The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1904-02-24
be absolute" independence of'Goa. Surely,
this ~ NOT Gods idea.

tnlS (S noC UOu Iued.
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 eniran.
| chising the will, invigsrating it, energizlng
it, vitalizing it. until WITH Augustine we
can say: I'VE will. but God works the
! willing: We work, but Gcd works the
philippians. 2: 70, 10. has often been mis-.
| understood. It saws: Work out your own
| salvation with fear and trembling. For It
| is God which werketh in you both, to VIII
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, to achieve" Tor SAL
| vation is an achievement as we'll rs being
| at the same time gift. Nor does 1t mean
| that we are to work IN Pauls absence.
| The possibility Of working out our saliva
| ton 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 i-istrumenf
| which we can turn from side to side, and
| which when necessary God can use; 1t 10
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 ,pertec-
! tionists and still believe as we ought that
| Christ's grace is sufficient for us. Many
| pretend to believe it, and do not live 1t.
! Thev worry, they fret, they give up. The
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 tempted above that
We 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 al living sa-
cred We have made sad divisions among
objects. We have divided spice into holy
| and unhoiy. and declared tnat God could
| be found only in certain places, which had
been >consecrated. We have divided time
into holy and secular declaring that we
would serve God on the Sabbath and con-
| duct our business and amrsements as we
pleased the rest Of the week. We have d.,
vided money into two parts. We have said
| that the giving OF the one-tenth,, or one
of unlimited freedom in the disposition
of the rest. We have divided up persons.
and put a certain class of peop.e 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. a -. =
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 a 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 shrlnes OF
devotion as the closet. All money is sa-
cred, and the money spent upon. the nec'
essaries of life, upon business and pleasure
should be spent with equal consciousness
as upon the church. All Christians have
Christ within them, and they should aim
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 ls the
source of final holiness. Christ at last
is TO present us holy and unblamable, and
irreprovdbe in His sight ,y'..'
Sin does two things for us, separates
us from God and dis ,rts our Laturc. When
we are forgiven we are restored to the dl'
vine fellowship. But what about the ct
fects of sin upon our nature? See the
scars upon the tree Ind what the life OF
the tree does for it. Listen to what Paul
says: II am perplexed unit! Christ = pe
formed within You" hs Christ had Ills
Bethichem. His Nazareth, His Olvet, so
does He again n His reinearnatio3n M;S nEst nase
Who knows why one plant grows into the
geranium, and the other into the rose? Inc
type is something more than the ideal pre-.
sented for the imitation Of the plant. 1t
is an informing life.
I think it was the last thing that DIR.
A. S. Gumbert wrote for the Examiner:
"Among the Dutch the rose was sometimes
cultivated by planting an inferior rose IGI e
close to a rose of superior variety. Ihe
rose of inferior quality WIS, carefully
watched and anthers removed to AVOID @
seIf.pollenization; the object being that
it should be polenized by The superior
rose. Gradually the rose thus treated took
upon itself the characteristics OF the snpe.
rior life of it's companion" So, our lives
are pollenized as it were by Els righteous
pess. /.
Thus Christ within becomes to. us the
source of divine companioIship, of power
for achievement, of the exa'tatioon OF con.
duct, Of final holiness. He, who WISHES
to plant hope within his own heart OF sven
prospects, should begin and never cease
exercising faith in Him who loved Us and
gave Himself to die for US.
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