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2 (888) THE!
world are concerned. It was necessary first
for him to hear the Master's voice. The Master
gave him power and desire to be rescued
from death's dominion over him. In Eph. 2:1.
Paul declares: "You hath lie made alive who
were dead in trespasses and in sins."
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TUE TOTTER FASHIONING THE CLAY.
We have seen that the clay is by uature destitute
of commercial value, and that man is by
nature without moral value. Furthermore, we
have seen that the clay cannot fashion itself
into a vessel possessed of value, and also, that
man by nature is incapable of improving his
, moral condition. If the clay and also our race
are both valueless and incapable, by what is
the Potter guided in the making of vessels?
1. BY HIS OWN WILL.
Paul asks?"Shall the thing formed say to
Him that formed it, why hast thou made me
thus f"
Since the clay is both worthless and incapable
of makint? itself of value, bv what, ricrht.
may it complain of the form it assumes in the
hands of the potter! It certainly deserves
nothing. What right have we as sinners to
claim the mercy of God? We have a right to
claim justice at Ilis hands, and nothing more.
But who can stand before Him and show any
basis on his part for an appeal to His mercy?
If He had left all men in sin their condemnation
would have been just and righteous. If
we all deserve condemnation, and God chooses
from among us some on whom to bestow His
grace has He proved himself unjust to those
who are left to encounter a justice richly deserved
by all? As a sovereign, God has the
right as well as the authority to let all perish,
because all deserve to perish. Or, on the other
hand, to freely pardon such from among these
sinners as he may choose. There was no reason,
legal or moral, why He should have chosen
any of our race. If he elected some, He was
exercising the right of any sovereign.
2. FOB U1S OWN GLORY.
The potter makes one vessel to differ from
another for his profit and honor. God has
chosen some from among our sinful race for
His honor and glory. All of us are guilty of
sin, and God permits some of the guilty to suffer
the just wages of their sin for the praise
of Ilis infinite justice. He elects some unto
eternal life for the praise of His glorious grace.
Those who experience His justice receive only
what they justly deserve and nothing more.
Those who are chosen to inherit eternal life
can only bless God for His unmerited grace.
The potter makes from the same lump of
clay one vessel unto honor and another unto
dishonour. He did not create the clay with
its original lack of value and power?He merely
fashioned it according to his will, and for
his honor and profit. God did not create our
race of sinful beings. On the contrary, God
created our first parents holy and righteous.
But Adam, our father, kept not his first estate,
and we, his posterity by natural generation,
sinned in him and fell with him in that first
transgression. The potter had a lump of clay
to deal with . He did not create it; he only
fashioned it. God has a sinful race to deal
with. Some are elected unto life while others
are left in their sins. Both shall stand as
eternal monuments to His imperishable glory.
The first shall be monuments to His grace,
while the second class shall bear witness to His
eternal justice.
Last of all let us notice
PRESBYTERIAN OF \?HE Si
THE FINISHED WORK OF THE POTTER.
The Apostle declares that the potter fashions
two distinct classes ol' vessels?tlie one to honor
and the other unto dishonor. Let us examine?
1. THE VESSELS OF HON OK?THOSE ELECTED
UNTO LIFE.
There is a certain show-window on fourth
avenue in Louisville, Kentucky, such as are
to be seen in every city, where rare pieces of
pottery are shown. Who of us has ever seen that
ware and can forget its beautiful color and
uuncaie urns i J. once noticed tiiat window
tilled with various specimens of that ware.
1 asked the salesman the secret of its beauty.
Lie told me that a certain quality of clay was
necessary to make it, but that its beautiful
color and tinting was done by he peculiar process
of heat applied to it by the potter. It
required the skill of the potter to fashion it,
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1 asked him if the original clay was
valuable! lie replied that, "it was good for
nothing but for pottery." So then it was the
potter's intlueuce over the clay, and not the
excellence of the clay, or the clay's influence
over the potter which endowed it with beauty
and value.
It requires a rational agent to respond to the
grace of God, but it is God and not the subject
of His power, who transforms a sinner
into a saint.
In Eph. 2:10, we read: "For we are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them." God, who predestinates
some unto eternal life, determined
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nttained. His will is the efficient cause of salvation,
but He has ordained all the secondary
causes operating to produce that salvation.
Faith, repentence, and obedience are some of
them. The same inlinite will that decreed salvation
ordained every step by which that end is
approached. He transformed David, the murderer
of Uriah, into David the saint. Saul, of
Tarsus, He changed from a persecutor of the
church into the great Apostle to the Gentiles.
But God accomplished the end of His grace by
the order He had ordained. Jesus said to the
multitude, in Jno. 6:44, "No man can come to
me except by my Father which sent me, draw
him, and I will raise him up at the last day."
He draws through the instrumentalities He has
ordained. And when He has commenced the
work of grace He will perfect it. In Phil. 1:
6 Paul says, "He which hath begun a good work
in Vftll will nppfnrm i + unfil -e T~
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Christ." Salvation is "of Him, and by Him,
and unto Him, to whom be glory for ever."
2. THE VESSELS OP DISHONOR?THOSE WHO ARE
FOREORDAINED UNTO DEATH.
The Apostle cites the instances of Esau, of
the greater part of Israel, and of Pharoah. Of
the latter, God said, vs. 17: "For this cause
have I raised thee up, that I might show in
thee my power, and that my name might be
published abroad in all the earth."
God does not say "for this cause I created or
inaae mee, ' but "lor this cause I raised thee
up?I exalted thee as king." God did not
make Pharoah wicked; He only made an example
of one already wicked. If he was by nature
and practice a deliberate sinner did not
God have a right to make an example of one
who had "Hardened his heart against God"
repeatedly ?
God had shown mercy to Pharoah all his life.
He had given him honor and glory and power,
D U T H [July 31, 1912
and yet his heart was hardened under divine
merey. II he spurned the goodness of Clod was
he not himself responsible for his lost astute?
lias God no moral right to derive honor from
one whom lie has blessed and honored, but
who ha.-, despised llis tender mercies? God
blesses the godless today? He sends llis sunshine
and showers, llis irifts of nrosneritv un,i
power upon the just aud the unjust alike. He
allows the wicked to flourish as a green bay
tree, and often they flourish at the direct expense
of the righteous. If they spurn Him in
spite of His kindnesses unto them, who is responsible
for their doom? Their blood is upon
their own heads, and the judgment of condemnation
will be a just judgment?one which will
proclaim the justice of a merciful and gracious
God.
We are workers together with God. He is
working in us both to will and to work according
to Ilis good pleasure. Let us humble ourselves
under His mighty hand that in His own
time we may be exalted in Christ Jesus our
Lord.
liiooinfield, Ky.
A CRUCIAL TEST OF ROME'S
WEAKNESS.
Part n.
BY JUAN ORTS GONZAL.EZ.
1 have beeu asked a great many times how
to account for the reverence paid by Roman
Catholics to their priests and the indifference
with which Protestants treat their pastors.
That such an apparent reverence exists no
one well acquainted with the facts will question
; least of all myself. I can say with neither
exaggeration nor self-conceit that the same
right hand with which I write this article has
been reverently kissed hundreds of thousands of
times by different kinds of people and uinoug
them, politicians in high standing?dukes,
duchesses and even members of the royal Spanish
family. 1 have been greeted thousands of
times and by hundreds of influential and prominent
men, who, as a mark of respect for me,
stood aside with their hats in their hands as I
passed along my way. I have seen kneeling
at my feet governors, former ministers, barons,
earls, dukes, duchesses and members of the
royal family requesting me humbly and reverently
to bless them.
Yea, more; I was so accustomed when a
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to see my utterances received always silently
and submissively, that When I became somewhat
acquainted with Protestantism, I was
more than once shocked to hear men and even
ladies and girls questioning some of my opinions
and assuming the liberty, until then unknown
to me, to differ from my teachings.
Perhaps, more than one lady reader of the
"Presbyterian of the South" has heard me in
the first year of my conversion apologizing
for some of my abrupt replies to questions
which I then believed implied lack of submission
and reverence to the minister of God. I
thank God now because I think I knbw better.
What I took for lack of reverence for the minister
is many times the best proof of a deeper
reverence for the Word, and what I took for
a lack of rightful submission is very often the
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viduality and Christian independence. I am
now so much changed in regard to my old
views that, as a great Christian privilege and
heavenly blessing, I enjoy hearing even th^
boys and girls asking questions, if they Jlo it
honestly and for the sake of the trutl^F I be