To be near unto God - pagina 571

to be daily in spiritual touch with such in one's town, in order to strengthen the faith and in behalf of mutual edification. Only, common fellowship with the godly is altogether different from

lent

the

sense

of

sharing

a

common

lot

"with

all

With "the

saints" the Scripture does not speak of subjective, personal piety, but of objective sanctification through and in Christ. 'The saints."

saints"

who have been Not your choice, but the God here counts. Not a fellowship with

are

the redeemed, they

drawn unto eternal

life.

choice of those whom you think are godly, but sharers in a common lot with those who have been effectively called of

Thus the

God.

not narrow, not multitude which parts of the world, here and up yonder, from the daj^s of Paradise As until now, and from now on to all eternity. we sing in the Te Deum: "The holy church throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee." circle of the saints is

provisional, not local, but it no one can number, in all

is

a*

Hence, "with all saints" means fellowship with those who have been and will be redeemed by the blood of Christ in your immediate surroundings, in your^, whole land, in your church, in other churches, in other lands, both in the present, in the past and in the future. It is the whole "body of Christ" with all its members, not one excepted.

all

With the patriarchs and prophets, the apostles and martyrs from of old, with your redeemed relatives and family members and acquaintances, who have gone before into eternity, with those who •

567

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