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BS

I

UNITED STATES OP AMERICA.

Chapter I. The Book

The first thing essential for the Christian worker is a Bible. Let it be a good one for at least two reasons. One, its lasting qualities. Your Bible should grow more and more valuable with age, because of added notes and marked passages. Then the longer you have it the more readily you can lind passages. Another reason is, the more valuable the book the more likely you are to study and carry it. I remember, together with a class-mate, presenting to the Rev. Mr. Tamura of Tokio, Japan, one of the most beautiful Bagster Bibles I have ever seen. Mr. Tamura was then a student in the Auburn Theological Seminary. The eifect on him was remarkable. He read scarcely anything but that Bible for weeks, and in a short space of time he learned more Scripture than he had ever known before. It was the same Book but it came to him with new force, dressed in substantial binding and gilt edges. I have seen a similar effect a score of times. Through the beauty of the cover and the glitter of the gilt there may come, in time, the flashes of divine truth, until the mechanical finish will be lost in the splendor of the better revelation. Do not get a Bible too good to be used. Procure a Teacher's Bible if possible ; that with Cruden' s or Youngs Concordance and Smith' s Bible Dictionary, is sufficient for all practical purposes. Know your Bible so well that you can find books, chapters and verses readily. You will lose much of your influence with the inquirer if you look for The Epistle to the Romans in the Old Testament, or, for the book of Isaiah in the New ; or if you spend a long time in finding passages with which you should be familiar. Carry your Bible with you. Make it your companion, your friend. Do not be afraid to mark it. When a verse stimulates some helpful thought put that thought on the margin for reference. When some one presents a useful hint on some passage, mark that in some way over against the passage. I have in my Bible on the margin against the verse, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I willtfear no evil," the name of Hall, and in the verse I have underscored the word "shadow". This reminds me of a little incident once related to me by George A. Hall, of a certain person exclaiming as he read this verse, ' ' Who is afraid of a shadow 1 ' ' As I read the twenty-third Psalm this incident always comes back to me because of the name in the margin and the marked word, until now the shadow of the valley seems but a kindly veil, some day to lift and show me the Master' s face.

If you do not become at once as interested in the study of the Word as you ought, take your Bible into your closet (this you ought to do daily), and kneeling down ask the Father to throw His light upon it and make you love it. After His resurrection it is written that Christ opened the understanding of the disciples

FOR THE INQUIRY ROOM.

that tliey niiglit understand the Scriptures. So He will open your understanding if you ask Him, and then you must soon love His Word. I remember once telling my congregation to take the BiV)le and ask Grod to show them its beauty. At the next prayer-meeting a grand christian brother arose, and ox)ening his Bible, exclaimed, with a heavenly smile on his countenance, " It is true ! It is true ! God has shown me His Word as I have never seen it before." And then followed an exposition of a portion of the Sermon on the Mount which I shall never forget. Try it ! God will make you love it.

This Bible is to be your text-book and your weapon. It is " the SAvord of the Sj)irit. " It is " quick and powerful, sharper than any tw^o-edged sword." The inquirer may not listen to your words but he must to it. If he does not listen to it, he will not to you. You can not bring him to Christ by your own arguments or devices. ' ' If they hear not Moses and the proi)hets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." ''The seed is the Word."

Study the Word. There are many Bible readers ; there are few Bible students. Study the Word. Do not try to read so many chapters each day. There are many whose greatest ambition seems to be to read the Bible through each year. That is not the proper motive for reading the Word of God. What has He said to me , should be the question. Study to find out what the Bible has for you personally, and then tell others the story. It may be you will have to study one section of Scripture for a week, or even w^eeks. I once heard Mr. Moody say that he had been studying the sixtieth chapter of Isaiah for five days and he did not know but he should for five weeks yet. Study the Word, Study it by books ! Study it by chapters !

Study it by sections ! Study it by themes ! Study it on your knees ! Memorize it ! Then God' s thoughts will come to you " as a cloud and as the doves to their windows," and the burning energy of the Spirit will force from you a Pentecostal sermon to the salvation of precious souls.

Read and mark what the Bible has to say concerning :

Its study, — Deut. 6 ; Joshua 1:8 ; John 5:39.

The Spirit's help,— John 14:26 ; Luke 24:45.

Its advantages :

Cleansing, — Ps. 119:9 ; John 15:3.

Blessings, — Deut. 6:3; Joshua 1:8.

Penalty for not heeding it, — Prov. 13:13 ; Is. 5:24.

Teaching it, — Luke 8:11 ; Ez. 3:4.

' ' Is not my word like as a lire % saith the Lord ; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" — Jer. 23:29.

Revival of Bible study, — Under Jehoshaphat, II Chron. 17 : under JN'ehemiah, Neh. 8 : under Christ, Luke 24.

Chapter II

SALVATION. WHAT IS IT ?

In studying together some of the very essential doctrines of the Word, we will not look so much at the stereotyped definitions of systematized theology, as at what the Word itself says on these subjects. ]N"ot that those definitions are not accurate and definite, and the very best that might be formulated, but in conversation Avith the inquirer your influence over him will be far greater, if in answer to his question you can point at once to those Scripture references which will sharply and definitely answer him. Always keep these thoughts before you. It is not what you say but what God says which is to influence the inquirer. God alone is responsible for what He has given in His Word. What He has written. He has written, and He asks no apology for it from you or me. If the inquirer does not listen to Him through His Word he will not listen to you. I do not mean that you are not to open that Word by exx3lanation or illustration, but the Word is of primary importance to him who would know the way of life. ''Go and speak with my words unto them."

What is meant by being saved and how are we to be saved ?

I. What is the condition of the unsaved man before God? Turn to Rom. 3:23, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Here we find that man's condition before God is that of a sinner, that all have sinned, and that because of those sins he has come short of the glory of God. Turn to Rom. 5: 12, ''Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin ; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Here we find the same thing stated with the additional thought that to come short of the glory of God means death. One word of caution right here. Many times the question comes up in this connection, how can it be, and why is it, that all sinned in Adam '^ There is no need for you to enter into this discussion with an inquirer ; indeed it would be injurious for you to do so. Not that it is not true, but as soon as you enter into such discussions you take the attention of the inquirer from himself, and you are lost in speculations without profit. Tell him the question for him to settle, is not whether we all sinned in or through Adam ; or whether the heathen who never heard of the Word of God are sinners and responsible ; but, am I a sinner ^ Such questions as the above are continually coming up. Bring the attention of the inquirer right back to himself, then show him God' s Word for his condition before Him. I have never found a person yet who would not admit freely that he was a sinner.

We have seen that we are sinners and that consequently we have come short of the glory of God ; also that because we have sinned, death has passed upon all men. Let us look a little further at the penalty attached to this transgression of God's law. At Rom. 6:23 we read, "For the wages of sin is death;" at Matt. 25:46, "And these shall go away into everlasting imnishment ; " (also at John 5:29,) at Jer. 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked,"

Summary of the testimony we have received :

We are all sinners. Our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked.

We hav^e come short of the glory of God.

We have all become guilty before God.

Death has passed upon all men.

This death is the wages of sin.

This death is everlasting.

The passages of Scripture I have given can be greatly multiplied ; these simply indicate the line of Scripture statement for the condition of the sinner before God. It is better, however, to have a few pertinent passages, well known, than many forgotten.

There are two facts brought out in the above texts concerning man in his unsaved condition, which run all through our study concerning salvation, and of which we must not lose sight.

1. Man is guilty before God.

2. His heart is impure.

Therefore he is lost.

II. What is essential for salvation ?

1. That this guilt should be removed.

2. That this impurity should be cleansed. Hab. 1:13; Matt. 5:8; Heb. 12:14; Rev. 21: 27.

Whatever will accomplish these two things will save the lost man.

III. Man can not save himself. Eph. 2:8, 9.

1. He can not remove his guilt. Rom. 3:20.

2. He can not cleanse his heart. Pro v. 20:9.

We are all then guilty before God, impure of heart, and therefore subject to a death that never dies, and we are helpless.

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ly. How then is salvation possible ?

Turn to Acts 16:30, 31, where this question is asked and answered. The keeper of the prison was convinced that he was a sinner, — he wanted to be saved. The question burst from his lips, ''What must I do?" Notice carefully the answer of Paul and Silas, ' ' Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." Not do, but believe. It did not take the keeper long to accept that simple condition, and he "was baptized, he and all his, straightway." Man's question has always been, "What must I do ? " God's .answer to rfian is, "Believe." Turn to Eph. 2:8, 9, ' ' For by grace are ye saved through faith ; and that not of yourselves : it is the gift of God : not of works, lest any man should boast." Here it is made most emphatic that salvation is not of man, neither by works, but, ' ' by grace, through faith. ' ' Through the door of believing on Christ you are to enter the kingdom of Heaven. This is the way of escape.

y. What are we to gain by this salvation ?

What is it to be saved? Rom. 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. ' ' Without Christ we found all the world guilty before Him ; in Christ "no condemnation." Rom. 5:9, ' ' Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." Rom. 5:1, ' 'Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Rom. 8:14, 15, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear ; but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." John 5:24, " He that heareth my word, and belie veth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life (not will have), and shall not come into condemnation ; but is passed (not will pass) from death unto life. ' ' John 5:29, ''and shall come forth ; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life." Matt. 25:46, "But the righteous (shall go away) into life eternal." John 17: 22, "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them." II Cor. 3:18, " But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

Summary of testimony concerning salvation.

Saved by grace, through faith, by

Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ,

And have received through salvation :

In place of guilt, no condemnation ;

In place wrath, forgiveness ;

Peace with God ;

Adoption into the family of God ;

Everlasting life ;

And are changed into the image of the Christ, in which we are to enjoy His glory.

Chapter III. Faith

In the statements of Scripture concerning how we are to be saved, the words "believe" and "faith" occur. Inasmuch as on tliis element of faith rest our eternal destinies, let us examine it very closely.

Turn to the eleventh chapter of Hebrews and notice what a mighty lever faith has been in the hands of Grod' s people. Your salvation and your work for the Master will be wrought through the same channel. "By grace are ye saved through faith.^^ ""Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." "He that helieveth on the Son hath everlasting life : and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life ; but the wrath of Grod abideth on him." This faith spoken of is not a simple mental assent that Christ is the Son of Grod ; or that the Bible is true ; or that the Gospel scheme of salvation is the true one. There are thousands that believe that the Bible is the book of Grod ; that Jesus is the Son of God ; that the Scriptures reveal man's true condition before God, and the projjer way of escape ; yet they are out of ' ' the ark of safety;' ' they are going down the way to death, and the darkness of their future life will be all the more intense inasmuch as they knew their duty and did it not. Jas. 2:19, "The devils also believe and tremble." But the faith that saves souls goes beyond simple assent to the truth. It has a moving power. J may believe that that car on the Central-Hudson can carry me to New York, but if I never board the train it ivill not carry me. Faitli goes beyond this. You desire to go to New York ; you believe that car can carry you ; you trust yourself to it ; you reach your destination. You believe the Lord Jesus Christ came to save you ; you believe He can save you ; you trust Him to save you ; He does save you.

All this is in that element of faith mentioned in Eph. 2:8, — ''By grace are ye saved through faith." Analyzing this you have the mental assent to the mission of Jesus, the Christ, and to His ability to save ; you have that trust which leads you to put your case into His hands ; you reach those results which only faith put into operation can secure. Change the illustration. You are very sick, and in danger of death ; you are told of a physician who has healed some friend of the same disease; as the facts are related to you you admit their truthfulness. You believe he can save you ; you determine to trust him ; you send a prayer to him to come and take your case and attempt a cure ; he comes ; you trust yourself to him — you can not cure yourself — he cures you. Now transpose the case from the physical to the sj)iritual realm, and you need make no other change. Your soul is sick unto death ; you read in the Word, ' ' Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." A friend tells you he has been sick of soul unto death, and that he gave his case over to the Lord Jesus Christ and He saved him according to the promise ; you believe the facts related ; you also determine to trust Him ; you send a prayer to Him to come and take your case; He comes ; you trust Him — you can not save yourself — He saves you. In just so far as faith is essential to your salvation in the one case, in just so far is it necessary i/a the other. H* you can understand what

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it means to have faith in an earthly physician to the salvation of yonr body, and if you can exercise that faith in an earthly physician, you can understand what it is to have faith in a heavenly physician and you can exercise that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that as no mental assent to the ability of an earthly physician will save you in your physical sickness, unless you trust yourself to that physician, no more will a mental assent in the ability of the Lord Jesus Christ to save your soul from death, save you, unless you trust yourself to Him.

In the analysis of the above illustration, not only the element of trust in the sense of confidence, but also in the sense of yielding, enters into it. For the time your will is given over to your physician, you yield yourself wholly to him ; so you must yield yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ ; jour will must become His.

Now notice the process and elements of faith that bring salvation :

1. Mental assent to Christ's ability to save.

2. Asking Him to save you.

3. Trusting Him to save you.

4. Yielding yourself fully to Him.

5. Being saved, as the result of the exercise of faith. All of this enters into the faith that saves.

And now, lest the above analysis may discourage some honest ske|)tic, let us change the illustration a little. You are sick unto death ; you have no confidence in the power of any physician to heal you, only a faint hope ; you decide to try his skill ; you send for him ; you yield yourself to him ; he cures you : complete faith in him is the result. You have stripped your faith of the element of assent to the ability of the physician ; you exercised a faint hope in its stead. Christ said, "Believe me for the very works' sake."

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Practical demonstration has proven that Christ saves those who believe in Him "for the works' sake."

I once approached an infidel concerning his soul's salvation. He was in a desperate strait, being, as he and I also thought, on the verge of delirium tremens. He said he did not believe in Jesus Christ. He did not even know as there was a God. Knowing something of him and how he had been educated at home, I felt that he was honest, and so I told him that the Master had not sent me to demonstrate to him the existence of a Grod, or the trustworthiness of the Scripture, or the reality of a future life, or even His own divinity ; but He had sent me as His ambassador to him as a lost sinner ; that all He asked of him was to ' ' come and taste, ' ' that he might see that the Lord was good. He replied that he was lost anyway, and nothing could save him unless there was something in religion. We knelt on the side- walk, in the middle of the night. I remember his prayer, — "O Heaven, if there be a Heaven, O God, if there be a God, can you save me '( I am lost ! lost ! O Heaven save me ! O >God, if you did make those stars you can save me." Over and over again he made his appeal to that God who never forsakes a helple&s child. He arose from his knees a saved and changed man. He knew nothing as to Christ's ability, yet, with a hope bordering upon despair, he trusted, he came, he yielded, he was saved. One of the wonders of such a salvation is that in his case, as in every such case, infidelity vanishes with conversion, and a full-orbed faith is the result.

' ' But how can I yield myself to Jesus, the Christ, whom I have never seen T ' Can you yield yourself to truth and righteousness ? At Rom. 6:16 you read, "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey ;

whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" You have yielded yourself to sin long enough, now yield yourself to righteousness. Kneel down and ask the Father to aid you. Tell Him you have yielded yourself at last to His truth. Ask Him to put the new heart within you, that you may desire to do His will : soon the light of His presence will dawn upon your soul.

Steps to conversion.

Repentance.

Mental assent to Christ' s ability, — or hope, — perhaps faint.

Trusting

Asking.

Yielding.

Saved.

Faith is the pathway which leads from darkness to light, from wrath to "no condemnation," from death to life, from shame to glory, from being an alien to sonship, from earth to Heaven, through Christ.

CHAPTER ly.

GRACE.

Looking again at Ej)li. 2:8 we notice another element which enters into the plan of salvation, namely, that of grace. '"For by grace are ye saved through faith." What is this element of grace which plays so important a part in the future welfare of humanity?

Grace originally meant that property of a thing which causes it to give joy to the hearers or beholders. Grace in its common application means any endowment or characteristic fitted to win favor, or confer pleasure or benefit. But grace soon came to mean not only the characteristic or quality of a person or thing, but the person, or thing, or act itself ; so that we came to speak, not only of the qualities of a person which gave joy to the beholder, but of the favor which one bestowed uj)on another which brought about joy, as grace. From being applied to such favors bestowed by man upon man, it came to be applied to the favors which God bestows upon man. But man is unworthy the benefits which God bestows upon him, and thus the word came to mean a favor bestowed by God upon man, of which man is not worthy. Another element enters into the term which was given it in classic Greek, namely, that of a favor freely done, without any expectation of return. So that the term ''grace,"

as we find it in the verse quoted above, signifies the favor bestowed freely by God npon man, "without money and without price," and of which man is not worthy. By such a favor as this are ye saved through faith.

This divine favor of salvation is freely bestowed upon man, ''without money and without price," and excludes :

1. All idea of indebtedness. Grod does not ask of us any return for the favor bestowed, in the sense of payment for that favor. Rom. 4:4, 16, "Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt." "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace."

2. All idea of works. Rom. 11:6, "And if by grace, then is it no more of works : otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace. " Salvation is the free gift of Grod, and can not be purchased or obtained by any work of man. It is excluded by the very fundamental idea of grace. Eph. 2:9, "Not of works, lest any man should boast."

3. All idea of fulfilling the law that it may be obtained. Gal. 5:4, 5, "Christ has become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law ; ye are fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith." John 1: 17, ' ' For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."

4. All worthiness in the recipient. Rom. 5:20, "Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." II Cor. 5:19, "To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." The law became the looking-glass into which man might look and realize his imperfections. It became his school-master to teacli him his sinfuhiess and helplessness, and thei'el)y turn his attention to Jesus the Christ, Avho came ' ' of grace" to save him. And then grace came and took him in all his sinfulness and helplessness and offered him salvation, and where his sin was great, grace was greater still.

Let us recapitulate. Grace, we have found, is the favor of Cxod in offering salvation to man freely, ' 'without money and without price," and of which man is not worthy. It is therefore, —

The undeserved favor of God, freely bestowed.

In receiving this salvation it excludes forevermore the idea that salvation is to be obtained by the payment of any price as for an indebtedness, by keeping j)erfectly the law, by our good works, or by a righteous character. Salvation is "of grace, ' ' and therefore a free gift, and we can render unto the Lord for all His benefits nothing except to take, as did the Psalmist, ''the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord."

Grace finds man a sinner, perhaps the vilest of the vile, without the ability to pay any of his indebtedness to the Lord, without power to keep His law, or work out his own salvation. It takes him as he is, pays his indebtedness, saves him from his sins, and gives him the ability to do good works. Wonderful grace of God I coming not to impute trespasses unto man, but to reconcile him unto a loving, forgiving and compassionate Father.

By grace are ye redeemed. Eph. 1:7.

By grace are ye justified. Rom. 8:24.

By grace are ye saved. Eph. 2:8.

By grace we have everlasting consolation and good hope. II Thess. 2:16.

There are many who seem to think that grace operates np to conversion, but after that we are to be saved by our works. To such I would Qommend the book of Galatians. The converted sinner, as well as the unconverted sinner, is to be saved by grace and not by keeping the law, Rom. 6:14, 15, "For sin shall not have dominion over you : for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then 't shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace '( Grod forbid." This ought to come to the saved and the unsaved alike with all its weight of promise and glory. We are led to exclaim over and over again, ' ' wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? ' ' Discouragement follows discouragement, as we try to do the whole law, but we can exclaim with the apostle, exultant with the thought of deliverance, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." We shall at last be delivered, for our salvation is not through works, but by grace. "Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief."

' ' 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." Is. 55:1. "But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 6:23. "And of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace." John 1:16.