ALONE WITH GOD     

  This is the one all important and absolutely essential attribute of the divine church. Before God put forth the first creative act in the formation of this world, he determined that its inhabitants should be holy. "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." Eph. 1:4. For this reason he created man in his own image—in his own moral likeness. And this image of God in which man was created and to which he is restored by the all transforming and sanctifying grace of God is "righteousness and true holiness" Eph. 4: 23). "After God" must mean after the original pattern in which man was created—after the moral likeness of his own Maker, which is defined as "righteousness and true holiness." Col. 3: 9, 1(), leaves us no shadow of a doubt that this original God likeness, from which we have the word " godliness," is restored to the soul of man here in this life: "Seeing that ye have put off the old man [evil nature] with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him. that created him." Here we see that salvation in the second Adam brings back the holy image of God that man lost by sin in the first Adam.

  This moral perfection in man is essential to the very object of his being. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy." Lev. 19:1, 2. "But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manlier of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy." 1 Pet. 1:15, 16. Can any thoughtful mind read these words without receiving the impression that God created man to enjoy the blessing of fellowship and companionship with him? to enjoy the society of God and to be a "worker together with him" in carrying forward his beneficent plans? the imperative command is, "Be ye holy"; and the one great and all sufficient reason for the injunction is, "Because I the Lord your God am holy." The import of the reason is this: Man was created to walk with God. God being holy, man also must be holy; otherwise there can be no affinity between God and man, no adaptation to each other's society. Therefore when our first parents by sin lost their holiness of heart, the image of God, they were spoiled for his heavenly society. They dreaded his approach, and hid with fear and trembling when they heard his voice. They having now become unholy, his holiness drove them out from his presence. And let it here be considered that as heaven is filled with the holiness and presence of Cod, it is the utmost folly and delusion to cherish a hope of entering into its ineffable glory unless one is made perfect and spotless in holiness before God. "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord"; but "blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

  For this great object was the church established here on earth. She is the mountain of God's own holiness, and her plane of moral perfection is the plane of heaven. She is all one "family in heaven and earth," so that all who are in fellowship with her are in fellowship with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ (1 John 1:3), and are consequently fitted for the enjoyment of all the holy society of heaven. The church of the living God is paradise restored on earth, a "new creation." No person can enter it except through salvation from all sin, and no person can remain in the church after he ceases to be holy, any more than Adam and Eve could remain in Eden after they had become corrupted by sin. As their own sin made the presence of God unendurable and necessarily drove them out, so "every branch in Christ that bringeth not forth good fruit, the Father taketh away." There are, then, no unholy branches in the Christ vine. "for if the first fruit [Christ] be holy; . . . so are the branches ." Rom. 11: 16.

  Persons belonging to the different religious organizations that men have founded, it is said, ought to be holy; but all the members of God's church are holy. When member of a modern sect are judged unworthy of membership, it is in the power of its rulers, by some course prescribed in their discipline, to expel such; but when men become unfit to dwell in the body of Christ, they thereby forfeit their membership, and, so to speak, expel themselves. God's church is self adjusting. "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not. " " l He that committeth sin is of the devil. " 1 John 3: 6, 8. By the act of sinning he transfers himself front the family of God to the family of Satan. "As the root is holy, so are also the branches." Therefore the unholy are not branches at all.

  The chief end of man's existence is to worship the Lord. But how must a holy God be worshiped ? Answer: " Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." Psa. 29: 2. "O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; fear before him all the earth." Psa. 96: 9. The same in substance is required by the Savior in the absolute demand, " God is a Spirit, and they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth." Since God's church is on the plane of spiritual worship to God, it is holy in his sight.

  The church is also seen to be holy unto God because he walks in the midst of her. 'Where two or three meet in my name, there am I in the midst of them.' 'And I will manifest myself unto you as I do not unto the world.' These and similar statements show a social communion between God and his people in the new Jerusalem, which is the church of the firstborn; and holiness is just as essential now to the enjoyment of the society of God as it was when its loss drove Adam and Eve from his presence.

  But still more strikingly does the holiness of God's church on earth appear when we consider it as the actual dwelling place of God. " In whom ye also are builded together for a habitation God through the Spirit." "As God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them." Can any person conceive of God dwelling in any other than a holy temple? Nay, "the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." 1 Cor. 3: 17. Neither can a few unholy ones pass under cover of the general holiness of others. Had there been a thousand holy men in Eden, they would have intensified rather than decreased the fire of God's holy presence and would have made the place all the more unendurable to the sinner. So no hypocrite can smuggle himself into the awful temple of God's presence. To the unholy "God is a consuming fire." "Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous." Psa. 1: 5. There never was nor ever can be a sinner or unholy person in the church, which is the body of Christ. Such characters may and do assemble with the church, and may seek to pass for members of the body, and where the church is deficient in discerning, such may actually pass undetected, but they are not in the church.

  The foregoing is apparent when we consider what constitutes membership in any society. First, the conditions and process of becoming a member must be met; and, secondly, the name must be entered on the roll of membership. Therefore the class book of any sect decides who are and who are not its members. No matter how much a man may affirm his membership, if his name is not recorded in the classbook, his claim is false; and no difference how vile a character may be, if his name stands on the book, he is a member, even though the society be ashamed to confess the fact. Now, it is by these same two tests that we define membership in God's church. First, all must enter through Christ, the only door, and by the process of salvation (John 10: 9; Eph. 2: 18); for there is no other possible admittance. Second, he must have his name in the Lamb's book of life; for there is no other enrollment of the names of all the household of God. Thus no one can enter except by obtaining salvation, and all that are thus born of God do not commit sin, but are "holy brethren"; and, furthermore, no sinner or hypocrite has deceived God and got his name written down in heaven, and whosoever commits sin and does not continue to overcome, that man's name is blotted out of the book of life. "And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book " ( Ex. 32 : 33 ); but " he that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life." Rev. 3 5. There are, then, no sinners' names continued on the book of God's church, nor names of any who have been overcome by the devil or any evil agent. There is not an unholy member in the church of God. She is a ''spiritual house, an holy priesthood ," " a chosen generation, a royal priesthood , an holy nation , a peculiar people" (1 Pet. 2: 5, 9). Yea, saith her Lord, "Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee. " S. of Sol. 4; 7.