Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1885-03-13
ROM. 6 ;23. For THE WAGES OF SIN is
DEATH; BUT THE GIFT OF GOD is
ETERNAL LIFE THROUGH
JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD.

against the demoralizing influence of
What character of exhortation, which,
probably, more than any other cause
has flooded the church with uncon-
verified professors that is, the practice
so universal among evangelists of
presenting the hope of Heaven and
the fear of hell as the chief, instead
of merely subordinate motives. The
horrors of perdition may serve as a
terrible note of warning, and thus
arrest the sinner in his career; may
render, by sudden, violent emotion
the breaking of inveterate habits
easier; but the effect produced there
by is not godliness.
We may not trust to the alarm
produced by the thought of eternal
retributiOn. The man who avoids
sin from fear only, has advanced one
step towards reformation, he is not
reformed.
The selfish hope of Heaven, no
more than the slavish fear of hell,
can make us holy. He who is honest
only because it is the best policy, is
no less thief than he who is deferred
from stealing by the fear of prison.
In every department of life, attain
ment is the highest reward, the prize
only an incentive. He who would
delight in righteousness for its own
lovely sake, were there no Heaven
revealed, who would loathe sin for
its inherent responsiveness, did no hell
appall, he only is christian. 1t does
not suffice to prefer happiness here
after TO happiness enjoyed here, to
exercise prudence on a grand scale :"
to consider sin as wrong because
it will make us miserable hereafter :"
to make Heaven "sclfi shness reward
ed with well being" Virtue is some
thing more than Bentham defines as
"a skillful economist who serves his
own interests" Religion is more
than a provisional sacrifice, an ad-
vance of capital to be returned with
usury more than reluctant accept
ance of worldly sacrifices in shrewd
and selfish exchange for greater joys
and benefits. Pressense quite forcibly
says "the Mahometan who dreams
OF honors and everlasting feasts in
the future life, is only gross utilita-
ran; the man who, calling himself
christian, has no other motive in es-
chewing evil than to avoid hell-fire,
is no better. The fear of pain is only
the counterpart of the search after
pleasure. Epicureanism turks under |
the robe of the Pharisee, as under the
sackcloth of the Fakir;it is the Sc
cret of all the selfishness pietism
which seeks to purchase Heaven, and |
thinks of the pleasures of Heaven as
something distinct from holiness.
Jesus came "to save his people |
from their SINS" not from punish
ment. Punishment is necessary to
vindicate the integrity of law, and |
to subserve the transgressor's profit.
1t is demanded by mercy no less than
justice. Without the righteousness
of which love is the central principle,
it cannot enter into the heart of man
to conceive, much less to realize and
enjoy chat which God has prepared
for them that love him." F. w. Rob-
ertson has truly urged that "the Pc
nal agonies of sin are chiefly those
which are executed within. Go
where you will, you carry a soul
its power lost, its fine sem
sibilities destroyed. There is no
punishment equal to the punishment
of being base. To sink from sin to
sin, from infamy'to infamy, that is
the fearful retribution which is exc
,uted in this spiritual world" Ad-
versely, to be like Christ, to be with
Christ, until his service is the sweet
est bliss, this is Heaven begun. "To
feel the Eternal Life come with
mighty pusatiOns. throbbing through
he soul; to realize the serene still
ness of a spirit lost in love; the full,
1eep rapture Of soul into which
The spirit of God is pouring itself in
mighty tide of Revelations" what
IS this but Heaven. When the ten
irils of the spirit cling to the cross
he throne, the trees of life; when
hat spirit is being lifted up daily,
hourly, into holier, higher, serener
light, when the new, the eternal life
s felt and lived, transport leaves no
place for apprehension. Facing the G
light, the shadow is ever behind us.
There is no fear in love; but per- ,
ect love casteth out fear" Just as
inevitably, fear will eliminate love. '
He that feareth is not made perfect |
~ love-" Conditions necessarily {
IMPLY locality; but the Bible has j
leither burdened the memory nor 6
,ratified materialized curiosity by t
descriptions of places of love or bliss. '
t has taught by all its significant /
ymbols that dispositions rather than .
constitute the chief ag- O
mics and joys, and that blessedness s
ather than happiness is to be sought 8
happiness is to be attained.
With these limitations and guards t.
'e may safely and joyously contem- v
late, as Moses, and Paul and even D
thirst did, the rapture of the antici- s
ated reward as well as the 'joys
nspeakable and full of glory" of the II
oddly character. The end cannot n