The two great lessons given in the text, are OBEDIENCE and REWARD. I will tell you about _obedience_ first. To make this very plain you must first be told that _obedience_ consists in doing what one is commanded to do. Two things, however, are necessary to make obedience a duty. _First_, the command must come from a right source; it must be based upon the right authority. _Second_, it must be given in a way that can be understood. The command must be plain. These two things being established, it is the duty of every one to hear and obey what he is commanded to do. Disobeying good commands is as sure to bring suffering and loss as violating the laws of health is sure to bring disease into our bodies. Let us notice some of the commands which, in the course of our lives, it may be our duty to obey. There is no difference between a law and a command. Every law is a command in substance, and every command is a law. There are very deep things involved here, but I will not now enter upon them. Every command is but the expression of the will of the commander; and the will of the commander in every case, when expressed, and compliance with it is demanded, is a law.

Authority has many grades. There is parental authority, teachers'

authority, magisterial authority, legislative authority. All these grades of authority are necessary for our well-being. But no benefit can be derived from authority of any kind without obedience to that authority. The best law can do no good unless it be obeyed. Parental laws, no matter how wise and good they are in themselves, are of no account unless the children obey their parents. It is the same with all laws.

Possibly it may not be clear to the understanding of some how obedience to G.o.d's laws makes man happy. Let us then consider this matter of obedience on a lower grade. Parents love their children.

Parents have much of life's experiences. They are capable of knowing better than their children can what is best for the children. Now if children will heed what their parents say to them in the way of good counsel, instruction, and government, love, peace and harmony will prevail in the household. Joy will be a constant guest. Happiness will crown the board. Habits of good will be formed in the young which will not forsake them when they are old. In youth the foundation is thus laid for honorable success in later years. Reverse this picture: instead of happiness, discontent; instead of joy, distress; instead of peace, contentions and broils; instead of respectability, disgrace; instead of honor, shame. What an amazing difference between the rewards of obedience and the effects of disobedience! The good results of obedience to good laws are boundless in extent and endless in duration.

This now brings me to the main point of my discourse, obedience to G.o.d and its rewards. As G.o.d is infinitely good, and therefore wills nothing beyond the good of his creatures; and as he is infinitely wise to know in what the highest good of his creatures consists, it becomes man's highest duty and privilege to know what G.o.d would have him to do. But inside of all the externals of obedience there must be a state of heart and mind conformed to G.o.d's will before any works can be done acceptable to him. What _is_ this state of mind and heart? It is all expressed in two words,--love and faith. Jesus says: "If ye love me, keep my commandments." As much as to say, "Do not act the part of a hypocrite by putting on the form of obedience with no love in the heart." He continues the thought by saying: "He that loveth me will keep my words." Obedience, you see, is the proof of love, true obedience, I mean.

Some gravely ask, _Which is first in the heart, love or faith?_ This question is very nearly like that of asking which is most necessary to the growth of plants, heat or moisture? The truth is plain, that both are necessary; and both together. Without both together no seed could sprout, no plant put forth its leaves. Just so it is with the growth of gospel seeds in the soul. There must be love and faith, both. But this is very plain and easy to be understood. No one can believe in Jesus truly without loving him; and no one can love him without at the same time believing on him. "We love him because he first loved us:"

and faith is but a belief in and joyful acceptance of the words which tell us how he has made known his love for us. Out of this love and faith true obedience springs.

We must notice one particular in our thought upon this subject. It is a matter of the deepest interest to every one of us. I now state it: Our _love_ and _faith_ grow with our obedience. What cla.s.s of children love their parents most and repose the most confidence in them, obedient children or disobedient children? Obedient children, you all answer. Why is this? It is because obedient children receive daily rewards for their good conduct in the expressions of appreciation and love on the part of their parents, brothers, sisters and friends. Love begets love. Just so it is with man and G.o.d. The Apostle James puts this thought beautifully: "If a man be not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." How will he know this? By the heart consolations and comforts it brings him. The Holy Spirit will bear witness with his spirit that he is a child of G.o.d. "G.o.d is not slack concerning his promises." When he says: "Obey my voice, and I will be your G.o.d, and ye shall be my people," do you think he has no way of letting them know they _are_ his people? Will not a father and mother own the child they love? How much more our heavenly Father will own and bless his child!

"The opened heavens around me shine With beams of sacred bliss, When Jesus shows that he is mine And whispers: I am his."

There can be no greater enjoyment than the reading of the Scriptures when we feel that we have complied with their injunctions and requirements, and have a will to do so for ever. It is then the "peace of G.o.d which pa.s.seth all understanding" fills the soul, and the mind is happy.

The text says: "I will be your G.o.d; and ye shall be my people." This is the reward of our obedience. If men would preach from this to the end of time they could tell but a very small part of the blessedness wrapped up in this promise. People think much of the blessings of this life when they are joyous and cheerful from health and prosperity. But in this promise life and health are guaranteed to all eternity. "He that believeth on me shall never die." We are a.s.sured that in the glory world sickness and pain and death shall be no more. "I will be your G.o.d." This means in the way of every good. "No good thing," says the Psalmist, "will the Lord withhold from them that fear him." This will be made clearest in the world to come. "He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think." "I will be your G.o.d,--not for awhile and then cast you off. I do not repent of my promises and gifts. You may make a promise, or give something, or do something from an impulse of feeling, which you afterwards regret; but I am subject to no such weakness." In this sense he speaks to us in his Word. He will, if we heed his voice, make of us all "a people prepared for the Lord," a converted, obedient, sanctified and eternally saved and happy people.

Some may regard G.o.d as man's enemy. They seem to think there is something terrible in religion, and the farther away they can keep from it the safer they are. What a fatal mistake! To be a child of G.o.d is to be safe and happy. Our heavenly Father feels the love of pity for the sinner. I lately read a very touching account of a lost child.

The father went calling, _calling_ the name of his boy. After awhile the boy was found; but his mind was so bewildered and confused that he did not seem to know his father's voice. So it is with the sinner. He has wandered so far away from home, the home of peace with G.o.d, that he knows not the voice of the Father. That voice is still calling: "Come unto me, and ye shall find rest unto your souls;" for "he came to save that which was lost."

"And ye shall be my people." We get to be his people by true repentance, faith and baptism. He commands us to repent. He commands us to believe on the Son. "He that believeth the Son hath everlasting life." He commands us to be baptized. Obedience from love and faith makes us his people. As Jesus ascended from the waters of the Jordan, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and a voice from heaven said: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." This was an expression of the Father's love which he has for every one who, from the heart, will hear his voice.

WEDNESDAY, June 19. It is now delightful weather, and Brother Kline is this day on the Great Cheat mountain, filling two appointments at a place which he calls Marsh's. The Great Cheat mountain lies west of the Alleghany proper, and for many miles ranges nearly parallel with it. A branch of Cheat river drains the valley between the two. The people in this section are mainly employed in rearing cattle and sheep. The lands are well adapted to grazing. But in most localities of this country meetings for preaching and other religious services are rare, and the Gospel is seldom heard. Brother Kline's heart ever leaned toward dest.i.tute regions like these. He would say: "I occasionally find one whose sense of sin has so mellowed his heart that, like a ripe apple, he is ready to fall by a gentle touch of gospel truth."

FRIDAY, July 1. Yesterday I had meeting at Josiah Simmon's, and to-day have meeting at the same place. I speak from 1 Peter 1:19. TEXT.--"Ye were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ."

I tried to set before these dear people the only hope of salvation. I told them about the Son of G.o.d; that he was born of a woman, a pure virgin who conceived him not of man, but of the Holy Spirit of G.o.d; that his birth was heralded and announced by an angel from heaven who named him Jesus before he was born, for, said the angel, "He shall save his people from their sins."

When he came to be a man about thirty years of age he was publicly baptized by John the Baptist in the river Jordan, "and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of G.o.d descending like a dove upon him: and, lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Jesus lived a life of sinless purity, going about doing good, teaching the people the way of everlasting life; healing the sick; raising the dead to life; giving sight to the blind; hearing to the deaf; cleansing the lepers, and casting devils and evil spirits out of people who were subject to the evil powers by which they were possessed. All these things are related by the four evangelists. Jesus also taught the people many things by parables, in which he set forth his great love for them; what he was able and willing to do to save them from their sins, and what it was necessary for them to do to be saved.

But the Jews would not accept the truth he told them. They were a very proud and self-righteous people, and were not willing to be instructed in things they vainly believed they understood better than Jesus did.

He called on them to repent of their sins. They denied their being sinners. He told them he was the Son of G.o.d, and that he came down from heaven. They would not believe this: and just because he taught and did things contrary to the way their proud and selfish hearts thought right, they arrested Jesus the Lord of glory, took him before their high priest, gave him a mock trial, and had him crucified. Some may not know just what this means. It means that Jesus was nailed to two pieces of wood one across the other; his hands were nailed to the crosspiece above, and his feet to the high post that was fastened by its lower end in the ground. Thus he hung in agony till he was dead.

This was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It was done through the envy, malice and hatred of the Jews. It shows how very wicked they were. Some good men who had not consented to the death of Jesus took his body down from the cross and placed it in a sepulchre or vault cut out of solid rock. This vault had been cut out of the rock some time before and belonged to a man of the name of Joseph. This Joseph a.s.sisted in placing the body of Jesus in his new vault or tomb, and then they placed a large stone at the mouth of the tomb, and the body of Jesus was buried. As the pall of that night's darkness gently settled on the grave of the crucified Jesus, the Jews felt relieved that they had now, as they thought, put their enemy out of sight. But on the morning of the third day after this some women came to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus, and, behold! it was not there; but a bright and shining angel of glory was there, who said to those good women: "He is not here; he is risen from the dead." They could hardly believe for joy. Soon, however, they, with many others, saw the risen Lord for themselves, with their own eyes, and never doubted any more.

All that I have said so far is intended as an introduction to my text.

My text says: "We were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ."

The Lord told his disciples, who were his loving friends, the reason why he suffered the Jews to put him to death. It was, he told them, that all the things written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms concerning him might be fulfilled. He also said to two of them as they journeyed to Emmaus: "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?" The blood he shed on the cross was necessary to his glorification. Without it he could not have been glorified. The blood of Christ is called the blood of the covenant. Now what is a covenant? A covenant is a union of one mind and heart with another. It is literally _a going together_, as a man and woman join heart and hand in the _covenant_ of marriage. When G.o.d and man enter into a covenant they unite and become as one. In this union G.o.d loves man with unspeakable love, and man loves the Lord his G.o.d with all his heart. Love is what unites. Love unites a husband and wife. When this union is perfect, what the one loves the other likewise loves; and when we are in covenant union with our glorified Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, what he loves we love, and what he hates we also hate. As man enters into a covenant with the Lord he enters a state of salvation from sin, death and h.e.l.l. But all covenants between G.o.d and men must be sealed or made with blood: and whereas a covenant with the Lord Jesus Christ redeems and saves man from death and h.e.l.l, therefore the blood of Christ redeems and saves man because it is the blood of the covenant between him and G.o.d.

But let us carry this thought a little further. Jesus said to the Jews, "Except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man, ye have no life in you." By blood here the Lord does not mean natural blood: he means the blood of the covenant by which we are united with him; the redeeming blood which Peter speaks of in the text. But we must drink it: otherwise we have no life in us. Now how is it possible for any one to drink the blood of Christ? I will tell you. Christ's blood is his life, and he says: "My words are spirit, and they are life." His blood, then, is his Word in its spirit and life. Now when we believe what he tells us with our heart, and do what he commands us because we love him, we are truly _drinking his blood_. When we forsake our sins by turning unto the Lord from a heart-felt faith in his Word and belief of the truth he tells us, _we are drinking his blood_; his blood, which is his gospel truth, becomes our life. "And because he lives, we shall live also." "I am the way, the truth, and the life. My word is truth." All this and much more is signified by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Jesus. "Whosoever looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." G.o.d's truth is called the law of liberty. Why? Because it tells men how they may become free. It redeems them when they obey it.

Peter calls this change from bondage to liberty a new birth. Notice here in the chapter I read: "Born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of G.o.d, which liveth and abideth forever." We are naturally born unto sin, into the love of things that please our natural sight, our natural appet.i.tes and inclinations.

Through these we love ourselves and the world to a degree that holds us in bondage, a kind of slavery. This is meant by Paul in these words: "To whomsoever ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness." Peter means about the same by these words: "Of whom a man is overcome, by the same is he brought into bondage." And in the book of Hebrews we read of such "who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage." Being born again spiritually, into a new state of heart and life, we are set free from our bondage to sin. In this newborn state we love to do the will of G.o.d, and love the company of good people, and desire to be in the church with the people of G.o.d. The Lord Jesus says: "If the truth shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." It is by and through the truth that men are redeemed. "Verily, verily, he that committeth sin is the servant of sin." These are the Lord's own words.

But the worst state any one can be in is a state of bondage in sin, with no desire, no wish or feeling of any kind, to get out of it. This spirit of indifference stamps the seal of darkness deeper and deeper, until the soul loses all desire for anything better. I am just now reminded of what I read not long since. A family of the name of Sloc.u.m, living in the State of Pennsylvania, if I mistake not, many years ago, was visited by Indians for the purpose of plunder. With other things they carried off one of the children of the family, a girl several years old. The family was sorely distressed, and every possible effort was made to rescue the child. But all in vain. Many years after, when the poor little girl's father and mother were both dead, her surviving brother and sister heard of her. They felt satisfied they had been correctly informed, and resolved to go to see her, and if possible try to get her back to live with them once more.

They went on horseback, and found her a long way off in what was then an unsettled part of Ohio. I may be mistaken even here, as to the part of the country they found her in. But they did find their sister living among the Indians, and in fact the wife of one of the chiefs.

She still remembered some English words. They got her to understand who they were, and they wished her to go back with them to their home.

But she would not go. She gave them to understand that she was _satisfied_ to remain with the Indians, dest.i.tute and comfortless as they were. The last trace of home feeling had left her heart, and with it had departed every vestige of religious concern and love for social life. Sad and sorrowing did her brother and sister return to their homes; and to the time of their death they never ceased to mourn for their lost sister. I have told you a true story; and if it causes the eye of some tender-hearted mother to grow dim with a tear I say, _It is well_. G.o.d's children are exhorted to be tender-hearted, compa.s.sionate one for another, and to weep with the sorrowing.

But there is something that should touch our sympathies and bring our tears from fountains far deeper than those opened by such stories as the one I just related. And that is the condition which so many are in with respect to the things of salvation. Like the poor woman I told you about, they are deaf to all that is told them about a better life, and dead to all that G.o.d and man are willing to do for them. It is sometimes said of the sick that as long as there is life there is hope. So let it be with us in behalf of such. If the lost sister could have been made sensible of the great benefit it might have been to her to go back and live in a civilized and religious way, at last she might have consented to go. So let us hope that many, who are still in the bondage of sin and the darkness of this world, may see the truth that will set them free and give them light to repent and live.

SAt.u.r.dAY, July 2. Cross the Cheat mountain to John Riley's in Pocahontas County, Virginia.

SUNDAY, July 3. In the forenoon I attend a Methodist quarterly meeting, at which they hold what they call a love feast; that is, they take bread and water; and after preaching they take what they call the Lord's Supper. They seem to be very sincere in what they do; but to my mind they are not consistent in calling a morsel of bread and a sip of wine, taken at the middle of the day, the Lord's Supper. I am sure we have no right to depart from G.o.d's order in anything appertaining to his church and worship.

In the afternoon I preach a funeral and baptize John Riley. Dine at Jacob Yager's on top of the Alleghany mountain, and stay all night at Adam Hevner's. Brother Kline got home Thursday, July 7.

SUNDAY, July 10. Baptize Samuel Bowman and wife. Brother and Sister Bowman give proof of being a good tree by the fruit they bear.

Samuel Bowman lived and died on Linville Creek, not far from Brother Kline's place. He raised a highly respectable family, very intelligent, and some of his children became members of the church of the Brethren.

SAt.u.r.dAY, July 30. Meeting at Liberty, in Page County, Virginia. I speak on FOREORDINATION and ELECTION. Much has been said and written on these subjects. It is to be feared, however, that instead of light being thrown upon them in the way they have been treated, darkness, rather, has been added to darkness. No subjects wrongly viewed can look darker; and none rightly viewed can look clearer. The word FOREORDAIN means _to ordain beforehand_: and the word ELECT means _to choose_. Some that I have met with, in speaking on these subjects, particularly as they are given in the epistolary writings of the New Testament, remind me of fish in a net; they flounder about in the net, while every effort they make fastens them only the more tightly in its meshes. They read: "Whom G.o.d foreknew, he also FOREORDAINED to be conformed to the image of his Son, ... and whom he foreordained, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified." Rom. 8:29, 30. Likewise the text before us: "ELECT ... according to the foreknowledge of G.o.d the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit." 1 Peter 1:2.

These pa.s.sages, with others of a somewhat similar import, do _not_ teach the foreordination and election of individuals independent of character and fitness. A lack of perception of this comprehensive truth accounts for the general misunderstanding of these and like pa.s.sages in the apostolic writings. The doctrine of _election_, as it is called, opens out into a very large field for thought and investigation. It takes in the whole way of salvation from beginning to end.

"G.o.d is love," and the universe, with all its display of wonders and apparent opposition of forces and their ends, was created and is upheld by the eternal hand, for no other purpose than to make his love be seen and felt by his intelligent creation. Any other view challenges the divine love and reflects discredit upon the divine wisdom. All that we know of G.o.d is revealed in the truth he has given to save man from sin and its consequences. His love, wisdom and power are all revealed in his great scheme to build up a heaven of eternal glory and bliss for all who desire or are willing to share in its blessedness. But G.o.d does not work out of order. He works in accord with the love and wisdom which are his essence, and both infinite and eternal with him. Before the heavens were made, or ever the foundations of the earth were laid, it was the divine purpose to create intelligent beings to be eternally happy. When G.o.d created the heavens and the earth he made man in his own image and likeness. Man was happy. But he fell. And G.o.d foresaw that man would fall; and to remedy the loss and restore man to the divine image again, Christ was, as a Lamb, slain before the foundation of the world. In the Divine estimation Christ was slain before the foundation of the world; but to us, visibly, not until four thousand years afterward. In the divine foreknowledge the church was established before the world was made, and G.o.d _foreordained_ who should compose it, basing this foreordination, not on one in preference to another on any personal ground, but on the ground of fitness as to quality. Foreordination and election have nothing to do with man other than as pertains to quality and fitness. The penitent, believing, loving and obeying, humble, self-denying soul is _foreordained_ to be one of G.o.d's ELECT, now, henceforth and forever.

I now repeat the text: "Elect ... according to the foreknowledge of G.o.d the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit." What I have said harmonizes with this, because the qualified fitness of the _elect_ is through sanctification of the Spirit. Our Lord prays for all in these words: "Father, sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." It is through the truth that men are sanctified, and the sanctified the world over and through all time are G.o.d's elect, according to his foreknowledge or foreordination, because no others can be. The all-in-all of this great subject resolves itself into the simple fact that men do not come into covenant union with G.o.d unto salvation because G.o.d elected and foreordained it to be so in their special behalf as individuals, unconditionally chosen beforehand, whilst others no worse than they are left to go to destruction; but they are elected _according to G.o.d's foreordination_ because they have come into covenant union with him unto salvation; and have, therefore, the fitness to be worthy of being so chosen or elected. Their election and foreordination are not the cause but the result of the fitness. It is foreordained that "of such is the kingdom of heaven," because it cannot consist of any other kind.

But let us turn to Ezekiel's prophecy, 33:11, "As I live, saith the Lord G.o.d, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye, ... for why will ye die; O house of Israel?" If the house of Israel was of the elect on an unconditional basis of salvation, they surely would return at some time, and why such concern? If not, all the calling after them that could be done would not fetch them back, because they were not of the elect. This is exactly where the doctrine of unconditional election leads.

Again, 2 Peter 3:9, G.o.d is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." If G.o.d is not willing that any should perish, why did he not make provision and save all? If it is possible for him to save some just because he chooses to do so without any conditions, why not save all? I know what the advocates of this doctrine which I am combatting teach: they say G.o.d makes his elect willing to repent and turn to him in the day of his power. I ask, If he is not willing that any should perish, why does he not save all? If he wills that all should come to repentance, why does he not give repentance to all and remission of sins? I mention these things merely to show the contradictions and confusion involved in the doctrine of unconditional elections.

I will here relate what I read somewhere not long ago. A very pious African slave was employed in waiting on the guests at a public house of entertainment. One of the guests, who was a man of some prominence in the world, having been informed of the unaffected Christian piety of this poor slave, thought to sport with him. Addressing him by name, he said: "I want you to tell me whether I am one of the Lord's elect or not." "Indeed, sir," said the poor slave, "I have never heard of your being a candidate. If you want a place in the good Lord's service you must go to him and tell him that you are a candidate, that you will accept the lowest place that he is willing to give you, and that you will do whatever he requires at your hands. If," continued he, "you come out publicly in this way, I can then tell you what I think as to whether you are one of the Lord's elect or not."

FRIDAY, August 5. Harvest meeting at our meetinghouse. Much good singing, with thanksgiving and speaking suited to the occasion.

SUNDAY, August 28. Meeting at Edom, a village about six miles northward from Harrisonburg, Virginia. I spoke from 1 Peter 3:18, 22.

The first part of this text should be handled with great caution.

Precisely what is meant is not very clear. I am told that a critical examination of the Greek text does favor the doctrine that Christ went from the cross to carry the news of his victorious death to the spirits of those who perished in the flood. If it pleased the good Lord to carry the news of salvation to this throng of prisoners and release them from their prison, who can say aught against it? My heart would rejoice to think that every being in the universe could and would, sometime, in the course of the ages, be made sinless and happy.

But we should never concern ourselves about what G.o.d has not revealed.

It is our right and privilege to rejoice evermore in the free and full salvation clearly set forth and freely offered in his Word. To the unconverted and careless sinner, I here say to-day, as I love your immortal soul, Do not rest your hope of salvation upon anything short of a saving faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. If our Father in heaven has provided another way, as some would say, "by fire," I know not that way.

History says that

"Kings are men to glory known Who wade through fire to a throne;"

but a seared and blistered body is a great price to pay for an earthly crown. So I think that "by fire," even if such a thing were possible, would be a very undesirable way of getting into heaven, especially if the fire means "h.e.l.l fire." Martyrs, it is true, have gone to glory through fire; but not the fire that burns and sears the soul. It was only that elementary fire kindled by wicked hands around the stake. It could kill the body, but after that there was no more that it could do; and the purified and ransomed soul of the sainted being who thus had suffered could look down from heights of glory upon the ashes of his martyrdom and sing: "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"

But to return to the text. We here note this remarkable language, that "baptism doth also now save us." I suppose Peter uses the word "baptism" here in its authorized acceptation, which is the immersion of the body of a believer in water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, by a properly authorized administrator of the ordinance. But in what sense can baptism be said to save us? My first answer is, It saves us just as the sevenfold washing in Jordan on the part of Naaman saved that leprous n.o.bleman from being consumed by the leprosy.

I will extend my remarks somewhat concerning Naaman the Syrian. He came to the Prophet Elisha to get cured of his leprosy. He was well supplied with valuable presents for the man of G.o.d, to be given to him in the event of his being healed by him. The prophet of G.o.d told him to go and wash or bathe seven times in the Jordan. This appeared too insignificant for such a great man as he was to submit to. Besides he regarded the waters of Damascus as superior in virtue to the waters of the Jordan, and he started off in a rage from disappointment. But as he was leaving his servants said to him: "If the prophet had bid thee do some great thing wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? Then went he down and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of G.o.d: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean." Now, in my view, baptism saves us as this sevenfold dipping in Jordan saved Naaman. Not the water, but the spirit of obedience, is what saves. It saves us as going through the door into the ark saved Noah and his family. It saves us as pa.s.sing through the Red Sea saved Israel from the host of Egyptians that were in pursuit. This pa.s.sage of Israel through the sea is called a baptism.

And what shall I say more? For it looks as if this ought to be enough.

But I would like to send my voice around the globe laden with the truth that "faith without works is dead," and that baptism is the very first outward work of obedience the believer is required to do. This, with the other ordinances of G.o.d's house, in connection with a good life ornamented with the fruits of love and good will toward men, gives life to faith and proves that it is a living reality in the soul.