T HE K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S men wherein we must be saved.” Sal vation does not lie in the -sacraments, morality or in the observance of the ordinary means of grace. 2. Positively. Not alone is Jesus Christ declared to be the "only Savior of God’s elect” by the apostle Peter and his associates in the ministry of the Word, but Jesus also again and again points to Himself as the only Savior of the lost. If we seek to establish communication with God by any other route we mock God. When the Son of His love has declared “No man cometh to the Father but by Me” how can He ignore His Son and give Him the lie which God would do were He to ac cept human efforts as sufficient to atone for sin and bring us nigh to God? Dr. A. T. Pierson, before he passed on, said: “The Christian religion presents four onlys— The word of God is the Only complete rule of faith. The grace of God the Only hope of sal vation. The work of the Spirit the Only source of the New Birth. The faith of Christ the Only condition of salvation.” Its Cost. In verse 10 of Acts 4 Peter in his de fensive statement before the Jewish lead ers intimates the price paid for our sal vation. “Be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom ye crucified.” What a price! A price beyond the conception of the finite mind. We urge the acceptance of salva tion “without money and- without price.” We call upon men to “take of the Water of Life freely,” and ’tis blessedly true but oh, what it cost Jesus Christ,—“Who being in the form of God thought it, not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation and took upon Him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Him-
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657 self and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,” Phil. 2:6-8. What a death! In the language of an other: “No wounds are more painful than those inflicted in crucifixion. They are at once what surgeons term punc tured, lacerated, and contused, which are the three môst serious varieties of that species of injury. Independently of the grave nature of the wounds themselves, their danger is much increased when they occur in such parts as the palm of the hand or the sole of the foot, in which bones, fasciae, tendons, and their sheaths, predominate; tissues when so injured, reflect the mischief into the con stitution immediately and most violently, giving rise to unmanageable traumatic fever. In many very sensitive constitu tions, the immediate shock of the act of crucifixion itself would hardly be rallied from. If, however, the victim should have sufficient constitutional power to sup port reaction, the intense agony produc ed by the weight of the body suspended on the raw parts in cbntact with the nails ip the hands, and by the inflamma tory swelling of the palmar and plantar tissues pressing against the unyielding iron, and the position of the body, is one of the principal agents in the produc tion of that exhaustion which terminates the frightful scene. “If the sufferer lived many hours, the injured parts after ulcerating would be come gangrenous; great general depress ion of the vital powers would at once come on, with hiccough and cold sweats; the circulation would be hurried and feeble; the breathing short and frequ ent; and the patient would rapidly sink, the feeling of pain being lessened, but the sense of anxiety and prostration augmented towards the last.” “Whom ye crucified;” Close your eyes, man, and think what this free salvation cost its blessed Author. Its Loss. Two words may be used to indicate the danger of losing salvation—
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