Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-04-19
JOINING THE CHURCH.
The Plain Duty That Follows Con-
viction and Repentance.
SILENT BELIEF Is NOT ENOUGH.
There Must Be an Action That Shows the
Belief to Be Real.
WHY MANY GOOD PEOPLE HESITATE
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH.

WRITTEN FOR D1SPATCH.l
Everybody wants to be saved. Christ
came and lived aud died to make salvation
possible to everybody. But how shall we
translate that possibility into reality? Here
is our longing, there is Christ's promise;
how shall we get them together and be
saved? Christ answers that question plainly.
"He that believeth and is baptized shall be
saved" No metaphysics about that; no in-
defniteness, no mysticism, no theological
vagueness, no uncertainty about that. You
are looking for the way to heaven, and
wandering about now here and now there,
following lights which are but the lanterns
of will-o-the-wisp, and you meet Christ and
ask the road. and He answers, "Here it is, -
and points it out before your feet as clear as
day. Whoever would be saved, this he
must do; let him believe and be baptized.
Now, 1 have nothing to say this morning
about belief, or about baptism. But do
want to say something about the word
''and" I desire to emphasize this word
"and." Christ sets belief and baptism to-
gether. Whoever would be saved there
are not two alternatives for him to chose
between. Salvation is not for him that be-
lieveth; salvation is not for him that is bap-
tized, ,-"He that belieVeth and is baptized
shall be saved"
Salvation does not mean an escape in the
far future out of some red hot dungeon, gar
risoned by devils. 1t is concerned with our
daily living. 1t means spiritual health.
To be saved is to be making the very b est OF
life to-day. Christ says that belief alone
is not enough to insure spiritual health; a nd
baptism alone is not enough to insure spir-
itual health. To be spiritually whole and
strong we must believe and be baptized.
Comes From High Authority.
Is there anybody who is wiser than Christ
in regard to spiritual health? Any better
doctor for the soul than He is? Any advice
worth following rather than His, contrary
to His, in this matter? The counsel of
Christ in respect OF spiritual soundness and
strength amounts to this: that nobody need
expect to be good Christian whose re-
ligion is shut up within the silence of his
own soul, and does not somehow make it.
self visible and audible. Real Christianity
is never dumb. 1t speaks, and must speak,
and is helped and strengthened by speak
ing. 1t Is not for nothing that we are given
tongues. We are learning wonderful things
in these days about the influence of the
mind upon the body; but the body has a
still greater influence over the mind.
That is the testimony of everybody who has
any real acquaintance with himself. We
! all know that prayer, if 1t is never put into
words, if it is forever shut mp in a silent
heart, presently dies, like man shut away
from the air, and that love, without e1-
! preston, changes into Indifference; and that
sentiment amounts to nothing, and speedily
withers away, unless it is made to yield
some sort of fruit; and that good resolutions
must be uttered aloud, and straightway
translated into good acts, and that to take a
decided and open stand fortifes every good
purpose.
Right believing must be clenched by right
behaving. II you are upon the side of right
the side of Christ, say SO. Stand there.
where you can be seen and counted. That will
help you to stay there. All this must be
evident to everybody, this is human nature.
And when Christ set that significant con-
junction between beliefs and baptism, He
was simply recognizing the plain facts of
human lie, and making wise provision for
them. We have both a soul and q body.
Belief is for the soul; baptism is the outward
expression of it, the utterance ofit the rein
forcement of it in the body.
Two Kinds of Life.
means. 1t means that there are two kinds
of life which we all live every day-a de-
pendent life and an independent life, on the
one side social and on the other side in
dividual, alone and yet not alone-and that
these two kinds or sides of human life must
be both taken into account. We have our
own personal existence and responsibility;
at the same time we are singularly in need
of each other, quite unable to stand nlone.
Every day We give out and breathe In
thought, sentiment, example, influence No
man liveth to himself, nor even dieth to
himself Take these two sentences which
St. Paul set side by side in the same letter:
Bear ye one anothar's burdens" and
Every man shall bear his own burden" :"
These are the two lives which we all live,
one personal, the other in partnership.
There is no possible evasion of these two
sides of human life. You might as we'll try
to construct board which should have an
upper surface but no lower surface.
Don't you see how Christ takes US just as
we are? He wants US to be saved, to be
spiritually sound, and He gives us a counsel
in the matter, which takes in all the condi-
tions and includes all the facts in the case.
We have a soul; we must believe. We have
body; we must be baptized. We stand,
each Of us, individual and alone before God /;
in Him we must believe We stand also in
union with our fellow men, dependent upon
their companionship, having this association
and the potency OF it as one of the supreme
facts in our lie; let US have this taken ac-
count of and turned to its best uses in q
church into which we shall be baptized.
There Is One Certain Way.
1t is our Lords advice and counsel, then,
to all who desire to grow in grace and in the
knowledge and love of God, to all who
would be spiritually sound and strong. to all
who would be saved. that they should join
the church. This is the gate which, Christ
tells us, opens upon the road that leads TO
life eternal. Perhaps you can get there
some other way. With all my heart, hope
SO. Perhaps you are right in thinking that
you can Chamber over the wall somewhere,
and fnd some shortcut across green pastures
to the celestial city. Baptism is such 4
narrow gate, it would be pity to compel
everybody to go through it. And the conl-
pany along the road is not, I am afraid, so
select as it might be. You must set the
blame for that Oh Christ, who at the very
start invited lot of publicans, and sinners,
and other disagreeable people into it.. Per-
haps you can find some broader gate, and
more exclusive company, and pleasanter
road, and so get there, whittier we all want
to 20, into the land Of life. Perhaps so; but
take care, and be sure! "He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved" That, any
how, is certain.
Our Lord was addressing people in whose
case baptism was the conscious entrance into
the Christian Church. II was an act pre-
ceded by repentance and by faith. 1t was a
clear, definite exercise of the will. choosing
Christ and His service. With us, to-day,
baptisln does not. for the most part, mean so
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