Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-23
JOINING The CHURCH.
The Master Made This a Duty for
Those Who Would Serve Him.
SALVATION AMATTER OF GROWTH.
Struggling Men Are in Need Of the Help Of
Combined Influences,
THE OBJECTIONS THAT ARE RAISED


as should be saved"
"Such as were being saved" is more lit
eral rendering of the words. Salvation is
not matter which is accomplished and over
with once for all at certain moment in
mans life, so that from that time on the
man is saved man, and need have no fur
ther anxiety about 1t. Even St. Paul was
not saved" in that sense, for even he could
speak of the possibility Of being made a
castaway, after all.
Every human being has fearful possibili-
temptation. That significant success
sion of evils in the beginning
Of the ministry of Christ, when
Immediately. after the baptism, and
the benediction of the Holy spirit, and the
taking up of new responsibilities, came the
trial in the wilderness, finds counterpart
in almost every Christian life. Baptism"
said st. Peter, doth even now save US, !"
but it was not completed salvation that he
was thinking of. No human soul is saved
at baHtism, so that temptation can give no
further trouble, and sin be no longer pos
sible. And no conservation Of the soul to
God, no turning out OF darkness into light,
no taking on of sacred promises can save a
soul. and that be the end of it. The ideal
Christian life is only persistent going for
ward iu the way of salvation. Sacramen
and resolutions set us in the way and help
us on in it, but do not make it as if there
were no way at all. and no need OF
difficult and wearisome walking in it, and
God does not set up such high wall on either
| side of that way that we cannot wander out
of it, if we will. In Bunyan's story OF the
pilgrimage of Christian there was a
road which turned, within sight Of the very
gates of heaven, and ran straight down into
the pit
A GRADUAL GROWTH.
We are ''being saved" That is the best
description of it. Salvation is an escape
| from bad world without us and within US;
it is gradual growth in hatred OF SID, and
strength against temptation, aud knowledge
and love of God. The man who is being
saved is daily ridding himself more and
more from the attractions of evil and living
closer to the life of Christ. Sal
vation is something which needs to
be worked out" which can be won
only by genuine endeavor. Christ, it is
! true has made salvation possible to all men.
Everybody under Gods wide sky can be
saved, but no man will be saved without an
effort of his own.
Now, we are told that these men, in the
old days, who were being saved, were added
to the church. Those two facts about man
seemed to 90 naturally together. The first
impulse of everybody who was being saved,
who was turning his back on lower life
and going on toward better life, the first
desire of every man who honestly wanted TO
be good man, was to be added to the
church.
One advantage which the men gained
from such step as that was the advantage
which comes with a decided and definite
initiative.
When these men were added to the church
they formally committed themselves. Be
fore that, while they were only listeners,
standing on the outside, it was compare
lively easy for them to draw back at any
moment into their old life. They had made
no promises Nobody could Justly reproach
them. That made temptation all the
harder.
TO DIsARM CRITICISM.
When anybody is really in earnest about
mending his ways, the best thing that he
can do is to put himse If in such position
as to disarm temp tat1on as far as he can.
II he has made good resolution and keeps
it in the secret of his heart, and nobody
knows about it how easy to break i'll The
man has nobody to help him. Let him
make it known. Let him say
to a friend: ST have turned over
new leaf with the first day of this year.
From now on am going to do thus and
thus
You see how the fact that his friend
knows will help the man. When he is
tempted he will say to himself: Now, il ]
fail it will be known" And no man likes
to put himself in such position that peo-
pie can say that he has made a failure of it.
The strength which comes from the telling
about the turning of a new leaf to single
friend is multiplied when one stands up be-
fore a multitude of people. That is the
philosophy of taking public pledge. That
is the wise thing which the men did In the
days of the apostles who were added to the
church. The men were dead in earnest
about it. They did want to live Worthier
lives. And they availed themselves. as
sensible men, OF every opportunity they had
by which they might strengthen their reso-
luton. They began with the decided initi-
atiye which is essential to the formation OF
any good habit. They were added to the
church.
Another advantage which the men gained
by the brave and wise step they took was
the help which comes from an environment
of helpful influences. These people wanted
to live as much like Christ as they could
They wanted TO grow in grace. And they
put themselves into the right relation with
the influences which they knew would lead
toward growth.
THE EXAMPLE OF THE FRIEND.
five want a seed to grow we put it in the
ground, and we set about it whatever will
minister to growth. We put it where it can
touch the life-giving earth, and drink the
inYigorating rain, and be warmed by the
fires of the sun. And that is all we can do.
That is the end of mans ability toward the
seeds growth. The wisest man who ever
lived could not make q seed grow. The
most that he could do was just to bring the
seed within reach OF the influences which
| make toward growth. The rest of the work
| is Gods.
And the soul grows like the seed. There
is no machinery which can make a soul
grow in q man. And no man, by any
amount of ingenuity or worry, can make his
soul grow. If anybody wants to 90 on and
increase in the spirituallife there is only one
way. That is to bring the soul into contact
with every possible helping influence. And
the church, to which these wise people added
themselves, 10 just as much an en-
vironment of spiritual help as the
soil is a physical help to the seed.
| If a seed will grow on a bare
| shelf Just because a farmer wishes that it
would grow, so will a soul grow apart from
the influences of growth, just because the
| man to whom the soul belongs wishes that
| it would grow. There is only one reason
| able thing that man can do who sincerely
| desires to live better life than he is living,
and that is to add himself to the church. It
| is sufficiently hard for the best Of US to be
good. Surely we need all the help that we
can get.