PART I.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 299, 15 September 1888, Page 4

PART I.

As in tho kingdoms of this world, so in the spiritual kingdom, the question at issue is one Jof profit and loss, with this difference always, that in the one case we lose or gain for the few fleeting days of our earthly life -in the other it is a loss or gain reaching on in its results to the far ages of eternity. Clod's free gift ot salvation brings us a° sons into the treasury of His grace that we may be tilled with heavenly blessing ; not as listless receivers, but as diligent soekers aftei divine and durable riches. It is all-important that we should consider this. We talk of the poor unsaved world, and it is well that we should lay to heart its poverty and its swiftly-hastening judgment. Bub what if there be such an anomaly us a child of God spiritually poor ? Can we be poor, and God — our God -so lich in place and glory V Joint-hens with Christ, ble^ed with /ill spiritual blessing* i* heavenly places, and yet poor .' How can these things be? Let us suppose a, man has a fortune of £100,000 in' the Bank of England : he maj have a very clear title, and the bank be perfectly sale, and yet if he let* the interest lie until he almost torgets. that he has it, he is actually a poor man. H does not matter that he is heir to a tor'une if it does nob affect his life or till hi-* pockets. Bub then i lie is onlj a losei for a time. In a few years- at most his little vapour life will have | ?pent itself : he will have passed, like his ! fellows, into tho realities of the eternal ! world, and it will matter nothing whether jhe was poor or rich here. Or let us take another illustration. ("Jod gave to Israel all the. land of Canaan tor a possession, yet only that which the sole of their toot trod upon was actually their own. it was theirs by gift and by covenant ; but the fainthearted and the unbelieving failed to enter into their inheritance. Is it not with us? Wo shall be rich throughout eternity with what we make our own of all that God has given to v«. Therefore, said the voice of wisdom, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the lire that thou mavesb be r'ch ; and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear." But when? ■' When Christ, who is our life, shall appear then shall we also appear with Him in glory." Every redeemed soul snail be there because ot the value of the blood, in a body like unto His glorious body ; but each one also shall be manifested before the judgment-seat in the dre»s woven thread by thread in this briet testing time of our faithfulness. We shall icap as we have sown ; we shall glorify as we have trusted Him. The only-begotten Son Himself w ill take Hi-? inheritance in \irtue of His re-demption-work. (Rev. v 6, 7.) He will be crowned Lord of all, not because of His Sonship, which was ever unalterably the s-xme, but because of His obedience unto death : and every crown wherewith He crowns His taithful ones in that duv will bear a righteous relation to s niething that Hi.-, grace can own ot '-eiviee or of suffering for His name's sike. The question of salvation will havo been settled in resurrection. Divine wisdom out it beyond the reach ol our marring when He who was our Suiety ascended above all heavens ; but when we shall be ••.ifply and for ever at home, then will come in the question of service and of reward. And why ? Because He w ill not leave one cup of water unrecorded in His Book of remembrance- -not one feeble act of love unrecompensed by His grace. There will be no such thought as puni&hment here, or even of ieproach ; it is, as we have said, simply a question of profit or loss. ( If any man's, work shall be burned, he shall .sujf'o I /o^.' He will get the full extent of the benefit of the blood shed tor him on Calvary ; but the life that blood ha& pin chnted | will have yielded nothing back to Cod toi I the unspeakable gift of His Son The one I opportunity for fruit-bearing will be tor ever j past, and nothing but leave-- cover the tree for all the travail of the Husbandman. The divine provision of piiesth inteicession and of Shepheid care : the indwelling ot God'I mighty Spirit : the keening oi His power ; all will have conifi ->horl oi their ' bles&ed purpose, and nothinu lemain that | the eye of God can rest upon but the indelible mark of the blood. Beloved fellow- , «aints, are there any .-uch among us? any 1 to whom the yearning heait of the Mastei ! can give no look ot approval, no crown of J rejoicing in that clay ? How small trom the ! height of the judgment-seat, wlu-ie we shall ' gather round Him, will <-.eem the tiitle^ ot i earth and time tor which, it ma.v, bo, we are ! spiling our blood-bought bn thii^ht. I'erhaps, like another traveller fiom Sodom (Gen. \i.\. 26), we ask om solves, as we look I buck at its pleasures or it-- cains, ' \Yhat harm is there in it '!' ]\ow. -h ill we put the question another way— What *s tht jnont oiid what i" the lost.' If wo have not been faithful in that which isanothei man's, who «hall give us that which is our own ? Things around us arc ours to-day, -omeone else's tomorrow. Only the treasiue that we lay up in heaven is really and lor ever our own. (Suppose the mighty men who gathered to David in the hold had never wrought the victories we read of in 1 Chronicle? ; suppose they had heard his longing, and never sought to gratify it, ' what was the harm ?" Who could expect three men to break single-handed throusrh the L'hiKbtine host to bring a draught of water to a weary, exiled wanderer? it was such a little thing to risk their lives for ; but it was Day id's longing, and that wap enough for them. Ah ! let us change the question, and ask ourselves, What ic«s theprojif, and ichaf /ra> tin /o-s '< The profit was only to refresh the soul of their "Master ; the loss^ of such opportunity never could be estimated until the establishment of the kingdom, when the mighty men took their places, not because they were David's servants, but because the"} had proved their devotedness to him before he was acknowledged king. A little worldly pleasure, a little worldly gain, a little pleasing of ourselves — ' What ia the harm '' None, if we will. Tt only divides the heart that should be wholly Christ's; it only unnerves the arm that might be mighty in His blessed service. One short opportunity, onf brief testing-time — v hat shall toe. do with il'i We may go on very quietly, never ' doing any harm : ' we may wish well to the cause of Christ, and speak great things ot our privileges and opposition; but when He appears, who gave Himself for us, shall we have only this to lay at His feet as our life-service ? Shall we be ' ashamed before Him at FTis coming ?' Unending issues hang upon life's passing hour, because we are in the present day of our Lord's rejection, so shall we be in the coming day of His kingdom.