who
+would repent and trust Christ to save him was certain to go to Heaven.
+Out there in that old country church in the red hills of Georgia I
+accepted Jesus Christ as my Redeemer and Saviour that Sunday morning,
+and trusted Him to save me. I came west and became overwhelmed in
+business and politics. I have wasted my life." Just then the negro man
+returned and handed the Bible to the dying statesman. He turned the
+leaves and finally stopped, and turning to the minister he said, "Mr.
+Blank, I am ashamed to say it, but I don't know much about this book;
+but I do know that this is God's word; and I do know that out in the
+old country church in the red hills of Georgia that Sunday morning,
+when I heard and understood the country preacher, I did, as a guilty,
+lost, justly condemned sinner, accept Jesus Christ as my Saviour and
+Redeemer and trust Him to save me. Listen, Mr. Blank: 'He that
+believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.' Mr. Blank, God says I
+have everlasting life, and I am going to Heaven when I die." And
+turning, the great statesman buried his face in his pillow and sobbed
+out his grief and remorse. He did go to Heaven, "but God said unto
+him, Thou fool ... so is he that layeth up treasures for himself and
+is not rich toward God."&mdash;Luke 12:20, 21.</p>
+
+<p>The second case in point:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>A rich banker in the West a few weeks before Christmas sent a check
+for three hundred and fifty dollars to his brother in the East, a poor
+country preacher, telling him to come and bring all of his family and
+spend Christmas with him. They had not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> seen each other since boyhood.
+The preacher and family arrived Christmas eve morning. That afternoon
+in carriages the two families drove over the banker's beautiful farm
+of a thousand acres of rich land. Coming in late in the afternoon,
+they came by the pasture and saw the beautiful herd of blooded cattle.
+After a sumptuous supper the banker's daughters gave them some
+splendid music and the two families went upstairs to sleep. The two
+white-haired brothers, the banker and the poor country preacher,
+remained downstairs, and for hours talked of boyhood days in the old
+country home in the East. At last the conversation, like the fire in
+the fireplace, had about died out. Finally the banker turned and said,
+"Brother John, may I say something to you and you not get angry?" Said
+the preacher, "Why, brother James, you can say anything you wish to me
+and I will not get angry." Said the banker, "Brother John, you and I
+were poor boys back in the old country home in the East and we agreed
+to be partners for life. One day you came to me and told me that you
+were called to preach. I told you then that you were a fool. What a
+fool you have been! Do you remember that rich farm of a thousand acres
+you saw this afternoon? Paid for with honest money, John. This
+comfortable home for my old age, paid for with honest money, John. The
+fifty thousand dollars I have in the bank in the city where I am
+president of the bank, every dollar of it honest money, John. John,
+you could have had as much as I have. What a fool you have been! Why,
+I had to send you the three hundred and fifty dollars to bring you and
+your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> family that I might see them before I die. And look at your
+daughters; they are dressed in such a shabby way that I am ashamed for
+my neighbors to see my children's cousins. And look at you with your
+old seedy, worn suit and your patched shoes; I am ashamed to take you
+to town day after to-morrow and introduce you to my business
+associates. What a fool you have been! Now, John, I am not saying this
+to wound your feelings; for I love you, John. But I don't want you to
+let any of your boys be such fools as you have been. You know you have
+been a fool, John." Then there was silence for some time. The tears
+were trickling down the cheeks of the old country preacher. At last he
+broke the silence, "Brother James, may I say something to you and you
+not get angry?" "Why, certainly, John, I did not say what I did to
+make you angry, but to keep you from letting any of your boys be such
+fools as you have been, for you know you have been a fool, John." "I
+know," replied the old preacher, "that it looks like I have been a
+fool from this end of the line, brother James. But, brother James, we
+are both old men and we must soon go. Don't be angry with me, brother
+James, but what have you got up yonder?" Again there was silence,
+which was suddenly broken by the banker sobbing, "Oh, John, I am a
+pauper at the judgment bar of God." "So is he that layeth up treasures
+for himself and is not rich toward God." They are dying all over the
+world, men who are redeemed, going to Heaven, but paupers. "If any
+man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall
+be saved, yet so as through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> fire,"&mdash;1 Cor. 3:15. But far better be a
+pauper, and saved without any reward, than be a rich man in Hell (Luke
+16:22, 23): for they are dying all over the world who not only lived
+for this life, but from pride, or religious prejudice, or love of the
+world, or secret sin, would not repent and be redeemed from the curse
+of the law (Gal. 3:13) and be saved (Acts 16:31).</p>
+
+<p>With this teaching, that there are rewards in Heaven, there is another
+most helpful teaching and blessed fact, that the poorest, most
+ignorant and obscure can have just as great rewards as the richest,
+most learned, most applauded. "Each man shall receive his own reward
+<i>according to his own labor</i>,"&mdash;1 Cor. 3:8, not according to what he
+accomplishes. "Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to
+give each one <i>according as his work shall be</i>,"&mdash;Rev. 22:12; not
+according as his success shall be. "And Jesus sat over against the
+treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury; and
+many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow,
+and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto
+him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That
+this poor widow hath cast in more than all they that have cast into
+the treasury."&mdash;Mark 12:41-43. The wealthy, the mighty, the renowned
+who serve faithfully after they were redeemed from the curse of the
+law (Gal. 3:13), from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), shall receive their
+reward. But the poor, the weak, the obscure who serve faithfully after
+they are redeemed shall receive equally as great rewards; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> if they
+have been more faithful, however small their sphere, they shall
+receive even greater rewards. "Two mites that make a farthing," but it
+was all she could do; "Verily I say unto you that this poor widow hath
+cast in more than all they that have cast into the treasury."&mdash;Mark
+12:42, 43. In an American city, one morning a man apparently sixty or
+seventy years of age, dressed as a plain business man, walked into the
+dining-room of one of the leading hotels and sat down to breakfast.
+Some men at the adjoining table were talking of a sad case of
+suffering, as reported in the morning paper; a poor widow with five
+children was very sick, who had, since her husband's death a few years
+before, struggled and made a living for herself and children; but now,
+having been down sick for some time, everything was gone and they were
+suffering. The stranger listened to the sad story; and, having
+finished breakfast, he called a newsboy and bought a paper. The
+account gave the street address of the poor widow. He went to the
+street address, a street of poor cottages, and, knocking at the door,
+was led into the sick room by a child. He saw the condition of affairs
+and heard the widow's story. Sitting by the bedside, he talked in a
+fatherly, cheerful way and tried to encourage the poor widow; and
+quietly slipping something under the pillow, as he was talking, he
+told the widow to use that as she needed it. Then taking out a little
+book from his pocket, he wrote something and tore the paper out of the
+little book and slipped the paper under a book and told the widow to
+use that when she needed it. Then calling down God's blessings upon
+the widow and her fatherless <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>children, he bade them good-bye. As the
+door closed, the widow slipped her hand under the pillow and drew out
+a roll of money, to her a large sum. Then she reached for the piece of
+paper under the book on the table. There was a check for a goodly sum,
+signed by one of America's Christian millionaires. The glow in his
+soul as he walked away from the widow's cottage was not the only
+reward&mdash;"thou shalt be <i>recompensed at the resurrection of the
+just</i>."&mdash;Luke 14:14. But the following Sunday a poor widow working in
+a sweatshop to make a living for her fatherless children, listened to
+an appeal for foreign missions, to get the gospel to those who have
+never heard, and she threw in ten cents, all she could give, "two
+mites that make a farthing."&mdash;"Verily I say unto you, That this poor
+widow hath cast in more than all they that have cast into the
+treasury."&mdash;Mark 12:42, 43. All over the world, by the multiplied
+millions, there are graves where lie sleeping the bodies of those who,
+down the ages, because they were redeemed, gave their lives in
+service. They went down to their graves, their praises unsung by the
+world. Many of them went down to their graves, never realizing that
+there were rewards for them; simply rejoicing in their salvation
+through Him who loved them and gave Himself for them (Gal. 2:20).</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"The desert rose, though never seen by man;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Is nurtured with a care divinely good;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The ocean pearl, though 'neath the rolling main,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Is ever brilliant in the eyes of God.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Think not thy worth and work are all unknown<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Because no partial pensman paint thy praise;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Man may not see nor care, but God will own<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Thy worth and work; thy thoughts and deeds and ways."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p><p>Riding along a lonely country road one Sunday afternoon, many years
+ago, returning from a country church, a young preacher was talking to
+his companion, a young man eighteen years of age, telling him of God's
+love and of <i>God's plan with men</i>. The conversation had ended, and for
+some minutes they had been riding along in silence, when suddenly the
+young man spurred his horse up to the young preacher's horse, and
+seizing the reins, stopped both horses. Dropping the reins, he threw
+both arms around the preacher's neck, and as he began sobbing said,
+"Oh, R&mdash;&mdash;, how good God is!" How little men consider God's goodness.
+How good God is to have ever brought us into being! How good God is,
+though we have all sinned against Him (Rom. 3:23), "that he might be
+just and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus" (Rom. 3:26),
+to have provided complete redemption for us from all iniquity (Titus
+2:14)! How good God is to have "in love predestinated us for adoption
+as sons through Jesus Christ to himself"!&mdash;Eph. 1:5. How good God is
+to chastise us in love (Heb. 12:5, 6) instead of punishing us in Hell
+for our sins after we become His children (Ps. 89:27-34)! How good God
+is to place us where we will serve Him from love, and not from fear of
+punishment (2 Cor. 5:14, 15)! How good God is,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> in addition to our
+salvation, to provide rewards in Heaven for the services we render
+here (Matt. 6:20)! How good God is to provide that the poor, the
+ignorant, the obscure, can have just as great rewards as the more
+fortunate ones (Mark 1:41, 42)! How good God is to say, "if any man's
+work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be
+saved, yet so as through fire"!&mdash;1 Cor. 3:15.</p>
+
+<p><i>FOR FURTHER STUDY</i>:&mdash;The objection that the teaching of rewards in
+Heaven makes Christianity too matter-of-fact is not well taken.
+Punishments or rewards last through all eternity; with the unredeemed,
+in added degrees to the punishment in Hell; with the redeemed, in
+added rewards in Heaven. And they need to realize that with both
+classes this applies to the smallest deeds: "But I say unto you, That
+every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account
+thereof in the day of judgment."&mdash;Matt. 12:36. "And whosoever shall
+give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only
+in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise
+lose his reward."&mdash;Matt. 10:42.</p>
+
+<p>Neither is the objection well taken that to teach men to aim to have
+rewards in Heaven is appealing to an unworthy motive. Jesus taught it
+(Matt. 6:20), Paul taught it (1 Cor. 3:11-15), Moses endorsed it (Heb.
+11:26), and the objector himself prays for God's blessings here in
+this life.</p>
+
+<p>Nor is the objection well founded, that for people to aim to have
+rewards will destroy the motive of love. Rather, it adds to the motive
+of love. A father gives his son, yet not of age, a fine farm. That<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>
+arouses the boy's love. The father tells the boy that, though not of
+age, he may have the full reward of his labor on the farm, beginning
+at once. This does not destroy the motive of love. So, the Saviour,
+having died for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3), and given us eternal life
+(John 10:28, 29), arouses our love; to give us the privilege of having
+rewards in addition to salvation (Matt. 6:20), does not destroy our
+love, but increases it.</p>
+
+<p>There is one limitation God's word makes to our deeds being rewarded:
+"Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men to be seen of
+them: else ye have no reward with your Father who is in Heaven. When
+therefore thou doest alms, sound not a trumpet before thee, as the
+hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have
+glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have received their reward.
+But when thou doest alms let not thy left hand know what thy right
+hand doeth; that thine alms may be in secret; and thy Father who seeth
+in secret shall recompense thee."&mdash;Matt. 6:1-4. If a redeemed man does
+his righteous deeds in order to get glory as reward here, he gets it,
+but none in Heaven,&mdash;the wrong motive prevents his receiving rewards
+in Heaven. <i>God rewards according to the motive.</i></p>
+
+<p>There seems to be one other limitation to receiving rewards in Heaven
+for the deeds of this life: "Whosoever therefore shall break one of
+these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called
+the least in the kingdom of Heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach
+them the same shall be called great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> in the kingdom of Heaven."&mdash;Matt.
+5:19. The teaching seems to be that for one to deliberately break even
+the least commandment, while he will be saved ("The least <i>in the
+kingdom of Heaven</i>") yet he will have no reward ("<i>The least</i> in the
+kingdom of Heaven").</p>
+
+<p>There is one passage of Scripture that some have thought contradicts
+the teaching of different rewards in Heaven: "The kingdom of Heaven is
+like unto a man, an householder, who went out early in the morning to
+hire laborers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the
+laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he
+went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the
+market place, and said unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard and
+whatsoever is right I will give you, and they went their way. Again he
+went out about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, and did likewise.
+And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing
+idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They
+say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye
+also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye
+receive. So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto
+his steward, Call the laborers, and give them their hire, beginning
+from the last unto the first. And when they came that were hired about
+the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first
+came, they supposed that they should have received more, and they
+likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received it,
+they murmured against the goodman of the house, saying, These last
+have wrought but one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, who
+have borne the burden and heat of the day. But he answered one of them
+and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong; didst not thou agree with me for
+a penny? Take that thine is and go thy way; <i>I will give unto this
+last even as unto thee</i>."&mdash;Matt. 20:1-14. From this the conclusion is
+drawn that there are no different rewards in Heaven; that all are
+rewarded alike. But not only does God's word elsewhere teach different
+rewards in Heaven, but the Saviour made His teaching on this point
+very plain. In the parable of the pounds, the servant who with one
+pound gained ten pounds is rewarded with authority over ten cities.
+But the one who with one pound gained only five pounds is rewarded
+with only five cities (Luke 19:16-19). This shows clearly a difference
+in rewards. If, now, this passage in Matthew teaches no difference in
+rewards, then we have a positive contradiction. But consider the two
+parables: the parable of the pounds is where men have the same
+opportunity, each one a pound; then they are rewarded according to
+what they accomplish. The parable of the vineyard is where the
+laborers work different lengths of time; in the morning, boys and
+girls, six, eight, ten, twelve years of age, becoming Christians and
+going into the vineyard; the third hour, young people, fifteen,
+eighteen, twenty years of age, becoming Christians and going into the
+vineyard; the sixth hour, young men and young women, twenty-five,
+thirty, thirty-five years of age, becoming Christians and going into
+the vineyard; the ninth hour, men and women past middle life, forty,
+forty-five, fifty years of age, becoming<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> Christians and going into
+the vineyard; the eleventh hour, old men and women, sixty, seventy,
+eighty years of age, becoming Christians and going into the vineyard.
+But does the Saviour mean all old men and women who become Christians
+in old age and begin working in the vineyard? No, for He limits it to
+those in old age who can say, "<i>No man hath hired us</i>." Then the
+Saviour means by the eleventh hour laborers in the parable those who
+in old age had never before had the opportunity of going into the
+vineyard; who had never before heard or understood the way to be
+saved, and enter God's service. With these, the Saviour reserves the
+sovereign right to give them just as great rewards as though they had
+entered the vineyard "early in the morning"; not that those who "have
+borne the burden and heat of the day" shall receive less, but that
+those who did not have the opportunity of entering the vineyard
+sooner, shall not lose because of it. Some one may think that there
+are no old men and women who do not know the way to be saved and enter
+the vineyard. Even in professedly Christian lands there are many old
+men and women who, because of wrong religious teaching, have never
+seen the real way to be saved; and in China and Africa there are vast
+numbers who can say, "No man hath hired us." To take a case: a mere
+child becomes a Christian and serves in the vineyard for seventy
+years; an old Chinaman eighty years of age hears the gospel for the
+first time, and becomes a Christian and works in the vineyard only one
+year and dies. He will receive as great a reward as the one who served
+God seventy years. Apply this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> principle to the redeemed who died in
+early life: if those who entered at the eleventh hour, "because no man
+hath hired us" receive for one hour as much as those who have labored
+throughout the day, then those who entered the third hour and the Lord
+of the vineyard himself took them out the fourth hour, will receive as
+great rewards as though they had been left to bear the burden and heat
+of the day. Blessed consolation to those who have lost loved ones who
+were taken early in life.</p>
+
+<p>Three of the Saviour's parables are closely connected in their
+teaching concerning rewards: The parable of the pounds, where each
+servant has a pound and one gains ten pounds and another five; one
+receives authority over ten cities, the other receives authority over
+five cities, just half the reward of the other, because he was just
+half as faithful (Luke 19:16-19). This parable represents that class
+of men who have equal opportunity in life (each one a pound) and
+teaches that their reward will be in proportion to what they
+accomplish. The second is the parable of the vineyard, representing
+the length of time of service when the laborers were not to blame for
+not entering the vineyard earlier; showing that they shall not lose
+because they could not get into the vineyard to work earlier. The
+third is the parable of the talents, where the one with five talents
+gained five other talents and the one with two talents gained two
+other talents, and they both received the same commendation, the same
+reward, "I will make thee ruler over many things" (Matt. 25:20-23);
+teaching that the one with small opportunity (two talents) if he uses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>
+it faithfully, will receive as great reward as the one with great
+opportunity (five talents) who uses it faithfully.</p>
+
+<p>A widely misunderstood passage of Scripture bearing on the subject of
+rewards is 1 Cor. 9:24-27: "Know ye not that they that run in a race
+run all, but only one receiveth the prize? So run that ye may obtain.
+And every contestant in the games is temperate in all things. They,
+indeed, do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
+I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that
+beateth the air; but I buffet my body and bring it into subjection;
+lest that by any means, after having preached to others, I myself
+should be disapproved."&mdash;The 1911 Bible. The Authorized Version reads
+"a castaway"; the Revised Version reads "rejected." Many have thought
+that Paul was striving that he might not be a castaway (or rejected)
+from salvation. But notice the passage; he was striving not to be a
+castaway (or rejected) from something that is secured as a result of
+one's own efforts, "so run that ye may obtain." Salvation is not
+secured as a result of one's efforts; "to him that <i>worketh not</i> but
+believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for
+righteousness."&mdash;Rom. 4:5. Rewards are secured as a result of one's
+own efforts; "each man shall receive his own reward according to his
+own labor."&mdash;1 Cor. 3:8. Again, what Paul was striving not to be a
+castaway (or rejected) from, is something that one receives after the
+race is finished; but salvation comes at the beginning of the race
+course, "He that believeth on the Son <i>hath</i> everlasting life,"&mdash;John<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>
+3:36; "by grace <i>have ye been</i> saved."&mdash;Eph. 2:8. Rewards do come
+after the race is finished;&mdash;"thou shalt be recompensed <i>at the
+resurrection of the just</i>."&mdash;Luke 14:14. Again, in saying "I buffet my
+body," he has no reference to buffeting his body to keep it from sin,
+but from <i>comforts and privileges that are not sinful</i>. In the entire
+chapter he has referred only to his not eating and drinking; not
+leading about a wife as well as other apostles and the brethren of the
+Lord and Cephas; not being supported by those to whom he preached (1
+Cor. 9:4-14); and in each case he says that he has a right to these
+things. Was Paul buffeting his body against having a wife lest he
+should be a castaway (or rejected) from salvation? Then only the Roman
+Catholic priests, among the preachers, will be saved. Was Paul
+buffeting his body against being supported by those to whom he
+preached, and working with his own hands for his living, lest he
+should be a castaway (or rejected) from salvation? Then the Roman
+Catholic priests and almost all of the Protestant and Baptists
+preachers will be lost. Will a man be a castaway (or rejected) from
+salvation for enjoying comforts and privileges that are not sinful and
+to which he has a right? But let Paul state for himself what he means:
+"For if I do this thing willingly <i>I have a reward</i>."&mdash;1 Cor. 9:17. He
+then urges the Corinthian Christians to run in the race that they may
+receive the prize. "I buffet my body and bring it into subjection
+(from enjoying these sinless comforts and privileges); lest that by
+any means, after having preached (R. V. margin "have been a herald")
+to others (preaching or heralding to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> run in the race and so run as to
+obtain the prize, the reward) I myself should be disapproved" (a
+castaway, rejected,&mdash;from the prize, the reward). "If any man's work
+abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any
+man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall
+be saved, yet so as through fire."&mdash;1 Cor. 3:14, 15.</p>
+
+<p>But does Paul teach that there are rewards for bodily sufferings and
+self-denials? Let him explain: "Though I am free from all men, yet
+have I made myself servant unto all, <i>that I might gain the more</i>."&mdash;1
+Cor. 9:19. That, by giving up these comforts and privileges he might
+win more people to be saved (1 Cor. 9:20-22).</p>
+
+<p>There is the prize, there are rewards, for those who bring their
+bodies under from comforts and privileges that they may thereby win
+others to be saved. With the coppers in the foreign mission envelope
+from an orphan newsboy was found a note written in a child's awkward
+handwriting, "Starved a meal to give a meal." He would not have been a
+castaway from salvation had he bought and eaten his lunch that day;
+but there will be, at the resurrection of the just (Luke 14:14), the
+prize for having brought his body into subjection that he might gain
+the more.</p>
+
+<p>During a collection for foreign missions, a poor, ragged, one-legged
+negro hobbled down the aisle and laid three packages of money on the
+table: "Dat's fur my wife; dat's fur my boy; dat's fur me." When the
+collector saw the amount, he protested, saying that it was too much
+for a poor crippled man to give. As a matter of fact, it meant weeks
+of sacrificing,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> sometimes with no meat on the table. As the tears
+trickled down the black cheeks, the negro said, "Oh, Boss, de Lord's
+cause must go on, and I may soon be dead"; and turning he hobbled back
+to his seat. He was only a poor, ignorant, one-legged negro, but he
+ran in the race, and at the resurrection of the just he will receive
+the prize.</p>
+
+<p>A Christian Chinaman sold himself to some mine owners that he might go
+down in the mines and while working lead his fellow-Chinamen to be
+saved. He had no support from those to whom he preached, but worked
+with his own hands. He ran in the race, and will receive the prize.</p>
+
+<p>If the young Catholic priest was redeemed who turned from the comforts
+and privileges of a wife and home and gave himself for the lepers,
+there will be the prize at the resurrection of the just.</p>
+
+<p>The world says that a man is a fool to make such sacrifices; Jesus
+said: "Thou fool ... so is he that layeth up treasures for himself and
+is not rich toward God."&mdash;Luke 12:20, 21. "If any man's work abide
+which he hath built thereupon he shall receive a reward. If any man's
+work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be
+saved, yet so as through fire."&mdash;1 Cor. 3:14, 15.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2>
+
+<p class="subhead1">HOW TO BE SAVED&mdash;REPENTANCE AND FAITH</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Repent ye and believe the gospel."&mdash;Mark 1:15.</p>
+
+<p>"Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus
+Christ."&mdash;Acts 20:21.</p>
+
+<p>"And ye when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might
+believe him."&mdash;Matt. 21:32.</p>
+
+<p>"Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."&mdash;Luke 13:3.</p>
+
+<p>"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
+the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should
+not perish, but have eternal life."&mdash;John 3:14,15.</p>
+
+<p>"Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the
+Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved."&mdash;Acts 16:30, 31.</p></div>
+
+
+<p>Wherever repentance and faith are mentioned in God's word without one
+exception, repentance comes before faith. There is a faith that comes
+before repentance; but it is pure historical faith, and does not
+result in salvation. "He that cometh to God must believe that he
+is,"&mdash;Heb. 11:26; the demons believe in God's existence, that He is;
+Thomas Paine believed in God's existence, that He is. But the faith
+that results in salvation invariably comes after repentance; "And ye
+when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, <i>that ye</i> might believe
+him."&mdash;Matt. 21:32. If, therefore, the faith that saves must come
+after repentance, then those who have no saving faith after
+repentance, have no salvation, are not really redeemed. Not only so,
+but if saving faith must come after repentance, then those who place
+the only faith they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> claim, before repentance, do not understand what
+saving faith is.</p>
+
+<p>Jesus preached, "Repent ye and believe the gospel."&mdash;Mark 1:15. Paul
+preached "repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus
+Christ."&mdash;Acts 20:21. What does "repent" or "repentance" mean?</p>
+
+<p>God's word teaches that one must repent <i>in order to believe</i>. "And ye
+when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, <i>that ye might believe
+him</i>."&mdash;Matt. 21:32. "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise
+perish."&mdash;Luke 13:3. Then whatever "repentance" or "repent" means, it
+is something that must take place before one can be saved, before he
+can "believe the gospel" (Mark 1:15); before he can have "faith toward
+our Lord Jesus Christ."&mdash;Acts 20:21. The Saviour gives a complete,
+perfect picture of salvation, and in that picture we can find what
+repentance means: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
+even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in
+him should not perish, but have eternal life."&mdash;John 3:14, 15. Jesus
+says "As," "even so"; then in the case of the serpent in the
+wilderness we have a complete, perfect picture of the way of
+salvation. By seeing what came back there before the lifting up of the
+serpent, we can see what comes before believing in Him, or "faith
+toward our Lord Jesus Christ." Notice the incident to which the
+Saviour referred as showing the complete picture of the way of
+salvation: "And they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red
+Sea, to compass the land of Edom: And the soul of the people was much
+discouraged because of the way. And the people<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> spake against God, and
+against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in
+the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water; and
+our soul loatheth this light bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents
+among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel
+died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned,
+for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the
+Lord that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the
+people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and
+set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass, that every one that is
+bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent
+of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a
+serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he
+lived."&mdash;Num. 21:4-9. These people realized that they had sinned
+against God; that their sins deserved punishment; that they were
+justly condemned&mdash;"we have sinned";&mdash;that they were helpless, "Pray
+unto the Lord that <i>he</i> take away the serpents from us"; and in their
+helpless condition they turned from their sins and turned to God.
+There had been, then, an entire change of mind and purpose, or they
+would never have turned from their sins to God. When they faced the
+fact that they had sinned and were justly condemned, there resulted
+sorrow, and their sorrow led to the change of mind and purpose to turn
+from their sins to God. Had there been no conviction of sin, no
+realization that they had sinned and were justly condemned, there
+would have been no change of mind, or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> purpose to turn from sin to
+God. Here, then, we have what repentance is,&mdash;a conviction of sin,
+such a realization of the fact that one has sinned and is justly
+condemned that it produces such sorrow as leads to an entire change of
+mind and purpose to turn from sin and turn to God. God then provided
+the easiest way for them, "every one that is bitten, when he looketh
+upon it [the brazen serpent] shall live."&mdash;Num. 21:8. The Saviour
+says, "Even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever
+believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life."&mdash;John
+3:15.</p>
+
+<p>Notice the case of the jailor, Acts 16:22-34. When the jailor fell
+down before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said, "Sirs, what
+must I do to be saved?" (Verse 30), they did not say, "Repent"; they
+said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved."&mdash;Verse 31.
+But God's word teaches plainly that we must repent in order to believe
+(Matt. 21:32; Luke 13:3). Then repentance must have already taken
+place,&mdash;he must have already repented,&mdash;or they would have taught him
+"repentance toward God" as well as "faith toward our Lord Jesus
+Christ."&mdash;Acts 20:21. Go back and notice the jailor's case: the night
+before, he had taken Paul and Silas with their backs bloody from the
+beating they had received, and had not washed their stripes (Verse
+33), had given them no supper (Verse 34), and had thrust them into the
+inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks. He was utterly
+hardened. The praying and singing hymns to God by Paul and Silas, the
+sudden earthquake, Paul's crying out against his committing <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>suicide,
+had convicted him of sin, such a conviction as had produced sorrow,
+for he came trembling and fell down before them; and the sorrow had
+led to an entire change of mind and purpose, and he said, "Sirs, what
+must I do to be saved?"&mdash;"what," anything God would have me do I am
+ready to do,&mdash;he had turned from his sins and had turned to God. Hence
+they did not say "Repent," for he had repented; but they said,
+"Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved."&mdash;Acts 16:31.</p>
+
+<p>Having seen what the Saviour meant by repentance, let us go to the
+meaning of the word translated "repent." "This word," says J. P.
+Boyce, the great theologian, in his systematic theology, "means to
+reconsider, perceive afterwards and to change one's view, mind or
+purpose, or even judgment, implying disapproval and abandonment of
+past opinions and purposes, and the adoption of others which are
+different." B. H. Carroll, President Southwestern Baptist Theological
+Seminary: "We may therefore give as the one invariable definition of
+New Testament repentance that it is a change of mind." B. H. Carroll,
+again, "Repentance is a change of mind toward God concerning a course
+of sin leading rapidly down to death and eternal ruin." Once more from
+B. H. Carroll: "If in one moment the soul is contrite enough to turn
+in abhorrence of sin against God from all self-help to our Lord Jesus
+Christ by faith, it is sufficient." John A. Broadus, the great
+American scholar and teacher: "To repent, then, as a religious term of
+the New Testament, is to change the mind, thought or purpose as
+regards sin and the service of God&mdash;a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> change naturally accompanied by
+deep sorrow for past sins, and naturally leading to a change of
+outward life."</p>
+
+<p>As the Bible teaches that no man can be saved who has not repented
+("Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."&mdash;Luke 13:3), and as
+no one has repented who has not been convicted of sin, who has not
+seen himself a guilty, justly condemned sinner, it follows that no one
+is saved, no one can be saved, who does not believe that God will and
+ought to punish sin. But to those who have repented, the way to be
+saved is simple, easy, sure: "Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt
+be saved."&mdash;Acts 16:31.</p>
+
+<p><i>FOR FURTHER STUDY</i>:&mdash;There has been much misunderstanding about
+repentance. Some men, as Moody, Harry Moorehouse, J. H. Brookes, etc.,
+have been charged with not preaching enough repentance, simply because
+they did not use the words "repent" and "repentance" as much as
+others; whereas, others who use the words often, and tell touching
+incidents, are said to preach "old-fashioned repentance." It is not
+the word repentance that God requires, but the thing repentance, and a
+sinner must repent or he cannot believe (Matt. 21:32) and he will
+perish (Luke 13:3). The gospel of John is the only book of the Bible
+given specifically to sinners to lead them to be saved. The way of
+salvation can be found in many of the books of the Bible, and is
+taught in them; but the gospel of John is the only book of the Bible
+given for the special, specific purpose of leading a sinner to be
+saved. "Many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his
+disciples which are not written<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> in this book: but these are written
+that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and
+that believing ye might have life through his name."&mdash;John 20:30, 31.
+In this book, given specifically to lead a sinner to be saved, the
+word "repentance" or "repent" does not occur, but the thing repentance
+does (John 3:14, 15).</p>
+
+<p>On the difference between the thing repentance and the word
+repentance, give attention to the words of John A. Broadus, the great
+American scholar and teacher already quoted: "Great difficulty has
+been found in translating this Greek word 'metanoein' into languages.
+The Syriac version, unable to give the precise meaning, falls back
+upon 'turn,' the same word as the Hebrew. The Latin version gives
+'Exercise penitence' (poenitentiam agere). But this Latin penitence,
+apparently connected by etymology with <i>pain</i>, signifies grief or
+distress, and is rarely extended to a change of purpose, thus
+corresponding to the Hebrew word which we render 'repent,' but <i>not</i>
+corresponding to the terms employed in Old Testament and New Testament
+exhortations. Hence a subtle and pernicious error, pervading the whole
+sphere of Latin Christianity, by which the exhortation of the New
+Testament is understood to be an exhortation to <i>grief</i> over sin, as
+the primary and principal idea of the term. One step farther and
+penitence was contracted into <i>penance</i>, and associated with medi&aelig;val
+ideas unknown to the New Testament, and the English Version made by
+Romanists now represents John and Jesus and Peter as saying
+(poenitentiam agere) do penance. From a late Latin compound
+(repoenitere)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> comes our English word 'repent,' which inherits the
+fault of the Latin; making grief the prominent element, and change of
+purpose secondary, if expressed at all. Thus our English word
+corresponds exactly to the second Greek word (metamelesthai), and to
+the Hebrew word rendered repent, but sadly fails to translate the
+exhortation of the New Testament."</p>
+
+<p>Repentance is not a price that the sinner pays for salvation; neither
+is the sorrow that leads to repentance a price that he pays for
+salvation. And repentance does not make the sinner a fit subject for
+salvation; nor does the sorrow that leads to repentance make him a fit
+subject for salvation. No one can see that he has violated God's just
+and holy law and is guilty, justly condemned, helpless, without its
+producing sorrow and this sorrow will lead to repentance, to an entire
+change of mind and purpose, to turning from sin, and, as B. H. Carroll
+expressed it, from all self-help ("repentance from dead works,"&mdash;Heb.
+6:1) to God.</p>
+
+<p>Some are sometimes troubled as to how much sorrow there must be. There
+are different degrees of sorrow in different people, but there must be
+enough sorrow to lead to repentance, to an entire change of mind and
+purpose.</p>
+
+<p>"In both the Old Testament and the New Testament exhortation the
+element of grief for sin is left in the background, neither word
+directly expressing grief at all, though it must in the nature of
+things be present."&mdash;<i>Jno. A. Broadus.</i></p>
+
+<p>"To repent is to change your mind about sin and Christ and all the
+good things of God. There is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> sorrow implied in this; but the main
+point is the turning of the heart from sin to Christ. If there be this
+turning you have the essence of the repentance, even though no alarm
+and no despair should ever have cast their shadow upon your
+mind."&mdash;<i>C. H. Spurgeon.</i></p>
+
+<p>"Conviction of sin is just the sinner seeing himself as he is and as
+God has all along seen him."&mdash;<i>H. Bonar, in "God's Way of Peace."</i></p>
+
+<p>"The object of the Holy Spirit's work in convincing of sin is to alter
+the sinner's opinion of himself and so to reduce his estimate of his
+own character, that he shall think of himself as God does, and so
+cease to suppose it possible that he can be justified by any
+excellence of his own. Having altered the sinner's good opinion of
+himself, the Spirit then alters his evil opinion of God, so as to make
+him see that the God with whom he has to deal is really the God of all
+grace."&mdash;<i>Bonar.</i></p>
+
+<p>"It is impossible, therefore, in the nature of things, for a sinful
+being to appreciate God's mercy unless he first feels His justice as
+manifest in the holy law."&mdash;<i>Walker, in "Philosophy of the Plan of
+Salvation."</i></p>
+
+<p>"Man cannot repent and turn from sin till he is convicted of sin in
+himself."&mdash;<i>Walker, in "Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation."</i></p>
+
+<p>"The more we feel the want of a benefactor, temporal or spiritual, and
+the more we feel our inability to rescue ourselves from existing
+difficulties and impending dangers, the more grateful love will the
+heart feel for the being who, moved by, and in despite of, personal
+sacrifices, interposes to assist and save us."&mdash;<i>Walker, in
+"Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation."</i></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p><p>"As a feeling of want was necessary in order that the soul might love
+the being that supplied that want, and as Jesus came to bestow
+spiritual mercies upon mankind, <i>how could men be brought to feel the
+want of a spiritual Benefactor and Saviour?</i>"... "According to the
+constitution which God has given the soul, it must feel the want of
+the spiritual mercies before it can feel love for the giver of those
+mercies. And just in proportion as the soul feels its lost, guilty,
+and dangerous condition, in the same proportion will it exercise love
+to the being who grants spiritual favor and salvation. How then could
+the spiritual want be produced in the souls of men in order that they
+might love the spiritual benefactor?"... "The only possible way by
+which man could be made to hope for and appreciate spiritual mercies
+and to love a spiritual deliverer would be to produce a conviction in
+the soul itself of its evil condition, its danger as a spiritual
+being, and its inability, unaided, to satisfy the requirements of a
+<i>spiritual law</i>, or to escape its just and spiritual penalty.
+If man could be made to perceive that he was guilty and needy; that
+his soul was under the condemnation of the holy law of the holy God,
+he would then, necessarily, feel the need of a deliverance from
+sin and its consequences; and in this way only, could the soul of
+man be led to appreciate spiritual mercies, or love a spiritual
+benefactor."&mdash;<i>Walker, in "Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation."</i></p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2>
+
+<p class="subhead1">THE MEANING OF "BELIEVE ON" OR "BELIEVE IN" CHRIST</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son, that
+whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal
+life."&mdash;John 3:16 (R. V.).</p>
+
+<p>"This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath
+sent."&mdash;John 6:27.</p>
+
+<p>"He that believeth on me shall never thirst."&mdash;John 6:35.</p>
+
+<p>"To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name
+whosoever believeth on him shall receive remission of sins."&mdash;Acts
+10:43.</p>
+
+<p>"Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved."&mdash;Acts 16:31.</p>
+
+<p>"John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto
+the people that they should believe on him that should come after
+him, that is, on Jesus."&mdash;Acts 19:4.</p>
+
+<p>"To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the
+ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness."&mdash;Rom. 4:5.</p>
+
+<p>"Whosoever liveth and believeth in [into] me shall never die.
+Believest thou this?"&mdash;John 11:26.</p>
+
+<p>"We have believed in [into] Jesus Christ, that we might be
+justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the
+law."&mdash;Gal. 2:16 (R. V.).</p>
+
+<p>"I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is
+able to guard that which I have committed unto him against that
+day."&mdash;2 Tim. 1:12 (R. V.).</p></div>
+
+
+<p>If language can be made plain, if it can be used to express a fact
+clearly, then God's word teaches clearly, unmistakably, that the one
+who believes on Christ is going to Heaven. One may think it to be too
+good to be true, when he reads what God's word says along this line;
+he may be honestly tempted to suspect that there must be many hidden,
+suppressed conditions, which, if expressed, would make the meaning
+different; or from religious prejudice, he may warp the meaning or
+bring in other conditions;&mdash;but God's word is plain.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p><p>"God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that
+whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal
+life."&mdash;John 3:16.</p>
+
+<p>It does not say, whosoever believeth on him and unites with the right
+church, or is baptized the right way, or lives the right kind of a
+life; it simply says, "whosoever believeth on him"; and then the
+promise is plain and absolute, "should not perish."</p>
+
+<p>Jesus said, "he that believeth on me shall never thirst."&mdash;John 6:35.
+He did not say, he that believeth on me and unites with the right
+church, or is baptized the right way, or lives the right kind of a
+life; he said plainly, simply, "he that believeth on me," and then
+added "shall never thirst."</p>
+
+<p>Peter to the household of Cornelius said, "To him give all the
+prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth on him
+shall receive remission of sins."&mdash;Acts 10:43. He did not say,
+whosoever believeth on him and unites with the right church, or is
+baptized the right way, or lives the right kind of a life; but simply,
+"whosoever believeth on him," and then adds the plain promise, "shall
+receive remission of sins."</p>
+
+<p>When the jailor came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and
+brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" they
+answered, simply, plainly, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt
+be saved."&mdash;Acts 16:31. They did not say, believe on the Lord Jesus
+and unite with the right church, or be baptized the right way, or live
+the right kind of a life; they said simply, "Believe on the Lord
+Jesus, and thou shalt be saved."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p><p>When Paul wrote to the Romans, "To him that worketh not, but
+believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned
+for righteousness,"&mdash;Rom. 4:5, he did not say, believeth on him that
+justifieth the ungodly and unites with the right church, or is
+baptized the right way, or lives the right kind of a life; but simply,
+"To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the
+ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness."</p>
+
+<p>Jesus to the grief-stricken sister of Lazarus said, "Whosoever liveth
+and believeth in [into] me shall never die."&mdash;John 11:26. He did not
+say, whosoever liveth and believeth in me and unites with the right
+church, or is baptized the right way, or lives the right kind of life;
+but simply and plainly, "whosoever liveth and believeth in me," and
+then He adds His plain promise, "shall never die."</p>
+
+<p>When Paul said to the Galatians, "we have believed in [into] Jesus
+Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ,"&mdash;Gal.
+2:16, he did not say, we have believed in Jesus Christ and united with
+the right church and been baptized the right way, that we might be
+justified by faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. Instead
+of this, he puts it in simple, plain language.</p>
+
+<p>In all of these cases, these conditions could have been expressed just
+as easily by the Saviour and Peter and Paul as they are expressed by
+religious teachers to-day. Why did not the Saviour and Peter and Paul
+express these conditions? There can be but one answer,&mdash;because they
+are not conditions of salvation. How could the Saviour and Peter and
+Paul have left<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> out these conditions if they are conditions of
+salvation?</p>
+
+<p>But the question arises, if being baptized the right way and living
+the right kind of a life are not conditions of salvation, why do these
+things? Not from fear of Hell; God desires no service from that
+motive. Let the Saviour tell why. When He instituted the Lord's
+supper, He said, "This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed
+for many, for the remission of sins,"&mdash;Matt. 26:28; and then before
+leaving the upper room He said to His disciples: "if ye love me, keep
+my commandments."&mdash;John 14:15. Why love Him? Love Him because He shed
+His blood for the remission of their sins. Let Paul tell us why serve
+Him: "The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge that
+if one died for all, then all died; and he died for all, that they who
+live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died
+for them, and rose again."&mdash;2 Cor. 5:14, 15.</p>
+
+<p>Now comes the all-important question, what do these parallel
+expressions, "believe on Christ" or "believe in [into] Christ" mean?
+Many, when they see how simple and plain is the teaching, say, "Why,
+almost every one believes on Christ." No; they believe <i>about</i> Christ,
+but not <i>on</i> Christ. A wealthy man deposits a large sum of money in
+the bank and promises to pay the debts of all the poor people who will
+trust him to pay their debts. They all may believe him, may believe
+about him; but only those who believe on him, depend on him, rely on
+him to pay their debts, will have their debts paid. So Christ died
+for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> all our sins (1 Cor. 15:3); He gave Himself for us that He might
+redeem us from all iniquity (Titus 2:14); but only those who <i>believe
+on</i> Him, <i>depend on</i> Him, <i>rely on</i> Him to save them, will ever be
+saved. The man who is depending on Christ and his baptism or Christ
+and his church, or Christ and his good life to save him, will be lost;
+for he is not believing on, depending on, relying on, Christ to save
+him; but only partly on Christ and partly on something else; and
+<i>there is no promise in God's word that those who partly believe on
+Christ shall be saved</i>. The very fact that a man depends partly on
+Christ and partly on something else to save him, shows that he has
+never believed that the Saviour "gave himself for us that he might
+redeem us from all iniquity" (Titus 2:13, 14); the Saviour he is
+depending on is not the Saviour God's word reveals; and hence he has
+no Saviour at all.</p>
+
+<p>Notice Paul's instruction to the Romans concerning believing on
+Christ: "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth
+the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness."&mdash;Rom. 4:5.
+Consider the simple but vital teaching of this passage: He justifieth
+the ungodly. How? "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation
+through faith in his blood ... to declare, I say, at this time his
+righteousness, that he might be <i>just</i> and the <i>justifier</i> of him that
+believeth in Jesus" (Rom. 3:25, 26); "being now justified by his
+blood."&mdash;Rom. 5:9. And He justifies us from all sin, "Our Saviour
+Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from
+<i>all</i> iniquity" (Titus 2:13, 14); redeems us from the curse<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> of the
+law (Gal. 3:13), redeems us from under the law (Rom. 6:14), and this
+makes us God's children (Gal. 4:4-7).</p>
+
+<p>Consider further: He justifies <i>the ungodly</i>. If He justifies the
+ungodly then all efforts to become godly <i>in order to be saved</i>, are
+worse than wasted and are in rebellion against <i>God's plan for men</i>.
+"When we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the
+<i>ungodly</i>."&mdash;Rom. 5:6. "God commendeth his own love toward us, in that
+<i>while we were yet sinners</i>, Christ died for us."&mdash;Rom. 5:8. "<i>When we
+were enemies</i> we were reconciled to God by the death of his
+Son."&mdash;Rom. 5:10. Why? Because Christ justifies the ungodly. The
+Saviour did not say to Nicodemus, "Whosoever becomes godly should not
+perish," but "Whosoever believeth on him." Why? Because He justifies
+<i>the ungodly</i>. Paul and Silas did not say to the jailor, a hardened
+sinner, "Become godly and thou shalt be saved"; but "Believe on the
+Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved." Why? Because He justifies <i>the
+ungodly</i>. On what condition does He justify the ungodly? "To him that
+<i>worketh</i> not, but <i>believeth</i> on him." Here is the work of the soul
+to be saved; Paul says to cease working at the task, and believe on,
+depend on, Him&mdash;He justifies the ungodly. God gave men ten
+commandments to keep. God's word says, "The man that doeth them shall
+live by them."&mdash;Gal. 3:12. But all men have failed to keep them; "all
+have sinned and come short of the glory of God."&mdash;Rom. 3:23. To
+illustrate: A father gives a little boy ten rows of corn to work out
+and says to him, "Willie, if you will work out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> the ten rows of corn
+to-day, I will pay you five dollars; but it will take steady work all
+day." About nine o'clock some boys persuade Willie to play, and he
+plays with them for two hours. Now he cannot get the task done, and so
+is sure to lose the five dollars. His grown brother comes to him and
+says, "Willie, I saw the trouble you were getting into, and had a talk
+with father. Father says that the work must be done or you will lose
+the five dollars. But father agreed to let me do the work for you. Now
+if you will quit working at the task and trust me, depend on me, I
+will see that the work is done, and that you get the five dollars."
+The little brother quits working at the task, and gets out of the
+field. He believes on, depends on, trusts, his big brother. If, now,
+there is any failure, it will be the big brother's failure, and not
+the little brother's. So, "To him that worketh not, but believeth on
+him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for
+righteousness." If, then, the sinner will quit working at the task of
+his salvation and believe on, depend on Christ, trust the whole work
+of salvation to Him, He will "justify the ungodly" from "all iniquity"
+(Titus 2:14). If, then, there should be any failure of being saved, it
+would be Christ's failure, for He said, "Him that cometh unto me, I
+will in no wise cast out."&mdash;John 6:37. Why, then, should the one who
+has thus trusted Christ ever be baptized, or live a faithful, godly
+life? Go back to the illustration: As the little brother quits working
+at the task in the field and believes on, depends on, trusts, the big
+brother to have the task done, a man meets him and says, "Willie,
+your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> brother was good to you. But to do your work for you, that you
+might not lose the five dollars, he left his field, and it needs work
+badly. If I were in your place, from love to my big brother, I would
+go and work in his field for him." The little brother says, "I will do
+it, sir." He goes over into his big brother's field and works harder
+than ever, not from fear of losing the five dollars, but from love to
+his big brother. So the Saviour, after we have believed on Him,
+trusted Him to save, justify us, says, "If ye love me, keep my
+commandments."&mdash;John 14:15. "Go work to-day in <i>my</i> vineyard,"&mdash;Matt.
+21:28; not "in <i>your own</i>." All the work that the redeemed, the saved,
+man does is not in his own field, to get the task done, that he may be
+saved; but in the big brother's field, from love to the big brother
+for having relieved him of the entire responsibility for the task.</p>
+
+<p>To follow up the illustration: The big brother sees the little brother
+working in the big brother's field and he goes to him and says,
+"Willie, I appreciate this, for you are doing it from love to me. If
+you were doing it from fear lest I might not keep my promise, it would
+hurt me; for that would show that you did not trust me. But you cannot
+work for me for nothing. I will pay you fifty cents for every hour you
+work in my field. Now, work hard and have a large reward for your
+labor." So the Saviour says, "Whosoever shall give to drink unto one
+of these little ones a cup of water only in the name of a disciple,
+verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward."&mdash;Matt.
+10:42. And he says, "Lay up for yourselves treasures in
+Heaven."&mdash;Matt. 6:20.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> "He shall reward every man according to his
+works."&mdash;Matt. 16:27. The reward of fifty cents for every hour's work
+does not destroy the motive of love that moves the little brother; it
+only increases the motive of love.</p>
+
+<p>But do not redeemed people, God's children, sometimes become
+backsliders? Yes. Go back to the illustration of the little brother
+and his task. As he is working from love to his big brother, in the
+big brother's field, the bad boys follow him and tempt him, and
+prevail on him to leave the big brother's field and to mistreat the
+big brother. The father sees it all; goes and takes the little brother
+out into the forest and reproves him for his wrong to his big brother,
+and then chastises him and sends him back to the big brother's field.
+So, when God's redeemed, saved children backslide, do wrong wilfully,
+He chastises them. "My son, despise not thou the chastening of the
+Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him; for whom the Lord loveth
+he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."&mdash;Heb. 12:5,
+6. "Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the
+earth. My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant
+shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure
+forever, and his throne as the days of heaven. If his children forsake
+my law and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and
+keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgression with
+the rod and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my loving
+kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness
+to fail."&mdash;Ps. 89:27-33.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p><p>Reader, which field are you working in? Are you working in your own
+field? trying to accomplish a task, now that you have sinned, you can
+never accomplish?&mdash;Meet <i>all</i> of God's just laws and requirements, and
+develop a character that will entitle you to a home in Heaven? Heed
+the message, "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that
+justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness."
+Believe on Him, depend on Him, to justify you from all iniquity (Titus
+2:14). The moment you do, your eternal destiny is settled, "Verily,
+verily I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him
+that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into
+condemnation, but is passed from death unto life."&mdash;John 5:24. Then,
+from love to the big brother, go into his field and work till the day
+is done.</p>
+
+<p>In telling of his own salvation, Paul again makes plain what "believe
+on the Lord Jesus" means: "I know him whom I have believed and am
+persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him
+against that day." Notice this declaration as to the apostle's
+salvation: "I know him." A man must "know him" or he cannot "believe
+on" Christ. He can <i>risk</i> Him without knowing Him, but he cannot
+<i>believe on</i> Him, cannot <i>trust</i> Him for salvation. It does not mean,
+know Him in every respect, as to how His divine and human nature could
+be united; as to how He could have had eternal existence; as to how
+His resurrected body could appear and disappear, etc., but to know Him
+in His character as Saviour. In trusting money to a bank one does not
+need to know how much German or French or English blood there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> is in
+the bank officials. In trusting one's case to a physician, one does
+not need to know the different nationalities from which he is
+descended, but he needs to know him in his character as physician. So
+men must know Jesus in His character as Saviour, or they cannot
+believe on, trust Him to save them. They must, then, know Him as the
+Messiah, the promised Saviour, the complete sin-bearer, or they cannot
+believe on Him. But after one knows the bank, he must commit his money
+to the bank, else the bank is not responsible for it. After one knows
+the physician, he must commit his case to the physician, else the
+physician is not responsible. And so Paul says, "I am persuaded that
+he is able to keep that which I <i>have committed unto him against that
+day</i>." No one, then, is redeemed, is saved, who has not committed his
+salvation to Christ against that day. Let the reader get clearly the
+meaning of "commit." No one has committed money to the bank who yet
+holds to the money; no one has committed a package to the express
+company who yet holds to the package; no one has committed a letter to
+the post-office for delivery who yet holds to the letter. So no one
+has committed his salvation to Christ, no one is redeemed, is saved,
+who yet holds to the work of his salvation. He must <i>commit</i> it to
+Christ.</p>
+
+<p>Further, no one has <i>committed</i> his money to the bank who has not left
+the entire responsibility for the money's safety to the bank, leaving
+no further responsibility whatever upon himself for the safety of the
+money. No one has <i>committed</i> a package to the express company, who
+has not left the whole responsibility <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>for the delivery of the package
+entirely to the company, leaving no responsibility whatever upon
+himself for its safe delivery. No one has <i>committed</i> a letter to the
+post-office who has not left the entire responsibility for its safe
+delivery to the government, leaving no responsibility whatever upon
+himself for its safe delivery. Even so, no one has <i>committed</i> his
+salvation to Christ, no one is redeemed, is saved, who has not left
+the entire responsibility of his salvation to Christ, leaving no
+responsibility whatever for his salvation upon himself.</p>
+
+<p>But one may have committed his money to the bank and yet not really
+have trusted the bank, but only <i>risked</i> the bank; one may have
+committed a package to the express company and yet not really have
+trusted the express company, but only <i>risked</i> it; one may have
+committed a letter to the post-office and yet not really have trusted
+the post-office, but only <i>risked</i> it. So, one may have committed his
+salvation to Christ, and yet be unredeemed, unsaved, because he only
+<i>risked</i> Christ and did not <i>trust</i> Him. Hence Paul says, "I know him
+whom I have <i>believed</i>," <i>trusted, taken at His word</i>.</p>
+
+<p>One other fact needs to be considered as to what believing on Christ
+means in Paul's case. He says, "I am persuaded that he is able to keep
+that which I have committed to him <i>against that day</i>." It is not a
+committal of one's salvation to Christ a moment at a time, nor till
+one can see how he will afterwards feel; nor till one can see whether
+he is going to be able to live a Christian life. It is to commit one's
+salvation to Christ "<i>against that day</i>." And the moment <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>one does
+what Paul did, commits his salvation to Christ against that day, God's
+word says he is saved, redeemed: "Verily, verily I say unto you, He
+that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me, hath
+everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed
+from death unto life."&mdash;John 5:24.</p>
+
+<p><i>FOR FURTHER STUDY</i>:&mdash;When Paul says, "To him that worketh not, but
+believeth on him that justifieth <i>the ungodly</i>, his faith is counted
+for righteousness,"&mdash;Rom. 4:5, he is in line with the teaching of the
+Saviour when He said, "The publicans and the harlots go into the
+kingdom of God before you,"&mdash;Matt. 21:31; and if the teaching of the
+Saviour and Paul on this point is true, then there is not left one
+square inch of ground on which the teachers of "salvation by
+character" may stand. They are not in agreement with the Saviour and
+Paul on this point, but there is one with whom they are here in strict
+agreement; "I hope for happiness beyond this life"; "I believe that
+religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and
+endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy"; "The only true
+religion is deism, by which I then meant and now mean the belief of
+one God, and an imitation of his moral character, or the practice of
+what are called moral virtues; and that <i>it was upon this only</i> (so
+far as religion is concerned) <i>that I rested my hopes of happiness
+hereafter</i>. So say I now, and so help me God." These are exact
+quotations from "The Age of Reason," by Thomas Paine. And those who
+preach "salvation by character" thus line up with Paine against the
+Saviour and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> Paul. They fail to see that there can be no proper
+character without proper motive, and that there can, in the sight of
+God, be no proper motive till one is redeemed, saved, and thus placed
+where the motive will be love, the purest motive possible to human
+beings. And they fail to see that <i>God's plan with men</i> is to save
+irrespective of character, and then to develop in the redeemed man the
+real character for all eternity.</p>
+
+<p>God has not two ways of salvation; He has not two ways of believing on
+Christ. What is essential to one man's salvation is essential to the
+salvation of every man. What is "believing on Christ" for one man, is
+believing on Christ for every man. When Paul says "I know him whom I
+have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I
+have committed to him against that day,"&mdash;2 Tim. 1:12 (R. V.), he has
+given the pattern of saving faith. "I know him." Man <i>must</i> know Him
+in His real character as Saviour or he cannot commit to Him against
+that day the matter of his eternal destiny, cannot believe on Him.
+What are the essential things, then, that must be included in "I know
+him" in His character as Saviour, in order that one can believe on
+Him, be saved by Him, be a real Christian? First, one must know Him as
+the promised Messiah, in order to really believe on Him, to be really
+a Christian. The high priest asked, "Art thou the Christ, the Son of
+the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am."&mdash;Mark 14:61, 62. The woman at the
+well said, "I know that Messiah cometh, who is called Christ: When he
+is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that
+speak unto thee, am he."&mdash;John 4:25, 26.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> As Ballard, in "The Miracles
+of Unbelief," has clearly pointed out, either (1) He was the Messiah;
+or (2) He was the illegitimate son of a fallen woman and the vilest
+deceiver the world has ever known, or (3) He was the illegitimate son
+of a fallen woman, and a poor, simple-minded ignoramus, who claimed to
+be the Messiah and honestly thought He was, but was simply ignorant
+and deluded. Men in their intellectual pride or religious prejudice
+may sneer and try to avoid this issue, but every honest thinking man
+will see and confess that only these three conclusions are possible,
+that one of the three is inevitable: and every honest man will take
+one of the three positions. Voltaire said "curse the wretch." He is to
+be commended as compared with the man who tries to avoid the issue.</p>
+
+<p>Second, one must know Him as complete Redeemer in order to believe on
+Him, in order to commit one's salvation to Him against that day. There
+is no middle ground. He was either no redeemer at all, or He "gave
+himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity."&mdash;Titus
+2:14. To try to avoid the issue here is as fatal as to try to avoid
+the issue as to His being the Messiah. To believe on, to commit one's
+salvation to, a partial Redeemer, is to have no redeemer at all, to be
+left unredeemed, unsaved.</p>
+
+<p>Third, to know Him in order to believe on Him, to commit one's
+salvation to Him against that day, one must know Him as having been
+really raised from the dead. <i>Belief in the real resurrection of the
+Saviour is essential to salvation.</i> For one to be heralded abroad as a
+great preacher and theologian who yet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> denies the literal, real
+resurrection of the Saviour, cannot change God's word that all such
+are yet unredeemed, lost, not real Christians. God's word is plain on
+this point: "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and
+<i>shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead</i>,
+thou shalt be saved."&mdash;Rom. 10:9. "If Christ hath not been raised your
+faith is vain; <i>ye are yet in your sins</i>."&mdash;1 Cor. 15:17.</p>
+
+<p>Chalmers, the great Scotch preacher, in a letter to a friend made
+plain what believing on Christ means: "I must say that I never had so
+close and satisfactory a view of the gospel salvation, as when I have
+been led to contemplate it in the light of a simple offer on the one
+side, and a simple acceptance on the other. It is just saying to one
+and all of us, There is forgiveness through the blood of My Son: Take
+it, and whoever believes the reality of the offer takes it.... We are
+apt to stagger at the greatness of the unmerited offer and cannot
+attach faith to it till we have made up some title of our own. This
+leads to two mischievous consequences: It keeps alive the presumption
+of one class who will still be thinking that it is something in
+themselves and of themselves which confers upon them a right of
+salvation; and it confirms the melancholy of another class, who look
+into their own hearts and their own lives, and find that they cannot
+make out a shadow of a title to the divine favor. The error of both
+lies in their looking to themselves when they should be looking to the
+Saviour. 'Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the
+earth.'&mdash;Is. 45:22. The Son of man was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> so lifted up that whosoever
+believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John
+3:14, 15). It is your part simply to lay hold of the proffered boon.
+You are invited to do so; and you are entreated to do so; nay, what is
+more, you are commanded to do so. It is true, you are unworthy, and
+without holiness no man can see God; but be not afraid, only believe.
+You cannot get holiness of yourself, but Christ has undertaken to
+provide it for you. It is one of those spiritual blessings of which He
+has the dispensation, and which He has promised to all who believe in
+Him. God has promised that with His Son He will freely give you all
+things (Rom. 8:32); that He will walk in you, and dwell in you (2 Cor.
+6:16); that He will purify your heart by faith (Acts 15:9); that He
+will put His law in your mind and write it in your heart (Heb. 8:10).
+These are the effects of your believing in Christ, and not the
+services by which you become entitled to believe in Him. Make a clear
+outset in the business, and understand that your first step is simply
+confiding acceptance of an offer that is most free, most frank, most
+generous, and most unconditional. If I were to come as an accredited
+agent from the upper sanctuary with a letter of invitation to you,
+with your name and address on it, you would not doubt your warrant to
+accept it. Well, here is the Bible, your invitation to come to Christ.
+It does not bear your name and address, but it says 'Whosoever,' that
+takes you in; it says 'all,' that takes you in; it says 'if any,' that
+takes you in. What can be surer or freer than that?"</p>
+
+<p>Equally helpful are the words of Horatius Bonar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> in "Words for the
+Inquiring":&mdash;"If you object that you cannot believe, then this
+indicates that you are proceeding quite in a wrong direction. You are
+still laboring under the idea that this believing is a work to be done
+by you, and not the acknowledgment of a work done by another. You
+would fain do something in order to get peace, and you think that if
+you could do this great thing 'believing,' if you could but perform
+this great act called faith, God would at once reward you by giving
+you peace. Thus faith is reckoned by you to be the price, in the
+sinner's hand, by which he buys peace, and not the mere holding out of
+the hand to get a peace which has already been bought by another. So
+long as you are attaching any meritorious importance to faith, however
+unconsciously, you are moving in a wrong direction&mdash;a direction from
+which no peace can come. Surely faith is not a work. On the contrary,
+it is a ceasing from work. It is not a climbing of the mountain, but a
+ceasing to attempt it, and allowing Christ to carry you up in His own
+arms. You seem to think that it is your act of faith that is to save
+you, and not the object of your faith, without which your act, however
+well performed, is nothing. Accordingly, you bethink yourself, and
+say, 'What a mighty work is this believing&mdash;what an effort does it
+require on my part&mdash;how am I to perform it?' Herein you sadly err, and
+your mistake lies chiefly here, in supposing that your peace is to
+come from the proper performance on your part of an act of faith;
+whereas, it is to come entirely from the proper perception of Him to
+whom the Father is pointing your eyes, and in regard to whom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> He is
+saying, 'Behold my servant whom I have chosen, look at Him, forget
+everything else&mdash;everything about yourself, your own faith, your own
+repentance, your own feelings&mdash;and look at Him! It is in Him, not out
+of your poor act of faith, that salvation lies; and out of Him, not
+out of your own act of faith, is peace to come.' Thus mistaking the
+meaning of faith and the way which faith saves you, you get into
+confusion, and mistake everything else connected with your peace: you
+mistake the real nature of that very inability to believe of which you
+complain so sadly. For that inability does not lie, as you fancy it
+does, in the impossibility of your performing aright the great act of
+faith, but of ceasing from all such self-righteous attempts to perform
+any act, or do any work whatsoever in order to your being saved. So
+that the real truth is, that you have not yet seen such a sufficiency
+in the one great work of the Son of God upon the cross, as to lead you
+utterly to discontinue your mistaken and aimless efforts to work out
+something of your own.</p>
+
+<p>"But perhaps you may object further, that you are not satisfied with
+your faith. No, truly, nor are you ever likely to be. If you wait for
+this before you take peace, you will wait till life is done. Not
+satisfaction with your own faith, but satisfaction with Jesus and His
+work, this is what God presses on you. You say, 'I am satisfied with
+Christ.' Are you? What more, then, do you wish? Is not satisfaction
+with Christ enough for you, or for every sinner? Nay, and is not this
+the truest kind of faith? To be <i>satisfied with Christ</i>, that is faith
+in Christ. To<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> be satisfied with His blood, that is faith. What more
+could you have? Can your faith give you something which Christ cannot?
+Or will Christ give you nothing till you can produce faith of a
+certain kind and quality, whose excellences will entitle you to
+blessing? Do not bewilder yourself. Do not suppose that your faith is
+a price, or a bribe, or a merit. Is not the very essence of real faith
+just your being satisfied with Christ? Are you really satisfied with
+Him and with what He has done? Then do not puzzle yourself about your
+faith, but go on your way rejoicing, having thus been brought to be
+satisfied with Him who to know is peace, and life, and salvation....
+Faith, however perfect, has of itself nothing to give you either of
+pardon or of life. Its finger points you to Jesus. Its voice bids you
+look straight to Him. Its object is to turn away from itself and from
+yourself altogether, that you may behold Him, and in beholding Him be
+satisfied with Him and in being satisfied with Him have joy and
+peace."</p>
+
+<p>Likewise James Denny, in "The Death of Christ," teaches the same
+lesson: "It is this great Gospel which is the gospel to win
+souls&mdash;this message of a sin-bearing, sin-expiating love which pleads
+for acceptance, which takes the whole responsibility of the sinner,
+unconditionally, with no preliminaries, if only he abandon himself to
+it."</p>
+
+<p>A young person who felt that his time in this world was short, wrote
+to an eminent English preacher to write and tell a sinner what he must
+do to prepare to die&mdash;what is the preparation required by God&mdash;and
+when he is fit to die. The preacher wrote: "I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> urge you to cast
+yourself at once, in the simplest faith, upon the Lord Jesus Christ
+and you shall be saved. All your true preparation for death is
+entirely out of yourself and in the Lord Jesus. Washed in His blood,
+and clothed upon with His righteousness, you may appear before God
+divinely, fully, freely and forever accepted. The salvation of the
+chief of sinners is all prepared, finished and complete in Christ
+(Eph. 1:6; Col. 2:10). Again I repeat, your eye of faith must now be
+directed entirely out of and from yourself, to Jesus. Beware of
+looking for any preparation to meet death <i>in yourself</i>. It is <i>all in
+Christ</i>. God does not accept you on the ground of a broken heart, or a
+clean heart, or a praying heart, or a believing heart. He accepts you
+wholly and entirely on the ground of the atonement of His blessed Son.
+Cast yourself in child-like faith upon that atonement&mdash;'Christ dying
+for the ungodly' (Rom. 5:6)&mdash;and you are saved! Justification is this,
+a poor law-condemned, self-condemned, self-destroyed sinner, wrapping
+himself by faith in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, which
+is unto all them that believe (Rom. 3:22). He, then, is justified and
+is prepared to die, and he only, who casts from him the garment of his
+own righteousness and runs unto this blessed city of Refuge&mdash;the Lord
+Jesus&mdash;and hides himself there&mdash;exclaiming, 'There is therefore now no
+condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus' (Rom. 8:1). God is
+prepared to accept you in His blessed Son, and for His sake He will
+cast all your sins behind His back, and take you to glory when you
+die. Never was Jesus known to reject a poor sinner that came<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> to Him
+empty and with nothing to pay. God will glorify His free grace by your
+salvation, and will therefore save you just as you are, without money
+and without price (Is. 55:1). I close with Paul's reply to the anxious
+jailor, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved' (Acts
+16:31). No matter what you have been, or what you are, plunged into
+the fountain opened for sin, and for uncleanness (Zech. 13:1), and you
+shall be clean, 'washed whiter than snow' (Ps. 51:7). Heed no
+suggestion of Satan, or of unbelief; cast yourself at the feet of
+Jesus, and if you perish, perish there! Oh, no! Perish you never will,
+for He hath said, 'Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out'
+(John 6:37). 'Come unto me' (Matt. 11:28) is His blessed invitation;
+let your reply be, 'Lord, I come! I come! I come! I entwine my feeble,
+trembling arms of faith around Thy cross, around Thyself, and if I
+die, I will die cleaving, clinging, looking unto Thee!' So act and
+believe and you need not fear to die. Looking at the Saviour in the
+face, you can look at death in the face, exclaiming with good old
+Simeon, 'Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace; for mine
+eyes have seen thy salvation' (Luke 2:29). May we through rich, free
+and sovereign grace, meet in Heaven, and unite in exclaiming, 'worthy
+is the Lamb, for he was slain for us' (Rev. 5:12)."</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Until I saw the blood 'twas Hell my soul was fearing;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And dark and dreary in my eyes the future was appearing,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">While conscience told its tale of sin<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And caused a weight of woe within.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"But when I saw the blood, and looked at Him who shed it,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">My right to peace was seen at once, and I with transport read it,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I found myself to God brought nigh<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And 'Victory' became my cry.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"My joy was in the blood, the news of which had told me,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That spotless as the lamb of God, my Father could behold me.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And all my boast was in His name<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Through whom this great salvation came."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2>
+
+<p class="subhead1">ETERNAL LIFE THE PRESENT POSSESSION OF THE BELIEVER</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Ye are not under the law."&mdash;Rom. 6:14.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."&mdash;Gal.
+3:26.</p>
+
+<p>"Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God."&mdash;1
+John 5:1.</p>
+
+<p>"By grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of
+yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any one
+should boast."&mdash;Eph. 2:8, 9 (1911 Bible and R. V.)</p>
+
+<p>"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life."&mdash;John 3:36.</p>
+
+<p>"Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and
+believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not
+come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life."&mdash;John
+5:24.</p>
+
+<p>"God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He
+that hath the Son hath the life."&mdash;1 John 5:11, 12.</p></div>
+
+
+<p>It is an awe-inspiring thought, a wonderful, blessed reality, that
+every real believer on the Lord Jesus has, here and now, <i>eternal
+life</i>, not simply the promise of it, but the eternal life itself. The
+human mind cannot fully take it in, that every man, the moment he is
+redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), redeemed from all
+iniquity (Titus 2:14), redeemed from under the law (Rom. 6:14), and
+adopted as a child of God (Gal. 4:4-7), has then and there
+<i>everlasting life</i> (John 5:24), a new life that is never, never to
+end; a life that will outlast the stars; a life that he will be
+consciously enjoying when all the stars shall have burnt out. And yet
+when such a life is offered as a gift ("I give unto them eternal life,
+and they shall never perish,"&mdash;John 10:28) many men will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> not repent
+and accept the gift. Religious prejudice, pride, secret sin, love of
+the world,&mdash;for what puny trifles do men turn from the greatest of all
+gifts, the greatest of all blessings, eternal life! Reader, will you
+be among the number who make this foolish, this fatal mistake?</p>
+
+<p>But with some the greatness of this gift, and its blessed reality, are
+obscured by the teaching that the believer on Christ has not
+everlasting life <i>now</i>, but only the <i>promise</i> of it. When God's word
+tells us that the redeemed one, the believer on Christ, is not under
+the law (Rom. 6:14), is a child of God (Gal. 3:26), <i>has been</i> saved
+(Eph. 2:8, 9, 1911 Bible and R. V.), not <i>will be</i> saved, it would be
+strange that, after all, the believer should have only a promise for
+the beyond and no reality here and now. But God's word goes further
+and says, "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ <i>is born of
+God</i>."&mdash;1 John 5:1. <i>There cannot be birth without new life.</i> It is
+not the old life; that would mean no birth. If, then, the new life is
+not <i>eternal</i> life, <i>what life is it</i>?</p>
+
+<p>If language can be made to mean anything, God's word makes it plain
+that every redeemed man, every believer on Christ, has <i>here and now</i>,
+eternal life; for God's word tells us, not only that "by grace <i>have
+ye been saved</i>" (Eph. 2:8, 9, 1911 Bible and R. V.), but it states
+plainly, "he that believeth on the Son <i>hath</i> everlasting life" (John
+3:36); "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and
+believeth on him that sent me, <i>hath</i> everlasting life and shall not
+come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life."&mdash;John
+5:24. That God's word does not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> mean that the believer on Christ has
+simply the <i>promise</i> of everlasting life, but that he really has the
+everlasting life, notice John 5:24, "<i>Hath</i> everlasting life and shall
+not come into condemnation, but <i>is passed</i> [here and now] from death
+unto life." The Revised Version (the more exact translation) makes it
+much stronger,&mdash;"<i>hath passed</i> out of death <i>into life</i>." What life,
+if not eternal life? Before this plain, positive statement of God's
+word, the mere promise of eternal life theory cannot stand. But the
+fact that the believer on Christ really has now eternal life, is made
+plain by other Scriptures. "Whosoever hateth his brother is a
+murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life <i>abiding in
+him</i>."&mdash;1 John 3:15. Here we are shown that when one "hath eternal
+life" it is "eternal life <i>abiding in him</i>"; for there would be no
+meaning to the language if no one has eternal life abiding in him.
+Again, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the
+Son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth
+my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life."&mdash;John 6:53, 54.
+The Saviour had just taught in verse 35 what eating His flesh and
+drinking His blood meant: "I am the bread of life; he that cometh to
+me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never
+thirst." Here in verses 53, 54, the Saviour shows clearly that the
+eternal life that the believer on Him "<i>hath</i>" is "<i>in</i>" you&mdash;here and
+now.</p>
+
+<p>Let the unredeemed reader pause: in a moment, here and now, he can
+have <i>everlasting life</i> with God's assurance that he "shall never
+perish" ("I give unto<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> them eternal life, and they shall never
+perish."&mdash;John 10:28). It is a tremendous decision, and it may prove
+to be a fatal one, to turn away and not believe on Christ and have as
+a present possession eternal life. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he
+that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, <i>hath
+everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed
+from death unto life</i>."&mdash;John 5:24.</p>
+
+<p><i>FOR FURTHER STUDY</i>:&mdash;Some who believe that the redeemed have only the
+<i>promise</i> of eternal life, but that they have not eternal life, as a
+real present possession, base this belief on such Scriptures as, "In
+hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the
+world began" (Titus 1:2), in connection with, "Hope that is seen is
+not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we
+hope for what we see not, then do we with patience wait for it."&mdash;Rom.
+8:24, 25. Their thought is, if we live "in hope of eternal life," then
+we have not really eternal life as a present possession; that we
+cannot hope for what we already have. But Jesus said positively that
+the believer "<i>hath passed out</i> of death <i>into</i> life" (John 5:24, R.
+V.), and He contrasts the one who "<i>hath</i> eternal life" with those to
+whom He says, "Ye have no life <i>in you</i>." A man can have eternal life
+here, and at the same time hope for it beyond the grave. A man has his
+wife and children <i>now</i>, and <i>hopes</i> to have them next year; a man
+away from wife and children has his life <i>now</i>; and yet he lives in
+hope of his life (the same life, that part of it not yet lived) with
+his wife and children a month from now; an exile from home has his
+life now; yet lives in hope of his life (the same life, that part of
+it not yet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> lived) in his native land a year from now. So, the child
+of God's, the redeemed man's, citizenship is in Heaven (Phil. 3:20);
+he lives in hope of eternal life there; yet it is the same eternal
+life (that part of it not lived) that he has here and now.</p>
+
+<p>Another cause of stumbling at eternal life being now the actual
+possession of the redeemed man, is that many who claimed to have had
+eternal life, also claim to have lost it; and if it had been actually
+<i>eternal</i> life it could not have stopped; for then eternal would not
+be really eternal; hence, it must have been simply the <i>promise</i> of
+eternal life that they had, and they therefore only lost the <i>promise</i>
+and not really eternal life itself. But Jesus, foreseeing this class
+of professing Christians, said that they were never really redeemed,
+never really had eternal life: "Many will say to me in that day, Lord,
+Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast
+out demons? and in thy name done many wonderful works? and then will I
+profess unto them, I never knew you,"&mdash;Matt. 7:22, 23, not "you were
+redeemed, you did have eternal life, but you lost it; it stopped"; but
+"I never knew you," and John teaches the same thing in 1 John 2:19,
+"They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been
+of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they
+might be made manifest that they all are not of us." (R. V.)</p>
+
+<p>"There is no such thing as partly saved and partly lost; partly
+justified and partly guilty; partly alive and partly dead; partly born
+of God and partly not. There are but two states, and we must be in
+either<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> the one or the other."&mdash;<i>Wm. Reid, in "The Blood of Jesus."</i></p>
+
+<p>To many earnest men it seems dangerous to teach men that when they are
+redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), and adopted as God's
+children (Gal. 4:3-7), they then really have as an actual possession
+<i>eternal</i> life, and that they shall never perish, "<i>hath</i> everlasting
+life, and shall not come unto condemnation,"&mdash;John 5:24; "I give unto
+them <i>eternal</i> life, and they shall never perish,"&mdash;John 10:28; they
+think that such a belief will be a temptation to sin; that it is
+liable to lead to presumptuous, wilful sinning. They think it much
+safer for men to believe that they have not really the eternal life
+itself as an actual present possession, but only the promise of it;
+and that by their sinning hereafter they may forfeit that promise and
+be lost. They think that this fear of being lost will act as a check,
+a safeguard, a restraining power. To the extent that it does, it
+produces service from the motive of fear of Hell, fear of losing
+Heaven, and not from the motive of love to Christ for having redeemed
+them from all iniquity (Titus 2:14). But God's word on this point is
+clear: "The love of Christ [<i>not</i> the fear of Hell, nor the fear of
+losing Heaven] constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one
+died for all, then all died; and he died for all that they who live
+should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died for
+them, and rose again."&mdash;2 Cor. 5:14, 15.</p>
+
+<p>The teaching that the redeemed, saved man has now eternal life and
+shall never perish, will lead to wilful, presumptuous sinning on the
+part of hypocrites, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> may lead to indifference and sin on the part
+of those who honestly think they are redeemed, saved, but who really
+are not; for such are not born again (1 Peter 1:23), and have not the
+motive power of love, because really redeemed, prompting their action.</p>
+
+<p>Those who think it is dangerous to teach a redeemed (1 Peter 1:18,
+19), saved (Eph. 2:8, R. V.) man, a child of God (Gal. 4:4-7), that he
+has here and now, as an actual possession, eternal life, and shall
+never perish (John 10:28), shall not come into condemnation (John
+5:24), lose sight of five facts in <i>God's plan with men</i>:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>First, the redeemed man is born again, born of God, "Whosoever
+believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God."&mdash;1 John 5:1.
+"Therefore if any one is in Christ he is a new creature."&mdash;2 Cor.
+5:17. This is not a mere theory. All down the centuries since the
+Saviour came, there have been multitudes of notable cases where
+hardened men and women, deep down in sin, have actually become new
+creatures by being redeemed and being born again. Many are now living,
+whose names could be given, who are widely known, who were once
+notorious in sin, and they are now willingly and gladly wearing out
+their lives in God's service, and are living godly lives: and this
+change came in their lives, not by a gradual process, but in a moment.
+God's word says it is a new birth. There is no other explanation. But
+every one who is redeemed is thus born of God (1 John 5:1), and this
+new nature will lead one to hate sin, and prompt to a godly life.</p>
+
+<p>Second, the redeemed man is under the new motive<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> of love to Christ
+("if ye love me, keep my commandments,"&mdash;John 14:15) to prompt him to
+a faithful Christian life. On this point James Denny in "The Death of
+Christ" says, "The love which is the motive of it acts immediately
+upon the sinful; gratitude exerts an irresistible constraint; His
+responsibility means our emancipation; His death, our life; His
+bleeding wound, our healing. Whoever says, 'He bore our sins,' says
+substitution; and to say substitution is to say something which
+involves an immeasurable obligation to Christ, and <i>has therefore in
+it an incalculable motive power</i>." Let the reader note well, that the
+purpose of God in saving men through Christ dying of their sins (1
+Cor. 15:3) is to <i>purify the motive power</i> and <i>make it effective</i>.
+"He died for all, that they who live should not henceforth live <i>unto
+themselves</i>, but <i>unto him</i>."&mdash;2 Cor. 5:15.</p>
+
+<p>When men live in order that they may retain the promise of eternal
+life, that they may attain eternal life hereafter, from fear lest they
+should forfeit the promise and not attain eternal life hereafter, they
+"live unto themselves." When men live because they already have as an
+actual possession, eternal life, and realize that it is eternal, they
+live from love, and not unto themselves but "<i>unto Him</i>."</p>
+
+<p>And God's plan is effective. "The love of Christ constraineth us" (2
+Cor. 5:14), <i>it does constrain</i>. Hence, Jesus says, "if a man love me,
+<i>he will</i> keep my words."&mdash;John 14:23. Again, "If God were your Father
+<i>ye would</i> love me."&mdash;John 8:42. So important is this fact of the new
+motive power and its effectiveness, that the reader's attention will
+now be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> directed to the words of James Denny in "The Death of Christ"
+on this subject. That the reader may the better appreciate these
+words, his attention is first called to the estimates of Denny's great
+work by two of the leading religious editors of the world. The
+<i>Pittsburg Christian Advocate</i>: "To thoughtful students 'The Death of
+Christ' came as one of the most stirring books of the decade if not of
+the generation." The <i>New York Examiner</i>: "The most important
+contribution to the all-important doctrine of the atonement since the
+appearance of Dr. Dale's epoch-making book.... Exegetically
+considered, it is the most important book published within the memory
+of the younger generation of preachers." On the death of Christ for
+our sins (1 Cor. 15:3) being the motive power in the Christian life,
+and its being effective, Denny says: "The problem before us is to
+discover what it is in the death of Christ which gives it its power to
+generate such experience, to exercise on human hearts the constraining
+influence of which the apostle speaks; and this is precisely what we
+discover, in the inferential clause; 'so then all died.' This clause
+puts as plainly as it can be put the idea that His death was
+equivalent to the death of all; in other words, it was the death of
+all men which was died by Him."... "Their relation to God is not
+determined now <i>in the very least by sin or law</i>: it is determined by
+Christ, the propitiation, and by faith. The position of the believer
+is not that of one trembling at the judgment seat, or of one for whom
+everything remains somehow in a condition of suspense; it is that of
+one who has the assurance of a Divine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> love which has gone deeper than
+all his sins, and has taken on itself the <i>responsibility of them</i>,
+and <i>the responsibility of delivering him from them</i>."... "Take away
+the certainty of it and the New Testament temper expires. Joy in this
+certainty is not presumption; on the contrary, it is joy in the Lord,
+and such joy is the Christian's strength. It is the impulse and the
+hope of sanctification; and to deprecate it, and the assurance from
+which it springs, is no true evangelical humility, but a failure to
+believe in the infinite goodness of God who in Christ removes our sins
+from us as far as the east is from the west, and plants our life in
+His eternal reconciling love."... "An absolute justification is needed
+to give the sinner a start. He must have the certainty of 'no
+condemnation' of being, without reserve or drawback, right with God
+through God's gracious act in Christ, before he can begin to live the
+new life."... "<i>It is not by denying the gospel outright, from the
+very beginning, that we are to guard against the possible abuse of
+it.</i>"... "To try to take some preliminary security from the sinner's
+future morality before you make the gospel available for him, is not
+only to strike at the root of assurance, it is to pay a very poor
+tribute to the power of the gospel. The truth is, morality is best
+guaranteed by Christ, and not by any precautions we can take before
+Christ gets a chance, or by any virtue that is in faith except as it
+unites the soul to Him."... "If it is our death that Christ died on
+the cross, there is in the cross the constraint of an infinite love;
+but if it is not our death at all&mdash;if it is not our burden and doom
+that He has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> taken on Himself there, then what is it to us?"... "He
+who has done so tremendous a thing as to take our death to Himself has
+established a claim upon our life. We are not in the sphere of
+mystical union, of dying with Christ and living with Him; but in that
+of love transcendently shown, and of gratitude profoundly felt."...
+"But this can only come on the foundation of the other; it is the
+discharge from the responsibilities of sin involved in Christ's death
+and appropriated in faith, which is the motive power in the daily
+ethical dying to sin."... "The new life springs out of the sense of
+debt to Christ."... "It is the knowledge that we have been bought with
+a price which makes us cease to be our own, and live for Him who so
+dearly bought us."... "But when its certainty, completeness, and
+freeness are so qualified or disguised that assurance becomes suspect
+and joy is quenched, the Christian religion has ceased to be."...
+"This is why St. Paul is not afraid to trust the new life to its own
+resources, and why he objects equally to supplanting it by legal
+regulations afterwards, or by what are supposed to be ethical
+securities beforehand. It does not need them, and is bound to repel
+them as dishonoring to Christ. To demand moral guarantees from a
+sinner before you give him the benefit of the atonement, or to impose
+legal restrictions on him after he has yielded to its appeal, and
+received it through faith, is to make the atonement itself of no
+effect."... "In any case, I do not hesitate to say that the sense of
+debt to Christ is the most profound and pervasive of all emotions in
+the New Testament, and that only a gospel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> which evokes this, as the
+gospel of atonement does, is true to primitive and normal
+Christianity."</p>
+
+<p>Let the reader consider two statements just here from another great
+work, concerning the effectiveness of love as the motive power in the
+redeemed man's life (in the writer's judgment no greater work,
+excepting the gospel of John [John 20:30, 31], has ever been written
+for honest sceptics, than Walker's "Philosophy of the Plan of
+Salvation"). "Just in proportion as the soul feels its lost, guilty
+and dangerous condition, in the same proportion will it exercise love
+to the being who grants spiritual favor and salvation."... "It may be
+affirmed, without hesitancy, that it would be impossible for the human
+soul to exercise full faith in the testimony that it was a guilty and
+needy creature, condemned by the holy law of a holy God, and that from
+this condition of spiritual guilt and danger Jesus Christ suffered and
+died to accomplish its ransom,&mdash;we say, a human being could not
+exercise full faith in these truths and not love the Saviour."</p>
+
+<p>Third, those who fear that if redeemed men, God's children, are taught
+that they have, here and now, eternal life as an actual present
+possession, and that it is eternal, it will be liable to lead them
+into presumptuous, wilful sin, lose sight of a third fact. The
+redeemed man, the real child of God, can be tempted, can be led into
+sin, and some of them do become backsliders, but God's word teaches
+that they will be chastised in this life. Let the reader turn back and
+read Chapter V. Two Scriptures there quoted make plain the chastening
+of God's disobedient children: <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>"Also I will make him my firstborn,
+higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him
+forevermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also
+will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven.
+If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments, if they
+break my statutes and keep not my commandments, then will I visit
+their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes.
+Nevertheless, my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor
+suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor
+alter the thing that is gone out of my lips."&mdash;Ps. 89:27-34. Equally
+explicit is the New Testament: "Ye have forgotten the exhortation
+which speaketh unto you as unto sons. My son, despise not thou the
+chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him; for
+whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he
+receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons;
+for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be
+without chastening, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards
+and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, who
+corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be
+in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they verily for a
+few days chastened us as seemed right to them; but he for our profit,
+<i>that we might be partakers of his holiness</i>. Now no chastening for
+the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless
+afterwards it <i>yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness</i> unto
+them that are exercised thereby."&mdash;Heb. 12:5-11.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> So that, the
+disobedient child of God will suffer for his sins, not in Hell, but in
+this life; and not as a just penalty for violated law, for he is not
+under the law ("Ye are not under the law,"&mdash;Rom. 6:14), but as
+chastening, for correction. It is not a theory merely, for God's word
+declares that God's plan works&mdash;"It yieldeth the peaceable fruit of
+righteousness."</p>
+
+<p>Fourth, those who fear that teaching redeemed men, God's children,
+that they have, as a present possession, eternal life and not simply
+the promise of it, and who think that the safer course is to teach
+them that they have only the promise of eternal life and may forfeit
+it by unfaithfulness, lose sight of another fact, that the unfaithful
+redeemed one will lose his reward. Let the reader turn back and read
+Chapter VI. The Scripture teaching is plain, "If any man's work abide
+which he has built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's
+work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be
+saved, yet so as through fire."&mdash;1 Cor. 3:14, 15. He loses his reward
+who is unfaithful, but not his eternal life, because it is eternal,
+and because he has been redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14).</p>
+
+<p>Fifth, those who, knowing that the redeemed man could not lose his
+eternal life, if he has it as a present possession, because it is
+eternal, believe that the redeemed have not really eternal life but
+only the promise of it and may forfeit the promise by unfaithfulness,
+and that it is dangerous to teach the redeemed that they really have
+eternal life because it might lead to wilful, presumptuous sin, lose
+sight of a fifth fact,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> that the child of God is not only redeemed
+from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), redeemed from under the law
+(Rom. 6:14), adopted as a child of God because redeemed from the law
+(Gal. 4:4-7), but that being redeemed, he is redeemed <i>from all
+iniquity</i> ("Our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he
+might <i>redeem us from all iniquity</i>."&mdash;Titus 2:13, 14). How can God,
+because He is just, let the redeemed man, if he is redeemed <i>from all
+iniquity</i>, be lost? "A young minister was in the habit of visiting an
+aged Scotch woman in his congregation who was familiarly called 'Old
+Nanny.' She was bed-ridden and rapidly approaching the end of her
+'long and weary pilgrimage,' but she rested with undisturbed composure
+and full assurance of faith upon the finished work of Christ. One day
+he said to her, 'Now, Nanny, what if, after all your confidence in the
+Saviour and your watching and waiting, God should suffer your soul to
+be lost?' Raising herself on her elbow, and turning to him with a look
+of grief and pain, she laid her hand on the open Bible before her, and
+quietly replied, 'Ah, dearie me, is that the length you hae got yet,
+mon? God,' she continued earnestly, 'would hae the greatest loss. Poor
+Nannie would lose her soul, and that would be a great loss indeed; but
+God would lose His <i>honor</i> and His <i>character</i>. Haven't I hung my soul
+upon His "exceeding great and precious promise"? and if He would break
+His word He would make Himself a liar, <i>and a' the universe would rush
+into confusion</i>.' This anecdote reveals the true ground of the
+believer's safety. It is as high as the honor of God; it is as
+trustworthy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> as His character; it is as immutable as His promises; it
+is as broad as the infinite merit of His Son's atoning blood."&mdash;<i>J. H.
+Brookes, in "The Way Made Plain."</i></p>
+
+<p>If God, "that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth
+in Jesus" (Rom. 3:26), set forth Jesus Christ as a propitiation
+through faith in his blood (Rom. 3:25), and then should let one be
+lost who had been redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), would He
+not be as unjust in so doing as He would have been had He justified
+sinners without Christ dying for their sins (1 Cor. 15:3)?</p>
+
+<p>The blessed fact that the redeemed have as a present possession, here
+and now, eternal life, and that it is eternal, makes manifest another
+fact, that the redeemed are not unconscious, virtually out of
+existence, from death till the resurrection. The new life is eternal;
+it continues without cessation or intermission. Their bodies fall
+asleep; but their souls are still in conscious existence; it is
+<i>eternal life</i>. Paul makes this fact clear: "Whilst present in the
+body, we are absent from the Lord." "We are confident, I say, and well
+pleased rather to be absent from the body, and present with the
+Lord."&mdash;2 Cor. 5:6, 8. The same conscious life continues; it is
+eternal life. Again he makes it clear: "I am in a strait betwixt the
+two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far
+better: nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful on your
+account."&mdash;Phil. 1:23, 24. The same conscious life continues, the
+eternal life. To depart and to be with Christ he says "<i>is far
+better</i>." But even this is not the perfect state. It is the soul
+without the body, enjoying eternal life with Christ. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> God's
+perfect being is a being of redeemed soul and redeemed body enjoying
+the reward of its labor. The body will not be redeemed until the
+resurrection (Rom. 8:23; 1 Cor. 15:42); and the soul, though enjoying
+eternal life and with Christ (Phil. 1:23) will receive no reward until
+the resurrection,&mdash;"Thou shalt be <i>recompensed at the resurrection of
+the just</i>."&mdash;Luke 14:14.</p>
+
+<p>Paul further makes clear the distinction between the body sleeping and
+the soul not sleeping, because it has eternal life and is with Christ:
+"If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that
+sleep in Jesus <i>will God bring with him</i>."&mdash;1 Thess. 4:14. Their
+bodies are asleep; their souls are "absent from the body and present
+with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:8); but at the resurrection of their bodies,
+these "will God bring with him." Then, "at the resurrection of the
+just" (Luke 14:14) will "each man receive his own reward according to
+his own labor."&mdash;1 Cor. 3:8. Let this blessed teaching be a comfort to
+some hearts: the redeemed loved ones who have died are "present with
+the Lord" which "is far better." Then it is cruel selfishness to wish
+them back.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h2>
+
+<p class="subhead1">DEVELOPMENT OF CHARACTER IN THE REDEEMED</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"<i>The God of Jacob</i> is our refuge."&mdash;Ps. 46:7.</p>
+
+<p>"Happy is he that hath <i>the God of Jacob</i> for his help."&mdash;Ps.
+146:5.</p>
+
+<p>"That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of
+gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found
+unto praise, and honor, and glory at the appearing of Jesus
+Christ."&mdash;1 Peter 1:7.</p>
+
+<p>"Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and
+entire, wanting nothing."&mdash;James 1:14.</p>
+
+<p>"And we know that <i>all things</i> work together for good to them that
+love God, to those who are the called according to his
+purpose."&mdash;Rom. 8:28.</p></div>
+
+
+<p>"The God of Jacob!" Not the God of Israel. Wonderful God! Blessed
+assurance, that "<i>the God of Jacob</i> is our refuge,"&mdash;the God who saves
+the man without character, irrespective of character,&mdash;makes of
+him,&mdash;Israel. Jacob, the supplanter, the trickster, the weak
+character, the warped character, the sinner, God takes, and through
+trials, tests, develops him and makes of him Israel,&mdash;a prince of God.
+That is <i>God's plan with men</i>. Consider it.</p>
+
+<p>There are two theories, the poles apart. The one is, salvation by
+character; that by acquiring a suitable character, by developing the
+right kind of a character, man can be saved, can go to Heaven; that
+one's character, if of the proper kind, entitles him to Heaven; that
+if one has lived right, he will go to Heaven. The other theory is,
+that God by grace, pure unmerited favor, saves irrespective of
+character.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> It is a tremendous issue. It is vital; one or the other is
+fatal. If those who hold one theory go to Heaven, all who hold to the
+other will be lost, will go to Hell. We would as well face the issue.
+They are two widely different ways of salvation, and God has but one.
+Jesus said, "<i>I am the way</i>" (John 14:6), not one way, <i>The Way</i>. And
+He leaves no possible ground for misunderstanding the meaning, "No man
+cometh unto the Father, but by me."&mdash;John 14:6. Either, then, He is
+<i>the only way</i>, or He was the vilest deceiver the world ever knew, or
+He was a simple-minded, ignorant fanatic, who honestly thought Himself
+"The Way" when He was not.</p>
+
+<p>Against this theory of salvation by character there are four serious,
+fatal charges:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>First, it is utterly cruel, heartless and selfish. It is cruel,
+because to the weakest, most needy, most helpless class, the vast body
+of men, born of vicious, debased parents, reared amidst vice and sin,
+weakened by appetite and tied by habit, it does not give one-millionth
+the chance to be saved, to go to Heaven, that men have who were born
+of noble, godly parents, reared amidst moral, uplifting surroundings,
+and strengthened by noble aspirations and splendid training. Stand
+before you two young men representing these two classes, and tell them
+of life beyond this life, and of Heaven; and then tell them of
+salvation by character. To the one it would mean a bright, hopeful
+anticipation; to the other, it would mean but taunting him with his
+hopeless condition and prodding him with despair.</p>
+
+<p>The theory of salvation by character is heartless,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> because, wrapt in
+the robe of its own self-righteousness, it coolly condemns to hopeless
+despair a vast body of the human race. Go stand by the helpless,
+hopeless drunkard, and the drunken, sinful woman, and tell them of
+salvation by character, and hear the sob of despair or see the jeering
+look on their faces at the thought of salvation by character for such
+as they! Before a pastors' conference, the polished, brilliant, highly
+educated pastor of a wealthy, refined, intellectual congregation read
+a seemingly learned paper on "Salvation by Character." When he had
+finished reading the paper, some of his fellow-pastors endorsed the
+paper and gave it high praise. Finally, the pastor of a people who had
+been unfortunate in life, many of whom had gone far down in sin, and
+were fettered by habit, arose and said, "Brother Moderator, the
+brother has given us his wonderful paper on salvation by character. I
+would like to ask him, what would he preach if he were the pastor of a
+people who have no character?" The author of the paper arose and made
+the heartless reply, "Brother Moderator, my brother and I have been
+raised in such different intellectual atmospheres, that I don't
+suppose I could make it plain to my brother." The other replied, "That
+is doubtless true, Brother Moderator; but the trouble is, that he can
+never make it plain to any one else."</p>
+
+<p>It is selfish, because those who teach this theory are generally men
+of intelligence, refinement, and are considered, and they consider
+themselves, men of moral character. They thus provide for themselves
+by their theory, but leave a vast body of the race<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> with a very slight
+hope or with no hope whatever.</p>
+
+<p>The second charge against those who hold this theory is that by their
+own theory none will be saved. If salvation is by character, by what
+kind of character, a perfect character, or an imperfect character? If
+by a perfect character, no one has it; no one even claims it. If by an
+imperfect character, how imperfect may it be and the man yet be saved?
+Where is the standard? If a man's character, in order to be saved by
+it, must be the best he can make it, no one has even that
+character,&mdash;no one's character is the best he could have made it.
+Hence, salvation by character is a chimera.</p>
+
+<p>The third charge against salvation by character is, that even if a
+man's character were perfect from man's standpoint, in the sight of
+God his character would still be corrupt. "All our righteousnesses are
+as filthy rags."&mdash;Is. 64:6. Why? Because motive is the measure of the
+character. "They that are in the flesh cannot please God."&mdash;Rom. 8:8.
+Why? Because they have not, and cannot have, the right motive. "Though
+I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am
+become as sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the
+gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and
+though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have
+not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the
+poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it
+profiteth me nothing."&mdash;1 Cor. 13:1-3. And no man has this love, no
+man can have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> this love, until he is saved by Christ dying for his
+sins (1 Cor. 15:3). "The love of Christ constraineth us; because we
+thus judge, that if one died for all, then all died; and he died for
+all, that they who live should not henceforth live unto themselves,
+but unto him who died for them, and rose again."&mdash;2 Cor. 5:14, 15.</p>
+
+<p>The fourth serious, fatal charge against the theory of salvation by
+character is that it is contrary to the teaching of the Saviour.
+"Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and
+the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you."&mdash;Matt. 21:31.
+Certain it is that the publicans and the harlots had worse characters
+than those to whom the Saviour was speaking; the fact is therefore
+evident that Jesus taught salvation without character, irrespective of
+character.</p>
+
+<p>Let the reader consider two cases that will show conclusively that the
+teaching of salvation by character is absolutely contrary to the
+teaching of the Saviour. "The chief priest, mocking him, with the
+scribes and elders, said: He saved others; himself he cannot save. If
+he is the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we
+will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he
+will have him; for he said, I am the Son of God. The thieves also that
+were with him, cast the same in his teeth."&mdash;Matt. 27:41-44. Let the
+reader notice that both the thieves "that were with him, cast the same
+in his teeth." Then "one of the malefactors that were hanged railed on
+him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other
+answering<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou
+art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the
+due reward of our deeds; but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he
+said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
+And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be
+with me in Paradise."&mdash;Luke 23:39-43. From the time that both thieves
+"cast the same in his teeth," to the time the one made his earnest
+plea, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom," there had
+been no time in which this thief could have formed, developed a
+character that merited salvation. Hence, when Jesus said, "To-day
+shalt thou be with me in Paradise," to this thief, He branded the
+teaching of salvation by character as not from Heaven. The one who
+does not see from this case that the cruel, heartless, selfish
+teaching of salvation by character contradicts the Lord Jesus, will
+never see anything contrary to his own preferences and preconceived
+opinions.</p>
+
+<p>The second case is just as conclusive. As the Saviour was reclining at
+meat in the house of Simon the Pharisee, a woman, noted as a sinner,
+came in and stood behind him weeping. "And he said to the woman, Thy
+faith hath saved thee; go in peace."&mdash;Luke 7:50. The Saviour said the
+woman was saved, yet she was of notorious character,&mdash;she had no
+character.</p>
+
+<p>That the Saviour saved irrespective of character is shown by two cases
+in the book of Acts. We have the accounts of the salvation of two men
+of opposite characters. One was "A devout man, and one that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> feared
+God with all his house, who gave much alms to the people and prayed to
+God always,"&mdash;Acts 10:2, a man of most excellent character. Among all
+the unredeemed men of the earth, not one could show a better
+character. If any man could be saved by character, here is the man.
+God sends word to him, "Send to Joppa and call for Simon, whose
+surname is Peter, who shall tell the words whereby thou and all thy
+house shalt be saved."&mdash;Acts 11:13. Notwithstanding his noble, unusual
+character, God tells him that he is unsaved. If he, with his character
+unexcelled among unredeemed men, was yet unsaved, how can any other
+unredeemed man hope for salvation by character? Peter's message to
+this man of irreproachable character was, "To him give all the
+prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth on him
+shall receive remission of sins."&mdash;Acts 10:43. Why is it necessary for
+this man of character to believe on Christ in order to be saved?
+Because, though of unusual character, he had sinned, "for all have
+sinned" (Rom. 3:23); and sin once committed can only be atoned for by
+blood, "apart from shedding of blood there is no remission" (Heb.
+9:22), and there is no blood of atonement in a noble character.</p>
+
+<p>Over against this case is that of the Philippian jailor, a man of
+hardened character; for he took two helpless, bleeding preachers who
+had been beaten by a mob, and "thrust them into the inner prison, and
+made their feet fast in the stocks" (Acts 16:24), and left them with
+their backs bloody and gave them no supper. When the earthquake came
+and the doors were opened, the hardened jailor started to commit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>
+suicide. Paul having called to him and prevented the suicide, the
+jailor "came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and brought
+them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"&mdash;Acts 16:30. If
+ever a man should be told of salvation by character, here was the
+opportunity, that he might at once begin the tremendous and all but
+hopeless task of changing, so late in life, a hardened character into
+one that would enable him to merit Heaven. Instead, they said,
+"Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved."&mdash;Acts 16:31. How
+similar the answer to the instructions of Peter to Cornelius, and yet
+how widely different the characters of the two men! Why this
+similarity? Because God has but one way of salvation, and that is
+irrespective of character. "He gathereth together <i>the outcasts</i> of
+Israel" (Ps. 147:2), the God of Jacob.</p>
+
+<p>While the Saviour saves without character, and irrespective of
+character, God the Father does not leave them without character, but
+develops in them the right kind of a character. The man redeemed,
+saved, without character, does not remain without character. "And such
+<i>were</i> some of you" (1 Cor. 6:11), but they did not remain such
+characters,&mdash;but "sanctified, called to be saints."&mdash;1 Cor. 1:2.
+<i>God's plan with men</i>, then, is to save irrespective of character, and
+then develop in the redeemed, saved man a character that shall "be
+found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus
+Christ."&mdash;1 Peter 1:7.</p>
+
+<p>Three ways in which God develops character in the redeemed are:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span></p><p>First, by purifying the <i>motive</i> of the life. Character is not formed
+by deeds, but by the motives prompting the deeds. Two men flag the
+night express train on two railroads; the deeds are the same, but one
+flags the train that he may warn, and save the lives of the people,
+because a bridge has been destroyed; the other flags the train that he
+may rob it. While the deeds are the same, the character of the deeds
+is different, and that difference is in the motive prompting the deed,
+and that motive affects, moulds the character of the one who performs
+the deed. No deed is right in the sight of God that is not performed
+from the motive of love (1 Cor. 13:1-3); hence, no character can be
+right in the sight of God if the deeds that formed that character were
+not prompted by the motive of love. All deeds performed from simply
+the motive of duty, or from the desire to be saved, to go to Heaven
+after this life, or from fear of Hell, are, in the sight of God,
+unworthy deeds, and the characters formed by such deeds are unworthy
+characters. And the Saviour defines clearly what love is: "There was a
+certain creditor who had two debtors; the one owed five hundred pence,
+and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay he frankly
+forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him
+most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave
+most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged."&mdash;Luke 7:41-43.
+And John likewise defines love: "Herein is love, not that we loved
+God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for
+our sins."&mdash;1 John 4:10. This explains why God<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> says: "They that are
+in the flesh cannot please God."&mdash;Rom. 8:8. Their motive is wrong and
+they cannot have the right motive, because they have not been
+"forgiven most." Hence all characters are wrong in the sight of God
+that were formed by deeds whose prompting motive was a simple sense of
+duty, a desire to be saved, to go to Heaven, or from fear of Hell. And
+all who have such a character are lost, have never been redeemed, are
+not real Christians.</p>
+
+<p>Second, God develops character in the redeemed, His real children, by
+chastisements. Our earthly fathers "verily for a few days chastened us
+as seemed right to them; but he for our profit, that we might be
+partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth
+to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the
+peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised
+thereby."&mdash;Heb. 12:10, 11.</p>
+
+<p>Third, God moulds the character of the redeemed by afflictions,
+burdens, sorrows, etc. "Our light affliction, which is but for a
+moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of
+glory."&mdash;2 Cor. 4:17. "Let patience have its perfect work, that ye may
+be mature and complete, lacking in nothing."&mdash;James 1:14.</p>
+
+<p>The shallow conception of <i>God's plan with men</i> that makes it His
+ultimate purpose simply to save men, leaves the life of the redeemed
+man here on earth an unsolved riddle, often an inexplicable tragedy.
+The heartaches, the disasters, the burdens, the afflictions, the
+sorrows,&mdash;what of all these, when God assures us that "all things work
+together for good to those that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> love God, to those who are the called
+according to his purpose" (Rom. 8:28), if the ultimate purpose is
+simply salvation? "He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."
+The silver has been mined, digged from the earth, but there is dross
+in it. The redeemed have been redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal.
+3:13); have had the spirit sent into their hearts ("because ye are
+sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts,
+crying, Abba, Father,"&mdash;Gal. 4:6); but there are defects from
+heredity, from environment. The purifying process, the development of
+character, comes, not in order to be saved, but after we are saved,
+because we are saved.</p>
+
+<p>With God as the Father of the redeemed, many of the afflictions, and
+sorrows of real Christians can be accounted for as chastisements; many
+of the severe, heavy afflictions in the lives of real Christians can
+be accounted for in this way. "Ye have forgotten the exhortation which
+speaketh unto you as unto sons, My son, despise not thou the
+chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him; for
+whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and <i>scourgeth every son</i> whom he
+receiveth."&mdash;Heb. 12:5, 6. Scourging is severe, yet God says it is for
+<i>every son</i>.</p>
+
+<p>But there are many, many trials, afflictions, burdens, sorrows, which
+cannot be explained by chastisements; for chastisements are for wilful
+sins of God's children: "If his children <i>forsake</i> my law ... then
+will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with
+stripes."&mdash;Ps. 89:30-32. In the lives of many of the redeemed who are
+living obedient lives there are some of the most severe trials and
+afflictions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> If God is their Father and loves them, what can these
+severe trials and afflictions mean?</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"One adequate support<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For the calamities of mortal life<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Exists, one only,&mdash;an assured belief<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That the procession of our fate, however<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sad or disturbed, is ordered by a being<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of Infinite benevolence and power,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whose everlasting purposes embrace<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All accidents, converting them into good."<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Wordsworth</span>.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>God Himself hath said it, "All things work together for good to those
+that love God, to those who are the called according to his
+purpose."&mdash;Rom. 8:28. Had God said, "Some things," what confusion
+would have come to many of God's children! What enigmas would many
+things in the lives of many of the redeemed have been! But when God
+said "All things," He placed a key in the hands of every redeemed man,
+every real child of His, with which to unlock the door of every
+mystery; that every trial, every disaster, every accident, every
+burden, every humiliation, every disappointment, every affliction,
+every sorrow,&mdash;"All things work together for good to those that love
+God, to those who are the called according to his purpose";&mdash;"that the
+trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that
+perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise,
+and honor, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ."&mdash;1 Peter 1:7.</p>
+
+<p>Muscles are developed by trials; minds are developed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>by trials; God's
+redeemed people are developed by trials. To murmur against one's
+trials after being redeemed, means to murmur against being developed
+for one's eternal destiny. To give the muscles no trials, means for
+the body never to be developed; to give the mind no trials, means for
+the mind never to be developed; to give the redeemed man no trials,
+means for his character never to be developed. Two children are born
+into the world. The father and mother of one decide that he shall
+never be required to do any unpleasant things; that he shall never
+have any hardships. The father and mother of the other decide to give
+their child every unpleasant thing to do, every hardship and burden to
+bear, that will best develop him in body and mind. Often the redeemed
+plead with their Father in Heaven to give them only pleasant things,
+and He, the All-wise, All-powerful, in love gives them&mdash;trials.</p>
+
+<p>The trials of life for the redeemed are so various. If the muscles
+have only one trial, the body will never be fully developed. The
+muscles need various trials. If the mind has only one trial, it will
+never be fully developed. If the mind studies only one thing, it will
+never be trained, developed, educated. If the soul has only one kind
+of trial, it will never be developed. "Count it all joy, my brethren,
+when ye fall into manifold temptations."&mdash;James 1:2 (R. V. Margin,
+trials).</p>
+
+<p>But the redeemed, the children of God, often complain that their
+trials are so hard. Easy trials do not develop. The one who takes only
+light exercises for his muscles will never be fully developed
+physically. The boy who works the easy examples and skips the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> hard
+ones, will never be an educated man; he will be only a "hewer of wood
+and drawer of water." It takes hard trials to develop the body
+properly. It takes hard trials of the mind to develop it properly. It
+takes hard trials to develop the soul properly; "That the trial of
+your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth,
+<i>though it be tried with fire</i>." He who asks for only easy trials of
+his muscles, asks to remain undeveloped physically; he who asks for
+easy trials of his mind, asks to remain undeveloped mentally; he who
+asks, yearns, to have no hard trials spiritually, yearns to remain
+undeveloped in real character, in his spiritual nature. The hard
+trials are the ones that develop. And the more one's muscles have been
+developed, the harder should be the trials for those muscles; the more
+one's mind is developed, the harder should be the trials for the mind;
+the more the redeemed man's spiritual nature is developed, the harder
+his trials will be.</p>
+
+<p>That would be an unwise educator who, after training the pupil's mind
+up through geometry, would then put him back to studying the simple
+branches of mathematics, instead of taking him on into higher
+mathematics. Likewise the Heavenly Father does not, after partly
+developing the redeemed, His children, by hard trials, return them to
+lives of easy trials, but He leads them into yet harder trials. Take
+Elijah as an example (see F. B. Meyer's "Elijah"). He is sent to
+pronounce God's sentence against Ahab (1 Kings 17:1); he is then sent
+into obscurity (17:2, 3); he is left dependent on the ravens for food
+(17:4-6); he sees the brook dry up, his only hope for water, for life
+(17:7);<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> he is submitted to the humiliation of being supported by a
+poor widow (17:8, 9); God delays answering his prayer (17:17-22); God
+requires him to expose himself to danger by showing himself to Ahab
+(18:1); he is led to face popular religious error, and in doing so is
+left to stand alone (18:19-38); God delays answer to his prayer till
+he prays seven times (18:42-45); he suffers the further humiliation of
+Elisha being anointed prophet in his room (19:15, 16); he is taken up
+by a whirlwind to Heaven (2 Kings 2:11). A study of these trials will
+show that they were all hard trials, and that they increased in
+severity. God tells us that Elijah was a man subject to like passions
+as we are (James 5:17); but by trials, hardships, burdens, God
+developed him into one of the noblest characters of all ages. God's
+redeemed people may expect, then, trials through their lives, and that
+the trials shall be increasingly severe, as they advance in the
+Christian life.</p>
+
+<p>Often God's children are discouraged because they cannot see any
+purpose in their trials. But God assures us that there is a purpose.
+The child cannot understand the purpose of the lessons at school, but
+the father has the purpose. Elijah, possibly filled with apprehension,
+sitting by the drying brook Cherith, did not see any purpose, but God,
+who makes all things work together for good to His people, had the
+purpose and accomplished it in the development of Elijah's character;
+and so, as F. B. Meyer has so aptly put it, the redeemed, sitting by
+the drying brook of health, of property, of reputation, of family
+happiness, may not see the purpose, but the Heavenly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> Father will
+work, in His plan for each, every trial into the warp or woof of each
+life. The Saviour said to Peter, "What I do thou knowest not now, but
+thou shalt know hereafter."&mdash;John 13:7.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Behind our life the Weaver stands<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And works His wondrous will;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We leave it all in His wise hands<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And trust His perfect skill.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Should mystery enshroud His plan,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And our short sight be dim,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We will not try the whole to scan,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">But leave each thread to Him."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Who knows the defects, the weaknesses, of each character? Only God.
+Who knows what each character ought to be? Only God. Who knows how to
+develop each character properly? Only God. Who is able to so shape the
+circumstances of each life as to properly develop each character? Only
+God. And He has promised that He will. "We know that all things work
+together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called
+according to his purpose" (Rom. 8:28); "that the trial of your faith,
+being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be
+tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and honor, and glory at
+the appearing of Jesus Christ."&mdash;1 Peter 1:7. This is <i>the only</i>
+explanation of the many harassments of life.</p>
+
+<p>God has revealed that the standard by which character is measured is
+patience, endurance. "Let patience have its perfect work, that ye may
+be mature<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> and complete, lacking in nothing."&mdash;James 1:4. If there
+were no harassments, no afflictions, no burdens, no sorrows, no
+disappointments, no sufferings, there could be no patience, endurance;
+and if there were no patience, no endurance, there could be no
+maturity and completeness of character. As to what trials are needed,
+and are best in each case, only God can decide. In our dimsightedness
+we think that many things are mistakes in God's plans, and that He
+cannot bring good out of them; but He will. A boy was born with a
+badly deformed foot. When he was eight years of age his father had two
+surgeons to operate and try to straighten the foot, but they failed.
+After a second operation, the foot was placed in a brace which was
+worn for months. But the foot remained as badly deformed as ever. The
+surgeons then informed the father that the foot could never be
+straightened. The father studied the deformed foot for many days, and
+then had a strange-looking box made with screws, felt taps and iron
+rods in different parts of it. He had the surgeons to operate again on
+the boy's foot, cutting the muscles and tendons in different places.
+The foot was then placed in the strange box; a screw was turned till
+the felt tap pressed against the foot at one place, almost breaking
+the bones; then another screw and felt tap were brought to bear on
+another deformed part of the foot, straightening the foot and almost
+breaking the bones in that part of the foot; then the iron rod was
+used to straighten another part. For months the boy's foot was kept in
+that box. The suffering, day and night for months, was indescribable.
+The child would weep<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> for hours, the pain being all but unbearable;
+and when the father would come home the child would beg piteously for
+the box to be taken off and to be left a cripple. The father, mingling
+his tears with the tears of the suffering child, would turn the screws
+tighter than before, and the child would shriek in fearful agony.
+During those weeks and months of suffering he looked upon his father
+as being harsh and cruel and without love for him. Finally the father
+loosened all the screws and said, "Son, stand up," and for the first
+time in his life the boy stood erect. Often has that son, now a
+gray-haired man, stood over the grave of that father, long since dead,
+and bedewed the grave with his tears, and thanked God that he had a
+father who was true enough to continue the suffering until the
+terrible deformity was corrected. The father may have turned the
+screws one thread too much, but the Father in Heaven makes no
+mistakes, and far beyond the grave many of the redeemed will praise
+Him, when they understand, for the sufferings and afflictions and
+burdens they were led to endure here.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Choose for us, Lord, nor let our weak preferring<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Cheat us of good Thou hast for us designed.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Choose for us, Lord; Thy wisdom is unerring,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And we are fools and blind."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>With the reader this may seem mere theory; he may feel that it cannot
+explain all the seemingly unfathomable mystery of suffering in the
+lives of many of the redeemed, the real children of God. Let the
+reader consider two things: first, that as a juror, he would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> not form
+a judgment till all the evidence had been placed before the jury.
+God's purpose in each case, and what God actually accomplishes in each
+case, in the development of character,&mdash;these have not yet been placed
+before the jury; but, backed up by many fulfilled prophecies, by the
+character of Jesus Christ, by His resurrection, by what He has
+accomplished in the world, we have God's solemn assurance that <i>He
+will yet place this evidence before the jury</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Second, let the reader remember that with God character counts more
+than comfort. What father would prefer his son to be a brutal,
+ignorant pugilist, enjoying food and drink, physical life,&mdash;to a
+useful, noble, highly educated, refined, learned son who could "listen
+in the orange groves of Verona to the sweet vows of Juliet, or to the
+blind bard's harp as he strikes the chords but seldom struck
+harmonious with the morning stars, or to the music of the spheres as
+they hymn His praises around their Creator's throne"? Far more than
+the earthly father would choose the latter for his son, does the
+Heavenly Father value the soul and its development above that of the
+body.</p>
+
+<p>Could God's redeemed people only learn that perfection of character
+comes only through suffering, that as certain as God is true, a
+blessing will come from every sorrow, every burden, every affliction,
+every pang, every heartache!</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"The ills we see&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The mystery of sorrow deep and long,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The dark enigmas of permitted wrong,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Have all one key&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This strange, sad world is but our Father's school;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All chance and change His love shall grandly overrule."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span></p><p>Rarely has the author been stirred, thrilled, as he was while
+listening to an audience of a thousand colored people of the South
+sing the following hymn. Some of them had been slaves; many were poor;
+many uneducated; some Greek scholars; some were destitute; some were
+half-invalids; some were aged and infirm; but few had the comforts of
+life; all were heavy burden-bearers. White people from New York and
+Texas, from Mississippi and Kansas, were moved to tears, as that
+audience sang with such rhythm, such cadence, such pathos, such
+sweetness, such soul-power, as only they can sing:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"We are tossed and driven<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">On the restless sea of time,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sombre skies and howling tempest<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oft succeed the bright sunshine.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In that land of perfect day<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When the mists have rolled away,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We will understand it better by and by.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"By and by when the morning comes<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And all the saints of God are gathered home,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We'll tell the story, how we've overcome,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For we'll understand it better by and by.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"We are often destitute<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of the things that life demands,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Want of shelter and of food<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thirsty hills and barren lands.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We are trusting in the Lord,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And according to His word,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We will understand it better by and by.<br /></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span></div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Trials dark on every hand,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And we cannot understand<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All the ways that God would lead us<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To the blessed promised land,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But He guides us with His eye<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And we'll follow till we die,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For we'll understand it better by and by.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Temptations, hidden snares,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Often take us unawares,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And our hearts are made to bleed<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For a thoughtless word or deed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And we wonder why the test<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When we try to do our best,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But we'll understand it better by and by."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>But they are not the only ones who</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Wonder why the test<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When we try to do our best."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>They are not the only ones who can say,</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Trials dark on every hand<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And we cannot understand,"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span></p><p>But they and all the redeemed, God's real children, can say,</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"We will understand it better by and by."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Till then they can rest upon His word, that "the trial of your faith,
+being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be
+tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the
+appearing of Jesus Christ,"&mdash;1 Peter 1:7; for "we know that all things
+work together for good to those that love God, to those who are the
+called according to his purpose."&mdash;Rom. 8:28.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Thou art as much His care as if beside,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor man nor angel lived in Heaven or Earth."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><i>FOR FURTHER STUDY</i>:&mdash;Some readers may conclude, because trials come
+to the lives of the unredeemed as well as the redeemed, to those who
+are not God's children, as well as to those who are God's children,
+that, therefore, their characters are likewise developed by trials.
+Let such readers consider two facts:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>First, it is a creature of God being developed in one case; in the
+other, it is one who has been redeemed and adopted as a child of God
+(Gal. 4:4-7), and born of the Spirit (John 3:8), that is being
+developed.</p>
+
+<p>Second, the characters being developed in the two classes, while they
+may appear to men as similar, in the sight of God are as different as
+light and darkness are to men, as different as Heaven and Hell. Let
+it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> be remembered that character is dependent, not on the deed, but
+<i>on the motive back of the deed</i> (1 Cor. 13:1-3).</p>
+
+<p>No unredeemed man can have that motive, because it springs from
+complete redemption through Christ (2 Cor. 5:14, 15). Hence, "they
+that are in the flesh cannot please God."&mdash;Rom. 8:8. Their motive
+power is all wrong and cannot be otherwise; hence their characters,
+however they may be developed, are all wrong in the sight of God.
+Jesus said, "Cleanse first the inside of the cup and of the platter,
+that the outside may be clean also."&mdash;Matt. 23:26. The child who, from
+love, bears trials and burdens placed upon him by the father, the
+slave who, from fear of the lash, bears trials and burdens placed upon
+him by the master, the hireling who, from desire for the wages, bears
+trials and burdens, and the stoic who, from sheer force of will, or
+from a cold sense of duty, bears trials and burdens, because he
+must,&mdash;are developing altogether different characters. Even so, the
+child of God, redeemed and adopted, who, from love, bears the trials
+and burdens of life, the unredeemed one who, from fear of the law,
+from fear of Hell, bears the trials and burdens of life; the
+unredeemed one who, from what he hopes to gain thereby, a home in
+Heaven (as the hireling his wages), bears the trials and burdens of
+life, and the unredeemed one who, from a cold sense of duty, bears the
+trials and burdens of life, are developing widely different characters
+for eternity. Which shall it be in your case, reader?</p>
+
+
+<p class="subhead2 padtop">PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>
+<br /></p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>RELIGIOUS EDUCATION</h2>
+
+
+<div style="margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%;">
+<p class="adhead"><i>HOMER S. BODLEY</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="subhead2">The Fourth "R"</p>
+
+
+<p class="ad1">The Forgotten Factor in Education.</p>
+
+<p class="adr">$1.75.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bodley's book is a plea for the insertion in all educational
+textbooks of elements of instruction which give prominence to the
+goodness of God to the end that all should honor Him, and to the
+furtherance of the spirit of genuine altruism among men, without
+regard to sect or creed.</p>
+
+
+<p class="adhead"><i>WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN</i></p>
+
+<p class="subhead2">The Menace of Darwinism</p>
+
+<p class="ad1">Paper Binding.</p>
+
+<p class="adr">net, 35c.</p>
+
+<p>A resum&eacute; of, and an extract from, "IN HIS IMAGE," Mr. Bryan's
+epoch-making book against Darwinism. For use in study classes, for
+distribution, etc.</p>
+
+
+<p class="adhead"><i>E. C. KNAPP</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Gen. Secretary; Inland Empire Sunday School Association. Author of
+"The Community Vacation Bible School," etc.</i></p>
+
+<p class="subhead2">Side Lights on the Daily Vacation Bible School</p>
+
+<p class="adr">$1.00.</p>
+
+<p>"Here is a new book for those seeking light on vacation school work
+which we can heartily recommend. Mr. Knapp has had much experience in
+such work and knows how to tell what should be done. A very helpful
+handbook for workers."&mdash;<i>Herald of Gospel Liberty.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="adhead"><i>J. A. CROSS</i></p>
+
+<p class="adr"><i>President, First National Bank, Bruin, Pa.</i></p>
+
+<p class="subhead2">The Bible Class and the Community</p>
+
+
+<p class="adr">$1.25.</p>
+
+
+<p>Mr. Cross writes in terse, straightforward fashion, without waste of
+words, discussing the most practicable methods of helping the life of
+the community by fostering and developing character.</p>
+
+
+<p class="adhead"><i>"H. P. S."</i></p>
+
+<p class="subhead2">The God of Our Fathers</p>
+
+
+<p class="adr">$1.25.</p>
+
+
+<p>"An able, clear and excellent statement of reasons for believing in
+the existence of God. In simple language and easily read by anyone.
+Should have a wide reading."&mdash;<i>Herald and Presbyter.</i></p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="padtop">"FUNDAMENTALS"</h2>
+
+
+<p class="adhead"><i>RT. REV. WILLIAM T. MANNING, D.D., D. C. L.</i></p>
+
+<p class="adr"><i>Bishop of New York.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="subhead2">Personal Religion</p>
+
+<p class="ad1">What It Is and What It Means.</p>
+
+<p class="adr">$1.00.</p>
+
+<p>With fine force and frankness, yet in a spirit entirely free from
+controversial bitterness, Bishop Manning discusses some of these
+paramount questions and their vital relation to the life of our own
+time.</p>
+
+
+<p class="adhead"><i>J. C. MASSEE, D.D.</i></p>
+
+<p class="adr"><i>Pastor of Tremont Temple, Boston, Mass.</i></p>
+
+<p class="subhead2">The Gospel in the Ten Commandments</p>
+
+<p class="ad1">A Series of Sermons Delivered on Sunday Evenings by the Pastor of
+Tremont Temple.</p>
+
+<p class="adr">$1.25.</p>
+
+<p>"As an evidence of the forcefullness of these sermons, approximately
+one hundred fifty people made public professions of faith in Christ
+during the time of their delivery."&mdash;<i>Baptist Messenger.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="adhead"><i>CLARENCE E. MACARTNEY, D. D.</i></p>
+
+<p class="adr"><i>Pastor, Arch Street Presbyterian Church,<br />
+Philadelphia, Pa.</i></p>
+
+<p class="subhead2">Twelve Great Questions About Christ</p>
+
+<p class="adr">$1.50 or $1.75.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Macartney stands foursquare for fundamental Christian beliefs. He
+has also a good understanding of views and opinions contrary to his
+own, and demonstrates his ability to measure and mark the trend of
+modern criticism.</p>
+
+
+<p class="adhead"><i>MARK A. MATTHEWS, D.D., LL.D.</i></p>
+
+<p class="adr"><i>Pastor. First Presbyterian Church, Seattle, Wash.</i></p>
+
+<p class="subhead2">Gospel Sword-Thrusts</p>
+
+<p class="adr">$1.25.</p>
+
+<p>A book of addresses eminently characteristic of their author. Dr.
+Matthews is a national figure. Pastor of the Presbyterian Church
+having the largest membership in the world, he is a fearless
+protagonist of Fundamentalist doctrine and greatly in demand at
+conventions and other gatherings.</p>
+
+
+<p class="adhead"><i>EDWIN C. SWEETSER, D.D.</i></p>
+
+<p class="adr"><i>Pastor-Emeritus, Church of the Messiah, Philadelphia.</i></p>
+
+<p class="subhead2">The Image of God</p>
+
+<p class="ad1">And Other Sermons.</p>
+
+<p class="adr">$1.50.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Sweetser is a veteran preacher, having spent more than fifty years
+in the active ministry. Here are twenty-five sermons treating on great
+themes&mdash;of questions which are of importance to everybody, and of
+paramount interest to the Christian believer.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, God's Plan with Men, by T. T. (Thomas
+Theodore) Martin
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: God's Plan with Men
+
+
+Author: T. T. (Thomas Theodore) Martin
+
+
+
+Release Date: July 5, 2008  [eBook #25974]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GOD'S PLAN WITH MEN***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Stacy Brown, David Garcia, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+GOD'S PLAN WITH MEN
+
+by
+
+T. T. MARTIN, Evangelist
+
+    "For every sentence, clause and word,
+    That's not inlaid with thee, my Lord,
+    Forgive me, God! and blot each line
+    Out of my book that is not thine.
+    But if, 'mongst all, thou find'st here one
+    Worthy thy benediction,
+    That one of all the rest shall be
+    The glory of my work and me."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+New York Chicago Toronto
+Fleming H. Revell Company
+London and Edinburgh
+
+Copyright, 1912, by
+Fleming H. Revell Company
+
+New York: 158 Fifth Avenue
+Chicago: 17 N. Wabash Ave.
+Toronto: 25 Richmond St., W.
+London: 21 Paternoster Square
+Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+Not new truths, but old truths properly emphasized, is one of the
+great needs of our times and of all times. The object of this book is
+not to start something new, but to specially emphasize some old truths
+and their relations to each other. The aim of the book is to help two
+classes: those who are seeking to be saved, and those who are already
+saved; the one, by showing simply and plainly God's way of salvation;
+the other, by showing simply God's way of dealing with men after they
+are saved. The author hopes, moreover, that the book may be of some
+special help to honest sceptics. For this purpose, the Introduction is
+addressed to them; and the hope is cherished that Chapter I will aid
+in disarming prejudice against God and the Bible; for while the
+Bible's teaching of degrees of punishment in Hell does not detract
+from the horrors of future punishment, but rather adds thereto, it
+effectually does away with the charge of the injustice of future
+punishment.
+
+The enquirer and young convert may omit the parts marked "For Further
+Study" at the close of each chapter and not lose connection. These are
+added for Bible students who wish to go further into the subject
+treated.
+
+And now, the author lays the book at the Master's feet and prays His
+blessings upon it, that it may be a blessing to those who read it.
+
+T. T. Martin.
+
+Blue Mountain, Miss.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+   I. Sin and Its Punishment--God's Justice--Degrees In Hell      17
+
+  II. Sins Not Excused, nor the Penalty Ever Remitted Without
+      Redemption                                                  32
+
+ III. Jesus the Christ as Sin-bearer--God's Justice and Love      38
+
+  IV. The New Relation--The New Motive                            60
+
+   V. The Sins of God's Children--Forgiveness--Chastisements      86
+
+  VI. Rewards--Degrees in Heaven                                 101
+
+ VII. How to be Saved--Repentance and Faith                      125
+
+VIII. The Meaning of "Believe On" or "Believe In" Christ         135
+
+  IX. Eternal Life the Present Possession of the Believer        158
+
+   X. Development of Character in the Redeemed                   175
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+     "Come now and let us _reason together_, saith the Lord."--Isaiah.
+
+     "If any man willeth to do his will, _he shall know_ of the
+     teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from my
+     self."--Jesus.
+
+     "And ye shall seek me and find me _when ye shall search for me with
+     all your heart_."--Jeremiah.
+
+     "Then _shall we know_ if we follow on to know the Lord."--Hosea.
+
+
+This work is not written for sceptics; yet while preparing to write
+for the benefit of others than sceptics, the author's heart has gone
+out toward that large class of his fellow-men who are sceptical; who,
+from different causes, have been led to doubt or deny the Bible's
+being a revelation from God; and he has yearned to say something that
+would at least arouse the attention of this class sufficiently to
+cause them to give an earnest investigation, or re-investigation, to
+the question. The _bare possibilities_ that there is a Hell and a
+Heaven, that the soul can never cease to exist, and that Jesus is the
+real Saviour, are enough to cause every doubting one to give the most
+earnest consideration to any evidence bearing on these questions, and
+to undertake the most careful investigation of anything that promises
+to lead to certainty. It will be admitted by every honest disbeliever
+that no writer has ever made it _certain_ that there is no future
+existence; that there is no Heaven; that there is no Hell; that Jesus
+was not the Saviour. The most that such writers have been able to
+produce is doubts. If, now, there is _the possibility_ of reaching
+_certainty_ on the other side, surely the reader should be willing
+and anxious to undertake a calm, searching examination, or
+re-examination, of the question. If there is no Heaven or Hell, no
+future existence, no one will ever find it out, before or after death;
+and there would be but little, if anything, gained if one could find
+it out. But if there is a Heaven and a Hell, and Jesus is the Saviour,
+then there is everything to be gained by finding it out and everything
+to be lost by neglecting to find it out. So important are the issues
+at stake that you, reader, should be willing to take years, if need
+be, to make a thorough investigation of the matter; you should be
+willing to read and study many books, and there are many that would
+help you; but I wish to urge you to read _two books only_, before
+reading this book. Surely your eternal destiny and the destinies of
+those over whom you have an influence (for "none of us liveth to
+himself") are enough to cause you to give earnest attention to the
+reading of three small books. The bare possibility that the reading of
+the three books may lead to your making sure of Heaven as your eternal
+home, is enough to prompt you to read them and to read them most
+carefully and prayerfully. The first is "The Wonders of Prophecy," by
+John Urquhart. The second is "The Philosophy of the Plan of
+Salvation," by J. B. Walker (American Edition). Having read these two
+books prayerfully and carefully, then give this book a careful
+reading.
+
+But let the reader consider God's plan for investigating. It is often
+said by a certain class of sceptics that the Bible is against honest
+investigation, that it shuts off the use of one's reason. Let the
+word of God speak for itself, "Come now and let us _reason_ together,
+saith the Lord."--Is. 1:18. The trouble with many sceptics is that
+they are not willing to "reason _together_," to reason to get with
+God, but that they reason _against_ God and to _get away from God_.
+Jesus said, "Take heed _how_ ye hear." Watch your heart's attitude
+when you hear. The attitude of being against God will warp your
+reasoning when you hear. God's promise is plain to the earnest, honest
+seeker after God. "And ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall
+search for me _with all your heart_."--Jer. 29:13. One who is
+half-hearted, indifferent, prejudiced against God or against truth,
+has no right to expect to find God or to find truth. But the promise
+is positive that the one who seeks with all the heart shall find. Let
+the reader put God to the test. How can an earnest, honest man refuse
+to make an earnest, honest investigation?
+
+It was against those who would not make such an investigation that
+Jesus spoke, Matt. 12:42, "The queen of the south shall rise up in the
+judgement with this generation and shall condemn it: for she came from
+the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold a
+greater than Solomon is here." The heathen woman who went to so much
+trouble and expense, and took so much time to make a thorough, honest
+investigation for the truth, will condemn those who do not make an
+earnest persevering investigation; "And behold a greater than Solomon
+is here," with His promise, "If any man willeth to do his will _he
+shall know_."
+
+Reader, will you carelessly refuse to take the time and to go to the
+trouble and expense of getting and reading earnestly _two books_ that
+_may_ lead you to the truth? Oh, reader, outstrip the heathen queen in
+search of light. Give your life-time, if need be, to an earnest
+investigation of this matter. Picture two men, one giving his
+life-time to earnest, honest, searching for the truth concerning sin
+and salvation through Christ; the other, from indifference, or pride,
+or prejudice, or love of the world, or secret sin, never making an
+earnest, honest investigation; the one dying and going to Heaven; the
+other dying and going to Hell. Which shall it be in your case, reader?
+There is absolutely no uncertainty as to the result _if only_ you will
+be honest, and earnest and persevering in your search for the truth.
+Listen to Jesus: John 7:17, "If any man _willeth_ to do his will, he
+_shall know_ of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak
+from myself." Whether you, reader, are ignorant or learned cuts
+absolutely no figure in this case. Jesus throws the assurance open to
+_any man_. The one condition is if he "_willeth to do his will_." No
+man wills to do God's will who will not go to the extreme of earnest,
+honest, prayerful investigation. If you do, then the veracity, the
+very character, of Jesus is at stake. Consider, then, reader, the
+awful responsibility that rests upon you, if you do not give attention
+to a thorough, earnest, honest, prayerful investigation for the truth.
+
+Another promise of equal certainty comes from the Old Testament: Hosea
+6:3, "Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord." Many make
+a slight search and cease. The promise is not to them, but to those
+who persevere. If we use the light as we receive it, and follow it up,
+_we shall know_. Again certainty is promised. Does not God, because He
+is God, deserve such earnest consideration from you, reader? Have you
+any right to expect anything from Him if you approach Him in a
+half-hearted, indifferent way?
+
+The following cases in point may encourage the reader: Two learned men
+decided to prove that the Bible was not from God, and that Jesus
+Christ was not the Saviour; but they were in earnest and they were
+honest. They had vast libraries at their service. They gave months to
+investigation. They were both convinced and accepted the Saviour and
+wrote their books in defence of the Bible, instead of against it.
+
+Second, one of the greatest scholars of Europe, probably the greatest,
+stated in a public lecture in America, that, of the thirty leading
+sceptics of the nineteenth century, men who had written brilliant
+books in their young manhood against the Bible, he knew twenty-eight
+in their old age, and that every one of the twenty-eight, after mature
+investigation, had accepted the Lord Jesus as Saviour.
+
+Again, in one of the prominent smaller cities of America, a club of
+sceptics, leading business and professional men, had held weekly
+meetings for many years. They challenged any one to meet one of their
+widely known lecturers in a public debate on Christianity and
+Infidelity. A preacher accepted the challenge. During the debate some
+of the sceptics became Christians. The president of the debate, a
+sceptic, is now an earnest follower of the Lord Jesus, having been
+convinced and having accepted Him as Saviour. The debate was held
+years ago. So convincing, so overwhelming, was the evidence produced
+by the defender of Christianity, that the club of sceptics has never
+held a meeting since the debate.
+
+Similar facts could be produced indefinitely, but these three are
+sufficient to show the most discouraged, the most hopeless sceptical
+reader, that there is at least a possibility of his yet finding the
+truth. Is not a bare possibility, where there are so tremendously
+important eternal issues at stake, sufficient to cause him to at once
+begin a thorough, prayerful, honest investigation?
+
+A reflection before closing the Introduction: one hundred years from
+now, and you, reader, will not be among the living. Where will you be?
+God has given you a will and the power of choice. Will you will, will
+you choose, to make an honest, persistent investigation? Tremendous
+consequences turn on your decision,--your own future destiny, the
+destinies of others over whom you have an influence. Do not dally with
+delay. Begin now an honest, earnest, painstaking, prayerful
+investigation. Get and read the two books suggested, and then finish
+reading this book. If this course does not settle your difficulties,
+read on, study on, pray on, and God's promise is sure, that you shall
+find, that you "shall know"!
+
+_FOR FURTHER STUDY_: A brief list is here given of books that will be
+helpful to sceptical readers: "Why Is Christianity True?" by E. Y.
+Mullins. (One of the most learned Presbyterian theological professors
+in America, asked to give the names of six of the best books to
+convince sceptics, replied, "I shall not do it; I shall give
+one,--'Why Is Christianity True?' by President Mullins of the Southern
+Baptist Theological Seminary; that is sufficient"); "The Fact of
+Christ," by Simpson; "The Meaning and Message of the Cross," by H. C.
+Mabie; "The Resurrection of Our Lord," by W. Milligan; "Many
+Infallible Proofs," by A. T. Pierson; "The Cause and Cure of
+Infidelity," by Nelson; "The Word and Works of God," by Bailey; "The
+Character of Jesus," by Bushnell; "Hours with a Sceptic," by Faunce;
+"The Miracles of Unbelief," by Ballard; "Creation," by Arnold Guyot;
+"The Collapse of Evolution," by Townsend; "The Problem of the Old
+Testament," by James Orr; "Did Jesus Rise?" by J. H. Brookes; "Reasons
+for Faith in Christianity," by Leavitt; "The Gospel of John;" "The
+Young Professor," by E. B. Hatcher; "The Resurrection of Jesus," by
+James Orr.
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+SIN AND ITS PUNISHMENT--GOD'S JUSTICE--DEGREES IN HELL
+
+     "All have _sinned_."--Rom. 3:23.
+
+     "Every transgression and disobedience received a _just_ recompense
+     of reward."--Heb. 2:2.
+
+     "A _just_ God."--Is. 45:21.
+
+     "It shall be _more tolerable_ for the land of Sodom in the day of
+     judgement, than for thee."--Matt. 11:24.
+
+
+Reader, what you and I need to know concerning God's plan with the
+sinner, the lost, is not what some people think, nor what some teach,
+nor what some desire; but what God teaches. God is _just_. Fasten that
+in your mind; never lose sight of it. Over and over again is this fact
+impressed in the Scriptures. Yet lurking in the minds of multitudes is
+a vague suspicion or dread that God will be unjust in sending some to
+Hell, and that He will be unjust in the way He will punish. Many who
+are thus disturbed lose sight of the fact that God is just; that
+whatever God does in regard to the lost, one thing is certain,--_He
+will do no injustice_. With my loved ones, with your loved ones, with
+the most obscure, worthless creature, with the most refined, delicate
+nature, with the most cruel, debased creature that ever lived, God
+will do no wrong. Many have turned away to infidelity, not on account
+of the Bible's complete teaching as to future punishment, but because
+they have taken some one passage of Scripture and warped it or gotten
+from it a distorted idea of the Bible's teachings as to Hell; or they
+have taken some preacher's views as to the Bible's teachings on the
+subject. For example, here is a boy fifteen years of age, whose mother
+died when he was an infant, whose father is a drunkard and gambler and
+infidel, who has given the boy but little moral training; and here is
+a man seventy years of age who had a noble father and mother, who gave
+their boy every advantage, the best of training, under the best of
+influences; yet he when a boy turned away from all these influences
+and spent his life in sin and debauchery, and in leading others into
+sin. These two, the unfortunate boy and the old hardened sinner, die.
+With many the idea is that God consigns them to a common punishment in
+Hell. But, reader, remember that _God is just_; and if that is
+justice, what would injustice be? They were different in light and in
+opportunity and in sins, and yet punished alike? _The Bible does not
+teach it._
+
+But let us go back and consider this question of sin. "All have
+sinned." That includes you, reader. "To him that knoweth to do good
+and doeth it not, to him it is sin."--James 4:17. All have done this,
+have failed to live up to the light they have had; hence, "All have
+sinned." Two questions arise: first, ought sin to be punished? Second,
+ought all sin to be punished, or only the coarser, grosser, more
+offensive sins? As to the first, ought sin to be punished? There is a
+strong drift toward the teaching that sin ought to be punished only
+for the purpose of reforming the sinner. Intelligent men endorse this
+teaching without realizing that it is spiritual anarchy and absolutely
+horrible and detestable. A woman and four little children are
+murdered in cold blood by three robbers for the purpose of robbing the
+home. When the three are arrested, the first is found to be thoroughly
+penitent, thoroughly reformed, broken-hearted, over his horrible
+crime. If sin should be punished only to reform the sinner, this man
+should not be punished at all, though he murdered five people in cold
+blood; for he is already reformed. The second is such a hardened
+criminal that he never can be reformed, and the more he is punished
+the more hardened he will become. Then if sin is punished only to
+reform the sinner, he should not be punished at all, though guilty of
+the murder of five people in cold blood. The third is tender-hearted
+and easily influenced, and by sending him to prison for thirty days,
+he will be thoroughly reformed, though guilty of five cold-blooded
+murders. On this principle of punishing sin only to reform the sinner,
+all a sinner would have to do to make sure of Heaven would be to
+become such a hardened sinner that he could never be reformed, and
+then he would go to Heaven without any punishment at all.
+
+People need to call a halt and realize that sin ought to be punished
+because it is right to punish it, because it is just. But this means
+the punishment of all sins, the sins of the refined as surely as the
+sins of the debased, the smaller sins as surely as the greater sins.
+Hence the teaching of God's word, Rom. 1:18, "The wrath of God[1] is
+revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of
+men," But we need to keep in mind that it is discriminating wrath, and
+God's word makes this plain, Heb. 2:2, "Every transgression and
+disobedience received a _just recompense of reward_." "A just
+God."--Is. 45:21.
+
+    [1] Many sneer at a "God of wrath" and say they believe in a "God of
+    all love." God is love, but He is just as surely a God of wrath; and
+    were He not a God of wrath, He would not be God, but a fiend. He who
+    loves purity and chastity and has no wrath against impurity and
+    unchastity, but loves them, too, is a moral leper. He who loves the
+    defence of the poor and the helpless, but has no wrath against the
+    cold-blooded murderer, the one crushing the defenceless, but loves
+    him, too, is a fiend. Character, from God to Devil, can only be
+    told by what one loves and what one hates.
+
+Notice how clearly the Saviour teaches this same great truth, Matt.
+11:20-24, "Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his
+mighty works were done, because they repented not. Woe unto thee,
+Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been
+done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would have
+repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, _It
+shall be more tolerable_ for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgement
+than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt
+be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works which have been done
+in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
+But I say unto you that _it shall be more tolerable_ for the land of
+Sodom in the day of judgement, than for thee." Notice, "more
+tolerable," difference in punishment.
+
+The same teaching Jesus gives in Mark 12:40. "These shall receive
+_greater condemnation_" Jesus revealed to Pilate God's judgment of a
+difference in sin, John 19:11, "He that delivered me unto thee hath
+the _greater sin_."
+
+And Paul teaches the same, Gal. 6:7, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that
+shall he also reap," the reaping according to the sowing.
+
+Let the reader notice the clear teaching: the punishment of sin will
+be graded, first, according to light and opportunity. A writer, a
+great scientist, held that heredity and environment largely determine
+one's destiny. That is what Jesus taught. The people of Sodom were
+more wicked than those of Capernaum; but heredity and environment were
+against them. The people of Capernaum had not sinned so terribly as
+the people of Sodom, but they had more light and opportunity; they had
+better heredity, better environment; Jesus says that therefore the
+people of Capernaum shall be punished more severely than the people of
+Sodom. And that is right; that is just.
+
+Those to whom Jesus spoke were born under better conditions than those
+of Sodom; they grew up under more favorable surroundings; hence, they
+were more responsible; hence, they are to receive greater punishment
+at the judgment. Apply to your own case, reader: for every added ray
+of light, for every added opportunity, there will be that much added
+punishment for your sins. And that is just; that is right. The
+opportunities that wealth brings, the light that education and culture
+bring, will but add to the punishment at the judgment. The most highly
+educated, the most refined, the most wealthy, those who have lived
+under the most favorable influences, will suffer most at the judgment.
+
+But punishment will be further graded by the number of the
+sins,--"_Every_ transgression received a just recompense." Hence, the
+more one sins, the greater the punishment. If one knew that he was
+going to Hell, corrupt human nature would say, "Sin and enjoy while
+you live," but reason and Scripture would say, "Stop! add no more to
+the degree of Hell."
+
+Punishment for sin will be further graded by the character of the sin.
+"He that betrayed me to thee hath the greater sin." While a small sin
+is just as surely sin as a great sin, yet God recognizes degrees in
+sin, and as a consequence, there are degrees in the punishment of sin.
+Following from degrees in the punishment of sin comes inevitably the
+fact that no wrong will be done any one at the judgment; that no one
+will be treated wrong in Hell. _He who fears only injustice and wrong,
+has nothing to fear from the judgment or in Hell._
+
+Two reflections for the reader:--If you have heretofore rebelled
+against the idea of future punishment, what can you say when now you
+see that God will make all just allowance for surroundings and
+conditions, and will take into consideration the number and kinds of
+sins? God has a right to have laws; His laws are right; a law without
+a penalty amounts to no law; the penalty, God assures us, will be
+absolutely just. _What can you say when you stand before such a judge
+and receive such a sentence?_
+
+The other reflection for the reader: Let not this teaching of the
+Bible lead you into thinking that Hell, then, will not be so terrible
+after all, and that you need not fear it. Instead of letting it allay
+all dread of the future, it is enough to make the blood run cold
+through your veins; for those who will have the most terrible
+suffering will be the most enlightened, the most cultured.
+
+Another thought: not some far distant, cold, harsh, unsympathetic God
+will be the judge at the Judgment Day, but the Lord Jesus, "touched
+with the feeling of our infirmities," will be the one who will judge
+you and condemn you and give you your just degree of punishment in
+Hell. Hear Him: John 5:22, "Neither doth the Father judge any man, but
+he hath given all judgement to the Son." Peter reveals the same fact,
+Acts 10:42, "He commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify
+that this is he who hath been ordained of God to be the judge of
+living and dead." Remember, that he whom the world praises as so good,
+so just, so discriminating, so loving, so tender, will be the judge at
+the Great Day, who will pronounce each sentence. Oh, reader, the very
+fact that the Lord Jesus will be the judge is absolute proof that no
+one will be treated wrong, that no one will be punished unjustly in
+Hell; and the bare possibility that He may pronounce your eternal doom
+is enough to cause you to turn to-day. "Turn ye, turn ye, for why will
+ye die?"
+
+_FOR FURTHER STUDY_: The fear of Abraham is the fear of the human
+race, Gen. 18:25, "Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?" As
+soon as God revealed to Abraham that he was going to deal with Sodom
+and Gomorrah because of their sin, Abraham at once suspects that God
+may do wrong in punishing sin. It has been so down the ages, that we
+suspect that God will do wrong in punishing sin. Great denominations
+have been formed to keep God from doing wrong in punishing sin. Men
+have proven untrue to their denominations and turned traitors to God's
+word, because they have, Abraham-like, suspected God of wrongdoing in
+the punishment of sin. It is not that the proof is not ample that the
+Bible is God's word, _but the hatred of the human heart for the Bible
+teaching about Hell_, that has brought in so much of modern religious
+vagaries and New Theology and Higher Criticism. As Abraham presses his
+plea for God to do right, God by degrees reveals Himself as a God who
+will do right. It must have been a marvellous revelation to Abraham.
+And so God's plan for the punishment of sin will be to the honest
+seeker for truth when he perceives the real teaching of God's word. As
+God's doing right with Sodom and Gomorrah went far beyond where
+Abraham's sense of right halted; so God's doing right with sinners in
+Hell will go far beyond what we would ask.
+
+But there are other objectors to Hell. They began by pressing the
+teaching of God's mercy without any reference to His justice; and in
+order to get rid of the teaching as to Hell, which they thought
+unjust, they rejected the Scriptures as God's word; and finally ended
+in rejecting the teaching that "Christ died for our sins" (1 Cor.
+15:3); that He "his own self bare our sins in his own body upon the
+tree" (1 Peter 2:24). As a result of their fighting against God's
+punishing sin, they have become so blinded as to right principle, and
+so morally corrupt, as to be supported in pulpits, college
+professorships and seminary professorships by the hard-earned money of
+earnest believers in God's word, while they are undermining the faith
+of the children of their supporters.
+
+The Heaven that such men teach is the Hell of the Bible. Rejecting
+complete redemption through Christ dying for our sins as our
+substitute, they teach salvation by character, or that one's destiny
+beyond the grave will be according to the way he has lived here. That
+is their Heaven, but that is the Bible's Hell, exactly, absolutely.
+Infidelity, Judaism, Christian Science, Universalism, Unitarianism,
+Higher Criticism, New Theology and all who reject Christ dying for our
+sins, as our substitute, as our complete Redeemer, because of their
+hatred of God's punishing sinners in Hell, have made their Heaven to
+be the result of their life here on earth; and as a consequence, have
+made their Heaven the Bible's Hell; for Hell will be exactly the
+result of the life here on earth; and, as a result, they have in
+theory, and, alas! will have in fact, the Bible's Hell which they
+label Heaven, without any real Heaven at all. As an example, consider
+Mr. R. G. Ingersoll's words, "I believe in the gospel of justice, that
+we must reap what we sow (Bible's Hell without any Heaven). I do not
+believe in forgiveness (Bible's Hell without any Heaven). If I rob
+Smith and God forgives me, how does that help Smith? If I cover some
+poor girl with the leprosy of some imputed crime and she withers away
+like a blighted flower and afterward I get forgiveness, how does that
+help her? If there is another world, we have got to settle (admitting
+that we do not settle in this life), and for every crime you commit
+here (hence, the more the crimes, the more you must suffer, exactly
+the Bible's teaching), you must answer to yourself and to the one you
+injure. And if you have ever clothed another as with a garment of
+pain, you will never be quite as happy as though you had not done that
+thing." "No forgiveness; eternal, inexorable, everlasting justice,
+that is what I believe in." Any Christian would be willing to take Mr.
+Ingersoll's place, or the place of any one else, in Hell, if God
+varies one pang from what Mr. Ingersoll himself calls for. But it is
+the Bible's Hell, pure and simple, without any Heaven.
+
+But the objector who rejects the teaching of Hell, and also Christ
+dying for our sins as our substitute, may say that he does not agree
+with Mr. Ingersoll, as to no forgiveness; that he believes in
+forgiveness. To reject Christ's dying for our sins as our substitute,
+as our Redeemer from all iniquity, and yet, in order to avoid
+believing in Hell, to profess to believe in the forgiveness of sins,
+makes one far worse than Mr. Ingersoll, a spiritual anarchist. Mr.
+Ingersoll at least believed in law, but to believe in forgiveness,
+without substitution, without redemption through Christ, means to down
+with law and to become an anarchist in principle. As to the justice of
+substitution, the reader is referred to Chapter III.
+
+Concerning the objection to the Bible's teaching of eternal punishment
+in Hell, a mistranslation has misled many, and before the correct
+translation, as given by the Revised Version, all objections fall to
+the ground. The old version of Rev. 22:11 reads, "He that is unjust
+let him be unjust still"; but the Revised Version gives what the
+Greek says, "He that is unrighteous let him _do unrighteousness
+still_!" And that inevitably means eternal punishment. It is God's
+last sentence on the sinner. The objector may say that it is horrible
+to let men sin beyond the grave, in Hell. Not one particle more
+horrible is it than to let them sin in this life and continue in sin
+in this life. A reflection for the unsaved reader: what will your
+moral character be one thousand years after you die, with no holy
+Spirit, no Bible, no Christians, no churches, to restrain you?
+
+Again, this passage, Rev. 22:11 (R. V.), can have no meaning if the
+wicked are to be blotted out, cease to exist.
+
+Another objection that is pressed, is that the Bible teaches a Hell of
+literal fire, and is therefore wrong. The denominations that reject
+the Bible's teachings as to Hell, without exception, try to force on
+the Bible language the meaning of literal fire. Yet they do not try to
+force on the language of the Bible concerning Hell, that it means
+literal worm when it says "to be cast into Hell where their worm dieth
+not and the fire is not quenched." They do not try to force the
+literal meaning on language when Jesus said, "I am the door"; "I am
+the vine"; or the Scriptures state, "That rock was Christ." One thing
+is true, that, the language being figurative, the reality must be
+terrible.
+
+Men sneer at the thought of becoming Christians from fear of Hell.
+Such men are not honest with God, and are simply trying to browbeat
+God on the subject of Hell. Proof: the same men will flee to safety
+from fear of smallpox, from fear of yellow fever, etc. Shall men be
+looked upon as sensible when they flee to safety for their bodies, and
+be scorned for fleeing to safety for their souls?
+
+People are ever asking, "Will the heathen be lost without the gospel?"
+Let God's word answer, Rom. 2:12, 14, "As many as have sinned without
+the law shall also perish without the law"; "For when Gentiles that
+have not the law do by nature the things of the law, these not having
+the law are the law unto themselves, in that they show the work of the
+law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness
+therewith, and their thoughts one with another accusing or else
+excusing themselves." But the objector says, "Will God condemn a man
+when he has no light?" There never lived such a man. Listen to God:
+John 1:19, "That was the true light that lighteth every man coming
+into the world." Again, Rom. 1:20, "The invisible things of him since
+the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through
+the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; so
+that they are without excuse." But the objection is raised that they
+have never heard of Christ, and that it is wrong for people to be
+lost, condemned, who never heard of Christ. They are not condemned for
+not believing in Christ when they have never heard of Him; they are
+condemned for their sins, for doing what, from their light, they knew
+was wrong. It is not the lack of the remedy that kills, but the
+disease. They have not as much light as others, and their punishment
+will be accordingly. The man who dies in his sins in a Christian land
+will be punished far, far more than the one who dies a heathen. Their
+punishments will be almost as far apart as the east is from the west.
+
+The Scripture, "There is no difference," Rom. 3:22, has often been
+pressed to mean that all sinners are alike before God, or will suffer
+alike in Hell. By close attention to the passage the reader will see
+that the expression "there is no difference" has reference to what
+goes before, for it is connected by the word "for," pointing back to
+what had just been said, that there is a "righteousness of God through
+faith in Jesus Christ unto all that have faith: _for_ there is no
+difference," that all that have faith are equally certain of
+salvation, "for there is no difference." To join the expression,
+"there is no difference," with what follows makes it clearly
+contradict our Saviour, who said plainly that there is a
+difference,--"He that delivered me unto thee hath the greater
+sin,"--there is a difference in sin, says the Saviour.
+
+The teaching of James 2:10, "For whosoever shall keep the whole law
+and yet offend in one point is guilty of all," must not be made to
+contradict the plain teaching of the Saviour that there is a
+difference in sinners, and different degrees in their punishment. The
+meaning is that the law is a unit, and that he that offends in one
+point has broken the law as a whole. A chain of ten links is as surely
+broken when one link is broken as when all ten links are broken.
+
+In accord with this are the words of the great American scholar,
+theologian, teacher, preacher, Jno. A. Broadus: "Especially notice
+Luke 12:47 f. (R. V.), 'And that servant which knew his lord's will,
+and made not ready, nor did according to his will, shall be beaten
+with many stripes; but he that knew not, and did things worthy of
+stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes.' This teaching has been in
+many cases grievously overlooked. Taking images literally, men have
+found that the 'Gehenna of fire' (Matt. 5:22) will be the same place
+and the same degree of punishment for all. But the above passage and
+many others show that there will be differences. The degrees of
+punishment must be as remote as the east is from the west. All
+inherited proclivities, 'taints of blood,' all differences of
+environment, every privilege and every disadvantage, will be taken
+into account. It is the Divine Judge that will apportion punishment,
+with perfect knowledge and perfect justice and perfect goodness. This
+great fact, that there will be _degrees_ in future punishment--as well
+as future rewards--ought to be more prominent in religious
+instruction. It gives some relief in contemplating the awful fate of
+those who perish. It might save many from going away into
+Universalism; and others from dreaming of a 'second probation' in
+eternity (comp. on 12:32); and yet others from unjustly assailing and
+rejecting, to their own ruin, the gospel of salvation."
+
+On the other hand, many a sermon on Hell (and there are too few on the
+subject), it could possibly be said the average sermon on the subject,
+is a slander on a just and holy God. The sermon is drawn largely from
+Dante's Inferno or the distorted imagination of the preacher, with no
+reference to the fact that God will punish sinners differently
+according to their light and their sins, but only justly.
+
+The trouble is not with the Bible teaching as to Hell, but with
+modern inadequate conceptions of the evil and guilt of sin, and with
+many, the almost lost sense of justice, and of "stern moral
+indignation against wrong." (Broadus.)
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+SINS NOT EXCUSED, NOR THE PENALTY EVER REMITTED WITHOUT REDEMPTION
+
+     "Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no
+     wise pass away from the law."--Jesus.
+
+     "Apart from shedding of blood there is no remission."--Heb. 9:22.
+
+     "For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to
+     you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the
+     blood that maketh atonement."--Lev. 17:11.
+
+     "It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take
+     away sins."--Heb. 10:4.
+
+     "Every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of
+     reward."--Heb. 2:2.
+
+
+When one faces the question of his sins, and realizes that they
+deserve just punishment, one of the first impulses is to pray and beg
+of God to be let off, to be forgiven; and, alas! much of the religious
+instruction to the sinner is to the same effect. Jesus to Nicodemus
+gave no such instruction (John 3:14-16); Philip to the Eunuch gave no
+such instruction (Acts 8:29-39); Paul and Silas to the jailer gave no
+such instruction (Acts 16:30, 31); Peter to the household of Cornelius
+gave no such instruction (Acts 10:42, 43); the gospel of John, the one
+book specially given to lead a sinner to be saved (John 20:30, 31),
+gives no such instruction.
+
+But the objection is at once brought up that in the Lord's Prayer we
+are taught to pray, "Forgive us our sins." That prayer begins "Our
+Father," and God is not the Father of sinners ("Ye are all the
+children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."--Gal. 3:26); and the
+prayer was given by the Saviour to disciples (Luke 11:1, 2), and not
+to sinners.
+
+But the objection is further raised that the Bible says, "If we
+confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins."
+That is from the first epistle of John, and was not written to
+sinners, but to believers. John says (1 John 5:13), "These things have
+I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even
+_unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God_." (R. V.) God
+can and does forgive the believer on confession, because the believer
+is a child of God. With the sinner it is a question of law, of
+justice, of right. Hence, the Lord Jesus said, "Till heaven and earth
+pass away, one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law"
+(Matt. 5:18). "Every transgression and disobedience received _a just
+recompense of reward_" (Heb. 2:2); but there is no "_just recompense
+of reward_" at all, if God lets the sinner off from the just penalty
+of his sins because he prays and begs and cries to be let off, or
+because priests or preachers pray and beg for him to be let off. "It
+is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin"
+(Heb. 10:4), because there is no "just recompense of reward" in such
+cases. Much less can the sins be taken away when there is no
+recompense of reward at all in the case, but simply the praying and
+begging of the sinner to be forgiven, to be let off, and the praying
+and begging of some priest or preacher that the sinner be forgiven,
+let off. God has given a plain warning, "Apart from shedding of blood
+there is no remission."--Heb. 9:22. Among what are called evangelical
+denominations it would be looked upon as worse than folly for a Jew,
+a Unitarian or a Universalist, who had asked God to forgive his sins,
+or had confessed the sins, to claim that therefore he was forgiven and
+was sure to go to Heaven. But it is just as fatal a delusion among
+others as among Jews, Unitarians and Universalists. Every
+transgression must have "_a just recompense of reward_," however sorry
+the sinner may be, however much he may pray and beg to be forgiven,
+let off; however much the priest or preacher or friends may pray for
+him to be forgiven, to be let off. A man who has violated the state
+law falls on his knees before the judge, confesses his sin and begs
+the judge to forgive him, to let him off; and he calls men from the
+audience to come and help him beg. The judge replies, "If I should
+yield to these petitions I would be a perjurer; I would trample on
+law. Every transgression must receive a just recompense of reward."
+Would that all could realize that every prayer from sinner, priest, or
+preacher, for a sinner to be forgiven, let off, is a prayer to God to
+become a perjurer. If sinners could realize that, after all their
+kneeling every night and confessing their sins, and praying to be
+forgiven, to be let off, every sin ever committed is still there, and
+that "Apart from shedding of blood there is no remission," they would
+then realize their real need of a Saviour, a Redeemer.
+
+One question for the reader: If God forgives, lets a sinner off,
+simply because he is sorry and cries and prays and begs to be let off,
+or because the priest or preacher cries, prays and begs for him to be
+forgiven, to be let off, _why did Jesus die_?
+
+_FOR FURTHER STUDY_: The word translated forgiveness in the Bible
+means simply to send away, without reference to how the sin is sent
+away; but God's word states plainly that sins are forgiven, sent away,
+by Christ bearing them. "Behold the lamb of God that taketh away the
+sin of the world."--John 1:29. "Who his own self bare our sins in his
+own body on the tree."--1 Peter 2:24; "Christ died for our sins."--1
+Cor. 15:3. Concerning the justice of Christ dying for our sins, see
+the next chapter.
+
+The prayer of the publican in the old version, "God be merciful to me
+the sinner," Luke 18:13, has misled many. If that was really the
+prayer of the publican, how _could_ the Saviour have said, "This man
+went down to his house _justified_"? The margin of the Revised Version
+gives what the Greek says, "Be thou propitiated." It is the same Greek
+word that in Heb. 2:17 is translated, "to make reconciliation for the
+sins of the people." President Strong of Rochester Theological
+Seminary gives the exact meaning of it when he renders it, "Be thou
+propitiated to me the sinner by the sacrifice whose smoke was then
+ascending in the presence of the publican while he prayed." And Jesus
+shows what the publican said when He added, "This man went down to his
+house _justified_."
+
+It is said that a young man ran away from his widowed mother and was
+gone for years. One stormy night sitting near the window sewing, while
+the rain was beating against the window pane, she thought she heard a
+noise. Looking up she saw the shaggy, bearded face of a ragged tramp
+pressed against the window pane, but it faded back into the storm as
+she looked up. Faint lines in the face aroused memory. As the needle
+was plied the mind was busy. Again a slight noise caused her to look
+up, and again the shaggy, bearded face of the tramp faded back into
+the storm. This time she knew that she was not mistaken. The shaggy
+beard could not hide the lines in the face of her long-lost boy.
+Throwing up the window she cried, "Come in, William, oh, come in."
+Stepping to where the light fell full in his face, while the tears
+coursed down his cheeks, he said, "Mother, I can't come in till my sin
+has been put out of the way." There was honor left in the tramp yet.
+There ought to be honor enough in every human being not to wish to go
+to Heaven, not to try to go to Heaven, at the expense of God's
+justice. Jesus said, John 10:1, 7, "He that entereth not by the door
+into the fold of the sheep, but climbeth up some other way, the same
+is a thief and a robber." "Verily, verily I say unto you, I am the
+door." Jesus says, then, that those who confess their sins, and pray
+for forgiveness and claim it, and yet reject Him as the door, are
+thieves and robbers. God does forgive the redeemed, for they are His
+children (Gal. 4:4-7), on confession (1 John 1:9); but for those who
+are under the law, His word is plain, "Apart from shedding of blood
+there is no remission."--Heb. 9:22.
+
+God's word states plainly how our sins are put away; not by, or
+because of, the praying and weeping and confession of the sinner, nor
+the praying and weeping and interceding of others for the sinner, for
+God to forgive him; "but now once in the end of the world hath he
+appeared to put away sin by the _sacrifice of himself_."--Heb. 9:26.
+Concerning the justice of putting away sin in this way, see next
+chapter. On this point Walker well says, "If the holiness of the law
+was not maintained, that sense of guilt and danger could not be
+produced which is necessary in order that man may have a spiritual
+Saviour."--_Walker, in "The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation."_
+
+Again he says, "When He reveals His perfect law, that law cannot, from
+the nature of its author, allow the commission of a single
+sin."--_Walker, in "The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation."_
+
+Further, he says, "God ought not to allow one sin; if He did, the law
+would not be holy, nor adapted to make men holy."--_Walker, in "The
+Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation."_
+
+Equally to the point are the words of James Denny, "It is an immediate
+inference, then, from all that we have seen in the New Testament, that
+where there is no atonement there is no gospel. To preach the love of
+God out of relation to the death of Christ, or to preach the love of
+God in the death of Christ, but without being able to relate it to
+sin, or to preach that forgiveness of sins as the free gift of God's
+love while the death of Christ has no special significance assigned to
+it, is not, if the New Testament is the rule and standard of
+Christianity, to preach the gospel at all."--_Denny, in "The Death of
+Christ."_
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+JESUS THE CHRIST AS SIN-BEARER--GOD'S JUSTICE AND LOVE
+
+     "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that
+     whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal
+     life."--John 3:16.
+
+     "That he might himself be just and the justifier of him that hath
+     faith in Jesus."--Rom. 3:26.
+
+     "He was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our
+     iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with
+     his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we
+     have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him
+     the iniquity of us all."--Is. 53:5, 6.
+
+     "Christ died for our sins."--1 Cor. 15:3.
+
+     "Our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins."--Gal. 1:3,
+     4.
+
+     "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree."--1
+     Peter 2:24.
+
+     "Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the
+     unrighteous."--1 Peter 3:18.
+
+     "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to
+     minister and to give His life a ransom for many."--Matt. 20:28.
+
+     "There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
+     who gave himself a ransom for all."--1 Tim. 2:5, 6.
+
+     "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a
+     curse for us."--Gal. 3:13.
+
+     "Our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might
+     redeem us from all iniquity."--Titus 2:13, 14.
+
+     "By which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the
+     body of Jesus Christ once for all."--Heb. 10:10.
+
+     "For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are
+     sanctified."--Heb. 10:14.
+
+     "Nor yet by the blood of goats and bulls, but through his own blood
+     entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained
+     eternal redemption."--Heb. 9:12.
+
+     "This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many
+     unto the remission of sins."--Matt. 26:28.
+
+     "And they sing a new song, saying, Worthy art thou to take the book
+     and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and didst
+     purchase unto God with thy blood men of every tribe and tongue and
+     people and nation."--Rev. 5:9.
+
+     "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and
+     sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."--1 John 4:10.
+
+     "The Son of God who loved me, and gave himself up for me."--Gal.
+     2:20.
+
+
+Reader, God's justice and love are both shown in the Saviour dying for
+our sins. Substitution is the _only way_ of salvation when justice and
+love are both considered. It was God's justice that made it necessary
+for Christ to die for our sins. "Even so _must_ the Son of man be
+lifted up,"--John 3:14;--"that he might himself be _just_ and the
+_justifier_ of him that hath faith in Jesus."--Rom. 3:26. And it was
+God's love that let Him die for our sins, "for God so loved the world
+that he gave his only begotten Son."--John 3:16. What you, reader,
+ought to desire to know, is simply God's way. The Scriptures at the
+beginning of the chapter, if language can make anything plain, show
+clearly that the sinner's only escape from the just punishment of his
+sins lies in Jesus dying in his place to set him free from the just
+penalty due his sins; and they make it plain that this settles the
+_full_ penalty for _all sins_.
+
+But the objection is raised and pressed with all the force of human
+ingenuity and scholarship, backed by the prestige of some occupying
+the highest positions in literary and theological institutions, that
+it is morally wrong for the innocent to suffer the penalty of the
+guilty. With a zeal deserving a better cause, many who stand high as
+professed Christians and teachers join hands with the rankest, most
+blatant infidels, and press this, to them, unanswerable objection to
+Christ dying for our sins as our substitute. This friendship between
+infidelity and professed Christian teachers reminds one of another
+occasion when our Saviour was set at naught and two became friends
+with each other that very day (Luke 23:11, 12). Let us face this
+objection honestly and earnestly, for our eternal destiny turns on
+this one point. _Is it morally wrong for the innocent to bear the sins
+of the guilty?_ In the first place it is _not_ morally wrong, because
+God would not do morally wrong, and God _did_ let the innocent suffer
+the penalty of the guilty. The language of Scripture teaching that
+Jesus suffered the penalty of our sins for us is plain and simple, and
+all efforts to take from the Scripture language its simple, plain,
+natural meaning are pitiable, and if contempt were ever justifiable,
+would deserve the contempt of all honest men. Let the reader turn back
+and read the Scriptures at the head of this chapter and decide for
+himself as to their obvious, intended meaning.
+
+Now, because God's word tells us plainly that God gave His only
+begotten Son, that He might be just, and thus the justifier of him who
+believes in Jesus, that Christ died for our sins, that He gave Himself
+for our sins, the just for the unjust,--it is right for the innocent
+to suffer the penalty of the guilty. To any honest, candid man, which
+is the correct way to reason? This thing is wrong; God did this thing;
+therefore, God did wrong? or, God does right; God did let Christ, the
+innocent, suffer and die for our sins, to _redeem_ from _all
+iniquity_; therefore it is right for the innocent to suffer the
+penalty of the guilty?
+
+Nor is Christ suffering as our substitute the Great Exception, as some
+timid ones have granted. It is in line with _God's Plan with Men_; it
+is in line with the best and noblest there is in man; and the opposite
+teaching, that it is wrong to let the innocent bear the penalty of the
+guilty, is not only wrong, but horrible and the extreme of
+heartlessness. Two men passing along the street at night hear groaning
+in the gutter; striking a match, they see two men lying in the gutter
+with their faces all gashed and bleeding. In a drunken street fight
+they have almost killed each other. Who did the sinning? Those two men
+lying in the gutter; they deserve to suffer the penalty of their
+sinning. But these other two men join hands, pay for a physician, a
+nurse and the hospital bill. In principle that is the innocent paying
+the penalty of the guilty. To say that this is wrong would mean to
+condemn the community to pass by day after day and see those ghastly,
+festering wounds, those parched lips and bloodshot eyes, and to listen
+to those dying groans. And yet in principle that is exactly what those
+demand for this sinful, sin-injured human race, when they say that it
+is morally wrong for Jesus the Saviour to suffer the penalty of our
+sins. A son becomes a drunkard; his drunkenness and debauchery utterly
+wreck his health. Some night the father finds his drunken son down in
+the street, a helpless invalid. The son did the sinning; he deserves
+to suffer the penalty of his sins; but the father takes him to his
+home and cares for him and supports him. In principle that is the
+innocent bearing the penalty of the guilty. To say that this is
+morally wrong would be to condemn that father to pass by day after day
+and see his son suffering the just consequences of his sin, to see him
+slowly starving to death, to see him gasping in death, and not be
+allowed to come to the rescue. Yet when men object to Christ bearing
+the penalty of the sinner's sins they are, in principle, taking that
+stand; for in principle Jesus, dying for our sins, did what the father
+did with the son. A prominent woman in America was dying from lack of
+blood; back of it somewhere was violation of some law of God, some
+law of health. Her noble husband had the surgeon join their arteries,
+and every beat of his noble heart drove his well blood into the body
+of his dying wife, and he saved her life. These objectors praise that
+act; they see nothing morally wrong in it. Yet when Jesus, in
+principle, did the same thing for sinners in order to save them, these
+same men, with a haughty, scornful tone, say that it is morally wrong
+for the innocent to suffer in place of the guilty. "Nay but, O man,
+who art thou that repliest against God?"--Rom. 9:20. Had the objectors
+said that it was wrong to _force_ the innocent to suffer the penalty
+of the guilty, that would have been true, but Jesus was not forced.
+Listen to Him, John 10:17, 18, "Therefore doth the Father love me,
+because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one taketh it
+away from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down
+and I have power to take it again."
+
+Nor is Christ dying for our sins, as taught by the Scriptures, a
+makeshift, but, rather, a real, full _redemption, ransom_. Just as a
+captain can honorably, honestly be given as a ransom for a number of
+private soldiers in an exchange of prisoners; just as a diamond can
+redeem a debt of many dollars; just as one man is allowed to pay
+another's debt; just as one man is allowed to pay another's fine in a
+courtroom; so our Lord and Saviour "gave himself for us, that he might
+_redeem_ us from _all iniquity_." All illustrations of Deity fall
+short, but just as a man could ransom all the ants that crawl upon the
+earth, were they under moral law and had violated it; just as a man
+could, on account of the vast difference in the scale of being, suffer
+in his own body all that all the ants upon earth could suffer; so
+Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, redeemed us from "all iniquity." It was
+not merely the nails driven through His quivering flesh, nor the
+physical pangs, but "the Lord hath laid on him _the iniquity_ of us
+all." Hence, that awful cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
+me?" He was in the sinner's place, suffering the sinner's penalty for
+sin. "He hath made him to be sin for us."--2 Cor. 6:21.
+
+Instead of proudly cavilling and warping and trying to avoid the
+simple, plain meaning of God's word, should you not rather, reader,
+bow in reverence before such love, realize that it was for you, yes,
+_you_, and that through His suffering and in no other way, you may
+escape the just punishment of your sins and spend eternity in Heaven?
+The world weeps over the story of the noble fireman who gave his life
+to rescue a little girl from a burning building, but it coldly scorns
+and proudly rejects salvation through the redemption of Jesus the
+Christ. Oh, the pride and wickedness of the human heart! Be not you,
+reader, of those who sit in the seat of the scornful, but the rather
+of those who at the last day will sing, Rev. 5:9, "Worthy art thou to
+take the book and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and
+didst purchase unto God with thy blood, men of every tribe and tongue
+and people and nation."
+
+Let us consider carefully what it really means when we are told that
+"Christ died _for our sins_,"--1 Cor. 15:3, that He "gave himself _for
+our sins_,"--Gal. 1:4; that "his own self bare our sins in his own
+body upon the tree,"--1 Peter 2:24; that "Christ also suffered for
+sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous."--1 Peter 3:18. God's
+word explains it clearly: "That he might himself be _just_ and the
+_justifier_ of him that hath faith in Jesus."--Rom. 3:26. "_That he
+might be just._" Notice it carefully, "_That he might be just._" Take
+it in its full meaning, "That he might be just." A question: How
+_could_ God be _just_ and _justify_ any sinner apart from the fact
+that "Christ died for our sins," that "the Lord hath laid on him the
+iniquity of us all"? Reader, no man, however learned, will ever answer
+that question. He may sneer; he may cavil; he may warp; he may try to
+confuse; but he will never come out in the open and answer that
+question. He may say that it is morally wrong for the innocent to bear
+the penalty of the guilty, but that objection is met and answered
+above in this chapter.
+
+Let us face a trilemma; three, and only three plans, were possible for
+God with man:--
+
+First, To have been just with man, without any love or mercy; hence,
+for every sinner to have suffered the just penalty for his sins,
+without any redemption. That would have meant Hell for every
+responsible human being, without any Heaven at all.
+
+Second, To have been all mercy and all love and no justice. That would
+have meant no moral laws; for why have moral laws, if there would be
+no penalty, no justice? That would have meant a premium on crime. That
+would have meant the debased, the debauched, the immoral, the drunken,
+the fiend, on a level with the chaste, the pure, the upright, the
+true. That would have meant unbridled rein to passion and lust and
+every other evil inclination, and no penalty following. That would
+have meant Hell in trying to get rid of Hell.
+
+Third, There was left but one other possible plan, to be just and at
+the same time extend love to the sinners. In the nature of the case,
+real redemption, without any makeshift, was the only way this _could_
+be done. "Even so _must_ the Son of man be lifted up,"--John 3:14;
+"that he himself might be _just_ and the _justifier_ of him that hath
+faith in Jesus,"--Rom. 3:26; "God so _loved_ the world that he gave
+his only begotten Son,"--John 3:16; "Herein is love, not that we loved
+God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be _the propitiation
+for our sins_."--1 John 4:10.
+
+This leads to another question: How can God be _just_ and _not_
+justify "him that hath faith in Jesus"? Again men may quibble and
+warp, and ridicule, but no one will ever answer the question. And the
+reason why this question will never be answered leads to another
+question:
+
+From how many of his sins is the one "that hath faith in Jesus"
+_justified_? We have now gotten to the very centre of the whole
+problem of salvation. Let us give it most careful consideration.
+
+In not one of the Scriptures cited at the head of this chapter is
+there one word that limits the number of sins for which Christ died,
+or from which the believer is justified. That of itself is sufficient
+warrant for us to conclude that Christ died for _all_ of the sins of
+the believer, that when He "gave himself for our sins" (Gal. 1:4), it
+included _all_ of our sins, and that the believer is justified from
+_all_ of his sins. One man promises another that he will pay his
+debts. That of itself means all of his debts, unless the one making
+the promise was simply juggling with words. While this of itself would
+be sufficient, God in His word has made it positive and absolute as to
+how many of the believer's sins were laid on Christ ("the Lord hath
+laid on him the iniquity of us all."--Is. 53:6); for how many of our
+sins Christ gave Himself ("Who gave himself for our sins."--Gal. 1:4);
+for how many of our sins Christ died (1 Cor. 15:3); from how many of
+his sins the believer is _justified_, ("that he might himself be
+_just_ and the _justifier_ of him that hath faith in Jesus."--Rom.
+3:26). In Lev. 16:21, 22, God gives us a picture, foreshadowing the
+Saviour, of laying the sins on the substitute: "And Aaron shall lay
+both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him
+_all_ the iniquity of the children of Israel, and _all_ their
+transgressions, even _all_ their sins; and he shall put them upon the
+head of the goat and shall send him away by the hand of a man that is
+in readiness into the wilderness: And the goat shall bear upon him
+_all_ their iniquities." "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh [or
+beareth] away the sins of the world."--John 1:29. _But how many_ of
+our sins? Let God's word answer: Titus 2:13, 14, "Our Saviour Jesus
+Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might _redeem_ us from _all
+iniquity_." Look at it again, reader; grasp its full meaning; let it
+be impressed indelibly upon your soul: "Our Saviour Jesus Christ; who
+gave himself for us, that he might _redeem_ us from _all_ iniquity."
+Then as certainly as the believer is redeemed by Him, he is redeemed
+from _all_ iniquity; and as certainly as he is redeemed from all
+iniquity, that certainly the believer is going to Heaven, for there is
+nothing left that can cause him to be lost. Hence God, through Paul,
+has told us "By him every one that believeth is _justified_ from _all_
+things."--Acts 13:39.
+
+If our Saviour Jesus Christ gave Himself for us that he might _redeem_
+us from _all_ iniquity (Titus 2:13, 14), how can God be _just_ and
+_not_ justify every one that believes from _all_ things (Acts 13:39)?
+And if the believer is _justified_ from _all_ things (Acts 13:39), he
+is certain to go to Heaven. This is _God's plan_; this is God's will;
+"by the which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the
+body of Jesus Christ _once for all_."--Heb. 10:10. "_For by one_
+offering he hath _perfected forever_ them that are sanctified."--Heb.
+10:14. "Nor yet by the blood of goats and calves, but through his own
+blood entered in _once for all_ into the holy place, having obtained
+_eternal redemption_."--Heb. 9:12. Hence Jesus said, "Verily, verily I
+say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent
+me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but is
+passed from death to life."--John 5:24.
+
+While thus is manifested God's justice, and the _only_ way that God
+_could_ be "just and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus"
+(Rom. 3:26), for Jesus Himself said it ("Even so _must_ the Son of man
+be lifted up."--John 3:14); let the reader not forget that it equally
+manifests God's love, and the Saviour's love. "Herein is love, not
+that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the
+propitiation for our sins."--1 John 4:10. "The Son of God who loved me
+and gave himself for me."--Gal. 2:20. If God's love is amazing in
+sending His Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:10), if
+the Saviour's love is amazing in loving us and giving Himself for us
+(Gal. 2:20), how infinitely more amazing is this love when we see that
+it has obtained _eternal redemption_ for us (Heb. 9:12); that it has
+redeemed us from _all_ iniquity (Titus 2:14), and that every one that
+believes is _justified_ from _all_ things (Acts 13:39)?
+
+Reader, the greatest crime that is ever committed on this earth is to
+reject this "so great salvation" (Heb. 2:3); this redemption from all
+iniquity (Titus 2:14), and to trifle with the amazing love that
+provided a way by which He Himself might be just and the justifier of
+him that hath faith in Jesus (Rom. 3:26). We shudder at the horrible
+crimes reported in the daily papers, at those recorded in history; but
+far greater, far blacker, more terrible, is the crime of a human being
+rejecting this great provision of God's love. Only intellectual pride,
+religious prejudice, family or race ties, love of the world, or secret
+sin, can be the cause of the reader taking such a fatal step; and
+fearful will be the consequences of letting any one of these cause the
+rejection of the only salvation that God's love and justice could
+provide. The reader cannot plead that God has not given sufficient
+proof that He has given us a revelation in His word (let the reader go
+back and read again the Introduction and the reference for further
+study); nor can he plead that God's word does not make the message
+plain (let the reader go back and study the Scriptures at the
+beginning of this chapter). It is a solemn and awful step, reader, one
+never to be retraced, to decide to reject this salvation, and to go
+out into the dark, unending future beyond the grave, unredeemed from
+iniquity, with no certain hope, when God has warned you, "Apart from
+shedding of blood there is no remission,"--Heb. 9:22. It is an awful,
+eternal crisis, when you see God's only provision for you, so
+complete, so perfect, so sure, and then face His warning, "I call
+heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set
+before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore
+choose _life_."
+
+_FOR FURTHER STUDY._--There are those who deny God's justice in Christ
+dying for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3), in Christ giving Himself for our
+sins (Gal. 1:4), in Christ redeeming us from all iniquity (Titus
+2:14). Expressions from the two most prominent rejecters will show the
+principal reasons given by all other rejecters of redemption through
+Christ:--
+
+"Moral justice cannot take the innocent for the guilty, even if the
+innocent would offer itself."--_The "Age of Reason" by Thomas Paine._
+"The outrage offered to the moral justice of God, by supposing Him to
+make the innocent suffer for the guilty."--_The "Age of Reason," by
+Thomas Paine._
+
+"An execution is an object for gratitude; the preachers daub
+themselves with the blood, like a troop of assassins, and pretend to
+admire the brilliancy it gives them."--_The "Age of Reason," by Thomas
+Paine._
+
+The other is Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy in her "Science and Health, with
+Key to the Scriptures": "One sacrifice, however great, is insufficient
+to pay the debt of sin. The atonement requires constant
+self-immolation on the sinner's part." Again, "Another's suffering
+cannot lessen our own liability." Again, "The time is not distant when
+the ordinary theological views of atonement will undergo a great
+change,--a change as radical as that which has come over popular
+opinions in regard to predestination and future punishment. Does
+erudite theology regard the crucifixion of Jesus chiefly as providing
+a ready pardon for all sinners who ask for it and are willing to be
+forgiven? Does spiritualism find Jesus's death necessary only for the
+presentation, after death, of the material Jesus, as a proof that
+spirits can return to earth? Then we must differ from them both." It
+is not to be wondered at that she takes her stand with Thomas Paine in
+rejecting the teaching that Christ died for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3),
+and that He redeemed us from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), when she says,
+"Does divine love commit a fraud on humanity by making man inclined to
+sin and then punishing him for it?" Again, "In common justice we must
+admit that God will not punish man for doing what He created man
+capable of doing, and knew from the outset that man would do." Again,
+"The destruction of sin is the divine method of pardon. Being
+destroyed, sin needs no other pardon." There is one vast difference
+between these two who reject Jesus as our sin-bearer, our
+Redeemer,--Thomas Paine does not masquerade under the name
+"Christian." Why should others who stand with him in rejecting
+complete redemption through Christ?
+
+Catholics by the sacrifice of the mass, the unbloody sacrifice, the
+elevation of the host, teach that the wafer is changed into the real
+"body, blood, soul and divinity" of Jesus Christ, and that it is then
+offered as a sacrifice. They thereby reject the complete redemption
+through Christ dying for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3), redeeming us from all
+iniquity (Titus 2:14). They thereby deny that He "offered one
+sacrifice for sin forever,"--Heb. 10:12, and that "by one offering he
+hath perfected forever them that are sanctified."--Heb. 10:14. Having
+rejected Him as complete Redeemer, they have no real Saviour at all.
+But those who make salvation dependent on moral character, or baptism,
+or church membership, just as surely as the Catholics reject the
+completeness of the redemption.
+
+There are some who sneer at this teaching as the "commercial view" of
+redemption, in the face of God's word that declares, "ye were _bought
+with a price,"_--1 Cor. 6:20; "worthy art thou to take the book and to
+open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and didst _purchase_ unto
+God with thy blood men of every tribe and tongue and people and
+nation."--Rev. 5:9. (R. V.)
+
+Consider the testimony of three over against the two quoted against
+this teaching of God's word:--
+
+"I saw that if Jesus suffered in my stead, I could not suffer, too;
+and that if He bore all my sin, I had no more sin to bear. My iniquity
+must be blotted out if Jesus bore it in my stead and suffered all its
+penalty."--_C. H. Spurgeon._
+
+"If you believe on him, I tell you you cannot go to Hell; for that
+were to make the sacrifice of Christ of none effect. It cannot be
+that a sacrifice should be accepted and yet the soul should die for
+whom that sacrifice had been received. If the believing soul could be
+condemned, then why a sacrifice? Every believer can claim that the
+sacrifice was actually made for him: by faith he has laid his hands on
+it, and made it his own, and therefore he may rest assured that he can
+never perish. The Lord would not receive this offering on our behalf
+and then condemn us to die."--_C. H. Spurgeon._
+
+"The law of God was more vindicated by the death of Christ than it
+would have been had all the transgressors been sent to Hell. For the
+Son of God to suffer for sin was a more glorious establishment of the
+government of God than for the whole race to suffer."--_C. H.
+Spurgeon._
+
+"It is the obvious implication of these words (the Righteous One for
+the unrighteous ones) that the death on which such stress is laid was
+something to which the unrighteous were liable because of their sins,
+and that in their interest the Righteous One took it on
+Himself."--_Denny, in "The Death of Christ."_
+
+"This is his gospel, that a Righteous One has once for all faced and
+taken up and in death exhausted the responsibilities of the
+unrighteous, so that they no more stand between them and
+God."--_Denny, in "The Death of Christ."_
+
+"If Christ died the death in which sin had involved us, if in His
+death He took the responsibility of our sins upon Himself, no word is
+equal to this which falls short of what is meant by calling Him our
+substitute."_--Denny, in "The Death of Christ."_
+
+"I do not know any word that conveys the truth of this if 'vicarious'
+or 'substitutionary' does not; nor do I know any interpretation of
+Christ's death which enables us to regard it as a demonstration of
+love to sinners, if this vicarious or substitutionary character is
+denied. There is much preaching _about_ Christ's death which fails to
+be a preaching _of_ Christ's death, and therefore to be in the full
+sense of the term Gospel Preaching, because it ignores this. The
+simplest hearer feels that there is something irrational in saying
+that the death of Christ is a great proof of love to the sinful unless
+there is shown at the same time a rational connection between that
+death and the responsibilities which sin involves, and from which that
+death delivers. Perhaps one should beg pardon for using so simple an
+illustration, but the point is a vital one, and it is necessary to be
+clear. If I were sitting on the end of a pier on a summer day,
+enjoying the sunshine and the air, and some one came along and jumped
+into the water and got drowned to prove his love to me, I should find
+it quite unintelligible. I might be much in need of love, but an act
+in no relation to any of my necessities could not prove it. But if I
+had fallen over the pier and were drowning and some one sprang into
+the water and at the cost of making my peril, or what but for him
+would be my fate, his own, saved me from death, then I should say,
+'Greater love hath no man than this.' I should say it intelligently,
+because there would be an intelligible relation between the sacrifice
+which love made and the necessity from which it redeemed."--_Denny, in
+"The Death of Christ."_
+
+"Christ died for sins once for all, and the man who believes in
+Christ and in His death has his relation to God _once for all
+determined not by sin but by the atonement_."--_Denny, in "The Death
+of Christ."_
+
+"One who knew no sin had, in obedience to the Father, to take on Him
+the responsibility, the doom, the curse, the death of the sinful.
+And if any one says that this was morally impossible, may we not
+ask again, What is the alternative? Is it not that the sinful
+should be left alone with their responsibility, doom, curse, and
+death?"--_Denny, in "The Death of Christ."_
+
+"Redemption, it may be said, springs from love, yet love is only a
+word of which we do not know the meaning till it is interpreted for us
+by redemption."--_Denny, in "The Death of Christ."_
+
+"Unless we can preach a finished work of Christ in relation to sin, a
+reconciliation or peace which has been achieved independently of us at
+infinite cost, and to which we are called in a word of ministry of
+reconciliation, we have no real gospel for sinful men at
+all."--_Denny, in "The Death of Christ."_
+
+"If the evangelist has not something to preach of which he can say,
+'If any man makes it his business to subvert this, let him be
+anathema,' he has no gospel at all."--_Denny, in "The Death of
+Christ."_
+
+"_As there is only one God, so there can be only one Gospel. If God
+has really done something in Christ on which the salvation of the
+world depends, and if He has made it known, then it is a Christian
+duty to be intolerant of everything which ignores, denies, or explains
+it away. The man who perverts it is the worst enemy of God and
+men._"--_Denny, in "The Death of Christ."_
+
+"We should remember, also, that it is not always intellectual
+sensitiveness, nor care for the moral interests involved, which sets
+the mind to criticise statements of the Atonement. There _is_ such a
+thing as pride, the last form of which is unwillingness to become
+debtors even to Christ for forgiveness of sins."--_Denny, in "The
+Death of Christ."_
+
+But the Saviour could not have been a _Redeemer_, if He had not been
+God manifest in the flesh, for two reasons:--
+
+First, if He had not been Deity, God manifest in the flesh, His dying
+for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3) would not have been _Redemption_, but a
+mere makeshift. "It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats
+should take away sins."--Heb. 10:4. Why not? Because in that case
+there would have been no real _redemption_, but only a makeshift.
+Second, had the Saviour been anything other than God manifest in the
+flesh, He would have _won_ men _from_ God and alienated them from God.
+On this point let the reader consider well the following from Walker,
+in "The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation":--"As God was the author
+of the law, and as He is the only Proper Object both of supreme love
+and obedience; and as man could not be happy in obeying the law
+without loving its Author, it follows that the thing now necessary, in
+order that man's affections might be fixed upon the proper object of
+love and obedience, was, that the Supreme God should, by self-denying
+kindness, manifest spiritual mercy to those who felt their spiritual
+wants, and thus draw to Himself the love and worship of mankind. _If
+any other being should supply the need, that being would receive the
+love_; it was therefore necessary that _God Himself_ should do it, in
+order that the affections of believers might centre upon the proper
+object." "Now, suppose Jesus Christ was not God, nor a true
+manifestation of the Godhead in human nature, but a man, or angel,
+authorized by God to accomplish the redemption of the human race from
+sin and misery. In doing this, it appears, from the nature of the
+thing, and from the Scriptures, that He did what was adapted to, and
+what does, draw the heart of every true believer, as in the case of
+the apostles and the early Christians, to Himself as the supreme or
+governing object of affection. Their will is governed by the will of
+Christ; and love to Him moves their heart and hands. _Now, if it be
+true that Jesus Christ is not God, then He has devised and executed a
+plan by which the supreme affections of the human heart are drawn to
+Himself, and alienated from God_, the proper object of love and
+worship: and God, having authorized this plan, _He has devised means
+to make man love Christ, the creature, more than the creator_, who is
+God over all, blessed for evermore.
+
+"But it is said that Christ having taught and suffered by the will and
+authority of God, we are under obligation to love God for what Christ
+has done for us. It is answered, that this is impossible. We cannot
+love one being for what another does or suffers on our behalf. We can
+love no being for labors and self-denials on our behalf, but that
+being who valiantly labors and denies himself. It is the kindness and
+mercy exhibited in the self-denial that move the affections; and the
+affections can move to no being but the one that makes the
+self-denial, because it is the self-denial that draws out the love of
+the heart.
+
+"It is said, that Christ was sent by God to do His will and not His
+own; and therefore we ought to love God, as the being to whom
+gratitude and love are due for what Christ said and suffered.
+
+"Then it is answered: If God willed that Christ, as a creature of His,
+should come, and by His suffering and death redeem sinners, we ought
+not to love Christ for it, because He did it as a creature in
+obedience to the commands of God, and was not self-moved nor
+meritorious in the work; and we cannot love God for it, for the labor
+and self-denial were not borne by Him. And further: If one being, by
+an act of his authority, should cause another innocent being to
+suffer, in order that he might be loved who had imposed the suffering,
+but not borne it, it would render him unworthy of love. If God had
+caused Jesus Christ, being His creature, to suffer, that He might be
+loved Himself for Christ's sufferings, while He had no connection with
+them, instead of such an exhibition, on the part of God, producing
+love to Him, it would procure pity for Christ and aversion towards
+God. So that, neither God, nor Christ, nor any other being, can be
+loved for mercy extended by self-denials to the needy, unless those
+self-denials were produced by a voluntary act of mercy upon the part
+of the being who suffers them; and no being, but the one who made the
+sacrifice, could be meritorious in the case. It follows, therefore,
+incontrovertibly, that if Christ was a creature--no matter of how
+exalted worth--and not God; and if God approved of His work in saving
+sinners, _He approved of treason against His own government_; because,
+in that case, the work of Christ was adapted to draw, and did
+necessarily draw, the affections of the human soul to Himself, as its
+Spiritual Saviour and thus alienated them from God, their rightful
+object. And Jesus Christ Himself had the design of drawing men's
+affections to Himself in view, by His crucifixion; says He, 'And I, if
+I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.' This He
+said signifying what death He should die: thus distinctly stating that
+it was the self-denials and mercy exhibited in the crucifixion that
+would draw out the affections of the human soul, and that those
+affections would be drawn to Himself as the suffering Saviour. But
+that God would sanction a scheme which would involve treason against
+Himself, and that Christ should participate in it, is absurd and
+impossible, and therefore cannot be true. But if the Divine Nature was
+united with the human in the teaching and work of Christ, if God was
+in Christ (drawing the affections of men, or) 'reconciling the world
+unto himself'--if, when Christ was lifted up, as Moses lifted up the
+serpent in the wilderness, He drew, as He said He would, the
+affections of all believers unto Himself; and then, if He ascended, as
+the Second Person of the Trinity, into the bosom of the Eternal
+Godhead--He thereby, after He had engaged, by His work on earth, the
+affections of the human soul, bore them up to the bosom of the Father,
+from whence they had fallen. Thus the ruins of the Fall were rebuilt,
+and the affections of the human soul again restored to God, the
+Creator, and proper Object of Supreme love."
+
+Finally, let the reader give most earnest thought to the inevitable
+conclusion drawn by the same author:
+
+"How, then, could God manifest that mercy to sinners by which love to
+Himself and to His law would be produced, while His infinite holiness
+and justice would be maintained? We answer, in no way possible, but by
+some expedient by which His justice and mercy would both be exalted.
+If, in the wisdom of the Godhead, such a way could be devised by which
+God Himself could save the soul from the consequences of its
+guilt,--by which He Himself could, in some way, suffer and make
+self-denials for its good; and by His own interposition open a way for
+the soul to recover from its lost and condemned condition, then the
+result would follow inevitably, that every one of the human family who
+had been led to see and feel his guilty condition before God, and who
+believed in God thus manifesting Himself to rescue his soul from
+spiritual death, every one thus believing would, from the necessities
+of his nature, be led to love God his Saviour; and mark, the greater
+the self-denial and the suffering on the part of the Saviour in
+ransoming the soul, the stronger would be the affection felt for
+Him."--_Walker, in "The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation."_
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE NEW RELATION--THE NEW MOTIVE
+
+     "What things soever the law saith, it saith _to them who are under
+     the law_; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may
+     become guilty before God."--Rom. 3:19.
+
+     "Ye are not under the law."--Rom. 6:14.
+
+     "The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we
+     might be justified by faith, but _after that faith is come we are
+     no longer under a schoolmaster_. For ye are all the children of God
+     by faith in Jesus Christ."--Gal. 3:24-26.
+
+     "When the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son born of
+     a woman, born under the law, to redeem them that were under the
+     law, _that we might receive the adoption of sons_. And because ye
+     are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your
+     hearts, crying Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant,
+     but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ."--Gal.
+     4:4-7.
+
+     "Having in love predestinated us for adoption as sons through Jesus
+     Christ to himself."--Eph. 1:5.
+
+     "The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if
+     one died for all, then all died; and he died for all, that they who
+     live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who
+     died for them and rose again."--2 Cor. 5:14, 15.
+
+     "There was a certain creditor who had two debtors; the one owed
+     five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing
+     to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore which of
+     them will love him most?"--Luke 7:41, 42.
+
+     "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not
+     love, I am become as sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And
+     though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries,
+     and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could
+     remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I
+     bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to
+     be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing."--1 Cor.
+     13:1-3.
+
+
+_In God's plan with men_, His purpose in giving the law has been sadly
+misunderstood. To the Jews the law was given on tablets of stone and
+copied in their sacred writings; to the Gentiles the law was written
+in their hearts. The one class had more light than the other, and
+therefore will be judged differently.
+
+"As many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law; and
+as many as have sinned under the law shall be judged by the
+law."--Rom. 2:12. "For when the Gentiles, who have no law, do by
+nature the things of the law, these, having no law, are a law unto
+themselves; who show the works of the law written in their hearts,
+their conscience also bearing witness, and their reasonings mutually
+accusing or even excusing them."--Rom. 2:14. Whether Jew or Gentile,
+God had one purpose in giving the law, "Now we know that what things
+soever the law saith, it saith to those who are under the law, that
+_every_ mouth may be stopped and _all the world_ be under judgement to
+God." God's plan with the law includes "every mouth," "all the world,"
+whether the law was written in their hearts or in sacred writings; and
+His purpose is, not that they should be saved by keeping the law, for
+then no one would be saved, for "all have sinned and come short of the
+glory of God,"--Rom. 3:23; but that they might be brought under
+judgment to God, every mouth stopped, guilty, and thus be brought to
+realize their need of a Redeemer. On this point God's word makes His
+purpose very plain: "The Scripture hath shut up all under sin, that
+the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that
+believe. But before faith, we were confined under law, shut up unto
+the faith about to be revealed. Wherefore the law was our tutor [or
+schoolmaster] unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But
+after that faith is come we are no longer under a tutor [or
+schoolmaster]."--Gal. 3:23-25.
+
+God's word is plain, that God put men under the law, not that they
+should be saved by keeping it, but that they might be led to see their
+need of a Saviour, one to redeem them from the curse of the law:
+"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
+for us,"--Gal 3:13; and then, having redeemed them from the curse of
+the law, and from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), to adopt them as His own
+children, "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ."--Rom. 8:17. So
+wonderful is the plan that it is hard for a human being to grasp it.
+_God's plan with men_ is not simply to save them, but to put them
+above all other created beings. "Unto which of the angels said he at
+any time, Thou art my Son?"--Heb. 1:5. Yet, "having in love
+predestinated us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to
+himself,"--Eph. 1:5 (1911 Bible), "heirs of God and joint heirs with
+Christ,"--Rom. 8:17, He puts us far above angels; "for ye are all sons
+of God through faith in Christ Jesus."--Gal. 3:26. But men can only
+come into this higher relation to God as sons by being redeemed from
+under the lower relation, under the law. Hear God's word: "When the
+fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman,
+born under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, _that we
+might receive the adoption of sons_."--Gal. 4:4, 5. This higher
+relation as sons of God can be attained only by men coming out from
+under the law; and men can come out from under the law only by being
+redeemed from under the law.
+
+God's word teaches clearly, then, that when one is redeemed, he is no
+longer under the law. "Ye are not under the law,"--Rom. 6:14; "What
+things soever the law saith, it saith to _those who are under the
+law_."--Rom. 3:19. Then some are under the law and some are not under
+the law; "Wherefore the law was our tutor unto Christ that we might be
+justified by faith. But after the faith is come, _we are no longer
+under a tutor_."--Gal. 3:24, 25. Pause, reader, and try to grasp the
+meaning of this. If the believer is redeemed from all iniquity (Titus
+2:14), and is not under the law, (Rom. 6:14), then he is sure of
+Heaven; for "sin is not reckoned when there is no law."--Rom. 5:13. It
+is not reckoned or imputed because it has all been reckoned or imputed
+to Christ (Is. 53:6, Titus 2:14). Why, then, serve God? Not from fear
+of the law; not from fear of Hell; but from love to Him who redeemed
+us from the curse of the law, having been made a curse for us (Gal.
+3:13).
+
+Just as clearly God's word teaches that those who are redeemed from
+the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), from all iniquity (Titus 2:14),
+become the sons of God; for that purpose "God sent forth his Son, born
+of a woman, born under the law, to redeem them that were under the law
+that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons,
+God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying,
+Abba, Father."--Gal. 4:4-6. "For ye are all the sons of God through
+faith in Christ Jesus."--Gal. 3:26.
+
+But there is, in _God's plan with men_, beyond this a still more
+blessed, wonderful teaching: "Wherefore, thou art no more a servant,
+but a son."--Gal. 4:7. The one who is redeemed from under the law
+(Gal. 3:13) never gets back under the law again,--"Wherefore thou art
+no more a servant, but a son." That means, then, certainty of going to
+Heaven, certainty of being a son of God forever. And this new
+relation, and this certainty of Heaven are settled for men, not when
+they die, nor when they have united with some church, or have been
+baptised, but the moment men repent from their sins and accept the
+Saviour as their Redeemer from all iniquity; for God's word says, "He
+that believeth on the son _hath_ everlasting life."--John 3:36; and
+"Ye _are_ all the sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus."--Gal.
+3:26.
+
+This new relation with God gives men a new motive. Under the law,
+guilty, condemned by it, the motive was fear. But when men have been
+redeemed from under the law and adopted as sons of God, the motive of
+fear is no more the motive of life. "Ye have not received the spirit
+of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption,
+whereby we cry, Abba, Father."
+
+The motive of the son towards the father is not fear, but love. And
+this love is produced by the fact that God, in love, provided this
+great, wonderful plan for men, "having in love predestinated us for
+adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself,"--Eph. 1:5, and the
+fact that the Saviour loved us and gave Himself for us (Gal. 2:20).
+Hence, Paul tells us, "The love of Christ [not the fear of the law,
+nor the fear of Hell] constrains us; because we thus judge, that if
+one died for all, then all died; and he died for all, that they who
+live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died
+for them, and rose again." Our Saviour, the night before His
+crucifixion, made clear that this was to be the motive in the life of
+God's children. In instituting the Lord's supper He said, "This is my
+blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for the remission of
+sins."--Matt. 26:28; then, following this, before leaving the supper
+room, He said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments,"--John 14:15,
+not, "if ye are afraid of the law, keep my commandments"; not, "if ye
+are afraid of going to Hell, keep my commandments"; not, "if ye wish
+to make sure of going to Heaven, keep my commandments"; but, "if ye
+love me." But why love Him? Because "this is my blood of the new
+covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins." That this
+love, and that _this kind of love_ is clearly the motive power of the
+real Christian life, notice the teaching of the Saviour in Luke 7:41,
+43, "There was a certain creditor who had two debtors; the one owed
+five hundred pence and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to
+pay he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them
+will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom
+he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou has rightly judged." This
+is no mere theory, that love _ought_ to be the controlling motive, but
+it _is_ the controlling motive. And it is not a mere theory that love
+_ought_ to constrain the real Christian, the real believer, but the
+love of Christ _does_ constrain us (2 Cor. 5:14).
+
+One may be moral, of deep piety, and yet if the motive power of his
+life is not this love, he is lost, not a real Christian. God's word
+makes this plain, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of
+angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a
+clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and
+understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all
+faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am
+nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though
+I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me
+nothing."--1 Cor. 13:1-3. Two of the mightiest preachers of all times,
+men whose tongues were those nearest to angels in preaching, Chalmers
+and Wesley, after years of most powerful preaching, came out and
+stated that during all those years they were lost, not Christians.
+Why? They had not been really redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14);
+they had not been forgiven most; the motive had not been the motive of
+him who is forgiven most,--"Though I speak with the tongues of men and
+of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a
+clanging cymbal." Why? Because eloquent, powerful preaching cannot
+redeem from iniquity, and God has said plainly, "Apart from shedding
+of blood there is no remission."--Heb. 9:22. Men may write great books
+explaining the mysteries of God's word, commentaries, Sunday-school
+lesson helps, instructions to Christians; yet if the motive power of
+their lives is not love based on the fact that they are forgiven most
+(Luke 7:43), redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), they are lost,
+not real Christians,--"though I have the gift of prophecy, and
+understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all
+faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am
+nothing." Why? Because there is nothing in understanding all
+mysteries, and all knowledge, in writing commentaries and other
+helpful books, to redeem from all iniquity. And God has said plainly,
+"Apart from shedding of blood there is no remission." The great
+capitalist, the multi-millionaire, may turn philanthropist, and spend
+all his wealth in building schools, or libraries, or houses for the
+poor, or in feeding hundreds of thousands in times of widespread
+drouth; the Catholic nun or Protestant or Baptist nurse may give her
+life in the epidemic in nursing the sick; and the heroic fireman give
+his life in rescuing others from the flames; yet they are all lost,
+unless the motive power of life is love, produced by the fact that
+they are forgiven most, redeemed from all iniquity,--"Though I bestow
+all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,
+and have not love, it profiteth me nothing." Why? Because there is
+nothing in giving away money to care for the poor, nor in giving up
+life for others, to redeem from iniquity. And God has said plainly,
+"Apart from shedding of blood there is no remission."--Heb. 9:22.
+
+When God, "That he might be just and the justifier of him that hath
+faith in Jesus,"--Rom. 3:26, "so loved the world that he gave his only
+begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
+have everlasting life,"--John 3:16, men must not, they _must not_,
+from intellectual pride, religious prejudice, family or race ties, nor
+from any other motive, trifle with God and presume to dictate terms to
+the Most High. Were it one poor, obscure man who presumed to do this,
+men would say that he deserved to be left to answer for his own sins
+before God at last. But vast numbers, whole religious denominations
+and university titles cannot change the Most High. God does not go by
+majorities. Earth's respectability does not pass current in Heaven.
+"The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God."--1 Cor. 3:19.
+
+Who is this being to whom puny men in their pride and prejudice
+presume to dictate terms as to how they may escape the just penalty
+for their sins, as to how their sins should be taken away? "Who hath
+measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven
+with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure,
+and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who
+hath directed the spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath
+taught him? With whom took he counsel? And who instructed him, and
+taught him in the path of judgement, and taught him knowledge, and
+showed to him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a
+drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance;
+behold, he taketh up the hills as a little thing." "All nations before
+him are as nothing, and they are counted by him less than nothing, and
+vanity." "It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the
+inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the
+heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in;
+that bringeth the princes to nothing; that maketh the judges of the
+earth as vanity."--Is. 40:12-15, 17, 22, 23.
+
+A professor in a great university has recently said that to the
+"modern mind," untrained, as the Jews, to daily sacrifices, unused, as
+those of ancient times, to blood-atonement,--remission of sins by
+blood,--substitution does not commend itself. If he and those who
+think like him do not care enough as to their eternal destiny to
+strive to become acquainted with blood-atonement, to realize their
+need of it, and to see that God, in love, has provided it, complete
+and eternal, then there is nothing left but for them to go out into
+eternity to meet the just penalty of their sins; for even then God
+will be just to them. No one, barbarian or civilized, will ever be
+treated unjustly by the Most High.
+
+But it is objected that, if men are taught and believe that they have
+been redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), that they are not
+after that under the law (Rom. 6:14), that they have been adopted as
+God's sons (Gal. 4:4, 5), and that they are no more servants, but sons
+(Gal. 4:7), they will not serve God from love of Christ for dying for
+them (2 Cor. 5:14, 15), but that they will become careless and not try
+to live Christian lives. That is true with hypocrites; they will
+profess to believe that they are thus redeemed, saved, and will live
+careless, worldly lives. But really redeemed men _will_ love most
+(Luke 7:43), and live better lives from love. The Saviour said, "If a
+man love me he _will_ keep my words,"--John 14:23; "If God were your
+father ye _would_ love me."--John 8:42. And John, writing to believers
+only (1 John 5:13), says: "Behold what manner of love the Father hath
+bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such
+we are. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
+Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it doth not yet appear
+what we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear we shall be
+like him, for we shall see him as he is. And _every one_ that hath
+this hope on him purifieth himself, even as he is pure."--1 John
+3:1-3.
+
+The one who is thus redeemed and adopted as a son of God not only
+purifies himself because prompted by love to the Saviour for redeeming
+him from all iniquity, but because he is born again, and this new
+nature leads him to hate sin and to love holiness. "Whosoever
+believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God."--1 John 5:1.
+"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by
+the word of God which liveth and abideth forever."--1 Peter 1:23. This
+is no mere theory, no mere theological dogma. Cases innumerable
+throughout the Christian era could be cited, where the most wicked men
+and women in a moment have been completely changed by simply being led
+to accept Jesus Christ as their Saviour, as their Redeemer from all
+iniquity.
+
+In the author's work as an evangelist he has seen the most debased,
+hopeless men and women revolutionized morally, not by gradual
+processes, but in a moment, by leading them to repentance and faith in
+the Saviour as their complete Redeemer from all iniquity. And the
+moral revolution was not temporary, but permanent. Science cannot
+account for these moral revolutions brought about in a moment.
+Infidelity cannot account for them. God's word does account for them,
+that they have been born again, born of God, and have been taken from
+under the law and have been given a new relation to God and placed
+under a new motive power. In a city a great mass-meeting for infidels
+was widely advertised; a large audience assembled. The leader asked
+all the men in the audience who had once been down in the depths of
+sin, everything gone, hopeless, and had been led to accept the Saviour
+as their Redeemer from sin, please to arise. Between three hundred and
+four hundred well-dressed business men and workingmen arose. The
+leader then asked all who had been down in the depths of sin,
+everything gone, hopeless, and they had then been led to believe in
+infidelity and it had made better men of them, please to arise. One
+lone man staggered to his feet and he was drunk! Science and
+infidelity cannot explain this difference. God's word does explain it.
+There is no other explanation.
+
+It may be objected that many who profess to be thus redeemed from all
+iniquities, to be born again, do not continue to live better lives.
+God's word explains every one of these cases: "They went out from us,
+but they were _not of us_; for if they had been of us, they would have
+continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest;
+because not all are of us."--1 John 2:19.
+
+In closing this chapter, reader, pause and consider:--are you yet
+under the law? Have you been redeemed from the curse of the law? Have
+you been adopted as a child of God? It is one thing to _say_ "Our
+Father"; it is quite a different thing to be really a child of God,
+and heir of God and joint heir with Christ.
+
+Is the motive of your life love of Christ because He has redeemed you
+from all iniquities? Do not be deceived by calling the motive love
+when really it is not love. If you have been trying to serve God,
+thinking that if you continued to serve Him, continued to try to do
+your Christian duty, you would go to Heaven after this life, but that
+if you failed to serve Him and do your Christian duty, you would not
+be saved, then your motive has not been love, and you are lost. If you
+have been trying to serve God and do your Christian duty, fearing
+that if you failed you would be lost, then your motive has not been
+love, and you have never been redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14),
+and adopted as the child of God (Gal. 4:4, 5). Let not pride nor
+prejudice prevent your coming out from under the law and becoming
+really a child of God. "My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel
+is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have
+a _zeal of God_, but not _according to knowledge_. For being
+_ignorant of God's righteousness_, and _going about to establish
+their own righteousness_, they have not submitted themselves unto
+the righteousness of God. For Christ is _the end of the law for
+righteousness to every one that believeth._"--Rom. 10:1-4. "As many as
+_received him_, to them gave he power to become the children of God,
+even to them that believe on his name."--John 1:12.
+
+_FOR FURTHER STUDY_: Men are prone to mix the law and redemption
+through Christ. They are separate and distinct. They are two separate
+roads to Heaven. If a man keeps the law from birth to death he will go
+to Heaven without any redemption; he needs no redemption. "Moses
+describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man that
+doeth those things shall live _by them_,"--Rom. 10:5; not by Christ as
+the Redeemer; he needs no redemption. "And the law is not of faith;
+but the man that doeth them shall live in them."--Gal. 3:12. There is
+no Christ in this; there is no need of Christ if a man "doeth them,"
+the law. Such a man cannot trust Christ to save him; for if he has
+never broken the law, there is nothing from which he needs to be
+redeemed. "The soul that sinneth, _it_ shall die"; but if one has kept
+the law, there is no penalty, no redemption is needed. "The doers of
+the law _shall be justified_."--Rom. 2:13. But "all have sinned and
+come short of the glory of God,"--Rom. 3:23; hence, there is need of
+redemption; for "apart from shedding of blood there is no
+remission."--Heb. 9:22. The other road to Heaven, therefore, is that
+"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
+for us."--Gal. 3:13. The Saviour, as well as the Apostle Paul, taught
+clearly the two roads; the first, when "One came and said unto him,
+Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?
+And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but
+one, that is God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the
+commandments."--Matt. 19:16, 17. The question was what good thing the
+enquirer should do in order to have eternal life as the result of what
+he did. The answer was exactly what Paul taught afterwards,--"The man
+that doeth them, shall live in them."--Gal. 3:12. On the other hand,
+to the penitent woman in Simon's house the Saviour said, "Thy faith
+hath saved thee; go in peace."--Luke 7:50. The trouble is that many
+men try to make a third road to Heaven, partly by obeying the law and
+partly by redemption through Christ; or rather, they try to combine
+the two separate and distinct ways and make them one. But this is
+fatal. "If by grace, then it is no more of works; otherwise grace is
+no more grace. But if it is of works, then it is no more grace;
+otherwise work is no more work."--Rom. 11:6. Jesus said, "Come unto
+me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you
+rest."--Matt. 11:28. And God's word declares plainly, "He that hath
+entered into his rest himself also hath rested from his own works, as
+God did from his."--Heb. 4:10. No one has rested, ceased, from his own
+works who thinks that keeping the law or trying to keep the law is a
+part of the salvation through Christ as Redeemer. One _must_ cease
+from his own works, from looking to obeying the law to help in
+salvation, before he _can_ be saved through Christ as Redeemer. "To
+him that worketh not, but believeth on him that _justifieth_ the
+ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."--Rom. 4:5. Hence,
+all who are trying to get to Heaven by obedience, are under the law,
+are yet unredeemed, unsaved, not real Christians. "As many as are of
+the works of the law [obeying the law to be saved] are under the
+curse,"--Gal. 3:10; they have not been really redeemed.
+
+Of this class are all those who believe and teach "Salvation by
+character,"--they are yet under the law; they are yet under the
+curse.--Gal. 3:10. Further, they fly in the face of the Lord Jesus,
+who said to men who had character, "The publicans and the harlots go
+into the kingdom of God before you."--Matt. 21:31. They fail to see
+that the Saviour takes men without character, justifies them from all
+things (Acts 13:39), redeems them from the curse of the law (Gal.
+3:13), redeems them from all iniquities (Titus 2:14), and then
+develops in them a character that will stand the test of the ages;
+that He takes a Jerry McAuley, an S. H. Hadley, a Harry Monroe, and a
+Melville Trotter and makes of them four of the most useful men of
+modern times. They fail to see that character is formed by deeds; that
+the character of the deed can be determined _only_ by the motive
+prompting the deed; that the controlling motive for the deed must, in
+the sight of God, be love (1 Cor. 13:1-3); that the motive of love is
+produced by being forgiven most (Luke 7:42, 43); that the forgiveness
+comes from the Saviour having given Himself for our sins (Gal. 1:4),
+to redeem us from all iniquity (Titus 2:14).
+
+Because of this failure to consider the motive back of the deed, many
+books on morals and ethics are absolutely pernicious. In comparing the
+morals and ethics of Christianity with the morals and ethics of
+heathen religions, they fail to take into consideration the _motive
+back of the deed_. Two young men are trying to win a young woman in
+marriage; their deeds, outwardly, are the same; the one is prompted by
+pure, manly love for the young woman; the other has his eye on her
+father's bank account. You drop your handkerchief as you are passing
+along the street; a man from pure kindness picks it up and hands it to
+you. Again you drop it, and another picks it up and hands it to you,
+but his motive is that he may win your confidence and pick your
+pocket. Four sons are equally dutiful, in outward deed, toward their
+fathers; one, that he may get all the money he wishes from his
+father; the second, from a cold sense of duty; the third, from fear
+that his father might kill him or disinherit him if he were not
+dutiful; the fourth, from tender love for the father. In these four,
+many authors see no difference, or make no distinction, and yet they
+profess to be teachers of morals and ethics! Four men, outwardly, are
+living the same moral lives; one, hoping to get to Heaven by it; the
+second, from a cold sense of duty; the third, from fear of Hell; the
+fourth, from love because One died for him (2 Cor. 5:14, 15), and
+redeemed him from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), from all iniquity
+(Titus 2:14). Only the last one will ever enter Heaven; only the last
+one is really a Christian, redeemed (Heb. 9:12), saved (Eph. 2:8).
+
+As men are prone to mix law and redemption through Christ, so they are
+prone to mix law and sonship. They fail to see that redemption from
+the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), redemption from all iniquity (Titus
+2:14), redemption from under the law (Rom. 6:14), means to be placed
+in a higher, more sacred relationship to God. Even in nature God has
+two grades of existence, a lower and a higher, for some insects, even;
+the mosquito, first in the water; then by a simple process it rises
+into the higher kingdom; the caterpillar, a creeping worm, then the
+butterfly. But were there no analogies in nature, God has clearly
+revealed a higher relation for those who are redeemed from the curse
+of the law (Gal. 3:13), "God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born
+under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might
+receive the adoption of sons,"--Gal. 4:4, 5; "Having in love
+predestinated us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to
+himself."--Eph. 1:5. Where is man in the scale of being? "Thou hast
+made him a little lower than the angels."--Ps. 8:5. But even the
+angels, who are above man in the scale of being, are not the sons of
+God. "Unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my
+son?"--Heb. 1:5. But to _every man_ who has been redeemed from the
+curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), from under the law (Gal. 4:5), God says,
+"Ye are _all_ the sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus."--Gal.
+3:26. "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his
+Son into your hearts crying, Abba, Father."--Gal. 4:6. "Ye have
+received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father."--Rom.
+8:15.
+
+Much of the confusion concerning the higher relationship of the
+redeemed with God has been caused by teaching the redeemed and the
+unredeemed to pray what is called the Lord's Prayer. The Saviour did
+not teach the unredeemed to pray in this manner. They cannot pray it
+truthfully, honestly, for they are not the children of God. "They that
+are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of
+God."--Rom. 9:5. If they are not, then they cannot truthfully say "Our
+Father," "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son
+whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as
+with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if
+ye be without chastening, whereof all are partakers, then are ye
+bastards, and not sons."--Heb. 12:6-8. The language, "bastards and not
+sons," has some meaning, but it can have no meaning if God is the
+Father of all human beings, and all have a right to say "Our Father."
+It is true, that in the Old Testament God is referred to as a Father,
+but it is only as Father of Israel, the redeemed. "Have we not all
+one father? Hath not one God created us?"--Mal. 2:10. But who are
+the "we"? "The burden of the word of the Lord to _Israel_ by
+Malachi,"--Mal. 1:1;--Israel, God's redeemed people.
+
+God's word makes it plain that what is called the Lord's Prayer was
+not taught by the Saviour to the unsaved. "As he was praying in a
+certain place, when he ceased, _one of his disciples_ said unto him,
+Lord, teach _us_ to pray as John also taught his disciples, and he
+said unto _them_ [His disciples], When ye [His disciples] pray, say,
+'Our Father.'" How did they become disciples? "As many as received
+him, to them gave he power _to become_ the children of God, even to
+them that believe on his name."--John 1:12. "Ye are all the sons of
+God by faith in Christ Jesus."--Gal. 3:26. Concerning this prayer the
+_Southern Baptist Sunday School Teacher_ says, "It is a special gift
+to believers only." "We cannot too earnestly insist that the Lord's
+Prayer is beyond the use of mere worldlings. They have no heart for
+it. It is the possession and badge of the disciples of Christ. It
+belongs to those who can offer it in humble and hearty faith." The
+_Sunday School Teacher_, published by the American Baptist Publication
+Society, says: "This is a prayer that befits only Christian lips and
+was given to the disciples only, and so it is addressed to 'Our
+Father.'" D. L. Moody, in "The Way Home," "But who may use this
+prayer, 'Our Father which art in Heaven'? Examine the context. The
+disciples when alone with Jesus said, 'Lord, teach us to pray,' and
+this was the answer they got; they were taught this precious prayer:
+'In this manner pray ye: Our Father, which art in Heaven.' It was
+taught by Jesus to His chosen disciples; then it is only for
+Christians. No man who is unconverted can or has a right to pray thus.
+Christ taught _His disciples_, not all men, not the multitude, to pray
+like this. A man must be born again before he has any right to breathe
+this prayer. What right has any man living in sin and in open enmity
+with God, to lift up his voice and say, Our or My Father? It is a lie
+and nothing else for him to say this."
+
+The Saviour was very explicit on this point: "Ye do the deeds of your
+father. Then said they to him, We are not born of fornication; we have
+one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father,
+ye would love me; for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither
+came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech?
+Even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the
+devil."--John 8:41-44. Here are the unredeemed calling God their
+Father. If He is their Father, here was the time for the Great Teacher
+to make it plain. If He is their Father, _in any sense_, here was the
+opportunity to make it plain. The Saviour does not reply, "Yes, He is
+your Father in one sense, but I am speaking of another and a higher
+sense." His answer is plain and unequivocal.
+
+There are those who fly in the face of the Saviour's plain teaching.
+Hear two of them:--Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy, in "Science and Health,"
+"God is the Father of All." "Man is the offspring of Spirit." "Spirit
+is his primitive and ultimate source of being; God is his Father and
+Life is the law of his being." "He recognized Spirit, God, as the only
+creator, and therefore as the Father of all"; "demonstrating God as
+the Father of men." Another makes his meaning just as plain: "He
+[Jesus] was the son of God in like manner that every other person is;
+for _the Creator is the father of all_."--_Thomas Paine, in "The Age
+of Reason."_
+
+The issue is joined between these two on the one side and the Lord
+Jesus and Paul on the other, and men are lining up on one side or the
+other, and many of them will spend eternity with the ones whose
+teaching they are following _now_, with whom they are lining up; and
+the reader may as well face the fact that many of them will not spend
+eternity in the same place with the Saviour and Paul. With many the
+question as to whether the Saviour, when He said, "Ye are of your
+father the devil," told the truth, or was a wilful liar and deceiver,
+or a deluded fanatic and ignoramus, is merely a matter of taste, or
+preference, or opinion. It may be claimed by some that "Ye are of your
+father the devil," grates on refined ears and finer sensibilities. But
+it is more than a question whether it is pride, or religious
+prejudice, or refined sensibilities, when the sensibilities and
+feelings are so coarse and hardened that without indignation, often
+with complacency, they see Him who "spake as never man spake," God's
+"only begotten Son," branded as a liar and deceiver. Such scholarship
+and finer sensibilities and such refinement will fill their
+possessors with horror and remorse in that day when the sun shall
+become black as sackcloth of hair, and the full moon shall become as
+blood, and the heavens shall depart as a scroll when it is rolled
+together; and every mountain and island shall be moved out of their
+places, and the kings of the earth, and the great men and the rich men
+and the chief captains and the mighty men and every bondman and every
+freeman shall hide themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the
+mountains and say to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us
+from the face of him who sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of
+the Lamb; for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be
+able to stand?"--Rev. 6:12-17; "for the Father judgeth no man, but
+hath committed all judgement unto the Son, that all men should honor
+the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son
+honoreth not the Father who sent him."--John 5:22, 23. "And he
+commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he
+who hath been ordained of God to be the judge of living and
+dead."--Acts 10:42.
+
+If all men who are unredeemed would just stop and realize their real
+position in the scale of being, and that they really have no Heavenly
+Father, and that "as many as received him to them gave he power to
+become the children of God, even to them that believe on his
+name,"--John 1:12, there would fall upon this world such a feeling of
+orphanage as it has never known since the Saviour hung on the cross.
+But in their pride or religious prejudice, or love of the world, or
+secret sin, blinded by "Our Father," they go on through life
+repeating it, and die, never having been redeemed from the curse of
+the law (Gal. 3:13), and adopted as God's sons (Gal. 4:4-7).
+
+Teaching the unredeemed that God is their Father, and to say "Our
+Father" is the incubator of religious error and the hot-bed of
+infidelity. Many religious denominations that are fundamentally in
+error, that really have no Redeemer, and therefore no Saviour, have as
+their foundation teaching that God is the Father of the human race;
+and there is scarcely an infidel but that was taught "Our Father."
+Teach a person that God is his Father, that his Heavenly Father is far
+better than his earthly father, and then teach him that his Heavenly
+Father is going to send him to an eternal Hell, and, if he thinks, he
+is far on the road to infidelity, or he is ready for some modern
+church that denies that there is any Hell.
+
+It is said that a missionary to one of the heathen lands, after
+laboring for some time among the people, employed a learned heathen to
+help him translate the New Testament into the heathen language. The
+missionary would read and the heathen would translate and write it
+down. They finally came to the first epistle of John. One morning as
+they began their work, having finished the second chapter, the
+missionary read, "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
+upon us." The heathen translated and wrote it down. The missionary
+read, "that we should be called the children of God." The heathen
+bowed his head upon the table and began weeping. Gaining control of
+his feelings, he said, "Teacher, don't make me put it that way; I know
+our people; that is too good for us; we don't deserve it. Put it this
+way, 'That we may be allowed to kiss his feet,' That is good enough
+for our people." He had listened to the story of God giving His Son
+for us; of His life, of His teachings, of His death for our sins; and
+the thought that, beyond this, God makes the redeemed His children,
+was too much for him. But in enlightened, so-called Christian lands,
+many who have never even claimed to have been born of God ridicule the
+teaching that God is the Father of the redeemed only, and they
+blatantly proclaim God to be the Father of all human beings, of the
+drunkard, of the thief, the murderer, whereas, even the angels do not
+call Him Father. "Unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou
+art my son?" But when men are redeemed (Heb. 9:12), and born again of
+the Spirit (John 3:8; 1 John 5:1), they are really God's children
+(Gal. 3:26). Then they are above angels in the scale of being, "heirs
+of God and joint heirs with Christ" (Rom. 8:17),--the highest, most
+exalted of all beings in the universe. Oh, that men would put their
+heels upon their pride, be redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal.
+3:13), and become God's real children (Gal. 4:4-7).
+
+But just as many mix and confuse the teachings as to two roads to
+Heaven, and as to law and sonship, so they mix and confuse the old
+motive of fear under the law (Rom. 8:15), and of love as sons. _The
+new motive of love could be produced in no other way than by real
+Redemption._ Let the reader give close study to the following
+principles laid down in Walker's "Philosophy of the Plan of
+Salvation":
+
+"1, The affections of the soul move in view of certain objects or in
+view of certain qualities believed to exist in those objects. The
+affections never move, in familiar words, the heart never loves,
+unless love be produced by seeing, or by believing that we see, some
+lovely and excellent qualities in the object. When the soul believes
+those good qualities to be possessed by another, and especially when
+they are exercised towards us, the affections, like a magnetized
+needle, tremble with life, and turn towards their object.
+
+"2, The affections are not subject to the will; neither our own will
+nor any other will can directly control them.... An effect could as
+easily exist without a cause as affection in the bosom of any human
+being which was not produced by goodness or excellence seen, or
+believed to exist, in some other being.
+
+"3, The affections, although not governed by the will, do themselves
+greatly influence the will. All acts of will produced entirely by pure
+affection for another are disinterested.... So soon as the affections
+move towards an object, the will is proportionally influenced to
+please and benefit that object, or, if a superior being, to obey his
+will.
+
+"4, All happy obedience must arise from affection. Affectionate
+obedience blesses the spirit which yields it, if the conscience
+approve the object loved and obeyed.
+
+"5. When the affections of two beings are reciprocally fixed upon each
+other they constitute a band of union and sympathy peculiarly strong
+and tender,--those things that affect the one affecting the other in
+proportion to the strength of affection existing between them. One
+conforms to the will of the other, not from a sense of obligation
+merely, but from choice; and the constitution of the soul is such that
+the sweetest enjoyment of which it is capable rises from the exercise
+of reciprocal affections.
+
+"6. When the circumstances of an individual are such that he is
+exposed to constant suffering and great danger, the more afflictive
+his situation the more grateful love will he feel for affection and
+benefits received under such circumstances. If his circumstances were
+such that he could not relieve himself, and such that he must suffer
+greatly or perish, and while in this condition, if another, moved by
+benevolent regard for him, should come to aid and save him, his
+affection for his deliverer would be increased by a sense of the
+danger from which he was rescued.
+
+"The greater the kindness and self-denial of a benefactor manifested
+in our behalf, the warmer and the stronger will be the affection which
+his goodness will produce in the human heart."
+
+And this further statement by Walker will be at once accepted by all
+honest seekers after truth:--
+
+"Here, then, are two facts growing out of the constitution of human
+nature. First, the soul must feel its evil and lost state, as the
+prerequisite condition upon which alone it can love a deliverer;
+secondly, the degree of kindness and self-denial in a benefactor,
+temporal or spiritual, graduates the degree of affection and gratitude
+that will be awakened for him."--_Walker, in "The Philosophy of the
+Plan of Salvation."_
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE SINS OF GOD'S CHILDREN--FORGIVENESS--CHASTISEMENTS
+
+     "Our Father who art in Heaven ... forgive us our sins."--Luke
+     11:1-4.
+
+     "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our
+     sins."--1 John 1:9.
+
+     "Ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto
+     sons. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor
+     faint when thou art rebuked of him; for whom the Lord loveth he
+     chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure
+     chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he
+     whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastening,
+     whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
+     Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh who corrected us, and
+     we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection
+     under the Father of spirits and live? For they verily for a few
+     days chastened us as seemed right to them; but he for our profit,
+     that we might be partakers of his holiness."--Heb. 12:5-10.
+
+     "Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the
+     earth. My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant
+     shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure
+     forever, and his throne as the days of heaven. If his children
+     forsake my law and walk not in my judgements; if they break my
+     statutes and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their
+     transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes.
+     Nevertheless, my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him,
+     nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break,
+     nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn
+     by my holiness that I will not lie unto David."--Ps. 89:27-35.
+
+
+In coming to the question of God's plan concerning the lives of men
+redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), redeemed from all
+iniquity (Titus 2:14), from under the law (Rom. 6:14), and adopted as
+God's sons (Gal. 4:4-7), let the reader keep in mind that it is not
+concerning the sins of unredeemed men, whether professing Christians
+or not. God's plan with the sins of unredeemed men has been shown in
+Chapter I. Hence it is not a question of the sins of hypocrites, or
+other professing Christians who are not really God's children.
+
+It has been shown in Chapter IV that when men are redeemed from the
+curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), they are
+no longer under the law; "Ye are not under the law."--Rom. 6:14. God's
+word lays down a principle recognized and endorsed by all enlightened
+nations,--"Sin is not reckoned [imputed] when there is no law."--Rom.
+5:13. Those who have been redeemed from under the law are adopted as
+God's children,--"God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under
+the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive
+the adoption of sons."--Gal. 4:4, 5. God thenceforth deals with them
+as father with children, and not as judge with transgressors of law.
+Earthly children commit two kinds of sins against their earthly
+fathers; they sin under temptation and are penitent, and confess their
+sins and are forgiven. Second, they sin wilfully and are chastised.
+God's children sin in like manner; they sin under temptation, are
+penitent, confess their sins and are forgiven. Second, they become
+backsliders, sin wilfully and are chastised. Let us consider the two
+classes of sins of God's children and _God's plan with men_ for them.
+
+Our Saviour taught His disciples, God's children, to pray "Our Father
+... forgive us our sins,"--Luke 11:1-4; Paul and Silas taught the
+jailer, a man under the law, unredeemed, not a child of God, "Believe
+on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved."--Acts 16:31. John
+taught the believers (1 John 5:13), those who were redeemed from the
+curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), and were God's children (1 John 3:1, 2),
+"If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our
+sins,"--1 John 1:9; Paul taught the unredeemed, those who were
+not God's children, "To him that worketh not, but believeth on
+him that _justifieth the ungodly_, his faith is counted for
+righteousness."--Rom. 4:5.
+
+Many believe and teach that if any one, the unredeemed man as well as
+the son of God, confesses his sins, God will be faithful and just to
+forgive his sins. A Mohammedan, a Jew, a Christian Scientist, a
+Unitarian, a Universalist, confess their sins,--are they forgiven? To
+these and all others under the law, God has said, "Apart from shedding
+of blood there is no remission."--Heb. 9:22. "Till heaven and earth
+pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till
+all be fulfilled."--Matt. 5:18. John is writing to believers only (1
+John 5:13), to those who are God's children (1 John 3:1, 2), and to
+_them_ he says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to
+forgive us our sins."--1 John 1:9. Men unredeemed, under the law, can
+never get rid of their sins by confession. To them God has one
+message,--"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
+so _must_ the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth on him
+should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world
+that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him
+should not perish, but have everlasting life."--John 3:14-16.
+
+The Saviour taught the _disciples_ to pray, "Our Father, ... forgive
+us our sins"; but so widespread is the misconception that it applies
+to all, redeemed and unredeemed, that all over the world vast
+multitudes of the unredeemed kneel down every night and say, "Our
+Father, ... forgive us our sins," and lie down to sleep deluded with
+the thought that they are forgiven. If they are forgiven, why was
+there any need of Christ dying for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3)? But the
+real child of God can pray, "Our Father, ... forgive us our sins," and
+he is really forgiven. Why the difference? With the unredeemed, those
+yet under the law (Rom. 3:19), God is dealing as judge with violators
+of law, and law knows no forgiveness. With the redeemed, those who
+have been adopted as God's children (Gal. 4:4-7), God is dealing as
+father with son. Let those who are redeemed, who are really God's
+children, realize the blessed fact that "If we confess our sins, he is
+faithful and just to forgive us our sins."--1 John 1:9.
+
+But there is another class of sins committed by God's children, "If
+his children _forsake_ my law" (Ps. 89:30), wilful sins. For these God
+chastises His children, just as an earthly father chastises his wilful
+and disobedient children. "Ye have forgotten the exhortation which
+speaketh unto you as unto sons, My son, despise not thou the
+chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him; for
+whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he
+receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons,
+for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be
+without chastening, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards
+and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh who
+corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be
+in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live? For they verily for
+a few days chastened us as seemed right to them; but he for our
+profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness."--Heb. 12:5-10.
+
+Chastisement or punishment of God's children is for correction; "for
+our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness" (Heb. 12:10);
+punishment of the unredeemed is to carry out law, for justice: "that
+he might be _just_" (Rom. 3:26); "every transgression received a
+_just_ recompense of reward."--Heb. 2:2. The unredeemed, those under
+the law (Rom. 3:19), are punished beyond this life, in the Day of
+Judgment,--"verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the
+land of Sodom and Gomorrah _in the day of judgment_, than for that
+city."--Matt. 10:15; God's children receive their chastisements in
+this life,--"If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with
+sons."--Heb. 12:7. Professing Christians who are not redeemed, not
+really God's children, do not receive chastisements; hence, they are
+punished in the day of judgment with the other unredeemed. "But if ye
+be without chastening, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards
+and not sons."--Heb. 12:8.
+
+He has observed to little purpose who has not noticed that redeemed
+people, God's children, suffer more in this life than the unredeemed.
+God says that His children endure chastenings and others who are not
+His children do not. The difference can be easily seen by any one who
+will observe closely. The Psalmist observed it and was greatly
+disturbed by it until he understood the cause of the difference.
+"Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.
+But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh
+slipped. For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of
+the wicked. For there are no bands in their death, but their strength
+is firm. _They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they
+plagued like other men._ Therefore pride compasseth them about as a
+chain; violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with
+fatness, they have more than heart could wish. They are corrupt, and
+speak wickedly concerning oppression; they speak loftily. They set
+their mouths against the heavens and their tongue walketh through the
+earth. Therefore, his people return hither, and waters of a full cup
+are wrung out to them. And they say, How doth God know? And is there
+knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper
+in the world; they increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed my heart
+in vain and washed my hands in innocency. For _all the day long have I
+been plagued, and chastened every morning_. If I say, I will speak
+thus: behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.
+When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; _until I went
+into the sanctuary of God: then understood I their end_. Surely, thou
+didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into
+destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment?
+They are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awaketh;
+so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image. For my
+heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins. So foolish was I,
+and ignorant; I was as a beast before thee. Nevertheless, I am
+continually with thee; thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou
+shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to
+glory."--Ps. 73:1-24.
+
+That chastisement in this life for wilful sins is God's plan with
+redeemed men, His real children, is clearly revealed even in the Old
+Testament. God swore by His holiness to David that this would be His
+plan with redeemed men:--"Also, I will make him my firstborn, higher
+than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him forevermore,
+and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make
+to endure forever and his throne as the days of Heaven. If his
+children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break
+my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their
+transgressions with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.
+Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor
+suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor
+alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my
+holiness that I will not lie unto David."--Ps. 89:27-35. David himself
+was a case in point. After his terrible sin, God sent word to him by
+the prophet Nathan, "Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of
+the Lord, to do evil in his sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite
+with the sword and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain
+him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword
+shall never depart from thine house."--2 Sam. 12:9, 10. "And David
+said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said
+unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not
+die."--2 Sam. 12:13. God has but one way of putting away sin. "Apart
+from shedding of blood is no remission."--Heb. 9:22. "For the life of
+the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar
+to make an atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh
+an atonement for the soul."--Lev. 17:11. But God does not stop there.
+"Howbeit because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the
+enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto
+thee shall surely die."--1 Sam. 12:14. (Let the reader notice that
+God, foreseeing that people would ridicule the idea of God saving
+David, calls it blasphemy and calls those who do it "the enemies of
+the Lord.") David fasted and prayed for the child. On the seventh day
+the child died, "But when David saw that his servants whispered, David
+perceived that the child was dead; therefore David said unto his
+servants, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead. Then David
+arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself, and changed his
+apparel, and came into the house of the Lord and worshipped: then he
+came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him
+and he did eat. Then said his servants unto him, What thing is this
+that thou hast done? Thou didst fast and weep for the child, while it
+was alive; but when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread.
+And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I
+said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child
+may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring
+him back again? _I shall go to him._"--2 Sam. 12:19-23. How could
+David be thus sure? He had God's word on which to rest, "The life of
+the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it upon the altar to make
+atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh atonement
+for the soul."--Lev. 17:11. But because of his sin God chastened him
+as long as he lived. "Now therefore the sword shall never depart from
+thine house."
+
+Solomon is another case in point. Concerning Solomon God said to
+David, "I will be his father and he shall be my son. If he commit
+iniquity, I will chastise him with the rod of men, and with the
+stripes of the children of men; but my mercy shall not depart away
+from him."--2 Sam. 7:14, 15.
+
+In chastening, God uses as a rod loss of loved ones (2 Sam. 12:14;
+Amos 4:10), loss of property (Amos 4:6-9), loss of health (1 Cor.
+11:30), death (1 Cor. 11:30; Amos 4:11; Deut. 32:48-52). Consider the
+case of Moses and Aaron: God told them to speak to the rock that it
+might bring forth water for the children of Israel. But they wilfully
+disobeyed, and instead of speaking to the rock, struck it in anger.
+For this wilful sin, as a chastisement, God said to Moses, "Get thee
+up into this mountain Abarim, unto Mt. Nebo, which is in the land of
+Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan,
+which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession: and die in
+the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people; as
+Aaron thy brother died in Mt. Hor, and was gathered unto his people:
+_because ye trespassed against me_ among the children of Israel at
+the waters of Meribah Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin."--Deut.
+32:49-52. Though Moses was thus severely chastened for his wilful sin,
+he was not lost, for he was with Elijah on the mountain at the
+transfiguration of the Saviour (Matt. 17:1-3).
+
+The lesson needs to be learned by God's children that as certainly as
+a redeemed man sins wilfully, whether the sin be great or small, the
+chastening rod is sure to fall. "If his children _forsake my law ...
+then will_ I visit their transgressions with the rod and their
+iniquity with stripes."--Ps. 89:30-32. But God does not send the
+chastening in wrath, nor in justice. "Whom the Lord _loveth_ he
+chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."--Heb. 12:6.
+
+There are many who profess to be redeemed, to be God's children,
+professed Christians, church members, who sin wilfully, and God never
+sends chastisements to them; but God explains about them, "But if ye
+be without chastening, whereof all are partakers, then are ye
+bastards, and not sons."--Heb. 12:8. He does not chasten this class;
+in Hell they will receive their punishment, but it will be just. God
+will treat no human being wrong. With some it may seem severe that God
+should chasten and scourge His children. That is not as severe as to
+send them to Hell for their wilful disobedience after they become His
+children, and that is the belief of many. There are but three plans
+that God could have for those who have been redeemed from the curse of
+law (Gal. 3:13) and adopted as His children (Gal. 4:4-7), and
+afterward sin wilfully:--
+
+First, beyond this life punish them in the judgment (Matt. 10:15) for
+their sins, send them to Hell. That would mean, (1) if Christ redeemed
+them from _all_ iniquity (Titus 2:14), that God would force the same
+debt to be paid twice. "Shall not the judge of all the earth do
+right?" (2) That would mean that God would punish, by law, those who
+have been redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), and who are
+not under the law (Rom. 6:14), and would violate God's own principle,
+"Sin is not reckoned [imputed] when there is no law" (Rom. 5:13). (3)
+That would mean a child of God, redeemed and adopted (Gal. 4:4-7), and
+born again (1 Peter 1:23), born of the Holy Spirit (John 3:8), sent to
+Hell. (4) That would mean to make the Saviour unreliable and
+untruthful in His statements. "Many will say unto me in that day,
+Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have
+cast out demons? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then
+will I profess unto them, I _never_ knew you."--Matt. 7:22, 23. These
+are the professing Christians at the judgment who are lost, and Jesus
+says, "I never knew you," that not one of them was ever really
+redeemed and adopted as a child of God. (5) It would mean for God to
+violate His own oath (Ps. 89: 27-35).
+
+Second, the second plan possible to God in dealing with those who sin
+wilfully after they have been redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14),
+from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), and adopted as God's children
+(Gal. 4:4-7), would be to let them continue to sin wilfully, and
+neither punish them beyond this life, at the judgment, in Hell, nor
+chastise them in this life. That would mean for some of them to
+eventually develop characters most fearfully warped by sin.
+
+Third, there is but one other possible plan left for God with redeemed
+men, redeemed from the law and adopted as His children (Gal. 4:7), who
+sin wilfully; and that is to chasten, chastise them in this life. That
+is God's plan with the redeemed, His own children; and however severe
+the chastening, He does it in love. In love He planned to adopt us as
+His children. "Having _in love_ predestinated us for the adoption as
+sons through Jesus Christ to himself."--Eph. 1:5 (1911 Bible), and in
+love He chastises. "Whom the Lord _loveth_, he chasteneth and
+scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."--Heb. 12:6.
+
+Reader, the issue is before you: shall you remain under the law (Rom.
+3:19) to be punished justly in the judgment (Matt. 11:22-24) and to
+continue to sin in Hell (Rev. 22:11, R. V.), or will you accept
+redemption through Christ the Saviour from the curse of the law (Gal.
+3:13), be adopted as a child of God forever (Gal. 4:4-7), to be
+forgiven when you sin against your Father in Heaven and confess your
+sin (1 John 1:9); to be chastened when you sin wilfully (Ps.
+89:27-34), and to spend eternity in Heaven with Him who loved you and
+gave Himself for you (John 14:1-3; Gal. 2:20), free forever from sin
+(Rev. 21:24-27; Rev. 22:3)? You do not intend, reader, to be wrapped
+in a Christless shroud, to be laid away in a Christless grave, to
+spend eternity in a Christless Hell. Decide _now_.
+
+_FOR FURTHER STUDY_:--The teaching that God interposes in human
+affairs to chastise His disobedient children (Heb. 12:5-8; Ps.
+89:27-34), to chasten with the rod of the children of men (2 Sam.
+7:14, 15; 1 Cor. 11:30), will frighten, or arouse the contempt of,
+"the modern mind" with its self-inflated wisdom, which _just knows_
+that "the laws of nature are immutable laws." Is there a being called
+"Nature" who made these laws? Who revealed to "the modern mind" that
+these laws were immutable? Where did "the modern mind" get its
+authority (it takes for granted that it has the power) to drive God
+from His universe, or to make Him powerless, or inactive? Can "the
+modern mind" prove absolutely that because God's law of gravitation
+causes objects to fall toward the earth, He has no right and no power
+to make Elijah's body go up instead of down (2 Kings 2:11)? Does "the
+modern mind" absolutely know that God is now inactive and must remain
+inactive? "Dr. Mason Goode observes that worlds and systems of worlds
+are perpetually disappearing, that within the period of the last
+century no less than thirteen in different constellations seem to have
+perished and _ten new ones have been created_."--_"Origin of the
+Globe."_ If God is active out in space, who shall deny Him the right
+or the power to be active on this planet? And if active on this planet
+at all, then in the individual lives of His children? And in His word,
+backed up by fulfilled prophecies, to prove that He _is_ dealing with
+us, He tells us that He is. Is "the modern mind" too scholarly, too
+self-opinionated, to consider the following words from Prof. James Orr
+in his "The Resurrection of Jesus" ("the modern mind" is very careful
+not to attempt a thorough reply to Professor Orr's "Problem of the
+Old Testament," nor his "Resurrection of Jesus"--for obvious reasons)?
+"The question is not, Do natural causes operate uniformly? But _are
+natural causes the only causes that exist or operate_? For miracle, as
+has frequently been pointed out, is precisely the assertion of the
+interposition of a _new_ cause; one, besides, which the theist must
+admit to be a _vera causa_."
+
+If when we become God's children, we are no longer under the law (Rom.
+6:14), we are redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), we are no more
+servants but sons (Gal. 4:7), the question arises, why pray to Our
+Father in Heaven to be forgiven? The child does not ask his father's
+forgiveness in order to be his child, but to have the disturbed
+fellowship restored. The unforgiven child is still a child, but will
+be chastened. It is fellowship of the Heavenly Father with the child
+that is restored by forgiveness, and is sought in forgiveness, and not
+a destroyed relationship. On this point hear James Denny in his "The
+Death of Christ": "Christ died for sins once for all, and the man who
+believes in Christ and in His death has his relations to God once for
+all determined not by sin but by the Atonement. The sin for which a
+Christian has daily to seek forgiveness is not sin which annuls his
+acceptance with God."
+
+There needs to be kept in mind, in considering that God chastens His
+children, the distinction that while chastenings are sufferings, all
+sufferings are not chastisements. The expression, "whom the Lord
+loveth he chasteneth" (Heb. 12:6), has been widely misused and sadly
+misapplied. Because David's babe was taken from him as a chastisement
+(2 Sam. 12:14), many thoughtlessly conclude that every babe's death is
+meant for a chastisement for the father and mother; and many apply
+"Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth" to all of the sorrows and
+sufferings of God's children. But there is another purpose
+accomplished by some sufferings, in "that the trial of your faith
+being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be
+tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the
+appearing of Jesus Christ."--1 Peter 1:7. "And he shall sit as a
+purifier and refiner of silver."--Matt. 3:3. The silver is not to
+blame for the dross; nevertheless, it needs to be burned out. A child
+stole a piece of bread; the father chastised the child for it. That
+chastening was suffering. But the same child was born a cripple. In
+straightening the foot, the father forced many weeks of fearful
+suffering on the child, but the suffering was not chastisement.
+Chastisements are sufferings of God's children for wrongdoing to
+correct them; but there are sufferings that are not chastisements for
+wrongdoing, but are to take out of us defects, or to develop us.
+Hence, to say to some one who is suffering from sorrow or affliction,
+"Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth," is often cruel and untrue.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+REWARDS--DEGREES IN HEAVEN
+
+     "I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish."--John
+     10:28.--"Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven."--Matt. 6:20.
+
+     "By grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of
+     yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any one
+     should boast."--Eph. 2:8, 9.--"Each man shall receive his own
+     reward _according to his own labor_."--1 Cor. 3:8.
+
+     "Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus
+     Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver,
+     costly stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made
+     manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be
+     revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what
+     sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon,
+     he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he
+     shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through
+     fire."--1 Cor. 3:11-15.
+
+     "But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be
+     required of thee; then whose shall those things be, which thou hast
+     provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not
+     _rich_ toward God."--Luke 12:20, 21.
+
+     "Whosoever would save his life shall lose _it_; and whosoever shall
+     lose his life for my sake shall find _it_. For what shall a man be
+     profited if he shall gain the whole world and forfeit his life, or
+     what shall a man give in exchange for his life? For the Son of man
+     shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels, and then
+     shall he render unto every man _according to his deeds_."--Matt.
+     16:25-27 (R. V.)
+
+     "Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give each one
+     _according as his work shall be_."--Rev. 22:12.
+
+
+The teaching of God's word of degrees in future punishment ("These
+shall receive greater condemnation,"--Mark 12:40) according to
+heredity and environment ("It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and
+Sidon at the day of judgment than for you;" "it shall be more
+tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for
+thee,"--Matt. 11:22, 24), and according to sin ("Every transgression
+and disobedience received a just recompense of reward,"--Heb. 2:2),
+commends itself to the judgment, to the conscience, of every honest
+man. The companion teaching to this in God's word is that there will
+be different degrees, or rewards, in Heaven. Just as the degree of
+man's punishment in Hell will be determined by his life here; so the
+degree of a man's reward in Heaven will be determined by his life
+here. The dividing line is redemption.
+
+With many, salvation and rewards mean the same thing, but the Saviour
+made a clear distinction. "I give unto them eternal life, and they
+shall never perish."--John 10:28 ("He that believeth on me hath
+everlasting life."--John 6:47);--"Lay up for yourselves treasures in
+Heaven."--Matt. 6:20. Our salvation is a gift and depends upon the
+Saviour; our treasures in Heaven must be laid up by ourselves. Paul
+makes the distinction equally clear. "By grace have ye been saved
+through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not
+of works, lest any man should boast."--Eph. 2:8, 9 (R. V.).--"Each man
+shall receive his own reward according to his own labor."--1 Cor. 3:8.
+But by rewards for service God's word does not mean God's blessings on
+the faithful Christians in this life. It means rewards beyond this
+life. Jesus said, "When thou makest a dinner or a supper call not thy
+friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen nor thy rich neighbors,
+lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee. But when
+thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind;
+and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee, for thou
+shalt be recompensed _at the resurrection of the just_."--Luke
+14:12-14.
+
+If "each man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor"
+(1 Cor. 3:8), there will, then, be different rewards or degrees in
+Heaven; for doubtless no two redeemed people ever served God in
+exactly the same degree of faithfulness. Paul makes this distinction
+clear, as well as the difference between salvation and rewards. He
+uses the illustration of building houses out of different material. He
+has been speaking of preachers and their work, and then seems to turn
+and apply his teaching to every one, for he says, "Let every man take
+heed how he buildeth thereupon."--1 Cor. 3:10. Whether he is speaking
+only of preachers and their work, or applies it to every man; whether
+he is speaking of building in the lives of others by what we teach or
+do, or whether he makes a turn and applies it to every man and his
+building in his own life, he draws the clear distinction between the
+foundation on which the building rests and the building built
+thereupon, between salvation alone through Christ, and rewards for
+service: "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which
+is Jesus Christ. Now, if any man build upon this foundation gold,
+silver, costly stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be
+made manifest; for the day shall declare it; because it shall be
+revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort
+it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall
+receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer
+loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire."--1 Cor.
+3:11-15. Why is he saved? Because he has been redeemed from the curse
+of the law, Christ having been made a curse for him (Gal. 3:13);
+because he has been redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14); because
+he has been redeemed from under the law (Rom. 6:14); and God means His
+promise, "Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved" (Acts
+16:31), and he means the promise of the Saviour, "Verily, verily I say
+unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me
+hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation; but is
+passed from death unto life."
+
+But when the redeemed man's works shall be burned, though he himself
+shall be saved (1 Cor. 3:15), he shall suffer loss (1 Cor. 3:15), and
+the loss shall be irreparable, eternal, and so great that no human
+being in this age can fully realize it. Here the old translation, the
+King James' version, has misled us. The oft-quoted sentence, "What is
+a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul? or
+what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" is a mistranslation.
+The Revised Version translates it correctly: "What shall a man be
+profited, if he shall gain the whole world and forfeit his life, or
+what shall a man give in exchange for his life?"--Matt. 16:26. By
+noticing verse 25, and verse 27 the reader can see what the Saviour
+meant: "whosoever would save his life shall lose _it_," not his soul,
+but his life, "and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall
+find _it_," his life not his soul; "whosoever shall lose his life for
+my sake,"--men do lose their lives for His sake, but no one loses his
+soul for the Saviour's sake. Following immediately He says, verse 26,
+"For what shall a man be profited, if he shall gain the whole world
+and forfeit his life? or what shall a man give in exchange for his
+life?" In verse 27 the Saviour makes plain how a man who would save
+his life, loses it, and how the one who shall lose his life for the
+Saviour's sake shall find it,--in the rewards that he loses by trying
+to save his life, or gains by losing his life for the Saviour's sake,
+"For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his
+angels; and then shall he render unto every man according to his
+deeds." What deeds? Deeds of losing his life for the Saviour's sake.
+For all eternity he will have no reward for the life he lived here--he
+has lost his life. Now, the Saviour says that if a man "shall gain the
+whole world," and in doing so shall "forfeit his life,"--shall have no
+reward in eternity as a result of his life (the principle laid down by
+Paul, whether of preachers or of all, "if any man's work shall be
+burned he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved."--1 Cor.
+3:15), he has made a fearful mistake. But if the one who "shall gain
+the whole world" and in doing so "shall forfeit his life," shall have
+no reward for it, makes a fearful mistake, how much greater mistake
+does the one make who forfeits his life to have no reward throughout
+eternity, in order to gain a very small part of the world, as so many
+are doing? But if the one who "shall forfeit his life,"--have no
+reward in eternity,--in order to gain but a very small part of the
+world, makes such a fearful, such a great mistake, far worse is the
+bargain made by the unredeemed man who loses not only his life but
+also loses his soul in order to gain a very small part of "the whole
+world"; and yet this is what the vast majority of men are doing. We
+cannot grasp it, we cannot realize it, but Jesus says that the
+rewards (not salvation--1 Cor. 3:15) that men are losing are more than
+"the whole world."
+
+Another teaching of the Saviour along this line has been widely
+misapplied: "He spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a
+certain rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought within
+himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to
+bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my
+barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my
+goods, and I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up
+for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God
+said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of
+thee; then whose shall those things be, which thou hast
+provided?"--Luke 12:16-20. At once many rush to the conclusion that he
+was lost, that he went to Hell; and they proceed to warn men against
+laying up treasures in this life and losing their souls. But God said,
+"This night thy soul shall be required of thee," not "this night thy
+soul shall go to Hell." Let the Saviour make His own application: "So
+is he that layeth up treasures for himself and _is not rich toward
+God_."--Luke 12:21. "If any man's work abide which he hath built
+thereupon he shall receive a reward" (1 Cor. 3:14), he is rich toward
+God; "if any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss" (1 Cor.
+3:15), he is a fool; he spent a life here on earth and has no reward
+in eternity as a result of it;--"but he himself shall be saved, yet so
+as through fire."--1 Cor. 3:15. (If in the passage 1 Cor. 3:11-15,
+Paul is speaking only of preachers and their work in building on the
+foundation of Christ in the lives of others by their teaching, he yet
+shows that some whose work abides will be rewarded, and that others
+whose work shall be burned shall suffer loss and yet shall be saved;
+so that the principle applies with all Christians). Two cases in
+point:--
+
+A great American statesman was told by his physician that in a few
+days he must die. That afternoon a minister called to see the dying
+statesman and asked as to his hope beyond the grave. The dying
+statesman replied, "Mr. Blank, I am going to Heaven when I die." The
+minister asked the dying man on what he based his hope. He replied:
+"Mr. Blank, I am ashamed to say that I am a Christian; but now that
+the time has come, I must not deny my Saviour. When I am dead tell
+your people that days before I died, when my mind was calm and clear,
+I gave my dying testimony that I was going to Heaven, redeemed by the
+blood of Christ." The minister pressed the question, why he thought he
+was a Christian. The statesman said to the negro man who was nursing
+him, "Jack, go into my library and bring me my Bible." Turning to the
+minister he said, "Mr. Blank, as I said to you, I am ashamed to say
+that I am a Christian, but now that the time has come, I must not deny
+my Saviour. Long years ago, back in the old red hills of Georgia, when
+I was a young man, one Sunday in an old country church I heard a
+Baptist preacher preach, and I understood him. He showed that God
+honestly loves this world, that Jesus Christ, God's Son, died for our
+sins, and that He died for all of our sins; and that every one who
+would repent and trust Christ to save him was certain to go to Heaven.
+Out there in that old country church in the red hills of Georgia I
+accepted Jesus Christ as my Redeemer and Saviour that Sunday morning,
+and trusted Him to save me. I came west and became overwhelmed in
+business and politics. I have wasted my life." Just then the negro man
+returned and handed the Bible to the dying statesman. He turned the
+leaves and finally stopped, and turning to the minister he said, "Mr.
+Blank, I am ashamed to say it, but I don't know much about this book;
+but I do know that this is God's word; and I do know that out in the
+old country church in the red hills of Georgia that Sunday morning,
+when I heard and understood the country preacher, I did, as a guilty,
+lost, justly condemned sinner, accept Jesus Christ as my Saviour and
+Redeemer and trust Him to save me. Listen, Mr. Blank: 'He that
+believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.' Mr. Blank, God says I
+have everlasting life, and I am going to Heaven when I die." And
+turning, the great statesman buried his face in his pillow and sobbed
+out his grief and remorse. He did go to Heaven, "but God said unto
+him, Thou fool ... so is he that layeth up treasures for himself and
+is not rich toward God."--Luke 12:20, 21.
+
+The second case in point:--
+
+A rich banker in the West a few weeks before Christmas sent a check
+for three hundred and fifty dollars to his brother in the East, a poor
+country preacher, telling him to come and bring all of his family and
+spend Christmas with him. They had not seen each other since boyhood.
+The preacher and family arrived Christmas eve morning. That afternoon
+in carriages the two families drove over the banker's beautiful farm
+of a thousand acres of rich land. Coming in late in the afternoon,
+they came by the pasture and saw the beautiful herd of blooded cattle.
+After a sumptuous supper the banker's daughters gave them some
+splendid music and the two families went upstairs to sleep. The two
+white-haired brothers, the banker and the poor country preacher,
+remained downstairs, and for hours talked of boyhood days in the old
+country home in the East. At last the conversation, like the fire in
+the fireplace, had about died out. Finally the banker turned and said,
+"Brother John, may I say something to you and you not get angry?" Said
+the preacher, "Why, brother James, you can say anything you wish to me
+and I will not get angry." Said the banker, "Brother John, you and I
+were poor boys back in the old country home in the East and we agreed
+to be partners for life. One day you came to me and told me that you
+were called to preach. I told you then that you were a fool. What a
+fool you have been! Do you remember that rich farm of a thousand acres
+you saw this afternoon? Paid for with honest money, John. This
+comfortable home for my old age, paid for with honest money, John. The
+fifty thousand dollars I have in the bank in the city where I am
+president of the bank, every dollar of it honest money, John. John,
+you could have had as much as I have. What a fool you have been! Why,
+I had to send you the three hundred and fifty dollars to bring you and
+your family that I might see them before I die. And look at your
+daughters; they are dressed in such a shabby way that I am ashamed for
+my neighbors to see my children's cousins. And look at you with your
+old seedy, worn suit and your patched shoes; I am ashamed to take you
+to town day after to-morrow and introduce you to my business
+associates. What a fool you have been! Now, John, I am not saying this
+to wound your feelings; for I love you, John. But I don't want you to
+let any of your boys be such fools as you have been. You know you have
+been a fool, John." Then there was silence for some time. The tears
+were trickling down the cheeks of the old country preacher. At last he
+broke the silence, "Brother James, may I say something to you and you
+not get angry?" "Why, certainly, John, I did not say what I did to
+make you angry, but to keep you from letting any of your boys be such
+fools as you have been, for you know you have been a fool, John." "I
+know," replied the old preacher, "that it looks like I have been a
+fool from this end of the line, brother James. But, brother James, we
+are both old men and we must soon go. Don't be angry with me, brother
+James, but what have you got up yonder?" Again there was silence,
+which was suddenly broken by the banker sobbing, "Oh, John, I am a
+pauper at the judgment bar of God." "So is he that layeth up treasures
+for himself and is not rich toward God." They are dying all over the
+world, men who are redeemed, going to Heaven, but paupers. "If any
+man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall
+be saved, yet so as through fire,"--1 Cor. 3:15. But far better be a
+pauper, and saved without any reward, than be a rich man in Hell (Luke
+16:22, 23): for they are dying all over the world who not only lived
+for this life, but from pride, or religious prejudice, or love of the
+world, or secret sin, would not repent and be redeemed from the curse
+of the law (Gal. 3:13) and be saved (Acts 16:31).
+
+With this teaching, that there are rewards in Heaven, there is another
+most helpful teaching and blessed fact, that the poorest, most
+ignorant and obscure can have just as great rewards as the richest,
+most learned, most applauded. "Each man shall receive his own reward
+_according to his own labor_,"--1 Cor. 3:8, not according to what he
+accomplishes. "Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to
+give each one _according as his work shall be_,"--Rev. 22:12; not
+according as his success shall be. "And Jesus sat over against the
+treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury; and
+many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow,
+and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto
+him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That
+this poor widow hath cast in more than all they that have cast into
+the treasury."--Mark 12:41-43. The wealthy, the mighty, the renowned
+who serve faithfully after they were redeemed from the curse of the
+law (Gal. 3:13), from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), shall receive their
+reward. But the poor, the weak, the obscure who serve faithfully after
+they are redeemed shall receive equally as great rewards; and if they
+have been more faithful, however small their sphere, they shall
+receive even greater rewards. "Two mites that make a farthing," but it
+was all she could do; "Verily I say unto you that this poor widow hath
+cast in more than all they that have cast into the treasury."--Mark
+12:42, 43. In an American city, one morning a man apparently sixty or
+seventy years of age, dressed as a plain business man, walked into the
+dining-room of one of the leading hotels and sat down to breakfast.
+Some men at the adjoining table were talking of a sad case of
+suffering, as reported in the morning paper; a poor widow with five
+children was very sick, who had, since her husband's death a few years
+before, struggled and made a living for herself and children; but now,
+having been down sick for some time, everything was gone and they were
+suffering. The stranger listened to the sad story; and, having
+finished breakfast, he called a newsboy and bought a paper. The
+account gave the street address of the poor widow. He went to the
+street address, a street of poor cottages, and, knocking at the door,
+was led into the sick room by a child. He saw the condition of affairs
+and heard the widow's story. Sitting by the bedside, he talked in a
+fatherly, cheerful way and tried to encourage the poor widow; and
+quietly slipping something under the pillow, as he was talking, he
+told the widow to use that as she needed it. Then taking out a little
+book from his pocket, he wrote something and tore the paper out of the
+little book and slipped the paper under a book and told the widow to
+use that when she needed it. Then calling down God's blessings upon
+the widow and her fatherless children, he bade them good-bye. As the
+door closed, the widow slipped her hand under the pillow and drew out
+a roll of money, to her a large sum. Then she reached for the piece of
+paper under the book on the table. There was a check for a goodly sum,
+signed by one of America's Christian millionaires. The glow in his
+soul as he walked away from the widow's cottage was not the only
+reward--"thou shalt be _recompensed at the resurrection of the
+just_."--Luke 14:14. But the following Sunday a poor widow working in
+a sweatshop to make a living for her fatherless children, listened to
+an appeal for foreign missions, to get the gospel to those who have
+never heard, and she threw in ten cents, all she could give, "two
+mites that make a farthing."--"Verily I say unto you, That this poor
+widow hath cast in more than all they that have cast into the
+treasury."--Mark 12:42, 43. All over the world, by the multiplied
+millions, there are graves where lie sleeping the bodies of those who,
+down the ages, because they were redeemed, gave their lives in
+service. They went down to their graves, their praises unsung by the
+world. Many of them went down to their graves, never realizing that
+there were rewards for them; simply rejoicing in their salvation
+through Him who loved them and gave Himself for them (Gal. 2:20).
+
+    "The desert rose, though never seen by man;
+      Is nurtured with a care divinely good;
+    The ocean pearl, though 'neath the rolling main,
+      Is ever brilliant in the eyes of God.
+
+    "Think not thy worth and work are all unknown
+      Because no partial pensman paint thy praise;
+    Man may not see nor care, but God will own
+      Thy worth and work; thy thoughts and deeds and ways."
+
+Riding along a lonely country road one Sunday afternoon, many years
+ago, returning from a country church, a young preacher was talking to
+his companion, a young man eighteen years of age, telling him of God's
+love and of _God's plan with men_. The conversation had ended, and for
+some minutes they had been riding along in silence, when suddenly the
+young man spurred his horse up to the young preacher's horse, and
+seizing the reins, stopped both horses. Dropping the reins, he threw
+both arms around the preacher's neck, and as he began sobbing said,
+"Oh, R----, how good God is!" How little men consider God's goodness.
+How good God is to have ever brought us into being! How good God is,
+though we have all sinned against Him (Rom. 3:23), "that he might be
+just and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus" (Rom. 3:26),
+to have provided complete redemption for us from all iniquity (Titus
+2:14)! How good God is to have "in love predestinated us for adoption
+as sons through Jesus Christ to himself"!--Eph. 1:5. How good God is
+to chastise us in love (Heb. 12:5, 6) instead of punishing us in Hell
+for our sins after we become His children (Ps. 89:27-34)! How good God
+is to place us where we will serve Him from love, and not from fear of
+punishment (2 Cor. 5:14, 15)! How good God is, in addition to our
+salvation, to provide rewards in Heaven for the services we render
+here (Matt. 6:20)! How good God is to provide that the poor, the
+ignorant, the obscure, can have just as great rewards as the more
+fortunate ones (Mark 1:41, 42)! How good God is to say, "if any man's
+work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be
+saved, yet so as through fire"!--1 Cor. 3:15.
+
+_FOR FURTHER STUDY_:--The objection that the teaching of rewards in
+Heaven makes Christianity too matter-of-fact is not well taken.
+Punishments or rewards last through all eternity; with the unredeemed,
+in added degrees to the punishment in Hell; with the redeemed, in
+added rewards in Heaven. And they need to realize that with both
+classes this applies to the smallest deeds: "But I say unto you, That
+every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account
+thereof in the day of judgment."--Matt. 12:36. "And whosoever shall
+give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only
+in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise
+lose his reward."--Matt. 10:42.
+
+Neither is the objection well taken that to teach men to aim to have
+rewards in Heaven is appealing to an unworthy motive. Jesus taught it
+(Matt. 6:20), Paul taught it (1 Cor. 3:11-15), Moses endorsed it (Heb.
+11:26), and the objector himself prays for God's blessings here in
+this life.
+
+Nor is the objection well founded, that for people to aim to have
+rewards will destroy the motive of love. Rather, it adds to the motive
+of love. A father gives his son, yet not of age, a fine farm. That
+arouses the boy's love. The father tells the boy that, though not of
+age, he may have the full reward of his labor on the farm, beginning
+at once. This does not destroy the motive of love. So, the Saviour,
+having died for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3), and given us eternal life
+(John 10:28, 29), arouses our love; to give us the privilege of having
+rewards in addition to salvation (Matt. 6:20), does not destroy our
+love, but increases it.
+
+There is one limitation God's word makes to our deeds being rewarded:
+"Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men to be seen of
+them: else ye have no reward with your Father who is in Heaven. When
+therefore thou doest alms, sound not a trumpet before thee, as the
+hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have
+glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have received their reward.
+But when thou doest alms let not thy left hand know what thy right
+hand doeth; that thine alms may be in secret; and thy Father who seeth
+in secret shall recompense thee."--Matt. 6:1-4. If a redeemed man does
+his righteous deeds in order to get glory as reward here, he gets it,
+but none in Heaven,--the wrong motive prevents his receiving rewards
+in Heaven. _God rewards according to the motive._
+
+There seems to be one other limitation to receiving rewards in Heaven
+for the deeds of this life: "Whosoever therefore shall break one of
+these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called
+the least in the kingdom of Heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach
+them the same shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven."--Matt.
+5:19. The teaching seems to be that for one to deliberately break even
+the least commandment, while he will be saved ("The least _in the
+kingdom of Heaven_") yet he will have no reward ("_The least_ in the
+kingdom of Heaven").
+
+There is one passage of Scripture that some have thought contradicts
+the teaching of different rewards in Heaven: "The kingdom of Heaven is
+like unto a man, an householder, who went out early in the morning to
+hire laborers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the
+laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he
+went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the
+market place, and said unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard and
+whatsoever is right I will give you, and they went their way. Again he
+went out about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, and did likewise.
+And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing
+idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They
+say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye
+also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye
+receive. So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto
+his steward, Call the laborers, and give them their hire, beginning
+from the last unto the first. And when they came that were hired about
+the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first
+came, they supposed that they should have received more, and they
+likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received it,
+they murmured against the goodman of the house, saying, These last
+have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, who
+have borne the burden and heat of the day. But he answered one of them
+and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong; didst not thou agree with me for
+a penny? Take that thine is and go thy way; _I will give unto this
+last even as unto thee_."--Matt. 20:1-14. From this the conclusion is
+drawn that there are no different rewards in Heaven; that all are
+rewarded alike. But not only does God's word elsewhere teach different
+rewards in Heaven, but the Saviour made His teaching on this point
+very plain. In the parable of the pounds, the servant who with one
+pound gained ten pounds is rewarded with authority over ten cities.
+But the one who with one pound gained only five pounds is rewarded
+with only five cities (Luke 19:16-19). This shows clearly a difference
+in rewards. If, now, this passage in Matthew teaches no difference in
+rewards, then we have a positive contradiction. But consider the two
+parables: the parable of the pounds is where men have the same
+opportunity, each one a pound; then they are rewarded according to
+what they accomplish. The parable of the vineyard is where the
+laborers work different lengths of time; in the morning, boys and
+girls, six, eight, ten, twelve years of age, becoming Christians and
+going into the vineyard; the third hour, young people, fifteen,
+eighteen, twenty years of age, becoming Christians and going into the
+vineyard; the sixth hour, young men and young women, twenty-five,
+thirty, thirty-five years of age, becoming Christians and going into
+the vineyard; the ninth hour, men and women past middle life, forty,
+forty-five, fifty years of age, becoming Christians and going into
+the vineyard; the eleventh hour, old men and women, sixty, seventy,
+eighty years of age, becoming Christians and going into the vineyard.
+But does the Saviour mean all old men and women who become Christians
+in old age and begin working in the vineyard? No, for He limits it to
+those in old age who can say, "_No man hath hired us_." Then the
+Saviour means by the eleventh hour laborers in the parable those who
+in old age had never before had the opportunity of going into the
+vineyard; who had never before heard or understood the way to be
+saved, and enter God's service. With these, the Saviour reserves the
+sovereign right to give them just as great rewards as though they had
+entered the vineyard "early in the morning"; not that those who "have
+borne the burden and heat of the day" shall receive less, but that
+those who did not have the opportunity of entering the vineyard
+sooner, shall not lose because of it. Some one may think that there
+are no old men and women who do not know the way to be saved and enter
+the vineyard. Even in professedly Christian lands there are many old
+men and women who, because of wrong religious teaching, have never
+seen the real way to be saved; and in China and Africa there are vast
+numbers who can say, "No man hath hired us." To take a case: a mere
+child becomes a Christian and serves in the vineyard for seventy
+years; an old Chinaman eighty years of age hears the gospel for the
+first time, and becomes a Christian and works in the vineyard only one
+year and dies. He will receive as great a reward as the one who served
+God seventy years. Apply this principle to the redeemed who died in
+early life: if those who entered at the eleventh hour, "because no man
+hath hired us" receive for one hour as much as those who have labored
+throughout the day, then those who entered the third hour and the Lord
+of the vineyard himself took them out the fourth hour, will receive as
+great rewards as though they had been left to bear the burden and heat
+of the day. Blessed consolation to those who have lost loved ones who
+were taken early in life.
+
+Three of the Saviour's parables are closely connected in their
+teaching concerning rewards: The parable of the pounds, where each
+servant has a pound and one gains ten pounds and another five; one
+receives authority over ten cities, the other receives authority over
+five cities, just half the reward of the other, because he was just
+half as faithful (Luke 19:16-19). This parable represents that class
+of men who have equal opportunity in life (each one a pound) and
+teaches that their reward will be in proportion to what they
+accomplish. The second is the parable of the vineyard, representing
+the length of time of service when the laborers were not to blame for
+not entering the vineyard earlier; showing that they shall not lose
+because they could not get into the vineyard to work earlier. The
+third is the parable of the talents, where the one with five talents
+gained five other talents and the one with two talents gained two
+other talents, and they both received the same commendation, the same
+reward, "I will make thee ruler over many things" (Matt. 25:20-23);
+teaching that the one with small opportunity (two talents) if he uses
+it faithfully, will receive as great reward as the one with great
+opportunity (five talents) who uses it faithfully.
+
+A widely misunderstood passage of Scripture bearing on the subject of
+rewards is 1 Cor. 9:24-27: "Know ye not that they that run in a race
+run all, but only one receiveth the prize? So run that ye may obtain.
+And every contestant in the games is temperate in all things. They,
+indeed, do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
+I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that
+beateth the air; but I buffet my body and bring it into subjection;
+lest that by any means, after having preached to others, I myself
+should be disapproved."--The 1911 Bible. The Authorized Version reads
+"a castaway"; the Revised Version reads "rejected." Many have thought
+that Paul was striving that he might not be a castaway (or rejected)
+from salvation. But notice the passage; he was striving not to be a
+castaway (or rejected) from something that is secured as a result of
+one's own efforts, "so run that ye may obtain." Salvation is not
+secured as a result of one's efforts; "to him that _worketh not_ but
+believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for
+righteousness."--Rom. 4:5. Rewards are secured as a result of one's
+own efforts; "each man shall receive his own reward according to his
+own labor."--1 Cor. 3:8. Again, what Paul was striving not to be a
+castaway (or rejected) from, is something that one receives after the
+race is finished; but salvation comes at the beginning of the race
+course, "He that believeth on the Son _hath_ everlasting life,"--John
+3:36; "by grace _have ye been_ saved."--Eph. 2:8. Rewards do come
+after the race is finished;--"thou shalt be recompensed _at the
+resurrection of the just_."--Luke 14:14. Again, in saying "I buffet my
+body," he has no reference to buffeting his body to keep it from sin,
+but from _comforts and privileges that are not sinful_. In the entire
+chapter he has referred only to his not eating and drinking; not
+leading about a wife as well as other apostles and the brethren of the
+Lord and Cephas; not being supported by those to whom he preached (1
+Cor. 9:4-14); and in each case he says that he has a right to these
+things. Was Paul buffeting his body against having a wife lest he
+should be a castaway (or rejected) from salvation? Then only the Roman
+Catholic priests, among the preachers, will be saved. Was Paul
+buffeting his body against being supported by those to whom he
+preached, and working with his own hands for his living, lest he
+should be a castaway (or rejected) from salvation? Then the Roman
+Catholic priests and almost all of the Protestant and Baptists
+preachers will be lost. Will a man be a castaway (or rejected) from
+salvation for enjoying comforts and privileges that are not sinful and
+to which he has a right? But let Paul state for himself what he means:
+"For if I do this thing willingly _I have a reward_."--1 Cor. 9:17. He
+then urges the Corinthian Christians to run in the race that they may
+receive the prize. "I buffet my body and bring it into subjection
+(from enjoying these sinless comforts and privileges); lest that by
+any means, after having preached (R. V. margin "have been a herald")
+to others (preaching or heralding to run in the race and so run as to
+obtain the prize, the reward) I myself should be disapproved" (a
+castaway, rejected,--from the prize, the reward). "If any man's work
+abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any
+man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall
+be saved, yet so as through fire."--1 Cor. 3:14, 15.
+
+But does Paul teach that there are rewards for bodily sufferings and
+self-denials? Let him explain: "Though I am free from all men, yet
+have I made myself servant unto all, _that I might gain the more_."--1
+Cor. 9:19. That, by giving up these comforts and privileges he might
+win more people to be saved (1 Cor. 9:20-22).
+
+There is the prize, there are rewards, for those who bring their
+bodies under from comforts and privileges that they may thereby win
+others to be saved. With the coppers in the foreign mission envelope
+from an orphan newsboy was found a note written in a child's awkward
+handwriting, "Starved a meal to give a meal." He would not have been a
+castaway from salvation had he bought and eaten his lunch that day;
+but there will be, at the resurrection of the just (Luke 14:14), the
+prize for having brought his body into subjection that he might gain
+the more.
+
+During a collection for foreign missions, a poor, ragged, one-legged
+negro hobbled down the aisle and laid three packages of money on the
+table: "Dat's fur my wife; dat's fur my boy; dat's fur me." When the
+collector saw the amount, he protested, saying that it was too much
+for a poor crippled man to give. As a matter of fact, it meant weeks
+of sacrificing, sometimes with no meat on the table. As the tears
+trickled down the black cheeks, the negro said, "Oh, Boss, de Lord's
+cause must go on, and I may soon be dead"; and turning he hobbled back
+to his seat. He was only a poor, ignorant, one-legged negro, but he
+ran in the race, and at the resurrection of the just he will receive
+the prize.
+
+A Christian Chinaman sold himself to some mine owners that he might go
+down in the mines and while working lead his fellow-Chinamen to be
+saved. He had no support from those to whom he preached, but worked
+with his own hands. He ran in the race, and will receive the prize.
+
+If the young Catholic priest was redeemed who turned from the comforts
+and privileges of a wife and home and gave himself for the lepers,
+there will be the prize at the resurrection of the just.
+
+The world says that a man is a fool to make such sacrifices; Jesus
+said: "Thou fool ... so is he that layeth up treasures for himself and
+is not rich toward God."--Luke 12:20, 21. "If any man's work abide
+which he hath built thereupon he shall receive a reward. If any man's
+work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be
+saved, yet so as through fire."--1 Cor. 3:14, 15.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+HOW TO BE SAVED--REPENTANCE AND FAITH
+
+     "Repent ye and believe the gospel."--Mark 1:15.
+
+     "Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus
+     Christ."--Acts 20:21.
+
+     "And ye when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might
+     believe him."--Matt. 21:32.
+
+     "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."--Luke 13:3.
+
+     "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
+     the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should
+     not perish, but have eternal life."--John 3:14,15.
+
+     "Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the
+     Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved."--Acts 16:30, 31.
+
+
+Wherever repentance and faith are mentioned in God's word without one
+exception, repentance comes before faith. There is a faith that comes
+before repentance; but it is pure historical faith, and does not
+result in salvation. "He that cometh to God must believe that he
+is,"--Heb. 11:26; the demons believe in God's existence, that He is;
+Thomas Paine believed in God's existence, that He is. But the faith
+that results in salvation invariably comes after repentance; "And ye
+when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, _that ye_ might believe
+him."--Matt. 21:32. If, therefore, the faith that saves must come
+after repentance, then those who have no saving faith after
+repentance, have no salvation, are not really redeemed. Not only so,
+but if saving faith must come after repentance, then those who place
+the only faith they claim, before repentance, do not understand what
+saving faith is.
+
+Jesus preached, "Repent ye and believe the gospel."--Mark 1:15. Paul
+preached "repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus
+Christ."--Acts 20:21. What does "repent" or "repentance" mean?
+
+God's word teaches that one must repent _in order to believe_. "And ye
+when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, _that ye might believe
+him_."--Matt. 21:32. "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise
+perish."--Luke 13:3. Then whatever "repentance" or "repent" means, it
+is something that must take place before one can be saved, before he
+can "believe the gospel" (Mark 1:15); before he can have "faith toward
+our Lord Jesus Christ."--Acts 20:21. The Saviour gives a complete,
+perfect picture of salvation, and in that picture we can find what
+repentance means: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
+even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in
+him should not perish, but have eternal life."--John 3:14, 15. Jesus
+says "As," "even so"; then in the case of the serpent in the
+wilderness we have a complete, perfect picture of the way of
+salvation. By seeing what came back there before the lifting up of the
+serpent, we can see what comes before believing in Him, or "faith
+toward our Lord Jesus Christ." Notice the incident to which the
+Saviour referred as showing the complete picture of the way of
+salvation: "And they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red
+Sea, to compass the land of Edom: And the soul of the people was much
+discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against God, and
+against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in
+the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water; and
+our soul loatheth this light bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents
+among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel
+died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned,
+for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the
+Lord that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the
+people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and
+set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass, that every one that is
+bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent
+of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a
+serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he
+lived."--Num. 21:4-9. These people realized that they had sinned
+against God; that their sins deserved punishment; that they were
+justly condemned--"we have sinned";--that they were helpless, "Pray
+unto the Lord that _he_ take away the serpents from us"; and in their
+helpless condition they turned from their sins and turned to God.
+There had been, then, an entire change of mind and purpose, or they
+would never have turned from their sins to God. When they faced the
+fact that they had sinned and were justly condemned, there resulted
+sorrow, and their sorrow led to the change of mind and purpose to turn
+from their sins to God. Had there been no conviction of sin, no
+realization that they had sinned and were justly condemned, there
+would have been no change of mind, or purpose to turn from sin to
+God. Here, then, we have what repentance is,--a conviction of sin,
+such a realization of the fact that one has sinned and is justly
+condemned that it produces such sorrow as leads to an entire change of
+mind and purpose to turn from sin and turn to God. God then provided
+the easiest way for them, "every one that is bitten, when he looketh
+upon it [the brazen serpent] shall live."--Num. 21:8. The Saviour
+says, "Even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever
+believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life."--John
+3:15.
+
+Notice the case of the jailor, Acts 16:22-34. When the jailor fell
+down before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said, "Sirs, what
+must I do to be saved?" (Verse 30), they did not say, "Repent"; they
+said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved."--Verse 31.
+But God's word teaches plainly that we must repent in order to believe
+(Matt. 21:32; Luke 13:3). Then repentance must have already taken
+place,--he must have already repented,--or they would have taught him
+"repentance toward God" as well as "faith toward our Lord Jesus
+Christ."--Acts 20:21. Go back and notice the jailor's case: the night
+before, he had taken Paul and Silas with their backs bloody from the
+beating they had received, and had not washed their stripes (Verse
+33), had given them no supper (Verse 34), and had thrust them into the
+inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks. He was utterly
+hardened. The praying and singing hymns to God by Paul and Silas, the
+sudden earthquake, Paul's crying out against his committing suicide,
+had convicted him of sin, such a conviction as had produced sorrow,
+for he came trembling and fell down before them; and the sorrow had
+led to an entire change of mind and purpose, and he said, "Sirs, what
+must I do to be saved?"--"what," anything God would have me do I am
+ready to do,--he had turned from his sins and had turned to God. Hence
+they did not say "Repent," for he had repented; but they said,
+"Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved."--Acts 16:31.
+
+Having seen what the Saviour meant by repentance, let us go to the
+meaning of the word translated "repent." "This word," says J. P.
+Boyce, the great theologian, in his systematic theology, "means to
+reconsider, perceive afterwards and to change one's view, mind or
+purpose, or even judgment, implying disapproval and abandonment of
+past opinions and purposes, and the adoption of others which are
+different." B. H. Carroll, President Southwestern Baptist Theological
+Seminary: "We may therefore give as the one invariable definition of
+New Testament repentance that it is a change of mind." B. H. Carroll,
+again, "Repentance is a change of mind toward God concerning a course
+of sin leading rapidly down to death and eternal ruin." Once more from
+B. H. Carroll: "If in one moment the soul is contrite enough to turn
+in abhorrence of sin against God from all self-help to our Lord Jesus
+Christ by faith, it is sufficient." John A. Broadus, the great
+American scholar and teacher: "To repent, then, as a religious term of
+the New Testament, is to change the mind, thought or purpose as
+regards sin and the service of God--a change naturally accompanied by
+deep sorrow for past sins, and naturally leading to a change of
+outward life."
+
+As the Bible teaches that no man can be saved who has not repented
+("Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."--Luke 13:3), and as
+no one has repented who has not been convicted of sin, who has not
+seen himself a guilty, justly condemned sinner, it follows that no one
+is saved, no one can be saved, who does not believe that God will and
+ought to punish sin. But to those who have repented, the way to be
+saved is simple, easy, sure: "Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt
+be saved."--Acts 16:31.
+
+_FOR FURTHER STUDY_:--There has been much misunderstanding about
+repentance. Some men, as Moody, Harry Moorehouse, J. H. Brookes, etc.,
+have been charged with not preaching enough repentance, simply because
+they did not use the words "repent" and "repentance" as much as
+others; whereas, others who use the words often, and tell touching
+incidents, are said to preach "old-fashioned repentance." It is not
+the word repentance that God requires, but the thing repentance, and a
+sinner must repent or he cannot believe (Matt. 21:32) and he will
+perish (Luke 13:3). The gospel of John is the only book of the Bible
+given specifically to sinners to lead them to be saved. The way of
+salvation can be found in many of the books of the Bible, and is
+taught in them; but the gospel of John is the only book of the Bible
+given for the special, specific purpose of leading a sinner to be
+saved. "Many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his
+disciples which are not written in this book: but these are written
+that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and
+that believing ye might have life through his name."--John 20:30, 31.
+In this book, given specifically to lead a sinner to be saved, the
+word "repentance" or "repent" does not occur, but the thing repentance
+does (John 3:14, 15).
+
+On the difference between the thing repentance and the word
+repentance, give attention to the words of John A. Broadus, the great
+American scholar and teacher already quoted: "Great difficulty has
+been found in translating this Greek word 'metanoein' into languages.
+The Syriac version, unable to give the precise meaning, falls back
+upon 'turn,' the same word as the Hebrew. The Latin version gives
+'Exercise penitence' (poenitentiam agere). But this Latin penitence,
+apparently connected by etymology with _pain_, signifies grief or
+distress, and is rarely extended to a change of purpose, thus
+corresponding to the Hebrew word which we render 'repent,' but _not_
+corresponding to the terms employed in Old Testament and New Testament
+exhortations. Hence a subtle and pernicious error, pervading the whole
+sphere of Latin Christianity, by which the exhortation of the New
+Testament is understood to be an exhortation to _grief_ over sin, as
+the primary and principal idea of the term. One step farther and
+penitence was contracted into _penance_, and associated with mediaeval
+ideas unknown to the New Testament, and the English Version made by
+Romanists now represents John and Jesus and Peter as saying
+(poenitentiam agere) do penance. From a late Latin compound
+(repoenitere) comes our English word 'repent,' which inherits the
+fault of the Latin; making grief the prominent element, and change of
+purpose secondary, if expressed at all. Thus our English word
+corresponds exactly to the second Greek word (metamelesthai), and to
+the Hebrew word rendered repent, but sadly fails to translate the
+exhortation of the New Testament."
+
+Repentance is not a price that the sinner pays for salvation; neither
+is the sorrow that leads to repentance a price that he pays for
+salvation. And repentance does not make the sinner a fit subject for
+salvation; nor does the sorrow that leads to repentance make him a fit
+subject for salvation. No one can see that he has violated God's just
+and holy law and is guilty, justly condemned, helpless, without its
+producing sorrow and this sorrow will lead to repentance, to an entire
+change of mind and purpose, to turning from sin, and, as B. H. Carroll
+expressed it, from all self-help ("repentance from dead works,"--Heb.
+6:1) to God.
+
+Some are sometimes troubled as to how much sorrow there must be. There
+are different degrees of sorrow in different people, but there must be
+enough sorrow to lead to repentance, to an entire change of mind and
+purpose.
+
+"In both the Old Testament and the New Testament exhortation the
+element of grief for sin is left in the background, neither word
+directly expressing grief at all, though it must in the nature of
+things be present."--_Jno. A. Broadus._
+
+"To repent is to change your mind about sin and Christ and all the
+good things of God. There is sorrow implied in this; but the main
+point is the turning of the heart from sin to Christ. If there be this
+turning you have the essence of the repentance, even though no alarm
+and no despair should ever have cast their shadow upon your
+mind."--_C. H. Spurgeon._
+
+"Conviction of sin is just the sinner seeing himself as he is and as
+God has all along seen him."--_H. Bonar, in "God's Way of Peace."_
+
+"The object of the Holy Spirit's work in convincing of sin is to alter
+the sinner's opinion of himself and so to reduce his estimate of his
+own character, that he shall think of himself as God does, and so
+cease to suppose it possible that he can be justified by any
+excellence of his own. Having altered the sinner's good opinion of
+himself, the Spirit then alters his evil opinion of God, so as to make
+him see that the God with whom he has to deal is really the God of all
+grace."--_Bonar._
+
+"It is impossible, therefore, in the nature of things, for a sinful
+being to appreciate God's mercy unless he first feels His justice as
+manifest in the holy law."--_Walker, in "Philosophy of the Plan of
+Salvation."_
+
+"Man cannot repent and turn from sin till he is convicted of sin in
+himself."--_Walker, in "Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation."_
+
+"The more we feel the want of a benefactor, temporal or spiritual, and
+the more we feel our inability to rescue ourselves from existing
+difficulties and impending dangers, the more grateful love will the
+heart feel for the being who, moved by, and in despite of, personal
+sacrifices, interposes to assist and save us."--_Walker, in
+"Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation."_
+
+"As a feeling of want was necessary in order that the soul might love
+the being that supplied that want, and as Jesus came to bestow
+spiritual mercies upon mankind, _how could men be brought to feel the
+want of a spiritual Benefactor and Saviour?_"... "According to the
+constitution which God has given the soul, it must feel the want of
+the spiritual mercies before it can feel love for the giver of those
+mercies. And just in proportion as the soul feels its lost, guilty,
+and dangerous condition, in the same proportion will it exercise love
+to the being who grants spiritual favor and salvation. How then could
+the spiritual want be produced in the souls of men in order that they
+might love the spiritual benefactor?"... "The only possible way by
+which man could be made to hope for and appreciate spiritual mercies
+and to love a spiritual deliverer would be to produce a conviction in
+the soul itself of its evil condition, its danger as a spiritual
+being, and its inability, unaided, to satisfy the requirements of a
+_spiritual law_, or to escape its just and spiritual penalty.
+If man could be made to perceive that he was guilty and needy; that
+his soul was under the condemnation of the holy law of the holy God,
+he would then, necessarily, feel the need of a deliverance from
+sin and its consequences; and in this way only, could the soul of
+man be led to appreciate spiritual mercies, or love a spiritual
+benefactor."--_Walker, in "Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation."_
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+THE MEANING OF "BELIEVE ON" OR "BELIEVE IN" CHRIST
+
+     "God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son, that
+     whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal
+     life."--John 3:16 (R. V.).
+
+     "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath
+     sent."--John 6:27.
+
+     "He that believeth on me shall never thirst."--John 6:35.
+
+     "To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name
+     whosoever believeth on him shall receive remission of sins."--Acts
+     10:43.
+
+     "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved."--Acts 16:31.
+
+     "John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto
+     the people that they should believe on him that should come after
+     him, that is, on Jesus."--Acts 19:4.
+
+     "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the
+     ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness."--Rom. 4:5.
+
+     "Whosoever liveth and believeth in [into] me shall never die.
+     Believest thou this?"--John 11:26.
+
+     "We have believed in [into] Jesus Christ, that we might be
+     justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the
+     law."--Gal. 2:16 (R. V.).
+
+     "I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is
+     able to guard that which I have committed unto him against that
+     day."--2 Tim. 1:12 (R. V.).
+
+
+If language can be made plain, if it can be used to express a fact
+clearly, then God's word teaches clearly, unmistakably, that the one
+who believes on Christ is going to Heaven. One may think it to be too
+good to be true, when he reads what God's word says along this line;
+he may be honestly tempted to suspect that there must be many hidden,
+suppressed conditions, which, if expressed, would make the meaning
+different; or from religious prejudice, he may warp the meaning or
+bring in other conditions;--but God's word is plain.
+
+"God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that
+whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal
+life."--John 3:16.
+
+It does not say, whosoever believeth on him and unites with the right
+church, or is baptized the right way, or lives the right kind of a
+life; it simply says, "whosoever believeth on him"; and then the
+promise is plain and absolute, "should not perish."
+
+Jesus said, "he that believeth on me shall never thirst."--John 6:35.
+He did not say, he that believeth on me and unites with the right
+church, or is baptized the right way, or lives the right kind of a
+life; he said plainly, simply, "he that believeth on me," and then
+added "shall never thirst."
+
+Peter to the household of Cornelius said, "To him give all the
+prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth on him
+shall receive remission of sins."--Acts 10:43. He did not say,
+whosoever believeth on him and unites with the right church, or is
+baptized the right way, or lives the right kind of a life; but simply,
+"whosoever believeth on him," and then adds the plain promise, "shall
+receive remission of sins."
+
+When the jailor came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and
+brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" they
+answered, simply, plainly, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt
+be saved."--Acts 16:31. They did not say, believe on the Lord Jesus
+and unite with the right church, or be baptized the right way, or live
+the right kind of a life; they said simply, "Believe on the Lord
+Jesus, and thou shalt be saved."
+
+When Paul wrote to the Romans, "To him that worketh not, but
+believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned
+for righteousness,"--Rom. 4:5, he did not say, believeth on him that
+justifieth the ungodly and unites with the right church, or is
+baptized the right way, or lives the right kind of a life; but simply,
+"To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the
+ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness."
+
+Jesus to the grief-stricken sister of Lazarus said, "Whosoever liveth
+and believeth in [into] me shall never die."--John 11:26. He did not
+say, whosoever liveth and believeth in me and unites with the right
+church, or is baptized the right way, or lives the right kind of life;
+but simply and plainly, "whosoever liveth and believeth in me," and
+then He adds His plain promise, "shall never die."
+
+When Paul said to the Galatians, "we have believed in [into] Jesus
+Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ,"--Gal.
+2:16, he did not say, we have believed in Jesus Christ and united with
+the right church and been baptized the right way, that we might be
+justified by faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. Instead
+of this, he puts it in simple, plain language.
+
+In all of these cases, these conditions could have been expressed just
+as easily by the Saviour and Peter and Paul as they are expressed by
+religious teachers to-day. Why did not the Saviour and Peter and Paul
+express these conditions? There can be but one answer,--because they
+are not conditions of salvation. How could the Saviour and Peter and
+Paul have left out these conditions if they are conditions of
+salvation?
+
+But the question arises, if being baptized the right way and living
+the right kind of a life are not conditions of salvation, why do these
+things? Not from fear of Hell; God desires no service from that
+motive. Let the Saviour tell why. When He instituted the Lord's
+supper, He said, "This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed
+for many, for the remission of sins,"--Matt. 26:28; and then before
+leaving the upper room He said to His disciples: "if ye love me, keep
+my commandments."--John 14:15. Why love Him? Love Him because He shed
+His blood for the remission of their sins. Let Paul tell us why serve
+Him: "The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge that
+if one died for all, then all died; and he died for all, that they who
+live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died
+for them, and rose again."--2 Cor. 5:14, 15.
+
+Now comes the all-important question, what do these parallel
+expressions, "believe on Christ" or "believe in [into] Christ" mean?
+Many, when they see how simple and plain is the teaching, say, "Why,
+almost every one believes on Christ." No; they believe _about_ Christ,
+but not _on_ Christ. A wealthy man deposits a large sum of money in
+the bank and promises to pay the debts of all the poor people who will
+trust him to pay their debts. They all may believe him, may believe
+about him; but only those who believe on him, depend on him, rely on
+him to pay their debts, will have their debts paid. So Christ died
+for all our sins (1 Cor. 15:3); He gave Himself for us that He might
+redeem us from all iniquity (Titus 2:14); but only those who _believe
+on_ Him, _depend on_ Him, _rely on_ Him to save them, will ever be
+saved. The man who is depending on Christ and his baptism or Christ
+and his church, or Christ and his good life to save him, will be lost;
+for he is not believing on, depending on, relying on, Christ to save
+him; but only partly on Christ and partly on something else; and
+_there is no promise in God's word that those who partly believe on
+Christ shall be saved_. The very fact that a man depends partly on
+Christ and partly on something else to save him, shows that he has
+never believed that the Saviour "gave himself for us that he might
+redeem us from all iniquity" (Titus 2:13, 14); the Saviour he is
+depending on is not the Saviour God's word reveals; and hence he has
+no Saviour at all.
+
+Notice Paul's instruction to the Romans concerning believing on
+Christ: "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth
+the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness."--Rom. 4:5.
+Consider the simple but vital teaching of this passage: He justifieth
+the ungodly. How? "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation
+through faith in his blood ... to declare, I say, at this time his
+righteousness, that he might be _just_ and the _justifier_ of him that
+believeth in Jesus" (Rom. 3:25, 26); "being now justified by his
+blood."--Rom. 5:9. And He justifies us from all sin, "Our Saviour
+Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from
+_all_ iniquity" (Titus 2:13, 14); redeems us from the curse of the
+law (Gal. 3:13), redeems us from under the law (Rom. 6:14), and this
+makes us God's children (Gal. 4:4-7).
+
+Consider further: He justifies _the ungodly_. If He justifies the
+ungodly then all efforts to become godly _in order to be saved_, are
+worse than wasted and are in rebellion against _God's plan for men_.
+"When we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the
+_ungodly_."--Rom. 5:6. "God commendeth his own love toward us, in that
+_while we were yet sinners_, Christ died for us."--Rom. 5:8. "_When we
+were enemies_ we were reconciled to God by the death of his
+Son."--Rom. 5:10. Why? Because Christ justifies the ungodly. The
+Saviour did not say to Nicodemus, "Whosoever becomes godly should not
+perish," but "Whosoever believeth on him." Why? Because He justifies
+_the ungodly_. Paul and Silas did not say to the jailor, a hardened
+sinner, "Become godly and thou shalt be saved"; but "Believe on the
+Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved." Why? Because He justifies _the
+ungodly_. On what condition does He justify the ungodly? "To him that
+_worketh_ not, but _believeth_ on him." Here is the work of the soul
+to be saved; Paul says to cease working at the task, and believe on,
+depend on, Him--He justifies the ungodly. God gave men ten
+commandments to keep. God's word says, "The man that doeth them shall
+live by them."--Gal. 3:12. But all men have failed to keep them; "all
+have sinned and come short of the glory of God."--Rom. 3:23. To
+illustrate: A father gives a little boy ten rows of corn to work out
+and says to him, "Willie, if you will work out the ten rows of corn
+to-day, I will pay you five dollars; but it will take steady work all
+day." About nine o'clock some boys persuade Willie to play, and he
+plays with them for two hours. Now he cannot get the task done, and so
+is sure to lose the five dollars. His grown brother comes to him and
+says, "Willie, I saw the trouble you were getting into, and had a talk
+with father. Father says that the work must be done or you will lose
+the five dollars. But father agreed to let me do the work for you. Now
+if you will quit working at the task and trust me, depend on me, I
+will see that the work is done, and that you get the five dollars."
+The little brother quits working at the task, and gets out of the
+field. He believes on, depends on, trusts, his big brother. If, now,
+there is any failure, it will be the big brother's failure, and not
+the little brother's. So, "To him that worketh not, but believeth on
+him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for
+righteousness." If, then, the sinner will quit working at the task of
+his salvation and believe on, depend on Christ, trust the whole work
+of salvation to Him, He will "justify the ungodly" from "all iniquity"
+(Titus 2:14). If, then, there should be any failure of being saved, it
+would be Christ's failure, for He said, "Him that cometh unto me, I
+will in no wise cast out."--John 6:37. Why, then, should the one who
+has thus trusted Christ ever be baptized, or live a faithful, godly
+life? Go back to the illustration: As the little brother quits working
+at the task in the field and believes on, depends on, trusts, the big
+brother to have the task done, a man meets him and says, "Willie,
+your brother was good to you. But to do your work for you, that you
+might not lose the five dollars, he left his field, and it needs work
+badly. If I were in your place, from love to my big brother, I would
+go and work in his field for him." The little brother says, "I will do
+it, sir." He goes over into his big brother's field and works harder
+than ever, not from fear of losing the five dollars, but from love to
+his big brother. So the Saviour, after we have believed on Him,
+trusted Him to save, justify us, says, "If ye love me, keep my
+commandments."--John 14:15. "Go work to-day in _my_ vineyard,"--Matt.
+21:28; not "in _your own_." All the work that the redeemed, the saved,
+man does is not in his own field, to get the task done, that he may be
+saved; but in the big brother's field, from love to the big brother
+for having relieved him of the entire responsibility for the task.
+
+To follow up the illustration: The big brother sees the little brother
+working in the big brother's field and he goes to him and says,
+"Willie, I appreciate this, for you are doing it from love to me. If
+you were doing it from fear lest I might not keep my promise, it would
+hurt me; for that would show that you did not trust me. But you cannot
+work for me for nothing. I will pay you fifty cents for every hour you
+work in my field. Now, work hard and have a large reward for your
+labor." So the Saviour says, "Whosoever shall give to drink unto one
+of these little ones a cup of water only in the name of a disciple,
+verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward."--Matt.
+10:42. And he says, "Lay up for yourselves treasures in
+Heaven."--Matt. 6:20. "He shall reward every man according to his
+works."--Matt. 16:27. The reward of fifty cents for every hour's work
+does not destroy the motive of love that moves the little brother; it
+only increases the motive of love.
+
+But do not redeemed people, God's children, sometimes become
+backsliders? Yes. Go back to the illustration of the little brother
+and his task. As he is working from love to his big brother, in the
+big brother's field, the bad boys follow him and tempt him, and
+prevail on him to leave the big brother's field and to mistreat the
+big brother. The father sees it all; goes and takes the little brother
+out into the forest and reproves him for his wrong to his big brother,
+and then chastises him and sends him back to the big brother's field.
+So, when God's redeemed, saved children backslide, do wrong wilfully,
+He chastises them. "My son, despise not thou the chastening of the
+Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him; for whom the Lord loveth
+he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."--Heb. 12:5,
+6. "Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the
+earth. My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant
+shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure
+forever, and his throne as the days of heaven. If his children forsake
+my law and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and
+keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgression with
+the rod and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my loving
+kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness
+to fail."--Ps. 89:27-33.
+
+Reader, which field are you working in? Are you working in your own
+field? trying to accomplish a task, now that you have sinned, you can
+never accomplish?--Meet _all_ of God's just laws and requirements, and
+develop a character that will entitle you to a home in Heaven? Heed
+the message, "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that
+justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness."
+Believe on Him, depend on Him, to justify you from all iniquity (Titus
+2:14). The moment you do, your eternal destiny is settled, "Verily,
+verily I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him
+that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into
+condemnation, but is passed from death unto life."--John 5:24. Then,
+from love to the big brother, go into his field and work till the day
+is done.
+
+In telling of his own salvation, Paul again makes plain what "believe
+on the Lord Jesus" means: "I know him whom I have believed and am
+persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him
+against that day." Notice this declaration as to the apostle's
+salvation: "I know him." A man must "know him" or he cannot "believe
+on" Christ. He can _risk_ Him without knowing Him, but he cannot
+_believe on_ Him, cannot _trust_ Him for salvation. It does not mean,
+know Him in every respect, as to how His divine and human nature could
+be united; as to how He could have had eternal existence; as to how
+His resurrected body could appear and disappear, etc., but to know Him
+in His character as Saviour. In trusting money to a bank one does not
+need to know how much German or French or English blood there is in
+the bank officials. In trusting one's case to a physician, one does
+not need to know the different nationalities from which he is
+descended, but he needs to know him in his character as physician. So
+men must know Jesus in His character as Saviour, or they cannot
+believe on, trust Him to save them. They must, then, know Him as the
+Messiah, the promised Saviour, the complete sin-bearer, or they cannot
+believe on Him. But after one knows the bank, he must commit his money
+to the bank, else the bank is not responsible for it. After one knows
+the physician, he must commit his case to the physician, else the
+physician is not responsible. And so Paul says, "I am persuaded that
+he is able to keep that which I _have committed unto him against that
+day_." No one, then, is redeemed, is saved, who has not committed his
+salvation to Christ against that day. Let the reader get clearly the
+meaning of "commit." No one has committed money to the bank who yet
+holds to the money; no one has committed a package to the express
+company who yet holds to the package; no one has committed a letter to
+the post-office for delivery who yet holds to the letter. So no one
+has committed his salvation to Christ, no one is redeemed, is saved,
+who yet holds to the work of his salvation. He must _commit_ it to
+Christ.
+
+Further, no one has _committed_ his money to the bank who has not left
+the entire responsibility for the money's safety to the bank, leaving
+no further responsibility whatever upon himself for the safety of the
+money. No one has _committed_ a package to the express company, who
+has not left the whole responsibility for the delivery of the package
+entirely to the company, leaving no responsibility whatever upon
+himself for its safe delivery. No one has _committed_ a letter to the
+post-office who has not left the entire responsibility for its safe
+delivery to the government, leaving no responsibility whatever upon
+himself for its safe delivery. Even so, no one has _committed_ his
+salvation to Christ, no one is redeemed, is saved, who has not left
+the entire responsibility of his salvation to Christ, leaving no
+responsibility whatever for his salvation upon himself.
+
+But one may have committed his money to the bank and yet not really
+have trusted the bank, but only _risked_ the bank; one may have
+committed a package to the express company and yet not really have
+trusted the express company, but only _risked_ it; one may have
+committed a letter to the post-office and yet not really have trusted
+the post-office, but only _risked_ it. So, one may have committed his
+salvation to Christ, and yet be unredeemed, unsaved, because he only
+_risked_ Christ and did not _trust_ Him. Hence Paul says, "I know him
+whom I have _believed_," _trusted, taken at His word_.
+
+One other fact needs to be considered as to what believing on Christ
+means in Paul's case. He says, "I am persuaded that he is able to keep
+that which I have committed to him _against that day_." It is not a
+committal of one's salvation to Christ a moment at a time, nor till
+one can see how he will afterwards feel; nor till one can see whether
+he is going to be able to live a Christian life. It is to commit one's
+salvation to Christ "_against that day_." And the moment one does
+what Paul did, commits his salvation to Christ against that day, God's
+word says he is saved, redeemed: "Verily, verily I say unto you, He
+that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me, hath
+everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed
+from death unto life."--John 5:24.
+
+_FOR FURTHER STUDY_:--When Paul says, "To him that worketh not, but
+believeth on him that justifieth _the ungodly_, his faith is counted
+for righteousness,"--Rom. 4:5, he is in line with the teaching of the
+Saviour when He said, "The publicans and the harlots go into the
+kingdom of God before you,"--Matt. 21:31; and if the teaching of the
+Saviour and Paul on this point is true, then there is not left one
+square inch of ground on which the teachers of "salvation by
+character" may stand. They are not in agreement with the Saviour and
+Paul on this point, but there is one with whom they are here in strict
+agreement; "I hope for happiness beyond this life"; "I believe that
+religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and
+endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy"; "The only true
+religion is deism, by which I then meant and now mean the belief of
+one God, and an imitation of his moral character, or the practice of
+what are called moral virtues; and that _it was upon this only_ (so
+far as religion is concerned) _that I rested my hopes of happiness
+hereafter_. So say I now, and so help me God." These are exact
+quotations from "The Age of Reason," by Thomas Paine. And those who
+preach "salvation by character" thus line up with Paine against the
+Saviour and Paul. They fail to see that there can be no proper
+character without proper motive, and that there can, in the sight of
+God, be no proper motive till one is redeemed, saved, and thus placed
+where the motive will be love, the purest motive possible to human
+beings. And they fail to see that _God's plan with men_ is to save
+irrespective of character, and then to develop in the redeemed man the
+real character for all eternity.
+
+God has not two ways of salvation; He has not two ways of believing on
+Christ. What is essential to one man's salvation is essential to the
+salvation of every man. What is "believing on Christ" for one man, is
+believing on Christ for every man. When Paul says "I know him whom I
+have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I
+have committed to him against that day,"--2 Tim. 1:12 (R. V.), he has
+given the pattern of saving faith. "I know him." Man _must_ know Him
+in His real character as Saviour or he cannot commit to Him against
+that day the matter of his eternal destiny, cannot believe on Him.
+What are the essential things, then, that must be included in "I know
+him" in His character as Saviour, in order that one can believe on
+Him, be saved by Him, be a real Christian? First, one must know Him as
+the promised Messiah, in order to really believe on Him, to be really
+a Christian. The high priest asked, "Art thou the Christ, the Son of
+the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am."--Mark 14:61, 62. The woman at the
+well said, "I know that Messiah cometh, who is called Christ: When he
+is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that
+speak unto thee, am he."--John 4:25, 26. As Ballard, in "The Miracles
+of Unbelief," has clearly pointed out, either (1) He was the Messiah;
+or (2) He was the illegitimate son of a fallen woman and the vilest
+deceiver the world has ever known, or (3) He was the illegitimate son
+of a fallen woman, and a poor, simple-minded ignoramus, who claimed to
+be the Messiah and honestly thought He was, but was simply ignorant
+and deluded. Men in their intellectual pride or religious prejudice
+may sneer and try to avoid this issue, but every honest thinking man
+will see and confess that only these three conclusions are possible,
+that one of the three is inevitable: and every honest man will take
+one of the three positions. Voltaire said "curse the wretch." He is to
+be commended as compared with the man who tries to avoid the issue.
+
+Second, one must know Him as complete Redeemer in order to believe on
+Him, in order to commit one's salvation to Him against that day. There
+is no middle ground. He was either no redeemer at all, or He "gave
+himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity."--Titus
+2:14. To try to avoid the issue here is as fatal as to try to avoid
+the issue as to His being the Messiah. To believe on, to commit one's
+salvation to, a partial Redeemer, is to have no redeemer at all, to be
+left unredeemed, unsaved.
+
+Third, to know Him in order to believe on Him, to commit one's
+salvation to Him against that day, one must know Him as having been
+really raised from the dead. _Belief in the real resurrection of the
+Saviour is essential to salvation._ For one to be heralded abroad as a
+great preacher and theologian who yet denies the literal, real
+resurrection of the Saviour, cannot change God's word that all such
+are yet unredeemed, lost, not real Christians. God's word is plain on
+this point: "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and
+_shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead_,
+thou shalt be saved."--Rom. 10:9. "If Christ hath not been raised your
+faith is vain; _ye are yet in your sins_."--1 Cor. 15:17.
+
+Chalmers, the great Scotch preacher, in a letter to a friend made
+plain what believing on Christ means: "I must say that I never had so
+close and satisfactory a view of the gospel salvation, as when I have
+been led to contemplate it in the light of a simple offer on the one
+side, and a simple acceptance on the other. It is just saying to one
+and all of us, There is forgiveness through the blood of My Son: Take
+it, and whoever believes the reality of the offer takes it.... We are
+apt to stagger at the greatness of the unmerited offer and cannot
+attach faith to it till we have made up some title of our own. This
+leads to two mischievous consequences: It keeps alive the presumption
+of one class who will still be thinking that it is something in
+themselves and of themselves which confers upon them a right of
+salvation; and it confirms the melancholy of another class, who look
+into their own hearts and their own lives, and find that they cannot
+make out a shadow of a title to the divine favor. The error of both
+lies in their looking to themselves when they should be looking to the
+Saviour. 'Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the
+earth.'--Is. 45:22. The Son of man was so lifted up that whosoever
+believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John
+3:14, 15). It is your part simply to lay hold of the proffered boon.
+You are invited to do so; and you are entreated to do so; nay, what is
+more, you are commanded to do so. It is true, you are unworthy, and
+without holiness no man can see God; but be not afraid, only believe.
+You cannot get holiness of yourself, but Christ has undertaken to
+provide it for you. It is one of those spiritual blessings of which He
+has the dispensation, and which He has promised to all who believe in
+Him. God has promised that with His Son He will freely give you all
+things (Rom. 8:32); that He will walk in you, and dwell in you (2 Cor.
+6:16); that He will purify your heart by faith (Acts 15:9); that He
+will put His law in your mind and write it in your heart (Heb. 8:10).
+These are the effects of your believing in Christ, and not the
+services by which you become entitled to believe in Him. Make a clear
+outset in the business, and understand that your first step is simply
+confiding acceptance of an offer that is most free, most frank, most
+generous, and most unconditional. If I were to come as an accredited
+agent from the upper sanctuary with a letter of invitation to you,
+with your name and address on it, you would not doubt your warrant to
+accept it. Well, here is the Bible, your invitation to come to Christ.
+It does not bear your name and address, but it says 'Whosoever,' that
+takes you in; it says 'all,' that takes you in; it says 'if any,' that
+takes you in. What can be surer or freer than that?"
+
+Equally helpful are the words of Horatius Bonar in "Words for the
+Inquiring":--"If you object that you cannot believe, then this
+indicates that you are proceeding quite in a wrong direction. You are
+still laboring under the idea that this believing is a work to be done
+by you, and not the acknowledgment of a work done by another. You
+would fain do something in order to get peace, and you think that if
+you could do this great thing 'believing,' if you could but perform
+this great act called faith, God would at once reward you by giving
+you peace. Thus faith is reckoned by you to be the price, in the
+sinner's hand, by which he buys peace, and not the mere holding out of
+the hand to get a peace which has already been bought by another. So
+long as you are attaching any meritorious importance to faith, however
+unconsciously, you are moving in a wrong direction--a direction from
+which no peace can come. Surely faith is not a work. On the contrary,
+it is a ceasing from work. It is not a climbing of the mountain, but a
+ceasing to attempt it, and allowing Christ to carry you up in His own
+arms. You seem to think that it is your act of faith that is to save
+you, and not the object of your faith, without which your act, however
+well performed, is nothing. Accordingly, you bethink yourself, and
+say, 'What a mighty work is this believing--what an effort does it
+require on my part--how am I to perform it?' Herein you sadly err, and
+your mistake lies chiefly here, in supposing that your peace is to
+come from the proper performance on your part of an act of faith;
+whereas, it is to come entirely from the proper perception of Him to
+whom the Father is pointing your eyes, and in regard to whom He is
+saying, 'Behold my servant whom I have chosen, look at Him, forget
+everything else--everything about yourself, your own faith, your own
+repentance, your own feelings--and look at Him! It is in Him, not out
+of your poor act of faith, that salvation lies; and out of Him, not
+out of your own act of faith, is peace to come.' Thus mistaking the
+meaning of faith and the way which faith saves you, you get into
+confusion, and mistake everything else connected with your peace: you
+mistake the real nature of that very inability to believe of which you
+complain so sadly. For that inability does not lie, as you fancy it
+does, in the impossibility of your performing aright the great act of
+faith, but of ceasing from all such self-righteous attempts to perform
+any act, or do any work whatsoever in order to your being saved. So
+that the real truth is, that you have not yet seen such a sufficiency
+in the one great work of the Son of God upon the cross, as to lead you
+utterly to discontinue your mistaken and aimless efforts to work out
+something of your own.
+
+"But perhaps you may object further, that you are not satisfied with
+your faith. No, truly, nor are you ever likely to be. If you wait for
+this before you take peace, you will wait till life is done. Not
+satisfaction with your own faith, but satisfaction with Jesus and His
+work, this is what God presses on you. You say, 'I am satisfied with
+Christ.' Are you? What more, then, do you wish? Is not satisfaction
+with Christ enough for you, or for every sinner? Nay, and is not this
+the truest kind of faith? To be _satisfied with Christ_, that is faith
+in Christ. To be satisfied with His blood, that is faith. What more
+could you have? Can your faith give you something which Christ cannot?
+Or will Christ give you nothing till you can produce faith of a
+certain kind and quality, whose excellences will entitle you to
+blessing? Do not bewilder yourself. Do not suppose that your faith is
+a price, or a bribe, or a merit. Is not the very essence of real faith
+just your being satisfied with Christ? Are you really satisfied with
+Him and with what He has done? Then do not puzzle yourself about your
+faith, but go on your way rejoicing, having thus been brought to be
+satisfied with Him who to know is peace, and life, and salvation....
+Faith, however perfect, has of itself nothing to give you either of
+pardon or of life. Its finger points you to Jesus. Its voice bids you
+look straight to Him. Its object is to turn away from itself and from
+yourself altogether, that you may behold Him, and in beholding Him be
+satisfied with Him and in being satisfied with Him have joy and
+peace."
+
+Likewise James Denny, in "The Death of Christ," teaches the same
+lesson: "It is this great Gospel which is the gospel to win
+souls--this message of a sin-bearing, sin-expiating love which pleads
+for acceptance, which takes the whole responsibility of the sinner,
+unconditionally, with no preliminaries, if only he abandon himself to
+it."
+
+A young person who felt that his time in this world was short, wrote
+to an eminent English preacher to write and tell a sinner what he must
+do to prepare to die--what is the preparation required by God--and
+when he is fit to die. The preacher wrote: "I urge you to cast
+yourself at once, in the simplest faith, upon the Lord Jesus Christ
+and you shall be saved. All your true preparation for death is
+entirely out of yourself and in the Lord Jesus. Washed in His blood,
+and clothed upon with His righteousness, you may appear before God
+divinely, fully, freely and forever accepted. The salvation of the
+chief of sinners is all prepared, finished and complete in Christ
+(Eph. 1:6; Col. 2:10). Again I repeat, your eye of faith must now be
+directed entirely out of and from yourself, to Jesus. Beware of
+looking for any preparation to meet death _in yourself_. It is _all in
+Christ_. God does not accept you on the ground of a broken heart, or a
+clean heart, or a praying heart, or a believing heart. He accepts you
+wholly and entirely on the ground of the atonement of His blessed Son.
+Cast yourself in child-like faith upon that atonement--'Christ dying
+for the ungodly' (Rom. 5:6)--and you are saved! Justification is this,
+a poor law-condemned, self-condemned, self-destroyed sinner, wrapping
+himself by faith in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, which
+is unto all them that believe (Rom. 3:22). He, then, is justified and
+is prepared to die, and he only, who casts from him the garment of his
+own righteousness and runs unto this blessed city of Refuge--the Lord
+Jesus--and hides himself there--exclaiming, 'There is therefore now no
+condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus' (Rom. 8:1). God is
+prepared to accept you in His blessed Son, and for His sake He will
+cast all your sins behind His back, and take you to glory when you
+die. Never was Jesus known to reject a poor sinner that came to Him
+empty and with nothing to pay. God will glorify His free grace by your
+salvation, and will therefore save you just as you are, without money
+and without price (Is. 55:1). I close with Paul's reply to the anxious
+jailor, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved' (Acts
+16:31). No matter what you have been, or what you are, plunged into
+the fountain opened for sin, and for uncleanness (Zech. 13:1), and you
+shall be clean, 'washed whiter than snow' (Ps. 51:7). Heed no
+suggestion of Satan, or of unbelief; cast yourself at the feet of
+Jesus, and if you perish, perish there! Oh, no! Perish you never will,
+for He hath said, 'Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out'
+(John 6:37). 'Come unto me' (Matt. 11:28) is His blessed invitation;
+let your reply be, 'Lord, I come! I come! I come! I entwine my feeble,
+trembling arms of faith around Thy cross, around Thyself, and if I
+die, I will die cleaving, clinging, looking unto Thee!' So act and
+believe and you need not fear to die. Looking at the Saviour in the
+face, you can look at death in the face, exclaiming with good old
+Simeon, 'Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace; for mine
+eyes have seen thy salvation' (Luke 2:29). May we through rich, free
+and sovereign grace, meet in Heaven, and unite in exclaiming, 'worthy
+is the Lamb, for he was slain for us' (Rev. 5:12)."
+
+    "Until I saw the blood 'twas Hell my soul was fearing;
+    And dark and dreary in my eyes the future was appearing,
+    While conscience told its tale of sin
+    And caused a weight of woe within.
+
+    "But when I saw the blood, and looked at Him who shed it,
+    My right to peace was seen at once, and I with transport read it,
+    I found myself to God brought nigh
+    And 'Victory' became my cry.
+
+    "My joy was in the blood, the news of which had told me,
+    That spotless as the lamb of God, my Father could behold me.
+    And all my boast was in His name
+    Through whom this great salvation came."
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+ETERNAL LIFE THE PRESENT POSSESSION OF THE BELIEVER
+
+     "Ye are not under the law."--Rom. 6:14.
+
+     "Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."--Gal.
+     3:26.
+
+     "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God."--1
+     John 5:1.
+
+     "By grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of
+     yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any one
+     should boast."--Eph. 2:8, 9 (1911 Bible and R. V.)
+
+     "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life."--John 3:36.
+
+     "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and
+     believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not
+     come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life."--John
+     5:24.
+
+     "God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He
+     that hath the Son hath the life."--1 John 5:11, 12.
+
+
+It is an awe-inspiring thought, a wonderful, blessed reality, that
+every real believer on the Lord Jesus has, here and now, _eternal
+life_, not simply the promise of it, but the eternal life itself. The
+human mind cannot fully take it in, that every man, the moment he is
+redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), redeemed from all
+iniquity (Titus 2:14), redeemed from under the law (Rom. 6:14), and
+adopted as a child of God (Gal. 4:4-7), has then and there
+_everlasting life_ (John 5:24), a new life that is never, never to
+end; a life that will outlast the stars; a life that he will be
+consciously enjoying when all the stars shall have burnt out. And yet
+when such a life is offered as a gift ("I give unto them eternal life,
+and they shall never perish,"--John 10:28) many men will not repent
+and accept the gift. Religious prejudice, pride, secret sin, love of
+the world,--for what puny trifles do men turn from the greatest of all
+gifts, the greatest of all blessings, eternal life! Reader, will you
+be among the number who make this foolish, this fatal mistake?
+
+But with some the greatness of this gift, and its blessed reality, are
+obscured by the teaching that the believer on Christ has not
+everlasting life _now_, but only the _promise_ of it. When God's word
+tells us that the redeemed one, the believer on Christ, is not under
+the law (Rom. 6:14), is a child of God (Gal. 3:26), _has been_ saved
+(Eph. 2:8, 9, 1911 Bible and R. V.), not _will be_ saved, it would be
+strange that, after all, the believer should have only a promise for
+the beyond and no reality here and now. But God's word goes further
+and says, "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ _is born of
+God_."--1 John 5:1. _There cannot be birth without new life._ It is
+not the old life; that would mean no birth. If, then, the new life is
+not _eternal_ life, _what life is it_?
+
+If language can be made to mean anything, God's word makes it plain
+that every redeemed man, every believer on Christ, has _here and now_,
+eternal life; for God's word tells us, not only that "by grace _have
+ye been saved_" (Eph. 2:8, 9, 1911 Bible and R. V.), but it states
+plainly, "he that believeth on the Son _hath_ everlasting life" (John
+3:36); "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and
+believeth on him that sent me, _hath_ everlasting life and shall not
+come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life."--John
+5:24. That God's word does not mean that the believer on Christ has
+simply the _promise_ of everlasting life, but that he really has the
+everlasting life, notice John 5:24, "_Hath_ everlasting life and shall
+not come into condemnation, but _is passed_ [here and now] from death
+unto life." The Revised Version (the more exact translation) makes it
+much stronger,--"_hath passed_ out of death _into life_." What life,
+if not eternal life? Before this plain, positive statement of God's
+word, the mere promise of eternal life theory cannot stand. But the
+fact that the believer on Christ really has now eternal life, is made
+plain by other Scriptures. "Whosoever hateth his brother is a
+murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life _abiding in
+him_."--1 John 3:15. Here we are shown that when one "hath eternal
+life" it is "eternal life _abiding in him_"; for there would be no
+meaning to the language if no one has eternal life abiding in him.
+Again, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the
+Son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth
+my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life."--John 6:53, 54.
+The Saviour had just taught in verse 35 what eating His flesh and
+drinking His blood meant: "I am the bread of life; he that cometh to
+me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never
+thirst." Here in verses 53, 54, the Saviour shows clearly that the
+eternal life that the believer on Him "_hath_" is "_in_" you--here and
+now.
+
+Let the unredeemed reader pause: in a moment, here and now, he can
+have _everlasting life_ with God's assurance that he "shall never
+perish" ("I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never
+perish."--John 10:28). It is a tremendous decision, and it may prove
+to be a fatal one, to turn away and not believe on Christ and have as
+a present possession eternal life. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he
+that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, _hath
+everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed
+from death unto life_."--John 5:24.
+
+_FOR FURTHER STUDY_:--Some who believe that the redeemed have only the
+_promise_ of eternal life, but that they have not eternal life, as a
+real present possession, base this belief on such Scriptures as, "In
+hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the
+world began" (Titus 1:2), in connection with, "Hope that is seen is
+not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we
+hope for what we see not, then do we with patience wait for it."--Rom.
+8:24, 25. Their thought is, if we live "in hope of eternal life," then
+we have not really eternal life as a present possession; that we
+cannot hope for what we already have. But Jesus said positively that
+the believer "_hath passed out_ of death _into_ life" (John 5:24, R.
+V.), and He contrasts the one who "_hath_ eternal life" with those to
+whom He says, "Ye have no life _in you_." A man can have eternal life
+here, and at the same time hope for it beyond the grave. A man has his
+wife and children _now_, and _hopes_ to have them next year; a man
+away from wife and children has his life _now_; and yet he lives in
+hope of his life (the same life, that part of it not yet lived) with
+his wife and children a month from now; an exile from home has his
+life now; yet lives in hope of his life (the same life, that part of
+it not yet lived) in his native land a year from now. So, the child
+of God's, the redeemed man's, citizenship is in Heaven (Phil. 3:20);
+he lives in hope of eternal life there; yet it is the same eternal
+life (that part of it not lived) that he has here and now.
+
+Another cause of stumbling at eternal life being now the actual
+possession of the redeemed man, is that many who claimed to have had
+eternal life, also claim to have lost it; and if it had been actually
+_eternal_ life it could not have stopped; for then eternal would not
+be really eternal; hence, it must have been simply the _promise_ of
+eternal life that they had, and they therefore only lost the _promise_
+and not really eternal life itself. But Jesus, foreseeing this class
+of professing Christians, said that they were never really redeemed,
+never really had eternal life: "Many will say to me in that day, Lord,
+Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast
+out demons? and in thy name done many wonderful works? and then will I
+profess unto them, I never knew you,"--Matt. 7:22, 23, not "you were
+redeemed, you did have eternal life, but you lost it; it stopped"; but
+"I never knew you," and John teaches the same thing in 1 John 2:19,
+"They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been
+of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they
+might be made manifest that they all are not of us." (R. V.)
+
+"There is no such thing as partly saved and partly lost; partly
+justified and partly guilty; partly alive and partly dead; partly born
+of God and partly not. There are but two states, and we must be in
+either the one or the other."--_Wm. Reid, in "The Blood of Jesus."_
+
+To many earnest men it seems dangerous to teach men that when they are
+redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), and adopted as God's
+children (Gal. 4:3-7), they then really have as an actual possession
+_eternal_ life, and that they shall never perish, "_hath_ everlasting
+life, and shall not come unto condemnation,"--John 5:24; "I give unto
+them _eternal_ life, and they shall never perish,"--John 10:28; they
+think that such a belief will be a temptation to sin; that it is
+liable to lead to presumptuous, wilful sinning. They think it much
+safer for men to believe that they have not really the eternal life
+itself as an actual present possession, but only the promise of it;
+and that by their sinning hereafter they may forfeit that promise and
+be lost. They think that this fear of being lost will act as a check,
+a safeguard, a restraining power. To the extent that it does, it
+produces service from the motive of fear of Hell, fear of losing
+Heaven, and not from the motive of love to Christ for having redeemed
+them from all iniquity (Titus 2:14). But God's word on this point is
+clear: "The love of Christ [_not_ the fear of Hell, nor the fear of
+losing Heaven] constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one
+died for all, then all died; and he died for all that they who live
+should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died for
+them, and rose again."--2 Cor. 5:14, 15.
+
+The teaching that the redeemed, saved man has now eternal life and
+shall never perish, will lead to wilful, presumptuous sinning on the
+part of hypocrites, and may lead to indifference and sin on the part
+of those who honestly think they are redeemed, saved, but who really
+are not; for such are not born again (1 Peter 1:23), and have not the
+motive power of love, because really redeemed, prompting their action.
+
+Those who think it is dangerous to teach a redeemed (1 Peter 1:18,
+19), saved (Eph. 2:8, R. V.) man, a child of God (Gal. 4:4-7), that he
+has here and now, as an actual possession, eternal life, and shall
+never perish (John 10:28), shall not come into condemnation (John
+5:24), lose sight of five facts in _God's plan with men_:--
+
+First, the redeemed man is born again, born of God, "Whosoever
+believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God."--1 John 5:1.
+"Therefore if any one is in Christ he is a new creature."--2 Cor.
+5:17. This is not a mere theory. All down the centuries since the
+Saviour came, there have been multitudes of notable cases where
+hardened men and women, deep down in sin, have actually become new
+creatures by being redeemed and being born again. Many are now living,
+whose names could be given, who are widely known, who were once
+notorious in sin, and they are now willingly and gladly wearing out
+their lives in God's service, and are living godly lives: and this
+change came in their lives, not by a gradual process, but in a moment.
+God's word says it is a new birth. There is no other explanation. But
+every one who is redeemed is thus born of God (1 John 5:1), and this
+new nature will lead one to hate sin, and prompt to a godly life.
+
+Second, the redeemed man is under the new motive of love to Christ
+("if ye love me, keep my commandments,"--John 14:15) to prompt him to
+a faithful Christian life. On this point James Denny in "The Death of
+Christ" says, "The love which is the motive of it acts immediately
+upon the sinful; gratitude exerts an irresistible constraint; His
+responsibility means our emancipation; His death, our life; His
+bleeding wound, our healing. Whoever says, 'He bore our sins,' says
+substitution; and to say substitution is to say something which
+involves an immeasurable obligation to Christ, and _has therefore in
+it an incalculable motive power_." Let the reader note well, that the
+purpose of God in saving men through Christ dying of their sins (1
+Cor. 15:3) is to _purify the motive power_ and _make it effective_.
+"He died for all, that they who live should not henceforth live _unto
+themselves_, but _unto him_."--2 Cor. 5:15.
+
+When men live in order that they may retain the promise of eternal
+life, that they may attain eternal life hereafter, from fear lest they
+should forfeit the promise and not attain eternal life hereafter, they
+"live unto themselves." When men live because they already have as an
+actual possession, eternal life, and realize that it is eternal, they
+live from love, and not unto themselves but "_unto Him_."
+
+And God's plan is effective. "The love of Christ constraineth us" (2
+Cor. 5:14), _it does constrain_. Hence, Jesus says, "if a man love me,
+_he will_ keep my words."--John 14:23. Again, "If God were your Father
+_ye would_ love me."--John 8:42. So important is this fact of the new
+motive power and its effectiveness, that the reader's attention will
+now be directed to the words of James Denny in "The Death of Christ"
+on this subject. That the reader may the better appreciate these
+words, his attention is first called to the estimates of Denny's great
+work by two of the leading religious editors of the world. The
+_Pittsburg Christian Advocate_: "To thoughtful students 'The Death of
+Christ' came as one of the most stirring books of the decade if not of
+the generation." The _New York Examiner_: "The most important
+contribution to the all-important doctrine of the atonement since the
+appearance of Dr. Dale's epoch-making book.... Exegetically
+considered, it is the most important book published within the memory
+of the younger generation of preachers." On the death of Christ for
+our sins (1 Cor. 15:3) being the motive power in the Christian life,
+and its being effective, Denny says: "The problem before us is to
+discover what it is in the death of Christ which gives it its power to
+generate such experience, to exercise on human hearts the constraining
+influence of which the apostle speaks; and this is precisely what we
+discover, in the inferential clause; 'so then all died.' This clause
+puts as plainly as it can be put the idea that His death was
+equivalent to the death of all; in other words, it was the death of
+all men which was died by Him."... "Their relation to God is not
+determined now _in the very least by sin or law_: it is determined by
+Christ, the propitiation, and by faith. The position of the believer
+is not that of one trembling at the judgment seat, or of one for whom
+everything remains somehow in a condition of suspense; it is that of
+one who has the assurance of a Divine love which has gone deeper than
+all his sins, and has taken on itself the _responsibility of them_,
+and _the responsibility of delivering him from them_."... "Take away
+the certainty of it and the New Testament temper expires. Joy in this
+certainty is not presumption; on the contrary, it is joy in the Lord,
+and such joy is the Christian's strength. It is the impulse and the
+hope of sanctification; and to deprecate it, and the assurance from
+which it springs, is no true evangelical humility, but a failure to
+believe in the infinite goodness of God who in Christ removes our sins
+from us as far as the east is from the west, and plants our life in
+His eternal reconciling love."... "An absolute justification is needed
+to give the sinner a start. He must have the certainty of 'no
+condemnation' of being, without reserve or drawback, right with God
+through God's gracious act in Christ, before he can begin to live the
+new life."... "_It is not by denying the gospel outright, from the
+very beginning, that we are to guard against the possible abuse of
+it._"... "To try to take some preliminary security from the sinner's
+future morality before you make the gospel available for him, is not
+only to strike at the root of assurance, it is to pay a very poor
+tribute to the power of the gospel. The truth is, morality is best
+guaranteed by Christ, and not by any precautions we can take before
+Christ gets a chance, or by any virtue that is in faith except as it
+unites the soul to Him."... "If it is our death that Christ died on
+the cross, there is in the cross the constraint of an infinite love;
+but if it is not our death at all--if it is not our burden and doom
+that He has taken on Himself there, then what is it to us?"... "He
+who has done so tremendous a thing as to take our death to Himself has
+established a claim upon our life. We are not in the sphere of
+mystical union, of dying with Christ and living with Him; but in that
+of love transcendently shown, and of gratitude profoundly felt."...
+"But this can only come on the foundation of the other; it is the
+discharge from the responsibilities of sin involved in Christ's death
+and appropriated in faith, which is the motive power in the daily
+ethical dying to sin."... "The new life springs out of the sense of
+debt to Christ."... "It is the knowledge that we have been bought with
+a price which makes us cease to be our own, and live for Him who so
+dearly bought us."... "But when its certainty, completeness, and
+freeness are so qualified or disguised that assurance becomes suspect
+and joy is quenched, the Christian religion has ceased to be."...
+"This is why St. Paul is not afraid to trust the new life to its own
+resources, and why he objects equally to supplanting it by legal
+regulations afterwards, or by what are supposed to be ethical
+securities beforehand. It does not need them, and is bound to repel
+them as dishonoring to Christ. To demand moral guarantees from a
+sinner before you give him the benefit of the atonement, or to impose
+legal restrictions on him after he has yielded to its appeal, and
+received it through faith, is to make the atonement itself of no
+effect."... "In any case, I do not hesitate to say that the sense of
+debt to Christ is the most profound and pervasive of all emotions in
+the New Testament, and that only a gospel which evokes this, as the
+gospel of atonement does, is true to primitive and normal
+Christianity."
+
+Let the reader consider two statements just here from another great
+work, concerning the effectiveness of love as the motive power in the
+redeemed man's life (in the writer's judgment no greater work,
+excepting the gospel of John [John 20:30, 31], has ever been written
+for honest sceptics, than Walker's "Philosophy of the Plan of
+Salvation"). "Just in proportion as the soul feels its lost, guilty
+and dangerous condition, in the same proportion will it exercise love
+to the being who grants spiritual favor and salvation."... "It may be
+affirmed, without hesitancy, that it would be impossible for the human
+soul to exercise full faith in the testimony that it was a guilty and
+needy creature, condemned by the holy law of a holy God, and that from
+this condition of spiritual guilt and danger Jesus Christ suffered and
+died to accomplish its ransom,--we say, a human being could not
+exercise full faith in these truths and not love the Saviour."
+
+Third, those who fear that if redeemed men, God's children, are taught
+that they have, here and now, eternal life as an actual present
+possession, and that it is eternal, it will be liable to lead them
+into presumptuous, wilful sin, lose sight of a third fact. The
+redeemed man, the real child of God, can be tempted, can be led into
+sin, and some of them do become backsliders, but God's word teaches
+that they will be chastised in this life. Let the reader turn back and
+read Chapter V. Two Scriptures there quoted make plain the chastening
+of God's disobedient children: "Also I will make him my firstborn,
+higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him
+forevermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also
+will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven.
+If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments, if they
+break my statutes and keep not my commandments, then will I visit
+their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes.
+Nevertheless, my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor
+suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor
+alter the thing that is gone out of my lips."--Ps. 89:27-34. Equally
+explicit is the New Testament: "Ye have forgotten the exhortation
+which speaketh unto you as unto sons. My son, despise not thou the
+chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him; for
+whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he
+receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons;
+for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be
+without chastening, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards
+and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, who
+corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be
+in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they verily for a
+few days chastened us as seemed right to them; but he for our profit,
+_that we might be partakers of his holiness_. Now no chastening for
+the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless
+afterwards it _yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness_ unto
+them that are exercised thereby."--Heb. 12:5-11. So that, the
+disobedient child of God will suffer for his sins, not in Hell, but in
+this life; and not as a just penalty for violated law, for he is not
+under the law ("Ye are not under the law,"--Rom. 6:14), but as
+chastening, for correction. It is not a theory merely, for God's word
+declares that God's plan works--"It yieldeth the peaceable fruit of
+righteousness."
+
+Fourth, those who fear that teaching redeemed men, God's children,
+that they have, as a present possession, eternal life and not simply
+the promise of it, and who think that the safer course is to teach
+them that they have only the promise of eternal life and may forfeit
+it by unfaithfulness, lose sight of another fact, that the unfaithful
+redeemed one will lose his reward. Let the reader turn back and read
+Chapter VI. The Scripture teaching is plain, "If any man's work abide
+which he has built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's
+work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be
+saved, yet so as through fire."--1 Cor. 3:14, 15. He loses his reward
+who is unfaithful, but not his eternal life, because it is eternal,
+and because he has been redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14).
+
+Fifth, those who, knowing that the redeemed man could not lose his
+eternal life, if he has it as a present possession, because it is
+eternal, believe that the redeemed have not really eternal life but
+only the promise of it and may forfeit the promise by unfaithfulness,
+and that it is dangerous to teach the redeemed that they really have
+eternal life because it might lead to wilful, presumptuous sin, lose
+sight of a fifth fact, that the child of God is not only redeemed
+from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), redeemed from under the law
+(Rom. 6:14), adopted as a child of God because redeemed from the law
+(Gal. 4:4-7), but that being redeemed, he is redeemed _from all
+iniquity_ ("Our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he
+might _redeem us from all iniquity_."--Titus 2:13, 14). How can God,
+because He is just, let the redeemed man, if he is redeemed _from all
+iniquity_, be lost? "A young minister was in the habit of visiting an
+aged Scotch woman in his congregation who was familiarly called 'Old
+Nanny.' She was bed-ridden and rapidly approaching the end of her
+'long and weary pilgrimage,' but she rested with undisturbed composure
+and full assurance of faith upon the finished work of Christ. One day
+he said to her, 'Now, Nanny, what if, after all your confidence in the
+Saviour and your watching and waiting, God should suffer your soul to
+be lost?' Raising herself on her elbow, and turning to him with a look
+of grief and pain, she laid her hand on the open Bible before her, and
+quietly replied, 'Ah, dearie me, is that the length you hae got yet,
+mon? God,' she continued earnestly, 'would hae the greatest loss. Poor
+Nannie would lose her soul, and that would be a great loss indeed; but
+God would lose His _honor_ and His _character_. Haven't I hung my soul
+upon His "exceeding great and precious promise"? and if He would break
+His word He would make Himself a liar, _and a' the universe would rush
+into confusion_.' This anecdote reveals the true ground of the
+believer's safety. It is as high as the honor of God; it is as
+trustworthy as His character; it is as immutable as His promises; it
+is as broad as the infinite merit of His Son's atoning blood."--_J. H.
+Brookes, in "The Way Made Plain."_
+
+If God, "that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth
+in Jesus" (Rom. 3:26), set forth Jesus Christ as a propitiation
+through faith in his blood (Rom. 3:25), and then should let one be
+lost who had been redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), would He
+not be as unjust in so doing as He would have been had He justified
+sinners without Christ dying for their sins (1 Cor. 15:3)?
+
+The blessed fact that the redeemed have as a present possession, here
+and now, eternal life, and that it is eternal, makes manifest another
+fact, that the redeemed are not unconscious, virtually out of
+existence, from death till the resurrection. The new life is eternal;
+it continues without cessation or intermission. Their bodies fall
+asleep; but their souls are still in conscious existence; it is
+_eternal life_. Paul makes this fact clear: "Whilst present in the
+body, we are absent from the Lord." "We are confident, I say, and well
+pleased rather to be absent from the body, and present with the
+Lord."--2 Cor. 5:6, 8. The same conscious life continues; it is
+eternal life. Again he makes it clear: "I am in a strait betwixt the
+two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far
+better: nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful on your
+account."--Phil. 1:23, 24. The same conscious life continues, the
+eternal life. To depart and to be with Christ he says "_is far
+better_." But even this is not the perfect state. It is the soul
+without the body, enjoying eternal life with Christ. But God's
+perfect being is a being of redeemed soul and redeemed body enjoying
+the reward of its labor. The body will not be redeemed until the
+resurrection (Rom. 8:23; 1 Cor. 15:42); and the soul, though enjoying
+eternal life and with Christ (Phil. 1:23) will receive no reward until
+the resurrection,--"Thou shalt be _recompensed at the resurrection of
+the just_."--Luke 14:14.
+
+Paul further makes clear the distinction between the body sleeping and
+the soul not sleeping, because it has eternal life and is with Christ:
+"If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that
+sleep in Jesus _will God bring with him_."--1 Thess. 4:14. Their
+bodies are asleep; their souls are "absent from the body and present
+with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:8); but at the resurrection of their bodies,
+these "will God bring with him." Then, "at the resurrection of the
+just" (Luke 14:14) will "each man receive his own reward according to
+his own labor."--1 Cor. 3:8. Let this blessed teaching be a comfort to
+some hearts: the redeemed loved ones who have died are "present with
+the Lord" which "is far better." Then it is cruel selfishness to wish
+them back.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+DEVELOPMENT OF CHARACTER IN THE REDEEMED
+
+     "_The God of Jacob_ is our refuge."--Ps. 46:7.
+
+     "Happy is he that hath _the God of Jacob_ for his help."--Ps.
+     146:5.
+
+     "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of
+     gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found
+     unto praise, and honor, and glory at the appearing of Jesus
+     Christ."--1 Peter 1:7.
+
+     "Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and
+     entire, wanting nothing."--James 1:14.
+
+     "And we know that _all things_ work together for good to them that
+     love God, to those who are the called according to his
+     purpose."--Rom. 8:28.
+
+
+"The God of Jacob!" Not the God of Israel. Wonderful God! Blessed
+assurance, that "_the God of Jacob_ is our refuge,"--the God who saves
+the man without character, irrespective of character,--makes of
+him,--Israel. Jacob, the supplanter, the trickster, the weak
+character, the warped character, the sinner, God takes, and through
+trials, tests, develops him and makes of him Israel,--a prince of God.
+That is _God's plan with men_. Consider it.
+
+There are two theories, the poles apart. The one is, salvation by
+character; that by acquiring a suitable character, by developing the
+right kind of a character, man can be saved, can go to Heaven; that
+one's character, if of the proper kind, entitles him to Heaven; that
+if one has lived right, he will go to Heaven. The other theory is,
+that God by grace, pure unmerited favor, saves irrespective of
+character. It is a tremendous issue. It is vital; one or the other is
+fatal. If those who hold one theory go to Heaven, all who hold to the
+other will be lost, will go to Hell. We would as well face the issue.
+They are two widely different ways of salvation, and God has but one.
+Jesus said, "_I am the way_" (John 14:6), not one way, _The Way_. And
+He leaves no possible ground for misunderstanding the meaning, "No man
+cometh unto the Father, but by me."--John 14:6. Either, then, He is
+_the only way_, or He was the vilest deceiver the world ever knew, or
+He was a simple-minded, ignorant fanatic, who honestly thought Himself
+"The Way" when He was not.
+
+Against this theory of salvation by character there are four serious,
+fatal charges:--
+
+First, it is utterly cruel, heartless and selfish. It is cruel,
+because to the weakest, most needy, most helpless class, the vast body
+of men, born of vicious, debased parents, reared amidst vice and sin,
+weakened by appetite and tied by habit, it does not give one-millionth
+the chance to be saved, to go to Heaven, that men have who were born
+of noble, godly parents, reared amidst moral, uplifting surroundings,
+and strengthened by noble aspirations and splendid training. Stand
+before you two young men representing these two classes, and tell them
+of life beyond this life, and of Heaven; and then tell them of
+salvation by character. To the one it would mean a bright, hopeful
+anticipation; to the other, it would mean but taunting him with his
+hopeless condition and prodding him with despair.
+
+The theory of salvation by character is heartless, because, wrapt in
+the robe of its own self-righteousness, it coolly condemns to hopeless
+despair a vast body of the human race. Go stand by the helpless,
+hopeless drunkard, and the drunken, sinful woman, and tell them of
+salvation by character, and hear the sob of despair or see the jeering
+look on their faces at the thought of salvation by character for such
+as they! Before a pastors' conference, the polished, brilliant, highly
+educated pastor of a wealthy, refined, intellectual congregation read
+a seemingly learned paper on "Salvation by Character." When he had
+finished reading the paper, some of his fellow-pastors endorsed the
+paper and gave it high praise. Finally, the pastor of a people who had
+been unfortunate in life, many of whom had gone far down in sin, and
+were fettered by habit, arose and said, "Brother Moderator, the
+brother has given us his wonderful paper on salvation by character. I
+would like to ask him, what would he preach if he were the pastor of a
+people who have no character?" The author of the paper arose and made
+the heartless reply, "Brother Moderator, my brother and I have been
+raised in such different intellectual atmospheres, that I don't
+suppose I could make it plain to my brother." The other replied, "That
+is doubtless true, Brother Moderator; but the trouble is, that he can
+never make it plain to any one else."
+
+It is selfish, because those who teach this theory are generally men
+of intelligence, refinement, and are considered, and they consider
+themselves, men of moral character. They thus provide for themselves
+by their theory, but leave a vast body of the race with a very slight
+hope or with no hope whatever.
+
+The second charge against those who hold this theory is that by their
+own theory none will be saved. If salvation is by character, by what
+kind of character, a perfect character, or an imperfect character? If
+by a perfect character, no one has it; no one even claims it. If by an
+imperfect character, how imperfect may it be and the man yet be saved?
+Where is the standard? If a man's character, in order to be saved by
+it, must be the best he can make it, no one has even that
+character,--no one's character is the best he could have made it.
+Hence, salvation by character is a chimera.
+
+The third charge against salvation by character is, that even if a
+man's character were perfect from man's standpoint, in the sight of
+God his character would still be corrupt. "All our righteousnesses are
+as filthy rags."--Is. 64:6. Why? Because motive is the measure of the
+character. "They that are in the flesh cannot please God."--Rom. 8:8.
+Why? Because they have not, and cannot have, the right motive. "Though
+I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am
+become as sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the
+gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and
+though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have
+not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the
+poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it
+profiteth me nothing."--1 Cor. 13:1-3. And no man has this love, no
+man can have this love, until he is saved by Christ dying for his
+sins (1 Cor. 15:3). "The love of Christ constraineth us; because we
+thus judge, that if one died for all, then all died; and he died for
+all, that they who live should not henceforth live unto themselves,
+but unto him who died for them, and rose again."--2 Cor. 5:14, 15.
+
+The fourth serious, fatal charge against the theory of salvation by
+character is that it is contrary to the teaching of the Saviour.
+"Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and
+the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you."--Matt. 21:31.
+Certain it is that the publicans and the harlots had worse characters
+than those to whom the Saviour was speaking; the fact is therefore
+evident that Jesus taught salvation without character, irrespective of
+character.
+
+Let the reader consider two cases that will show conclusively that the
+teaching of salvation by character is absolutely contrary to the
+teaching of the Saviour. "The chief priest, mocking him, with the
+scribes and elders, said: He saved others; himself he cannot save. If
+he is the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we
+will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he
+will have him; for he said, I am the Son of God. The thieves also that
+were with him, cast the same in his teeth."--Matt. 27:41-44. Let the
+reader notice that both the thieves "that were with him, cast the same
+in his teeth." Then "one of the malefactors that were hanged railed on
+him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other
+answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou
+art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the
+due reward of our deeds; but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he
+said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
+And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be
+with me in Paradise."--Luke 23:39-43. From the time that both thieves
+"cast the same in his teeth," to the time the one made his earnest
+plea, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom," there had
+been no time in which this thief could have formed, developed a
+character that merited salvation. Hence, when Jesus said, "To-day
+shalt thou be with me in Paradise," to this thief, He branded the
+teaching of salvation by character as not from Heaven. The one who
+does not see from this case that the cruel, heartless, selfish
+teaching of salvation by character contradicts the Lord Jesus, will
+never see anything contrary to his own preferences and preconceived
+opinions.
+
+The second case is just as conclusive. As the Saviour was reclining at
+meat in the house of Simon the Pharisee, a woman, noted as a sinner,
+came in and stood behind him weeping. "And he said to the woman, Thy
+faith hath saved thee; go in peace."--Luke 7:50. The Saviour said the
+woman was saved, yet she was of notorious character,--she had no
+character.
+
+That the Saviour saved irrespective of character is shown by two cases
+in the book of Acts. We have the accounts of the salvation of two men
+of opposite characters. One was "A devout man, and one that feared
+God with all his house, who gave much alms to the people and prayed to
+God always,"--Acts 10:2, a man of most excellent character. Among all
+the unredeemed men of the earth, not one could show a better
+character. If any man could be saved by character, here is the man.
+God sends word to him, "Send to Joppa and call for Simon, whose
+surname is Peter, who shall tell the words whereby thou and all thy
+house shalt be saved."--Acts 11:13. Notwithstanding his noble, unusual
+character, God tells him that he is unsaved. If he, with his character
+unexcelled among unredeemed men, was yet unsaved, how can any other
+unredeemed man hope for salvation by character? Peter's message to
+this man of irreproachable character was, "To him give all the
+prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth on him
+shall receive remission of sins."--Acts 10:43. Why is it necessary for
+this man of character to believe on Christ in order to be saved?
+Because, though of unusual character, he had sinned, "for all have
+sinned" (Rom. 3:23); and sin once committed can only be atoned for by
+blood, "apart from shedding of blood there is no remission" (Heb.
+9:22), and there is no blood of atonement in a noble character.
+
+Over against this case is that of the Philippian jailor, a man of
+hardened character; for he took two helpless, bleeding preachers who
+had been beaten by a mob, and "thrust them into the inner prison, and
+made their feet fast in the stocks" (Acts 16:24), and left them with
+their backs bloody and gave them no supper. When the earthquake came
+and the doors were opened, the hardened jailor started to commit
+suicide. Paul having called to him and prevented the suicide, the
+jailor "came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and brought
+them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"--Acts 16:30. If
+ever a man should be told of salvation by character, here was the
+opportunity, that he might at once begin the tremendous and all but
+hopeless task of changing, so late in life, a hardened character into
+one that would enable him to merit Heaven. Instead, they said,
+"Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved."--Acts 16:31. How
+similar the answer to the instructions of Peter to Cornelius, and yet
+how widely different the characters of the two men! Why this
+similarity? Because God has but one way of salvation, and that is
+irrespective of character. "He gathereth together _the outcasts_ of
+Israel" (Ps. 147:2), the God of Jacob.
+
+While the Saviour saves without character, and irrespective of
+character, God the Father does not leave them without character, but
+develops in them the right kind of a character. The man redeemed,
+saved, without character, does not remain without character. "And such
+_were_ some of you" (1 Cor. 6:11), but they did not remain such
+characters,--but "sanctified, called to be saints."--1 Cor. 1:2.
+_God's plan with men_, then, is to save irrespective of character, and
+then develop in the redeemed, saved man a character that shall "be
+found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus
+Christ."--1 Peter 1:7.
+
+Three ways in which God develops character in the redeemed are:
+
+First, by purifying the _motive_ of the life. Character is not formed
+by deeds, but by the motives prompting the deeds. Two men flag the
+night express train on two railroads; the deeds are the same, but one
+flags the train that he may warn, and save the lives of the people,
+because a bridge has been destroyed; the other flags the train that he
+may rob it. While the deeds are the same, the character of the deeds
+is different, and that difference is in the motive prompting the deed,
+and that motive affects, moulds the character of the one who performs
+the deed. No deed is right in the sight of God that is not performed
+from the motive of love (1 Cor. 13:1-3); hence, no character can be
+right in the sight of God if the deeds that formed that character were
+not prompted by the motive of love. All deeds performed from simply
+the motive of duty, or from the desire to be saved, to go to Heaven
+after this life, or from fear of Hell, are, in the sight of God,
+unworthy deeds, and the characters formed by such deeds are unworthy
+characters. And the Saviour defines clearly what love is: "There was a
+certain creditor who had two debtors; the one owed five hundred pence,
+and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay he frankly
+forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him
+most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave
+most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged."--Luke 7:41-43.
+And John likewise defines love: "Herein is love, not that we loved
+God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for
+our sins."--1 John 4:10. This explains why God says: "They that are
+in the flesh cannot please God."--Rom. 8:8. Their motive is wrong and
+they cannot have the right motive, because they have not been
+"forgiven most." Hence all characters are wrong in the sight of God
+that were formed by deeds whose prompting motive was a simple sense of
+duty, a desire to be saved, to go to Heaven, or from fear of Hell. And
+all who have such a character are lost, have never been redeemed, are
+not real Christians.
+
+Second, God develops character in the redeemed, His real children, by
+chastisements. Our earthly fathers "verily for a few days chastened us
+as seemed right to them; but he for our profit, that we might be
+partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth
+to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the
+peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised
+thereby."--Heb. 12:10, 11.
+
+Third, God moulds the character of the redeemed by afflictions,
+burdens, sorrows, etc. "Our light affliction, which is but for a
+moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of
+glory."--2 Cor. 4:17. "Let patience have its perfect work, that ye may
+be mature and complete, lacking in nothing."--James 1:14.
+
+The shallow conception of _God's plan with men_ that makes it His
+ultimate purpose simply to save men, leaves the life of the redeemed
+man here on earth an unsolved riddle, often an inexplicable tragedy.
+The heartaches, the disasters, the burdens, the afflictions, the
+sorrows,--what of all these, when God assures us that "all things work
+together for good to those that love God, to those who are the called
+according to his purpose" (Rom. 8:28), if the ultimate purpose is
+simply salvation? "He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."
+The silver has been mined, digged from the earth, but there is dross
+in it. The redeemed have been redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal.
+3:13); have had the spirit sent into their hearts ("because ye are
+sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts,
+crying, Abba, Father,"--Gal. 4:6); but there are defects from
+heredity, from environment. The purifying process, the development of
+character, comes, not in order to be saved, but after we are saved,
+because we are saved.
+
+With God as the Father of the redeemed, many of the afflictions, and
+sorrows of real Christians can be accounted for as chastisements; many
+of the severe, heavy afflictions in the lives of real Christians can
+be accounted for in this way. "Ye have forgotten the exhortation which
+speaketh unto you as unto sons, My son, despise not thou the
+chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him; for
+whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and _scourgeth every son_ whom he
+receiveth."--Heb. 12:5, 6. Scourging is severe, yet God says it is for
+_every son_.
+
+But there are many, many trials, afflictions, burdens, sorrows, which
+cannot be explained by chastisements; for chastisements are for wilful
+sins of God's children: "If his children _forsake_ my law ... then
+will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with
+stripes."--Ps. 89:30-32. In the lives of many of the redeemed who are
+living obedient lives there are some of the most severe trials and
+afflictions. If God is their Father and loves them, what can these
+severe trials and afflictions mean?
+
+    "One adequate support
+    For the calamities of mortal life
+    Exists, one only,--an assured belief
+    That the procession of our fate, however
+    Sad or disturbed, is ordered by a being
+    Of Infinite benevolence and power,
+    Whose everlasting purposes embrace
+    All accidents, converting them into good."
+
+    Wordsworth.
+
+God Himself hath said it, "All things work together for good to those
+that love God, to those who are the called according to his
+purpose."--Rom. 8:28. Had God said, "Some things," what confusion
+would have come to many of God's children! What enigmas would many
+things in the lives of many of the redeemed have been! But when God
+said "All things," He placed a key in the hands of every redeemed man,
+every real child of His, with which to unlock the door of every
+mystery; that every trial, every disaster, every accident, every
+burden, every humiliation, every disappointment, every affliction,
+every sorrow,--"All things work together for good to those that love
+God, to those who are the called according to his purpose";--"that the
+trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that
+perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise,
+and honor, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ."--1 Peter 1:7.
+
+Muscles are developed by trials; minds are developed by trials; God's
+redeemed people are developed by trials. To murmur against one's
+trials after being redeemed, means to murmur against being developed
+for one's eternal destiny. To give the muscles no trials, means for
+the body never to be developed; to give the mind no trials, means for
+the mind never to be developed; to give the redeemed man no trials,
+means for his character never to be developed. Two children are born
+into the world. The father and mother of one decide that he shall
+never be required to do any unpleasant things; that he shall never
+have any hardships. The father and mother of the other decide to give
+their child every unpleasant thing to do, every hardship and burden to
+bear, that will best develop him in body and mind. Often the redeemed
+plead with their Father in Heaven to give them only pleasant things,
+and He, the All-wise, All-powerful, in love gives them--trials.
+
+The trials of life for the redeemed are so various. If the muscles
+have only one trial, the body will never be fully developed. The
+muscles need various trials. If the mind has only one trial, it will
+never be fully developed. If the mind studies only one thing, it will
+never be trained, developed, educated. If the soul has only one kind
+of trial, it will never be developed. "Count it all joy, my brethren,
+when ye fall into manifold temptations."--James 1:2 (R. V. Margin,
+trials).
+
+But the redeemed, the children of God, often complain that their
+trials are so hard. Easy trials do not develop. The one who takes only
+light exercises for his muscles will never be fully developed
+physically. The boy who works the easy examples and skips the hard
+ones, will never be an educated man; he will be only a "hewer of wood
+and drawer of water." It takes hard trials to develop the body
+properly. It takes hard trials of the mind to develop it properly. It
+takes hard trials to develop the soul properly; "That the trial of
+your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth,
+_though it be tried with fire_." He who asks for only easy trials of
+his muscles, asks to remain undeveloped physically; he who asks for
+easy trials of his mind, asks to remain undeveloped mentally; he who
+asks, yearns, to have no hard trials spiritually, yearns to remain
+undeveloped in real character, in his spiritual nature. The hard
+trials are the ones that develop. And the more one's muscles have been
+developed, the harder should be the trials for those muscles; the more
+one's mind is developed, the harder should be the trials for the mind;
+the more the redeemed man's spiritual nature is developed, the harder
+his trials will be.
+
+That would be an unwise educator who, after training the pupil's mind
+up through geometry, would then put him back to studying the simple
+branches of mathematics, instead of taking him on into higher
+mathematics. Likewise the Heavenly Father does not, after partly
+developing the redeemed, His children, by hard trials, return them to
+lives of easy trials, but He leads them into yet harder trials. Take
+Elijah as an example (see F. B. Meyer's "Elijah"). He is sent to
+pronounce God's sentence against Ahab (1 Kings 17:1); he is then sent
+into obscurity (17:2, 3); he is left dependent on the ravens for food
+(17:4-6); he sees the brook dry up, his only hope for water, for life
+(17:7); he is submitted to the humiliation of being supported by a
+poor widow (17:8, 9); God delays answering his prayer (17:17-22); God
+requires him to expose himself to danger by showing himself to Ahab
+(18:1); he is led to face popular religious error, and in doing so is
+left to stand alone (18:19-38); God delays answer to his prayer till
+he prays seven times (18:42-45); he suffers the further humiliation of
+Elisha being anointed prophet in his room (19:15, 16); he is taken up
+by a whirlwind to Heaven (2 Kings 2:11). A study of these trials will
+show that they were all hard trials, and that they increased in
+severity. God tells us that Elijah was a man subject to like passions
+as we are (James 5:17); but by trials, hardships, burdens, God
+developed him into one of the noblest characters of all ages. God's
+redeemed people may expect, then, trials through their lives, and that
+the trials shall be increasingly severe, as they advance in the
+Christian life.
+
+Often God's children are discouraged because they cannot see any
+purpose in their trials. But God assures us that there is a purpose.
+The child cannot understand the purpose of the lessons at school, but
+the father has the purpose. Elijah, possibly filled with apprehension,
+sitting by the drying brook Cherith, did not see any purpose, but God,
+who makes all things work together for good to His people, had the
+purpose and accomplished it in the development of Elijah's character;
+and so, as F. B. Meyer has so aptly put it, the redeemed, sitting by
+the drying brook of health, of property, of reputation, of family
+happiness, may not see the purpose, but the Heavenly Father will
+work, in His plan for each, every trial into the warp or woof of each
+life. The Saviour said to Peter, "What I do thou knowest not now, but
+thou shalt know hereafter."--John 13:7.
+
+    "Behind our life the Weaver stands
+      And works His wondrous will;
+    We leave it all in His wise hands
+      And trust His perfect skill.
+    Should mystery enshroud His plan,
+      And our short sight be dim,
+    We will not try the whole to scan,
+      But leave each thread to Him."
+
+Who knows the defects, the weaknesses, of each character? Only God.
+Who knows what each character ought to be? Only God. Who knows how to
+develop each character properly? Only God. Who is able to so shape the
+circumstances of each life as to properly develop each character? Only
+God. And He has promised that He will. "We know that all things work
+together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called
+according to his purpose" (Rom. 8:28); "that the trial of your faith,
+being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be
+tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and honor, and glory at
+the appearing of Jesus Christ."--1 Peter 1:7. This is _the only_
+explanation of the many harassments of life.
+
+God has revealed that the standard by which character is measured is
+patience, endurance. "Let patience have its perfect work, that ye may
+be mature and complete, lacking in nothing."--James 1:4. If there
+were no harassments, no afflictions, no burdens, no sorrows, no
+disappointments, no sufferings, there could be no patience, endurance;
+and if there were no patience, no endurance, there could be no
+maturity and completeness of character. As to what trials are needed,
+and are best in each case, only God can decide. In our dimsightedness
+we think that many things are mistakes in God's plans, and that He
+cannot bring good out of them; but He will. A boy was born with a
+badly deformed foot. When he was eight years of age his father had two
+surgeons to operate and try to straighten the foot, but they failed.
+After a second operation, the foot was placed in a brace which was
+worn for months. But the foot remained as badly deformed as ever. The
+surgeons then informed the father that the foot could never be
+straightened. The father studied the deformed foot for many days, and
+then had a strange-looking box made with screws, felt taps and iron
+rods in different parts of it. He had the surgeons to operate again on
+the boy's foot, cutting the muscles and tendons in different places.
+The foot was then placed in the strange box; a screw was turned till
+the felt tap pressed against the foot at one place, almost breaking
+the bones; then another screw and felt tap were brought to bear on
+another deformed part of the foot, straightening the foot and almost
+breaking the bones in that part of the foot; then the iron rod was
+used to straighten another part. For months the boy's foot was kept in
+that box. The suffering, day and night for months, was indescribable.
+The child would weep for hours, the pain being all but unbearable;
+and when the father would come home the child would beg piteously for
+the box to be taken off and to be left a cripple. The father, mingling
+his tears with the tears of the suffering child, would turn the screws
+tighter than before, and the child would shriek in fearful agony.
+During those weeks and months of suffering he looked upon his father
+as being harsh and cruel and without love for him. Finally the father
+loosened all the screws and said, "Son, stand up," and for the first
+time in his life the boy stood erect. Often has that son, now a
+gray-haired man, stood over the grave of that father, long since dead,
+and bedewed the grave with his tears, and thanked God that he had a
+father who was true enough to continue the suffering until the
+terrible deformity was corrected. The father may have turned the
+screws one thread too much, but the Father in Heaven makes no
+mistakes, and far beyond the grave many of the redeemed will praise
+Him, when they understand, for the sufferings and afflictions and
+burdens they were led to endure here.
+
+    "Choose for us, Lord, nor let our weak preferring
+      Cheat us of good Thou hast for us designed.
+    Choose for us, Lord; Thy wisdom is unerring,
+      And we are fools and blind."
+
+With the reader this may seem mere theory; he may feel that it cannot
+explain all the seemingly unfathomable mystery of suffering in the
+lives of many of the redeemed, the real children of God. Let the
+reader consider two things: first, that as a juror, he would not form
+a judgment till all the evidence had been placed before the jury.
+God's purpose in each case, and what God actually accomplishes in each
+case, in the development of character,--these have not yet been placed
+before the jury; but, backed up by many fulfilled prophecies, by the
+character of Jesus Christ, by His resurrection, by what He has
+accomplished in the world, we have God's solemn assurance that _He
+will yet place this evidence before the jury_.
+
+Second, let the reader remember that with God character counts more
+than comfort. What father would prefer his son to be a brutal,
+ignorant pugilist, enjoying food and drink, physical life,--to a
+useful, noble, highly educated, refined, learned son who could "listen
+in the orange groves of Verona to the sweet vows of Juliet, or to the
+blind bard's harp as he strikes the chords but seldom struck
+harmonious with the morning stars, or to the music of the spheres as
+they hymn His praises around their Creator's throne"? Far more than
+the earthly father would choose the latter for his son, does the
+Heavenly Father value the soul and its development above that of the
+body.
+
+Could God's redeemed people only learn that perfection of character
+comes only through suffering, that as certain as God is true, a
+blessing will come from every sorrow, every burden, every affliction,
+every pang, every heartache!
+
+    "The ills we see--
+    The mystery of sorrow deep and long,
+    The dark enigmas of permitted wrong,
+    Have all one key--
+    This strange, sad world is but our Father's school;
+    All chance and change His love shall grandly overrule."
+
+Rarely has the author been stirred, thrilled, as he was while
+listening to an audience of a thousand colored people of the South
+sing the following hymn. Some of them had been slaves; many were poor;
+many uneducated; some Greek scholars; some were destitute; some were
+half-invalids; some were aged and infirm; but few had the comforts of
+life; all were heavy burden-bearers. White people from New York and
+Texas, from Mississippi and Kansas, were moved to tears, as that
+audience sang with such rhythm, such cadence, such pathos, such
+sweetness, such soul-power, as only they can sing:--
+
+    "We are tossed and driven
+    On the restless sea of time,
+    Sombre skies and howling tempest
+    Oft succeed the bright sunshine.
+    In that land of perfect day
+    When the mists have rolled away,
+    We will understand it better by and by.
+
+    "By and by when the morning comes
+    And all the saints of God are gathered home,
+    We'll tell the story, how we've overcome,
+    For we'll understand it better by and by.
+
+    "We are often destitute
+    Of the things that life demands,
+    Want of shelter and of food
+    Thirsty hills and barren lands.
+    We are trusting in the Lord,
+    And according to His word,
+    We will understand it better by and by.
+
+    "Trials dark on every hand,
+    And we cannot understand
+    All the ways that God would lead us
+    To the blessed promised land,
+    But He guides us with His eye
+    And we'll follow till we die,
+    For we'll understand it better by and by.
+
+    "Temptations, hidden snares,
+    Often take us unawares,
+    And our hearts are made to bleed
+    For a thoughtless word or deed,
+    And we wonder why the test
+    When we try to do our best,
+    But we'll understand it better by and by."
+
+But they are not the only ones who
+
+    "Wonder why the test
+    When we try to do our best."
+
+They are not the only ones who can say,
+
+    "Trials dark on every hand
+    And we cannot understand,"
+
+But they and all the redeemed, God's real children, can say,
+
+    "We will understand it better by and by."
+
+Till then they can rest upon His word, that "the trial of your faith,
+being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be
+tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the
+appearing of Jesus Christ,"--1 Peter 1:7; for "we know that all things
+work together for good to those that love God, to those who are the
+called according to his purpose."--Rom. 8:28.
+
+    "Thou art as much His care as if beside,
+    Nor man nor angel lived in Heaven or Earth."
+
+_FOR FURTHER STUDY_:--Some readers may conclude, because trials come
+to the lives of the unredeemed as well as the redeemed, to those who
+are not God's children, as well as to those who are God's children,
+that, therefore, their characters are likewise developed by trials.
+Let such readers consider two facts:--
+
+First, it is a creature of God being developed in one case; in the
+other, it is one who has been redeemed and adopted as a child of God
+(Gal. 4:4-7), and born of the Spirit (John 3:8), that is being
+developed.
+
+Second, the characters being developed in the two classes, while they
+may appear to men as similar, in the sight of God are as different as
+light and darkness are to men, as different as Heaven and Hell. Let
+it be remembered that character is dependent, not on the deed, but
+_on the motive back of the deed_ (1 Cor. 13:1-3).
+
+No unredeemed man can have that motive, because it springs from
+complete redemption through Christ (2 Cor. 5:14, 15). Hence, "they
+that are in the flesh cannot please God."--Rom. 8:8. Their motive
+power is all wrong and cannot be otherwise; hence their characters,
+however they may be developed, are all wrong in the sight of God.
+Jesus said, "Cleanse first the inside of the cup and of the platter,
+that the outside may be clean also."--Matt. 23:26. The child who, from
+love, bears trials and burdens placed upon him by the father, the
+slave who, from fear of the lash, bears trials and burdens placed upon
+him by the master, the hireling who, from desire for the wages, bears
+trials and burdens, and the stoic who, from sheer force of will, or
+from a cold sense of duty, bears trials and burdens, because he
+must,--are developing altogether different characters. Even so, the
+child of God, redeemed and adopted, who, from love, bears the trials
+and burdens of life, the unredeemed one who, from fear of the law,
+from fear of Hell, bears the trials and burdens of life; the
+unredeemed one who, from what he hopes to gain thereby, a home in
+Heaven (as the hireling his wages), bears the trials and burdens of
+life, and the unredeemed one who, from a cold sense of duty, bears the
+trials and burdens of life, are developing widely different characters
+for eternity. Which shall it be in your case, reader?
+
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