The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1911-03-21


eternal life
And when Jesus came lie did not at.
tempt to bless the world. but on the
contrary. In His prayer, declared, IL
pray not for the world. hut for theSl
which thou hast given Me" John XVII,
0I-the sanity. the very elect' Mat
thew xiv, 2b These He called;
these He taught-"lsraeIite indeed"
These He directed to give the same
message TO others. not for the conver-
sion of the world. but for the calling.
instruction and edi6cation of 'the
Church. which is the Body Of Christ"
The message to these from first TO
last was that they were called TO suf-
fer with Him. that they might also
reign with Him.
"The Church Which Is the Body Of
Christ"
In the past many of us have over
looked the fact that the Church are,
6guratlvely. 1.-THE Body Of Christie
be hereafter. as the Apostle declares,
'the Church which is His Body" And
again. We are members in particular
Of the Body of Christ. which is the
Church Il Corinthians xii. 20. In
word. then. the entire Christ includes
the members Of the Body with the glo-
rious Head of the Body. And this
glorious Christ. which will be complet-
ed by the close of this Gospel Age, will
as a whole be the promised Seed of
Abraham.
From this viewpoint we can see why
Gods long-promised blessing has not
! yet reached the world, but from this
viewpoint we can see that He Is mere
ly selecting or electlng the Church, the
Seed of Abraham. The promise to
Abraham is. "In thy Seed shall
blessed" and, as we have seen, the
Seed of Abraham Is Jesus the Head
and the Church His Body" In
word. our previous view of the Divine
Plan was too narrow. We saw the
election of the Church. but did not see
Gods gracious purposes for "All the
families of the earth" The Church,
as the Scriptures declare. is merely
"nrst-fruits'' unto God of His crea-
lures and is not. by any means. the
entire harvest. Let us here remember
| st. Pauls explanation of this matter.
He declares. I'VE. brethren. as Isaac
was. are the children of the promise"
Galatians Iv. 2SI-the heirs of the
promise-through us all the families
of the earth are to be blessed.
No Second Chance In This.
1t might indeed be said In one sense
Of the word that since father Adam
was placed on trial In Eden with a
reward of eternal life before him or a
penalty of death, and that since he
lost his chance of eternal life by dis
obedience, therefore any chance of
eternal life coming to him or to any
member of his race would, of neces-
| sity, be n second chance. This Is un-
| doubtedly true. From this standpoint
every member of the human family
must eventually have q second chance
| for eternal life. because 1t was for
this very purpose that our Redeemer
left the heavenly glory, was made
flesh. dwelt amongst us and died, the
| Just for the unjust" Whoever enjoys
| this second chance must expect no
more. because "Christ dleth no more"
But. as we have already seen, nobody
| had second chance for eternal life
| prior to the coming of our Redeemer
/ into the world. HE brought life and
Immortality to light" He died, the
just for the unjust. to make recon-
ciliation for inlquity-and this mes
sage of so great salvation began to be
spoken by our Lord
The comparatively few who have
heard the Gospel since Jesus day
Good tldings of great JOY which shall
be unto all people,, these, the compar-
atively few. who have heard of "the
only name given under heaven or
amongst men whereby we must be
snved'-nre the only ones who in any
sense Of the word have had their sec
ond chance. Indeed we might, Scrip
turally, limit the matter much further
and say that the Gospel has been hid
den from the majority of those who
heard It; their mental eyes and ears
being deaf and blind, they did not com
prehend the message, and therefore
could not reject 1t.
The high calling" and $50 great
salvation" which so few have really
heard and seen Is referred to by oul
great Redeemer saying. blessed are
your eyes. for they see, and your
ears. for they hear" "The natural
man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God. neither can he know
them: because they are spiritually dis
cerned Rut God hath reveal
ed them unto us by His spirit Il Co
rinthinns II. l4l. In other words. only
the Spirit-begotten ones are now or
trial for life everlasting or death ever
lasting Aud only the faithful footsteI
followers will gain the glory, honor
immortality and joint-heirshlp will
Him In His Kingdom. These are tn,
ELECT" the every elect" These ar
= such as make their calling and elec
ton sure by so running as to Obtain
this great prize OF membership In tn
Body OF Christ.
These elect ones experience a chang
l..