The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-03-06
The Salvation by Christ.
Petunia, Va, March

Editors Messenger:
Permit me to express my apprecia-
ton Of the article on neglecting the
salvation Of Christ published in your
weekly issue of February 25th. The
topic is a timely one, since the Sunday
schools of our land are at present en-
gagged in the study of the Acts OF the
Apostles, in which book we have h
record of the doings of those Who first
taught the way Of salvation to the
Jews and Gentiles. If you will grant
the space, I should like to add some
thing a little more definite to the gen.
eral observations in that article, be-
lieving that the salvation of Christ is
seldom set forth as clearly as it might
be-. A careful study Of the Acts of the
Apostles will show that the Holy Spirit
gave to the Apostles plain and definite
instructions as to what sinners should
do in order to be saved, and hat the
Apostles were uniform in their direc-
tions to sinners seeking that way.
They faithfully abstained from any
declaration of the matter, until, &C
cording to the promise Of the Saviour,
they were endowed with power from on
high. This endowment or baptism of
the holy spirit came ON the day of Pen
~tecost, a shrot time after the ascen-
sion of Christ, when his followers were,
by the gift of tongues and other mirac-
ulous endowments duly qualified for
h preaching Of the gospel. On that
day they answered the question, What
must we do?" as follows: Repent and
be baptized, every of you in the
name Of Jesus Christ for h remis-
sion Of sins, ETC." We infer that those
people believed in the Saviour, before
they made h inquiry, SO faith must
have been the first requisite to saliva
tiOn. 1T is stated in the continuation of
The narrative in the second chapter of
the Acts that those who received the
word were baptized, and in submitting
to baptism they must a made a con-
fessiOn Of Christ. Thus 1T stands forth
clear, that the steps taken there in or
der to the remission OF sins were four,
viz: Faith, repentance, confession and
baptism. Through faith, the hearts Of
the converts were purified, (see Acts
were changed (see Isaiah IS, 81 by CON-
f~ession. they made use of h only name
by which they could be saved (see
Acts 4, 12) n by baptism they chang
ed their allegiance from the world to
Christ, just as a foreigner by a definite
act changes his citizenship from his
former home to his new one. Chang
ing the figure, this last was a symbol
OF the washing away Of sins. (See Acts
%. 16.)
It hou1d be crear1y understood that
these four steps were necessary to the
remission OF past sins only. They are
what might be called first principles.
As to the matter of final salvation, the
Apostle Paul says, (see Heb. g.:
Leaving therefore the principles Of
the gospel OF Christ, let US go on to
perfection, etc. He upbraided some
(Heb. 5, 12) because they had to be
taught again first principles, instead
of being teachers themselves. The
Apostle Peter i~nstructs Christians (see
2 Pet, ~ to d to faith virtue, to vir-
tue knowledge; to knowledge temper
ance; to temperance, patience; to pa
thence. goodness; to gOdliness, broth
erly kindness; to brotherly kindness,
love. He did not teach these things as
things to be done by inquiring sinners,
but by Christians who had already
obeyed the first principles of the gos-
pei of Christ.
Lest it might he imagined that the
setting forth of faith, repentance, con-
fession and baptism as the nrst prin-
cipleS or Christ is an unfos1nded as
sumption, let US Investigate. a little
further. In the eighth chapter of Acts
it it recorded OF Philip, the evangelist
he went to Samsria and preached
Christ. It Is said, Gee Acts 8, 12) But