p. 26 | SELECTIONS

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 10, 1858

SELECTIONS.

The Perfect Christian.

"Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace." This is the language of the Psalmist. It asserts the existence of a perfect man in this world. Mark him! By a perfect man, we understand a perfect Christian. By a perfect Christian, is meant one saved from all sin, and whose heart is filled with the love of God. Hence our Saviour says, [Matt. v. 48.] "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." And also in James i, 16, "Be ye holy, for I am holy." God is perfect; a pattern of perfection to all his people. There can be no sin in his infinite nature—nothing but purity, goodness and love. So we are commanded to be free from sin, and to be filled with the Divine Spirit; and to show the truth of this the Apostle says, [Rom. viii. 2.] "And the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, hath made us free from the law of sin and death." To be a perfect Christian, then, is nothing more than to be saved from all sin, and to love God with all the heart, soul, might and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves. Therefore to be a perfect Christian, does not mean that in every sense we must be as perfect as God, as angels, or as Adam

was before the fall. God is perfect in a sense in which no other being can be. Angels have a perfection peculiar to themselves. They are perfect angels. Adam had a perfection peculiar to his state as a sinless being. When he fell he not only became polluted by sin, but all the powers of his soul became greatly debilitated. From this state of debilitation he cannot be restored in this world. Therefore, when we speak of a perfect Christian, we do not mean one that is as perfect as God, as angels, or as Adam was in his state of innocency, but we simply mean one who is free from all sin—as free as God, angels, or Adam before his apostasy—one whose heart is filled with love to God and man.

Neither are we to suppose that a perfect Christian is free from all the evils and infirmities of life. These in a greater or less degree will follow him through this "vale of tears." He will always possess a body subject to disease and pain, and which must sooner or later go into the grave. He will always be liable to err in judgment, and this may lead to unintentional errors in practice. But those errors and infirmities are not sins. They are inseparable with man's fallen state; and unless they spring from disobedience to the will of God, may be considered innocent, and for which he is not held responsible. Therefore, since we claim not Adamic perfection for man in his present state, he may be subject to many of the evils and infirmities of life which are the necessary results of the fall, and from which God never designed to restore man fully in this world, and still be a perfect Christian; that is, saved from all sin and filled with the Divine Spirit. He who expects Adamic or angelic perfection, in every respect, from man in his present state, has widely mistaken the subject, and stands in great need of being instructed from the scriptures of truth. And he stands equally in need of being thus instructed, who sup-poses that because man cannot be saved from all the infirmities of his nature in this world, he must necessarily live in sin, and perpetually transgress the law of God. Such a sentiment is most preposterous; and it is unaccountably strange that it should ever be advanced and defended by professing Christians. This, however, may be accounted for, when we consider how strangely warped and blinded men will become by prejudice, or by strong attachment to long cherished opinions. But this chain of deception and absurdity is broken.—Guide to Perfection.