The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-06-11

dressed crowd to nghtto settle up this Incidental
business and stop all this nonsense Let us
show what Indianapolis can do. Why. / can
take crowd as large as this in one Of the col
orcd churches down South and will get what
ever ask for and won't get copper cent In
the basket. / tell you. it is an actual fact those
colored people down South don't use copper
cents 10 their collections, and | certainly would
try to get along as veil up here in rich Indian
apolis as they down in that God -forsaken coun-
try as you think it is down there Let US go te
work while these collectors 60 through and make
M a sufficient amount of money to defray th-se
expenses am getting tired of this collec-
will Sam Jones and will club together,
if we have to pawn all we have. and make
it up ourselves, for we are going to nave
these meetings and are going to pay up on it,
dollar for dollar, before we quit here.
He then entered upon his sermon as follows:
/ will ask your prayerful attention tonight to
the thoughts based on the thirteenth and nine
teenth verses of the second chapter of Paurs
Epistle to the Ephesians
But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes afar
off made nigh by the blood of Christ. Now
therefore, you are no more strangers and foreigners
but felowcitzens with the saints, and of the house
hold of God.
There are, doubt not. in this house tonight
perhaps thousand people who not thorough
lv reconciled to God; perhaps thousand people
full and peaceful position between themselves
and God, their Maker that they ought
to be. There are probably in this
house tonight at least five hundred,
to put it at the minimum, persons who
feel that they not only not reconcied to
God. but that they are to night outright rebels
against GOO and aliens to Him and to His gov
eminent. They know what their condition is
better than any preacher in the universe could
tell it to them They know that they have
transgressed the law Of God. They know they
have violated the precepts He has given them.
They know they have transgressed the COM
mandmepts that were given for their guidance.
They know they have been at enmity with the
Will OF God, and they know that to night they
are outlaws in the government of God because
they have refused His love, and because they
have set up their own will, and their own de-
sires, and their own passions, and their own
opinions, and their own prejudices against God.
Every sinful man understands me when say
there is enmity between the sinner and God: not
because there is enmty with God, but because
there is enmty with the sinner against God.
Every sinner in this house tonight understands
well enough that there is nothing for him to do
to placate the anger of God: he knows that God
is not holding off as a tyranical, arbitrary God.
who needs sacrifices from His children in order
to please Him and for Him to dspel His wrath.
The sinner knows that God to night is that same
eternal God Of love that says to him. "It is
no pleasure to me that any man should
die, but rather that he should live
forever" But God is not at enmity with you. He is
not angry with you; on the contrary God loves
you and Gods great heart yearns after you. The
only reason why you are not at peace with God
to night is because you are not willing to lay
down your rebellion against God and come back
to Him upon the terms and conditions of pardon
that He offers you, and every sinner here knows
tonight that he must be reconcied to God II he
would satisfy the cravings of his own nature, if
he would satisfy the laws and the conditions that
exist in the moral universe and if he would sat
isfy the conditions that necessary in order to
inherit eternal life.
There is natural yearnng. in man for i'm.
mortality. There is something in every mans
com position that reaches out from these sub
lunary scenes, from these earthly surroundings,
and looks away, and afar, and above, and seeks
after something that is better and higher and
grander beyond this earth. There is in US
something that tells us that were not Gre
ated to be- and to live, upon this globe like dull
and british beasts, and die out after living
precarious existence and go into nothingness
forever. There is something in the heart, and in
the mind, and in the soul of man that cannot rest
satisfied until it reaches out after Immortality
beyond the grave We cannot feel that We
were made bv God causeesly. We cannot
feel that we have no destiny beyond that one of
sorrow and trouble, and the vicssitudes that we
know we are encountering here We do know,
and our hearts tell US, and our natures tell u.s.
and all outward and visible nature tells US there
is God, and tells that we have immortality, as
well dS tudb tilcTc ID q Olftuo SpdEh Wltuiii U.s.
and that there is an immortality beyond the
grave. Aud the nature of every man, when it
asserts itself. calls out for that immortality be-
yond. 1t is the same feeling that made Cato
when he laid down the magnificent volume of
the great Greek philosopher, say: 'Plato. thou
| reasonest well, else why this pleasing hope2'
This pleasing hope for immortality hereafter
This pleasing hope that makes us look on this as
a transltory stage, soon over and done with, and
then we pass to something that is immortal,
eternal its character and that not
away, and has not npon it the glimmer ana
shadows of change Our hearts seek after this ina
mcrtc!a:..yy. We are yearning for it tonight, elsa
If a.. LOT .ors .id DO no Qualms OF con.
science to overcome us-there wou.. 20 no
thoughts Of hereafter to disturb US
there would be nothing for US to do
except to live for the present and to
be satisfied whatever might come in Gods field
to morrow but you know, my brother, and
know and every man that has ever lived and
given his nature its own natural upward and
outward tendencies, knows that there is an i'm
mortality towards which we tending There
Is that in the nature of man from the divinity of
his creation that makes him wish for the immor-
tally that is better, and higher, and grander
than this terrestrial existence in which we now
live And because we desire that immortality
we know that there are conditions that must be
fulfilled, because we know that that immortality
must either be infinitely better or infinitely
worse than this condition in which we are now
living.
We know that certain conditions must be full
filled in order to inherit the better Immortality
We know that if We give our natures over to
that which is evil, gross and damnable in its ma
ture, we will inherit an eternity of plantations,
and our immortality will be an immortal, endless
woe forever; but we know if we follow good, if
we seek to give way, and give fight, and give
buoyancy, and give an upward direction to all
higher and nobler aspirations of our nature, and
if We fulfill the conditions of our BIRTH and our
inherent destiny from God. that we shall mount
above these scenes at the end of lfes brief jour-
ney, and we will get the immortality of everlast
ing life, glory and happiness And to attain that
we know as well as we know any proposition
that can he made to us in this world, that we
must fulfill certain conditions and live certain
character of life, tina: tendeth to eternal life.
knew that If l would live hereafter in happi-
ness that Immortality must 5e the fufllment of
the directions have given to my character here
1t must be in the eternity the attainment of that
perfection that strive after here; and, there