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October 11, 1911] THE P
mind to, but a heart and help to offer the distressed,
especially children and women in their
allliction, typically the helpless and friendless
ones of society. .Living "to help up the one
that's down" in the world is one of the surest
marks of abiding religion, it is becoming those
who own God as their own God and who have
Him as their Heavenly Father to look after with
care those without an earthly father and husband
to look to.
(2) One is r? liirimia wVin '' If oonn '?
x t ~? q-wmw ?? i?.\yV|/0 VUV;OCH Uli*
spotted from the World." His sympathy must
not only be put into exercise by personal ministry
to the relief of the sorrowing and suffering,
and the love of the Saviour brought into
the thought and heart of the afilicted; he must
be on guard lest he be overcome of evil and his
life be spotted from worldly contact, for the
world is an unclean sphere, and not to be conformed
unto without defilement of life. Am I
saying too much now ? Think for yourself what
about the life of the world, its business, its politics,
its social customs, not to mention a thousand
other things interlarded between these?
do wTe not have to be ever on guard lest we defile
ourselves as Ave come into direct touch Avith
any or all of these phases of the Avorld-life, is
not evil principle and practice at Avork to a
considerable extent everyAvliere? The Christian
life is one called to separation from sin
unto righteousness; Ave are to have no partnership
in the sin of the world. "The voice of God
PAmoc 1
xv^vo yluiiuj w ma pcupie, ivet;p yourselves
unspotted from the world.' Be willing to lose
all earthly advantages for the sake of Jesus and
the truth. Deliberately choose for yourselves
and your children poverty and insignificance
with a pure heart before God, rather than
wealth and honors all tainted with sin?a taint
which will never, never ruh out." (Dr. Howard
Crosby.)
We are to preserve by guarding (carefully
watching) ourselves from yielding to the lust
(literally, over-desire) of the flesh, the lust
(over-desire) of the eyes, and the pride (vainglory)
of life, which are in and of the world.
'' If anyone love the world, the lust of the flesh,
and the lust of the eyes, and the vain glory of
life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof;
but he that doeth the will of God abideth
torever." (1 Jno. 2:1-5, 17.) "Ye who break
your marriage vow to God, know ye not that
the friendship of the world is enmity with God ?
Whosoever, therefore, would be a friend of the
world maketh himself an enemy of God." (Jas.
4:4.)
'Tis no easy thing to live in the world where
these things are and to have to do with it and
not to be defiled thereby. Yet this is precisely
what the one really religious constantly tries to
do: "Keep oneself unspotted from the world."
Sensual appetite (which involves appropriation),
visual over-desire (satisfied in mere contemplation),
and "the vain assurance in one's
own resources or in the stability of earthly
things, which issue in a contempt of divine
laws"; all belonging to the present life?are
the means by which the world spots the life,
and against which the really religious individual,
whether man or woman, boy or girl, must
be ever on guard lest the world spot them with
its uncleanness.
III. Gauging our lives by this apostolic Christian
standard of religion, my brother or sister,
are we trying to live the religious life ? Which
is our'8, the vain or the genuine type of religion?
Eliminating all the circumstantials or
non-essentials, and reducing our religion as we
live it in or out of the pulpit, in or out of the
church, in or out of the home, in or out of our
business, in or out of our comradeships, to the
RESBVTER1AN OF THE SG
apostolic minimum of the text?does it stand
tue test* How religious are we, and how near
do we get others to be religious 1 Do we ring
true to James' scale t Or is there much of the
counterfeit about our lives, and how sedulously
are we striving, in dependence upon the Spirit
of our Lord, to eradicate the untrue and to ring
true to our Saviour in the midst of an evil and
adulterous generation ?
Not any human test, but the divine test, is
what shall give grace and glory to our lives and
others, if we live in the liirlit nf 00
God responsible and not merely unto men. The
extent to which we serve man is a good indication
of the extent to which we really serve God;
the former is but an expression of the latter. If
we love God, we love every one made in His
likeness. As the beloved apostle says (1 Jno.
4:19-21) : "We love, because He first loved us.
If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother,
he is a liar; for he that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen, cannot love God whom he
hath not seen. And this commandment have we
from him, that he who loveth God love his
brother also." Hence the Lord Jesus Christ
said (Mark 10:43-45): "Whosoever would become
great among you shall be your minister
(literally, servant); and whosoever would be
first among you shall be servant (literally, bondservant)
of all." So then?
neip someoociy to-day,
Somebody along life's way;
Let sorrow be ended,
The friendless befriended,
Oh, help somebody to-day!''
To which I add?
Serve ye the Lord to-day,
Point someone to Him right away;
In thy work be guided,
By Heaven betided,
Oh, serve ye the Lord to-day!
Nashville, Tenn.
"LIKE AS A FATHER."
By Margaret H. Barnett.
There was once a little child who, on account
of the serious illness of her mother, was given,
soon after her birth, to the care of an aunt.
And she remained with her many months, receiving
care tender as a mother could give, and
almost a mother's love, and learning to feel
for the aunt, the only mother that she knew,
?1~:_i "
mc aucouuu wxnun young cnnaren usually give
to their mothers. At length, when the mother's
health permitted, she was taken to her own
home. She was taken, it is true, to a loving
mother's care; but to her it must have seemed
that she was cruelly separated from all whom
she knew and loved, for her mother was almost
a stranger to her. She could not understand
the reason for the change, she could ask no
explanation, and to her infant understanding
none could be given. Yet it was best that she
should be in her own home, and with her own
parents; and so her parents acted as they
c Q \KT U7 Q a V\Aof 4-V* /\ti V? i ? -A t. - ? ^
ou? "?o ui/oi,, c?cu iiiuugu it must nave cuuseu
many a heartache to the child.
And do not we, who are hut "children of
a larger growth," stand in a similar relation
to the dealings of the Heavenly Father t We,
with our finite minds, are as incapable of understanding
God's plans and purposes as a
child is of understanding the acts of its parents.
We cannot see the end from the beginning, as
God can. There are many things which cannot
be explained, in our present state, and so God
acts as he sees best, even though it cause heart
ache, even though many of the experiences of
life seem dark and mysterious, even terrible.
out we are assured that infinite love as well
as infinite wisdom guides all God's fccts, that
*
10 1 0 (963) 3
"all things work together for good." And
there is a time coming when we who now
"know in part" shall know "even as we are
known.''
SPRINKLING.
By Rev. B. F, Bedinger.
IV.
"But," said my friend, "the Bible says we
must be 'buried with Christ in baptism'." And
4- U ~ 4. 1-1 ' - ~
biiat leu us 10 a study of the sixth chapter of
Komaus. We found that the iirst part of the
epistle is devoted to the subject of sin down
to the 20th verse of chapter three. There begins
Paul's glorious and masterly discussion
of justification and on to the end of the fifth
chapter. With the sixth he takes up the subject
of sanctification. Head it all carefully in
the Book before you go any further.
Here he first meets a common objection to
the doctrine of a free justification by faith
alone. "Shall we continue in sin that grace
may abound?" (v. 2.) God forbid. How shall
we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein ?
(V. 3.) KnOW Vfi not that an
? ow mouj ui uh us were
baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into
his death?" How was that? Let Paul himself
answer, 1 Cor. 12:13: " For by one Spirit are
we all baptized into one body." * Nothing
is plainer to the prayerful Bible student than
that it is by the work of the Holy Spirit that
we are made one with Christ. "Therefore,"
since by the baptism of the Spirit we are made
one with Christ, so that his holy life and keeping
of the law became ours and his death becomes
ours, "therefore we are" (not were)
"buried with him by baptism into death
so we also should walk in newness of life."
Not "by baptism into water," but by "baptism
into death"?the baptism that makes us
one with Christ in his death for our sins and
makes us "dead to sin." If "baptized into
Christ"?"into his death" in v. 3 means the
Spirit's work, "baptism into death" in v. 4
(by a canon of interpretation recognized by
all) must mean the same thing. And there is
no allusion to water baptism. The word
"buried" means simply separated from all
former associates. Who has not heard expressions
like this: "She was formerly the gayest
of the gay; always having company or visiting
and going to all the frolics. But since she married
she has simply buried herself at home."
P.VPmrKArlTr nn/lA?nin? J ~ A "
uuucibiuuuh mat use oi tne word.
It means separated from old associates?from
the old life to take up a new. "Come ye out
from among them, and be ye separate," is
God's call to all his people, to "walk in newness
of life." "For if we have been planted
together in the likeness of his death" (v. 5)
?not burial?"* # our old man is crucified
with him"?not buried * "that henceforth
we should not serve sin" (v. 6). Everywhere
it is the death of Christ?not his burial?that
is emphasized. Had he come to life when taken
from the cross his death would have been just
as efficacious as an atoning sacrifice for sin.
Besides he was not let down into a grave, but
carried into a little room hewed out of the
side of a hill. He did not come up out of the
grave, but walked out on a level where he
arose. Again. The modern mode of burial _
was unknown to the Romans to whom Paul J-X
Til OTT AW J A-J TT_ 3 V
xxitj ?uim mcir ueau. naa ne meant
such a thing as to suggest "the liquid grave,"
they would not have understood him. But ' )r'3
most important of all is the.consideration that y, 3
the burial theory of baptism takes away from ^i?
the Holy Spirit the only symbol and seal of
(Continued on page 111.
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