Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 edition. Excerpt: ... No. 5. god'S highest type of character for his people, and how to get it. This ideal has many characteristics; neither is it a mushroom growth, nor something that one may accidentally find. Of the vast number of the saved, we note the following classes: 1. Those who die in infancy, 2. Those who are saved without having any time or opportunity for growth (as the thief on the cross). 3. The class that are saved "so as by fire," (I. Cor. 3:15). 4. The class of dutiful servants who get a reward, (I. Cor. 3:14; Matt. 25:14-30). 5. The class represented by the wise virgins (Matt. 25:1-4), or the "virgins" the companions of the King's daughter, (Psa. 45:13-15). 6. The King's daughter, or bride of Christ, as represented in the full overcomers, who pass through the crucified life, "put off the old man," "put on the new man," "grow up into Him Christ in all things," and reach unto "the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ," (Eph. 4:13). This is the highest character brought to view in the word of God; and I. It may be well for us to hunt up the various elements that enter into this ideal. 1. The group found in the beatitudes, (Matt. 5:3-12). "Blessed," says Jesus, is the man who possesses these characteristics: viz., "Poverty of Spirit," the opposite of all pride, self-sufficiency, self-complacency, etc. The mourner, who laments, first, his sins, then his sin, or want of conformity to the will of God, and later the desolations of Zion. "Blessed" are the "meek," the tamed ones who have had the wild spirit of the natural man superseded by the gentle spirit of Christ, and, like their Master, are nonretaliative, and ready to turn the ot