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The attitude of Jesus then toward His father was
the attitude of a completely submissive child, giv
ing implicit obedience to His will.
To be saved then means that we undertake in
our lives to do the will of God, our Father in
Heaven. Are we there today? Is it our meat to
undertake to do the will of God our Father, with
respect to everything that He wants done in out
lives? If not, we had better stop and see exactly
where we stand. Salvation involves this. The Lord
ship of Jesus incorporates it. Jesus cannot be Lord
and Master of our lives unless we have His at
titude with reference to His Father.
The Lordship of Jesus over our lives involves
also that we assume His attitude with respect to
the devil and to temptation. Jesus cannot be Lord
of our lives so long as we ignore His plan of con
quering the devil.
THE INSIDIOUSNESS OF SATAN.
Have you ever thought of the three phases of
temptation presented to Jesus after His hungering
in the wilderness for forty days? Practically
starved for the lack of food, the devil comes to
Him and submits to Him the triple temptations.
First, he submitted the temptation concerning
bread. Second, the temptation concerning his
faith. Third, the temptation with respect to His
ambition.
In the first instance it was this. Do a wrong
thing to get gain. “Command that these stones
be made bread.” That would have been obtain
ing bread in a wrong way, and Jesus could not do
it. Salvation then is undertaking to assume the
attitude of Jesus with respect to the method of
obtaining gain. That is to say, we will in the
strength of Jesus, undertake to resist the devil
in his emptation to get something with a wrong
method.
Have you assumed His attitude in that particu
lar? Have you business men made up your minds
(hat so far as in you lies you will have not a dol
lar, nor a penny that is not obtained in rightful
methods? If there is the slightest caviling on
your part over things that are dishonest, then you
may know that you have not yet assumed the at
titude of Jesus with respect to the matter of
gain.
In the second place, the devil tempted Him
concerning His faith. The devil sometimes, as he
did with Jesus, endeavors to make shipwreck of
our faith, by trying to get us to spread
our faith over things that God never intended to
cover that we undertake with our faith to trifle
with God. “Climb up on the high pinnacle and
jump off, and if you have faith enough believe
that the angels will come and spread their wings
under you and prevent vou from hurting your
self.”
That was equivalent to trifling with God on the
basis of faith and Jesus could not do it; and
to be saved, accepting the divine sovereignship of
Jesus, means that we will undertake to regard the
question of faith with the same sacredness that
He regarded it.
We must also assume His attitude with regard
to ambition The devil said, “Look out on this
great world. You get down here and worship me
and I will give you everything that you wish; all
the kingdoms of the world are yours if you will
only worship me.” Here was the gratification of
ambition; a temptation that would have swept
most of us off of our feet. But Jesus would not
do a wrong thing even though by so doing he
might obtain empires and kingdoms.
What was Jesus’ attitude with respect to these’
temptations? It was, “Get thee hence, Satan,”
and for Jesus to be our Divine Sovereign, our
Lord, our Master, means that we assume His atti
tude with respect to temptation. Have we assumed
it?
OUR RELATION TO THE WORLD.
It means also to assume His attitude with re
spect to this present world. Here it is. “I am
in the world but not of it.” That is to say, “I
am in the world, but not controlled and domi
nated by the spirit of the world.” For Jesus to
be our Divine Sovereign means that we undertake
to hold ourselves with respect to this world as
Jesus held Himself with respect to it; that
The Golden Age for June 27, 1907.
live in it, that we live amongst the people around
us, that we see what is going on in the world, and
hear what is said, but that we take no part in that
which is contrary to God’s will.
Does Jesus mean that to us? If He does not,
then we may as well stop and question whether we
have ever known the salvation of Jesus. My
brethren, I do not believe that a man can be saved
who does not give to Him Lordship over His life.
I believe that there are thousands of people in the
church who have never yielded to Jesus His right
ful place as Lord and Master.
If Jesus is Lord and Master of your life and
mine, this world, in so far as it is antagonistic
to the will of God, does not master us, does not
control us, in fact, does not have any influence
whatsoever over us.
HAVE YOU ENEMIES?
We must also assume His attitude with respect
to His enemies, and if we are faithful to Jesus
we are obliged to have enemies. I heard it said
of a preacher a few’ days ag-o that -he had not an
enemy in the world. I thought, “I would not be
in his position for all the world.” Thank God, I
have enemies. I know, though, that I have
not an enemy in the world that is not an enemy
to my Lord. I can truthfully say that I have
no ill feeling to any man that walks the face of
the earth. You have your enemies if you have
done your duty. If you have not done your duty,
do it, and know how good it is to be persecuted
for righteousness’ sake.
Let us see what Jesus’ attitude was with respect
to His enemies. Look at Him on the cross. On
both sides of Him were thieves. Out in front of
Him and back of Him and all around Him are a
great, angry mob, endeavoring to heap all the dis
grace on Him possible with their anathemas and
cries; they have crowned Him with thorns and
pierced His hands; and, as if to roll upon Him
a still greater degree of contempt, they gave Him
gall and vinegar to drink; the thing that they al
ways did when the lowest, blackest criminals were
being executed, in order to make the end of the
criminal as much like the crime that he committed
as they could possibly make it! And yet His at
titude was one of forgiveness. “Father, forgive
them for they know 7 not what they do. They do
not know the full significance of this thing. For
give them,” and He passed away.
Have we that attitude? Or have we the atti
tude of resentment, or contention, or strife, or
bickering? Listen. Jesus said, “If any man have
not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” The
Spirit of Christ was the spirit of forgiveness un
der the most terribly trying circumstances that
one was ever placed under.
THE CHRISTIAN’S TRUE MISSION.
Lastly, for Jesus to be Divine Sovereign of out
lives means that we will assume His attitude with
respect to lost men and women. He tells us what
this attitude was. He said, “ I came to seek and to
save that which was lost.” This was not one of
the side lines of His life, but it was the thing for
which He came, and He says, “As my Father
hath sent me, so send I you.” The mission there*
fore of Jesus is the mission of His children, and if
we are saved, we have that same spirit. My broth*
er, have you got it? Have you got it, my sister?
Is that the chief thing for which you live?.
I have been thinking of this a great deal lately,
and from what I see, I must say that it must not
be the chief thing in the lives of many people;
people that are good; people who arc true in other
ways, but their hearts are not burning with a pas
sion for the salvation of men. There is no telling
what we could do if we accepted this individually
as our mission.
What is salvation? It is believing on the Lord
ship of Jesus, committing ourselves unreservedly
to Him; yielding ourselves to His spirit that it
may dominate us, control us, and direct us in this
world. I tell you, it means something to say yes
to Jesus.
H *
“There are more illegal sales of liquor in no
saloon towns than in saloon towns. Regulation of.
licensed saloons doesn’t regulate.”—Baptist Stand
ard.
Holv the 'Battle Was Fought in Sam
Jones ’ County.
Sy Mrs. Lem R. Gilreath.
When a cloudless sun rose over old Bartow
county on Thursday, June 20, our election day,
it found at every voting precinct in the county at
some public place a band of earnest, true-hearted •
Christian women on bended knee, with bowed
heads and lifted hearts, pleading with God for
victory.
Oh, those sunrise prayer meetings! How they
brought the hearts of -those women together as
one heart, and how close it brought them to God.
’Twas just before the battle and the issue just
ahead was fraught with so much meaning to those
wives and mothers and daughters and sisters that
their hearts were burdened almost to breaking,
and they were leaving their burden with their
God.
Promptly at six o’clock the polls opened, and
just over the polling place in Cartersville, cl se
down over the heads of the voters, hung a life
size picture of Rev. Sam P. Jones. Perhaps noth
ing like this was ever done before. The picture
was hung there that he, being dead, might yet
speak, in the cause he had loved best of a 1 ! causes
in this world.
The kind eyes looked out on the scene, and the
firm, true lips seemed to say, “Fellow citizens of
old Bartow, vote for God and the right; vote for
God and the right!”
Earnest, determined women were there when the
polls opened, and saw the first vote cast. And
just here occurred a most remarkable coincidence.
The first four men to vote were the first four in
the same order that voted for prohibition in the
election twenty-three years ago that carried by
a majority of two. Mr. Martin Collins voted first.
Then Judge A. W. Fite; then Mr. J. C. Wofford;
then Mr. B. W. Smith, and the fifth was a man
who twenty-three years ago cast his vote for li
quor, but on Thursday last he handed in the dry
ticket, showing he had seen the blessed benefits of
a dry town.
In an hour or so the court house yard was a
scene of wonderful activity, hundreds of women
and children were there. The women who had
charge of the lunch department had not been idle.
Every voter was to be served with lunch, and ta
bles loaded with tempting sandwiches and steam
ing coffee stood near.
At eight o’clock the children of the town, hun
dreds and hundreds of them, holding white ban
ners high and waving white flags, formed in line
at the Baptist church, and paraded the town. They
were headed by the ministers, Sunday school super
intendents and teachers from the different Sunday
schools. As they marched their sweet childish
voices rang out in song:
“Won’t you vote for Prohibition?
Won’t you vote for Prohibition?
Won’t you vote for Prohibition?
Won’t you vote for me?”
’Twas a wonderful sight ; surely no heart
failed to thrill as they looked at those beautiful
children and thought what this issue meant to
them.
At eleven o’clock the negro children paraded,
and it was a very creditable parade. After it
was over they were marched into the church and a
woman of their own race made them a wonderfully
helpful, earnest talk.
A little band of praying women stayed all day
in the Baptist church, just across the street from
the court house where the votes were being polled;
stayed lhere and talked and prayed and cried.
And every hour the bell rang out loud and strong,
and in the church a new leader, from among the
little group, took the chair.
Outside in the courthouse yard pathetic scenes
were being enacted. Women with silvery hair and
lines of sorrow and great care on their faces, were
pleading with men to vote for God, to vote as they
would vote were it their last day on earth. Young
women with little children around their feet, stood
all day in the June sunshine, pleading with men
for those children, for their own children, kneel
(Concluded on page 12,)
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