QUES. 6.-Will you please explain a few questions I will ask? I have tried to be a Christian now for seven weeks, and yet sin has dominion over me. I have earnestly asked God to give me power over all sin, but I have no answer, and I cannot tell where my mistake i« To be converted, I understand a man has to confess to God that he has sinned, and then he would have the new life, if he were anxious for it, and would be able to put away the old ways. Or, would one have to make right all, or any, of his past wrongs to his fellow-men before God would give him power over sin?

Can a man lose eternal life while he lives here on earth, and how, please ? I want to know how I stand.

I believe the Bible says, to sin against the Holy Ghost is eternal death, but I know not what that sin is.

When a man is converted, will there be any change whereby he may know it ?

Sir. I intend to ask no vain questions. I am only anxious to leave off all sin, and live as God would have me live.

ANS.-There are very few sincere souls who, in the course of their Christian experience, have not asked the questions you now do.

First of all, " power over sin " is not the primary part of Christianity. There is something of cast importance before that. The epistle to the Romans, which is the great exposition of Christianity in the Scriptures, does not touch the question of power over sin until the 6th chapter. Has your soul, then, firmly grasped, first of all, the great fundamental truth of the first five chapters ? If not, your occupation with power over sin is but of little use, save, perhaps, in teaching you more deeply your need of a Saviour, by the greater sense of your sinful state.

If you ask what is that great fundamental truth of the first five chapters, let us ask you to read carefully and prayerfully the third chapter. It brings man, whoever he be, before the bar of God, where no less than fourteen charges are there brought against him -against you. If he pleads guilty, God's way of clearing him is told from verse 19 to the end of the chapter. It is a righteous way, for Christ on the cross bore all that sin deserved at the hand of God. It is a gracious way, for it is wonderful grace for such sinners as we are, to find our sins all gone from the moment we believe on Jesus. It is a loving way too, for what marvelous love is seen in God thus giving His beloved Son to provide salvation for us at such great cost. Again, it is a holy way, for God, through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, can open His holy arms wide to the vilest of sinners who comes to Him confessing his sins, and freely receive him at once, without violating in the least His holiness. See Luke 15:11-24. In this way too the repenting thief was taken from his cross to Paradise without delay. See Luke 23 :39-43.

Your letter would indicate that you consider power over sin to be the way of salvation. The cases I have just put before you in Scripture say not a word about that. Power over sin is not the way of salvation ; it is the fruit of it. Salvation comes by what Christ has done for us on the cross.
Once we have believed what Christ has done for us, we know our relationship with God. We know we are His children. We know He loves us, and that nothing can ever separate us from His love. It is this which brings power over sin, and a desire for a holy and fruitful life. The Holy Spirit is given to us for this, and He dwells in every believer.

One thing, however, is to be kept in mind:The old, sinful nature is still in us ; it is never changed; it is as prone to lead us into evil at the end of our Christian life as at the beginning. The way of power against it is told in chapter 6 of the Romans, especially in verses 6-14:not only did God lay our sins on Christ at the cross, but He crucified "our old man" there too. Our old man is our self as born of Adam. If God crucified our old man there, let us account him so, and obey His desires and lusts no more.

In 1 John 1:8-10 you will get a good idea of what " conversion " is. There is not a word said there about making good the wrongs we have done, right and good as that is, as far as we can. You must not encumber the grace of God, and thus cloud it. Many do that, until they turn grace into law, and thus hinder the blessing of souls, and the fruitfulness which follows.

As to losing eternal life, read John 10 :27-29. No words of man can he added to make it plain. It is Christ Himself who says it. Woe to Him who contradicts Christ, or any part whatsoever of Scripture, for " Scripture cannot be broken."

A careful reading of Matt. 12 :22-32 will tell you what the sin against the Holy Ghost is :The Lord has cast out a devil, and thus shown He works by the power of the Holy Spirit. But His enemies are determined to disown Him, and they violate all conscience by ascribing the power to the devil.

But I close with the prayer that yon may learn the grace of God which has come by Jesus Christ; which occupies us with Christ, not ourselves; with what Christ has done for us, not with what we are doing, or can do, or can be.