The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1911-03-22

ed the promise" UIebrews xi, 13l-the
blcssing-reconcilia to God and
eternal life
And when Jesus came He did not at
tempt To bless the world. but on the
contrary. In His prayer. declared, ~
pray not for the world. but for them
which thou hast given Me" John xvii.
0-the sanity, the very elect Mat
thew xiv. pa These He called:
these He taught "lsraelites indeed"
These lie directed TO give the. same
message to others. not for the CONVEX
sion of the world. but for the calling.
instruction and cdification of the
Church. which is the i;Gdy of Christ"
The message to these from first 10
last was that they We're called to suf
fer with Him. that they might also
reign with Him.
1.-The Church Which is the Body Of
Christ"
In the past many of us have over
looked the fact that the Church are.
figurativey. the Body of Christie
be hereafter. rs the Apostle declares.
1.-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
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
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
''first-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. ms Isaac
was, are the children Of the promise
Galatians ". 2S,-the heirs of the
promise-through US all the families
of the earth are to be blessed.
No Second Chance In This.
It might indeed be said in one sense
Of the word that since father Adam
was placed on trial In Eden with
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 a 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, as we have already seen. nobody
had a 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 iniquity-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 "thr
only name given under heaven or
amongst men whereby we must br
| saved"-are the only ones who in any
sense of the word have had their Sc
ond chance. Indeed we might. Scrip
turally, limit the y utter much further
and say that the Gospel has been hid
| uCh ilplli lll' tttf Ipll'N w lI'Nt " It'
heard it; their mental eyes and ears
being deaf and blind. they did not com.
prehend the message. and therefore
could not reject il.
The high calling and $50 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" Il Co
rinthians ii. 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-heirShip 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 Il change
If nature, and in the future will not
be human beings, but partakers of the
divine nature I'll Peter /. ~. They
! will be indicted into the perfection
! Of the divine nature In the First Res
direction. the chief resurrection. In
which they will be changed In a mo-