Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1912-10-05

In His beams" The darkness of lgno.
rance, superstition, etc, which at the
present time covers the earth, and
gross darkness the heather, makes
faith In the present time very pre-.
cious thing indeed which only compar.
atively few can or will exercise.
But, when the shadows and dark.
ness shall fee away, when the True
Light shall shine, when the knowl.
edge Of the glory of the Lord shall
nll the whole earth as the waters GOV.
er the great deep"-then faith will not
be at Its present premium, because II
will then be very easy to exercise
faith. Moreover, while perfect works
are impossible now, because of our i'm.
perfections Of the flesh, perfect works
will gradually become possible to the
world In the next Age, because as they
progress in the light and In obedience
to the laws Of that Kingdom they will
gradually be recovering the perfection
of the flesh, mental moral and phys
ical. And as they recover these pow.
ers correspondlngly more and better
works will be required each year, each
century, Of their experience
Finally, before the glorious Epoch
shall conclude-before Messiah shall
turn over the Kingdom to JusHce-all
the willing and obedlent will have
come to full perfection and hence to
full capacity for perfect works and
God will demand them; they will
therefore be the standard or test In
the worlds trial Day-"They shall be
judged every man, according to his
works" In both these Judgments we
see Justice and Mercy harmoniously
working together in the interests of
those on trial, the differences between
the two operations being such merely
as adapt them to the conditions of the
individuals on trial.
Come Now TO Our Text.
A glance Mt our text shows that It re-
lates to the present Age and not to the
period Of MessiOh's Kingdom The
Apostle Is addressing those called tC
jolnt-heirshlp In the Kingdom, Of
whom he says In the context that
"God in mercy hath quickened us with
Christ and raised us up together to q
heavenly station in Christ Jesus, that
in the Ages to come we might show
the exceeding riches Of His grace in
His kindness toward us through Christ
Jesus" Without question these words
apply to the Elect Church, and with
equal certainty they cannot properly
be applied to the non-elect world
whose opportunity for blessing belongs
to the next Age and will come to them
from the Father, through the Son, by
the Church in glory.
Our text contains another statement
which has been the cause of much dis.
pute, namely, the one which declares
that 1--WE are saved by grace through
faith, and that not Of ourselves, 1t l.
the gift Of God" 1t is easy to under
stand the forepart of this statement
that we are saved by grace, and easy
also to understand the last part. name
ly, that we are not saved by works and
that, therefore. none Of us has any
ground for boastlng in our salvation
"By nature we were children Of wrath
even as others" We were under the
sentence Of death and could not recov
er ourselves from that condition What
ever. therefore. should be done for us
to help us out Of our condemnation and
fallen condition would necessarily be OF
grace, and also Of God. Now we come
to the more difficult part Of our text.
"That Not Of Yoursslves.'
How shall we understand the sug
geshon that the faith is not Of our
selves but is the gift Of God2 Surely
God does not exercise faith for us, anC
surely also He does not develop the
faith in us by some miraculous power
for in either Of these cases the saints
would be merely machines, reacting as
acted upon, This would neither de
velop nor prove character, nor In any
wise at and prepare us for the glorious
work to which we have been called
How is 1t Gods gift2
There is one view Of this statemen
which we believe clears 1t Of all mys
terry and makes Il entirely harmonious
with Divine Justice and our responsl
bility. 1t. is this:
Faith ls possible only where there
is n basis of knowledge: In proportion
therefore. as Divine providence grants
us knowledge Of Himself and OF His
great Plnn. In that proportion Is i
posslble for us to exercise faith II
that Plan. and by our endeavors tC
demonstrate the strength and sincerity
of our faith. While 1t Is true that oul
knowledge depends In large measure
upon our application In the study OF
the Divine Word-upOn our use OF th'
means and opportunities placed within
orr reach by kind Provldence-nev
ertheless there are millions Of our race
who have had no opportunity what
ever for knowledge.
For instance. during the more thar
four thousand years from Adam to the
DAYS of Jesus. knowledge and oppor
tunIty for faith were very limited
For more than two thousand years