There will be no age to come;
If in life you find not Jesus,
Death will seal your awful doom."
Conclusion Of Part Third.
We have placed before the reader in the best manner we could, considering our limited time, the beautiful light and wonderful accomplishments of redeeming grace in the morning of this gospel day. In the apostolic period, we again repeat, the church was the light of the world. The Christians believed the whole Word of God. They taught the whole truth and no more. They lived a pure, holy life just as Jesus lived [pg 497] and just as the Bible declares that Christians must live. They were fully consecrated to God. They counted not their lives dear unto themselves. They forsook all to follow Jesus and lived wholly unto him. They had faith in God and power with him. They were of one heart and of one soul. They all spake the same thing. They were humble and equal. They healed the sick, cast out devils, and raised the dead in Jesus' name. Thus they were the light of the world.
Now the evening shall be as light as the morning. Man, as a Christian, shall live as pure and holy and as deeply consecrated in this evening of time as did the Christian in the morning time. At this present time God is raising up a people who believe, experience and teach the whole Word of truth. They have fled the ruins of Babylon and are proclaiming the everlasting gospel in the fear of God and the clear light of heaven. God is working with his pure and consecrated ministry, confirming the Word with signs and deeds and wonders, the same as he did with the early ministry.
There are thousands to-day who gladly bear testimony to the wonderful healing power of God. The blind have been made to see, the lame to walk; broken bones have been united, cancers removed, consumption cured. The deaf have been made to hear, the dumb to speak, and devils have been cast out. All these wonders, and many more, have been wrought in the name of the holy child Jesus in God's pure church within [pg 498] the last few years. God is increasing his church in faith, purity, power, and glory, and in the immediate coming years much greater things than these shall ye hear and see. Amen.
A Personal Experience.
It is recorded in the Bible that God will not hear sinners. While this is true it has its modifications. Those who are in wilful and stubborn rebellion against God he will not hear, even though in a day of trouble and fear they should call upon him. But when in the more sober moments of life man's heart feels the influence of the Holy Spirit inclining his desires toward a better life, arousing the nobler aspirations of his soul, enkindling to a brighter flame the spark of humanity; when, though he be not in possession of God's saving grace, under such an influence he, in sincerity of heart, calls upon God, he will hear and answer his call as far as consistent with the divine mind, and thus encourage his soul on to the Christian goal.
Our boyhood days and the early days of our manhood were spent amid the gay scenes and pleasures of life. When in the whirl of society-life we had no serious thoughts. There would, however, in our more secluded hours, when naught stood between us and the whisperings of our soul, arise thoughts of futurity. The Holy Spirit would speak to our heart of God, of heaven, of Christ and the blood; he would hold before us in a beautiful picture the life of a Christian [pg 499] journeying onward to a glory world. He would also disclose to our view the hideousness and awfulness of sin, and the uneasiness, discontentments, trouble and fear attending the wicked as they journey onward to the eternal region of woe.