The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1904-02-03

The true way OF looking upon our rela.
ton to Christ is that His presence within
our heart by faith gives us energy to
achieve. not by enslaving, but by enfran.
cchising the will, invigorating it, energizng
1t, vitalizing. It, until with Augustine we
can say: I'VE will. but God works the
willing we work, but God works the
Philippians, 9; IL, 10, has often been mis-.
understood. 1t says: "Work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling. For ir
Is Sod which worketh in you both, to will
and do of His good pleasure" To work
out does not mean to work into outward
expression what God puts within us, but
as it literally means, 10 achieve" for sal
vation is an achievement as well as being
at the same time gift. Nor does it mean
that we are to work in Pauls absence.
The possibility of working out our saliva.
tlon rests upon the fact that God is with
in, so that we can will and do of His good
pleasure. Thus, will is not an instrument
which we can turn from side to side, and
which when necessary God can use; it is
ourselves acting. That which God does is
not our act unless God works through our
wills.
The possibilities Of such an empowered
life are divine. We need not be perfec-
tionists and still believe as we ought that
Christs grace is sufficient for us. Many
pretend to believe it, and do not live it,
most of us seem to think that the normal
Christian life is to rise and fall like the
tides. Yet Paul says: There hath no
temptation befallen you but such as is COM
mon to man; but God is faithful. who will
not suffer you to be tenpted above that
ye are able but will with the temptation
also make a way of escape, that ye may
be able to bear it"
Christ within also makes all living sa-
cred. We have made sad divisions among
objects. We have divided space into holy
and unhoiy. and declared tnat God could
be found only in certain places, which had
been eonsecrated. We have divided time
into holy and secular, declaring that we
would serve God on the Sabbath and con-
duct our business and amusements as we
pleased the rest of the week. We have di-
vided money into two parts. We have said
that the giving OF the one-tenth. OF one
twentieth to God, justified us in the claim
of unlimited freedom in the disposition
of the rest. We have divided up persons,
and put a certain class of people called
priests, ministers, missionaries, upon ped
estals, declaring that the standard OF con.
duct for them differed from the standard
for others, and that their work was espe.
cially religious.
All wrong. All space is holy and the
green grass may be the chancel carpet and
the trees the massive pillars and the sky
the dome, if below there is heart pray
ing in spirit and truth All time is sacred.
The Monday should be as much devoted to
Gods service as Sunday, and the office and
the store should be as much shrines OF
devotion as the closet. All money is sa-
cred, and the money spent upon the nee
essaries of life, upon business and pleasure
should be spent with equal consciousness
as upon the church. All Christians have
TO objectify His life. There is nothing we
need to-day quite as much as the Chris
tianization of the secular life
Then at last, the Christ within is the
source Of final holiness. Christ at last
is to present us holy and unblamab.e. and
rreprovable in His sight
Sin does two things for us, separates
Us from God and distorts our nature. When
| we are forgiven we are restored to the di-
| vine fellowship. But what about the et-
| fects of sin upon our nature! See the
| scars upon the tree and what the life of
the tree does for it. Listen to what Paul
| says: Il am perplexed until Christ be
| formed within YOU" As Christ had His
Bethlehem. His Nazareth, His Olivet, so
does He again in His reincarnation have
His Bethlehem, His Nazareth, His Oliyet.
Who knows why one plant grows into the
geranium, and the other into the rosey The
type is something more than the ideal pre-
sented for the imitation OF the pant. 1t
| is an informing life.
think it was the last thing that DR..
| "a. s. Gumbert wrote for the Examiner:
Among the Dutch the rose was sometimes
cultivated by planting an inferior rose
close to rose OF superior variety. The
rose of inferior quality was carefully
watched and anthers removed to avoid
polarization; the object being that
it should be .pollenized by the superior
rose Gradually the rose thus treated took
upon itself the characteristics of the supe-
rior life of its companion" So, our lives
are pollenized as it were by His righteous
ness.
Thus Christ within becomes to us the
source Of divine companionship, OF power
duct, of final holiness. He who wishes
to plant hope within his own heart of such
prospects, should begin and never cease
exercising faith in Him who loved US and
gave Himself to die for us.