New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-06-07
WHY WE PREACH.
A Sermon Delivered in the Church of the
Messiah by the Pastor, Rev. G.. IL.

n ScTWOu DciVcFeu In the SuuFCu OF t0e
Messiah by the Pastor, Rev. G. IL.
Deere.
Buy the truth and sell it not.-Prov. 1898.
The fundamental thought in the later
ministry of the Rev. Theodore Ciapp, the
revered founder of this Church Of the Mes
siah, and Which to-day holds the foremost
place in your faith, was the doctrine that
all men Will ultimately become holy and
happy; or, stated in his own words, that
call mankind are brethren, equally dear in
the sight of God, and will eventually be
saved" This grand and hopeful view of
human destiny has also characterized nv
own ministry of over score of years. OF
all the great truths of the Christian religion
we deem this, which the Church at large
for mora than thirteen hundred years has
rejected, as the keystone in the arch of any
system of theology which will bear the
pressure Of the reason of the nineteenth
century. l state our cardinal tenet this
morning. and point you to the high place it
occupies in our regard, for the purpose of
noticing an objection which, more frequent
ly than any other, has been made to it dur
ing my ministry in this city. The objection
comes in the form of two questions, the first
of which is:
|. IT it be true that all men are to be
saved, what is the use of preachingl
1t may be well to remember here that
this question IF the use Of preaching has
not been urged alone against cur faith, but
has been pressed with no little force
against the only other views of mans
destiny which have prevailed in Christen-
dom. Besides our own, which sees good
somewhere in the future for all, there are
two gloomy OutlOOks, each of which con.
template future blessedness but tor part.
They are precisely alike in results, mas
much as they both end in a division of the
race into the hopeless victims Of misery and
the subjects of beatifc REDEMPTION. Bat
they differ in that one makes God respon-
sible, and the other endeavors to shift the
responsibility upon man. One shows part
saved by divine decree; the other, part
saved by accepting and complying in this
life with offered conditions. To those who
hold the first it may be said, if men are
saved by divine decree, and the number Of
the redeemed can not be changed, what is
the use of preaching! Why rack the elect
with doubts of their election? Why tor
ment tie reprobates in this world with an
ticipations Of the endless agonies from
which they can not escape! And it may be
said to the larger class who entertain the
second view, logically you must believe
that those to whom Christ has never been
preached in this world infants, idiots and
the millions of heather in all ages) are
either saved or lost. If they are lost. then
UUu OOOLIS lAOIc LLhu LlIS-CcutuS VI lilo
race to endless woe by giving them no
chance in this world to hear and ac-
cept the terms of salvation. And if
single soul that has not heard and complied
in this life with tie prescribed Gospel con.
ditions is saved on the ground that it had
no opportunity. would it not have been
better to have withheld opportunity from
all, and so saved all? What is the use of
preaching! But turning the question back
II uh ioh 10 no 60
purpose of this discourse.
Were l to say that preaching is one of
the instrumentalities by which all men are
to be saved-thOugh true, and a sufficient
reason for the use of all the "means of
grace"~-l should not touch the difficulty
existing in the mind of the sincere inquirer.
for the objection grows out of an erroneous
idea of the nature of salvation.
In the minds of those who can see any
force in the question, salvation means deliy.
erance from eternal misery and security in
afterdeath felicity. To save man from
everlasting perdition and get him into
Heaven appears to them the central object
of the Christian religion, and the only one
worth working for. The end for which the
church and its ministry exist, as they see
things, is gone if there is no endless hell
from which man is to be saved. To have
sucE faith in Christ and such love as shall
save US from sin and transform us more and
more into his likeness; to follow him in the
loving service of God and man; to walk
with him always and everywhere in the
presence and under the care of the Infinite
Father and be in Heaven even while on
earth, is not enough for them. ALI this
appears to many comparatively worthless
except as a means to escape from the pun
ishment Of sin and of obtaining posse ssion
of the comfortable seats which they think
Christ has purchased for them in Heaven.
But we do not believe that salvation con-
sists in deliverance from the just punish
ment of sin. God "wiil render to
every man according to his Deeds" and
twill by no means clear the guilty"
He Twill bring every work into Judgment,
with every secret thing, whether it be good,
or whether it be evil" and though hand
join in hand, the wicked shall not 20 unpun-
ished." For every sin which a man COM
mits he will be punished, either in this
world or the world to come, and there is no
respect of persons. or way Of escape.
Such being the uniform testimony of the
sacred writings, and wholly consonant with
right reason, we believe the nature of sal
walton to be indicated in the announcement
of the angel, "Thou shalt call his name
Jesus, for he shall save his people from
their SINS" Peter, in the third chapter of
ACta aava tNo1 hoviuO roiand nm h1a Con