FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   >>  
ith the sincere milk of God's Word_," the baptismal covenant can be kept unbroken, and the divine life developed and increased more and more. After careful instruction in the home and Church, if there is due evidence that there is Grace in the heart, that penitence and faith, which are the elements of the new life, are really present, she admits her children to the communion of the body and blood of Christ, by the beautiful and significant rite of confirmation. The scriptural doctrine of Christ's holy sacrament, which our Church holds and sets forth, and the solemn, searching preparatory service which she connects with it, make it truly calculated to strengthen the child of God, and unite him closer to Christ. Our Church insists that the whole life of the believer, in the fellowship of the Saviour and His people, is to be a "growth in Grace and in knowledge." In this, also the believer is wonderfully assisted by our teachings concerning the efficacy of the Word of God as a means of Grace, a vehicle and instrument of the Holy Spirit. He is further comforted and quickened by that precious doctrine of justification--alone by faith in Jesus Christ. He is encouraged to press forward to the mark, to purify himself more and more, to become more and more active, earnest and consecrated by what the Church teaches of sanctification. Nor does the Church overlook or forget the sad fact that many--often through the fault of those who ought to be their spiritual guides in the home and Church--lapse from their baptismal covenant, or forget their confirmation vows, and thus fall back into an unconverted state. She insists on the absolute necessity of conversion or turning back, for all such. She does not, however, expend all her energies in proclaiming its necessity, but also sets forth and makes plain the nature of conversion, and the means and methods of bringing it about. While the Church would, first of all, use every endeavor to preclude the necessity of conversion, by bringing the children to Jesus that He may receive and bless them through His own sacrament; and while she would use all diligence and watchfulness to keep them true to Christ in their baptismal covenant, yet, when they do fall away, she solemnly assures them that except they repent and be converted, they will eternally perish. And if this lamentable backsliding should take place more or less with a large portion of a congre
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   >>  



Top keywords:
Church
 

Christ

 

conversion

 

baptismal

 

covenant

 
necessity
 
confirmation
 

doctrine

 
forget
 

sacrament


insists

 

bringing

 
believer
 

children

 
backsliding
 

absolute

 
unconverted
 
lamentable
 

eternally

 

portion


congre

 

turning

 

perish

 

spiritual

 

guides

 

expend

 

receive

 

preclude

 

solemnly

 

endeavor


diligence

 
watchfulness
 

assures

 

proclaiming

 

energies

 
converted
 

methods

 
nature
 

repent

 
scriptural

significant
 

beautiful

 
communion
 
solemn
 

calculated

 

strengthen

 
connects
 

searching

 
preparatory
 

service