Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1911-03-25

eternal lie.
And when Jesus came lie did not at.
tempt to bless the world. but on the
contrary. In His prayer, declared, II
pray not for the world. but for them
which thou hast given Ne" John xvii,
9)-the sanity, the very elect Mat
thew xiv. 24l These He called;
these He taught-"lsraelites 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 edifcation Of 1.-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.
"Ths Church Which ls the Body Of
Christ"
In the past many of us have over
looked the fact that the Church are,
fguratively, "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 q Corinthians xii, 20. In a
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 Compromised blessing has not
yet reached the world, but from this
viewpoint we can see that He is mere
ly selecting or electing the Church, the
Seed of Abraham. The promise to
Abraham is. I'm thy Seed shall
all the families of the earth be
blessed" and. as we have seen, the
Seed of Abraham is Jesus the Head
and the Church His Body" In a
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 a
'lrst-flults" unto God of His crea-
lures and Is not, by any means, the
entire harvest. Let us here remember
st. Paul's explanation Of this matter
He declares I'VE. brethren, as Isaac
was, are the children of the promise"
| Galatians iv. 2Sl-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
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-
slty, be n second chance. This is un-
doubtedly true. From this standpoint
every member of the human family
must eventually have a 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 dieth no more"
But. MS 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-
citation 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 tidings 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
saved'-are 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 80 great
salvation" which so few have really
heard and seen Is referred to by our
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. -" But God hath reveal
ed them unto us by His spirit" q Co
rlnthiuns H. Ia. In other words, only
the Spirit-begotten ones are now on
trial for life everlasting or death ever
lasting. And only the faithful footstep
followers will gain the glory, honor.
immortality and joint -helrshlp with
Him In His Kingdom. These are the
ELECT" the very elect" These are
such as make their calling and elec-
ton sure by so running as to obtain
this great prize Of membership in the
Body Of Christ,
These elect ones experience change
Of nature, and IN the future will not
be human beings, but partakers Of the
divine nature I'll Peter |, a, They
viii be lnducted into the perfection
Of the divine nature in the First Res