The Tupelo journal., 1904-01-22

NkANt q IN XfNE -
XVI WfS lost man, and
xShAgt~1n second as the
E1AA&s@ stern, all-power-
=5ITsazs+ full God compell-
ing in the end
the bending of every knee to Him
and the confessing of every tongue
that He is Lord. The day in which
the sorl may look to God and be
saved IS to be followed by the day
In the which those who have resisted
His Offer of mercy will feel the power
OF Ills Judgment against sin. "Now
is the accepted time. now is the day
of salvation" now is the day of
grace, but the period of grace is to be
followed by the judgment.
Just before the fall of Sardis the
inhabitants refused the overtures of
Cyrus the Great who was besieging
the city with his powerful Persian
army. But after the capture of the
city the conquered people came to
the victorious monarch and offered
their submission, to which proposal
cyrus replied by the following keen
n pointed parable: "A fisherman
wanted the fish to dance for him, so
he played a tune on the flute, but the
fish Kept still. Then he took his net
n drew them out on the shore, and
they all began to leap and dance.
But the fisherman said: "A truce to
your dancing now, since you would
not dance when l wanted YOU"
S2rdis had missed the day of grace,
n was come to judgment. So it is
with every soul. While God stands
n makes overtures of peace and
p&rGon it may find safety in submits
Sion but when the soul persists in
Its rebellion it is taken at last by
force and brought into Judgment,
where every knee must bow and
every tongue swear" What it would
not yield by voluntary act, it must
in the end yield by compulsion. For
ultimately unto God every knee shall
bow and every tongue swear"
THE prophet Isaiah may have failed
L TO recognize the full import of his
words and perhaps held the view, quite
ommon to-day, that the bowling of
every knee and the confession of every
tongue was to be the glorious consum-
nation of Gods call to look to Him and
be saved, all ye ends of the earth" But
that there was a wide separation be-
tween the tWenty-seCond and tventy-
third verses in point OF time and condi-
lions is clear from Paul's quotation of
TINS passage. In the fourteenth chapter
OF Romans he declares that I'VE shall all
stand before the judgment seat of Cod"
and follows this with Isaiah's prophecy
that every knee should bow and every
tongue swear. The day of grace was not
to see all in the earth looking to God and
being saved, but the day of Judgment
ives to compel the bowling Of every knee
in Gubjection to COD. Isaiah sees God
as Saviour, standing and pleading for
tn: lost world to look to Him and be
saved. and then in prophetic vision he
behoids the Lord in final triumph with
every soul bowed before Him, but there
Is a VIDE gulf between the two. Oh. that
1t were true that as God calls the world
to repentance and salvation, every
knee would bow and every tongue con-
Tess to God. But the word of God ard
past experience do not sustain any such
view Many are called but few are
chosen 1t was a remnant of Israel
which was to be saved, and it is to be a
part of the world which is to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Not
because God has decreed it so. but be-
cause the will of man refuses to have it
otherwise.
MANY OF Jesus parallels and His di-
1NI rect teachings bear out this view.
EHCn Of Jesus diScinles one was a traitor