The Gospel

The Gospel

i'.V NEPHI JENSEN

Emerson, in his essay on Plato, quotes with approval: "Heshall he as a god to me, who can rightly divide and define." Thisis high praise for those who formulate definitions. But any onewho has attempted to give the meaning of some words in dailyuse will admit that Emerson's encomium is not extravagant. Thelittle word "truth" followed by a question mark, is still shroudedin as much mystery as the sphinx.

Definition. It is almost as difficult to fully and correctlydefine the word "Gospel" as it is to tell what truth is. Aroundthis plain, Anglo-Saxon word has raged many a bitter, hard-fought, polemic battle. What a world of strife would have beenavoided if every student of Christianity who has written or spokenthis word had known fully what he was talking or writing about?

It is a very common experience of missionaries of the Churchto have some one accost them, at the close of a meeting held bythe elders, and ask half defiantly, "Why are you sent to preach tous? We have the gospel." What do these critics mean? Simplythat they have the New Testament record of the life, ministry, andteachings of the Christ. To modern Christians the story of theChrist is the gospel. And they seem to find warrant for this no-tion in the words of Paul, in the fifteenth chapter of first Corin-thians. The chapter opens with the words. "Moreover, brethren,I declare unto you the gospel." Then follows a brief recital of theimportant facts in Christ's ministry. But the language of thesecond verse of this chapter, "By which also ye are saved," indi-cates that Paul understood the gospel to be something more thanthe story of the ministry of Jesus Christ.

The definition of the Anglo-Saxon, "godspell," which is"story of God" is incomplete, for the gospel is more than a story.Mark speaks of the "beginning of the gospel." Evidently he isnot speaking of the beginning of a story, but the inauguration ofthe practice of a system of religion. The real nature and purposeof that system of religion is expressed in Paul's testimony to theRomans: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, forit is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that be-lieveth."

The gospel is the truth about man's divinely ordained destiny,plus divine power to work out that destiny. It is not only "Theplan of salvation," but it is also, as Winston Churchill says, the

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"motive force" that impels man to follow the plan. It is theprinciples, ordinances and agencies through which and by whichman calls to his aid, in his struggles to be free from the deadlyfoes of the sold, the "power of God," the power by which thestrength of God is added to the strength of man.

The gospel is better than any human code of conduct; pri-marily because it not only tells man what is right, but gives himthe strength to do the right. The wise man can say to another,"You are doing wrong," but he cannot give the wrong doer thewill to turn from the wrong. The moralist can graphically pictureto the sinner the tragic end of the downward course, but he can-not nerve the sinner with the strength to break the shackles of hisbondage. The gospel is stronger and truer than the wisest wordsof the wisest men, because it has the power to make bad mengood and good men better.

A true believer in the gospel of Christ can have no sympathywith Dr. Charles Eliot's notion that in the religion of the futurethere will be nothing "supernatural." The distinctive work of thegospel is to transmute human nature into divine nature. If itfails to do this, there is no more excuse for its existence thanthere is for the writings of Plato. If the gospel does not impartthe faith that can "quench the violence of fire," and "stop themouths of lions," it is a mere sentiment devoid of saving virtue.

That man needs superhuman aid in his struggle to rise abovethe influence of enslaving sin. and that, by compliance with certainirrevocable laws, thus obtain such aid, is the bedrock founda-tion of the gospel of Christ. "Ask and ye shall receive'' is thesupreme promise of the Christ. Religion, as a divine institution,rests upon the validity of this promise. If the soul that asks Go 1in faith for a needed blessing, does not receive an unmistakableanswer, religion is a mere human fabric, woven in the looms ofhuman ingenuity. Sir Oliver Lodge was profoundly impressedwith the idea that the simple question, "Does God answer prayer?"is the greatest of all questions about religion :

"The whole controversy hinges, in one sense, on a practical pivot—the efficacy of grayer. Ts prayer, to hypothetical and supersensuonsheings, as senseless and useless as it is unscientific, or does prayerpierce through the husk and apparent covering of the sensuous uni-verse, and reach something living, loving, and helpful beyond?"

But how can man call to his aid the Omnipotent? By whatfaculty of the soul can frail mortal man command the "powers ofHeaven?" The name of that faculty is "faith." It is throughfaith that the gospel becomes the "power of God unto salva-tion." "By grace." savs Paul, "ye are saved, through faith."And lest men might supnose that faith is merely the self confi-dence that impels man. in merely human endeavors, Paul adds.

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"It is not of works, lest any man should boast." Does Paul hereteach that salvation "by grace," comes without human effort?By no means. What the apostle emphasizes is the principle that"works" dissociated with that living faith in God, that makesworks effective, will not save. Works without faith are as dead asfaith is without works. Suppose you have a message you want tosend to London. You can send it in two ways. You may havea person actually go to London with it, or you can send it instantlyby wireless telegraphy. Suppose, after you had delivered yourmessage to some one and requested him to transmit it, you shouldmeet a man working on a railroad track between Salt Lake Cityand New York, and you should ask him why he was repairingthe road, and he should say, "Oh I am improving this track sothat a certain messenger, who is about to carry an important mes-sage to London, can pass this way safely." Would you notbe tempted to say, "Intercommunication is not 'by works,' butby electricity?" The mental act that snatched from the lightningthe secret of electricity has clone more to ease human burdens,and surround man with the comforts of life, than ages of physicaltoil. So, too, the supreme act of faith that brings to the soul the"grace of God," does more to transform the soul than years ofspasmodic efforts at self culture without divine aid. What in-ventive genius is in the industrial world,' faith is in the realm ofreligion.

Paul's positive declaration about the inefficiency of "works,"dissociated with living faith in God, was evidently intended tohumble the haughty egotists who never think of seeking aid fromGod, as long as there is a vestige of human help available. Con-cern about the hidden future sends these men to a palmist or aclairvoyant. Aches and pains send them to the doctor. Amidisturbances of the mind lead them to the use of narcotics. Theyknow no skill except the human, and no solace truer than somechemical compound. They do not seek God until they reach thelast desperate extremity and then only with an insipid faith thatcommands no favor from God.

The faith which the gospel teaches is something much deeperand truer than a mere mental assent to the idea of divine existence.It is a soul-rooted, living assurance that God will interpose in theaffairs of men, not contrary to natural law, but in harmony witha law, superior to the laws of nature, and bestows blessings whichno human skill can give. This faith is a gift of God. It is basedupon the promises of God, and comes, as Paul says, "by hearingthe word of God." And the word of God, here referred to bvPaul, is the word spoken by a man who, bv the authority of God,speaks as God's agent the words God's Spirit impresses him tospeak. The word of an affect is the word of his principal to thecustomer of the principal only when the customer is assure 1 that

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the agent actually has authority to speak for the principal. So,too, it is the word spoken by God's authority that is the word ofGod to the hearers. It is only this word that creates faith in God.And this is so because of the psychological law that the voicetransmutes into sound the knowledge the soul holds. If theteacher of the gospel knows that he has authority from God tospeak a certain message, his voice will transmit to his hearers thespeaker's certainty of the divinity of the message. Such a teach-er is, as Edward Lewis says,

"A voice, not an echo. He is a revealer, not an interpreter. Hecreates, he does not reproduce. He does not hang on a gospel, himselfis the gospel. He has life in himself. He is less a messenger than heis himself the message. He is so highly charged with spiritual vitali-ties, that his presence is electric, his very body magnetic, his ideas arcexplosive, his passion is a consuming flame, his gestures are thethrusts or the caresses of the Eternal. He is filled with the Spirit tothe point of saturation. There is something about him that suggests,makes palpable, that Bigger World which is the Other World, theInfinite Life, the Universal Soul, the All-embracing Harmony, theReality of God, and the Rest which ever 'flows around our restless-ness.' "

Salvation "through faith," does not mean salvation withouteffort. It means salvation through efficient effort. It is throughfaith that man learns to know God, whom to know is life eternal.The saint who, in his need, reaches out in faith for help from Godand receives an unmistakable answer learns to know the power ofGod, and to know the power of God is to know him. The childreceives its deepest soul experience when it rushes from sometrouble to its mother's warm embrace, and feels the soothing ofher lullaby. So, too, the adult who turns from the torment oferror and seeks God in trusting faith for help, and in answerfeels the calm impress of his Spirit, receives the most certainexperience of truth and power that ever comes to a mortal. Itis in this way that man receives the testimony of the truth, whichmakes him so certain of the nobility of goodness and the majestyof truth, that evil becomes loathsome to him.

Faith is not only the key to the knowledge of God, but it isthe gateway to repentance. Without faith in the Christ there isno repentance. It is when the erring one through faith discoversthat God is still his friend, in spite of the erring ones' unworthi-ness, that he is mellowed to humility, and his soul is filled withdeep regret. When the hope Christ's atonement holds blends withthis regret, dead human despair is turned into that "Godly sorrow"that completely reverses the soul's attitude to sin, and turns thehuman love of evil into Godly love of the good. This "Godlysorrow" for sin is something deeper and truer than the "Sorrowof the world" which impels the wrong-doer to change his per-verse course out of the selfish desire for respectability. "The

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sorrow of the world," may lead to a partial outward reformation,but it does not quench the heart's desire for sinful things. "Thesorrow of the world" is dead, because it does not open the deepwell springs of the soul, out of which issue the heart's holiestmotives. It is only in the forge of "Godly sorrow" that thelove of evil is transmuted into the love of the good, and thedivine will welded to the human will. Repentance born of "Godlysorrow" is rising from a human fall by divine strength. It isgenuine. It is true. It conforms the soul to truth, through thepure love of the truth.

The Godly repentance the gospel inspires is the law of moralgrowth and development. It is the very principle of spirituallife. Its operation is almost identical with the principle of phys-ical life. The biologist tells us that if we examine a living cellunder the microscope, we shall see three things, nutriment tofeed the cell, the living part of the cell, and the dying part of thecell. Moreover the biologists say that life consists in the ceaselessprocess of the cell taking on nutriment and thereby becomingalive at one point and dying at another; and that when the cellstops dying it stops living, because continuity of the processof changing nutriment into living matter ceases. What the dyingof the cell in the body is to physical life, repentance is to thespiritual life. It is the "daily dying" of the evil in the soul tomake room for the life of the good. The holy motive, whichimpels the sin-tormented soul to say, "I will arise and go to myfather," springs from the ashes of evil deeds.

The oft repeated truism that every effect is the result of anadequate cause, is as true in religion as in science. The deepimpelling motive that effectively turns the soul from wrong toright is not self-caused. Without this "Godly sorrow" for sinthat stirs the soul to its very depths, there is no repentance thatpermanently reforms.

But progress is not possible through repentance alone. With-out the faith and hope that the atonement of Christ brings, the sin-ner "struggling to be free" would become discouraged and giveup the fight. In order that the penitent one might hopefully con-tinue the fight against the enemies of the soul he must be assuredthat the ghosts of past sins will not haunt him. How can he beassured of this? How can two persons who have becomeestranged because of the wrongful act of the one towards theother be reconciled ? Human experience says, Only through sometoken passing between them by which both are assured that thepast is forgiven. This token may be a word, a look or an ac-tion. If it carries the thought, "let's forget the past," it removesthe estrangement and the spirits of the two again meet as watermeets water. Likewise the repentant sinner must receive his as-surance of forgiveness from God' through some divine token of

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reconciliation. Through baptism, "by faith in the operation"there comes to the soul the assurance of forgiveness. This veri-fication in the soul of God's promise of "remission of sins" doesnot come from the element of water, but through obedience in-duced by living faith. But faith deep enough and true enough toobtain the witnesses of forgiveness by baptism comes only throughthe atonement of Christ, and the deep conviction that the one whoadministers the ordinance acts for and in God's stead by divine ap-pointment. This is no mere dogmatizing. The doctrine is true tothe soul's truest experience. An intelligent man in conversationwith the writer said. "If I were sick, I should as soon have mylittle daughter kneel by my bedside and pray for me, as to have aduly appointed elder of the Church administer to me." What iswrong with this man's logic? I was about to say it is not logicat all, but will only say it is neither theological nor philosophical,ft is an echo from the modern Christian pulpit from which wehear nothing more significant about prayer than that it is a beau-tiful sentiment. Prayer is a fact as well as a sentiment. So arethe ordinances of the gospel when administered by the priesthoodof God. And it is good philosophy, as well as good theology, tosay that those who receive the ordinances of the gospel at thehands of men who officiate in the authority of the holy priesthood,obey the laws of God with a deeper and intenser faith than thosewho receive these ordinances from men self-appointed. The great,solemn, awe-inspiring thought that one is receiving an ordinanceadministered by one who, of a truth, acts in God's stead, so in-tensifies faith that there comes to the soul the grace predicatedupon obedience. The difference between an ordinance of the gos-pel and an ordinance of men, is the difference between fact andfeigning. The one is a lifeless form, the other is a vital soul-stirring fact.

But reconciliation to God through baptism is not the end ofthe gospel plan of progress and development. Progress meanseffort, and effort requires energy. Just as the body through theravages of disease loses strength, so the spirit is devitalize^ an 1benumbed through sin. "The soul that sinneth shall die." Lossof consciousness is one aspect of death. Through sin man loseslife. Before he can progress, this life must be reawakened in him.Christ's positive declaration to Nicodemus that a man must beborn of the Spirit, is not mere dogma. It is profoundly phil-osophical. Experience has proved it absolutely true. Life comesonly from antecedent life, says the biologist. Spiritual life comesonly from the divine source of spiritual life, says the gospel. Andthe gospel principle of the transmission of life is as true as thebiological. By the natural birth man comes into the consciousnessof the physical world. By the birth of the Spirit, he comes intothe consciousness of the reality and beauty of spiritual things.

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The gift of the Holy Ghost is the crowning grace of the gos-pel. It is through the operation of the Holy Spirit that souls areconverted. By this Spirit the "lusts of the flesh and the prideof the eye" are changed into the love of the spiritual and theglory of the good and true; and souls are made "new creatures inChrist Jesus." The Spirit "entwines into our lives" the life ofGod, it enshrines in our hearts the heart of God, and welds to< ur brain the mind of God.

The Holy Ghost not only "leads into all truth," but it alsofills the soul with that knowledge of truth that "makes men free."Voltaire says, "Power is liberty." It is equally true to say, lib-erty is security against deceit, for every enticement that leads thesoul from the security of truth, speaks in the serpent's originalwords, "It is desirable." Only he is secure against sin's insidi-ous enticing, who has a living present knowledge of the good andtrue. And only those who are in the possession of the spirit oftruth have this knowledge. For it is not the brain that knows,it is the soul. We feel the truth rather than know it. To thosewhose smattering knowledge of science has inclined them to thenotion that reason is the "only torch," and that men who tal1cabout being "led by the Spirit," are just a little impracticable, itmight be interesting to know that so great a scientist as JohnBurroughs recently wrote,

"We do not know a work of art in the same way in which weknow a work of science, or any product of analytical reasoning—weknow it as we know those we love and are in sympathy with; it doesnot define itself to our intellect, it melts into our souls."

It is because the "Spirit of Truth," puts men "into sympathywith" the good, and "melts" the true into their souls, that it is amore infallible guide than the wisest thoughts the wisest sageshave put into men's brains. The wisdom of a proverb only gui !eswhile the thought of it lingers in the mind, but the Spirit entwinesitself into the very fibers of the soul, and becomes a part of thesoul's nature, just as the sunlight weaves itself into the fiber offruit and flower.

The gospel, then, consists of those principles and agenciesby which and through which the "power of God" comes to man'said and transforms him to the "Stature and fulness of Christ."Through faith the soul finds the truth, through repentance it isconformed to the truth, through baptism it is reconciled to thetruth, and through the Spirit it is made alive in truth.

Is the gospel true? Does it really enshrine in the heart thegreat trinity of Christian virtues, faith, hope and charity? Letits history answer. Neither the flaming fagots, nor the gnashingfangs of wild beasts could break the gospel's grip upon the prim-itive Saints. The history of the restored gospel is no less eloquentin its testimony to the superhuman power of the plan of redemp-

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tion. In our time it has proven to be stronger than the lure ofgold, truer than the ties of kindred, and more powerful than theliar of death !

FOREST DALE, UTAH

Learn More

"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing,Drink deep, or touch not the Pierian Spring."

We must learn more.

'Tis not enough that we behold the growth of years,

Or read the lore

In tomes, piled high by ancient masters wrought,

Whose yellow pages mark the slow progress of time

That long before our day

Have gathered to themselves a wealth of thought;

And lightly skim them as the swallow skims the sky.

'Tis not the whole of life, to live and die.

We have climbed well,

And left behind the vale of ignorance and doubt

Where nations fell

Enchained and fettered by Tradition's hand.

We have harked the voice of knowledge

Like a bell ring out

Until her light of Freedom warmed the land.

And midway standing, we, twixt gloom and sun,

Why pause we thus and wist the guerdon won?

Do you not know

Oh man of Science, nature wise and grim,

As through slow,

Long years you trace her works with eyes half blind.

If satisfied you stand denying any hand save Chance,

The one-celled amoeba

Its genesis shall tell from shore to shore?

Seek further till at last you come to know

Man's wisdom cannot make a seed to grow.

'Twere all in vain!

Achievement's triumph. Invention's wondrous gifts

Were little gain

When they but aid mankind to lay their brothers low;

When thirst for knowledge turns to thirst for blood;

While bitter pain and woe

Like scourges dire, the land and sea o'erflow.

They learned to skim the air, the waters span,

Yet learned they not The Brotherhood of Man.

Oh haste the Day

When man shall drop his egotistic prideAnd once more lay

His hard earned laurels at the throne of Grace,And still toil on, nor satisfied, but ever on.He then will say: "Creator,Throughout the universe Thy hand I trace,With eye and brain Thy mysteries I behold.Yet can I not a millionth part unfold."r-Rovo, utah Viva Huish Ray