A JOT FROM JOHN
The religion of Jesus Christ is a religion to be lived every day. It is not a Sunday religion only. Fuller, a Theologian, said, “Measure not men by their Sundays, without observing what they are all the week after.” This is good advice, for many do not live through the weekdays like they appear to live on Sunday. The Christ like personality must be reflected in the Christian each day that he lives. He must live each moment as if it were the last moment he would ever have upon the earth. This life is a time for preparation. We must prepare for the next life. If we fail to make our preparation now, it will be too late for us to be saved after we are gone. All the prayers that can be prayed, all the money that can be spent, will avail nothing if we die lost and alienated from God. It is not possible for us to be transformed from a sinner into a saint after we are dead. We must die as saints if we are to live as saints in the next world. A saint is one who is separated from sin. Paul addressed the “Church of God, which is in Corinth, and to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus.” (1 Cor. 1:2.) So, there were living saints in the Corinthian church. To be a saint is to be a Christian. Some think that a saint is a person stricken with old age; others, one who has been exalted to sainthood long after he is dead. Now many aged persons are saints, but many young ones are, too. But, if one dies unsaved, he can never be a saint. The Bible does not teach that the efforts of the living can atone for the lost condition of the dead. It does say, “As a tree falleth, so there shall it be.” (Eccl. 11:3.) This simply means that as one falls in death, so will he stand in the eternal judgment.
President James A. Garfield, (member of the church of Christ) informed one who wanted to pray for him and prepare him for death, that he did not need his prayers for that purpose. He had made preparation in his lifetime, had faithfully served his God, had been a member of the body of Christ. He was like the Scotchman who, when dying, declined to let his daughter read and pray with him. Said he, “No, daughter, I have thatched my roof in fair weather. I do not need to work in a storm.” This is a wonderful sentiment. I am afraid of death-bed repentance. When a person has the opportunities that we have today to hear the truth and live for the Lord, but dissipates his opportunities and spurns the invitation of love, I fear he will be standing outside when the storm begins to lash and the fury of the dreadful moment presses upon him. Is it fair to the Lord who died for us, for us to give our lives to the devil, sin away every overture of mercy when we have our health, then when death lurks on the threshold reach out in fright for that hand that beckoned in our direction so long when we were sound of body and mind and could serve him by serving others? I ask, is it fair? Friends, there is not a more dangerous doctrine than the one that says just so one can cry out, “Lord, save me,” on his death bed, that he has license and liberty to do as he pleases, when he pleases. The gospel of Christ demands obedience. (Heb. 5:9.) It demands that one “work out his salvation with fear and trembling.” (Phil. 2:12.) He is commanded to “stand fast” and to “abound in the work of the Lord.” What is the safe course? We all know that it is to hear the Lord’s will while we can and accept it.
Onward Rejoicing,
John B. Daniels, Associate Minister
