There is not a living thing upon the face of the earth but is
predestinated to a certain end. The horse, in his very _creation_, is
predestinated to be the horse in kind, and to serve the end of his
creation; and his nature and characteristics as such admit of no
change. Predestination is one of the essentials of God's eternal
order. If the horse, or the ox, or anything else which God has
created, could be changed from the nature and order of its creation,
confusion would be the inevitable result.
I do not wonder that Paul wrote what he did upon predestination,
because it implies the immutable, eternal order of God's love and
wisdom. Heaven and earth may pass away, but Christ's love shall never
pass away from the lowliest and poorest soul that loves and obeys him.
His love to Christ is the seal of his predestination to eternal life.
"He that believeth the Son hath life; but he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." This is
the sum of election and predestination. God's eternal love has given
to man the way of man's salvation. All who choose that way are on that
very account elected and predestinated to eternal life in heaven.
_Elected_, because this fits them for heaven: _predestinated_, because
it is God's eternal purpose to save all such. Predestination applies
equally to the impenitent; because, according to the same plan and the
principles involved in it, they must be forever lost.
Nothing can be more reasonable than that God's elect, the people of
his choice, should be holy and without blame before him in love; that
they should be followers of God as dear children, and walk in love.
This is both the cause and the proof of their election to eternal
life.
If you will take the pains to look into a dictionary for the word
WALK, you will find that it means: _To conduct one's self; to order
one's life_. Every man feels in himself the power to order his own
life according to what is just and right in the sight of God and men.
To regard man in any other light would be to place him on a level with
the brute. It would be taking away from him his moral feelings, and
depriving him of the just exercise of his will through the
understanding. Whilst man feels in himself this power, still he must
not forget that all life is from God, and that without God man is
nothing. "_Herein is love; not that we loved God, but that he loved
us._" And every true child of his can say: "_I love him because he
first loved me_."
Sinner, let me say to you that God loves you and wills your salvation.
But he cannot save you without your will to be saved by him. You must
reciprocate his love. You must answer his call. You must obey his
voice. His Holy Spirit is now saying to you: "Be thou reconciled to
God. Turn thou, turn thou, for why wilt thou die?" You need not pause
and wonder whether or not you are one of his elect. I can answer this
myself. I say to you that in your present state you most assuredly are
_not_ one of his elect. But if you truly repent of your sins by giving
your heart to him in love and obedient faith, just as surely as his
Word is true, you will become to be one of his elect; for election is
salvation. But if you stay away, who is to blame? "_He that will not
plough by reason of the cold, shall beg in harvest._" If you fail to
sow, where will your ingathering be? But note this: "He that soweth to
his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to
the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." To sow to the
Spirit is to do the will of God from love to God; and to all who do
this, the promise is sure.
Brethren and sisters, I must exhort you to remember the text. Don't
forget it as you go home after meeting closes. When you get home look
for it. Some of you, I fear, have already forgotten the place where it
is found; so I will tell you again. It is the first, and part of the
second verse of the fifth chapter of Paul's letter to the Ephesians.
These are the words: "_Be ye therefore followers of God as dear
children; and walk in love_."
You know that good children imitate good parents. They follow their
examples. Now ye are called to follow the leadings of God, to imitate
the examples of love he has set before you. Let me present to you some
of these: "_If any of you have a quarrel against any, even as Christ
forgave you, so also do ye_." This is the best way to settle a quarrel
I have ever found.
Here is another: "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do
unto you, do ye even so unto them; for this is the law and the
prophets." This means that all that God has ever spoken to man is to
the end that each one love his neighbor as he loves himself. No one
can be a true neighbor who does not love God. The neighbor, then, that
is to be loved in this way must be a brother or sister in the Lord;
and none but a brother or sister in the Lord is capable of loving in
this way, and to this degree. So you see that love to the neighbor,
such as the law of Christ sets forth, implies supreme love to God.
This love makes heaven here, and there, and everywhere.
Here is one more: "Love not in _word_ only, but in deed and in truth.
He that hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and
shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love
of God in him?"
Brethren, the devil does not like the odor of CHARITY and FAITH in the
church. It is worse in his nose than the smoke of burning brimstone.
If you want to keep him out of the church, all you have to do is to
keep brightly burning the fire of love on the altar of every heart;
and from these altars, all together, there will ascend the odor of an
incense that will put the devil to flight and keep him away forever.
FRIDAY, December 7. Brother Kline, in company with brethren Brower and
Rodecap, started to