The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1916-01-08

Ass.SE%al eternal welfare.
@ The preparedness
-- first spoken of is
in connection with a possible enemy
of greater present military strength.
God is very strong, and if it is pos
sible for man to so act that he encoun-
ters God as an enemy, is he able to
meet him?
Meeting God.
What is it to meet God? Man meets
God in his everyday obligations. Some
of these are communal, while others
are individual. Men are as communi-
ties and as individuals meeting God
and they are enjoying or suffering the
consequences. There is a certain
meeting of God in death, the soul
standing naked before him, and it is a
very common expression in connection
with the death of anyone to say, HE
has gone to meet his God" When a
judge in court sentences a prisoner to
death he adds, And may God have
mercy on your SOUL" But the chief
thing in mind is the meeting of God
in the final judgment. Neither taking
a chance, reformation, nor becoming
religious will make this preparation;
only belief in the Lord Jesus Christ as
Savior will do it.
The Outcome of Preparation.
One outcome of such preparation
will be an immediate blessing, the es-
tablishment of peace with God and the
experience of the peace of God. There
is the realization of mans true place
in the universe. He was created in the
image and likeness of God and he "a
never be the whole of man. as indi-
Gated by the correct reading of Ec-
clesiastes 1918, unless he believes in
Jesus Christ. There is also deliver
ance from the power of death, which,
while as a lion in the pathway it may
terrify, is chained. This outcome
means the ultimate, perfect individual
and also the perfect social order. Man
is not whole" until he has a sound
mind in a sound body, and both of
these are the inheritance of the be.
lever in Jesus Christ. A man who
does not believe in Jesus Christ as his
Savior, is not of a sound mind. The
prodigal was not in his right mind
when he demanded his fathers goods
and when he was spending them in
riotous living, and it was only when
he came to himself; that is, when he
resumed nationality and determined to
return to his fathers house, that he
became of sound mind. This sound
mind will also be in a sound body. 1t
is the glory of the Christian religion
that it promises a body that is incor-
ruptible, powerful, honorable, glorious
and like Christ's body. The blind, the
deaf, the dumb, the deformed and
those lacking members of the normal
body, can certainly believe that they
will have perfect bodies some day if
they meet the conditions that God
places on them.
When Shall Man Prepare?
Many who acknowledge the neces
sity of preparation, put it off until aft.
er death, but while there is a most
dangerous indifference to this fact on
the part of those who theoretically
profess it, it is true that preparation
must be made before death. at is ap-
pointed unto men once to die, but after
this the judgment" That preparation
can be completely made now. But,
says someone, THAT is too rapid, that
is practically miraculous. it is a ere
ative act" Precisely so, and nothing
less. There is no evolution in regen-
Grafton. Jesus, in his talk to Nicode-
mus, settled the matter of mans right
relationship to God in speaking of it
as a new birth. That preparation can
be made this moment by believing in
Jesus Christ.
Two soldiers in the trenches of
Flanders, who were brothers and de-
vout Christians, belonged to a regi-
ment which had been ordered to make
a charge upon the enemy. The COM
handing officers said that there would
be a very serious business. The
younger of the two brothers said to
the other, as they went into the smoke
and the smothering gases, Brother,
we may not see each other again, but
it is all right The older brother came
back wounded, the name of the other
was found in the list Of those who had
been killed, but he was prepared.