Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 242, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 October 1916 — TO EACH HIS SOUL [ARTICLE]

TO EACH HIS SOUL

Eternal Salvation a Personal Matter Which Cannot Be Left to Others^ Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it Is God which worketh In you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.—Phil. 2:12,18. So far as our knowledge goes, Philippi was the first city In Europe to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ It was a city of some importance, having the position and the privileges of a Roman colony. It was situated in a fruitful district, near some gold mines, and also near enough to the sea to be a depot for Asiatic commerce. The congregation founded there waa madflup of earnest and sincere people, and Is specially mentioned for Its love and care of the Apostle who first brought them the Gospel. Eleven or twelve years had passed since the founding of this church. Paul was a prisoner in Rome. The Epaphrodltus arrived from the church at Philippi, after a long and dangerous journey, bringing supplies for the needs and comfort of Paul. He also bronght-tidloga of the condition the Philippian church, and assured the This letter was in a sense a response by Epaphroditus, and it is no wonder that it bears the marks of tenderness and affection for these people who loved Paul so dearly. Paul begins to think that he will never be able to come again to Philippi, and so he writes this letter to them and tells then) to continue'the work' in his absence as well as in his presder the Influence of a commanding personality. The weaker is dominated by the stronger and the cultivation of our own judgment is neglected. So Ban! warns the Phllipplans nottolook to him in every difficulty, but to “work out their own salvation In fear and trembling.” Does not this seem to contradict some of the teaching of St. Paul? Doctrine of Salvation. One of the fundamental doctrines of Paul was that salvation is a free gift due-to- the grace of God. Remember that writing to the Phlllppians Paul was addressing believers who already possessed this salvation. But: while It is indeed a gift of God, every man must appropriate It to himself. That is the work of the Holy Spirit, to work in us that we may “work out” 1 Into every fiber of our being, Into every activity of life, the salvation which God bestows upon us for Jesus* sake. A slave is set to work opt his freedom. He may be encouraged to do so and even be assisted by his master. But this freedom is to be won by his own exertions, to be paid for by his toil. If that were the sense in which wo are to work out our own salvation It would never be accomplished, for wtf sinful creatures can never merit heaven. But let us suppose that the slave Is given his freedom, and then told that for the sake of his own development he must make himself worthy of that great gift. He is to work out his liberty, not In the sense of buying It, but In bringing out what is in It, by using it well. He Is to prove himself free by self-control, by proper employment, and by selfc£ulture. He is to "Vork out a freeman’s life. Thus Hr Is that we are to work out our own salvation.

Salvation is a personal matter, it is our own salvation which we are to work out. No one can do it for us. Each man is an Individual soul before the throne of grace. One Law of the Universe. Nothing is of value unless It is individualized. Light is universal. It bathes the world in living ( spendor. But each optic nerve must' transfer the vibrations of light to the brain which interprets It in terms of color, perspective, and proportion. , The world is full of harmonious sounds. There is music of the birds, the laughter and the roar of the waves, the whisper of the breeze through the trees; but unless each auditory nerve gathers up these waves of sound and carries them to the appreciating brain, nature might as well be silent as the grave. The air wraps the whole earth round, many miles deep. There is. enough for millions more than tread the earth today, but unless each individual pair of lungs draws in this lifegiving air we might as well be In a vacuum. A drowned man is brought upon the shore. The-air is pressing upon his body with a pressure of 15 pounds to every square inch. All about him are crowds of people who are breathing the air, but he might as well be in some airless space of the world, because his individual lungs cannot draw it in. It is so with salvation. It is free as air. It folds us round like the atmosphere. It has a positive pressure. It whispers, woos and waits, and listens and longs for entrance; but unless it be personally admitted, adits universality will count for nought. It is a great thing in a man’s history when he grasps his own individual relation to God, when he realizes that he Is indeed the child of a heavenly father just as truly as If he were the only soul in the world.