T HE K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S 375 done all and would of course be saved, thoughts and words I allow to pass
hut ordered to send for Peter and hear of Christ; when X see all these things, I say I feel bound to believe that the doctrine of the Bible is this: NO SAL VATION, NO WAY TO HEAVEN, EX CEPTING BY JESUS CHRIST. Reader, I do not know what use you make of your Bible, whether you read it or whether you do not; whether you read it all, or whether you only read such parts as you like. But this I tell you plainly, if you read and believe the whole Bible you will find it hard to escape the doctrine that there is no other name given under heaven whereby we can be saved, but only the name of Jesus. I do not see how you can con sistently reject what I have been en deavoring to prove. Christ is the Way, and the only way; Christ is the Truth, and the only truth; Christ is the Life, and the only life.— J. C. Ryle. PRAYER AND THE LIFE Our daily life in the world is the real test of our intercourse with God in prayer. How often the Christian, when he comes to pray, does his utmost to cultivate certain frames of mind which he thinks will be pleasing. He does not understand, or forgets that life does not consist of so many loose pieces, of which now the one, then the other can be taken up. Life is a whole, and the pious frame of the hour of prayer is judged of by God from the ordinary frame of the daily life of which the hour of prayer is but a small part. Not the feeling I call up, but the tone of my life during the day, is God’s criterion of what I really am and desire. My drawing nigh to God is of one piece with my intercourse with men and earth; failure here will cause failure there. And that, not only when there is the distinct consciousness of any thing wrong between my neighbor and myself; but the ordinary current of my thinking and judging, the unloving
unnoticed, can hinder my prayer. The effectual prayer of faith comes out from a life given up to the will and the love of God. Not according to what I try to be when praying, but what I am when not praying, is my prayer dealt with by God.—Andrew Murray. ate ate PROVED A FOOL It is told of one of our early Amer ican evangelists that in the course of an address he made the broad statement that all infidels are fools, and that he could prove it in any given case in ten minutes. A man in the audience asked if he might interrupt, and remarked that he must take exception to the state ment, since he was himself an infidel and thought he was no fool. The preach er looked him over rather curiously and said, “ So you are an infidel? Will you tell me just how much of an infidel?” “ Certainly, sir; I deny that .there is any thing at all in religion.” “Nothing at all in religion? Are you willing to go on record as saying that?” “ Go on record?” the infidel replied. “ Why, I have been writing and lectur ing against religion for these twenty years.” The evangelist glanced at his watch and said, “Well, I said I could prove an infidel a fool in ten minutes, and I have seven minutes left. I’ll leave it to the audience if a man isn’t a fool to write and lecture for twenty years against a thing that has nothing what ever in it!” If Christ is not the Son of God, how will we account for the age-long oppo sition and its failure to overcome Chris tianity? “ ‘Jesus, I will trust Thee, trust Thee with my soul; Guilty, lost, and helpless, Thou canst make me whole. , There is none in heaven, or on earth like Thee: Thou hast died for sinners— therefore, Lord, for me.’ ”
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