PETER'S SYSTEM OF ADDITION.
By Eliza J. Waggoner
I HAVE had many thoughts on this subject, and wondered if at conversion we were but one-seventh part prepared for heaven. The new convert in his transports of joy could hardly be convinced that such is the fact. Nevertheless it may be true. Unless the Lord ordain otherwise, and in the multitude of his mercies lay him away from the evil to come, until the resurrection, then save him alone by faith on the merits of Christ. Doubtless the Bible teaches that at conversion the Christian race is only commenced instead of completed, and we are exhorted to so run that we may obtain. Let us then look at the conditions upon which we have the assurance of standing. The apostle says, 2 Pet. i, 5, Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue, knowledge, to knowledge, temperance, to temperance, patience, &c., and ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; and he furthermore assures us that if we do these things we shall never fail; for so an entrance shall be ministered unto us abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Then, truly, will all our expectation and hopes be more than realized. But what is the conclusion if we lack these things? Verse 9: But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Alarming indeed is this species of blindness and forgetfulness. As soon would the converted soul think of forgetting that there is a God, as the miracle wrought by his Spirit in bringing him from nature's darkness into his marvelous light. But Satan is a wiley foe, and insinuates himself by degrees. He may almost imperceptibly steal away our hope. I apprehend Peter to have been a mathematician, and to know what he was talking about when he said, add. He was well aware that different denominations could not be added together. In my own mind I liken this addition to that of complex compound fractions. How much there is to be done before the adding process. Every fraction must be reduced to one common denominator, and this sometimes requires close application and all diligence. We must pursue it steadily without interruption, or we shall not succeed. Otherwise we spend our time to no purpose. But having succeeded in this and brought them to a perfect agreement, how easy is the task of adding together, and thus forming one common whole. Then if our result does not agree with the author, we do not at once say the book is wrong, and throw it away, and leave our teacher, but go clear back and do our work over and over again perhaps, thus proving it before we question the author. And by a careful examination of our work we almost invariably find the difficulty in our own miscalculation. Thus it is with adding the Christian graces. There must be a perfect agreement between our own hearts and each one, or an addition cannot be effected. For instance, we come to patience (and this is a very important item, so much so that without it we should be as a ship without a helm, driven off the wind and tossed); and although we find an agreement between our heart and the preceding three, yet here is a difficulty a positive disagreement, which, unless reconciled, will disarrange the whole, and we be obliged to go back and do our first work again, which is contrary to the teachings of Christianity. Paul says, Heb. vi, 1, "Leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance and dead works, and faith toward God." It is to be feared that many who have been converted, and started upon the Christian race, fail here, and spend the time of their probation in this same way. But we would do well to remember that God is not mocked. For that which we sow, the same shall we reap. If we sow to the flesh, we shall of the flesh reap corruption; but if we sow to the Spirit, we shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And while our work is to be tried, and we are required to prove our own selves, we are not left without a standard, one that is perfect. We can bring forward a cloud of witnesses to testify to the ability and correctness of the author of our book. His calculations have always been met to the very least fraction of a day. But if we are scholars or learners, we certainly need a teacher to assist in working out the most complex examples of this book, both in theory and in practice. And if the book does not agree with our work, nor our teacher co-incide with our views, shall we throw it away, and shut ourselves out from our teacher? No; we ought to be consistent, and listen to the instructions of those who are teaching us in the things of God, lest ere we are aware we reject the counsel of God against ourselves a little too long, choose our own way, grieve Jesus and holy angels once too often. To-day he is the same compassionate Saviour as when on earth he said, "Will ye also go away?" Do we not see in this a yearning over those he had instructed, fed, healed, and compassionated in many ways, to try to bring them into the kingdom of heaven. And what had offended them? He had been bringing out plain truths, pointed testimony, which perhaps pricked them to the heart; and although they had been following him for some time, listening with interest to his teachings, while he fed them with the pure milk of the word, yet when he considered them old enough to bear meat, they revolted, saying, "These be hard sayings, who can hear them!" And from that time forth many went back and walked no more with him. And because this was the result, shall we accuse Jesus of rashness in not ministering to them as they were able150to bear? Not so; for we find him gently leading them, and disciplining them according to their strength, often saying, "Ye cannot bear it now." And as Christ lived our example, what may we expect in the remnant church? May we not expect that those whom he has commissioned to fit up and prepare a people for his second coming, must necessarily be armed with the same mind that was in him, and that their hearts yearn over those who reject the counsel of God, and they experience something of what Jesus expressed while weeping over Jerusalem when he said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her brood under her wings, and ye would not!" How great must be the responsibility of those whose duty it is to watch for souls as those who are to give account to God. And shall we expect more of them who are but human than we could of our divine Lord, and say our meat was not in season, not of the right kind, not what we expected, not given in the proper manner, and therefore not receive it with thankfulness, that it may nourish and strengthen us, and make us healthy Christians, able to endure hardness as good soldiers for Jesus. This seems a very necessary qualification for a good soldier, to be able to endure hardness. And we would do well to be drilling in this respect, for we may expect it in the camp of the saints, as well as that of worldly armies. The warfare we engage in is none the less tedious, neither our foe any the less formidable. ELIZA J. WAGGONER.