The Tupelo journal., 1904-03-25

--<00 HE salvation of the
AMlSZNNNMS sinner is a marvel
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SaIg Gus and mighty
RII ~ work of o
wy +. through Christ
;W Ms Jesus, but the con-
XII 2$ dition and thepriv1-
hllnISHH58f I'll Ieges of the re-
7SSEE.M. deemed sinner In
Christ Jesus are
NG4gA44> even more marvel
Gus. The "unsearchable riches of Christ"
belong to His followers, n are
freely and fully placed at their dis
posal. Paul says: "All things are
yours" And then he goes on to emu
merate what those "all things" include.
Paul was theirs to teach them the full
liberty in Christ Jesus. Apollos was
theirs to stir and animate them with his
%eloquence. Peter was theirs to nerve
and fire them with his courage. In fact
every author was to- mpart to them
some treasure of the Divine Kingdom.
The world was theirs to win and possess
for Christ. This life was theirs in all OF
lto uliACo W live lOi ShA1ot
present and things to come were all to
be counted theirs because this present
state and the glory of the next were ali
planned of God for the good of His saints,
and the salvation of the world. And
even death itself, which seems to come
like a tyrant-death is theirs in Christ,
their minister to lead to a higher life.
Great possessions, surely. Carnegie,
Rockefeller, the Vanderbilts, the Roths-
childs, and others of the worlds rich can
count their possessions in the hundreds
of millions of shining yellow gold DOL
lars, and the, burdens of the rich in car
ing for and keeping and handling these
vast riches are heavy upon them, but
the possessions of the Christian are in
finitely greater, for "all things" are his.
If it is true, as it certainly is, let us
prayerfully and earnestly seek to learn
in what way it is true, and what it should
to the Christian because it is true.
/ that the Christian cannot boast
that it is by his own thrift and en-
ergy and astuteness that he becomes
possessed of "all things" Carnegie
can point you back to a time in his
career when he did not have a dollar
which he could call his own, and then
he can lead you step by step from
spool boy in the factory through the
successive stages of engineer in the
factory, messenger boy, telegraph OPP
orator, railroad man, stakeholder in
the first sleeping car company. iron
master and her retired capitalist with
a gigantic steel corporation as a mon
ument to his great energies and abili-
ties. He can remind you of all this,
and proudly say: "See the vast prop
critics, and wealth which I have by my
own energies, and thrift, and keen
financial and business foresight, ac-
CURED" But the Christian cannot
make any such claim as he points to
the declaration Of Scripture that "all
things" are his. His great possessions
are inherited. He has a rich Father,
who bequeaths through the only begot-
ten Son to His adopted sons His pos
sessions. A rich Heavenly Father.
Yea, rich, for all things belong t O Him.
The Dsalmist sings:
1.-THE earth is the Lords, and the full
ness thereof;
The world. they that dwell therein"
And Paul quotes that passage in his
very letter to the Corinthians from
which our text is taken. A rich Heav-
emily Father. who has created all
things, and who, despite the seeming
contradiction of the claim in the world
to-day, possesses alr things. And be-
cause the Heavenly Father possesses
all things, His true children have a
right to claim heirship, and share in
those riches. The daughter of Andrew
Carnegie, although she cannot claim
that a single dollar of her fathers vast
wealth was acquired by any effort or
help of her own, has a right to claim a
share in those riches. because she is
his daughter. She has a right to an
Inheritance as his child and the courts
Of the world would sustain her claim.
And it is SO with the Christian. "All
things" are his because they belong to
the Father.
MOTHER thing to remember in
n connection with this inheritance is
that God does not carelessly turn over
to His children the free and unre-
strained possession of "all things"
He gives to His children of things
temporal and things spiritual, as fully
and freely as is for their good, and
as will supply their need. But He
never divides the patrimony and lets
the willful, and pleasure-seeking son
go off into the far country to spend it
in riotous living. The son of many
a rich father is cursed instead of
blessed by the wealth which is placed
In his hands. But the "all things OF
God are not thus given to the Chris
tian to be misused and abused. The
Father maintains the active admins
tration of His possessions, but never
a demand Is made on Him in faith
and the Holy Ghost by His children,
but that it is honored. True 1t is that
there are those who are so willful and
naughty and selfish, that they take
possession OF this worlds goods. of
abilities and talents, and pervert them
to their W selfish uses and the graf
ification of their own pleasures. They