Brethren and sisters, it gives me much gratification and joy to have the opportunity of meeting with you on this occasion. And probably there is no necessity for me to tell you why I am glad. You may be enabled to infer that, from what I may say.
I have come not to tell you of any new things, or of any strange things. And I shall not take a text this evening, for this simple fact—that I once had a text given me to preach from, to preach on, and to preach about or to explain to the people; and I have been at work for the last twenty years, and I have not done preaching yet.
We use to think that a man could preach the Gospel in one sermon, and explain all the prophecies, besides making a great many new ones. But I have learned better as I have grown older. I have found out to my astonishment, that instead of having preached all the Gospel, I have learned but very little of it yet; consequently I could not preach it all. I am a pupil in the school, but I have also been engaged by him who teaches me, to teach those of my fellow pupils, in the school, who have not advanced farther than I have.
Now, the accomplishment of the objects for which the Gospel is preached, is a matter that presents itself to our minds. It is of the greatest importance. For men might preach the Gospel till there is not a people under heaven, who have not heard it; and they might return, and sit themselves down as having faithfully made this proclamation, and still there might be but very few saved; and there might have been but a very small work accomplished: for the extent of their salvation is in accordance with the amount of principle and truth which they have learned and obeyed.
We talk about men being saved from sin, and then we get a Scriptural definition of what sin is. It is Scripturally a transgression of the law. Well, now, this leaves us just as dark as if there had been no Scripture. Then sin is a transgression of the law; but in order for us to fully comprehend the matter, we should know what the law is, so that we might know when we transgress it.
Now, for our information, supposing we leave these things, and what we have read in books, and what was told us a great many years ago, and, in our own way of expressing what we do understand, let us reason together. We will reason together as if we were at the beginning, and said all that had been said, and done all that had been done.
Well, now, so that we can understand what salvation is, we shall be enabled to comprehend the way in which we shall have to be saved. Salvation, like everything else, is something that we cannot make or create. We are not going to do one particle towards making it.
Then we will lay down this, that we are not going to make anything, or destroy anything, in becoming saved. There will be no more truth in the world, after we are saved, than there is now. The sun will rise and set, and the works of Jehovah continue to be unchanged, and there will be no difference in things only in what will relate to ourselves. Jesus is said to be the author of our salvation, having learned certain things, and having clothed himself with his love of righteousness and obedience, he came to reveal that salvation to all the sons of earth, so that all might have an opportunity of deriving such advantages as it was calculated to bestow; therefore, he was the author and revealer of the Gospel.
He said, he came unto his own, and his own received him not; but unto as many as did receive him, unto them gave he power to become the sons and daughters of God. And he gathered his disciples and Apostles around him, and taught them the truth that he himself comprehended: and he sent them forth, even as his Father had sent him forth. He said that he had come to do the will of his Father, and bear record of the truth. This was his testimony, and the object of his mission to earth. He taught his disciples this.
Now, for the accomplishment of what purpose were these things to be taught? To bring salvation to the lost and fallen sons of earth, and to bestow upon them the gift of eternal life. Well, what is salvation? It is that which we learn in our every day life; it is what the school-boy learns at school.
One of the old Apostles said, it is eternal life, to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.