Who Shall Dwell With God?
By R. F. COTTRELL
In the fifteenth Psalm, this question is answered in the following manner: “He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart,” &c. Moral character and conduct is all that is alluded to in the whole list of qualifications. The same is true of the reasons given by our Saviour, why the blessed of his Father are welcomed to the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world. Matt. xxv, 34-40. Those that have fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited and relieved the sick and imprisoned, will be welcomed to the kingdom, while those that have not done these things will be excluded. Moral character—obedience to the law of God, the law of love, is the test of admittance into the kingdom of God. “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and enter in through the gates into the city.” Church ordinances, ritual observances, faith and prayer, are not mentioned on the threshold of the kingdom of God. Not because these are not necessary, but because they are only the means for the attainment of the moral character which alone can qualify one for the society of Heaven. As a means, they are necessary, nay, indispensable, but they are not the end. What folly it is then that hopes for the admission into the kingdom of Heaven by a few words of penitence or prayer, or by being baptized just at the close of a life devoted to the desires of a carnal mind, and characterized by selfishness and vice! Yet many flatter themselves that one prayer upon a dying bed, a drop of water upon their head, or absolution of a priest, will atone for a life of sin, save them from a fabled hell of eternal torments, and usher them into the society of angels and the eternal bliss of Heaven! How preposterous! Yes, and some have made the salvation of infants depend upon whether they have been baptized. It is no wonder that infidels should scoff at such ideas as the following: “Of two children snatched away by disease when twenty-four hours old, one has been baptized, the other not; the angels of Heaven welcome that, the demons of hell clutch this.” Let none deceive themselves with a hope that anything will give them a passport into eternal bliss, with saints and angels, but a life devoted to doing good, out of a pure heart of love to God and love to men. Faith and prayer are indispensable for sinners to approach God, find pardon, and attain to that perfection of moral character that is requisite; but a character formed after the glorious Pattern, conformed to the image of our Lord Jesus Christ, is the test at the gates of the city of God. R. F. COTTRELL.