Muscatine journal. [volume] (Bloomington, Iowa) 1849-185?, 1853-08-12

Sermon No. \.

Afightsous maa regardeth the life his of beast bu
the tender mercies OF the wicked are cruel.-IProy
l2:1 10.
Throughout the Old and New Testamen,
Scriptures line Of demarkation is SO
plainly drawn between the righteous and
the wicked, that no intelligent man car
carefully read them without being convinced
thst two classes of men, whose interests
here and destiny hereafter widely differ,
are recognized by the Almighty. God does
not judge men by their actions, but by the
motives which prompt these actions. In
proof of this (niark iceii) the language of
Christ: "Wnosoever looketh on woman to
lust after her, has committed adultery in his
heart" Again he says: .Whosoever hateth
his brother has committed murder in his
heart" These passages of Scripture prove
that while man judges his fellow man by
his actions, God looks at the heart to dis
Germ the secret thoughts and motives of the
mind which none but the all-searching eve
OF the Almighty can discover.
Gods Judgment is unerring; therefore all
men to him are righteous or wicked. Man,
on the contrary, Judging his fellow man by
ms actions, In the face of the Scriptures,
insists upon there being several classes of
men. First class; all genuine, true Chris
tians. Second; all those who are honest in
the opinion they are Christians, but unfor-
tunately never have been converted, there !.
lore are deceived. Third; all hvpocrites-
those who clothe themselves in the GARD of
righteousness that they may more etfectu-
ally serve the devil. Fourth; moral men
those who make no pretensions to piety,
put dote upon the uprightness of their
walk, the integrity of their purposes. the
uniform correctness of their habits, their
circumspect lives and moral conversation.
Fifth; wicked men--those who neither regard
God nor man: who violate law, trample JUS
tice under their feet, hate the truth love
falsehood, treachery and deceit. Sixth; the
ricn men, who are great and good because
they are rich. This class of men NAV do
what they please and the world will applaud,
not because they respect the man, but his
money. Seventh, or middle class, go-be-
tween class in moderate circumstances
worth from one to twenty thousand dollars.
lhls class OF men and women scorn the
poor and ape the rich. They look with
disaain upon the poor because they were
on,e poor themselves. Thy ape the rich,
because they are anxiously lookins forward
to the day when they will become rich
themselves. This class builds up aud tears
down the world, creates and destroys, does
the most good and practices the most evil,
because IL - the most numerous, and gener-
any, Is more correct In opinion than the
rich or. the poor. 1t is often wrong, for
here We look for what is called public opin-
ION, WHICH is seldom right, but generally
correots Itself once in seventy years, or
after MA Is deli an out OF tce way. This
Is certainly great class which, for con-
venence sake, will call Plsts--for one
generation or this class always yomts up
what another has swallowed down, and in
Ninscatine this vomiting occurs once month
thnr h. oE
tine are great people. Eighth; the poor.
"uod bless the rich, the rich will take care
OF the poor" is an old proverb-and
would add, ''ycs, over the left shoulder
iRs class, In the opinion Of the rich and
m.dile classes, IS WICKED, because it is
poor, is mean, low and trihng, destitute of
moral principle and ignorant OF those noole
ASPIRATIONS vii Ga elevate maa above the
brute FOR the same reason. No where in
the Scriptures does God recognize the fore
gong classes of men. God says of the
man who Is not united to him by faith in
hs son, the Saviour of the world, that he
10 destitute, blind aud naked; that he is an
alien from the commonwealth of Israel, II
rebel against the government of his throne
that unless he repcnts be shall have his por-
tion in the lake that burns with fire and
brimStone,' with all tattlers, liars and hyp-
ocrltes. This certainly is one cass anG en-
braces ali mankind dindscriminately, except
MS chosen people, those who have been
predestlnated from before the foundation
OF the world to everlasting life. God,
therefore, recognizes but two classes of
men-the righteous and the wicked. In the
division OF this subject we will consider
the Scriptural meaning of the word right
eous as applied to man and the regard such
men to whom this term is applicable hayo
not only for beasts but for all mankind. -
Righteousness has literal and spiritual
meaning. Literally, it means dong right,
squaring our actions by equal and exact
Justice IN all cur transactions with mankind,
DONG good to all men Unfortunately, in
practising charity, loving mercy and truth.
Splrltualiy,it means more than this; so much
more that no pen guided by mortal hand,
even II 1t be inspired, can give in every
particular its true import. Angels would
comprehend it If they could, but failing to
do so, how presumptuous in man to under
take to fathom its unknown depths! But,
mortal as we are (and your preacher must
confess IN. tears that he Is very mortal, very,)
we may write or say so much about it as
has been revealed to US in the word If God.
abraham believed God and 1t was accoun.
ted to him for righteousness.' Here then
is key which unlocks part OF the secrets
OF this mysterious subject, belief in God.
Abraham believed more than the mere ex.
istence of God, the infinite Jehovah, the
maker ard creator of all things. He be-
lieved In his promises, and had he not thus
believed no righteousness would have been
imputed to him. The devils in b.. believe
in God, but, destitute Of any good, they
tremble at his presence.
Righteousness, then, implies belief in
God, that he will fulfill all he has promised
in the Old and New Testament Scriptures.
In the first three dispensations, those who
would avail themselves of this righteous
ness were required to believe that in due
time God would send his only son into the
world to save sinners. This belief in Christ
secured 20 the holy men of old all % BEN
eits resulting from the advent, death, and
sufferings OF our Saviour. A mere belief
In Christ to come was not sufficient; il re-
quired with this faith an implicit obedi-
enee to all the commands Of God in dis
charging those duties snjoined upon them.
Belief, Scripturally understood, has double
meaning. 1t implies that the. thing prom
ised does really exist, or will exist, and
an effort on the part Of the believer to OBJ
tain it. You may believe that gold can be
found In California, but unless you put
forth efforts to obtain it, its existence will
do you no good. So with those holy men of
Al Had RI 4 =