Class JBT-3- 
 
 Book 
 
 \ 3k 
 
 Copyright N° 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
THEOLOGY FOR 
 PLAIN PEOPLE 
 
 BY 
 REV. G. W. LASHER, D.D 
 
 Cincinnati, Ohio 
 1906 
 
-. \ 
 
 TSBRARY of CONGRESS 
 Two Copies Received 
 
 DFr 13 S906 
 
 & 
 
 Copyright Entry 
 
 CUSS A XXc„ NO. 
 COPY B. 
 
 
 Copyright, 1906, by 
 G. W. LASHER. 
 
r* 
 ^ 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The essays comprised in this volume 
 were originally written for and published 
 in 
 
 The Journal and Messenger. 
 
 They were intended for plain people, 
 such as compose the great majority of the 
 readers of a religious paper. They were 
 intended and designed to cover the 
 ground of a religious and Christian system 
 of theology. They do not presume to en- 
 ter into all the questions which can be 
 raised in a theological treatise. They are 
 not intended for scholars, nor to meet the 
 quibbles of cavillers. They are for young 
 Christians; and it is believed that they 
 will not prove unacceptable to those of 
 
 (Hi) 
 
iv Preface. 
 
 broad and deep experience in the things 
 of God. They are put into this form, be- 
 cause it is believed that they will thus 
 be made useful to those who will not again 
 see them in the columns of the paper. 
 They are put forth with an earnest desire 
 and hope that they may be blessed to the 
 hearts and minds of a vast number of hon- 
 est, Christian people, lovers of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ and his Gospel. 
 
 The author received many assurances 
 from men whose opinions he prizes that the 
 essays, as published, were meeting a need, 
 and were adapted to do great good among 
 those for whom they were intended. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 The Source of Authority in Re- 
 ligion i 
 
 The God of the Bible — Our God. 8 
 
 Three Persons — One God 14 
 
 By One Man — Sin 20 
 
 How Far Fallen ? 2,7 
 
 A Savior Needed — What Kind of 
 
 Savior ? 34 
 
 The Dead Made Alive — How?. ... 41 
 
 Regeneration — Conversion 48 
 
 Sanctification — Justification ... 53 
 Justification — How Effected .... 62 
 
 Freewill — Predestination 69 
 
 The Perseverance of the Saints. 77 
 
 The Resurrection Body 85 
 
 (v) 
 
vi Table of Contents, 
 
 Page; 
 
 The Issues of "That Day" 92 
 
 The Heavenly World 100 
 
 The Impenitent Dead 106 
 
 The Body of Christ 115 
 
 A Christian Church 122 
 
 Church Officers 129 
 
 The First Christian Duty 136 
 
 Baptism — Its Symbolism 143 
 
 The Supper of the Lord. 150 
 
 Doctrine and Life 160 
 
THEOLOGY FOR 
 PLAIN PEOPLE 
 
THE SOURCE OF AUTHORITY IN RE- 
 LIGION. 
 
 Religion signifies our relation to Deity. 
 The heathen has a religion. It has been 
 a question, hardly yet fully settled, whether 
 there is anywhere on earth a race 2 or a 
 clan, so debased, so sunken in ignorance 
 and beastialitythat it has no religion, recog- 
 nizes no power higher than man or beast. 
 By whatever name he may be called, a 
 deity, or unseen power, is recognized. All 
 heathen of whom history tells us recog- 
 nized the presence and the power of "the 
 gods," and some of them had a conception 
 of a supreme god, exercising authority over 
 all others. Judaism had in it the idea of 
 one true and only God, "Elohim," "El 
 Shaddai," "Jehovah." Abraham had it, and 
 his religion was transmitted to his pos- 
 terity. 
 
 Religion is a matter between man and 
 deity. The Christian religion is a matter 
 between the Christian and the God of the 
 Bible. It is reasonable to suppose that the 
 supreme God, maker of heaven and earth, 
 claims the right to tell his creatures how 
 he would be worshiped. It is presumptuous 
 
 (2) (1) 
 
Theology for Plain People. 
 
 in man to stand before his God and under- 
 take to tell him what he must accept as 
 worship, how he ought to be worshiped, 
 whether by external ceremonies or by 
 philosophical speculations. Consequently, 
 we find in the Book called "The Bible" a 
 progressive revelation of the worship ac- 
 ceptable to Jehovah God. 
 
 Differing from all other animals, man is 
 endued with the power of speech. He is 
 able to use articulate sounds as a vehicle 
 of thought Words are conventional. They 
 are the result of an implicit agreement 
 between different persons that certain 
 words shall have definite meanings, and 
 that these meanings shall inhere in the 
 words, except as they are modified by cir- 
 cumstances or by agreement. But while 
 it is easy to attach words to visible ob- 
 jects, calling each by a specific name, it 
 is not so easy to invent and use words 
 which convey to him who hears the same 
 idea that is in the mind of him who speaks. 
 Material things can be named and defined, 
 but spiritual things can not be so easily 
 defined and understood. Consequently, 
 spiritual things must often be taught by 
 means of signs and illustrations. That 
 which is unseen must be revealed to us in 
 terms of the seen, or heard — the things 
 apprehended by our senses. 
 
The Source of Authority. 
 
 It was, therefore, needful that Jehovah 
 God begin the education of the human race 
 by signs and symbols, and by concrete 
 illustrations of things unseen. He, being 
 Spirit, can not be apprehended by the 
 senses, and he must reveal himself in such 
 language as the human race can under- 
 stand. So we find that, in the earliest 
 ages, men were taught by means of things 
 seen and handled, just as barbarous tribes 
 and peoples are still accustomed to make 
 their thoughts and conceptions known by 
 means of signs and imagery. There was 
 philosophy in the old distinction between 
 "physics," that which pertains to things 
 seen and handled, and "metaphysics," that 
 which can not be apprehended by the 
 senses. It was easy to teach concrete 
 truths;, that is, truths pertaining to things 
 seen and heard and felt. The child, the 
 youth could apprehend and comprehend 
 these things; but only after much study 
 and learning could the more mature mind 
 deal with spiritual things or abstract ideas 
 —metaphysics. First physics, then meta- 
 physics — what comes after physics? 
 
 And so we have our Bible, a volume cov- 
 ering many thousands of years of human 
 history, written by a great many different 
 men, but all conspiring to reveal to us the 
 character and the purpose of God in ere*- 
 
Theology for Plain People. 
 
 tion and in the consummation of human 
 affairs. Beginning with the simplest les- 
 sons of fact, it goes steadily on, until it 
 brings before us, even then in figure, the 
 most sublime and wonderful truths which 
 the human soul can contemplate and with 
 which it is concerned. "In the beginning 
 God." In the closing, "Surely I come 
 quickly." In this Book we have a revela- 
 tion of the infinite and eternal God, and 
 from it we learn what he requires of his 
 creatures. And so we have it said, "The 
 Word of God, which is contained in the 
 Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, 
 is the only rule to direct us how we may 
 glorify and enjoy him." Here is the source 
 of authority in religion. 
 
 The light of nature has its value. The 
 invisible things of God are "clearly re- 
 vealed in the things that are seen," but 
 they can not be discerned by the eye of 
 sense alone. There must be a spiritual 
 sense, and that sense must be awakened by 
 the Spirit of God, before it can discern in 
 nature the true and the living God. It is 
 one thing to recognize the being of God, 
 and quite another thing to determine his 
 character, or how he should be approached. 
 Only the stupid and besotted can fail to 
 see that there is a power higher and 
 mightier than nature. He who looks into 
 
The Source of Authority. 
 
 the heavens can recognize a creator and a 
 power outside of and above all these 
 things, but he can not determine what is 
 the purpose for which all these things are 
 created, whether they have any moral qual- 
 ity, whether he who made them is good 
 or bad; whether he is temporary or eter- 
 nal. Before we can conceive how he ought 
 to be regarded, or worshiped, we must re- 
 ceive another revelation from him. And 
 so it is said of the Bible that it principally 
 teaches "what man is to believe concern- 
 ing God and what duty God requires of 
 man." 
 
 True, this Bible is not a systematic trea- 
 tise on either theology or ethics. It is 
 neither a directory of worship, formally 
 detailed, nor is it a treatise on ethics, but, 
 in its sixty-six books, it never fails to sug- 
 gest, if it does not directly teach, the one 
 or the other, all in harmony, though writ- 
 ten by so many different hands, during so 
 many centuries. The Gcd of Genesis is the 
 God of the Apocalypse. The God of Abra- 
 ham and of Moses and of David is the 
 God of Matthew and of John, of Paul and 
 of Peter. And so to-day, as never before, 
 men are devoting themselves to a study 
 of this wonderful Book, and a Bible-school 
 sends out its greeting declaring that its 
 
Theology for Plain People. 
 
 chief end is to "facilitate a saturation of 
 the mind with the words and spirit of the 
 Bible, in the assurance that from the soil 
 thus nourished all forms of good thinking, 
 as well as all manner of good living, spon- 
 taneously spring." The words of Stilling- 
 fleet, uttered nearly three hundred years 
 ago, were never more significant than to- 
 day: "The Bible, and the Bible alone* is 
 the religion of Protestants"; and that 
 means that it should be the source of re- 
 ligious authority for all the human race. 
 Let critics search it and try it, pick at it 
 and carp at it, there it stands, never more 
 thoroughly entrenched in the affections 
 and confidence of the Christian world than 
 it is to-day. The source of authority in 
 religion is the Word of God, the Christian's 
 Bible. 
 
 No Pope, hierarchy, nor Council of State 
 must come between the human soul and the 
 written Word of God. Jesus himself recog- 
 nized the principle when, three times in his 
 temptation, he said to the tempter "It is 
 written." "What is written in the law? 
 How readest thou?" was his answer to a 
 questioner. "Ye do err, not knowing the 
 Scripture," was his charge against cavil- 
 lers. "Heaven and earth shall pass away," 
 but "not one jot nor tittle shall pass from 
 
The Source of Authority. 
 
 the (written) law, till all be fulfilled/' 
 "All this was done that the Scriptures 
 might be fulfilled," is the oft-repeated 
 testimony of evangelists, All of this 
 goes to show that the Scriptures of 
 the Old Testament were, and are to 
 be, recognized as the Word of God, and 
 it is lawful and right to use detached por- 
 tions — often very brief passages — for the 
 establishment of truth and the conviction 
 of the gainsayer. 
 
THE GOD OF THE BIBLE— OUR GOD. 
 
 The famous Westminster Assembly, 
 which met in London in 1643 for the pur- 
 pose of agreeing upon articles of faith and 
 practice which should become the stand- 
 ard of doctrines for England, Scotland, and 
 Ireland, before finishing its work on the 
 Confession of Faith, turned its atten- 
 tion to the framing of a catechism which 
 should be put into the hands of the 
 young people, and especially should 
 be taught to children. It is said that 
 when it had been determined to prepare 
 the catechism, the Assembly divided among 
 its members the various questions to which 
 is was desirable to frame answers, and in 
 doing so gave to one of the members, a 
 very thoughtful, conscientious and pious 
 man, the question, WHAT IS GOD? Hav- 
 ing received his question, he to whom it 
 had been assigned sat and thought for a 
 time, and as the session for the day was 
 about to close, he rose and said to his 
 brethren that he was conscious of having 
 received an exceedingly difficult task, 
 namely, to define the infinite God. How 
 
 (8) 
 
The God of the Bible. 9 
 
 could he do it? Would not the Assembly 
 make special prayer that he might he 
 helped by divine power and grace. 
 
 Accordingly, the moderator called upon 
 one of the others to lead in prayer for the 
 brother who had asked the favor. The 
 brother appealed to stood, surrounded by 
 the other members of the body, all solemn- 
 ly thinking what it was to define God. 
 The brother opened his mouth and broke 
 forth as follows: "O thou who art a spirit, 
 infinite, eternal and unchangeable, in being, 
 wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness 
 and truth!" and from this he went on to 
 pour out his heart in prayer. When he had 
 finished, the brother to whom the task 
 had been assigned said, "Brethren, I have 
 received the answer to your prayer. Here 
 is my definition of God: 'God is a spirit, 
 infinite, eternal and unchangeable, in his 
 being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, 
 goodness and truth.' " And from that day 
 to this the definition thus framed has been 
 regarded as the most comprehensive and 
 perfect that has ever been devised by man. 
 
 In his conversation with the woman of 
 Samaria, Jesus said, "God is spirit"; not 
 a spirit, as it is commonly said. God is 
 not one of the spirits any more than he 
 is the spirit. There is no indefinite article 
 
10 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 (a) in the Greek language, and while it 
 may be inserted in our translations, yet 
 the insertion should be made only when 
 it is required to complete the sense. It is 
 not thus required in the translation of the 
 words of Jesus. He said, "God is spirit, 
 and they who worship must worship in 
 spirit and in truth." Long before that 
 day Zophar had learned that God is infinite, 
 and he said, "Canst thou by searching 
 find out God? Canst thou find out the 
 Almighty unto perfection? It is as high 
 as heaven, what canst thou do? deeper 
 than hell [the underworld], what canst 
 thou know? The measure thereof is longer 
 than the earth r.nd broader than the sea." 
 Moses, in the wilderness, had a concep- 
 tion of the eternity of God when he said, 
 "Even from everlasting to everlasting thou 
 art God." The apostle James had a concep- 
 tion of the unchangeableness of God when 
 he said that "in him is no variable mess, 
 neither shadow of turning;" and Moses had 
 a conception of the same unvariableness 
 when he was told by Jehovah himself to 
 say to the children of Israel "I AM hath 
 sent me unto you." A psalmist had an 
 idea of the wisdom of God when he said, 
 "His understanding is infinite." Moses 
 was taught that the God of Israel is holy; 
 
The God of the Bible. 11 
 
 but John, on Patmos, had a higher concep- 
 tion of his holiness when he saw the living 
 creatures round about the throne saying, 
 by day and by night, "Holy, holy, holy, 
 Lord God almighty, who wast and art, and 
 art to come!" Space would fail us to cite 
 the passages in which the justice, or right- 
 eousness, of God is set forth in our Book. 
 Moses said, "Just and right is he;" David 
 declared that "justice and judgment are 
 the habitation of his throne;" it is the 
 righteous God who "trieth the reins and 
 the heart;" "a scepter of righteousness is 
 the scepter of his kingdom." 
 
 As for the goodness of God, only he who 
 loves him can conceive it. But when one 
 stands, as Moses stood on the mount with 
 Jehovah, and listens to the voice as Moses 
 listened, he comes to believe the truth of 
 the words spoken in the earthquake: "Je- 
 hovah, Jehovah, a God merciful and 
 gracious, slow to anger and abundant 
 in loving kindness and truth!" In 
 the goodness of God is involved his 
 mercy, his compassion, his forgiving 
 grace. He "visits the iniquities of 
 the fathers upon the children of them that 
 hate him, but shows mercy unto thou- 
 sands of them who love him and keep his 
 commandments." And as for his truth, his 
 
12 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 words stand sure. When he speaks he 
 stands fast to his word. Only perverse 
 hardness and persistence in sin prevents 
 him from the exercise of his goodness; 
 but when he has decreed judgment, noth- 
 ing can stay his hand. The promises made 
 to Abraham stand good to-day, and those 
 who trust him find them sure. His prom- 
 ise to David kept him from executing his 
 judgments upon the sinners of several gen- 
 erations. True as well as righteous is he 
 in all his ways. 
 
 Such is the God revealed to us in the 
 Bible; and such is our God. No man, 
 neither any council of men, has been able 
 to devise such a God. For these thousands 
 of years men have been seeking to find 
 some flaw in his character and devise some 
 amendment or improvement in it. But 
 their devices have utterly failed. They 
 have been able to get some idea of power 
 and a faint conception of eternal being. 
 But they have failed to conceive a God of 
 infinite wisdom, of infinite holiness, in- 
 finite goodness, and infinite truth. The 
 god of the scientist is a god of law, subject 
 to his own laws, the laws of "nature." He 
 is without sight, or hearing, or love, or 
 compassion. Admitting that he is the 
 maker of a vast organism, or machine, of 
 
The God of the Bible. 13 
 
 which our earth forms a small part, and 
 admitting that he made the laws which 
 prevail in our earthly system, he can not 
 change his law, neither can he deliver any 
 of his creatures from the fate which im- 
 pends over them. The earth and its con- 
 tents is a great mill which runs on, indif- 
 ferent to results, until it has exhausted 
 itself, there being no eye to pity and no 
 arm to save. If good come it is according 
 to law; and if evil, pain and misery, it is 
 because of the movements of the machine 
 which knows no pity, no mercy. But the 
 God of the Bible — our God — is a God of 
 love and mercy, compassionate towards 
 those who love him, but just and right to 
 forever turn away from those who mis- 
 trust him or refuse allegiance to him. 
 Happy for us if, in truth, the God of the 
 Bible is our God. 
 
THREE PERSONS— ONE GOD. 
 
 The mystery of all mysteries and least 
 comprehensible to the human mind is the 
 Trinity of persons in one God. There are 
 many mysteries connected with the divine 
 personality and with the works of our 
 God. Even the law and the fact of gravi- 
 tation is a mystery. The electric current 
 is a mystery. What is called Nature, con- 
 cerning which Science and devotees of 
 Science have told us so many things, and 
 which many assume that they fully under- 
 stand, is full of mysteries. How the vege- 
 table grows is a mystery. How the animal 
 grows is no less a mystery. How animal 
 life is sustained is a mystery. Men can 
 talk wisely and learnedly about these 
 things, but they do not reach ultimate 
 truth. There are heights and depths which 
 they have not yet reached. What wonder, 
 then, that they have not reached the solu- 
 tion of the mystery of "three Persons in 
 one God, the same in substance, equal in 
 power and glory"? 
 
 It does not trouble us much when we are 
 told that "in the beginning God created the 
 
 (14) 
 
Three Persons — One God. 15 
 
 heavens and the earth." We think that 
 we can understand that. But we are also 
 told that from "the beginning," the eternal 
 Word "was in the world, and the world 
 was made by him"; and another Scripture 
 says that "through him" God made the 
 worlds; for "the same was in the begin- 
 ning with God." God made the world. 
 Christ made the world. Both Father and 
 Sen were present and acting when the 
 world was made. &nd not only so, but at 
 the same time "the Spirit of God moved, 
 or brooded, over the face of the waters." 
 "The Spirit is life"; he is eternal; he is 
 omnipresent — "Whither shall 1 go from thy 
 Spirit?" He is omniscient; he "searcheth 
 all things, yea, the deep things of God." 
 He is omnipotent, working and bestowing 
 all gifts of miracles, since "all these work- 
 eth that one and the selfsame Spirit." He 
 dwells in the saints; he regenerates the 
 soul; he quickens the mortal body. All 
 this we trust we can understand. It seems 
 simple, easy of comprehension. And yet, 
 it is all a mystery. 
 
 Jesus said that he knew the Father as 
 fully as the Father knew the Son; that 
 he did nothing of himself, but was always 
 doing the works of his Father; that he did 
 the same things and only the same things 
 
16 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 which his Father did; that the Father was 
 :n him and he in the Father. He spoke of 
 a glory which he had with the Father be- 
 fore the world was, and the Father has 
 said of the Son, "Thy throne, O God, is 
 forever and ever." The Father has "life 
 in himself," and the Son has "life in him- 
 self." The Father and the Son, are persons 
 distinct from each other, and the Holy 
 Spirit is a person distinct from either or 
 both. True, the Greek word pneuma, 
 meaning spirit, is in the neuter gender, 
 and so we constantly speak of the Holy 
 Spirit as "it." But we know better than 
 to think of him as something less than 
 a person. All other Greek words refer- 
 ring to him are in the masculine gender, 
 and there are several of them. He is the 
 Comforter, the Instructor, Guide, Patron, 
 Advocate, and in all these characters he 
 is a personality. He stands with the Fa- 
 ther and with the Son in the command to 
 baptize. 
 
 It is not difficult to understand that 
 the Father, is God; no more difficult 
 is it to understand that the Son is God, 
 and no more is it difficult to under- 
 stand that the Holy Spirit is God. 
 Least of all is it difficult to understand 
 that there is but one God. Finally, wo can 
 
Three Persons — One God. 17 
 
 say without being troubled: "To God the 
 Father, God the Son, and God the Holy 
 Spirit be praise, might, majesty and .io- 
 minion, world without end." 
 
 What is our trouble, then? We have 
 none, until we undertake to solve the mys- 
 tery of three in one and one in three. 
 But we are to know of a truth tha.; it is 
 a mystery — a thing beyond our compre- 
 hension. Yet it is not the only mystery; 
 only one of the mysteries. If we could 
 understand it all; if we could know God 
 as we know each other, we should cease 
 to worship him as God. He would be com- 
 monplace to us. Let us first compass the 
 idea of eternity, the idea of omnipresence, 
 the idea of omnipotence, the idea of omni- 
 science, then we may demand the ability 
 to understand the Trinity. 
 
 A scientific journal has just told us that 
 "It is now known to modern mentalists, 
 lately newly discovered — the ancient stu- 
 dents of mind knew it — that our minds are 
 unable to think of the following six words: 
 Space, infinity, eternity, creation, begin- 
 ning, and end. They are all unknowable, 
 and the chief mathematicians of the world 
 do not try to think of them — a sheer waste 
 of time." Yet there are those who demand 
 that they understand the Trinity, before 
 
 (3) 
 
18 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 they accept the idea of three persons in 
 one God. Some of those who make this 
 demand regard themselves, and want us 
 to regard them, as wise men. 
 
 Think of this — it is Science: The dis- 
 tance from the earth to our sun is 93,000,- 
 000 of miles. The distance from our sun 
 to its nearest neighbor among the stars 
 is 25,000,000,000,000 miles. "An object mov- 
 ing on a straight line at the rate of one 
 mile a minute would require more than 
 48,500,000, nearly 49,000,000 of years, to tra- 
 verse the distance from the sun to the 
 nearest fixed star. Yet our God and our 
 Christ made both the sun and the star, 
 and our God is there now as truly as he 
 is here. Again, "light is known to be in 
 motion always with the tremendous speed 
 of 186,000 miles per second. There are in 
 our siderial or calendar year 31,228,149 sec- 
 onds, and the time required for light to 
 traverse the distance between our own sun 
 and the nearest fixed star is 43,572 years." 
 Yet our God is there, and he is here at the 
 same time. The distance from the earth 
 to the sun is 93,000,000 miles, and yet the 
 distance from the sun to the fixed star 
 nearest to it is 275,000 times 93,000,000 
 miles. Yet our God is at both the sun 
 and that star at the same time. And yet 
 
Three Persons — One God. 19 
 
 men say that they can not believe in the 
 Trinity — Three Persons in One God — be- 
 cause they can not understand it. For- 
 sooth ! 
 
 But why talk about the Trinity? Be- 
 cause three persons have to do with man's 
 salvation, with the happiness of the Chris- 
 tian, with the glory to be revealed to the 
 saint and in the saint a few years hence. 
 So sure as we do not accept the doctrine 
 of the Trinity, we fail of the greatest bless- 
 ing connected with the religion of the 
 Bible. It is not speculation, nor is it 
 imagination. It is a revelation from God. 
 
BY ONE MAN— SIN. 
 
 No one denies or doubts that sin is in 
 the world. It is everywhere evident. The 
 question is, How did it come here? Did 
 God originate and create it? Did he cre- 
 ate a sinner — a being in his very nature, a 
 sinner — sinful? No one believes it. All 
 mat God "created and made" was "very 
 good." Yet sin is in the world. If it was 
 not here "in the beginning"; if it was not 
 crated; if sin was not an element in 
 something which God created, it must have 
 come in after the creation had been com- 
 pleted. Sin is here, and it is found only 
 in humanity. The sun, moon, stars, the 
 round earth, the living things that move 
 on the earth — none of these is a sinner. 
 The sinner is man — the race of man. 
 
 It follows, then, that sin came after man 
 came. Not that there was no sin in any 
 part of the universe; but there was no sin 
 on this earth till after the creation of 
 man. And now it is found that sin has 
 affected every member of the human race. 
 There is no exception, whether in the civil- 
 ized or the savage races; in the refined and 
 
 (20) 
 
By One Man — Sin. 21 
 
 cultured or the rough and uncouth barbar- 
 ian — all are sinners. The hoary-headed and 
 thp infant both are sinners. The thoughtful 
 man confesses it. The Scriptures tell us 
 that the infant is not excepted. "The law 
 01 sin and death" has been in the world 
 from the first until now. Death is the 
 penalty of sin, and where there is no sin 
 there is no dying. "Nevertheless death 
 reigned from Adam to Moses, even over 
 them who had not sinned after the simili- 
 tude (after the same manner of disobedi- 
 ence) of Adam's transgression " Little chil- 
 dren, infants, died in the primitive ages, 
 before the days of Abraham, before Moses 
 and the formal law. Did the good God the 
 maker of man, inflict death upon perfect 
 innocency? We can not believe that he 
 did. How then shall we account for the 
 presence of sin and for the effect of sin 
 in the human race? 
 
 That is a question which has puzzle*! 
 philosophers; and the world is full of men 
 who are unwillling to receive instruction 
 but are seeking to solve the problem of 
 sin by their own wisdom. Generation after 
 generation of men have been at work on 
 the problem; but they have made out very 
 poorly. No sooner has one cried "Eureka!" 
 — 1 have found it — than another has cried 
 
22 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 out "Erratum!"— a mistake. And so they 
 have been going on through the centuries 
 one wise in his own eyes, a neighbor com- 
 ing and searching him out. The philoso- 
 phers have devoured each other, and are as 
 lean to-day as though they had never 
 been fed on vanity. We are not sorry 
 that these philosophers have been at work, 
 for they have demonstrated the limitation 
 of human wisdom and the utter inability 
 of man, to solve the problem by any other 
 process than that which Jehovah marked 
 out for them, when it was said that 
 Adam "begat a son in his own image, 
 after his likeness" — in the image he bore 
 after he had sinned. Since that day every 
 human soul has borne the same image, 
 the image of a sinner. The Deluge swept 
 away the great multitude; but the eight 
 souls saved were still sinners, and soon 
 proved it. They begat sinners, and death 
 reigned. 
 
 The philosophers having failed, how do 
 we account for the presence of sin in the 
 world, and for the fact of sinfulness in 
 every human soul? If, at the end of sixty 
 centuries, human wisdom has not solved 
 the question, surely we are not so vain as 
 to spend time over it now. What then? 
 We will take "the Scriptures of truth" and 
 
Bu One Man — Sin. 23 
 
 allow them to answer for us. Here is wis- 
 dom. He that readeth, let him understand. 
 Jesus tells us that he came into the world 
 to destroy the works of the devil, and he 
 assumed that every person whom he met 
 was a victim of the devil's doings. He came 
 to call "not the righteous, but sinners to 
 repentance," and he held that repentance 
 was due on the part of every one. It was sin 
 that nailed Him to the cross. Yet he only 
 could not be convicted of sin, and only sin- 
 ners can be benefited by his death. By the 
 pen of one whom he raised up for the pur- 
 pose God tells us how it came about that 
 "sin entered into the world, and death 
 by sin, so that death passed upon all men, 
 for that all hav r e sinned." He tells us that 
 it was "by one man who sinned," that man 
 Adam, the first created and the only cre- 
 ated man — the father of the whole human 
 race. We have learned that "authority in 
 religion" is the Word of God. To this we 
 turn and read (Rom. v.). "Therefore, as 
 through one man sin entered into the 
 world, and death by sin; and so death 
 passed unto all men, for that all sinned"— 
 Sinned, when ; how? Sinned in the first 
 sinner. . . . "For if by the trespass of one 
 the many died." — Who was the offender? 
 Who wrought the havoc? It was the one 
 
24 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 man, the father of the race — Adam. For 
 the judgment came of one unto condemna- 
 tion/' "For if by the trespass of the one 
 death reigned through the one." Terrible 
 fact. "The one" was the first sinner, and 
 he innocculated his race. Sin entered the 
 blood; it affected the whole man, and 
 every man. "So then, as through one tres- 
 pass the judgment came unto all men to 
 condemnation." Not only by one sinner, 
 but by one trespass. . It was not a course 
 of sinning, by which the sinner became 
 worse and worse; but it was by one single 
 act of sinning, or trespass. "For as 
 through the one man's disobedience the 
 many were made sinners." There it is 
 again. He "who held the pen seemed to 
 know what he was writing, and whether 
 it was the pen or the writer, the guiding 
 hand was God's. All that was written is 
 in perfect harmony with what we learn 
 by the tenor of the whole great volume. 
 We read it in the third chapter of Gen- 
 esis, and we trace it all the way down: 
 Sin, death; sin, death. "None righteous, 
 not so much as one." "All sinned and 
 came short of the glory of God." Only 
 two men of them all did not die, and their 
 rescue from death was simply to show what 
 Jehovah could have done with all the race, 
 
By One Man — Sin. 25 
 
 had all been fit for the translation. At 
 another time it may be permitted us to say 
 something about the way of deliverance; 
 but now our thought must be confined to 
 the fact of sin and its penalty. 
 
 "Sin is lawlessness." It is not simply 
 an act; it is a condition. The first human 
 sin was not simply an external, "overt" act, 
 beginning and ending with the sinner. It 
 was induced by a tempter, and it ruined 
 the tempted. It effected an uncleanness out 
 of which it has never been possible to 
 bring a clean thing. He who never sins 
 may be a sinner. Such is the infant. 
 While vet unable to commit an act of sin, 
 the soul is sinful; it was born in sin, with 
 a sinful nature/ and only the redemption 
 purchased by the blood of Christ can de- 
 liver it from the penalty of sin. Man 
 iooketh on the outward appearance; but 
 the Lord Iooketh upon (and into) the 
 heart; for it is out of the heart that the 
 evil things proceed. We can take account 
 of only the external act, and we forbid 
 judgment upon one for merely thinking 
 evil. But he who seeth in secret search- 
 eth the heart and trieth the reins of the 
 children of men. There may be a repent- 
 ance of sinful acts, but there is need of a 
 deeper repentance, because of the evil pro- 
 
26 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 pensity; because when we would do 
 good, evil is present with us. It is the sin 
 in the man which takes occasion, when the 
 law enters, to deceive and slay the self- 
 righteousi sinner. A beam of sunshine gleams 
 through the shutters of a darkened room. 
 We enter and notice that there is dust 
 there. It was not the beam of sunshine 
 which produced it. It was not our en- 
 trance. The dust was there before we en- 
 tered, and in spite of the sunbeam. So sin 
 is in the soul, quiet, but ready to break 
 out at any moment. And all because "by 
 one man sin entered into the world." 
 
 Yet for all this our God has provided 
 a remedy to be enjoyed by him who will. 
 
HOW FAR FALLEN'? 
 
 It is never pleasant to contemplate sin. 
 especially is it not pleasant to contemplate 
 one's own sins. It is easy for most people 
 to admit that they are sinners, provided we 
 allow them to follow with the remark: "We 
 are all sinners." The great virtue of the 
 publican's prayer was that he confessed 
 himself to be "the sinner." (In the best 
 Greek manuscripts the article the is before 
 the word sinner.) The man got no comfort 
 out of the thought that "all men are sin- 
 ners." He was not troubled about others; 
 his trouble was with himself; he was the 
 sinner. And until one comes to feel that, 
 he is not in a condition of true repentance. 
 The truly repentant soul does not repent 
 for others beside itself. 
 
 There is among us great objection to the 
 phrase "total depravity." To many people 
 it is like a red rag to a mad bull; it rouses 
 antagonism and protest. And yet the words 
 belong to a great fact. They do not mean 
 that the sinner, the depraved, is just as bad 
 as he can be. On the other hand, it means 
 that every part of the sinner is affected by 
 
 (27) 
 
28 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 sin. The soul of man is an indivisible unit. 
 It can not be part one thing and part 
 another — partly good and partly bad. It 
 is either on God's side, or it is against Gad. 
 In its natural state every soul is against 
 God. In a regenerate state every soul is 
 on God's side. Herein is the radical differ- 
 ence between an unregenerated and a re- 
 generated soul. To get it on God's side 
 and keep it on God's side every human 
 soul, having sinned and fallen in Adam, 
 has to be regenerated, "born anew," "born 
 from above," "born of God." 
 
 While it is true that the human soul is 
 a unit, an undivisible entity, it is true that 
 it has many faculties, and it is capable of 
 a great many motions and motives. It is 
 endowed with the powers of thought, mem- 
 ory, reasoning, emotion and will, and when 
 we speak of depravity, or sinfulness, we 
 recognize all these as affected by sin. And 
 not only so, sin has so affected the soul that 
 it can not recover itself. It is not only 
 true, as said in the old New England 
 Primer; 
 
 " In Adam's fall 
 We sinned all"; 
 
 Paul has said: "All have sinned and 
 come short of the glory of God"; and it is 
 true, as the Scriptures clearly teach, and 
 
How Far Fallen? 29 
 
 as experience proves, that the fallen ha3 
 no power of self-restoration to the state 
 from which he fell. Over this question the- 
 ologians have wrangled ever since the days 
 of Pelagius, and a great many different the- 
 ories have been embraced and argued, but 
 there still remains the great fact that Jesus 
 Christ came into the world to save sinners, 
 and it can not be that he would have come 
 to save them, that he would have laid down 
 his life on the cross, if there had been any 
 possibility of the sinner's saving himself. 
 Every soul which accepts Jesus as its Savior 
 lias to confess that it could not have been 
 saved by any other means. Every redeemed 
 soul is a witness that salvation is wholly 
 yi grace in Christ Jesus. There can be only 
 two conceivable wa3 7 s by which a human 
 soul can enter into the life of God; one of 
 these by works, the other by grace. But the 
 New Testament distinctly declares that the 
 life of God can not be achieved by works, 
 and it as distinctly declares that it is al- 
 ways and in every case by grace. 
 
 The Scriptures also declare that what is 
 of grace is not of works, and that what is 
 of works is not of grace. Moreover, grace 
 and works can not be harmonized with 
 each other. The soul can not plead part 
 grace and part works. The word salvation 
 means something done for one which he 
 
30 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 could not do for himself. One who is not 
 lost can not be said to be found. One who 
 can recover himself can not be said to be 
 saved. Jesus came to seek and to save the 
 lost, those who could not find their own 
 way into life. For four thousand years men 
 had been trying to save themselves by 
 various devices, and God had been work- 
 ing with them by means of the law, and 
 yet the race was no better than at the be- 
 ginning. The first son of Adam was the 
 most monstrous sinner who ever lived, 
 and the second son was one of the most 
 pious. Yet neither of them could save him- 
 self. Abel offered bloody sacrifices, be- 
 cause he believed them to be pleasing to 
 God, and Cain offered something else, be- 
 cause he defied God; and because he defied 
 God he killed his own brother, and did it 
 because of his hatred of God; because God 
 respected Abel's offering, and did not re- 
 spect his. 
 
 So then, we say, that in the fall of man 
 he became altogether helpless, so far as his 
 salvation is concerned. There was left in 
 him no power by which he could recover 
 himself. Every attribute and faculty of his 
 being became affected and wrecked by sin. 
 Sin enters into every act of life. The most 
 pious saint of whom we have ever heard 
 was prone to confess sin. Those who have 
 
How Far Fallen? 31 
 
 lived nearest to God have been most ready 
 to acknowledge their sinfulness. The God- 
 ly John Newton confessed: "If I pray, or 
 hear, or read, sin is mixed with all I do. " 
 In, the first three chapters of Romans Paul 
 tells us what is the true condition of the 
 human race in its relation to God, point- 
 ing out various forms which sin takes. The 
 picture is a most distressing one. It is 
 black and filthy. And yet it has to be con- 
 fessed that it is true to the life. Every- 
 thing there said of humanity and of hu- 
 man nature can be proved to be true. If 
 some of us are not guilty of all the sins 
 there enumerated, it is simply because we 
 have not been subjected to the same temp- 
 tations, or have not been reared amid the 
 same surroundings. Christianity, weak as 
 some would have us believe it to be, has 
 done a great deal to keep us from some 
 of the degrading sins mentioned in those 
 chapters. The impossibility of self-recov- 
 ery on the part of such sinners is illus- 
 trated by Jehovah, when he says, through 
 Jeremiah (xiii. 23): "Can the Ethiopian 
 change his skin, or the leopard his spots? 
 Then may ye also do good that are accus- 
 tomed to do evil." True, men may reform 
 their habits, in some things, and make 
 great improvement in their manner of life; 
 but by no process of self-education can 
 
32 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 they get the presence of sin out of their 
 souls. Those who have made the highest 
 attainments have been ready to declare, 
 and have declared, that they were saved 
 not by works of righteousness, but by 
 grace, the mercy and the power of God. 
 
 William Carey, the great missionary, who 
 spent over forty years in the most arduous 
 missionary service, wished to Have en- 
 graved on his tombstone: 
 
 " A wretched, poor and helpless worm, 
 On thy kind arms 1 fall." 
 
 Paul (Rom. v. 6) says truly: "For while 
 we were yet without strength Christ died 
 for the ungodly." That is, while yet man 
 was unable to save himself, Christ died for 
 just such weak sinners. Ungodly men do 
 not recognize this want of strength, or abil- 
 ity to help themselves, but insist upon 
 thinking that they do well, because they 
 are not as bad as they might be. They 
 seem to think that if they can make it ap- 
 pear that they do more good things than 
 bad thingg (they themselves keeping the 
 books and estimating the value of their 
 deeds) then their good deeds, by overbal- 
 ancing the bad, entitle them to life and 
 blessedness. They do not understand, or 
 will not confess even to themselves, that 
 every violation of the divine law is fatal 
 
How Far Fallen? 33 
 
 to their hope. By one act of sin Adam 
 fell, and yet men think that they can com- 
 mit untold sins without falling, or forfeit- 
 ing blessedness. They do not seem to know 
 that they have already lost every possible 
 means of saving themselves, and that their 
 doom is sealed; that there is no way of 
 deliverance except by acknowledging their 
 sins and casting themselves upon the mercy 
 of God. 
 
 Just here is the greatest obstacle in the 
 way of the salvation, of lost souls. The 
 sinners will not acknowledge their sinful- 
 ness, their need of deliverance by some 
 power higher and mightier than themselves. 
 They will not believe that they are lost, 
 and, consequently, will not come to Christ 
 that they may have life. And this is con- 
 clusive evidence that sin has utterly ruined 
 the race, and that there is in man no pow- 
 er to overcome the effects of sin in his 
 soul. God must do it, or the soul must 
 perish for ever. 
 
 (4) 
 
A SAVIOR NEEDED— WHAT KIND OF 
 SAVIOR? 
 
 The man was made upright, in, the image 
 of his Maker. He was possessed of quali- 
 ties and faculties the ideal of him who cre- 
 ated hiim. But these qualities and facul- 
 ties were not as the attributes of the Cre- 
 ator, infinite. When put to the test, the 
 man fell, and all his qualities and faculties 
 became affected by the fall. Two painters 
 were painting a cornice on a high build- 
 ing. A rope supporting the swinging scaf- 
 fold broke; one of the men saved himself, 
 the ©ther fell to the pavement. These eyes 
 saw the body two minutes after it struck 
 the sidewalk. Nat a muscle moved. The 
 man was dead and helpless, but he was no 
 more dead and helpless than was the man 
 who fell in disobedience to divine law. He 
 fell less than a hundred feet, but he could 
 not recover what he had lost. Not one 
 member only, but every member of his 
 body was dead. Other men could lift up 
 and bear away the body, but they could not 
 restore the life; could not make him what 
 he was before. No more can the sinner. 
 (34) 
 
What Kind of Savior Needed. 35 
 
 whether the first or the last, recover him- 
 self and pat himself right with God. 
 
 What then? God must do it. It must 
 b^ done by divine power, a power no lesn 
 than that of the Creator. He could remove 
 the dead and create a new race, but he 
 chose to recover the fallen, and make more 
 glorious that which had been ruined in the 
 fall. To do that would give mere glory to 
 the Redeemer than would the creation of 
 a second race. Not simply restoration to 
 the lost estate was the purpose, but the ex- 
 hibition of divine wisdom, love and mercy, 
 and the production of something better 
 than that which had suffered. Not simply 
 restoration, but something infinitely better 
 was the purpose formed and put into exe- 
 cution. 
 
 How? He who would act as the Redeem- 
 er and Deliverer must be able to act a 
 double part. He must be God and man in 
 the same person. He must know God, the 
 offended, and he must know man, the of- 
 fender, the ruined. He must know divine 
 power, glory, purity, holiness, and he must 
 know man's weakness, his perverted pro- 
 pensities, his environments, his tempta- 
 tions, the power of his enemy. He must 
 be able to lay hold upon the throne of God 
 with one hand, and lay hold upon the dead 
 sinner with the other. He must have 
 
36 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 power to beget a new life where the old one 
 had gone out. He must be able to effect an 
 enduring change, so that there should be 
 no danger of another lapse, a second ruin. 
 He must recognize the personality of the 
 sinner, his free-will, his helplessness, and, 
 at the same time, his disposition to assert 
 his independence and self-sufficiency, his 
 hardness of heart and his blindness of mind 
 — every element of his nature affected dis- 
 astrously by the fall. It was an occasion 
 for pity, an impulse to help, and a purpose 
 to persevere until the purpose might be ac- 
 complished. 
 
 The help provided must not be forced 
 upon the recipient in such a way that he 
 can not fail of receiving it. As the first 
 sinner was endowed with free-will, so every 
 other sinner must be free to choose or to 
 reject. Good and evil must still be kept 
 before the sinner, as they had been set be- 
 fore the father of the race. Beside, it must 
 be recognized that the fall has actually 
 produced "enmity against God," upon 
 whom the sinner laid the blame, in that 
 he had been exposed to temptation and had 
 not been so hedged about as to render his 
 sin impossible. All these things must be 
 taken into account in any effort to over- 
 come the effects of the fall. It was a great 
 
What Kind of Savior Needed. 37 
 
 problem; only the divino mind, the infinite, 
 could solve it. 
 
 A question of the centuries has been 
 "Cur Deus Homo?" — Why did God become 
 man? At the end of the centuries there are 
 those who declare themselves unable to an- 
 swer it. Generation after generation has 
 been engaged upon it, and while goodly 
 numbers have accepted the fact and have 
 with it received a blessing, even eternal 
 life, others have still made proof of the 
 utter inability of the fallen to recover him- 
 self. Instead of welcoming the Deliverer 
 and gladly accepting his help in the for- 
 lorn extremity, the multitude has been ig- 
 noring him, on the one hand, or question- 
 ing the facts and the motives, on the other. 
 The sinner has been slow to believe that 
 the offer of salvation could be absolutely 
 free, and that he who made it was not 
 moved by a desire for personal prof- 
 it. Though declared to be free, the sin- 
 ner has argued that there must be some 
 return for it; that he who receives it must 
 work for it, either before or after Its be- 
 stowment. 
 
 And so there has been a great deal of 
 trouble just there. Just at the gate of 
 abounding mercy, and in the immediate 
 presence of the Great Deliverer, men have 
 
38 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 set them down and argued, either as to the 
 futility of the offer, the quality of the 
 mercy, the necessity for the redemption, 
 or the certainty of its accomplishment. 
 And so they have sat there and reasoned 
 with themselves or with each other, till 
 the door closed upon them, and they went 
 away into the everlasting darkness — un- 
 saved. Sin — the first sin — thus perverted 
 and twisted human faculties and rendered 
 so difficult the undertaking of redemption. 
 In this respect man often proved stronger 
 to resist than was God to save. 
 
 A. savior was needed; of that there could 
 be no reasonable question. God saw it; 
 Jesus, the Son of God, saw it; and the Holy 
 Spirit saw it; and angels saw it. The God- 
 head did not hesitate to enter upon it, and 
 the angels became willing messengers and 
 witnesses to help on the work. The Father 
 could sit upon the throne and order the af- 
 fairs of his universe; the Son could con- 
 descend to be the special medium of re- 
 demption, and the Holy Spirit could abide 
 his time to consummate, by his peculiar 
 power, and conserve everything that might 
 be achieved and secured. The love of the 
 Son prompted him to offer himself; the love 
 of the Father prevailed upon him to con- 
 sent, and the love of the Spirit caused him 
 to put forth his gentle, sweet and wooing 
 
What Kind of Savior Needed. 39 
 
 voice, entering into the depths of the .soul, 
 humbled and subdued, and to there take up 
 his abode, making that soul a new creation 
 in the name of the Redeemer, to the glory 
 of God the Father. 
 
 The centuries passed; other means were 
 shown to be ineffectual; no lasting and re- 
 liable result had been accomplished, when 
 the Son of the Highest appeared in the low- 
 liness of a stable, born of a woman, yet he 
 of whom Moses in the law and the prophets 
 had written and spoken. Born, of a virgin, 
 he was the Son of God and the son of Man. 
 He received the testimony of the Father to 
 his fitness for the work, when it was 
 acknowledged, in a voice from the excel- 
 lent glory: "This is my beloved Son, in 
 whom I am well pleased.' Thus, and b} 
 such testimony, did the Man of Galilee re 
 ceive the assurance, in which we also share, 
 that he was just such a one as God would 
 have to do the work demanded. At the 
 same time the Holy Spirit bore witness by 
 a dove-like descent, from which time for- 
 ward he remained upon the Son of man. 
 
 By the witness borne at the Jordan, and 
 on other occasions, the Man of Nazareth 
 gave proof that he was just such a Savior 
 as the Creator was pleased to accept as the 
 redeemer of the fallen. He was not self-sent, 
 nor self-imposed. He bore witness of him- 
 
40 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 self, the Father bore witness of him, and the 
 Iioly Spirit sealed the testimony when he 
 took up his abode in the hearts which had 
 been opened to receive the Lord Jesus. Not 
 as by a flash of lightning, the work of a 
 moment, was the redemption to be accom- 
 plished. It must be wrought out in the 
 presence of the sinners. Men must see and 
 hear, and judge for themselves whether 
 they would have this Savior. If they ac- 
 cepted him. followed him, loved him, called 
 themselves by his name, and entered into 
 living sympathy with him, they gave ex- 
 ternal proof that they would be loyal to 
 the God against whom they had always been 
 in revolt. It would be a treaty of peace 
 and it would be recognized by the peace 
 which came to possess the soul. This would 
 be proof to them as it was to God also, that 
 the old antagonism had ceased; that from 
 that time onward love and confidencee and 
 filial fellowship were to exist and increase 
 between the Creator and the fallen crea- 
 ture. It was a matter of free will a free 
 Choice, but so brought about that he was 
 sweetly constrained, made willing by the 
 blessed power of the wooing Spirit. Such 
 a need — such a Savior. 
 
THE DEAD MADE ALIVE— HOW? 
 
 There are those who do not believe that 
 Jesus, the First-begotten of God, rose from 
 the dead according to the Scriptures. 
 There are those who can not believe that 
 a human body, dead and laid in the bosom 
 of earth, can be made to live again. Yet 
 Jesus said: "He that believeth on me, 
 though he were dead, yet shall he live." 
 "The dead shall hear the voice of the Son 
 of God, and they who hear shall live." 
 Paul reasoned truly: "If by the trespass of 
 one the many died, much more did the 
 grace 01 God and the gift by grace abound 
 unto many." And he says to the Ephe- 
 sians: :"And you hath he quickened (made 
 alive) who were dead in trespasses and in 
 sins." So it is reckoned that there is a 
 physical death and there is a spiritual 
 death — a death of the body and a death of 
 the soul. Every human being has already 
 inherited the latter, and every one is sure 
 to experience the former. So far as he 
 himself is concerned, "no man has power 
 over the spirit to retain the spirit, neither 
 hath he power in the day of death." No 
 
 (41) 
 
42 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 one wno has come to years expects to es- 
 cape the death of the body. No one who 
 knows his own soul, or has learned from 
 the Word of God, can fail to recognize 
 himself as "dead in sin." 
 
 The question arises: How is it possible 
 for the dead to be made alive? Who can 
 raise up the dead body? Who can revive 
 the dead soul? He who can do the one 
 can do the other, and only he. We remem- 
 ber that in the vision of the valley, Ezekiel 
 saw the scattered bones brought together, 
 bone to its fellow bone; he saw the sinews 
 come back to the bones, and the flesh come 
 up upon the sinews; then he saw the skin 
 come back upon the flesh — all the mem- 
 bers of the bodies in their places and all 
 perfect as in the day of death. But the 
 bodies lay there as helpless as when the 
 bones were scattered. There was no 
 power in any one of them to raise itself 
 up or move a muscle. Unless something 
 else had been done for them, they must 
 have mouldered back to dust again. It 
 was only when the prophet had called, at 
 the commandment of God, that the breath 
 came, the spirits entered into them, and 
 they "arose and stood upon their feet, an 
 exceeding great army." Only he who 
 could breathe the breath of life into those 
 
The Dead Made Alive — How? 43 
 
 slain ones has power to make alive the 
 soul tnat is "dead in trespasses and in 
 sins." 
 
 To the dead soul it is a matter of no con- 
 sequence that God has been good in giv- 
 ing and preserving life; in giving social 
 instincts and providing for social friend- 
 ships; in giving abundance, so that man's 
 life can be more than existence; in giving 
 Jesus Christ, the God-man, to live a human 
 life, endure human woes, suffer the pains 
 of humanity, and finally die a human 
 death, lifted up from the earth, that he 
 might draw all men unto himself. All of 
 these things matter not to the dead soul. 
 With all these things before him, the dead 
 sinner can continue in his sins and utterly 
 ignore the call to a newness of life. He 
 does not feel the need of anything more 
 than he has; does not regard himself as 
 lost; does not allow the goodness of God 
 to lead him to repentance. He is dead — a 
 dead sinner, on his way down to the pit of 
 despair, where "their worm dieth not and 
 the fire is not Quenched." 
 
 Now, how is this dead sinner to be made 
 alive? There is only one answer to the 
 question. Certainly he will never revive 
 himself. The dead has no power to re- 
 vivify itself. Only one who had died ever 
 
44 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 came to life by his own power, and that 
 was Jesus, of whom it is said: "In him 
 was life." He had and holds power over 
 death, having wrested it from his enemy. 
 And yec this Jesus does not do it by' his 
 own personal might. He has a second self, 
 one whom he is accustomed to send in his 
 own name, or in the name of the Father, 
 and to him has been given "the power of 
 the Spirit of Life." He is life. He is one 
 with the Father and the Son, and yet he is 
 a distinct person to whom has been as- 
 signed tho work of vivifying human souls 
 and winning them back to the Father an 
 to the Son. Of himself Jesus said: "What- 
 soever he seeth the Father do that doeth 
 the Son likewise"; and so it may be said 
 that wnatsoever he seeth the Son do that 
 doeth the Spirit likewise. The Son hav- 
 ing finished his work of redemption, dying 
 on the cross and rising from the tomb, 
 ascended to his Father, and fulfilled hi* 
 promise to send the Spirit, who should 
 abide among men and do all that is need- 
 ful to the working out of the divine plan 
 of salvation. It has been said of Christ 
 that he is "the organ of external revela- 
 tion," while the Holy Spirit is "the organ 
 of internal revelation." Christ, having 
 finished his work on earth, has gone into 
 
The Dead Made Alive — Howt 45 
 
 the heavens, there to intercede in the 
 presence of God for his saints, while the 
 Holy Spirit remains here on earth prepar- 
 ing a people for the abode of blessedness 
 which Christ has gone to prepare for 
 them. Christ prepares the mansions; the 
 Holy bpirit prepares the saints for the 
 mansions. 
 
 And he begins at the beginning. He be- 
 gins with the dead sinner, the utterly in- 
 different, the hostile, it may be with the 
 objecter. the resentful, the willfully resist- 
 ing. No matter. It is for the Holy Spirit 
 to begin and to carry on the work. It is 
 to him a matter of no consequence that 
 the sinner is dead, that he is helpless, that 
 he is obdurate, that he is resentful. By 
 his omnipotence he turns the hearts of 
 men "as the rivers of water are turned.' 
 But for him, no flesh could be saved. But 
 for him, Christ had died in vain. But for 
 him, tne spectacle of Gethsemane and of 
 Calvary would have been meaningless, and 
 the results futile. But for him Saul of 
 Tarsus would have arrested saints in Da- 
 mascus, probably Ananias among them, 
 and would have taken them to Jerusalem 
 for punishment. But for him, Cornelius of 
 Cesarea would have remained in the dark- 
 ness of heathenism. But for him, the Gos 
 
46 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 pel would have been powerless, whether in 
 Judea, or Samaria, or Philippi, or in Rome. 
 But for him, Martin Luther would have 
 remained a blind monk in his cell at Wit- 
 tenberg. But for him, Benjamin Keech, 
 and William Kiffin, and Hanserd Knolleys, 
 and Roger Williams would have been as 
 ignorant of the way of life as were many 
 of those who sought to obstruct the truth 
 and to put out the gleam of light whicn 
 shone through these men to the enlighten 
 ment of the multitude of true Baptists 
 now trying to honor God and work right- 
 eousness in the earth. All along down 
 through the ages the Holy Spirit has been 
 at work in and upon individual souls, oc- 
 casionally in and upon groups and conven- 
 tions of souls, giving new life and guiding 
 Into the truth as it was promised by the 
 Son that he should do. 
 
 How shall the dead be made alive? The 
 answer is ready, and yet it is not so sim- 
 ple as it may appear. There is no lack 
 of power; there is no lack of love; there 
 is no lack of desire to win the ungodly 
 from error to truth, from life to death. 
 And yet, it is not for us to know why it is 
 that two men may be on the house-top, one 
 taken and the other left; two women 
 grinding together, one taken and the other 
 
The Dead Made Alive — How? 47 
 
 left; husband and wife bound together in 
 love, yet separated, the one taken and the 
 other left; children in the same family, 
 the same surroundings, the same educa- 
 tion, the same parental care and love, one 
 taken — two, three — others left. We can 
 not settle this question of why? We know 
 only tne facts. "Neither did this man sin 
 nor his parents, but that the works of God 
 should be made manifest in him." "Even 
 so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy 
 sight." "The natural man receiveth not 
 the things of the Spirit of God, for they 
 are foolishness unto him; neither can he 
 know them, because they are spiritually 
 discerned." "The Spirit himself beareth 
 witness with our spirits that we are the 
 children of God." "The Spirit also helpetb 
 our infirmities." "He that searcheth the 
 hearts knoweth what is the mind of the 
 Spirit, because he maketh intercession for 
 the saints according to the will of God." 
 "He that soweth to the Spirit shall of the 
 Spirit reap life everlasting." 
 
 So God has provided that the dead sin- 
 ner may have life and may conquer every 
 foe, finally entering in through the gate 
 into the city. The Holy Spirit makes the 
 work of Jesus effective. 
 
REGENERATION— CONVERSION. 
 
 They are not the same thing. Neither 
 word is used frequently in the New Testa- 
 ment, but both are used often enough to 
 show that they signify distinct ideas. A 
 man may be converted and not regenerated; 
 he can hardly be regenerated without being 
 converted. The one is an inward, heart 
 experience, the other is the outward mani- 
 festation of the new life realized in regen- 
 eration. Conversion may occur several 
 times in human experience; regeneration 
 can occur but once. The verb from which 
 the word "conversion" comes is used sev- 
 eral times in the New Testament, and 
 means to turn about, to change a course 
 of conduct; to enter upon a changed life. 
 When the liar ceases his lying and be- 
 comes truthful, it may be said that he has 
 been converted from a lying habit. When 
 a slanderer ceases his habit of slandering, 
 and becomes generous in his thought and 
 in his speech, he may be said to be con- 
 verted from his slandering habit. And so 
 of any other sin or vice, to be converted 
 from it is to cease the evil practice and 
 
 (48) 
 
Regeneration — Conversion, 49 
 
 act honorably and circumspectly before the 
 world. 
 
 The regenerated soul is born of God. The 
 Holy Spirit has come to it and imparted to 
 it a new life, so that it has become "a new 
 creature," a "new creation." It is not the 
 same soul it was before. It received a new 
 element which has affected it in every fiber 
 of its being. The renewal has been accom- 
 plished once for all, and the new creature 
 is immortal life. It is of God, and the sub- 
 ject of it has been made "partaker of the 
 divine nature." God in Christ has become 
 the life of the soul, so that it can not be- 
 come again what it was before. At the 
 beginning it is an infantile life, and needs 
 care and culture that it may the more 
 speedily develop into strength and activity. 
 Neglected, it is stunted and dwarfed in its 
 infancy, and may fail for years to manifest 
 itself. But being immortal, the life does 
 not go out; there is no death for it, but a 
 favorable incident, a day of deliverance 
 from the overlying burden, and it springs 
 into activity and develops the faculties 
 inherent in the divine life. 
 
 The regenerated soul may need conver- 
 sion, though it ought not to need it. Peter, 
 when he became timorous and denied a 
 knowledge of the Lord Jesus, needed con- 
 version; and when the conversion occurred 
 (5) 
 
50 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 he was able to strengthen his brethren, by 
 his advice as well as by his example. He 
 needed conversion a second time, when he 
 dissembled and refused to eat with Gen- 
 tiles, because certain brethren of "the cir- 
 cumcision" were liable to tell them of Je- 
 rusalem what they had seen him do. So 
 a great many regenerated Christians are 
 liable to get out of the way, on the wrong 
 road, and need to be turned back, con- 
 verted. 
 
 But while this is true, and while conver- 
 sion may be a frequent occurrence in the 
 life of the saint, the probabilities are on the 
 other side. Conversion may be taken for 
 regeneration, and the "convert" may be 
 simply temporarily reformed, soon to go 
 back to his old place, his old habits, his old 
 life. And so conversion has been mistaken 
 for regeneration in untold instances. 
 
 We do not condemn the use of the word 
 "conversion" to signify "regeneration," or 
 what we trust is regeneration. Perhaps we 
 ought to use it, because we can not be sure 
 of the deeper and vital work of the Spirit; 
 but we should not be satisfied with simply 
 the evidence of conversion, but should so 
 present truth, so hold forth the Word of 
 Life that those who hear may truly and 
 fully repent of their sins and mourn their 
 sinfulness, thus insuring a converted life. 
 
Regeneration — Conversion. 51 
 
 In far too many instances conversion is 
 taken to mean regeneration, and we en- 
 courage the converted to believe that he 
 has experienced the latter when he has only 
 determined upon the former. It is just 
 here that the professed Christian has occa- 
 sion for repeated self-examination. He 
 knows that he is not all 'that he ought to 
 be, and frequently he knows that he is 
 living in sin, as though he had never ex- 
 perienced the passage from death to life. 
 He tries to reform, and does reform, for 
 a time; but the time of reformation is 
 short, and he relapses into the same old 
 ways, or similar ways. Is it possible that 
 he has really been regenerated, made a new 
 creature in Christ Jesus? The only evi- 
 dence of regeneration is found in the con- 
 verted life; if that fails, there is reason 
 to fear that there is no life there. 
 
 Conversion is not saving. It is external, 
 temporal, possibly temporary. A drunkard 
 may be converted, and abstain from drink 
 for months and years, and even then go 
 back again to his cups, the last state worse 
 than the first. He was converted, not re- 
 generated. The reformation was in the 
 outer life, not in the soul. A temperance 
 orator, like John B. Gough, can make con- 
 verts, but it is beyond the power of the 
 
52 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 orator to effect regeneration. Evangelists 
 may count "converts" by the hundreds or 
 the thousands, but they are "converts," and 
 not saints. They have been converted tem- 
 porarily, and may "run" for a few months, 
 but they will surely fail before the end of 
 the race is reached. So Jesus said well, 
 "He that endureth to the end, the same 
 shall be saved." The word was spoken for 
 us, to give us pause in our hasty conclu- 
 sion that, because a soul seems to be con- 
 verted, it is therefore regenerated. 
 
SANCTIFICATION— JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 Not a few who read 1 Corinthians vi. 2 
 are puzzled because the apostle puts sanc- 
 tification before justification — "But ye are 
 washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are 
 justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and 
 by the Spirit of our God." It is quite cus- 
 tomary to put justification before sancti- 
 fication, and say that sanctification is a 
 progressive work effected in the soul of 
 the believer and manifested in a life of in- 
 creasing holiness and of loving obedience 
 to the will of God. On the other hand, 
 there are those who regard sanctification 
 as a work wrought in the soul by reason 
 of which it becomes not. only freed from 
 sin, but sinless, no longer liable to commit 
 sin, immune to temptation, and free from 
 the being of sin, or what others would call 
 "indwelling sin." It is not uncommon to 
 meet with persons, doubtless honest and 
 sincere, who imagine that they have 
 reached a state of "sinless perfection," or 
 "entire sanctification." We can not accept 
 their view, and do not see evidence of its 
 correctness in their practice. 
 
54 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 The literal meaning of the word "sanc- 
 tify" is to make sacred, to transmute what 
 is common to a sacred use. In another 
 phrase, it is to make holy. And the phrase 
 implies that what is made holy was not 
 so before, but was made so, either by the 
 will of man or by the will of God. All 
 through the Old Testament we find the 
 word used to signify a dedication to God, 
 or to a sacred use. It is first used in Exo- 
 dus xiii. 2, where it is commanded that 
 "all the firstborn shall be sanctified to 
 God." In Exodus xix. 10 Moses was com- 
 manded to go and sanctify the people; and 
 he did it. It is also said, "Let the priests 
 sanctify themselves" ; and Moses was com- 
 manded to set bounds about Mount Sinai 
 to sanctify it. But the sanctification, of 
 that day, though performed by Moses, was 
 not enduring; there was need that it be re- 
 peated. Some time after (Ex. xxviii. 41) 
 it is commanded, "Thou shalt put them 
 (the holy garments) upon Aaron thy broth- 
 er, and upon his sons with him, and shalt 
 anoint them, and consecrate them and sanc- 
 tify them, that they may minister unto me 
 in the priest's office." It is evident that the 
 consecration and the sanctification were 
 closely associated and partook each of the 
 nature of the other. What is consecrated 
 
Sanctification — Justification. 65 
 
 is set apart to a particular use, and from 
 the moment of consecration it is un- 
 lawful to use it in any other way, or for 
 any other purpose than that to which it 
 was consecrated. Thus the tabernacle was 
 sanctified, the altar was sanctified, and Je- 
 hovah says to Israel, "I am the Lord 
 that doth sanctify you." In Lev. xi. 44 
 it is said to the people, "Ye shall sanctify 
 yourselves," and in Lev. xxi. 23 it is said: 
 "I the Lord do sanctify them." So the 
 Sabbath was sanctified; the first born of 
 males among men and brutes was sancti- 
 fied. So Jehovah said to Joshua, "Up, sanc- 
 tify the people and say, Sanctify your- 
 selves. " Samuel "sanctified Jesse and his 
 sons." Nehemiah built and sanctified the 
 sheep gate of Jerusalem. Job sanctified his 
 sons and his daughters. 
 
 Coming to the New Testament we find 
 similar usage. Jesus prayed that his dis- 
 ciples might be sanctified, and declared that 
 for their sakes he sanctified himself to the 
 cross. Paul prayed for the believing Thes- 
 salonians that the God of peace might sanc- 
 tify them wholly. Jesus declared of him- 
 self that the Father had sanctified him 
 and sent him into the world (John x. 26). 
 The unbelieving husband may be sancti- 
 fied by the believing wife, and the unbe- 
 
56 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 lieving wife may be sanctified by the be- 
 lieving husband. That is, either is sepa- 
 rated from common things by virtue of the 
 relation of the other to the Lord Jesus. 
 And it is said of the Lord Jesus that "by 
 one offering he has perfected forever them 
 that are sanctified." 
 
 Sanctification, then, in its first and prime 
 sense, is a setting apart from a common to 
 a specific use, and in the case of the Chris- 
 tian it is nis setting apart from the service 
 of sin to the service of God. It is safe to 
 say that there is no such thing as an un- 
 sanctified Christian. Paul called all the 
 believers saints, and such they were, be- 
 cause they had been sanctified. [The word 
 saint means something sanctified, sainted.] 
 In order to justification, there must be, 
 first, sanctification. The sinner, conscious 
 of his guilt and the justness of his con- 
 demnation, is brought face to face with 
 the Lord Jesus and his cross. In despair 
 of salvation by any other means, he finally 
 yields and accepts the mastership of Je- 
 sus. Oftentimes the struggle is fierce and 
 long-continued. It is a question of yield- 
 ing or not yielding. This Jesus must be 
 taken as Lord as well as Christ, and the 
 convicted sinner finally accepts the condi- 
 tions — he yields to Christ; takes him as 
 
Sanctification — Justification. 57 
 
 Lord; consecrates himself to the service of 
 his captor; sanctifies himself to the ser- 
 vice of the Lord Christ. Is he sanctified? 
 Yes, assuredly. It is just there that his 
 sanctification begins, and for the secure- 
 ment of his salvation it is complete. It 
 is a surrender of body, mind, soul and 
 spirit to Christ. Only when it is thus, can 
 Christ become the Savior of the soul. Sanc- 
 tification, then, begins just where and when 
 the convicted sinner gives himself up to 
 Christ, to be ruled by him — to be his 
 "slave, as Paul declared himself to be. 
 
 It is not a state of personal sinlessness. 
 "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal 
 bodies," said Paul. "If we say we have no 
 sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is 
 not in us," said John. There can be no 
 justification unless there has been first a 
 sanctification. From the hour of his sub- 
 mission to Christ the believer is sanctified. 
 
 But, as in the case of Old Testament 
 saints, and, as is painfully evident in the 
 New Testament saints, there is need of 
 a frequent repetition of the sanctification. 
 Perhaps it ought not to be said that no 
 redeemed sinner ever yet reached the place, 
 in this world, where he became fully and 
 completely and unswervingly sanctified. 
 We may not know what another has 
 
58 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 achieved, except by external signs. We 
 may not correctly judge all the signs. But 
 we do know of a surety that many who 
 profess perfect and entire sanctification 
 come very far short of illustrating the fact 
 of such sanctification. And yet, we say 
 that without entire sanctification, the soul 
 can not enter into Christ and eternal life. 
 
 How do we reconcile these two facts? 
 We do it by accepting the evidence that 
 human nature is subject to human weak- 
 nesses, and that lack of stability is, alas, 
 too evident in us all. What we promise 
 we do not perform; the pledge we make we 
 do not abide by — do not adhere to. We 
 once sanctified ourselves, but we have sin- 
 ned, and we need to renew the sanctifica- 
 tion. It is for this that we seek the place 
 of prayer, and observe the hour of prayer. 
 It may be said that only the sanctified 
 suppliant receives answer to prayer. Not 
 until the soul surrenders is the prayer 
 heard. Only then can the answer come. 
 Only then can sin be forgiven. 
 
 But we bless God that justification is 
 thus allied to sanctification. Sanctification 
 is ours, justification is God's. When the 
 sinner sanctifies himself, our God and 
 Savior justifies him. As the sanctification 
 is the setting apart from a common to a 
 
Sanctification — Justification. 59 
 
 holy use, so justification is a making or 
 counting righteous that which before was 
 sinful. The humble, sanctified suppliant 
 is immediately justified. His sins are for- 
 given, though they may have been many, 
 and though the prayer has been repeated a 
 thousand times, ten thousand times. In 
 nothing does our God delight more than 
 in forgiving sin. By his forgiving grace 
 would he be known to us. And every act 
 of forgiveness is an act of justification. It 
 pronounces the sinner just, free from sin 
 and from the guilt of sin. He is no more 
 a sinner than though he had never 
 sinned. "Forgiving iniquity and transgres- 
 sion and sin," he was the God whom Moses 
 heard. Only the sanctified sinner is the 
 justified sinner; only the justified sinner 
 is the forgiven sinner. 
 
 We have said that an apparent object 
 of those who are cutting and trimming 
 cur Bible, a la Clarke and Foster, is to 
 make it more palatable to the objector and 
 unbeliever. They make themselves believe 
 that, as matters stand, the Bible being re- 
 garded as the infallible word of God, the 
 unbeliever has some kind of justification 
 for his unbelief; the Bible, as it stands, 
 asks too much of him. Something must 
 
60 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 be done to make it easier for him to accept 
 Christianity as a religious system. And 
 so they go to work to whittle away the 
 miracles and everything which demands 
 faith, and an acceptance of the Most High 
 God as the author and finisher of the plan 
 of salvation. We are told that something 
 similar is going on in India, where Hindu- 
 ism and Mohammedanism are making 
 large demands upon the credulity of their 
 devotees, while it is demanded that Chris- 
 tianity shall apologize for its intrusion 
 into the field of religion. An editorial in 
 the Baptist Missionary Review, published 
 in Madras, says: "Here in India it seems 
 to be coming to pass that almost the only 
 thing for which an apology is expected is 
 for being a Christian. The Mohammedan 
 offers no apology for his religious faith, 
 nor does the Hindu, the Parsi or the 
 Buddhist; nor will any of them consent 
 to be shoved into some quiet corner where 
 their religious performances will not dis- 
 turb others. It is the Christian who 
 must not obstruct the public highway or 
 stir up the opposition of other religion- 
 ists." And, as things are going, it may be 
 expected that something similar, only in a 
 more covert way, will yet influence public 
 
Sanctification — Justification. 61 
 
 opinion in "Christian America/' The man 
 who stands by the religion of the Bible 
 must submit to being regarded as "a back 
 number" lingering on the stage when he 
 ought to Lave got out of the way. 
 
JUSTIFICATION—HOW EFFECTED. 
 
 Perhaps there is no doctrine of the Bible 
 so difficult to understand or over which so 
 many people stumble as the doctrine of 
 justification, as taught in the New Testa- 
 ment. A year ago a noted teacher was try- 
 ing to illustrate the doctrine, and he took 
 the case of the French officer, Dreifus, 
 who, having been tried for treason against 
 his country and convicted, had been par- 
 doned, though not restored to his former 
 rank in the army. It was said that Dreifus 
 was not satisfied with what had been done 
 in setting him at liberty, but was seeking a 
 new trial with the expectation of proving 
 himself innocent, in order that he might 
 be restored; and it was said, "What Drei- 
 fus then wanted was justification." The 
 teacher utterly misconceived the nature of 
 justification, as it is taught in the New Tes- 
 tament. 
 
 The truth is that what the Frenchman 
 had already received was a partial justifi- 
 tion, and what he was trying to obtain was 
 a judgment of innocence. He was unwillixig 
 
 (62 
 
Justification — How Effected,. 63 
 
 to be regarded as having sinned. He was 
 unwilling to be pardoned, and demanded 
 that he be declared innocent. And this 
 he has finally succeeded in securing — a ver- 
 dict of innocence. In this respect he 
 was in the attitude of the great mass of 
 humanity. "Being ignorant of God's right- 
 eousness, and going about to establish their 
 own righteousness, they have not submitted 
 themselves to the righteousness of God." 
 They are unwilling to admit that sin has 
 effected their condemnation, and that the 
 only thing they can hope for is pardon, 
 forgiveness. When pressed, they admit 
 that they are sinners ("All are sinners"), 
 but then their sins are so small, so easily 
 committed, that it will be easy to commit 
 some good act, or acts, to compensate for 
 them, and so the account will be balanced; 
 or, at most, a few years or hours of purga- 
 tion, after death, will suffice to make it 
 all right. This is the state of mind of the 
 great mass of humanity, even when taught 
 otherwise by the Word of God, and when 
 God's righteousness is illustrated before 
 them in the person and work of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ 
 
 He who is innocent can not be justified. 
 He who has not sinned can not be per- 
 suaded to accept justification. It Is the 
 
64 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 sinner who must be justified, not the 
 righteous. When the righteous man is ac- 
 cused and brought to trial, he protests his 
 innocence, and continues to protest, no 
 matter what witnesses and juries and 
 judges may say. The "friends" of Job 
 could never persuade him to acknowledge 
 that he had been guilty of some great sin, 
 and therefore his afflictions. From first 
 to last he declared his innocence. The 
 Lord Jesus could look into the faces of 
 his enemies and say: "Which of you con- 
 vinceth (convicteth) me of sin?" He could 
 declare that in all things he had done pre- 
 cisely the will of his Father. Yet he suf- 
 fered. Jesus could not be justified. He 
 was innocent. His righteousness was his 
 own. It was not the righteousness which 
 God bestows upon a guilty, but repentant 
 sinner who implores his forgiveness. Not 
 until the sinner acknowledges his guilt, and 
 asks forgiveness, can he be justified. To 
 justify is to declare righteous, to treat the 
 guilty as though he had never sinned. The 
 "righteousness of God" is that which he 
 himself provides for the sinner, and puts 
 upon him at the moment of confession of 
 sin and acceptance of Jesus Chirst as his 
 Savior. At that moment the righteousness 
 of Christ ("God's righteousness") becomes 
 
Justification — How Effected. 65 
 
 the righteousness of the believer, and he is, 
 from that day onward, a justified saint. 
 From that moment he thinks and talks of 
 "grace." He has received grace. By grace 
 he is saved. Not "free grace"; that is 
 tautology. Grace is always "something for 
 nothing." It is free, only in the sense that 
 it is bestowed without merit on the part 
 of the recipient — "without money and with- 
 out price." 
 
 The righteous can never repent. He has 
 nothing to repent of. He has done no 
 wrong. In his heart there is no guile. He 
 is pure as God himself is pure. To accuse 
 him of wrong is a heinous offense. An ac- 
 cusation against a righteous person is a 
 sin which puts the accuser in a state of 
 condemnation and death. But, as the 
 righteous can never be made a sinner, so 
 the sinner can never be made righteous, on 
 his own account. A broken mirror can 
 never be mended so that it shall be the 
 same as before. A sinner can never be as 
 though he had not sinned, had not been 
 a sinner. Once a sinner, always a sinner. 
 But "the righteousness of God" is a pro- 
 vision by which the sinner may become 
 what he was not before, and. what no 
 righteous being could ever become — a re- 
 deemed, a regenerated, a saved soul, saved 
 
 (6) 
 
66 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 in God's way, by God's grace. Only when 
 the sinner becomes willing to declare him- 
 self a sinner, pleads for forgiveness, and 
 comes to God in the name of Jesus, can 
 he be justified. 
 
 "The grace of God which bringeth salva- 
 tion" has been exercised toward sinners, 
 and so the foundation of God's method of 
 saving souls has been permanently laid, 
 and is now accessible to all who will resort 
 to it. Only two things are needful for him 
 who would rest upon it. The first of these 
 is repentance. This is fundamental. The 
 sinner must come, not as Dreifus, declar- 
 ing his innocence. He must not continue 
 to declare that he has not sinned. He must 
 not claim that his condemnation is unjust, 
 undeserved. He must confess his guilt, and 
 must recognize himself as a justly con- 
 demned sinner. The second thing needful 
 is a recognition of "God's righteousness," 
 namely Jesus Christ, the crucified, as his 
 hope, his Savior. As a sinner, standing 
 alone before the bar of God, there can be 
 no ground of hope for him. Repentance 
 does not save him. Repentance can not 
 make good the violated law. Repentance 
 does not restore the broken mirror. Re- 
 pentance does not insure against a relapse 
 into sin. "The righteousness of God" must 
 
Justification — How Effected. G7 
 
 come into the life of the repentant sinner 
 before he can be justified. And this 
 "righteousness of God" is "The Lord our 
 righteousness." He is God's righteousness, 
 because God has provided him for us; and 
 he is our righteousness, because we accept 
 him as a substitute for the righteousness 
 which we so conspicuously lack. It is when 
 God's righteousness becomes our righteous- 
 ness that there is peace in the soul. Then 
 God and the sinner are reconciled. 
 
 And it is here that faith comes in. When 
 the sinner, despairing of salvation by his 
 own righteousness, comes to a recognition 
 of God's righteousness, he no longer stands 
 off, demanding acquittal. His conscience 
 harmonizes with the provision of grace, and 
 he casts himself into the arms of mercy, 
 accepting forgiveness, giving himself up to 
 One whom, before, he has rejected and de- 
 nied. At the same moment a great change 
 takes place within him; the Holy Spirit, He 
 by whom he has been brought up to the 
 point where he is willing to be justified, 
 saved by grace, works a mighty change in 
 the soul; it is his regeneration. Now he is 
 " a new creature." Now "old things have 
 passed away, and all things have become 
 new." Now, having submitted himself to 
 the righteousness of God, he is justified, de- 
 
68 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 Glared just. He fully meets God's require- 
 ment. He is just, in the sight of a holy 
 God. "It is God that justifieth; who is he 
 that condemneth?" "Who shall lay any- 
 thing to the charge of God's elect?" By 
 regeneration the sinner is made "a new 
 creation," and he has become what he was 
 not, until now — a child of God. Now hie 
 future is assured. Weak, liable to tempta- 
 tion and to yield, mayhap, to temptation; 
 yet a child of God, an heir of eternal life, 
 a joint-heir with Jesus his Righteousness. 
 Now sin may do much mischief, but it is 
 sin that does it, not the redeemed, regen- 
 erated soul. Now there is no condemnation 
 for him. He is in Christ Jesus, and is se- 
 cure. 
 
 And all this comes by "faith." It is the 
 result of belief in the justness of the con- 
 demnation; then in God's word of prom- 
 ise; then in Christ Jesus, as God's 
 righteousness. And, "being justified by 
 faith, we have peace with God, through our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have 
 received the atonement." 
 
FREEWILL— PREDESTINATION. 
 
 They seem to be opposite poles; and so, 
 strictly, they are. If one is north, the 
 other is south. But as south implies a 
 north, and as north implies a south, in and 
 for the same object, so freewill and predes- 
 tination imply an intermediate body to 
 which both belong and of which both are 
 true. 
 
 No student of human nature doubts that 
 man is endowed with free will. Every hu- 
 man soul is conscious that he moves and 
 acts by the exercise of his own will. The 
 Bible teaches free will. It throws upon 
 the individual man the responsibility for 
 his conduct. Even though a man be 
 tempted and led astray by another, he is 
 held responsible for yielding to the tempter, 
 for following the lead of a decoyer. Though 
 jealousy and resentment caused Cain to kill 
 his brother, the murderer was held respon- 
 sible for his act. And though Adam sought 
 to throw responsibility for his sin upon his 
 wife, he was not excused, but was made to 
 suffer the penalty of his own sin. So all 
 through the Bible, men and women are held 
 (69) 
 
70 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 responsible for their acts, and personal ac- 
 countability is taught from Genesis to Rev- 
 elation. 
 
 On the other hand, it is evident to every 
 student of history, and to every thoughtful 
 mind, that he who made the world has a 
 plan and purpose in it. Nothing comes by 
 chance. It has been said that "every hu- 
 man life is a plan of God." We can not 
 read the promises of God and accept them 
 without believing that he is going to ac- 
 complish a purpose — a definite, fixed pur- 
 pose — and that every event, however sig- 
 nificant, or insignificant, has its place in 
 the fulfillment of that purpose. He who 
 made the insect which we brush from our 
 faces made it for a purpose, and without it 
 his plan would not be perfect, his purpose 
 would fail of accomplishment. So the great 
 events, interlocked and intertwined as they 
 are with innumerable less notable events, 
 are essential to the development and ac- 
 complishment of the divine plan. 
 
 If, then, Jehovah, our God, has a plan 
 and is going to accomplish that plan, it 
 follows that every event, great or small, 
 must fit into that plan, and must be reck- 
 oned with in the execution of that plan. 
 It can not be that our God has made this 
 great universe and all its contents and then 
 
Freewill — Predestination. 71 
 
 gone off and left it to take care of itself. 
 It must be that he who delights in the 
 work of his hands, and who in the be- 
 ginning, pronounced it all "very good," 
 must constantly dwell with it and watch 
 over it. He must know it in all its details, 
 its little as well as its big features, and 
 must be present, overruling and guiding 
 everything to the fulfillment of his purpose. 
 We have only to stop for a few moments 
 and think on these things, that we may 
 get them fixed in our hearts and that they 
 may enter into our thinking, in order to 
 become established in the conviction that 
 "known unto God are all his works from 
 the beginning of the world," and that his 
 knowledge extends not simply to the great 
 events, and great objects, such as planets 
 and stars, but to the minutiae of those 
 worlds. There has been much discussion, 
 of late ; as to whether God is not the 
 substance of everything in his universe; 
 whether there is anything which is not 
 identified with the personality of God, so 
 that it can be said that there is only one 
 substance, namely, God. We do not all ac- 
 cept that view of it; but we hold that there 
 is nothing in the universe that is not known 
 to God, nor does anything occur without 
 him. 
 
72 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 We could easily understand how it would 
 be possible for God to overrule and control 
 all events, provided he had nothing to do 
 bu+, as it were, turn the wheel of a great 
 machine. If he had to deal only with ma- 
 terial things, and if everything were to lie 
 still just where he placed it until he chose 
 to take it up again; if there were no liv- 
 ing, moving beings in the universe. But 
 the marvel is that God controls events, not- 
 witstanding the active, self-moving things 
 which he has made to act freely, and many 
 of them acting in antagonism to his au- 
 thority and purpose. How is it possible for 
 a human soul to be free, to act according 
 to changeful impulses, as well as from 
 mixed purposes, and yet for God to direct 
 all the movements of that individual and 
 put him in a designed place, performing a 
 designed act, at a designed time, and to 
 finish his movements here at the time ap- 
 pointed? That is what amazes us. That is 
 what we can not understand. But then 
 we daily come in contact with things which 
 we do not, and can not, understand. There 
 are problems which we can not solve. Once 
 we could not solve the problem, "How is it 
 that two and two make four?" Now only 
 a few of us can solve the problem of an 
 eclipse of the sun or of the moon. Only 
 
Freewill — Predestination. 73 
 
 a few of us could determine the exact height 
 of a building, of a mountain, or the distance 
 to the moon, without measuring. Now we 
 know that some of us can determine all 
 these things, by a few simple rules. 
 
 There are those among us who can not 
 believe it possible that God knows to-day- 
 just what we will be doing to-morrow, just 
 what thoughts will come into our minds, 
 just how we will be affected by each pass- 
 ing event. There are those who do not 
 believe that God takes account of every 
 thought, every desire, every purpose, as well 
 as of every act of every one of us. They 
 think that to do so would be to make God 
 little and petty, unfit to manage the great 
 affairs of his universe. But others of us 
 see that the greatness of God is to be 
 recognized in his regard for the little things 
 as truly as in his management of the great 
 things. When we stop and think of it, we 
 are compelled to believe that not a pulsa- 
 tion of our hearts takes place without God. 
 Our prayers and our trust are founded 
 upon this conviction — though we are prone 
 to forget it — that while we are praying for 
 something we want and is dear to us, 
 another is praying for a similar or 
 the same thing, and is expecting the 
 same God to do for him what we 
 
74 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 expect him to do for us. Not infre- 
 quently two persons, with trustful hearts, 
 'are praying on opposite sides of the same 
 object; one wants it this way, and the other 
 wants it directly different. And yet our 
 God hears and answers prayer. He loves 
 and promotes the welfare of every soul that 
 trusts in him and seeks his face. 
 
 There are those among us who delight in 
 the thought that God knows them by their 
 names — possibly names which he himself 
 has given them — "new" names, written in 
 his book. They are glad when they lie 
 down to sleep that their God watches over 
 them as though they were each the only 
 sleeper in his universe. And these same 
 persons are glad, when they wake in the 
 morning and go out about the work of the 
 day, that they are to have divine guidance 
 and care all through the day. They can 
 do better work with this thought in mind. 
 They would not have it otherwise. They 
 love God and love to think that he is near 
 them, and that they are dear to him. So 
 they meet disappointments and sorrows 
 with composure, because they feel sure that 
 their Father knows it all, directs in it all, 
 really does it all. 
 
 But all this means predestination. It 
 means that God has a plan for human life, 
 
Freewill — Predestination. 75 
 
 and that he is especially concerned for the 
 welfare of his own. Paul got it right. He 
 thought deeper and more logically than did 
 any other of his age, not excepting Peter, 
 who caught a glimpse of the same great 
 truth. Several chapters of the letter to 
 the Romans are devoted to a discussion of 
 this great subject, and especially the eighth 
 and the ninth chapters tell us what is the 
 result of God's purposing, so far as his peo- 
 ple are concerned, and so far as concerns 
 those who will not have him to be their 
 Sovereign; who will not accept him whom 
 the Father has sanctified and sent into the 
 world to be the Savior of all them who be- 
 lieve. The eighth chapter of Romans es- 
 pecially tells us what is the estate of him 
 who makes the Lord Jesus his own, and 
 trusts him for salvation. Such persons do 
 not deny that they are possessed of free 
 will. They know that they act freely; but 
 they also know that what they are is due 
 to God, who works in them "to will and 
 to do of his good pleasure." They know 
 that the work of grace was begun in their 
 souls by the free action of the Holy Spirit, 
 and they know also that now they are "kept 
 by the power of God through faith unto 
 salvation ready to be revealed in the last 
 time." 
 
76 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 Here are together a hundred Christian 
 men and women, of different temperaments, 
 with different worldly interests, these in- 
 terests often seeming to clash with each 
 other; men and women subject to many 
 human infirmities, to temptations within 
 and fightings without; and yet all of them 
 foreordained to be conformed to the image 
 of the Son of God — called, justified and 
 glorified; all because he who has begun a 
 good work in them will perform it unto the 
 day of Jesus Christ. All are endowed with 
 free will, and yet all are constrained by 
 the power of God. 
 
 Here is a mystery, but here also is a great 
 fact. We are delighted to accept the fact; 
 shall we contend against the truth that 
 all this is the result of predestination, a 
 predetermination of God to save out of the 
 world those whom he has set his love upon, 
 and has known from the foundation of the 
 world? There is no antagonism between 
 freewill and predestination. Both are har- 
 monized in the bosom of God. They meet 
 in infinity. 
 
THE PERSEVERANCE OP THE SAINTS. 
 
 Of "the saints'* it is said. The fact of 
 perseverance turns on that. Then the ques- 
 tion arises, "What is it to he a saint?" 
 "What kind of people are saints ?" There 
 are those who talk about "Saint Matthew," 
 "Saint Luke," "Saint Paul," "Saint John," 
 Saint Peter." Others talk of "Saint Je- 
 rome," "Saint Chrysostom," "Saint Clem- 
 ent," "Saint Augustine"; and still others 
 talk of "Saint Mary," "Saint Xavier," "Saint 
 Francis," "Saint Cecilia," "Saint Agatha," 
 "Saint Gregory," "Saint Christopher Colum- 
 bus." The Church of Rome has claimed 
 the right to designate the saints, and not 
 a few Protestants have been willing to ac- 
 cept the dictum of "the Church." But those 
 who study the Word of God for themselves 
 fail to find any warrant for such distinc- 
 tions as are made by churchmen, and a r e 
 constrained to regard as a saint every true 
 believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, every 
 one who has been truly sanctified by the 
 Spirit of God in belief of the truth. 
 
 The word "saint" is a shortened form of 
 the word "sanctified," and the saint is he 
 (77) 
 
78 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 or she who is sanctified. What it is to be 
 sanctified we have already seen, namely, a 
 full committal of one's self to the Lord 
 Christ, to be his and his only, for time 
 and for eternity. The fact of such sancti- 
 fication turns upon the other fact of re- 
 generation, though both ideas are so closely 
 joined that it is not easy to distinguish 
 between them. It is sometimes said that 
 sanctification and perseverance are the di- 
 vine and the human sides of the same great 
 fact; and yet, neither of them can exist 
 without the other. Without the Holy Spirit 
 there can be neither sanctification nor per- 
 severance. The underlying fact is that of 
 regeneration. The soul which has been re- 
 generated has been "born of God," born 
 of "the Spirit of life," and "the law of the 
 Spirit of life in Christ Jesus makes free 
 from the law of sin and death." It is not 
 uncommon to hear, when one turns from 
 sin, and professes faith in Christ, the decla- 
 ration "Saved!" Sometimes we hear it ex- 
 claimed, "Another soul saved," and yet, 
 perhaps the same person will soon after 
 talk about "falling from grace," by which 
 is meant a return to the previous condition 
 of alienation from God and forfeiture of 
 eternal life. There is much confusion in 
 many minds with regard to this subject. 
 
Perseverance of the Saints. 79 
 
 It has been said that no soul can be re- 
 generated without sanctification; that is, 
 without a full surrender to Christ, a con- 
 secration of itself to him who only is able 
 to save. But when the soul is thus sancti- 
 fied to Christ regeneration is sure. The 
 Holy Spirit is there, enabling the soul to 
 will and to do of the good pleasure of God. 
 Regeneration is the impartation of a new 
 life, and has been called "a new creation," 
 as when it is said, "So then neither circum- 
 cision availeth anything, nor uncircum- 
 cision availeth anything, but a new crea- 
 ture," or, literally, "a new creation." "Old 
 things have passed away, and behold all 
 things have become new." "If any man be 
 in Christ, he is a new creature," or new 
 creation. And yet, it is not so much a cre- 
 ation as a begetting. It is God himself, 
 by his Holy Spirit whom Jesus promised, 
 entering into the soul of the believing, re- 
 pentant sinner, and taking up his abode 
 there. It is called a passage "from death 
 to life." But of what great value is it, 
 if it is only temporary, if the Holy Spirit 
 is to take his departure just as soon as the 
 weak saint falls into sin? If sinlessness 
 is the condition of the Spirit's continuance 
 in the soul, who can stand? What a mis- 
 erable life must be led by him who regards 
 
80 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 himself as walking as it were upon the 
 edge of a razor, ready to topple off at any 
 moment. That is -not the idea presented 
 to us in the Word of God. 
 
 Jesus spoke of his people as safe in him. 
 He declared that to those who came to 
 him he gave "eternal life," and said "they 
 shall never perish; and no one shall snatch 
 them out of my hand. My Father, who 
 hath given them to me, is greater than all, 
 and no one is able to snatch them out of 
 the Father's hand." Jesus said of his dis- 
 ciples, as he was about to leave them: 
 "Holy Father, keep them in thy name 
 whom thou hast given me." . . . "While I 
 was with them I kept them in thy name 
 . . . and not one of them perished." It is 
 reasonable to suppose that Jesus is just 
 as much concerned for those who believe on 
 him to-day as he was for those who stood 
 around him when he uttered the prayer. 
 It is his desire, as it is to his honor, that 
 he keep his redeemed ones, that the enemy 
 may not point to them, as the heathen, did 
 to the Jews in their captivity, and say: 
 "These are the people of Jehovah, and they 
 have gone forth out of his land." Those 
 words were intended as a reproach on the 
 religion which the Jews professed. They 
 were meant for the disparagement of the 
 
Perseverance of the Saints. 81 
 
 God of the Jews, as an evidence that the 
 faith of the Jews was misplaced, whereas 
 the trouble was that they lacked faith, 
 and would not do what their God com- 
 manded them to do, saying that it was "a 
 weariness" and was useless, and something 
 else would do just as well. If our Christ 
 does not bring home at last every one of 
 his redeemed, it is either because he can 
 not do it, or because he is not true to his 
 promise. We know that neither of these 
 things is true of him. He can and he will. 
 He who begins a good work in the soul of 
 the believer will surely carry it on to the 
 end. He knew the weakness of human na- 
 ture when he began his work of redemp- 
 tion. He is not surprised by the exhibitions 
 of weakness and faltering and wayward- 
 ness which he witnesses to-day. "He con- 
 siders our frame, and he remembers that 
 we are dust" 
 
 The only question with him is as to the 
 full surrender of the soul to him. The 
 question for the doubting saint to ask is, 
 "Have I really given myself up to Christ 
 to be his and his only?" And he who 
 doubts has this privilege still. He can say 
 in his heart: "If I never before gave my- 
 self up to Christ, I do it now and here." 
 It is not needful to go back to the place 
 
 (7) 
 
82 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 of former beginning; it can be done at any 
 moment with the full assurance that the 
 surrender will be recognized and accepted. 
 It is the perseverance of the saints which 
 we are considering (and we might say, in- 
 cidentally, that the perseverance of the 
 non-saint is just as sure as is that of the 
 saint, the one in one direction, the other 
 in another). But we must not assume that 
 the perseverance is by virtue of human 
 ability, due to an inherent power in the 
 soul itself, though the new and divine life 
 is unquenchable. It is all because it is 
 God who works in the soul of the redeemed 
 "to will and to do of his good pleasure." 
 It is his pleasure that all whom his Son 
 Jesus has redeemed shall be kept by divine 
 power, through faith unto salvation — a sal- 
 vation which is to be fully revealed in the 
 last time. That is to say: It is not for any 
 person to know himself to be saved, as 
 we know that we live here and know our 
 surroundings. That is not the kind of 
 knowledge vouchsafed to us. What we 
 know is that we fully trust in Christ, and 
 we can know that our salvation is in his 
 hands, and we can know that he is able to 
 keep us in the future as in the past, and 
 that he will not fail to keep his promise. 
 We can sing with confidence: 
 
Perseverance of the Sctints. 83 
 
 "The soul that on Jesus has leaned for 
 
 repose 
 He will not, he will not desert to his foes. 
 That soul, though all hell should endeavor 
 
 to shake, 
 He'll never, no, never, no never forsake." 
 
 Every regenerated soul, we have said, is 
 a sanctified soul, and is therefore a saintly 
 soul, and every genuine Christian is a saint. 
 So it is held, and with the authority of 
 God's Word — the word of the Lord Jesus— 
 every redeemed soul will be surely brought 
 home to the abode of the saints, and it 
 is our joy to think that, if he has not 
 already done so, he will not fail to make 
 us "fit to be partakers of the inheritance 
 of the saints in light." The processes by 
 which he carries on his work in us are 
 varied and often mysterious; but they are 
 effective. Because of our different tem- 
 peraments and selfishness, what is effective 
 in one instance may not avail in another. 
 The Captain of our salvation was made per- 
 fect through suffering, in order that he 
 might not only redeem us, but that he 
 might be to us an example of patience and 
 perseverance. He knew well what he was 
 to endure, and yet, "for the joy that was 
 set before him, he endured the cross, 
 despising the shame, knowing well that in 
 
84 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 the end he would sit down at the right 
 hand of the majesty on high, having put 
 all enemies under his feet. And it is said 
 to us: "Consider him who endured such 
 gainsaying of sinners against himself, that 
 ye wax not weary, fainting in your souls." 
 He knows the ways that we take, and he 
 is prepared to meet us in whatever way; 
 and, if we allow him (as the regenerated 
 surely will), he will conduct us home. All 
 turns, let us say again, on whether we have 
 been truly born of God. On that great fact 
 depends the question of "the final perse- 
 verance of the saints." The saints perse- 
 vere, because they are born of God. 
 
THE RESURRECTION BODY. 
 
 Nothing is taught more distinctly and 
 plainly, in the New Testament, than that 
 the dead shall be raised and shall he con- 
 scious of life as well as of the scenes 
 around them. The ancient Greeks and 
 Romans, as well as other heathen peoples, 
 believed in a future life, a continued con- 
 sciousness after death. They held that 
 the soul, or spirit, or shade, could exist 
 without the body, and they conceived an 
 "underworld," where disembodied spirits 
 associated together, one class separated 
 from another, the good and the bad 
 dwelling apart. Of course, having nothing 
 beside their reasoning and imagination to 
 found such a theory upon, there was wide 
 difference of opinion among them as to 
 just what and where the future life was 
 to be lived. They had no conception of a 
 reunion of soul and body, nor did they 
 have clear views as to eternity, though 
 they had words to express it. 
 
 Christianity, the New Testament, on the 
 other hand, teaches distinctly that there 
 shall be a resurrection of the dead, "both 
 (85) 
 
86 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 of the just and of the unjust." Jesus 
 taught it when he declared that "in the 
 resurrection" there is "neither marriage 
 nor giving in marriage." He taught it 
 also when he spoke of his disciples as sit- 
 ting "upon thrones, judging the tribes of 
 Israel." He taught it distinctly and ex- 
 plicitly when (John v. 25), he said: "The 
 hour cometh and now is when the dead 
 shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and 
 they who hear shall live." 
 
 The resurrection of the dead was a very 
 prominent feature of Paul's preaching and 
 teaching. As a Pharisee he had adopted 
 the view held by his sect; and as a Chris- 
 tian he had become thoroughly convinced 
 of it, fully believing that the Lord Jesus 
 had risen from the dead, and that he was 
 simply the first-fruit of a great salvation 
 furnished in his own blood and made ef- 
 fectual by his Spirit. It was his declara- 
 tion of this conviction that created the 
 great disturbance in the temple when he 
 was arrested and placed on trial for her- 
 esy. It was his challenge to Agrippa, 
 when he asked the king: "Why is it 
 judged incredible with >ou, if God doth 
 raise the dead?" 
 
 But the New Testament, especially in the 
 writings of Paul, makes a distinction be- 
 
The Resurrection Body. 87 
 
 tween those who die "in Christ" and those 
 who die in their sins. While both the 
 just and the unjust shall be raised from 
 the dead, the condition and expectation of 
 the two classes are quite dissimilar. The 
 one class is to be raised to a new and 
 joyous life, the other to "shame and ever- 
 lasting contempt." Those of one class will 
 hail with delight the coming of their Lord 
 and the assurance that, being "blessed of 
 the Father," they shall inherit "the king- 
 dom prepared for them before the founda- 
 tion of the world." Those of the other class 
 will awake in terror to hear the com- 
 mand: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into 
 everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and 
 his angels." Paul expressly declares that 
 joy in the resurrection is to be experienced 
 only by those who make Christ their por- 
 tion in this life. "For if we believe that 
 Jesus died and rose again, even so them 
 also that sleep in Jesus will God bring 
 with him." "The dead iu Christ shall 
 rise first." 
 
 Moreover, the New Testament teaches 
 that there shall be a resurrection of the 
 bodies of those who die "in the Lord." 
 Just what kind of body that of the resur- 
 rection will be is not clearly defined. What 
 we know is that there will be an intimate 
 
88 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 and essential relation between the body 
 laid in the grave and the "body that shall 
 be." It is not to be presumed that every 
 emaciated, decrepit, malformed, miserable 
 body dissolved by death and the grave will 
 be raised in the same identical form and 
 composed of the same ideDtical elements 
 arranged in the same order as when death 
 came to it. Such a resurrection would be 
 quite undesirable. Paul, who had re- 
 ceived fuller instruction in the things of 
 God than had any other man of his time, 
 expressly declares that the body laid in 
 the grave is not the body that is to come 
 forth from the grave. The one is essen- 
 tially the other, having a distinct person- 
 ality. But they are not identical. The ar- 
 gument of 1 Cor. xv. 35-54, while it justi- 
 fies the hope of the resurrection of the body, 
 insists that the body raised is not identical 
 with the body put off in death. Paul tells 
 us that "all flesh is not the same flesh," 
 neither are all the heavenly bodies of the 
 same substance. There is a flesh of beasts, 
 another of fishes and another of birds. 
 There are terrestial bodies and bodies ce- 
 lestial. What we lay in the grave is not 
 the body which will come forth, any more 
 than the seed sown in the ground is identi- 
 cal with the plant which springs from it. 
 
The Resurrection Body. 89 
 
 The seed is essential to the plant, but it 
 is not the plant. So what we lay in the 
 grave is a fleshly body, but that which 
 shall come forth is a spiritual body. "So 
 is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown 
 in corruption; it is raised in incorruption; 
 it is sown in dishonor; it is raised in 
 glory; it is sown in weakness; it is raised 
 in power; it is sown a natural body; it is 
 raised a spiritual body." The natural 
 comes first, and is essential to the spir- 
 itual. "As we have borne the image of 
 the earthy, we shall also bear the image 
 of the heavenly." 
 
 If it is said that the body of Jesus, when 
 raised from the tomb, was identical with 
 that which was laid in the tomb, we an- 
 swer that while it is true that the tomb 
 was empty, it is also true that the body 
 with which our Lord clothed himself dif- 
 fered widely from that which he inhabited 
 before his death. First of all, the gar- 
 ments worn by him before his death were 
 divided among the soldiers, and only the 
 winding sheet furnished by Nicodemus 
 came out of the grave. Yet Jesus seemed 
 to wear clothes of the fashion of the times, 
 after his resurrection. True, he walked 
 with his disciples on the way to Emmaus; 
 but he did not walk back to Jerusalem 
 
90 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 with them. "He vanished out of their 
 sight" and afterwards entered the room in 
 which the disciples were assembled, though 
 the doors were closed and fastened, "for 
 fear of the Jews." And after eating the 
 piece of fish and the honey, he went out 
 as he had come in, opening no door. Be- 
 fore his resurrection Jesus needed food 
 and shelter as other men did; but after 
 his resurrection he needed neither food 
 nor shelter. He went and came as seemed 
 good to himself, and was here and there in 
 a twinkling. So the bodies of his people 
 are to be fashioned "like unto his glorious 
 body." His resurrection life was not at 
 all like his preresurrection life. So it will 
 be with his people. It must not be for- 
 gotten that "there is a natural body, and 
 there is a spiritual body." What is the 
 substance of the spiritual body we do not 
 know, and can not know until we have 
 received it. But it is the blessed hope of 
 the saints of God that they are to receive 
 such bodies, and that those bodies are im- 
 mortal; that they are like unto the body of 
 the Lord Jesus who at one time appeared 
 as a majestic presence with "eyes like a 
 flame of fire, his feet like unto burnished 
 brass," and yet, in the midst of the throne 
 and of the four living creatures and of the 
 
The Resurrection Body. 91 
 
 eiders, he was "a lamb as it had been 
 slain." It becomes us, therefore, to be 
 very humble and teachable, when we come 
 to speak of the resurrection body. It will 
 be a wonderful thing, not definable in hu- 
 man words. It will have marvelous pow- 
 ers, capable of moving with marvelous 
 rapidity, and in it the saint will be able 
 to visit all parts of his Father's house and 
 domain. "We that are in this tabernacle 
 do groan being burdened, not because we 
 would be unclothed, but clothed upon with 
 our house which is from heaven." 
 
THE ISSUES OP "THAT DAY." 
 
 It is sometimes said that it is "the day 
 for which all other days are made." In 
 the New Testament it is frequently spoken 
 of as "that day," as in Luke x. 12: "It 
 shall be more tolerable for Sodom, in that 
 day, than for you"; Luke xxxi. 35: "But 
 take heed to yourselves lest haply your 
 hearts be overcharged . . . and that day 
 come upon you suddenly as a snare"; 1 
 Thess. v. 4: "But ye, brethren, are not in 
 darkness, that that day should overtake you 
 as a thief"; 2 Tim. i. 12: "I am persuaded 
 that he is able to guard that which I have 
 committed unto him against that day"; 
 v. 18: "The Lord grant unto him to find 
 mercy of the Lord in that day"; iv. 8: 
 "The crown of righteousness which the 
 Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at 
 that day." In other places it is called "the 
 day of the Lord," as 1 Cor. i. 5: "That 
 the spirit may be saved in the day of 
 the Lord Jesus"; 2 Cor. i. 14: "We are 
 your glorying, even as ye are also ours, 
 in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ"; 1 
 (92) 
 
The Issues of That Day. 93 
 
 Thess. v. 2: "The day of the Lord so com- 
 eth as a thief in the night"; 2 Peter iii. 10: 
 "But the day of the Lord will come as a 
 thief." More frequently, however, it is 
 called "the day of judgment," as Matt. x. 
 15: "It shall be more tolerable for the 
 land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of 
 judgment than for that city"; Matt. xi. 22: 
 "It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and 
 Sidon in the day of judgment than for 
 you"; 24: "It shall be more tolerable for 
 the land of Sodom in the day of judgment 
 than for thee"; xii. 36: "Every idle word 
 that men shall speak, they shall give ac- 
 count thereof in the day of judgment"; 
 2 Peter ii. 9: "The Lord knoweth how 
 ... to keep the unrighteous under pun- 
 ishment unto the day of judgment"; 1 John 
 iv. 17: "That we may have boldness in the 
 day of judgment." 
 
 The Lord Jesus himself spoke specifically 
 of a judgment day and how it shall be 
 ordered. In Matt. xxv. 31-46 he tells us of 
 that day when he "shall come in his 
 glory"; when he shall "sit on the throne 
 of his glory," and the nations shall be gath- 
 ered before him. He thus tells us of a par- 
 ticular day when (as it is said in Rev. xx. 
 12) "the dead, the great and the small shall 
 stand before the throne and the books shall 
 
94 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 be opened, and "the dead" shall be "judged 
 out of the things written in the books ac- 
 cording to their works." At the same time 
 another book is to be opened, and that is 
 the book of life. Then, if any shall not be 
 found written in the book of life, he shall 
 be "cast into the lake of fire." So Jesus 
 tells of that day, when he says that "the 
 Son of Man shall sit upon the throne of 
 his glory" and the nations shall be gath- 
 ered before him and a separation shall 
 take place, there being only two classes, 
 and the issue shall be made on the ques- 
 tion what is the relation of each to the 
 Judge upon; the throne. 
 
 It should be carefully observed that Jesus 
 himself is the speaker, and he speaks of 
 himself, "the Son of Man," as the Judge. 
 In another place (John v. 22) he says that 
 the Father judges no man, "but hath given 
 all judgment to the Son." And he further 
 says "that all men may honor the Son, even 
 as they honor the Father. He that honor- 
 eth not the Son honoreth not the Father 
 that sent him." So, when he sits upon the 
 throne of judgment, the question at issue 
 is the relation of each individual to the 
 Son of Man, the Lord of glory, to whom all 
 judgment has been committed. 
 
 It should be noted again that there are 
 
The Issues of That Day. 95 
 
 only two classes, those on the right and 
 those on the left. There are none who can 
 be called "negatives" — neither good nor 
 bad, only medium, half-and-half sort of 
 people. "He that is not for us is against 
 us," said Jesus, and "he that is not against 
 us is for us." It must be one thing or the 
 other. So now, at the judgment, no one is 
 allowed to plead some goodness as a reason 
 why he should be reckoned with neither the 
 good nor the bad. 
 
 It should be noticed also that the whole 
 issue turns on the relation of the individual 
 to the Judge. To the one class he says: 
 "I was hungry and ye gave me meat," etc.; 
 to the other class he says: "I was hungry 
 and ye gave me no meat." He takes into 
 account nothing else in the life and the 
 character of the individual. All turns upon 
 the one fact, or delinquency. The "right- 
 eous" are surprised that they are said to 
 have ministered to the Judge; for they do 
 •not remember ever having seen him in 
 need, and the same thing is true of the 
 other class. Then the one class is told 
 that the ministry was not to him personal- 
 ly, but to his brethren; the other class is 
 told that the failure was not in ministry 
 to him personally, but to his "brethren." 
 But who are his brethren? Assuredly, not 
 
Theology tor Plain People, 
 
 everybody; not all men indiscriminately. 
 We may think of the Judge as waving his 
 hand or pointing towards those on his right 
 hand — "These, my brethren." It is they to 
 whom the reference is made. The question 
 is, What is the esteem in which the breth- 
 ren of Christ are held by those who are to 
 be judged? John tells us that the test of 
 our having passed from death to life is 
 love for the brethren. If we love Christ, 
 we love those who also love him. He who 
 professes to love Christ and yet does not 
 cherish in his heart a peculiar love for 
 those who have been born of God, and 
 have so become God's children, and con- 
 sequently brethren of Jesus, has no right 
 to regard himself as a Christian. This test 
 is easily made and is applied more fre- 
 quently than most of us are aware. It is 
 present in the very first hour of the new- 
 born soul. It is present in the heart at 
 every subsequent step in life. He who pro- 
 fesses to love all men alike, who talks of 
 his love for his fellow-men, and knows no 
 difference between those who love God and 
 those who do not love him — how shall he 
 prove that he is a child of God? The Judge, 
 in that day, will not take a profession of 
 love for humanity, love for "all men"— hu- 
 man loves for kindred, the suffering, the 
 
The Issues of That Day. 97 
 
 unfortunate, the distressed — and reckon it 
 just as good as love for him and love for 
 his "brethren." Ben Adhem's love for "his 
 fellow-men" will not answer in the day of 
 Christ. It is easy to see that, if love for 
 humanity, love for man as man, love for 
 kindred and neighbors — if such love is to 
 be made availing in that day, there will 
 be a scrambling over from the left hand 
 to the right hand, and none will be left on 
 the wrong side. Let it be distinctly under- 
 stood, then, that the beneficence that de- 
 cides the status of those brought to judg- 
 ment is that bestowed upon Jesus Christ 
 in his members, his people. "We know 
 that we have passed from death to life, 
 because we love the brethren" — not because 
 we love everybody. 
 
 Finally, the decision of that day will be 
 final. There is not the least intimation 
 that there is any middle ground, nor is 
 there any intimation that there may be a 
 change of state after the judgment has 
 been pronounced. There is not in all the 
 Word of God anything to justify the idea 
 that the wicked are to be subjected to a 
 purgatory in which they are to expiate 
 their sins, and then, after a course of pro- 
 bation and purifying, are to be reinstated 
 
 (8) 
 
Theology for Plain People, 
 
 to divine favor and admitted to the joys 
 of the redeemed, the lovers of Jesus. There 
 is no evidence of what is called "a second 
 probation." All the eternal future is made 
 to depend upon the one thing to be effected 
 here, namely, love for or indifference to 
 the Lord Jesus Christ. All turns upon that. 
 The ungodly who stand upon the left hand, 
 who can not say that they have ministered 
 to Jesus by ministering to his brethren, 
 "shall go away into everlasting punish- 
 ment." And that world everlasting (Greek 
 aionion) means nothing less than eternal 
 or unending. It is used with regard to the 
 righteous as well as the wicked. If it 
 means anything less than unending, then it 
 is fair to believe that the blessed state of 
 the "righteous" will come to an end. If 
 Jesus did not mean to say that the? wicked 
 would be punished forever, then he did not 
 say that the righteous would be happy for- 
 ever. The Greek had the idea of an un- 
 ending existence, and they used the word 
 aionios to express the idea. In Revelation 
 xiv. 11 it is said of certain wicked ones that 
 "the smoke of their torment goeth up for- 
 ever and ever," and the word is the same 
 used in Matt. xxv. 46. There can be no 
 doubt that there are those who will suffer 
 
The Issues of That Day. 99 
 
 as it is said in Revelation, in "the lake of 
 fire," where the devil and the false prophets 
 are, "and they shall be tormented day and 
 night forever and ever." The place is said 
 to have been prepared for the devil and his 
 angels, the false prophet among them. 
 "Then shall the righteous shine forth as 
 the sun in the kingdom of their Father." 
 
 lofc 
 
THE HEAVENLY WORLD. 
 
 Where is it? What is it? These ques- 
 tions are constantly recurring, and prob- 
 ably only their stupendous significance 
 hinders definite and satisfactory answers 
 to them. The Bible, especially the New 
 Testament, gives us hints and suggestions 
 as to both what and where is the estate of 
 the blessed. As to where it is, one or two 
 thoughts may be convincing. We are to 
 consider that our Father, who, in the per- 
 son of his Son, made the heavens and the 
 earth, has a vast dominion. We have 
 learned that, though our sun is ninety-five 
 millions of miles from us, yet there are 
 other suns, many millions of miles farther 
 from our sun than he is from us; that 
 of all the great luminaries in the heavens 
 no two, outside of our own solar system, 
 are as near each other as are we and our 
 sun. Some of the "fixed stars" are known 
 to be so far from us that it takes their 
 light millions of years to reach us, and it 
 is probable that there are some so far re- 
 moved that their light has not yet reached 
 us, though moving at the rate of two hun- 
 dred thousand miles per second. 
 
 (100) 
 
The Heavenly World. 101 
 
 We must not forget that he who is our 
 God made all these, and keeps them all 
 in motion, as well as cares for everything 
 on any of them. This then is our Father's 
 house, not made with hands. We must re- 
 member also that our God is omnipresent, 
 as truly in any one of the fixed stars as 
 he is on our planet. And yet we are obliged 
 to think of him as having a thro-ne in the 
 heavens, a place of his presence in a pe- 
 culiar sense. We can but think of a cen- 
 tral point from which God looks out over 
 his infinite universe. John, the beloved of 
 Jesus, was permitted to look into the 
 heavenly abode, and to see the throne with 
 all its attendant glories; the "living crea- 
 tures," the elders, the multitude of choris- 
 ters who sing the praises of their God 
 and their Redeemer. It is possible, there- 
 fore, for God to fix a place, as it may 
 seem good to himself, which shall be recog- 
 nized as his peculiar abode. The extent 
 of the place no human being can con- 
 ceive. We may suppose it to be commensu- 
 rate with the boundless realm of the 
 divine Sovereign. And wherever that 
 is, there is heaven. It is the pres- 
 ence of God and of Christ. It is 
 where the redeemed of the Lord walk 
 with him. It may be all around us, even 
 
102 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 now. This, however, seems clear — that 
 which we' call heaven and think of as a 
 place of blessedness was made by our 
 father, and is none too good for his be- 
 loved sons and daughters. 
 
 It is not inconsistent with what we are 
 told in the Bible, that what are often called 
 ' ( the heavenly worlds" are more truly such 
 than we have thought. They all belong to 
 our Father's house, and nothing can delight 
 him more than to open up his house to his 
 children, the redeemed whom he loves as 
 he loves no other except his First-born, 
 who is simply the Elder Brother of those 
 who have been born of God. We may, 
 therefore, confidently expect that, in God's 
 own time, according to his good pleasure, 
 all the realm of the only true and living 
 God will be opened up and made the abode 
 of his children. Then it will be their 
 privilege to pass from sun to sun, from one 
 great planetary system to another, unchal- 
 lenged and unrestrained. It will then ap- 
 pear to them that it was worth while to 
 practice a little self-denial, and endure a 
 little hardship here, if it is followed by 
 such delights in a world without end. 
 
 To the question, What is heaven? we 
 can answer with a degree of certainty, be- 
 cause we have it so vividly described in 
 
The Heavenly World. 103 
 
 the New Testament. It is, first of all, 
 "eternal life," a life which begins here 
 and knows no ending. It is the life of God, 
 and is the spring and occasion of all other 
 joys and all the blessedness which a 
 redeemed soul can experience. It is a state 
 of conscious love, joy, peace, in the pres- 
 ence of God and of the Lamb, and of the 
 angels, and of the great concourse of the 
 saints in light, who ascribe their conquest 
 to the Lamb, their victory to his death. It 
 is a condition of the soul in which it sings 
 with rapture, "Hallelujah; salvation and 
 honor and glory and blessing be to our 
 God, forever and ever!" This eternal life 
 is to be enjoyed in the presence of God, in 
 a city into which nothing unclean shall 
 ever enter. One who had been caught up 
 into that world of blessedness saw a city, 
 (not a desert) whose length and breadth 
 and height were equal. It had gates al- 
 ways open, so that the inhabitants were 
 always at liberty to go and come. It had 
 massive walls of precious stones, and gates 
 of pearls. It had streets of gold, and into 
 it were brought the glory and honor of the 
 nations. In the midst of the city he saw a 
 river called the river of life, its water clear 
 as a crystal, and on its banks, on either 
 side, grew trees bearing luscious fruit, 
 
104 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 the trees perennial, their fruit always 
 ripening. The city needed no artificial 
 light, for he who dwelt in it was the light 
 of it; all could see his face and recognize 
 him as their own Savior. 
 
 The description of the city, as set forth 
 in the last chapters of the Apocalypse, is 
 that of the most desirable dwelling place 
 conceivable; human language and the most 
 exalted imagery being exhausted in the 
 description of it; and we are to under- 
 stand that the description is only the best 
 that can be drawn to give us some concep- 
 tion of what we are told — that eye has not 
 seen, nor ear heard, neither has the heart 
 of man been able to conceive things that 
 have been prepared for those who shall 
 be permitted to enter that place. Those 
 who dwell there shall hunger no more, 
 neither thirst any more, neither shall the 
 sun light on them, nor any heat, neither 
 shall they be left to themselves to wandor 
 at will and uninstructed; but One whose 
 place betimes is in the midst of the throne 
 shall feed them, and shall lead them to the 
 fountains of water, "and God shall wipe 
 away all tears from their eyes." 
 
 Thus we are taught to expect great 
 things in connection with our heavenly 
 abode. It is the universe of God, and yet 
 
The Heavenly World. 105 
 
 it is possible for the redeemed to enjoy 
 all that can be conceived as desirable in 
 a city which has foundations, whose build- 
 er and maker is the God who made the 
 heavens of which we have been speaking. 
 If asked whether the things spoken of 
 are literal, we say No; they are the best 
 that human tongue can describe; but the 
 reality is infinitely better and more glori- 
 ous than can be conceived by help of the 
 description. What the best things of earth, 
 separated from all evil, are to the pure in 
 heart and the faithful in Christ Jesus, that, 
 and far more, is the heaven prepared for 
 the saints of God when they have finished 
 their sojourn. "There remaineth there- 
 fore a rest to the people of God." It is the 
 kingdom prepared for the saints "from 
 the foundation of the world." 
 
THE IMPENITENT DEAD. 
 
 In an early article in this series it was 
 said that the highest and only infallible 
 authority in religion is the Bible. Rea- 
 son may help us, and experience is not to 
 be despised; but all great questions are to 
 be settled, finally, by the Word of God. 
 "What saith the Scripture?" is the answer 
 to hard questions to-day, as it was in the 
 days of Jesus. So when we come to this 
 question of utmost importance, as truly as 
 when we ask concerning life eternal, we 
 must have recourse for answer to the writ- 
 ten Word of God. 
 
 Reason tells us that there must be a dis- 
 tinction between classes of human beings. 
 All peoples have some sort of standard of 
 righteousness. All recognize goodness, and 
 contrast it with badness. The Word of God, 
 especially the New Testament, makes the 
 distinction to turn upon the fact of faith 
 in Jesus Christ, between those who love 
 God and accept the salvation provided by 
 him, and those who reject, or neglect "so 
 great salvation." If the redeemed of the 
 
 (106) 
 
The Impenitent Dead. 107 
 
 Lord are received to his loving fellowship, 
 and "walk with him in white," what of 
 those who do not accept that salvation, and 
 da not seek it? "And this is liie eternal," 
 said Jesus, to "know thee, the only true 
 God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast 
 sent." If to know Jesus is eternal life, it 
 follows that a lack of that knowledge is 
 eternal death. There is no middle ground. 
 Every one must belong to the one class or 
 the other. "Life" and "death" are set over 
 against each other, and it is left to us to 
 say which we will have. 
 
 If it is objected that certain persons and 
 peoples have no knowledge of God, and can 
 not have, because God has not revealed 
 himself to them, it is answered that, origin- 
 ally, all had a knowledge of God. To say 
 nothing of the antediluvians, Noah and all 
 his sons, with their several wives, had a 
 knowledge of the true God. It was the 
 privilege of all the descendants of Noah 
 equally to know and fear and honor and 
 serve the God of Noah. The truth is as 
 Paul says, in Romans i., "That which may 
 be known of God is manifest in them; for 
 God hath shown it unto them; so that they 
 are without excuse." "Because, when they 
 knew God, they glorified him not as God, 
 neither were thankful; but became vain 
 
108 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 in their imaginations, and their foolish 
 heart was darkened. Professing themselves 
 to be wise, they became fools." . . . 
 " Wherefore God gave them up to un clean- 
 ness through the lusts of their own hearts." 
 "For this cause God gave them up unto vile 
 affections." . . . "And even as they did 
 not like to retain God in their knowledge, 
 God gave them over to a reprobate mind 
 to do those things that are not conven- 
 ient." It is not God's fault that the eyes 
 of men are blinded; that they do not know 
 him; that they prefer to gratify their own 
 lusts and passions, and are at enmity 
 against him. He has declared that he will 
 surely be found by those who seek him. 
 No one ever yet went down to eternal death 
 begging for mercy, in view of what Christ 
 has done. 
 
 We have already seen that "the day," 
 "that day," is to be a day of decision, a 
 day of the revelation of the wrath, as well 
 as of the love of God in Christ. Two class- 
 es are to come up for judgment, and these 
 classes are to be separated from each other, 
 with no possibility, then, of a passing from 
 the one side to the other, either way. To 
 those of the one class it is said: "Come, 
 ye blessed of my Father"; and to the other 
 it is said: "Depart, ye cursed, into ever- 
 
The Impenitent Dead. 109 
 
 lasting fire prepared for the devil and his 
 angels." And of these last it is said that 
 they "shall go away into everlasting pun- 
 ishment. ,, It is worth while to notice that, 
 while it is said to the "righteous" that they 
 are to go into blessedness, it is a "kingdom 
 prepared for them from the foundation of 
 the world." But it is not said that the 
 place of torment was prepared expressly 
 for the wicked. The place of torment was 
 not prepared for the wicked, as though God 
 had foredoomed them to that place and that 
 suffering. That would not be true. It is 
 not true that God creates a soul to damn 
 it. To say such a thing is to misrepresent 
 God. It is true that God has prepared for 
 his people a kingdom, and he has full 
 knowledge of who are to occupy it. But 
 he has not said— and we are not to say,— 
 that he has prepared a place for the ungod- 
 ly, and has created them that they may oc- 
 cupy it. God knows who they are; but he 
 has not created men to damn them. God 
 has set before men life and death, and they 
 are to choose which they will have, It is 
 sufficiently evident, however, that unless 
 wrought upon by the Holy Spirit, all will 
 choose death rather than life. Only those 
 who are brought under the influence and 
 power of the Holy Spirit choose eternal 
 
110 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 life. It is a question whether one shall 
 have his good things in this life, or in the 
 life to come. Most people do not believe 
 that it pays to serve God in this present 
 life. Who is to blame, if they experience 
 eternal death at the end? 
 
 We are not to forget that God has made 
 it easy for a soul to be saved. He has 
 •not even required that one shall practice 
 self-denial, and live godly for a certain 
 number of years. He has not said that 
 unless one shall serve him faithfully for 
 sixty years, or twenty years, or ten years, 
 he can not hope to be saved. He "com- 
 mands men everywhere to repent," to re- 
 pent to-day; to live godly lives from this 
 day forward. And yet, so gracious is he 
 that though a man has been sinning for 
 fifty, sixty, eighty years, he may be saved, 
 and be as fully saved as though he had 
 never committed a sin. It is not God's 
 fault if a sinner is not saved. God has 
 made salvation the easiest thing in the 
 world. Nothing is so easy as is being 
 saved. It is simply trusting in Christ. 
 "God so loved the world that he gave his 
 only begotten Son, that whosoever believ- 
 eth in him should not perish, but have 
 everlasting life." The whole matter of sal- 
 vation rests upon the one great fact of trust 
 
The Impenitent Dead. Ill 
 
 in Christ. If God had said to any man: 
 Now you must live and serve me, without 
 an error, for ten years, or for five years, 
 or for five hours, or you can not be saved, 
 the case would be different. But God says 
 that in the day of repentance salvation 
 comes. It is a matter of repentance, of 
 regret, of conscious guilt, deserving punish- 
 ment. To one who is in that state of mind 
 God shows his salvation. To such a one 
 Jesus comes. 
 
 It is the unrepentant who is lost. But the 
 repentance must not be simply regret for 
 being lost. It must be regret of sin; re- 
 pentance of sin. The soul must be sin- 
 cerely sorry that it is "enmity against God," 
 and must be cherishing a desire to be on 
 God's side. Only those who can truly and 
 truthfully say that they are on God's side 
 can hope for salvation. God will not have 
 in his kingdom any who are against him. 
 All his subjects must love him and be glad 
 to have him as their King. His realm is 
 a kingdom, not a republic; and all who 
 enter there must be willing to have him to 
 rule over them. They must be glad that 
 he is their King, and must never call in 
 question what he may do. Those who call 
 him in question here are his enemies, and 
 until they repent, they can not enter his 
 
112 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 kingdom. The blessed thing about it is 
 that he accepts repentance in the moment 
 of its exercise, no matter at what time it 
 occurs. "Whosoever will" may now "take 
 of the water of life freely." "Now is the 
 accepted time." 
 
 But now, after all this, what of him who 
 refuses to accept God's salvation? What 
 of him who comes down to death unrepent- 
 ant, without Christ? There can be but one 
 answer: He dies as he has lived. He dies 
 a rebel against God. He dies an enemy of 
 God. He dies unwilling to have God as his 
 King, to rule over him. There is not the 
 least intimation in God's word that one 
 can change his state after death. All the 
 exhortations and admonitions and prom- 
 ises of the Word of God are based on the 
 idea that death is the end of probation. 
 Life and death are set before us here, and 
 we must make the choice here. All the 
 teachings of Jesus are based upon the idea 
 that the Gospel is for this present world, 
 and for this world only. Of those who go 
 hence impenitent it is said "their worm 
 dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." 
 "It is good for them to enter into life 
 maimed, rather than having the two hands 
 to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire." 
 
 The parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus 
 
The Impenitent Dead. 113 
 
 was given for the purpose of teaching the 
 hopelessness of those who die impenitent. 
 "There is a great gulf fixed," so that there 
 is no possibility of crossing either way. It 
 was Jesus and not Paul who taught these 
 things. It can not be said that these were 
 Paul's imaginings. For this teaching we 
 go "back to Christ." And it was the same 
 Christ who taught John, the beloved, that 
 the ungodly are "tormented day and night" 
 forever. It was the same Jesus who showed 
 the bottomless pit, and declared that into 
 it the wicked shall be cast, and that "the 
 smoke of their torment ascendeth forever 
 and ever." There the ungodly are in the 
 same case with the beast and the 1 
 prophet, and "that old serpent, the devil 
 and Satan," who deceived men, teaching 
 them that they shall not surely die, and 
 shall not be cast into hell. All come to the 
 same place, and are of the same kind. The 
 devil is Satan, the deceiver and accuser, 
 
 and the deceived are to share his doom with 
 him. Their enmity to God is as perpetual 
 as is his. There is no word, or form of 
 words, which can more clearly represent 
 the unending misery of the wicked, none 
 more forceful and certain than is the 
 phraseology used in the Scriptures. And 
 if we are asked whether we think that hell 
 
 (9) 
 
114 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 is as bad as it is represented, we say: God 
 has chosen the strongest words and figures 
 to represent it, and yet they are not equal 
 to the task. Just as the description of 
 heaven fails for want of words and figures 
 to represent it in its fullness, so human 
 language fails to tell the story of the woe 
 awaiting those who are impenitent, with- 
 out Christ. 
 
THE BODY OF CHRIST. 
 
 It is that through which he works in the 
 world. Y/e distinguish between the soul 
 and the body of man. We admit and hold 
 that the soul can exist without the body. 
 We believe that the time is coming when 
 soul and body shall be separated, the lat- 
 ter returning to the earth, the former re- 
 turning to Him who gave it. When the 
 Lord Christ went away to his Father he 
 left in the world certain men who were 
 to be intimately connected with the future 
 of his kingdom on earth, and he went so 
 far as to tell them that whatsoever they 
 should bind on earth should be bound in 
 heaven, and that what they should loose 
 on earth should be loosed in heaven. He 
 had so instructed those men, had given 
 them such an insight into his kingdom 
 and the things which pertained to it, that 
 they would not fail to maintain its in- 
 tegrity and transmit to others what they 
 had received of him. He made them his 
 hands and feet, his agents for the promo- 
 tion of his cause among men. 
 (115) 
 
116 Theology for Plain People, 
 
 In due time he added to the number of 
 these both men and women born of the 
 same Spirit, filled with the same love to 
 him, moved to activity by the same in- 
 dwelling power, impelled by the same con- 
 sciousness that through them and by them 
 their Master was to bring the world to 
 a knowledge of himself and of his salva- 
 tion. These men and women became a 
 multitude which no man could number, 
 and they wrought mightily for centuries. 
 But they took to themselves certain others 
 who had not the same faith, the same 
 love, the same zeal, the same conscious- 
 ness, and the glory departed from the 
 conglomerate mass. The promise, "Lo, I 
 am with you alway," was made to those 
 who truly believed and were truly spi- 
 ritual; to those who had knowledge of 
 the way of life and could teach the way to 
 others. And these, together with all those 
 who became possessed of like precious 
 faith, became "the body of Christ,'' his 
 hands, his feet, his second self, for which 
 he gave himself, "purifying unto himself 
 a people for his own possession, zealous of 
 good works." All such are members of 
 the body of Christ. It can be said of them 
 truly that they are "members of his body" 
 (of his flesh and of his bones). It is 
 
The Body of Christ. 117 
 
 through his body, animated by his Spirit, 
 that he does his work in the world. 
 
 This body is sometimes called "the 
 church of Christ/' as in Matt. xvi. 18; 
 "the church of God," as in Acts xx. 28; 
 1 Cor. xv. 9, etc. In other places it is 
 called "the bride" of Christ, as in Rev. 
 xxi. 9. Especially in the letter to the 
 Ephesians, he who had peculiar opportuni- 
 ty to learn the mysteries of the kingdom 
 took occasion to dwell upon this relation 
 of Christ to his church, likening it to the 
 relation between husband and wife, the 
 most intimate known to humanity. It is 
 a great "mystery," incomprehensible to 
 those who have had no experience of the 
 fact; but to those who have had experience 
 it is a source of untold and perpetual de- 
 light. The only thing by which a pos- 
 sible alienation between Christ and his 
 church can be effected is that for which 
 human divorce is justified; nothing can 
 separate the church from Christ but apos- 
 tasy, if, indeed, such a thing is possible. 
 It is composed of redeemed souls, regen- 
 erate souls, souls in which the divine life 
 has been implanted, and which are bound 
 to him by a mutual pledge. He has prom- 
 ised to love, cherish, protect, keep, and 
 suffer for his bride; and she, in turn, has 
 
118 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 promised to love, honor, and obey him. 
 He is to her the law of her life. His will 
 is her pleasure, and to own him as her 
 lord, as Sarai owned Abraham, is the 
 most blessed thought and experience of 
 her existence. 
 
 At the same time Christ, the bridegroom, 
 is proud of his bride, of the church which 
 is his body. It is she who "looketh forth 
 as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as 
 the sun, terrible as an army with ban- 
 ners." In the ages gone he looked upon 
 her a wanderer, sunken in sin, pressing 
 onward to destruction. He looked upon 
 her first with the eye of pity, then with 
 the eye of love, and undertook to deliver 
 her from herself and from him who had 
 wasted and debauched her. For her he 
 came with a message of love, and laid 
 down his life for her. He received her as 
 the reward of his mighty work, the trophy 
 of his conflict with her captor and tyran- 
 nizing master; and by virtue of one tre- 
 mendous sacrifice he rescued her from her 
 bondage, lifted her up, put clean raiment 
 upon her, set her by his side and pro- 
 claimed her his own, his beloved, his 
 other self. He is proud of her because of 
 what he has already accomplished in her, 
 and more because of the possibilities of 
 
The Body of Christ. 119 
 
 the future. He sees her even now set at 
 his own right hand in the heavenly planes, 
 her garments of wrought needle-work, 
 spotless, glistening, suited to her who 
 shares the inheritance of the Son of God, 
 to whom all power in heaven and earth is 
 freely given. He presents her to his Fa- 
 ther as the outcome of his heroic sacri- 
 fice, the jewel whose value he only could 
 discern. 
 
 This body of Christ, we have said, is that 
 through which he carries on his work in 
 the world. It is his feet, on which the 
 gospel is carried to those whom he would 
 have added to it as additional members. 
 It is his mouth, by which he makes known 
 to the sons of men the riches of his grace. 
 It is his eyes, by which he discerns the 
 dark corners of the earth which he would 
 explore and enlighten. It is his hand, by 
 which he reaches out after those in peril 
 and in captivity, and delivers them. It 
 is this body which is doing the work of 
 Christ in the world. It is this body which 
 is animated by him, his Spirit dwelling in 
 it, and it obeying in love. It is to him 
 what the young wife is to her husband 
 as they separate from the associations of 
 youth and set out to make a home for 
 themselves, the wife in full sympathy with 
 
120 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 every plan and every enterprise of her 
 husband, knowing that what is his is hers; 
 that the home which shelters him must 
 also shelter her; that any failure on her 
 part lays so much heavier burden upon 
 him and renders the success of life so 
 much less certain. 
 
 The health of this body depends upon 
 the health of each individual member. 
 Gout can not be in the foot and the rest 
 of the body be unaffected, feel no pain. A 
 felon can not be on a finger and the rest 
 of the body sleep soundly through the 
 night. A mote can not be in the eye and 
 the rest of the body be indifferent to the 
 pain. A needle has a fine point, invisible 
 to the naked eye, and yet its prick sends 
 a thrill of pain to the farthest extremity 
 of the body. The loss of a little finger, 
 or a section of a finger, is deplored as a 
 loss to the body. Only dead members are 
 willingly removed, and then the cut is in 
 the live flesh. It hurts. And when the 
 anesthetic gives surcease of pain for the 
 moment of cutting, pain comes again with 
 the healing; and the member amputated 
 is missed, even when the healing is com- 
 plete. 
 
 This body is sometimes called "the 
 Church universal/' composed of "all who in 
 
The Body of Christ. 121 
 
 every place call upon the name of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, both ours and theirs." 
 It is not the same as a local assembly, 
 composed of persons gathered according 
 to various rules and with different degrees 
 of carefulness and discrimination. This 
 church of which we have been speaking is 
 always a living body. It is immortal. In 
 it the life of Christ himself pulsates. It 
 is fruitful and is increasing from day to 
 day, from age to age. Its record is in the 
 Lamb's Book of Life; and the question for 
 each intelligent soul . to ask is, "Aim I 
 enrolled therein?" 
 
A CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 
 
 The word church, derived from the 
 Greek, has passed through many trans- 
 formations, and is traceable in many lan- 
 guages. In the Greek — kuriaka — spelled 
 with the English letters — means something 
 pertaining to or owned by the Lord. The 
 Kuriakos is the Lord, or Master, and what 
 is his may be kuriakos, as his house, or 
 kuriaka, as his day, or, as a body of people 
 recognizing him as Lord and professing to 
 worship him. In the German it is kirche, 
 in the Scotch dialect it is kirk, these 
 words applying first to the house, and then 
 to the congregation worshiping therein 
 And so the word has come to mean, in 
 English, either the house, or the organized 
 assembly. It is here treated as applicable 
 to the organized body assembled in the 
 name of Jesus Christ, or an organization 
 of enrolled members, ideally together, 
 though for a time scattered widely. It 
 may be a church, though it assemble only 
 once a week, or once a month, or once a 
 year. 
 
 Another Greek word which has come to 
 (122) 
 
A Christian Church. 123 
 
 have a similar meaning in our language is 
 ecclesia, or ekklesia, sometimes called 
 kuriakas ekklesia, or church of the Lord; 
 or, as in several places in the New Testa- 
 ment (Acts xx. 28; 1 Cor. i. 2; 1 Tim. iii. 
 5, etc.), church of God. The word ekkle- 
 sia, however, in New Testament times, 
 had a wider meaning, as in Acts xix. 32, 41, 
 where it designates an unlawful assem- 
 bly, a mob. In modern times it is rarely 
 applied to anything else than an assembly 
 gathered for Christian worship, or a body 
 of people recognizing Jesus Christ as Lord 
 and professing to worship him. In a still 
 narrower sense, we Baptists say that "A 
 visible church is a congregation of bap- 
 tized believers, associated by covenant in 
 the faith and fellowship of the Gospel; ob- 
 serving the ordinances of Christ; governed 
 by his laws; and exercising the gifts, 
 rights and privileges invested in them by 
 his word." It will be noticed that this 
 definition is defective in that it makes no 
 provision for a dispersed organization. It 
 says "a congregation." But it is evident 
 that a congregation is an assembly, and 
 can not be scattered, as a church is, except 
 on stated or special occasions. 
 
 Then, again, our definition makes a 
 church "a congregation of baptized believ- 
 
124 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 ers, covenanted," etc. That might be all 
 right, if it were practicable to secure such 
 a congregation. But it is evident enough 
 that if the definition were strictly applied, 
 there is not such a thing as a church on 
 earth (unless it may be made up of only 
 two or three, or half a dozen genuine 
 saints). It might be better to say that 
 a church of Christ is an organized body of 
 professed believers in Christ, baptized in 
 obedience to his commandment and asso 
 ciated by covenant in the faith and fel- 
 lowship of the Gospel, etc., etc. Strictly, 
 according to Baptist ideas, such is a true 
 church of Christ, as visible here on earth. 
 It differs from "the church of Christ," "the 
 body of Christ," in that the latter is made 
 up of saints only, every member having 
 been born of God, while a church usually 
 has in its membership some who are not 
 genuine Christians, saints, sanctified. 
 What can be said of the church of Christ 
 can not always, with truth, be said of a 
 church of Christ, and a failure to discrim- 
 inate between the two is an occasion of 
 much confusion in our thinking, in our 
 writing and in our speaking. 
 
 It is customary 10 say of a church that 
 it is of divine origin; and so it is, in that 
 its members are, for the most part, His 
 
A Christian Church. 125 
 
 people, his redeemed, drawn together by 
 mutual love for him and the things of his 
 kingdom. It has sometimes been said 
 that Christ himself organized the first 
 Christian church. But we fail to find 
 any authority for that statement in the 
 New Testament. There is nothing to 
 show just when and how the first church 
 was organized. It was rather a growth, 
 the result of a rallying of Christians, be- 
 cause of their mutual interests and their 
 love to their Lord, the Kurios, Master of 
 them all. Because they believed in him, 
 had assembled in his name, recognized him 
 as Lord, they constituted a kurios, sl 
 church. And so when the disciples of 
 Jesus went everywhere preaching the 
 Word, and when they had made converts, 
 these converts came together, drawn by 
 a common faith and a mutual love, and so 
 formed a church, whether they had 
 adopted any formal covenant, or had 
 formulated any rules by which they were 
 to be governed or not. Three persons 
 might constitute a church, or three thou- 
 sand might be a church. It was a body 
 in the midst of which the Lord Christ him- 
 self dwelt. It was not his body, in the full 
 sense, but it was such an assembly as he 
 loved to dwell in and govern. 
 
126 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 It does not follow, however, that every 
 organization called a church is Christ- 
 made. Not even every one which is com- 
 posed of professed believers is Christ- 
 made, or Christ-begotten. Such churches 
 have been the result of strife and bitter- 
 ness and wrong-doing. In them may 
 dwell sorcerers and whoremongers and 
 idolaters and extortioners and liars and 
 lovers of lies. It is not enough to justify 
 a claim that it belongs to Christ, simply 
 that it is called a church. Neither is it 
 proper to say that the churches which are 
 organized according to the divine plan, or 
 as we find them to-day, constitute "the 
 body of Christ." Neither one of them, 
 nor all of them together, make up the body 
 of Christ. That is composed of only the 
 spiritual, while these are always liable to 
 have in them those who are not spiritual — 
 not having been "born of God." 
 
 The definition of "a visible church," 
 usually given by Baptists, excludes all 
 other than Baptist churches; and yet, few 
 Baptists are quite willing to adhere to 
 their definition. They do recognize as 
 churches others than Baptist. They may, 
 and do regard these other churches as ir- 
 regular and lacking in Gospel order; but 
 they do not allow the defects in organiza- 
 
A Christian Church.* 127 
 
 tion to nullify the fact of a church. It 
 would be presumptuous for Baptists to 
 claim that their churches fill their own 
 ideal of what a church is, or should be. 
 They know that, after all their pains, their 
 churches are not perfect, and are not in 
 all things governed by the law of Christ. 
 They have occasion to recognize the prin- 
 ciple tnat only he who is without sin can 
 justly condemn, or throw stones at an- 
 other. It is possible for an organization 
 not formed on Baptist, or on New Testa- 
 ment lines, to be much nearer the heart 
 of the Lord than are not a few which call 
 themselves Baptist, and their churches 
 the only true churches. The Master has 
 blotted out many a Baptist church, and 
 there is reason to suppose that he will still 
 blot out others. As he did to the churches 
 in Asia Minor, so he has done to others, 
 and so he will do. It becomes us to be 
 humble and careful in our judgments, 
 while we seek to adhere firmly to the 
 truth as it is revealed to us. 
 
 There is reason to believe that not a 
 few churches are more anxious to increase 
 their membership and lessen the burdens 
 resting upon them by sharing them with a 
 larger number of members, than they are 
 to maintain the purity and spirituality of 
 
128 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 the membership. The prevailing thought 
 of some churches is the increase of mem- 
 bership, with but little anxiety as to the 
 quality of those added. Such indifference 
 to the quality of the new-comers has 
 brought many a church very low, and has 
 finally resulted in its removal out of its 
 place. There are those who sigh and cry 
 over the errors in theory and in practice 
 all too prevalent among the churches of 
 Christ. Sometimes they are heard, and 
 their admonitions are heeded; but more 
 frequently they are regarded as obstruc- 
 tionists and hindrances to be ignored, or 
 removed. Theoretically, doubtless, Bap- 
 tists are right in their conception of a 
 church, but practically they fail to main- 
 tain their integrity and to make it appear 
 that they are what they profess to be. 
 They often fear lest a strict observance of 
 the law of Christ may deplete their mem- 
 bership and keep away from them those 
 whom they think it would be for their 
 advantage to enroll and reckon among 
 themselves. They need to study more care- 
 fully their own definition of a church of 
 Christ. 
 
CHURCH OFFICERS. 
 
 The Church Universal has but one officer, 
 and needs but one. He is its pastor, its 
 husband, its Savior. To him all authority 
 and power have been given, and he is fully 
 competent to govern his own. In truth, 
 that church needs but little governing. Its 
 members have been made "new creatures" 
 in him, and he is head over all things 
 to it. He loves it with an ^everlasting love, 
 and it loves him because in him is its life 
 and its safety. 
 
 But the local church, though ideally made 
 up of regenerate people and professing to 
 take Christ as its head and ruler, is yet 
 encompassed with infirmities. Not all 
 within it are truly regenerate, and those 
 who are regenerate are still in the body, 
 and are subject to infirmities, liable to be 
 carried away by passion, prejudice, self- 
 will, pride and errors of judgment. It 
 needs officers and government. It needs 
 those who shall keep it up to its duty 
 and its privileges. Consequently, the Mas- 
 ter has provided for it those whom it does 
 well to heed. Paul tells us (1 Cor. xii. 28) 
 
 (10) (129) 
 
130 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 "God hath set some in the church, first 
 apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teach- 
 ers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, 
 helps, governments, divers kinds of 
 tongues." So it was in that early day, and 
 how can we be sure that the same things 
 are not found or needed to-day? 
 
 Our usual definition of an apostle — one 
 who had actually seen the Lord Jesus and 
 who was familiar with his sayings and 
 doings at first hand — of course eliminates 
 apostles from among church officers to-day. 
 But the others may be with us still. The 
 same Paul tells us (Eph. iv. 11) that when 
 the Lord Jesus ascended to heaven, he gave 
 gifts to his people, among them being 
 "prophets," "evangelists," "pastors" and 
 "teachers"; and he tells us that these are 
 '"for the perfecting of the saints, for the 
 work of ministering, for the building up 
 (or edifying) of the body of Christ"— the 
 saints at large, who constitute the spiritual 
 temple in which he, the Lord of glory, 
 dwells. In other places we are told of 
 episcopoi and diakonoi, bishops and dea- 
 cons; and Paul told Timothy what sort 
 of men ought to be set apart to these of- 
 fices in the local church. (See 1 Tim. Hi. 
 1-12.) Putting all these things together, 
 and taking into account the changes of cir- 
 
Church Officers. 131 
 
 cumstances, we can hardly reduce the full 
 number of church officers to two classes, 
 as is common among us to-day — "pastors 
 and deacons." There is strong reason for 
 believing that there is room and work for 
 other officers than those reckoned as com- 
 ing under these two heads. Nevertheless, 
 it may be said that all may be so classed, 
 without any violation of the meaning of 
 the words. 
 
 As to Pastors. It is quite evident that 
 Paul did not mean to restrict the number 
 to one in each church. John, on Patmos, 
 was directed to write to "the angel" of 
 the church in each of the cities, and it 
 has been held that the "angel" was the 
 pastor. Still, the tenor of Scripture is to 
 the effect that more than one "episcopos," 
 bishop or pastor is needed by most, if not 
 by all churches. A pastor, bishop, elder, 
 is an overseer to whom the dearest inter- 
 ests of the church are committed; and what 
 one man is sufficient for these things? 
 Human nature being as weak as it is, the 
 combined wisdom and influence of more 
 than one man is requisite to direct the 
 affairs and correct the errors of any one 
 church of any size. 
 
 It is altogether evident that the early 
 churches had more than one elder, or bish- 
 
132 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 op. Paul, writing to the saints at Philippi, 
 spoke particularly of "the bishops and dea- 
 cons" — both in the plural number. Paul 
 and Barnabas bore money contributions to 
 "the elders"; Paul and Barnabas ordained 
 "elders" in every church; "the apostles, 
 elders and brethren" came together to con- 
 sider a grave question; the "decrees" were 
 "ordained of the elders"; Paul sent for the 
 "elders" of the church of Ephesus; Titus 
 was directed to ordain "elders" in every 
 city where saints were found; James di- 
 rected that the sick ones send for "the 
 elders" of the church. All these things 
 make it quite certain that every New Tes- 
 tament church was supposed to be under 
 the oversight of bishops, or elders; though 
 from the requirements for the office men- 
 tioned by Paul in 1 Tim. iii, it is a marvel 
 that such men could be found in every 
 church. 
 
 While it is true that a New Testament 
 church is an independent, self-contained 
 body, having in it all the power given or 
 required for the transaction of its own 
 business, it is not certain that the pro- 
 vision for officers contemplated only one 
 elder, or bishop, or pastor, in each church. 
 There is occasion for a revision of our rules 
 of faith and practice on that subject. When 
 
Church Officers. 133 
 
 we take into account what was regarded 
 as useful, if not needful in a church, such 
 as "prophecy," "teaching," "helps," "gov- 
 ernments," etc., it becomes quite evident 
 that one man is not equal to the task now- 
 a-days imposed upon him. It is evident 
 that churches in these modern times have 
 departed from the rules laid down for them 
 in the New Testament. To-day the pastor, 
 bishop, elder, must combine in himself the 
 gift of prophecy, of teaching, of "miracles," 
 etc., or there is a serious lack in the 
 church's equipment. And that there is 
 such a lack is all too painfully evident 
 in most cases. 
 
 And then, as to Deacons. These were 
 evidently what were called "helps." The 
 word diakonos means one who serves, one 
 who helps, one who co-operates with others 
 in service which is needful to the highest 
 usefulness of a church of Christ. No one 
 doubts that the deacons of the early church 
 were a group of men chosen for helpful 
 purposes. If "the seven," chosen accord- 
 ing to Acts vi., are to be regarded as hav- 
 ing been deacons, they were charged with 
 a great responsibility — the care of all the 
 temporal and material interests of the 
 churches. They had a common fund out 
 of which they distributed, according to the 
 
134 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 needs of each member, for food and cloth- 
 ing and shelter. It was an emergency, and 
 its stringency soon passed away. But the 
 principle remained, and still remains. 
 
 A church — every church— has, or should 
 have, a common fund out of which pro- 
 vision is made for the special needs of the 
 body. All this, if nothing else, devolves 
 upon the deacons. They are the trustees 
 or financial agents of the church. All 
 moneys should pass through their hands, 
 and for it all they should, as a body, be 
 held responsible. They are the treasurers 
 of the church, which knows no other of- 
 ficers. A New Testament church knew 
 nothing of "trustees," or clerk, or treasurer, 
 apart from the deacons. All such officers 
 were and are deacons. So is every one 
 commissioned to perform service in behalf 
 of a church. To choose out two or three, 
 or six or seven (presumably the best) men 
 and call them deacons, while clerk, treas- 
 urer, superintendent of the Sunday-school, 
 trustees and any number of committees 
 are chosen, is not in harmony with the New 
 Testament idea. If a body of elders, bish- 
 ops (episcopoi), looked after the spiritual 
 affairs of a church, while a body of dea- 
 cons, men "of honest report, full of the 
 Holy Ghost and of wisdom," looked after 
 
Church Officers. 135 
 
 all the other interests, most of our churches 
 would get on far better than they do now. 
 
 It is the privilege of the church to elect 
 these officers, and it may, at times, sug- 
 gest what it would like to have them do; 
 but to elect and ordain deacons and then 
 take out of their hands everything except 
 to pass the elements at the Lord's Supper, 
 and minister to a few sick or needy peo- 
 ple, is far from the idea had in view when 
 "the seven" were appointed; and when the 
 apostle spoke of the helps, governments, 
 etc., which were declared to be given to the 
 church. 
 
 There is room and occasion for great im- 
 provement along this line. If the New Tes- 
 tament idea of deacons were carried out, 
 one, or two, or three men, or even six, 
 would not be enough for the average 
 church. If the question of deaconesses is 
 raised, we answer that we find in the New 
 Testament no intimation that the office of 
 deaconess was known to the apostolic age. 
 If a woman ever served a church, as doubt- 
 less some did, she was not called a dea- 
 coness. Phebe, of Cenchrea, was not a 
 deaconess, but a deacon. Yet we have no 
 intimation that any woman was chosen to 
 an office in a New Testament church. 
 
THE FIRST CHRISTIAN DUTY. 
 
 The firslrduty of every human being com- 
 ing to consciousness is repentance of sin; 
 the second an exercise of faith in Christ 
 as the God-ordained Savior. He who does 
 these things immediately passes from death 
 to life, is born of God, is an heir of God 
 and a joint-heir with Jesus himself. All 
 that the Father hath he gives to his First- 
 born, and all that the First-born hath he 
 shares with his brethren. 
 
 To be a child of God is to possess an 
 obedient spirit, a willingness to do what- 
 soever is required of him. "Ye are my 
 friends if ye do whatsoever I have com- 
 manded you." "He that hath my command- 
 ments and keepeth them, he it is that 
 loveth me." "If any man love me, he will 
 keep my words." "If ye keep my com- 
 mandments, ye shall abide in my love, even 
 as I have kept my Father's commandments 
 and abide in his love." In such words did 
 our Lord Jesus, our Elder Brother, signify 
 his will and wish for his beloved. And it 
 is remarkable that he prefaced all his 
 (136) 
 
The First Christian Duty. 137 
 
 teaching by an illustration of his wish con- 
 cerning his people. His first public act, as 
 he entered upon his ministry, was to seek 
 and receive baptism. When expostulated 
 with by him who thought himself unworthy 
 to perform the service, his significant reply 
 was: "Suffer it now; for thus it becometb 
 us to fulfill all righteousness." 
 
 While the Forerunner was yet making 
 disciples and baptizing them, Jesus himsel/ 
 "made and baptized" more than John di<^ 
 administering the rite through his dis- 
 ciples, thus signifying his will that his dis- 
 ciples be baptized. He did not hesitate tc 
 go ■ into the immediate vicinity of John's 
 baptistry and there administer the rite 
 which had characterized John, and will al 
 ways characterize him. It is thus taught 
 that Jesus himself not only approved what 
 Jchn did, but he himself emphasized it and 
 practiced it. It is impossible, then, to be* 
 lieve that baptism was, in the eyes of 
 Jesus, a matter of indifference, or of small 
 importance. And, when giving his final 
 charge to those whom he was so soon to 
 leave, he commanded them to make and 
 baptize disciples, as though that were the 
 very first thing to follow faith in him, the 
 Author of the new life of the soul. The 
 first thing, after discipling, came baptism; 
 
138 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 after that was to come the "teaching," the 
 unfolding of the doctrines of the kingdom, 
 the pointing out of other duties and privi- 
 leges. 
 
 Then, when the day of Pentecost nad 
 fully come and a great multitude asked 
 what they must do, he who had learned the 
 will of the Master said, "Repent and he 
 baptized, every one of you, in the name of 
 Jesus Christ, because of the remission of 
 your sins."* They who received the word 
 of Peter were at once baptized, probably 
 the same day. Thus was emphasized the 
 truth that baptism is the first duty of the 
 believer. 
 
 Not long after Pentecost, a disciple of 
 Jesus made converts at Samaria, and im- 
 mediately those who believed the things 
 spoken by Philip "were baptized, both men 
 and women." Thus, unlike the Jewish rite 
 of circumcision, the Gospel ordinance was 
 for believers of both sexes, and is further 
 made more evident in that women believ- 
 
 [The writer holds firmly to the belief that 
 the Greek preposition "eis,' in Acts ii. 38, 
 usually translated "for," or "unto," should be 
 translated "because of," or "with respect to." The 
 baptism was not to effect the forgiveness of 
 sins, but was to be received because the sins 
 had been already remitted.] 
 
The First Christian Duty. 139 
 
 ers at Philippi were baptized, as were 
 households, evidently including females, in 
 other places. When Cornelius and his mil- 
 itary household at Cesarea accepted the 
 instruction of Peter, under the influence of 
 the Holy Spirit, all were immediately bap- 
 tized. When Philip, on the road from Je- 
 rusalem to Gaza, made a convert, an Ethi- 
 opian of high station, he at once baptized 
 him in water by the wayside. When Paul 
 preached to the women at the place of 
 prayer in Philippi, the believers were at 
 once baptized. When the jailer and his 
 household accepted the message of Paul and 
 Silas, they were baptized, even before the 
 morning. 
 
 All the teachings and allusions of the 
 New Testament seem to take it for granted 
 that every Christian had been baptized. 
 Saul of Tarsus, after his three days of 
 anxious thought and agony of soul, accept- 
 ing the truth spoken by the Damascene 
 disciple, was immediately baptized. When 
 he wrote his letters he assumed that those 
 who received them had been baptized, 
 though he himself had not been ambitious 
 to administer the rite, permitting others to 
 do it, rather than doing it himself. But in 
 his view, to be baptized with respect to 
 Christ was a putting on of Christ; it sig- 
 
140 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 niiied a fellowship with the sufferings of 
 Christ, a symbolizing of his death. So 
 prominent was baptism made, in that early 
 day, and so immediately did it follow an 
 acceptance of the Gospel of Christ as Lord, 
 as well as Savior, that it was noi neeai-.ii 
 for the teachers of that day to speak of 
 it as a neglected duty, a thing that, ai 
 least some Christians had avoided or min- 
 imized. Of all the duties enjoined upon 
 the disciples of New-Testament times there 
 seemed to be no occasion to urge and en- 
 force the duty of baptism. Nothing is said 
 of the unbaptized believers, nor is it in- 
 timated that some had neglected the ob- 
 servance, and needed to be exhorted to re- 
 ceive it. 
 
 By all this it is not meant that baptism 
 is needful in order that one may become a 
 Christian. There is nothing to show that 
 only the baptized can be Christians. The 
 truth is that only the Christian can prop- 
 erly receive baptism. Baptism is an ex- 
 ternal sign, ordained of God, by which the 
 believer signifies his acceptance of Christ; 
 his sympathy with Christ in his death; his 
 own death to sin, and his "newness of 
 life," secured by the act of faith in Christ 
 as a personal Savior. But the entire 
 analogy of the New-Testament teaching is 
 
The First Christian Duty. 141 
 
 that just as soon as one accepts Christ, 
 and receives the witness, that he is a new 
 creature, born of God, he should receive 
 baptism, and thenceforth "walk in new- 
 ness of life." The "old man" has been put 
 to death, "crucified with Christ," and "the 
 new man, that after God hath been created 
 in righteousness and holiness of truth/ 
 has risen up in the place of the "old." Bap- 
 tism does not effect the death of the "old," 
 nor the beginning of the "new," but it does 
 signify that he who receives it is already 
 a new man, acting in obedience to him 
 who has made it a symbol of his own death, 
 burial and resurrection. 
 
 It follows that he who can say that bap- 
 tism is a matter of little consequence — 
 that one can live a Christian life as well 
 without it as with it — has failed to enter 
 into the spirit of the Lord Jesus. He shows 
 a lack of appreciation of what has been 
 done for him, and in him, if, indeed, any- 
 thing has been done in him. In any case, 
 it shows a lack of a sensitive nature, of 
 a will subjected to the divine will; it 
 shows a blunted sense of the relation be- 
 tween himself and his Lord. One who has 
 thus made void the command of Christ, by 
 his indifference and neglect, hardly ought 
 to ask us to accept him as a genuine be- 
 
142 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 liever, a child of God, a fit associate of 
 those who have been obedient to the divine 
 will and commandment. He who is indif- 
 ferent to this first Christian duty ought 
 not to ask us to accept him as entitled to 
 all the privileges and fellowship to which 
 our Lord welcomes his beloved who have 
 obeyed him. "If ye love me, ye will keep 
 my commandments," says he; and it is not 
 easy to see how one who is indifferent to a 
 divine command can yet assure himself that 
 he is in the way of duty and of peace. 
 
BAPTISM— ITS SYMBOLISM. 
 
 To receive baptism being the first Chris- 
 tian duty, it becomes him or her who would 
 live godly to know definitely what baptism 
 is and what it means. If Jesus the Chrtst 
 ordained it, we can not think that he failed 
 to indicate what it is and what it means. 
 Accordingly, as we study the New Testa 
 ment, we become convinced that nothing is 
 more fully and clearly established than is 
 the nature and significance of baptism. 
 
 A very common definition of Christian 
 baptism is that it is an immersion, or 
 dipping in water of one who professes faith 
 in Christ as his Savior, in the name of the 
 Father and of the Son and of the Holy 
 Spirit. The baptism which John preached 
 and administered can not have meant all 
 this, because neither he nor his disciples 
 had any clear conception of either the Son, 
 or the Holy Spirit. Beside, we have no in- 
 timation that he used the name of either 
 when he administered the rite. The most 
 he could do was to tell the people that 
 they were to repent of their sins and be- 
 (143) 
 
144 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 lieve on him who was to come after him, 
 one whose shoe latchets he was not 
 worthy to unloose; one who should bap- 
 tize in the Holy Spirit, even fire. The 
 language and the imagery all go to show 
 that John led his disciples into the River 
 Jordan, or other body of water, and there 
 dipped them in the water. It is said of 
 those whom he accepted as true disciples 
 that they were "baptized of him in Jor- 
 dan, confessing their sins." Even Jesus 
 himself was baptized of John. 
 
 That the word baptize means to dip, or 
 immerse, has been established beyond a 
 doubt. We can -not here afford the space 
 to discuss the subject in its fullness. There 
 are so many monographs on baptism that 
 it is not needful to go over the ground 
 in this connection. Suffice it to say that 
 the best and most recently published dic- 
 tionaries of the Greek language declare 
 that such is its meaning, and there is not 
 in all Greek literature a single case in 
 which it is to be translated by either 
 "sprinkle" or "pour." The Greek word for 
 "sprinkle" is rantizo, and for "pour" sev- 
 eral different words are used, such as hallo, 
 ekckeo, ekchuno, kerannumi, but no one of 
 these is used with respect to baptism. In 
 every place where the rite of baptism is 
 
Baptism — Its Symbolism. 145 
 
 referred to the word used is baptizo, in 
 some one of its forms, so that when we 
 have determined what the word baptizo 
 means, we know what baptism was and is. 
 At the present day no man who has regard 
 to his reputation for scholarship and hon- 
 esty gives any other definition of the word 
 baptizo than "dip" or "immerse." Accord- 
 ing to the use of the word one substance 
 may be baptized or dipped into any other 
 fluid substance, such as oil, or milk, or 
 water. But in no case is the fluid substance 
 represented as poured or sprinkled upon 
 the thing baptized. 
 
 True, it is said that the Holy Spirit was 
 poured forth upon those assembled at Pen- 
 tecost, and in the Old Testament God prom- 
 ised to "pour forth of his Spirit" (Joel ii. 
 28 and following verses); but neither of 
 these acts was baptism. At Pentecost the 
 room where the people were assembled 
 was "filled," so that every one was envel- 
 oped in the Spirit, and, inasmuch as it is 
 said that all were "filled with the Holy 
 Spirit," it is as fair to conclude that to 
 baptize is to fill, as it is to claim that it 
 means to pour forth, or pour upon. The. 
 truth is that wherever Christian baptism is 
 referred to the word used is some form of 
 baptizo, and never a word meaning to 
 
 (11) 
 
146 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 sprinkle, or to pour. Beside, the preposi- 
 tions used with the word "baptize" never 
 mean "with," or "upon," but always "in," 
 or "into." While it is true that the Com- 
 mon Version of the Bible frequently has 
 "with water" and "with the Holy Spirit," 
 the Revised Version, made almost exclus- 
 ively by other than Baptist scholars, put 
 "in" where the others have "with." John 
 baptized "in water." He told those who 
 heard him that Jesus would "baptize in 
 the Holy Spirit" and "in fire." The proposi- 
 tion eis, sometimes used with the word 
 baptizo, means, in all such cases, not into, 
 but "with respect to," "with reference to," 
 "because of." We can not baptize one into 
 the Holy Spirit, nor into the name of Christ, 
 nor into the Father and the Son and the 
 Holy Spirit. But we can baptize with re- 
 spect to the name, with respect to the death 
 of Christ; that is, having these things in 
 view when we baptize. We conclude then, 
 that the rite commanded by the Lord 
 Christ, to be observed by all his disciples, 
 in all ages, is the immersion, or dipping 
 in water, of one who professes faith in 
 him, having respect to the name of the 
 Father and of the Son and of the Holy 
 Spirit. This definition of baptism excludes 
 
Baptism — Its Symbolism. 147 
 
 infants, idiots and unbelieving adults. It 
 includes only those who intelligently pro- 
 fess faith in Christ as a personal Savior. 
 
 As to the symbolism of baptism. We 
 find that in one or two instances (such as 
 Acts xxii. 16) there seems to be in baptism 
 the idea of washing, but the washing was 
 evidently to be a cleansing such as can 
 be effected only by plunging into the water 
 that which is to be cleansed. Surely the 
 "washing of regeneration'' is not a sprink- 
 ling nor a pouring. But the figure of wash- 
 ing is used only once or twice in the New 
 Testament, while the figure of a death, 
 burial and resurrection is used several 
 times with great definiteness. We are told 
 (Rom. vi. 3) that to be baptized with re- 
 spect to Jesus Christ is to be baptized with 
 respect to his death, and that in baptism 
 we are buried with him as though we had 
 died with, or in him. And it is said that 
 if we have been with him in that which 
 symbolizes his death, we shall be also with 
 him in that which symbolizes his resurrec- 
 tion, namely, when we come up out of the 
 water of baptism in which we have been, 
 for the moment, buried. It is also said, in 
 Col. ii. 12, that in baptism we are buried 
 with Christ, and in the same ordinance 
 
148 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 we are risen with Mm. Of course, this 
 idea of death, burial and resurrection is 
 not suggested by either sprinkling or pour- 
 ing, but it is fully justified and emphasized 
 in the act of baptism, immersion. In the 
 act of baptism, that is immersion, we sym- 
 bolize a washing, and at the same time we 
 symbolize death and resurrection, while in 
 sprinkling we symbolize neither a wash- 
 ing, nor a death, nor a resurrection. All 
 this tends to confirm the conclusion that 
 to baptize is to immerse, or dip the believer 
 in water, "in the name of the Father and 
 of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." 
 
 And to this great truth the world of 
 scholarship, as well as of tradition, bears 
 witness. Even those who cling tenaciously 
 to sprinkling admit that immersion was 
 the baptism of the first Christian century, 
 and of all the centuries following, till the 
 eleventh, except in special cases, and it 
 is now the practice of the Greek, the Rusr 
 sian, the Abysinnian Churches, as well 
 as of several of the large denominations 
 of Christians in our own land. The Church 
 of Rome teaches that it was the custom of 
 the early Church, but claims that the Ro- 
 man Church had a right to change it for 
 sprinkling. The subject is one of very 
 
Baptism — Its Symbolism. 149 
 
 great importance, because it involves our 
 idea of obedience. "If ye love me, ye will 
 keep my commandments," said Jesus; and 
 when it comes to such a matter as that 
 of baptism it is essential that we follow 
 his commandment literally. We have no 
 right to substitute something else for what 
 he has specifically commanded. We do not 
 allow our children to substitute one thing 
 for another when we give them specific 
 commands. A servant who says that, 
 though his master, or employer, told him 
 to do a certain thing, it is all right if he 
 does another, can not expect the praise of 
 the master, and runs the risk of punish- 
 ment or dismissal. The act of baptism 
 in water in the name of the Trinity is one 
 of the most beautiful and impressive cere- 
 monies of all known to us. Even those 
 who do not practice it have to confess that 
 it is both beautiful and significant. And 
 it is so, not because it is of human origin, 
 but because it is of divine origin. We dare 
 not mar it nor neglect it. 
 
THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 So it is called in the New Testament 
 (Greek, Kuriakos deipnos; in our phrase- 
 ology, Lord's Supper), 1 Cor. xi. 20. It 
 is sometimes referred to as "the breaking 
 of bread," and afterwards, in early Chris- 
 tian history, it was spoken of as "The 
 Eucharist," this last term being applied 
 to it because it was accompanied by special 
 thanksgiving. It is never, as an ordinance, 
 spoken of in the New Testament as "The 
 Communion." This last term is objec- 
 tionable, because of the unwarranted use 
 made of it. In 1 Cor. x. 16 it is asked: 
 "The cup of blessing ... is it not a com- 
 munion of the blood of Christ?" "The 
 bread ... is it not a communion of the 
 body of Christ?" Thus there are two com- 
 munions — one of the blood and another of 
 the body; but the Supper of the Lord is 
 not called "a communion," much less "The 
 Communlion." It would be well if we 
 should always avoid the use of the phrase 
 "The Communion." 
 (150) 
 
The Supper of the Lord. 151 
 
 What is it then? Paul tells us (1 Cor. 
 xi, 23 and following verses) "The Lord 
 Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed 
 took bread; and when he had given thanks, 
 he brake it, and said, This is my body, 
 which is for you; this do in remembrance 
 of me. In like manner also the cup, 
 after supper, saying, This cup is the new 
 covenant in my blood: this do, as often 
 as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For 
 as often as ye eat this bread and drink 
 the cup, ye proclaim the Lord's death, till 
 he come." We can but regard Paul as the 
 best of all expositors of the works and 
 words of Jesus, and we are glad to have 
 his statement of the facts and of their sig- 
 nificance, as well as his testimony to the 
 custom of the early Christians, in the 
 first century after the death and resurrec- 
 tion of our Lord. 
 
 In the gospels of Matthew, Mark and 
 Luke, we have given the circumstances 
 under which the Supper of the Lord was 
 instituted. All the evangelists named are 
 in substantial agreement as to the solemn 
 event and the details of the institution. 
 Jesus himself gave its meaning when he 
 said: "This do, as oft as ye do it, in 
 remembrance of me." In baptism he has 
 
152 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 given us a reminder of his death, burial 
 and resurrection, events which can not be 
 repeated. In the Supper he gives us an 
 observance which he bids us repeat as often 
 as we will, only doing all in remembrance 
 of him. It is evident that the Supper was 
 given as emblematic of the nourishment to 
 be derived from intimate communion with 
 Christ. He had previously declared that 
 his body is meat (or bread) indeed, and 
 his blood is drink indeed. He declared that 
 unless one should eat of his flesh (his 
 body) and drink of his blood, there would 
 be no life in him. But whoever should eat 
 of his flesh and drink of his blood should 
 have eternal life abiding in him. Thus it 
 is signified that the Christian is to con- 
 stantly feed upon the Lord Jesus and so 
 maintain his spiritual life. And this is 
 what is symbolized in the Supper of the 
 Lord. We utterly repudiate the idea that 
 when he said "This is my body ,, — "this is 
 my blood," he meant to say that he held 
 his body in his hand, or held his blood in 
 the "cup." He could only mean that the 
 bread and the cup (the wine in the cup) 
 were emblems of his body and of his blood, 
 and that these were given as a sacrificial 
 ransom for his people. 
 
The Supper of the Lord. 153 
 
 As to the circumstances of the institution 
 of the Supper: It was in a room where 
 were gathered only those whom he called 
 "apostles," his most intimate associates. 
 They were reclining at the table, according 
 to the custom of the times. The pascal 
 lamb had been eaten and disposed of. 
 There remained some of the bread and 
 some of the wine. Jesus took a portion of 
 the bread (possibly a "loaf" of the bread) 
 and brake and distributed it, bidding his 
 disciples to see to it that each one got a 
 piece. So he took one of the cups from 
 the table and passed it 3 so that each drank 
 of the "one cup." He did not command 
 them to kneel, nor in any wise change 
 their places, or their attitude. He did not 
 intimate that they were to worship the 
 elements, nor were they to make any dem- 
 onstration other than they were making 
 at the passover supper. It is, therefore, 
 contrary to the spirit of the observance 
 to kneel at an altar, as though offering a 
 sacrifice, or to be careful to take the bread 
 and cup in bare hands, as though there 
 were something peculiarly holy about them. 
 Nevertheless, the Lord's Supper should be 
 observed with great solemnity, because it 
 ought to bring us nearer to and into fuller 
 
154 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 sympathy with our Lord than does any- 
 thing else in Christian life, with the ex- 
 ception of baptism. 
 
 Though, in the first instance, only the 
 twelve disciples were present (though it 
 is probable that Judas had gone out before 
 the Supper was instituted), it is evident 
 that they understood that in remembrance 
 of their Lord and Savior, all true and 
 obedient disciples, of both sexes, were to 
 be participants in the observance, even to 
 the end of the ages. 
 
 As to the elements — the bread and the 
 wine: It seems evident that the bread was 
 a sort of biscuit, in that case unleavened; 
 and that "the cup" contained wine, such 
 as was ordinarily used at the passover 
 feast. There is nothing to indicate that, 
 in all observances of the Supper, only un- 
 leavened bread should be used. The word 
 for unleavened bread in the Greek, is 
 azumos, while the word for bread is artos. 
 It is notable that the word azumos is 
 avoided when the bread is spoken of, and 
 it is simply said he "took bread." That 
 means that the quality of the bread is not 
 important. So it is said that "he took 
 the cup," or a cup, and it is not said what 
 the cup contained. But, inasmuch as Jesus 
 
The Supper of the Lord. 155 
 
 said that he would not any more drink of 
 the fruit of the vine, we are justified in 
 holding that the contents of the cup wa3 
 the wine of the passover. The color of the 
 wine usually is that of blood, and thus it 
 was a fit symbol of the blood. But it does 
 not follow that the liquid in the cup must 
 always be fermented — alcoholic. What is 
 required is that it be of "the fruit of the 
 vine." Neither water, nor milk, nor beer, 
 nor whisky, nor any product of grain may 
 be used. And inasmuch as grape juice is 
 usually mixed with water, it follows that 
 "the fruit of the vine" may be mingled 
 with water, though with nothing else. 
 
 As to the frequency of the observance: 
 That depends upon the convenience and the 
 spirit of the participant. In the New Tes- 
 tament nothing is said as to the frequency. 
 That is left to us to determine. All re- 
 quired is that it shall be "in remem- 
 brance" of Jesus, the Christ, who gave his 
 life for those who believe on him. 
 
 Who are to partake in the Lord's Sup- 
 per? Evidently it was given to believers, 
 and was to be observed by believers only, 
 those who in it remembered Christ. It is 
 not for careless, indifferent persons, who 
 can not "discern the Lord's body." It 
 
156 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 should be preceded by a rigid and conscien- 
 tious self-examination, though it does not 
 follow that only one who is satisfied with 
 himself is to partake of the Supper. Satis- 
 faction with Christ, rather than with self, 
 is what ought to be experienced. No un- 
 godly person can be satisfied with Christ, 
 and only true Christians should be encour- 
 aged to participate in the Supper. More? 
 than this, he who would partake at the 
 Lord's table ought to be an obedient be- 
 liever. He ought to have fully committed 
 himself to Christ, to obey his command- 
 ments. He ought to have begun to keep 
 the commandments of his Lord by observ- 
 ing the first duty of a Christian, which 
 as we have previously seen, is baptism. 
 The person who does not seek baptism fails 
 to give satisfactory evidence that he has 
 been born from above and belongs to 
 Christ. "The judgment of charity" may 
 be applied to him, but that is not all that 
 ought to be expected. Only those who have 
 been baptized on profession of faith in 
 Christ, those who are able to appreciate 
 the ordinance, "discerning the Lord's 
 body," ought to be encouraged to come to 
 the table of the Lord. 
 It is sometimes said that it is a "com- 
 
The Supper of the Lord. 157 
 
 munion," and therefore all who will may 
 be participants in it. But it is not simply 
 a communion of one Christian with an- 
 other. The New Testament does not so 
 teach. He who has not sufficient grace and 
 devotion to observe the first Christian duty 
 has no right to ask admittance to the most 
 sacred observance succeeding baptism. 
 Baptism first, the Lord's Supper afterward. 
 He who neglects or repudiates the one must 
 not ask us to admit him to the other. 
 
 It is frequently said that it is "the 
 Lord's table/' and therefore all of his 
 children should be invited to sit at it. But 
 that it is the Lord's table only emphasizes 
 the reason for inviting to it only those 
 whom he has designated. If it were our 
 table, we might make our own rules of ad- 
 mission to it; then, we might welcome 
 everybody, as we would welcome guests 
 to our home tables. But, inasmuch as we 
 have been put in trust of "the table of the 
 Lord," we are bound to make such dis- 
 criminations as be has indicated in his 
 word. We have no right to say to those 
 who stand near, "This is the Lord's table 
 and you are all welcome to it." We would 
 hardly approve the conduct of a servant 
 who should set a table in our homes and 
 then say to the wayfarers, "This is not 
 
158 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 my table; it is my employer's — my mas- 
 ter's — table, and therefore you are wel- 
 come to all that is on it." 
 
 And still more, he who would participate 
 in the Lord's Supper should be an orderly, 
 well-behaved Christian. He should show, 
 by his life, that he has regard to the regu- 
 lations established by the Master. He who 
 is running here and there, ready to con- 
 sort with anybody, no matter what their 
 faith, or what their practice, ought not 
 to be invited or admitted to an orderly 
 observance of the Lord's Supper. To en- 
 courage such an one to unite with us is 
 to make sport of divine commands, to cast 
 contempt upon the word and instructions 
 of the Lord Jesus. We "can not drink of 
 the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils." 
 Nor should we drink of the cup of the Lord 
 with those who repudiate or neglect his 
 commandments; for his commandments are 
 not grievous. It is not for us to say that 
 none but those who have been baptized, 
 and are walking orderly, may observe the 
 Lord's Supper by themselves. To their 
 own master they stand or fall. But we 
 can not think that we ought to make a 
 mockery of our own practice of baptism by 
 saying to the world that it is a matter of 
 
The Supper of the Lord. 159 
 
 indifference whether one is baptized or 
 not So far as the New Testament goes, 
 we have no right to suppose that any who 
 were not baptized, and were not walking 
 in an orderly way, were encouraged to par- 
 ticipate in the Lord's Supper. It becomes 
 us, therefore, to observe the same rule. 
 Belief in Christ, baptism, an orderly walk, 
 the Lord's Supper. Such is the rule for us. 
 
DOCTRINE AND LIFE. 
 
 The foregoing articles are presumed to 
 cover the ground of a theological system. 
 They have dealt with all the great facts 
 and principles of the Christian religion as 
 taught in the Word of God; not that they 
 have exhausted the subject, or discussed 
 all the various phases of thought or inquiry 
 suggested by any one of them. What has 
 been aimed at is to give a brief, but com 
 prehensive, view of the subject which, 
 above all others, is worthy of the best 
 thought and the most conscientious study 
 of every member of the human race, and 
 in such language that the plain man or 
 woman, or the youngest Christian, can un- 
 derstand it. 
 
 But now that we draw to the conclusion 
 of the series, it may be asked, What of 
 it? What has all this discussion amounted 
 to? What has so much doctrine to do with 
 Christian living? Suppose we believe and 
 accept all these things, what has that to 
 do with the every-day round of toil and 
 suffering, and temptation and — enjoyment? 
 (160) 
 
Doctrine and Life. 161 
 
 We answer, Much, every way. The rela- 
 tion between doctrine and life is vital. Cor- 
 rect doctrine is essential to correct con- 
 duct, to holy living. It is yet all too com- 
 mon to hear good people decry doctrine, 
 as though it were a matter of no conse- 
 quence, a burden, rather than a help in the 
 affairs of life. There are those who tell 
 us that "it matters not what a man believes, 
 so long as he does right." But the truth is 
 that he who has no moral conviction makes 
 a great failure of life; and he who has 
 no religious conviction is in the way of 
 death. Still more, he whose religious con- 
 victions are without authority, and are 
 independent of God's Word — a merely hu- 
 man theory of life — is essentially a heathen, 
 and must share the doom of the heathen. 
 "There is none other name given under 
 heaven among men whereby we must be 
 saved," than the name of Jesus Christ; and 
 it is a matter of the greatest consequence 
 what we think of the only Savior. It la 
 said of Jesus that he has been made "both 
 Lord and Christ." That means that he is 
 not only the Anointed of God, he with 
 whom the Father is well pleased, but he is 
 the rightful Sovereign of human souls. To 
 him has been given "all authority, in 
 heaven and in earth"; that his Word is 
 (12) 
 
162 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 law to men, and his will is the end of all 
 questioning. Whether men will or not, 
 he has the dominion, and he who does not 
 obey willingly and joyfully, must obey 
 unwillingly and in agony of soul. There 
 will be no appeal, when it is finally said 
 to the ungodly, "Depart, ye cursed, into 
 everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and 
 his angels." There will be only joy and 
 gladness when it is said: "Come, ye 
 blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom 
 prepared for you from the foundation of 
 the world." The one class will obey with 
 delight, and the other class will obey, 
 though with grief and anguish. 
 
 It is said that "as a man thinketh in his 
 heart so is he." That does not mean, as it 
 seems to be held by some, that if a man 
 thinks he is right, he is right. To have 
 a wrong thought does not, and can not, 
 make any man right, or any course of con- 
 duct right. The idea of the words quoted 
 is that if a man has right thoughts he is 
 right, and if he has wrong thoughts, he is 
 wrong. The matter of greatest conse- 
 quence is not so much what a man does 
 as what the man is. To be is of more con- 
 sequence than to do. Deeds are the product 
 of the body's action, but what a man is 
 pertains to his spiritual being, that which 
 
Doctrine and Life. 163 
 
 must continue after the body has beea 
 put off, when sinning will be mo longer 
 an act of the body, but the act of the soul — 
 its attitude towards good and evil, towards 
 God and towards Christ. The same is true, 
 in degree, here. Sin is not simply an ex- 
 ternal act. A man stricken with paralysis, 
 unable to lift his hand to his head, or even 
 to speak, may yet be a most grievous sin- 
 ner. He may curse God in his heart. He 
 may regard his affliction as unjust and 
 cruel, and may wish that some other had 
 the power which he regards him who is 
 called God as exerting. Nothing can be 
 more sad than the case of one who fails 
 to see the smiling face of God behind the 
 clouds of his frowning providences. True, 
 a Christian may lapse into such a state of 
 mind; but it is usually the result of a will 
 as yet not fully subdued, needing a large 
 amount of discipline to fit it for what is 
 to come after. It is remarkable that some 
 of the happiest souls are those who inhabit 
 the frailest and most painful bodies. It 
 would be easy to cite cases of persons, help- 
 less for decades, who yet bask in the sun- 
 shine of Jehovah's face; who bless God 
 with every breath, because of his goodness 
 and his loving faithfulness. 
 "Grow in grace/' says Peter, "even in 
 
164 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus 
 Christ"; and that means that a growth in 
 knowledge of Christ is an antidote to sin, 
 a barrier against sinning. To know Christ 
 is to recognize him as Savior, and to walk 
 in communion with him. It is to know the 
 great principles on which the universe is 
 governed; to know the relation of the great 
 doctrines of grace and glory to each other 
 and to the soul of the student of divine 
 things. To know Christ is to know what 
 the Word of God teaches concerning sin 
 and redemption. It is to know what Christ 
 has done for the deliverance of his own 
 from the thralldom of sin and for the eter- 
 nal security of him who walks hand in 
 hand with his Savior. 
 
 It is the business of the Christian to 
 become more and more acquainted with 
 Christ; that is, to know more and more 
 about the ways of God with man; to know 
 more and more fully the process by which 
 a depraved sinner becomes righteous, even 
 as Christ himself is righteous, walking in 
 love, because his soul, having been renewed 
 by divine power and grace, is in harmony 
 with the life and the will of him by whom 
 the redemption of the soul was purchased. 
 
 Attention to and a mastery of Bible doc- 
 trine is a protection against the vagaries 
 
Doctrine and Life. 165 
 
 and false theories of those who would 
 lead God's people into the mazes of fa'Js 
 and fancies, such as Mormonism, Spirit- 
 ualism, Dowieism, Christian Science, The- 
 osophy, and the various isms into which so 
 many rush. It is said by physicians that 
 some people, sound in health as yet, have 
 a tendency to certain diseases, and than 
 when conditions become favorable, they 
 are quite sure to become subjects of the 
 ailment. So it is in Christian life; there 
 is in some a tendency to error. Unforti- 
 fied by intelligent study of the Word, they 
 are easily victims of the deceiver; being 
 unable to discern the false, or to adjust 
 facts with what is taught in the Word of 
 God. He who has familiarized himself 
 with the true teachings of the Word is 
 not soon shaken in mind; and such a oa-3 
 is rarely found among the seekers after 
 new fads, or those who, having itching 
 ears, heap to themselves teachers of 
 philosophies and vain deceits, after the 
 cunning and craftiness of men. 
 
 Christian living is not an accident. It 
 is not the result of chance. He who would 
 live a godly life must know God. He must 
 not only believe and know that there is a 
 God, but he must know the character of 
 God. He must know what God has done; 
 
166 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 on what great principles lie acts; what 
 are his purposes concerning the human 
 race, and how he is to effect his purposes. 
 And herein lies a great difference in the 
 character and conduct of different people, 
 even different Christians. 
 
 There are those whose knowledge of God 
 is what may be called fragmentary. They 
 know something about God, and have cer- 
 tain impressions which are unformulated 
 and chaotic in their minds. They are 
 creatures of impulse, now enthusiastic and 
 active as Christians, and again indifferent, 
 living carelessly, uncertain as to their 
 state, whether they are Christians or not. 
 Now they are on the mountain top, and 
 now they are in the valley; now in light, 
 and now in darkness. 
 
 There are others who go along, steadily, 
 firmly, one day much the same as another. 
 They are neither greatly elated, nor greatly 
 depressed. They can be relied upon at 
 any time for such service as they can 
 render, and are always ready to give an 
 answer to any man asking them the rea- 
 son for their hope. This difference in 
 Christian character and service is very 
 familiar to us, and if we ask the reason 
 for it, we are quite sure to find it in just 
 this, that the one has no clearly defined 
 
Doctrine and Life. 167 
 
 and consistent view of the need and the 
 way of salvation, while the other holds 
 to the great truths, or doctrines, set forth 
 in God's Word, and is fortified against the 
 attacks of the enemy. 
 
 The reliable, every-day Christian never 
 decries doctrine; never speaks contemptu- 
 ously of doctrinal sermons, or of doc- 
 trinal study. He who has become forti- 
 fied in the doctrines of God's Word, who 
 has accepted and adopted a logical, coher- 
 ent system of theology, even though it 
 may be superficial, comes down to death 
 with a confidence and a peacefulness which 
 the contemner of doctrine rarely knows. 
 "I know in whom I have believed," said 
 Paul; and because he knew Jesus and 
 "the power of his resurrection and the 
 fellowship of his sufferings," he could say: 
 "I am persuaded that he is able to keep 
 that which I have committed to him 
 against that day." That was Paul, the 
 man of doctrine; the man who interprets 
 for us, as no other has done it, the life 
 of our Lord and the significance of that 
 life. It was he who had studied and 
 had taught the doctrines of God and of 
 Christ who could say: "I am now ready 
 to be offered, and the time of my depart- 
 ure is at hand; I have fought a good fight; 
 
168 Theology for Plain People. 
 
 I have finished my course; I have kept 
 the faith; henceforth there is laid up for 
 me a crown of righteousness which the 
 Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me 
 at that day." And it is in harmony with 
 the experience of Paul that other students 
 of the things of God, who have systema- 
 tized their knowledge and hold it intelli- 
 gently, can look into the grave with a 
 similar calmness, assured of a glorious 
 resurrection and a crown of righteousness 
 in that day. 
 
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