Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 281, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 November 1914 — THE CITY ETERNAL [ARTICLE]

THE CITY ETERNAL

Impregnable to All Assaults WB Remain the Walls of Salvation. “Thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise.”—lsaiah <0:18. These words are from the chapter which begins with that glorious outburst of prophecy which promises the Sun of Righteousness as a light to all people. Then the chapter goes on to describe an ideal state of society which is to exist when the Gospel has obtained the mastery. There is to be a City of God whose walls are salvation, and whose gates are praise, and where no material defenses are needed against the wrath or treachery of man. The words are strikingly beautiful and find a ready response in every , heart as an ideal devoutly to be desired; and yet it must have seemed Utopian and unreal to the people to whom the prophecy was given. In a land that was continually in turmoil from war without and from dissension within; in an age when every stranger was looked upon as an enemy, and when the first need of any community seemed to be a fortress, of what value would be walls of salvation and gates of praise? Surely, they would be of little account against the engines of war. When Israel returned from captivity they first rebuilt the walls of the city. Nineveh had enormous walls of vast height, with a moat 145 feet wide outside the walls. How unreal seems a city whose walls are salvation, and whose gate* are praise! Righteousness and Peace. There is here an ideal of the state. In the preceding verse we read, '1 will make thy officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness.” In other words, the whole machinery of government was to be used in the Interest of righteousness and peace. But even to the present day the majority of governments are military organizations. Their authority is based on force, and they are continually striving to strengthen themselves at the expense of their neighbors,/ It seems to matter little to such a government what burdens the people carry, so long as the military organization is strong. There is here an ideal of the church. "Thou shalt call thy walls salvation and thy gates praise.” The church has suffered in all ages from those who have strive* to make it a fortress Instead of a City of God whose only walls are salvation. Thus the church has been divided into, different hoetile camps with their man-made walls of creeds. Men have said unto the church “Thy walls are predestination; thy walls are justification by faith; thy walls are adult baptism; thy walls are inerrancy of the Scriptures; thy walls are the papacy; thy wall* are episcopacy in apostolic succession.” God says unto the church, "Thy walls are salvation.” There is its power and its defense. Wall* Are Salvation. It is good for us sometimes to be thrown back upon that unseen wall that is round about us as Christian people and as a Christian church. Old ideas crumble, old beliefs are superseded by others, we are told that the Bible is not as we had supposed ft to be. We have been compassed about with many material supports and helps, and we are dismayed to find how feeble they are when the enemy comes in like a flood. The old forts of creeds and ( customs may crumble away, but there is one thing that stands between us and destruction, and that is the loving purpose of God to save our souls in Jesus Christ. Our walls are salvation. And if in humble faith you and I call our walls salvation and think of nothing else as our security but the mighty purpose of our loving Father, we are safe in a stronghold which nothing can overthrow. Salvation mean* safety in Jesus Christ He has said of his people, “No man shall pluck them out of My hand.” In such a time as this, a time of change and terror and uncertainty. I would have you feel a personal experience of that salvation. But there are gates in the walls, and the gates are praise. What a picture of the ideal church! We are to “enter his courts with thanksgiving and his gates with praise.” In what spirit do you enter the house of God? In the spirit of or in the spirit of irritation, or depressed under the burdens of the week? If people entered their churches with prayer and praise, what help and strength and balm unto their spirit* would they derive from even the simplest services. The gates of the pity are also exit* of the people of God out into the world. Are they gates of praise? Do you hear among Christian people praise unto God for hi* mercies? How often do people speak of the Church of Jesus Christ in terms of criticism or of indifference, when they should speak of It. with praise, for with all its shortcomings it .1* nevertheless bestowing upon its people the greatest blessings which theyg possess. Human cities are vulnerable no matter how strongly fortified, and some day will see them in ruin, but the City of God Is eternal; and the only security which we can count on in this life 1* the wall of salvatlon. If we are living behind that protection, then our incomings and our outgoings shall be praise. • / -