Page:Miscellaneous Writings.djvu/223

Rh require a living faith, that so incorporates their lessons into our lives that these truths become the motive-power of every act.

Our chosen text is one more frequently used than many others, perhaps, to exhort people to turn from sin and to strive after holiness; but we fear the full import of this text is not yet recognized. It means a full salvation, — man saved from sin, sickness, and death; for, unless this be so, no man can be wholly fitted for heaven in the way which Jesus marked out and bade his followers pursue.

In order to comprehend the meaning of the text, let us see what it is to believe. It means more than an opinion entertained concerning Jesus as a man, as the Son of God, or as God; such an action of mind would be of no more help to save from sin, than would a belief in any historical event or person. But it does mean so to understand the beauty of holiness, the character and divinity which Jesus presented in his power to heal and to save, that it will compel us to pattern after both; in other words, to “let this Mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. ii. 5.)

Mortal man believes in, but does not understand life in, Christ. He believes there is another power or intelligence that rules over a kingdom of its own, that is both good and evil; yea, that is divided against itself, and therefore cannot stand. This belief breaks the First Commandment of God.

Let man abjure a theory that is in opposition to God, recognize God as omnipotent, having all-power; and, placing his trust in this grand Truth, and working from no other Principle, he can neither be sick nor forever a