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THE KING’S BUSINESS
ence, but not life in the true sense. While life is not mere existence, even so does not death mean non-existence. God Himself defines death, the death which is the result of the persistent rejection of Jesus Ghrist, H i g l l 21:8- We see that it is a "‘part in the lake winch burneth with fire and brim stone.” . The inhabitants of this lake of hre exist, and exist consciously, they are tormented day and night, forever and ever (Rev. 20:10) but they do not live. Whot is the meaning of i Tim. 2 6 * Who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be ¡testified in due time." It means just what it says. Jesus Christ, I y His* death on the cross, paid the price that-made it possible for God to deal in mercy with all men. He, by His atoning death, - is, the propitiation. for our sins ■ and not for ours only, but for the whole world. The exact wording of this last ‘ ^ statement shows that while the propitiation that He made stands in a different relation to the believer than it does to the unbe liever, It does avail, to a certain extent, for the unbeliever, for everybody, and there fore it provides a ground whereby God can deal in mercy with all men, even with the rankest infidel, and God is dealing in mercy with all men on the ground of the atoning death of Jesus Christ, the “ransom” that He gave Himself to be for all. But that does not mean that all men will be saved. Whether or not they will be saved depends upon what they do with the one who gave Himself a ransom for them. But men are not lost because of their sins, but because of their rejection of Him who bore their sins for them (John 3 :16-19)r. . The^e is no hope for Ananias unless he had really accepted Christ as a Saviour, and his deceit in that case would be the sin of a believer, a sin visited with swift" sure and immediate punishment, as in thè case of the believers mentioned in 1 Cor. 11:30, who, because of their heedless and I f there is any Hope for Ananias, why ■not for any other sinner?
thoughtless manner' of partaking of the Lord’s supper were sickly and some had died, but though they were judged and chastened of the Lord, they were not con demned with the world (1 Cor. 11:32). It is not at all clear that the case of Ananias was 6f this sort; it is not at all clear that he really was a believer in Jesus-Christ in the real sense of saving faith in Him, and if He was not there was no hope for him. If he was, there was hope for him, of course, but not for many other sinners, because these many other sinners have not received Christ and their sins are not the sins of a misguided believer, but the sins of a rejector of the Son of God and thus a deliberate rebel against God. Fishers of Men CLEVER old fisherman, who was gen erally successful when others were not, gave the following reply when asked how he managed it: “Sir, there are three rules for trput-fishing which you must mind. The fir^t is, keep yourself out of sight. The second is, keep yourself farther out of sight. The third is, keep yourself still —rther out of sight.” If ike want to become winneis of souls, we must be hidden behind Christ. | “The children of Ephraim,-being armed, and cariying bows, turned back in the day of battle. They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in His law; and, forgat his works, and his wohders that he had shewed them” (Psalm 78:9-11). Why? Because they, had forgotten God. We shall not succeed in life’s hard fight, even though we have every equipment for victory, unless/ plus all else, we have faith in God, and refer everything to Him.— J. R. Miller! S. W. Lawton, Jaffna, Ceylon: “Your magazine styled T h e ' K ing ’ s B usiness ’ surely deserves its royal name, and i must tell you that its perusal gives me benefit and -spiritual uplift found in few religious papers.”
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