Morning journal and courier., 1884-04-21
Sauruxl snA Ganri.g.
MONDAY. April 81, 49,
Fair Haven
A Series of Sunday Evening Dtscourses
By Rev. Erastus B akeslee.

/
evening the first preaching service for Sum
day night at the Second Congregational
church in Fair haven. He spoke to large
audience. His text was 2 Chron. 9:1S.
'srhere we're six steps to the throne"
There words from part of the description
of the great throne of ivory and gold which
was made for Solomon, the like of which
scripture informs US, was not made IN any
kingdom. Whoever would sit on that throne
must go up those steps. In the same way,
whoever, now Indifferent to sin, would sit on
the throne of conquest over sin, must take
six steps up. It is to them ak steps that
ask your attention. Sometimes this proc ess
| is called coming to Christ, or believing In
Christ. These phrases call attention to the
last and most important of the six steps,
and you suppose the other five. Some
times the same thing is described as
repentance and faith. These two mutual
actions are considered to include the whole.
To some minds these simple and more COM
prehensive terms are most useful. more
analytic method gives more light to others.
1t is such specially that now address. Be-
fore mentioning these six steps, let me say
that they are often taken unconsciously. The
mind works rapidly and may come to clear
consciousness of having obtained the victory
over sin while yet it can describe none of
the steps by which it was achieved.
The first step from Indifference towards
sin to the throne of triumph over it is taken
in coming to the consciousness that one is
sinner. ALI men are to some extent con-
in fhaTr
hearts is an uncomfortable feeling that all
is not right between their FOULS and God.
They pay, perhaps. little attention to it.
They smother it with cares and pleas
ures. They resolutely push it into
the background. But yet it glides
forth again. AS phantom shape. horrid and
threatening, it haunts them and will not away
at their bidding. Some screen it behind 3
veil of good works and then say: There is
no skeleton in this house of mine; here are
neither bats nor owls; while all the while
they stand in dread lest the bones rattle or
the bats flap their wings. Now this hidden
ard half unacknowledged scare of guilt is
not what mean by consciousness of sin, but
it is rather part of the dead level of human
sinfulness. When your boy has faAen from
the window and lies on the ground so still
| SO motionless, your agonized heart is re-
| ioiced to hear him groan. That he groans
may show more consciousness of pain, but it
| is sign of returning life. So that benumbed
consciousness of sin, which makes no sign,
must rise up into keener feeling of guilt,
| before the first step has been taken towards
subduing sin.
The second step is a real desire to be rid of
sin. You might think that a painful con-
1ciousness of sin would always lead to a de-
sire to get rid of sin. But it is not SO. All
| would like to be rid of the pain
| which sin brings, but the sin itself
some roll as a sweet morsel under
their tongue. Look at the drunk ard and the
debaucher. Their bondage is with red hot
chains indeed; but they still grasp at tina:
which binds them. The pain which sin brings
makes some deficient. They rail at God and
goodness and sin recklessly. Others fall into
despair at their evil plight. Then follows
suicide. AS one said in this city this past
week, they say, 1.-THE jig is up. I can live
no longer. The desire in such a case is not
to be rid of sin, but to avoid the consequent
ces of sin and SO, to avoid the known here,
they rush uncalled into the unknown In the
hereafter. Sometimes rsmorse seizes on the
SOUL and it's victim goes hence hopeless. Tbs
desire to get rid of sin is but one of many
effects which may follow from vivid con.
seriousness of sin. 1t is the only one which is an
| upward STEP
The third step is conviction durability to
rid oneself of sin. 1t is natural to want to
help oneself This is specially true with
self. reliant men. They have helped them
selves to success in business, why not to
victory over sin? Feeling their strength in
many things, they forget their weakness in
this. Some make the attempt and. then,
| thou how frin1 ORR thar
is nothing in it. Such are very hard to
reach They are entrenched among the ruins
of their own weak endeavor after goodness
| The soul never surrenders to Christ SO long
IS it thinks it can help itself. To
come to the conviction that it cannot
| is one of the hardest of the upward
steps. Many souls stumble here. Some
through pride, some through inability to
derstsnd the gospel, the innermost truth of
which is that Christ can save US from our
sins and will if we trust that business to
him. But to trust ii to him is to confess our
own helplessness, and that we do not like to
do It often happens too that men cannot
understand, but that they must do something
for themselves That Ealvat1on is gift pure
| and simple they cannot comprehend. A wo-
man once was in just that state of mind for
fifty years. She wanted escape from sin, but
felt that she must do something to merit it
Her whole life was struggle which ended in
peace only when she gave up trying to save
herself and Just trusted it all to Jesus.
What has just been said suggests the fourth
| upward step: it is the belief that God is able
and willing to do that for us which we cannot
| do for ourselves, to save US. L put this
| fourth not because it Is commonly fourth in
the order of Intellectual apprehension, but
because it is fourth in the logical order of
| events. The knowledge we have of Christ
and his salvation comes in at this point So
long as man in the water thinks himself
| entirely able to swim ashore he cares little or
nothing that another stands on the dock
| helplessly drowning and he can know of
| nothing else important to him.
| A clear intellectual knowledge of
this great truth is important, but
not necessary. The heart outruns
the head. Many soul feeling itself sinking
has almost blindly grasped at the help Christ
offers and been saved. Convinced of its own
need and helplessnes-, it had believed that
God could help it and SO has passed quickly
over this upward step.
If the former steps have been taken the
fifth is very easy. It is q desire to have
Gods help. But yet this is distinct step
| in the upward course. Many souls linger
here. They have a certain desire for what
God alone can give, but it is in no sense
| hearty and real. It is an undertone of feel
| ing, as common almost in certain sense as
the feeling of quiet, but like that it may
never rise to the point or setting the soul for
ward towards God. Men desire what God
can do on certain conditions, but not on his
conditions. The true desire which is an up
ward step is one which stands in the attitude
\ of acceptan' q and not of dictation.
The sixth step is the great one. 1t is the
natural culmiBation of all the others. Note
| the situation. The soul is convinced of sin;
it desires to be rid of il; it is satisfied that
| it cannot deliver itself; it believes that God
| through Christ can deliver it; it desires the
aid he can give; all that is left is to accept it.
Bat the difference between wishing for
| something and determining to have it is very
great. One is to hold the matter in abey
| ance, the other is to settle it once for ALL It
| is the decisiveness of this last step that
makes it SO important. Many persons come
up to it with tears and sobs and yet never
take it. The way is perfectly clear All
| thay lack is the final decision Some men
are undecided about everything. Every other
step being taken they never rise to
the moral height of taking this one. To take
it is to revolutionize the attitude of the soul
towards God. 1t is to break loose from the
| bondage of sin and to become the servant of
the Most High. Who takes it, and he only.
can sit down On the throne of victory over
| sin.