Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1883-09-29
III Will Show Hini nsy
Salvation
n. Y. independent.

mo PROMISE - Tie DdCltu ioCt III
lures concerns us more than this.
Gods salvation comes 50 near TO as
as the bosom need Of every man
that true insight into it would
seem to be the greatest and best Of
all practical discoveries.
1t IS discovery which lies always
in the reach Of simple faith, but
about which the greatest difficulties
have been made.
The trouble is that Gods salvation
being strictly ani always a matter
of experience will not submit TO ex-
pertinent, examination or reflective
study, until the great step into it as
an experimental reality has already
been taken.
Men want to experiment on IL be-
forehand, and in particular TO sub.
ject it to logical examination and
rational demonstration But tAe
proof is not To be reached thus be-
fofehand. 1t does not exist outside
the limits Of a present experience,
bud is nowhere To be discoveFed
outside the coniinesef 4 character
which is already in right living re-
lations with God. The inquirer will
never be satisfied So loug as he is on.
ly an inquirer. The skeptic will
never have bis doubt solved so
0ong as he fingers on the threshold.
Faith is a venture unto what on
the worldly view is dark profound.
1t acis on deep, and, as the phil
,osophers might call it, transcendent
conviction that God is and is to be
trusted that the first of all things
is to 90 out To him, submit, trust,
and obey that the worlds order
and bssis is God ; that Christ Jesus
is Gods nearest approach to US, and
that in submitting to him, ia low
ing and trusting him, we make our
first step into right aud true rela-
tions.
The light is in the life /; and the
more we enter into the life the more
we get Of the revelation. 1t is a
battling perplexity how, without the
evidence of faith, we can make the
choice which introduces US to the
revelation of faith. Probably God
has his secret witnesses struggling
in the inquirer's heart. There may
be a discrowned king in his consci-
ence. whose signs of royalty the
heart that wishes to be loyal may
sufficiently discover. The return Of
the wanderer to God is always some
thing like submission to prince in
exile. 1t is a grand act of trust in
something not yet fully made out.
If we were to rationaliZe about it
we should say that it is the supreme
effort of baffled and perpleXed soul
TO break away from a life which is
Surviving and killing him into anoth'
er which he knows is nobler and is at
least willing to accept for true. He
is caught in his own speculations.
He cannot reason his doubts away:
He cannot, by the regular process of
logic or reason, get onto the ground
Of the faith he longs for.
But, though the cloud does not
lift aud the light does not come, be
follows the voice that in the dark
ness he has found out to be the
voice of God, and gives this supreme
proof Of his faith in God and in spirl
itual things, that he will no longer
submit 10 the assumption that a
man must abide with bis doubts
until he can answer them, but, leaY.
ing them to their fate, and specula-
ton to take care of itself, ventures
his all Oh the life Of hope in God and
obedience to him. Then God meets
him and the promise fulflls itself.
The life he has begun is the resolu-
ton of the mystery. The heart of
it is God. The essential fact of it
is his salvation. II revolves around
Him as the central sun, and the
light which spreads through it as he
advances in it needs no further de-
monstration Of its source and no
further proof that it is the light of
q life in'right and happy relations
with God.
Eft must have been q terrible state
OF affairs, that caused the Psalmist