Is It the Power of God?
By W. W. Prescott
THE gospel is "glad tidings," or it is the veriest mockery. The gospel is "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth," or it is an illusion and a cheat. If man of himself is in good case, free, happy, satisfied, he does not care for good tidings of great joy. It is not even wise kindness to offer food to him who is full. If man has within himself divine power, or as the theistic evolutionists express it, "divine immanence," by which all the lower tendencies of his nature may be overcome, why should the gospel be proclaimed to him as the good tidings of the power of God which may be appropriated by the believer? But let the critics and the unbelievers say what they will, the gospel meets man's need, and it is the only thing which does meet man's need. Man is a sinner and a dying creature. Notwithstanding that men declare the law of God abolished, man knows that he is a sinner.4Notwithstanding the prevalence of Satan's great falsehood, "Ye shall not surely die," man knows that he is a dying creature, and lives continually in dread of the pale monster. Conscience and instinct, despite hardness of heart and erroneous teaching, force continually upon the human heart that man is a sinner and death a terrible reality. They witness to the truth of the Inspired Word, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." The physician's shingle, the advertised remedies, the undertaking parlors, the silent city of the dead, and the habiliments of wo and mourning, are in constant evidence of the unsaved condition of humanity. Into such a race of beings comes God's gospel—good tidings, because filled with His creative power to redeem. It declares that man must be "born from above," and it has power to effect the wonderful transformation. Its reception cleanses from sin, enthrones Jesus as Lord within the heart, brings the rebel into harmony with the divine government, writes in the heart the righteousness of God, and makes the doing of His commandments a delight. It renovates the entire man. It changes from the leprosy of sin to the wholeness of health, and brings forth the fruits of the Spirit to the glory of God in the place of the corrupt works of the flesh. The good tidings—the power of God—received makes better fathers and mothers, better sons and daughters, better neighbors, better families. It gives joy and gladness despite all the sufferings and calamities to which this life is incident, and hope of eternal life beyond the grave. They who receive it, may be persecuted unto death for the sake of Him who died to give the gospel, as millions have in the past; but the hope and comfort of the gospel with all the persecutions is better than all the world without it. It makes present through the eternal Spirit a present Saviour now, and points forward to a glorious eternity with Him, where sin and death shall be no more. This is the gospel, the "eternal good tidings" which we present to our readers, which it is our prayer that all may know.
W.