SOME RELIGIOUS ERRORS CORRECTED.
By Rev. P. C. Croll
ONE error concerns the test of conversion. Every true conversion must have its proofs. Except there be fruits in keeping with the new life received, we may well doubt the genuineness of the so-called process or experience of regeneration. What a pity it is, however, that there should be so many mistakes made in the tests that are applied, the criterions by which to measure the sincerity of this work of grace? How many make certain untangible and indescribable states of mind as the test, such as visions, ecstacies of transporting delight, strange and peculiar sounds heard, and the like, their proofs of being saved. They will always, in after years, refer to these shadowy, inapprehensible experiences as the surest proof of their renewal and their acceptance with God. Now a renewed life by grace has to do with things more real than such impalpable states and frames of mind as I have just alluded to. What now is the convert's attitude towards sin, towards God and Christ his Saviour, and towards his fellow-men? These are better test questions than, What ecstatic bliss or what indefinable vision have I enjoyed? For unless there be now begotten in the soul such a hatred and abomination of sin as to make us turn away from what is sinful and the very appearance of evil, and such love to God as makes him our chief joy and portion, and ready to say, "Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none on the earth that I desire besides thee," and such trust in Jesus as to lead us to commit our all to him for time and eternity, and such an interest in our fellow-men as to make us willing to become their servants in sympathetic love and yearning desire for their timely and eternal welfare—unless such fruits abound we may well doubt the reality of our regeneration. Since regeneration is the impartation of God's life to the soul by the quickening influence of his Holy Spirit, this new life must also have the attributes of him who begat it. And these are God's relations towards sin and the human race. And "by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." "Everyone that loveth is born of God." "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God; and everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him." "Whosoever abideth in Him [Christ] sinneth not." Still another error made upon this subject is the undue emphasis given unto conversion in the category of a Christian life. From the standpoint of the sinner, one cannot well emphasize too strongly the necessity of repentance and regeneration. The one great necessity above all necessities—the one thing needful for such an one—is to turn unto the Lord his God. The great cry that messengers of God must ever cause to resound in his ears is, "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." But I refer to the emphasis that is often given by renewed souls to the experience of conversion, to the oversight and neglect of the cultivation of the Christian graces. Birth is a most important essential to life, but we would not like to have a youth of twenty years still point to his birth as a proof of his existence. There must now be other unmistakable evidences in manifold activities to prove that he is not131dead, or, despite the fact of his birth, he will be considered a corpse and carried out to the cemetery for burial. Yet what shepherd of souls has not frequently met with men and women who love to speak of their religious experience, that may have occurred ten, fifteen, twenty or more years ago, saying, "I know what I experienced, here or there, so many years ago. I know that I am right, for I know when and where I first met the Saviour." And then follows an account going into the minutiae of their experience of the new birth years ago. Now we do not deprecate the assurance of such a conversion, nor disregard the source of joy the review of such an experience may prove; but in full-grown Christians other things should fill the mind and heart and hands—things that are present and near at hand, things that are before rather than behind us—and these should be equal sources of joy and serve as better proof of spiritual life than what may have happened a score of years ago. The point taken is that to a living Christian the activities of the Christian church in advancing the Redeemer's kingdom among men, and the cultivation of a well-rounded, complete personal character, perfect in Christ Jesus, should receive the greatest emphasis. Grateful for the renewing and pardoning grace of God experienced, he should now turn his attention to the work that was given him to do by Him who hired him as a laborer in God's vineyard. No husbandman is content when his acres are sown, even if the seed is the choicest of wheat. He wants to see the seed come up, and the sprouting grain protected, and the crop harvested. Neither is the grower of fruit satisfied when his trees are planted. They must be kept straight and symmetrical in their growth, pruned of wild growths and dead wood, and thus be made productive. The fruit is what he is after—not the planting of the tree, though without this there can be no yield. So God wants our lives to be bringing forth the peaceable fruit of righteousness, and our Christian characters, like so many matured trees, to bear abundantly the fruits of the Spirit, such as love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, and such like. What orchards of the Lord's planting should every congregation of professing disciples prove themselves to be! So, while conversion is important as the birth into a new life, we should not forget as Christians to emphasize the development and fruitfulness of this life as it advances. Correct views on all the points touched upon, as well as on others closely related, will not only help the sinner seeking salvation to be the sooner restored to divine favor and forgiveness, but will also help him when renewed the quickest to grow into the likeness of his divine Pattern and into a gracious agency of salvation to others.—Rev. P. C. Croll, in Lutheran Observer.