The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1913-11-18

philippians 3:S.) The speaker said:
Even sanity Christians seem but i'm
perfectly to grasp the plain teachings
of the New Testament respecting mem
bership in the Body of Christ. Some
assume that it is to be had on some
basis of favoritism, and trust that they
will be of the Elect Others think
that the Apostle is using figures of
speech in an extreme fashion, and
vaguely hope that they belong to the
right Church and will attain whatever
others get, as in the success of party
in which all the victors share the
spoils.
No doubt the errors of the Dark
Ages absorbed in childhood have been
more or less responsible for these va
carries and for our general neglect of
proper Bible study. 1t seems hard for
the people of God to realize that the
Wisdom from Above is the noblest
science and the best instruction; and
that 1t needs intelligent and systematic
study as much as do earthly sciences.
progress is being made in unsectarian
Bible study classes, which are spring
ing up all over the world
Conversion Not Winning Christ.
What is ordinarily termed conversion
Is not what st. Paul refers to in our
text as winning Christ" The word
81 70
1t implies that a wrong course has
been pursued, that the error of the way
has been detected and that a change
to the proper one has been made The
wrong course is the sinful course.
which brings injury and injustice on
others. We never had a right to take
that course; yet to some extent we are
excusable; for we were born with
downward tendencies. an inherited pre-
disposition to sin.
We inherited these depraved appe-
tites and tendencies from our forefa
theirs under the general laws of hered
ity. A realization that sin always
brings sorrow is sufficient reason for
a change of course Conversion. there
fore, is merely the operation of a sane
mind in turning about from things rec
ognized to be injurious. Every sensi-
BILE person should be converted from
sin to righteousness.
Conversion may have Christ connect
ed with it, or it may not Many are
converted without any real knowledge
Of the Gospel of Christ They merely
knew that they were going in a wrong
direction, and turned about to take the
proper course. But this we can say.
that only strong characters can sue
cessfully pursue a right course, and
strong characters are in the minority.
Whether strong or weak in character
great aid will surely be experienced
by those who, at the time of their con
and an appreciation of His work and
His teachings.
Nothing else gives such fortitude as
the hope set before us in the Gospel.
and the realization that there is a fu-
ture life provided through Christ for
all mankind, and that our course in the
present life will have much to do with
the stripes, or punishments, we shall
receive here or in the future life-nec-
essary to fit us for Divine favor and
everlasting life.
"Present Your Bodies"-Sacrifices
One might reform his life and have
L. .,f - 81 fn =,
come secured through His death. and
of the fact that whatsoever a man
soweth that shall he also reap" and
yet. with all that conversion. belief and
reformation of life, he might not be a
Christian at ALL In the Bible sense of
that term We would not by this dis
courage anybody from taking the re
formatory steps already outlined. We
would, ON the contrary. encourage
them so to dc. These steps are neces-
sary before anything further can ex-
pect to be attained.
AS already stated. reformation and
righteous living commend themselves
to all intelligent minds as right and
ual himself az well as to the world OF
mankind Let us discuss Christianity
not from the ordinary standpoint,
which classes every civilized person as
a Christian, but from the Bible stand
point. which assures US that if any
man is Christian he is a New Great
ure-''old things have passed away; all
things have become new"
This does not mean that Christian
Is living a reformed life merely; nor
that he has attained the condition of
absolute perfection, in which he is sin
less in thought, word and act. 1t mere
ly means that a Christian has entered
a new life; he is New Creature; old
ambitions, hopes, projects and aims.
however honorable and good, have
passed away in the presence of new
ambitions. new hopes, new aims This
is what the Apostle had in mind when
saying that | might win Christ"
What Winning Christ Means.
To understand our text we must first
dppTeCldlc lnt Stueidl Oulilue VI lue
Gospel-the Divine Plan of Love for
human recovery from sin and death.
That Plan was first of all declared to
Abraham-that God would eventually
bless all the families of the earth. and
that the blessing would come through
his posterity. In thee and in thy Seed
shall all the nations of the earth be
Decentralization 3:S. 10. %.
Later on. God revealed that Abra-
hams Seed would constitute a special
Kingdom class, which would rule all
nations for their uplift When Israel,
by failing to keep the Law, failed to
prove itself the holy nation fit for the
Divine service. God revealed that He
would send a special Messenger of the
and that through Him. as
Prophet, Priest and King, the holy ma
ton would be established; and later on
it would be given the glory and honor,
the rule of the world.
Our Lord Jesus at His First Advent
began the work of selecting this King
dom class First of all, He laid the
broad foundation by dying for the sins
of the whole world Then from
amongst the redeemed ones He began
to select the members of the Kingdom.
And this has been the work of this en-
tire Gospel Age. Everything else on
aa rth has been secondary to this, the