SECOND LEAF.

True Repentance the Consequence of Faith—Original Sin and Actual Sin—The Work of Redemption—Universal Redemption from Original Sin—Conditions of Salvation from Actual sin—Baptism, its Object, Mode and Effect—A New Creature in Christ Jesus.

Faith in God once quickened in the human heart, conscience is awakened and the mind is self-convicted of sin. Repentance follows as the consequence. This includes sorrow for the past and determination for the future. This first of these without the second is not genuine repentance. It is barren and fruitless, and is therefore unacceptable to God. Resolutions of future rectitude are naturally accompanied by grief for past wrong-doing, but regret may exist without reform, and such is not saving repentance, the virtue of which is in turning from evil and cleaving to good. Tears, self-reproaches, lamentations, self-abasement in language or in gesture do not constitute repentance, no matter how loudly they may be indulged in or how conspicuous they may appear, but it is evidenced by forsaking things one knows to be wrong and practising that which one is satisfied is right. Humility is one of its chief characteristics and this prompts obedience.

As repentance follows faith, so baptism succeeds repentance. For the wish to work righteousness in future implies a desire for forgiveness of past guilt, and baptism is ordained for the remission of sins. This opens the broad questions of sin and redemption and the doctrine of the atonement.

There are two general divisions of sin, viz., original and actual. Original sin is that which was committed by the parents of the race, the consequences of which pass upon all of their posterity. Actual sin is that committed by each individual and for which he is personally responsible. Adam and Eve broke the divine law given to them in the garden, the penalty for which was death, natural and spiritual; the first being the separation of the spirit and the body, and the second, banishment from the presence of God. The taint descended to their offspring. Death is the common lot, and a vail is drawn between man and his Maker. Thus mankind are prone to do evil, and the consequence is that "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." "The wages of sin is death."

Redemption is rescue from the results of the fall. This can only be achieved by the raising of the race from the dead and restoring them to the presence of God. To effect this, Christ came. Doing no sin, He gave Himself as a ransom for those who sinned. He upon whom death had no claim gave Himself to death that he might satisfy eternal justice and give mercy room to act. Death came by Adam, life comes by Christ. Through one act death entered the world, through one act life will come to all that death has grasped. "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." Good and bad, believer and unbeliever, male and female, young and old will be raised from the dead and brought into the presence of the Eternal Father. This is the work of Jesus of Nazareth, who shed His blood in this great atonement to redeem all mankind from the fall.

But this was only part of His work. He died not only to atone for original sin but for actual sin, and to become the mediator between God and man. "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin;" this is the law. His blood was shed for the sins of the whole world. For original sin unconditionally, for actual sin conditionally. Mankind had no part in the commission of the original sin, they perform nothing in the redemption therefrom. Its effects came through no acts of theirs; those effects will be removed without anything they may do. No conditions are required as preliminaries to redemption from original sin; it was committed by Adam, it was atoned for by Jesus Christ. But as each person is guilty of his own sins, so he must comply with the conditions which will entitle him to the full benefits of Christ's atonement for his own sins. Among these conditions are faith, repentance and baptism.

Saving faith must necessarily include the Son as well as the Father in its objects, because salvation comes from the Father through the Son, and as Christ died for all, there is no other name but His given under heaven whereby man can be saved. Repentance, as we have shown, includes humility, which leads to obedience, and baptism follows, in which is given to the repentant believer that remission of sins, obtained through the shedding of Christ's blood in the place of the blood of the sinner.

Baptism as a part of the gospel is the complete immersion in water of a repentant believer, by a man having authority to act "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." All this is essential to its validity. The candidate must believe and repent. The administrator must have divine authority. The ordinance must be performed correctly. There is but "one baptism," as there is but "one Lord and one faith." Any other kind of baptism is spurious and of no effect.

The believing, repentant sinner, after making covenant with God to forsake evil and keep His commandments, is taken down into the water by the duly authorized and ordained representative of the Lord Jesus, and, being dead to his old sins by repentance, is buried from his old life by immersion in the watery grave; and then, raised up again to newness of life, is "born of the water," and stands on earth a new creature in Christ Jesus. He is clean before God. He is as pure from guilt as a new-born babe. Though his sins were as scarlet, he is now washed whiter than wool, and is prepared for the next step on the straight and narrow path which leads to life eternal. Happy indeed is he. Joy unspeakable fills his heart. Peace indescribable dwells in his bosom. Purity shines in all his nature. He has entered by the door, into the sheep fold, and is one of the flock of Christ. The load of his past misdeeds is rolled from his shoulders and he is free. The liberty of the gospel is his. Henceforth he should be the servant only of the King of Kings, and a soldier of the cross.

But he has a warfare to fight which will require all his strength, resolution and fortitude. For he has come out from the world and the world will hate and persecute him, and malign him, and try to despitefully use him. The flesh of his own being will be in conflict with his spiritual nature now brought into actual life. And Satan, the great adversary of the children of light, with his hosts of emissaries will take special pains to tempt and try to allure him from the path of salvation. But God will be on his side, and if he holds true to his baptismal covenants he will come off more than conqueror over all, and obtain the full and complete benefits of the atonement wrought out by the spotless and merciful Savior, who henceforth is his loved and loving Lord.