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332 THE PRESBYTERI
| Young People's Societies j
LIVING FOREVER.
Topic for Sunday, March 27: Getting Ready to Live Forever.
Ecclesiastes 12:1-7.
DAILY READINGS.
Monday: Paul's longing. Philippians 1:21-26.
Tuesday: Our earthly house. 2 Corinthians 5:1-5.
Wednesday: Job's triumphant faith. Job 19:25-27.
Thursday: Hezekiah's view of death. Isaiah 38:1-22.
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Saturday: Christ's own view. John 14:27-28.
"For tomorrow we die" is often made an excuse for improper
doing or indulgence today.
Tomorrow we do not die. The act of today projects itself into
a life tomorrow, not into death.
Each day is a part of an eternal life; and the fact of
living today is the assurance of an immortality to come.
To the human soul the germ of eternity lives in the bosom
of time. The first day is linked to all the days, and there
is no last.
The nature of the life that is to come is determined by
the life that now is. There will be progress, doubtless, but
it will always be upon lines established here.
Death is no interruption of life. It is merely a change in
life, a moving from one phase of living to another, and that
other of a higher nature and more important scale.
While the life beyond is thus upon a broader plane, its
character will be what the life here is. "He that is righteous,
let him be righteous still." "He that is unjust, let him
be unjust still."
A proper sense of the future will arouse the soul to right
living here. The shadow or the brightness of eternity is cast
upon time, to show that the one cannot be separated from
the other. Living mindful of eternity is the only true
wisdom.
The higher life that shall characterize us in the world
beyond has been made plain by our Lord Jesus. He came
into time, out of eternity as it were, to show us the beauty
and power of that life that is curtained off from our earthly
view.
The coming to earth by the Lord Jesus not only showed
us the type of the perfect life but made it possible. He
"hath brought life and immortality to light through the gos
pel." "In Him was life; and the life was the light of men."
'Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."
Job had the right conception when he said, "I know that
my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter
day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms destroy
this body yet in my flesh, shall I see God, whom I shall see
for myself and mine eyes shall behold and not another."
A proper regard for eternity will make us set little store
by the present life except as the fitting, time for the future.
It will show us the vanity and fleeting nature of all earthly
things, their unimportance, and the uselessness of repining
over the poverty or losses or cares of this world.
Being sure of immortality, the questions that should concern
us are: Have we accepted Christ as our righteousness? Have
we had the new nature planted within us? Have we the Holy
Spirit bringing us into likeness to Him? Are we following
the lamp which He has given to guide us?
The problem of where the life forever is to be spent, as
to its location, is one of little importance. Where Christ is,
is heaven. It will matter not to us whether this earth, cleansed
and renewed and brought into the liberty of the sons of God,
shall be the scene of glory, or some other world. The place
will be nothing as compared with its glorious King through
whom the state has been made attainable.
There was never a night without a day,
Nor an evening without a morning,
And the darkest hour, the proverb goes,
Is the hour before th/: dawning.
?C. Mackey.
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AN OF THE SOUTH. March 16, 1910.
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Prayer Meeting
LIKENESS TO CHRIST.
Week Beginning March 20. I John 3:2.
It is the part of wisdom, as well as a joyous spiritual exercise,
to contemplate frequently and fervently the realities of
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present life to be, it is not comparable to the magnitude and
significance of that which is to come. The present is but
the preparation state for the future, and whatever we may
rightly treasure here is but incidental to that which is to be
possessed and enjoyed hereafter. If we considered only
the one question of duration our present estate would be but a
trifle in comparison with the future and when we consider
the exalted nature of the future life, its enlarged capacities,
its emancipation from sin, its hallowed associations, its
clearer vision, its sublime employments, surely the theme is
suited to inspire rapturous anticipation.
The comprehensive promise contained in the passage before
us is that we shall be like Christ. Who is this being
whose image we are to bear? He is the God-man; the
incarnate Son; the most perfect human being the would has
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glory and the express image of His person. He was clothed
in our nature having a true body and a reasonable soul, yet
the second person of the Trinity, equal with the Father and
the Spirit in power and glory. Having lived and taught
and wrought and died, He arose and ascended into heaven and
all power in heaven and earth is given to Him. He is the
clearest revelation to all rational creation of the being
and perfections of God, the central light, the radiant point
in the universe.
We shall be like Him in the conformity of our souls to His
moral and spiritual image, in knowledge and affection and
the whole inner life. The Scriptures teach that we are predestined
"to be conformed to the image of His Son," and we
are to be unblamable before Him in love. The ideal to which
we are incited is "the fullness of the measure of the stature
of Christ." The pattern that is ever kept before us In the
Gospel, according to which we are to be fashioned, is the
blessed person of Christ Himself..
This likeness includes our bodies as well as our souls. In
Philippians 3:21, Paul says that the Lord "shall change
our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious
body according to the working whereby He is able even to
subdue all things unto Himself." In I Corinthians 15, the
apostle dwells upon this truth and says, "As we have borne
the image of the earthly we shall also bear the image of the
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We are to be like Him in exaltation. In several passages
we are taught that we shall reign with Him; that the
glory which the Father gave Him He had vouchsafed to His
redeemed ones, and that His people are to be glorified together
with Him. We are to partake of His possessions,
"heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ." We are
assured that redeemed humanity is to have universal dominion.
In Romans we read that the promise to Abraham and
his seed was that they should be heirs of the world. In
Corinthians Paul tells believers, "All things are yours, whether
things present or things to come." In the eighth Psalm there
is an exposition of the honors conferred on man in which
it is said, "Thou hast crowned him with glory and honor;
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Thy hands, thou hast put all things under his feet," When
Paul comments on this passage he says that only the Deity
Himself is excepted from this universal dominion. These
are transcendant truths, yet they are the plain teaching
of the inspired word. It is our privilege to dwell upon them
with ever increasing delight.
This likeness to Christ begins in this life. In our regeneration
we are partakers of His nature, being born of His Spirit.
The new life advances and we are said to grow up into
Him. We live more and, more unto righteousness, we are