1907

February 20, 1907

“A Better World” The Medical Missionary, 16, 8, p. 59.

ATJ

A. T. JONES

DO you want to get out of this world into a better one?MEDM February 20, 1907, page 59.1

If you do want this, you can have it; and if you do not want it, you are a very queer sort of person, and we should like to know more of you.MEDM February 20, 1907, page 59.2

As such a person as that would be so exceptional as fairly to be out of the list, we take it that you would like to get out of this world into a better one.MEDM February 20, 1907, page 59.3

Why do you want to get away from this world?MEDM February 20, 1907, page 59.4

Is it because you have to labor so hard that you are very weary? Very well, Jesus says, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”MEDM February 20, 1907, page 59.5

Is it because your burden is so great that you are wearied in bearing it? Then “cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee.”MEDM February 20, 1907, page 59.6

Is it because your cares are so many and so perplexing? Then cast “all your care upon him; for he careth for you.”MEDM February 20, 1907, page 59.7

Is it because you have so many griefs and so great sorrows? “He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.”MEDM February 20, 1907, page 59.8

Is it because death reigns, and holds everything under its sway? Ah! but “the sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ,”—victory over sin, and victory over death because of victory over sin. For, “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell [the grave] and of death.”MEDM February 20, 1907, page 59.9

Do you not see, then, that when you are in Christ, you are in another world? Christ is the only way out of this world into a better one. If you are Christ’s, you are not of the world, because he has chosen you out of the world.MEDM February 20, 1907, page 59.10

And he is “not far from every one of us.” “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock. If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in.” And “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” And “ye are complete in him.”MEDM February 20, 1907, page 59.11

Now will you be so inconsistent as to want to get out of this world into a better one, and find the way, and the only way, wide open to you, and the not go?MEDM February 20, 1907, page 59.12

Come along, friend, and let us together be “giving thanks to the Father, ... who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.”MEDM February 20, 1907, page 59.13

“‘Unto Obedience’” The Medical Missionary, 16, 8, p. 61.

ATJ

ALONZO T. JONES

THE gift of the Holy Ghost, “the sanctification of the Spirit,” is “unto obedience.”MEDM February 20, 1907, page 61.1

It is disobedience to God that has brought all the trouble and woe upon the whole world; so that the children of men are at the same time “the children of disobedience.”MEDM February 20, 1907, page 61.2

But the Lord Jesus gave himself for us, and “suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God,” that he might bring us unto the ways of obedience. “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”MEDM February 20, 1907, page 61.3

But “obedience is not a mere outward compliance;” it is “the service of love.” The obedience is obedience to God. The love, then, from which springs the service, is only the love of God. “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”MEDM February 20, 1907, page 61.4

“For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.”MEDM February 20, 1907, page 62.1

Therefore it is written, “Ye have purified [sanctified] your souls in obeying the truth, through the Spirit.” Sanctification is “of the Spirit” only. Sanctification is “through the truth” only. The Spirit is only “the Spirit of truth.” The commandments of God are only “the truth.” And true obedience to that truth can be only “through the Spirit.”MEDM February 20, 1907, page 62.2

All trying to keep the commandments, all trying to obey the truth, all trying to do anything, without the Spirit of God, is altogether vain. “God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”MEDM February 20, 1907, page 62.3

“Without me ye can do nothing.” “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” Then, strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man, Christ dwelling in the heart and filled with all the fulness of God, you and I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth us.MEDM February 20, 1907, page 62.4

This is sanctification of the Spirit. This is obedience. And it is sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience.MEDM February 20, 1907, page 62.5