Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1907-10-18
SAVED OR LOSTP
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By Rev. Henry F. Cope.

By Rev. Henry F. Cope.
''He shall set the sheep on his right
hand, but the goats on his left. >
Matt. %: 33.
What is it to be saved? Once there
was no difficulty In securing a glib an
swer to that question. He was saved
who professed to believe certain
things; he was damned who doubted
them The saved were ticketed to
heaven; the rest were as plainly tick
! eted elsewhere.
The comfort of being billed clear
through to everlasting bliss without so
much as a change of cars doubtless
was enhanced by the opportunity to
gaze with compiacency mingled with
| commiseration on those poor wretches
! who were cOndigned to everlasting tor
! ment
This simple division of the race into
! the 'ins' and the "outs," the elect ana
the doomed, remained satisfactory,
| however. only as long as there was no
other standard raised by which men
! should be measured than that of the
formal acceptance of a creed. AS soon
! as moral standards were introduced
new alignment began to take place.
If you begin to classify into the good
! and the bad the results will be differ
ent from that reached by the stand
ards Of the saved and the lost. Be
sides this you have a new problem.
| ho+ oP +ho noithpr 10 GOOD
nor bad, who neither belongs with the
sheep nor with the goats. If you in
| sist on clear-cut divisions, what are
you going to do with him? There are
many Of him.
The truth is that every man belongs
to this class SO far as his character Is
| concerned; there are none unmixed
with evil nor any unadulteratedly bad
| There usually is more good than we
expect in others and more base than
we recognize in ourselves. What then
has become of the old sharp line be-
| tween the saved and the lost?
There is a distinction; there is q diff
ference Men either are finding life
or losing it. But that is a different
thing from classifying humanity on the
} tests Of their intellectual and moral
nimbleness in credal gymnastics. The
mental and moral, rather than intel
lectual and external.
Salvation is not a legal fiction, a
right conferred by virtue Of fact be-
lieved. Salvation is living up; dam
nation is dying down. Heaven is
the spirit, the higher self hell is de-
caying in the death of the flesh.
The great gulf fixed between the
saved and the lost is vital it is deter
mined by the direction of life. 1t
grows wider between individuals as
one reaching after the worthy things
before, the other sinking in the lower
depths. 1t requires no decree issuing
in thunder to separate a man. he de-
termines his place and lot by the di~
rection in which he sets his face
No man can look down and live up.
No matter to what creed you may give
unreserved assent, no matter in what
measure you may trust to the virtues
or the mercy of the most high, if your
life goes down, if character deteri-
CRATES, if the soul shrinks, if the beast
develops, you Danish yourself to perdi-
ton.
Progress is the proof Of piety. Any
man may know Of his faith by wheth-
er he is going forward. And here none
stand still; there are no Indifferent
lives; either you move with the sheep
who seek the green pastures and the
still waters of the river of life, or with
the goats who turn to the desert.
A man needs no credal test of him
self, no ecclesiastical test; here is the
answer to the question, Am [ saved?
Am I turning my face to the light?
Am I learning the life Of love? Is my
life worth more to the world than IL
was? Is it richer, fuller, sweeter,
more like the ideal life of the Son of
Man?
Life either is building up or break
ing down for each of us; either we are
losing life or we are finding it. Hap
py they who live up, who set their af-
fections on things above, who have
learned the great teachers lesson Of
enlarging the life by living for others,
by serving and self-giving. They have
no fear of being forever lost who fear
| no loss but that of the soul.
THE MERRY HEART.
By Rev. George D. Sparks.
A merry heart is a good medicine
| Proverbs II: %.
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