Earlier text: BETHLEHEMWILL THE WORLD BE CONVERTED?
By A. F. Ballenger
[A paper prepared by Evangelist A. F. Ballenger, by request of the Ministers’ Association of Annapolis, Md., and read before that Association, April 30.] Do the Scriptures teach that the world will be converted before the second coming of Christ?” By way of introduction, I desire to say a few words regarding the importance of the subject which the Association has requested me to discuss at this hour. There are those who divide the Scriptures into what they term essentials and non-essentials. And this subject is sometimes classed with the non-essentials. But there are no non-essentials in the Scriptures. To declare that there are, is but to charge the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, from whom and by whom we have received the “Holy Scriptures,” with trifling with non-essentials. But let the Scriptures themselves answer this charge that they contain non-essentials. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Tim. 3:16, 17. It therefore takes “all Scripture” to “thoroly furnish unto all good works.” Our Saviour’s teaching included all Scripture, as shown by the following: “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken; ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” Luke 24:25–27. There is also a growing prejudice to-day against what is termed doctrine. We are admonished sometimes to confine ourselves to the preaching of the Gospel and not waste our time preaching doctrine. But no man can preach the Gospel without preaching doctrine. The apostle Paul makes this very plain in his charge to the evangelist Timothy, as follows:— “I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom, preach the Word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” 2 Tim. 4:1–4. The Question of the Kingdom.
The subject under consideration to-day, like all other Scriptural subjects, is a part of the Gospel. We are to study the kingdom question, which is declared to be the Gospel by our Saviour in these words:— “This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matt. 24:4. In our study to-day, we are seeking an answer to this simple, but all-important question, “Do the Scriptures teach that the world will grow better and better before the coming of Christ until all the world shall be converted? Or do they teach that it will grow worse and worse, and that the children of God shall be numbered as a little flock, walking in the narrow way, hated and persecuted by a sinful world, but as pilgrims and strangers looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ?” But what difference does it make, it is asked, whether the world will be converted or not before Christ’s second coming, if we are only sanctified and ready? It makes just this difference: If we do not have the truth on this subject when He comes, we shall be entertaining error, and shall not, therefore, be sanctified and ready, because we are sanctified by the truth and not by error. Our Saviour prayed for us in these words: “Sanctify them thru Thy truth; Thy Word is truth.” John 17:17. Eternal life and eternal destruction are bound up in this question. It was over this question that the Jewish nation, God’s chosen church, stumbled to its destruction. The Jewish teachers, in their pride and ignorance of the Scriptures, had picked out those prophecies which spoke of the glory of the everlasting kingdom, and promised to the Seed of David that He would inherit the heathen, and rule them with a rod of iron,—these they selected and dwelt upon, while ignoring those scriptures which spoke of the humility and suffering of the Messiah. When therefore the Messiah came, they measured every word and act of His life by their fatal error, and consequently crucified the Son of God. Erroneous Views and the Coming Results.
And now let me show you how this same error concerning the Gospel of the kingdom will again lead to the crucifixion of the coming One in the person of His saints. If the popular view that the world is growing better, and will continue to grow better until all the world is converted to Christ, is an error, and I am thoroly persuaded that it is,—if the church leaders have again picked out those prophecies which speak of the glories of the world to come, and are looking for their fulfilment in this world, then they will measure all movements in Church and State according to this perverted view, and condemn or approve of these movements from their erroneous standpoint. The “little flock” are walking in the narrow way, and are crying aloud and lifting up their voices like trumpets, and faithfully pointing out the sins of a wicked world and a backslidden church; and like their Master they are painting these modern movements in their true colors, as whited sepulchers, godly forms without Gospel power; these faithful witnesses will be condemned, as Christ and His disciples were condemned, as enemies of the church and troublers in Israel. Concerning Peace Conferences.
Let me make the matter more plain by making it personal. I believe the Scripture statement that “wicked men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived,” consequently I measure all modern movements by these scriptures. To illustrate: When a World’s Peace Conference assembles at The Hague, and the representatives of the nations predict a millennium of peace when “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks,” I answer, That is what you say in the peace conference, but what are you doing in your war councils? Are you not bending every energy of money, mind, and muscle, to prepare war, to wake up the mighty men, to beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears, in preparation for the battle of the great day of God Almighty? Again, when the course of our own country is cited, and its foreign conquests are pointed out as a part of the movement toward the world’s conversion, I reply, Instead of this movement being any part of the world’s conversion, it is, on the other hand, a part of the movement to convert the “land of the free” into a liberty-destroying empire, as is plainly pictured by the lamb-like beast of the prophecy of Rev. 13, which in its later course is transformed into a persecuting dragon. Again, when my attention is called to the rich and fashionable congregations which throng the cloud-piercing edifices on Easter morn and festal days, I reply, “In the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud; . . . having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” I point to the little handful of members at the mid-week prayer or class-meeting, and then to the multitude who are found at the card-party, at the theater, the dance, and the church-festival, and repeat again the solemn prediction of the Word of God, “In the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, . . . lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.” If I am wrong in these and many other interpretations of present-day movements of Church and State, then I am an enemy of the5 Gospel of the kingdom. On the other hand, if I am right, if I am voicing the truth of God, and the popular idea of a world’s conversion is wrong, then the mass of the church people, and you, brethren of this Ministerial Association, if you hold the popular view, will condemn me and my teaching as heretical; and continue to regard the modern movements in Church and State as inspired of God for the world’s conversion, instead of that “falling away” from the truths of the Gospel which, according to Scripture, is to characterize the last days. I have dwelt at length on this phase of the subject in order to take the question, in any mind here, from the side of the non-essential over to the side of the essential, and to show its vital connection with the Gospel of our salvation. Your attention is now called to a few scriptures which bear directly upon the subject, Do the Scriptures teach that the world will be converted before the second coming of Christ? For your convenience in discussing the paper, I will number the points which I shall make in maintaining the negative of this question. 1. Our Saviour says, “Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” If the modern view of the conversion of the world is correct, this scripture will have to be reversed so as to read, Broad is the way that leadeth to life, and all the world shall find it; but closed is the gate that leadeth to destruction, and none go in thereat. 2. Under the parable of the tares, the Lord gives us a description of the condition of the world down to the harvest, or end of the world. In this parable he tells us that the “wheat,” or “children of the kingdom,” will grow together with the “tares,” or “the children of the wicked one,” until the “harvest,” or “end of the world.” This parable, to accord with the idea of a world’s conversion, would have to be changed so as to read that all the tares, as the result of careful cultivation, became wheat, so that at the end of the world there were no tares to gather and burn, but only wheat to harvest. 3. Again our Saviour says, “As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Matt. 24:37. Of the people of the days of Noah, we read (Gen. 6:5), “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Again, the Lord says, “Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; . . . even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” Luke 17:28, 30. And now let me read God’s description of the sins of Sodom, which He says shall be the sins of the people just before the coming of Christ: “Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw good.” Eze. 16:46, 50. I will not attempt to change this scripture to accord with the popular view. 4. From the parable of the ten virgins we learn that one-half of the children of the church who profess to be waiting, as pure and spotless virgins, for the return of the Bridegroom, or the coming of Christ, will be unprepared to meet Him when He comes, and will hear the awful words, “I know you not.” Who will attempt to revise this scripture so as to make it teach that all professed Christians, not to say the world, will be walking in the light, converted men and women, when the Lord shall come? 5. “When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory; and before Him shall be gathered all nations and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; and He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. . . . Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” Matt. 25:31–34, 41. If the world is to be converted before the Lord shall come in His glory, what means the presence of the goats? Why have they not been converted into sheep? If the world is to be converted before the coming of Christ, there will be no need of a dividing between the sheep and the goats; for there will be but one flock, and all of them sheep. Who will undertake to add to or take from this scripture so as to make it teach a world’s conversion? Paul’s Description of Present-day Conditions.
6. Passing now to the writings of the apostles, we come to Paul’s description of the last days, already referred to. “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” 2 Tim. 3:1–5. Later on in the chapter the apostle speaks of persecution thus: “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” Verses 12, 13. With this agree the words of our Saviour: “In the world ye shall have tribulation.” “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also.” John 16:3; 15:18–20. That this persecution of the saints is to continue to the end of the world; and that there will be the persecuted and the persecutor when Christ shall come in His glory, is plainly proven by the words of the apostle Paul to the Thessalonians thus: “To you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power, when He shall come to be glorified in His saints.” 2 Thess. 1:7–10. So much for the perverseness of men; now let us notice the perversion of Scripture in the last days. 7. After describing the perverseness of men, as recorded in the third chapter of second Timothy, as previously quoted, the apostle Paul has this to say of the perversion of Scripture in the last days: “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom, Preach the Word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” 2 Tim. 4:1–4. 8. In harmony with all this, the apostle Peter bears this witness: “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days, scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water; whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished; but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. . . . Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.” 2 Peter 3:3–7, 17. The Voice of “Peace and Safety.”
9. This idea of a world’s conversion before the second coming of Christ is a peace-and-safety cry well calculated to quiet the fears of a boasting world and a backslidden church, and make of no effect the warnings of the faithful watchman who would warn a wicked world and a worldly church of the wrath to come, and point out the signs of a soon-coming Saviour. Even this peace-and-safety cry is itself an evidence that instead of the world being converted when the Lord shall come, it will be waiting in darkness for that destruction which is its doom. To this the apostle Paul bears this striking testimony:— “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of the light, and the children of the day; we are not of the night nor of the darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but watch and be sober.” 1 Thess. 5:1–6. Thus it is seen that before the coming of the Lord there will go forth a peace-and-safety cry, which will lull men into carnal security, and prepare them for that sudden destruction that shall come upon those who scoff at the doctrine of the promise of our Lord’s soon coming. By way of removing unnecessary objections I desire to say that I do not undervalue the faithful work of the missionary, or belittle the triumphs of the cross in distant lands. I want to see, and expect to see, mission work increase an hundred-fold; but all this will not convert the world, but rather will it fulfil the promise of the Great Master of missionaries: “This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matt. 24:14. The Gospel will be preached in all the world for a witness, note the expression, for a witness; not that it will convert all the world, because all the world will not receive it now any more than they did when it was preached by Jesus Himself or by the apostles when they were clothed with power from on high. But as Peter and James stated at the first church council, as recorded in the fifteenth chapter of Acts, it will be preached “to take out a people for His name.” Let us not, therefore, brethren, be deceived by the peace-and-safety cry of a world’s conversion, but bear faithful witness against sin, knowing full well that the time has come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts will they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, men and women who have a form of godliness without the power; who love pleasure more than they love God, who love to have their ears tickled with fables instead of their hearts touched with the truth. Let us therefore be instant in season, out of season, in preaching the Word, rebuking, exhorting, with all long-suffering and doctrine, pleasing the Master rather than the multitude, looking for our reward to the time when the Chief Shepherd shall appear with our crown of glory. The Fathers, the Fathers!
“The Sabbath Transferred.”—No. 4.
“The Fathers, the Fathers!”
Passing over the various arguments on laws of progression, geologic changes, and principles of evolution, by which Mr. Parker seeks to show that there ought to be a change in the Sabbath, and which, whatever they may be, have no more reference to the fourth precept of the law of God than to the first or fifth, we notice in conclusion chapter 4,—“Practise of Early Christians.” The author of “The Sabbath Transferred” opens this chapter by a discussion of the importance of the resurrection of Christ, and then asks:— “How natural that Christians should be given a perpetual memorial, that Christ in His resurrection should enable man to say, ‘O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?’ Should not every follower of Christ, who rejoices in His resurrection, delight also in observing the Lord’s day [by which Sunday is meant] as a memorial of His power over death, the last enemy of man?” The expected answer to this question is a hearty affirmation; but we emphatically answer, No; because (1) every true follower of Christ will follow Christ; and Christ observed no first-day Sabbath. He did observe the seventh day, appointed from the beginning. (2) No such memorial has been appointed of God, no such commanded. God requires no works of supererogation. Well may He say to those who introduce anything which He has not commanded, “Who hath required this at your hand?” Jesus commissioned His disciples to teach “all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:20), but nowhere has He commanded a first-day Sabbath. He instituted, commanded, and observed the seventh-day Sabbath. The follower of Christ will walk as He walked. 1 John 2:6. But what about a memorial of His resurrection?—Simply this: God has given a memorial of Christ’s resurrection,—Christ’s power over sin and death,—in every regenerated soul. Every soul lifted above the power of sin; every transformed life, beginning at baptism, and of which baptism is a figure, is a living, perpetual witness of the power of Christ’s resurrection. But as the church lost this witnessing power, she turned to the form of a day. No self-denial was necessary to keep a day observed by all heathendom. Mr. Parker feels the force of the fact that there is no command for Sunday. He endeavors to get around it in this way:— “As the transfer of the Sabbath did not take place until the moment of the resurrection, naturally no express command would be given in regard to it by the Saviour, but it was probably included in the ‘many things’ that Christ desired to say unto His disciples, which He affirmed they could not bear at that time. The observance of the Christian Sabbath [by which is meant Sunday] by the risen Lord, and the example of inspired men in keeping this holy day, is as conclusive of the transfer of the Sabbath as if a direct command had been given. The example of inspired men in obeying the moral law is as conclusive of what they believe as the precepts which they may utter.” Upon this we may remark, (1) That the earnest Christian wants more than a human “probability” for the foundation of his practice. (2) There is absolutely no example of Christ or His apostles in regard to the observance of Sunday as a holy day. And even if there were such examples of men, their example would prove nothing. We have given us but one perfect example, Christ Jesus. (3) Yes, indeed, “the example of inspired men in obeying the MORAL ‘LAW’” is good. That is what we want; but where is the moral law, or any law of God, for the observance of Sunday? Mr. Parker finds better witnesses for Sunday among the “Fathers” in the early church. Among them he cites the partly-converted heathen, Justin Martyr; the pseudo Barnabas; “The Teaching of the ‘Apostles,’” not earlier than the third century; Tertullian, who believed in the sign of the cross, and equally absurd things; the half-converted heathen philosopher Clement; Origen, his disciple, and Eusebius, the apologist and friend of the wicked Constantine. But tho every so-called “Father” testified of Sunday sacredness, which none of them really do, their testimony would be of no authority to a Bible Christian. Martin Luther truly said: “When God’s Word is by the Fathers expounded, construed, and glossed, then, in my judgment, it is even like unto one that straineth milk thru a coal-sack, which must needs spoil the milk and make it black Even so, likewise, God’s Word of itself is sufficiently pure, clean, bright, and clear; but thru the doctrines, books, and writings of the Fathers, it is very surely darkened, falsified, and spoiled.”—Table Talk. Dr. Adam Clarke bravely said: “In points of doctrine their authority is with me nothing. The Word of God alone contains my creed.” And again: “He who honors them [the Fathers] best, knows that on many of those subjects [doctrines of the Gospel] they blow both hot and cold.” Martin Luther and Adam Clarke did not see the light on the Sabbath, but they saw the principle. The Word of God alone is sufficient. Testimony one decade this side of Inspiration is not to be believed unless in harmony with the Word, and then we rely only on the Word. Apostasy is of rapid growth. In less than forty days from the time that all Israel solemnly promised obedience to God at Mount Sinai, they were worshiping the sun-god Apis of Egypt. See Ex. 32. Within three years after the United States solemnly promised Cuba an independent government on American principles, it is refused. The apostle Paul tells us that the mystery of iniquity did already work in his day, waiting only till Christ was rejected, when it would burst forth into life and power. 2 Thess. 2:3–7; Acts 20:28–30. Evidence of this was manifest among the Galatians. When they turned from Christ, they went back to heathenism, the observance of days and times, among which was “the wild solar holiday,” Sunday, observed by nearly all the pagan nations. See Gal. 4:8–11. And now men look to the apostasy instead of to the Word; to the example of the heathen, instead of to Christ Jesus; to the traditions of an apostate church, instead of to that law magnified and honored by Jesus Christ. We have read Mr. Parker’s book. We have noticed his main arguments. To the man who wants an excuse for disobedience, this book will furnish an occasion. But to the soul who desires to build at any sacrifice on the true foundation, it will have no weight. Its arguments are self-devouring. It is a pity to see good talent and paper wasted in the attempt to overthrow the truth and example of all Biblical time. Reader, take the Word. A PROMINENT New England minister, speaking recently before a men's club, asked the question, “Is life worth living?” and frankly admitted that he did not know. Now, it is the privilege of every one who has named the name of Christ to know not only whether or not life is worth living, but to know profoundly and triumphantly that life is worth living. He who is out of Christ may question. He who is in Christ has no occasion for question. He knows. If the Word of God and all the glorious hopes it holds out were untrue, there would be reason to question; but they are true, and it is the true Christian's blessed privilege to know they are. Unbelief whispers all manner of questionings, and when asked to give a reason of the hope that is within, has none to give, for it has no hope. The honest questioner comes to the doubting professor, receives a doubting answer, and becomes a doubting questioner. The melancholy questioner comes to the doubting minister for hope and consolation, and the doubting answer doubles his gloom. How many such questioners there are, only Heaven knows; but they number a mighty host. How disloyal to God to give a doubting answer to men, when we might have set their feet upon the solid rock. Of course, he who doubts can not do that; but the Christian has no business to doubt—he has no reason to doubt. He is set in the world for a light to the feet of the lost, the straying; not for a mesh to entrap them in their bewilderment; not for a fog to enshroud them on the precipice of ruin. It is the Christian's glorious privilege to “bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” But how can we do it if we answer the questioner's question with a doubt? A doubting Christian may be the devil's prime minister in the flesh. There is no need to doubt. The Word of God is verified by evidence both internal and external; and they who are Christ's have the witness of the Spirit, which no shadow of darkness can ever quench. The words of Peter are to the point, and they apply here: “Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts; and be ready always to7 give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” 1 Peter 3:15. The language of a great army of suicides is, “I am going to end it all. I don't believe life is worth living.” It is the Christian's privilege to be able to answer, first, that this rash act does not “end it all;” and second, that the hope set before us is worth more than the greatest sacrifice ever made by man in living on the earth. The glorious hope contained in the declaration, “I go to prepare a place for you,” outweighs the severest trials man has ever been called upon to pass thru. Then, for the sake of Him who died for you, don't allow yourself to add to the numbers of that melancholy army by not knowing whether life is worth living. In other words, don't be doing the devil's work while professing to follow Christ. THIS is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith," says the beloved disciple. It was shown last week what faith is not, as well as what it is. Faith is not feeling; it is not mere belief. Faith is yielding all to God, to be or not to be, to wait or work as God wills, so that God will live in His children to will and to do of His good pleasure. The exercise of faith is not an arbitrary command of God. Not to exercise His authority does God demand faith. While the Word declares that “without faith it is impossible to please God,” it is equally true that God is pleased only with the highest good of His children. And He demands faith because it is for the highest good of ourselves and all His children, and even more for the universe. Its philosophy is not difficult of comprehension, tho we can never fathom the depths of the results of its exercise. Unbelief centers man's thoughts upon himself, and therefore promotes and fosters selfishness. If man could, by his unaided power, overcome sin and attain to a character of righteousness, he would boast in himself alone. All his fellows would each do the same; and we should have a divided and jealous universe. Man, believing in himself, looking to himself, trusting in himself, would cease to grow beyond himself, and would forever remain a creature of circumstance, self-centered, and dwarfed in character and understanding. Having no life in himself, he would ever pass on to his eternal doom—death. But faith looks ever outward to the infinite God and His works. It sees Him in Jesus Christ, in His glorious works of nature, in His wonderful providences. Man beholds His righteousness, His mercy, His love, His wisdom. He drinks in of the Fountain of life; he lets Christ into his heart to rule; he opens his whole soul to the glorious, expansive influences of the Infinite. He is ever growing, ever expanding, ever receiving, ever giving of the life-force of the universe. The love of God in Christ fills his own soul. He forgets self, and lives that he may labor for others. “But will not man lose and fail by forgetting “self?” He may seem to fail in this world. He may lose property; friends may forsake him; he may be persecuted; he may even die; but he that loveth his life shall lose it; but “he that loseth his life shall keep it unto life eternal.” He who gives himself to God, who yields up his life for others, has God to care for him. And in that better world, when by choice of every soul God's sweet will shall rule in all His boundless universe, each will be served by all others save himself. Who could be better served than by all the good of the boundless kingdom of God! Well may he afford to forget himself for others, when he is remembered by all the rest. Well may he yield the few things over which he is steward that others may be blessed, when all the boundless resources of God are at the demand of his welfare. The above may seem a selfish way of looking at it, a profitable investment to even a selfish heart. But the selfish heart will never make the investment; for faith in the blessedness of its exercise comes only to the heart wholly yielded to God. Moreover, the greatest blessing is not to the child of faith in receiving, but in giving. “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” are the words and life of the Lord Jesus. In fact, he only truly receives who truly gives; and he only truly gives who by faith in Christ Jesus pours out his soul for others' saving. The child of faith is a minister of God's life; and the very life he ministers constantly enlarges and purifies and refines his own life. Constantly giving, ever receiving; constantly blessing, ever being blessed by the heart-enlarging, mind-expanding blessings of God. Walking by Faith will be our next study. THE first missionary work done in behalf of fallen man was done in the Garden of Eden. The first recorded words of the Saviour, as He began the search for the lost, was, “Where art thou?” When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and saw that they were naked and disgraced in consequence of their sin, their first impulse was to hide from His presence. They never dreamed of seeking a restoration to His favor. They knew only the condemnation of the law, and their first experience in a consciousness of sin was “a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation.” Adam was not calling for help when the anxious Redeemer inquired, “Where art thou?” No, the Lord took the initiative in the search. The plan of salvation was already prepared, and no sooner had the man fallen than the Saviour went forth on His errand of mercy. It is a leading principle in the “mystery of godliness” that “the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.” Rom. 2:4. The basis of everything God does is love; because “God is love,” and “He can not deny Himself.” “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live thru Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 1 John 4:9, 10. God had been wont to walk with Adam in his Eden home, as a father would visit a son, and not until the resident of the garden had shown himself disloyal was it necessary for the divine Visitor to seek him in any other manner. Never before had Adam and Eve endeavored to hide themselves from their heavenly Instructor. They had always looked upon their Creator as a friend and benefactor, and His presence was always welcomed with joy. Not till they arrayed themselves on the side of the adversary, and found that he had basely deceived them, did they experience any fear to hold communion with God. Up to this time they had loved to hear the “voice of the Lord God walking in the garden.” It is always the “carnal mind” that is “enmity against God,” and not subject to His law. Rom. 8:7. From that first call to Adam down thru the ages to our own day, mercy has been calling to the lost race, “Where art thou?” “O sinner, come home!” Christ did not limit His rescue work to the beautiful Garden of Eden, nor to that noble specimen of manhood which had been created “upright” and pronounced “very good.” He is “able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him,” and “He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” The only thing that stands in the way of any person’s salvation, is his own will. God complained of Judah, “I have called unto them, but they have not answered.” Jer. 35:17. Jesus, with tears of weeping over Jerusalem, said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not.” Matt. 23:37. The missionary work inaugurated in Eden meant the extreme of self-sacrifice and unparalleled humility on the part of Him who undertook the salvation of a lost race. To Him it meant not only a life of sorrow and acquaintance with grief, but it meant rejection and condemnation and death at the hand of those whom He was calling to life. He stooped so low in His ministry and self-denial, and in the manner of death to which He submitted, that every grade of humanity is without excuse. No one can say, “I am too low for Him to save; His blood can not cleanse me.” “Tho your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; tho they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isa. 1:18. Christ not only took upon Him the nature of the human family, being made sin for us, but He humbled Himself to the lowest position among men. He came down to the level of the servant, making Himself of no reputation; yea, He was numbered with the transgressors; and executed between two malefactors. Not only did He die the Just for the unjust, but He did not shrink from the cruel death of the cross. Of this punishment Cicero says, “It was the most cruel and shameful of all punishments.” Stalker, an author of note, says, “It was the punishment reserved for slaves and for revolutionaries, whose end was intended to be marked by special infamy.” When the great Missionary started out to redeem those who were condemned to death, He was not ignorant of what it meant to be lost. He knows what is in the heart of man; He knows, too, that a lost man does not know where he is, and is powerless to find the way home without a guide. If perchance he comes across a guide-book, he can not understand it without first finding where he is. Reader, where art thou? If you do not know just where you are, then you are lost. And if you are not firmly fixed on the Rock Christ Jesus, then you do not know where you are, and you are lost. But do not be discouraged at discovering that you are lost; for that is the first requisite in your rescue. As long as you do not know you are lost, you will persist in going your own way. As soon as you realize your lost condition, you will be willing to be led. When you are ready to acknowledge that you are lost, stop right where you are. That is the spot where Christ will rescue you. He is seeking to save you; He sees you; He is calling to you. He is calling to you, “Turn ye, turn ye; for why will ye die?” Are you tired and weary in your wanderings? Are you hungering and thirsting for the bread and water of life? He is calling, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He is calling, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. . . . Incline your ear, and come unto Me; hear, and your soul shall live.” Isa. 55:1-3. He points to the “commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus,” and calls, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” G.