The Alaska citizen., 1915-08-23
Sermon to the People
 G.
BY THE REV C. G. BRUCE.


l In paul's day there were those who l followed his teachings and instruc- ! tions only so far as to feed upon | the converts Lc had won to Christ verts to Christianity that they might SOW the seed of dissension and dis cord among the believers of the | lowly Nazarene. They insisted that | all the converts should be circum- cised and keep the law of Moses. In short, the only path to the King l That in the righteousness of our l hands is the merit that purchases | Heaven They had made their ap- ! peal so plausible that many of the | Galatian Christians had turned from the true gospel and had gone to serve the letter of the law, and thus l from the true faith. The apostle maryels that they are so soon won away from the faith, by the preach i ing of another gospel, which he says 1 is not the gospel at all. He calls at tention the fact that in keeping the law and temple obseryances he absolutely insufficient to give peace or satisfaction. And when he did | finally discover Jesus he found a re | ligion not made by men or originated | in flesh and blood. He then out i lines the various arguments that l salvation comes not from works, lest any man should boast but is gift of God unmerited, and re ceiyed by faith alone.
 Pauls Gospel was potent in that l il produced a new life in the charac- ter of the believer. The old man is put off and the new man is re- neWed iI Christ Jesus. Shall we continue in sin" he cries. that grace may abound?' No indeed not even the wonders of Gods grace can justify that policy. God forbid
 how shall We that are dead to sin live any longer therein?" All who 1 have accepted Christ must now turn away from dead work to serve the | living God Not even a hint is there here that man can gain pardon and then play fast and loose with his | I1pr,Ggi4pra 1p f,nita praJralar saying that one will be saved if one does the best he can
 | This new life is born of the Spirit. and partaking of the quality and nature of God, and owing all it's | powers to the graces imputed from God Now the law is set aside with the ordinances, and the sweet influ- ences of love have taken their place, and the convert is working happily under grace. If any man be in l Christ he is d new creation, doing things well not because he sees some i other person so doing as because the fountain within is pure. Pauls holy and reasonable service was that | Christ is all and in all. And he received his conception of his teach. | ings from Christ rather than follow | ing cunningly devised fables born of the genius and imagination of man. For Pauls knowledge he goes back to the experience of a former event. He says he did not go to men for this knowledge but that it was a revelation of God to him, and | he proceeds to relate the circum- 1 stance of his conversion on the Da- mascus road, Doubters and skep- 1 tics have always tried to discount this One told him to his face that much learning had made him mad, To many it is strange that man with such learning as he possessed should suddenly espouse the faith that he had tried to destroy and is it not also strange that the facts that he promulgated fit so nicely into the faiths of Peter and John l
 And this heIps us to understand how he felt about this new life that had come to him, and how he could not do enough for the One who had done so much for his present joy
 and future happiness, His first question was, Lord, what wilt thou
 
 1 the years of his life he tries to | fulfil the answer to that question. He seems to court dangers and de- sire difficulties. He went to Rome as a prisoner for his Master. He had never done enough and felt that he never could do enough for Christ
 who had done so much for him. And to the very end his enthusiasm con tnues at fever heat his courage un- daunted and his zeal unquenched.
 And what say we, therefore, in view of all this? It is that we may know and do the duty of our day There is nothing we crave more than authority in religion. We can afford not to know from whence comes certain knowledge about chem | ;ctry oct ropop,v biolopv or nbySicS