Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1910-02-17

with you. And St. Paul agrees. say,
ing, I'VE cannot do the things which
we would" The Scriptures again
agree and declare There is, none
righteous, no, not one. All have
sinned and come short of the glory
of God"
What shall we do? Shall we say
that because we are unable to live
up to our own conceptions and stand
ards of justice we will NAVE no at
tempt to do SO, but abandon those
standards entirely? God forbid. We
weak enough and imperfect enough
as it is. To ignore our best ideals
of justice would be to take of all the
brakes and permit the downward
tendencies Of our depraved natures
to go rapidly from bad to Worse-to
carry US further aud further from
God and the standards of character
which he approves. We surely can
not be content to- do nothing less
than our very best to live up to oul
own ideals and to raise those ideals
as nearly as possible to the Divine
standard. ..
What Would Be the Use?
Suppose we do our very best daily
to measure up our highest concep
tons Of our God-given ideals ano
sta dards, would God accept of this
and count US worthy of his favo and
Of eternal life? Surely not. Justice
is Justice. Not the hearer of law
not the well-wishing, receives the
reward, but the doer, the obedient!
Here, then, we find ourselves in dit
fculty. With our hearts, our minds
we approve Gods Law and desire t.
I, be obedieLt to him, but find as Pau
says, that many things we wish t.
do we fail to accomplish; and many
of the things we do not wish to d.
we cannot avoid. "We cannot do the
things that we would. We approve
the excellent demands of Gods Law.
We disapprove the imperfections of
| our own flesh. Like st. Paul, we
cry out," Oh wretched man that am!
who shall deliver me from this dead
body?" body that is imper-
feet through inherited sin and weak
nesses. With our minds we serve
Gods Law and approve it; but with
our bodies we come short. What is
our hope? How shall we be deliver
ed? Can we prevail upon God to
change the reasonable RECRUITMENT
Of our text so that it shall read, What
doth God require of me but to will
justly and do imperfectly? We can
not hope for such a change. in the
Divine Law. Are we then hopeless
as respects Divine approval and. etern-
al life? (Romans Xii, 17-24.) p :?
The Gift of God is eternal life.
! In our moment Of perplexity we
hear Gods message speaking peace
through Jesus Christ our Lord. y
The message of peace is that what~w We
Ecould not do for ourselves in the way
OF. lifting ourselves up to Divine ap-
prevail God has provided shah be done
| for us through our Lord Jesus Christ
| Our failure to keep the Law marks US
/ as unworthy Of eternal life, and
worthy of the wages of sif--not etera
nal torment, but death. God in mer-
cy concluded to offer us eternal life
as a gift-because of our not act
ually meriting it under his legal re-
/ quirements. Thus We read, 1.-THE
j wages Of sin is death; but the gift
Of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord" (Romans vi,23O.
What we could not obtain legally IN
der the Divine requirements God
proffers to us as a gift. But the gift
is a conditional one as expressed In
the words, through Jesus Christ
! our Lord" Only those who accept
Jesus Christ as "the way, the truth,
and the life may have Gods gift OF
eternal life. Hence it will be seen
that it is wholly mistake to suppose
that the heather at home or abroad
can get@eternal life, the gift of God
In ignorance OF Christ. All the
Scriptures confirm this and declare
not only that we cannot save our
selves BY obedience to the terms OF
Gods Law, but that there is none
among men, whereby we must be
saved through faith in his name
through faith in his blood. (Acts,iv
l12) ~. -
But how is this done justly? and,
why does God SO limit his gift OF
eternal life. a.
Gods Law represents himself and
cannot change. He cannot require
less than perfection. to do 80
would be to fill the Universe to all
eternity with ,depraved: and imper-
feet beings. God has a higher plan
than this and declares, AS the heav-
ems are higher than the earth, SO are
Fl 4 - r.,