St. Paul daily globe., 1893-06-12
IN TALMACIAN Vein.
Some of the Points Which
Go to Make Up the
Christian. .
Rev. E. r. Edwards, Of the
Christian Church, De-
fines Them. &
The Christian Career Is One
Ending in a Perfect Idea
Of Christ.
What a Valuable Gift to Have
Access to the Throne
Of God. q

church, preached to large congrega-
ton yesterday morning ON what 1t Is
to Be Christian" He said: To ap-
preciate the subject under considera-
ton, 1T is essential that we have positive
Christians. This assurance is best en-
joyed when we correctly understand
what are the conditions of salvation as
recorded in the Scriptures. If we have
Obeyed the conditions which bring us
into the full enjoyment of such rela-
ton with Christ, the question is settled
beyond the question of doubt. Reveia-
tion teaches that believing, penitent
baptized person is in the kingdom OF
light and has q perfect right to the
name Christian. Any misgivings on the
subject are only the result of mans at
tempt to improve OH the wisdom of God.
Ii in your observation or experience you
have met with requirements other than
those preached and taught by the apos-
ties you may pause moment to stamp
them as spurious because of mans at
tempt to improve on what is already di-
vinely complete. Any form or cere-
mony, device OF duty or practice that
adds to the simplicity of the Gospel is a
libel on God and subject to His dis
pleasure. If any doubt exists in your
mind as to whether or not You are a
Christian it is the result of human inno-
vatlonS with respect to the command
ments of God. The Gospel sounds a
note clear, positive and certain. Ii you
do not hear it and receive the inspra-
ton of its music you should be deeply
concerned about your position. Having
disposed of this phase OF the question
we are now prepared to notice our sub
ject.
What is it to be Christian? | might
just as well ask what is it to live? No
person has discovered the best and high
est existence unless they have turned
unto God. That action is expressive of
a relation so sweeping in its ramlfica-
tions as to outweigh the profoundest
reasoning and outmeaSure the capacity
of expression in human language, 1t
means life here and hereafter; it covers
q universe seen and unseen; it
Reaches Beyond Time
and compasses eternity; it begins with
man and develops into God. 1t is that
form of life that can never perish; it is
that power in the soul that seizes upon
all uplifting force whose strength bears
it upward until it reaches the thronelof
the eternal. A Christian is being with
a capacity for development that contin-
ues through time and eternity. Being a
Christian means to be subject to causes;
that eXquisitely mold and fashion
the highest and purest aspirations of
tbe soul. 1t signifies career that
ends in an image perfect and
complete of the Christ. If we have
come under the power of the Gospel,
and have been born into the universal
kingdom OF Christ, if we are being fash
ioned by the teaching of Gods Word, if
we ale in touch and sympathy with our
Creator and obedient to His commands,
we are Christians. not completed or
perfected in second, but subject to
Improvement that ends only when we
stand beside Christ and in the visible
presence of our Maker. There is an
idea concerning the position Of a
Christian which makes a person the
completed product of Divine wisdom
and skill, and totally ignores the ele-
ment of growth. No more erroneous
conception could be advocated. Jesus
Christ in His teaching emphasized the
continuity of our development into
ChristlikeneSS, and never taught that to
be initiated into His kingdom is
to have fully achieved our work.
That would make us but mere pieces of
mechanism, and on rhe same plan as Il
timepiece. We are not animated clocks
with powers that monotonouSly tick out
the measure OF life, and move in fixed
or interchangeable round. A Christian is
not person suddenly moulded into a
set form. or subjected TO process that at
once places him in relation that knows
no Improvement. Just as in the natu-
raj sphere we begin as babes and develop
into persons Of full stature, so also is it
in the spiritual realm. Jesus Christ i'm
presses this thought by reading page
from the book of nature. Describing
our transformation from The actual to
the possible man He says. ''First the
blade, then the ear, then the corn in the
ear" Let us Danish the thought that
nothing remains to be accomplished
after we have been inducted to the
kingdom of light.
To BE "a Christian
is to add to one personality possibilities
that beggar description and battle our
powers of conception. To have received
Christ and the Holy Spirit is to have ap-
propriated what is to your soul sunshine
and rain. Your life becomes perpetual
spring out of which bubble blessings
upon yourself and others.
Many people in this world pride them
selves on their ancestry and as possess
ing what they call blue blood. Nothing
is more pitiful than to witness the eff.
forts of men ard women to build up
social prestige on the skeletons of their
ancestors. Perhaps this is eXcuSable on
the ground that they themselves did
not possess substance enough in the
shape of manhood or Womanhood to win
a place and station of honor on their
own merits. Choose out. if you please,
an ancestry OF royal blood, and of great
fame and limitleSs wealth. Would you
feel proud to be scion of such family?
What shall we say, then, of those who
are counted children of God. This is a
term used time and again in the Scrip
tures to designate the relation we
sustain to the Creator of all
things. Think of it! You and 1,
in being Christians, receive the
acknowledgment of God as His sons
and daughters. The children of king
Not an earthly potentate ruling a Ger
tain portion of this earth, but the SOW
ereign of this and all other worlds. the
supreme ruler of the universe. This
omnipotent being who made us and all
things about us, who by His divine
power and wisdom and skill fashioned
sun and moon and stars, and who con-
trolls the whole realm of nature, stoopsi
in majesty of love and -overpoWering