Page:Letters from New Zealand (Harper).djvu/175

Rh what you call your Bible: you believe in St. Paul?" "Of course I do." "Well, then, what do you make of this, in Cor. ix, 27, 'I therefore so run … lest that by any means, when I have preached to others I myself should be a castaway.' You see St. Paul himself allows that he may be a castaway."

"He never meant that; it doesn't mean that."

"But you must allow that that is the plain meaning of the English words, and if you will let me, I will tell you what the Greek words which St. Paul used meant; nothing can be plainer or stronger. He is speaking of the Christian life in terms of the contests in the arena of public sports which all Greeks were so fond of. In all those sports no competitor could enter unless he had passed the examination of certain persons appointed to test the competitor's qualifications; then, if he won he had to go before a second committee of judges, who were to decide whether he had run or competed fairly, in accordance with the rules of the arena. If he was 'cast,' that is adjudged to have competed unfairly, or trangressed rules, he was rejected; he lost his prize; he became a 'cast-away'; now, what can be clearer than that?"

"I don't believe it," he said, "once a saved Christian, always a Christian; what else can 'saved' mean?"

"Well, tell me, then, about your brethren here in Hokitika. I know some of them, and good men they are; how many do you number?" "Twenty," he replied. "And are you quite certain none of them will ever fall away? I have heard of communities of Brethren like yours which somehow dwindle in number, and I'm told that they have been cast out of the Community; how do you account for that? I don't want to predict, but if we are both here a