The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1904-05-21

ing. God does not save a man and then
leave it possible for him to be lost
Gods salvation Is of the eternal brand
This is the reason it transcends the
mere human. 1t becomes operative in
this life and continues in force through
out the endless ages to come. How
could God call it other than so great
Salvation?"
A ND further. 1t is $50 great saliva
Ation" because it is costly and
glorious. Costly, not in the coin OF
this world where nearly everything is
tested and measured by the gold
dollar; glorious, not in dazzling dis
play Of external trappings; but cost
ly in that Heaven gave her best to
the earth, and Christ, the Gift, gave
His best, His very life's blood, that
salvation might be accomplished for
man, and glorious because it revealed
the love, mercy and righteousness of
God to the heart of man. Costly!
Gods only begotten Son was the price
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civil wal was raging in this country
many a home was bereft Of its brave
sons who went forth at the nations
call never to return. Was it not a
costly gift which the mothers and ia
theirs gave in the persons of their sons?
Anything. everything else in the
world would have been easier to give
than the beloved sons, the pride and
Joy of the home. Costly gifts to the
nation, indeed! The home impover-
ished that the nation might be saved!
Heaven impoverished and emptied
that lost mankind might be saved!
A costly salvation, surety Oh, soul,
just contemplate all that this saliva
ton means in priceless treasure!
The human heart is unable to ven
encompass the fulIness of it's meaning.
1t will take eternity to reveal it.
And the glory Of it! How would
we ever have known Of the love and
mercy and righteousness of God if it
had not been for the salvation which
He gave to the world? We know it is
so great salvation" because it re-
veals the infinite love of God, because
it brings the ineXhaustible mercy of
God to meet the desperate need of the
human soul, and because that saliva
ton is the open door to the righteous
ness which is in Christ Jesus, the
expressed and manifested righteous
ness of God. What conception has
the unsaved mar-the unregenerate
nan-of the love and mercy and
righteousness of God? A warped and
twisted and unreal conception at best.
DUT we have not done yet. It is
I'D a complete salvation, and this is
one of the strong evidences that it
is a great, a marvellous salvation. A
complete salvation. God mas not left
His work half done. Christ did not
come to earth, and live a spotless
life, and suffer and die for sin, and
rise from the grave a victor over
death, and then ascend to the throne
at the right hand of God in Heaven,
leaving His work of salvation incom.
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with His dying breath: 1T is fin
ished," and it was finished. Atone
ment for sin was fully made. Saliva
ton was complete. And this fact
ought to put joy in the heart and a
song in the mouth. The "hope-I'm-
saved" Christians have either got a
weak kind of salvation. or else they
are willfully binding themselves to
the fact that Christ's work vas a fin
ished work, and that to the saliva
ton which He offers there is nothing
to be added to make that salvation
sure. Is there nothing for the Chris
tian to do, then? perhaps you ask.
Is there nothing for the babe to do
after it is born? Yes, 1t must grow.
It must feed its stomach, it must fill
its lungs with air, so as to keep that
life which was given it at birth. But
it does not have to keep being born,
any more than the Christian has to
keep on being saved. Salvation's
work was complete as soon as the
regenerative work of Christ was
wrought in the heart by faith, and
after the new birth there was need of
growth, but that was an entirely diff
ferent thing from salvation. Growth
is not birth, but follows birth.
Growth in the Christian life is
distinct from salvation in that it
follows salvation, and the former can
not take place until the latter condi-
ton has been realized.
90, then, salvation which God offers
- the lost sinner is complete, the
matchless work of God. Human effort
cannot add to it or make it more eff
But Paul makes use of the
term salvation" in speaking to those
who have been saved by faith in Christ
Jesus which has a different meaning.
The Christian is told to work out his
own salvation" But this is not the
salvation which he experienced when
he was taken a lost sinner by Jesus
Christ and made a redeemed soul. 1t
is not the salvation that found him
dead in trespasses and sins and with
out hope, and left him a cleansed and
soul, with q living and
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