Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-07-10

at any one of the twelve gates | choose
Here is IA man who says; III can more
easily and more closely approach Coo
through a prayer book" | say: IN
brother, then use the prayer book
Here is a man who says: IL believe
there is only one mode of baptism and
that is immersion" Then | say: ''Le'
me plunge you" Anyhow | say
Away with the gate of rough panel and
rotten posts and rusted latch, When
there are twelve gates and they are
twelve pearls.
The fact is that n great many of the
churches in this day are being
DOCTRINED TO DEATH.
They have been trying to find out all
about Gods DEGREES. and they want to
know who are elected to be saved ard
who are rcprobated to be damned, and
they are keeping on discussing that sub
ject when there are millions of souls
who need to have the truth put straight
at them. They sit counting the num-
Der of teeth in the jawbone with which
Samson slew the Philistines. They sit on
the beach and see a vessel going to pieces
in the otling, and instead of getting
into a boat and pulling away for the
wreck, they sit discussing the different
styles of oarlocks. God intended us to
know some things and intended us not
to know others. | have heard scores
OF sermons explanatory of Gods de-
crees, but came away more perplexed
than when | went. The only result of
such discussion is a great fog. Here
are two truths which are to conquer
h world: Man, n sinner-Christ n
savior. Any man who adopts these
two theories in his religious belief shall
have my right hand in warm grip Of
Christian brotherhood.
A man m down to n river in
time OF freshet. He wants to get across.
He has to swim. What does he dop
The first thing is to put off his heavy
apparel and drop everything he has in
his hands. He must 90 empty-handed
if he is going to the other bank. And
| tell YOU, when we have come down to
THE RIvER OF DEATH
and find it swift and raging, we will
have to put off all our sectarianism and
lay down our cumbrous creed, and
empty-handed put out for the other
shore. What" you say. would you
resolve all the Christian church into
one kind of church? Would you make
all Christendom worship in the same
way, by the same formsp' O, no.
You might as well decide that all
people shall eat the same kind OF
food without reference to appetite, or
wear the same kind of apparel without
reference TO the shape of their body.
Your ancestry, your temperament, your
surroundings, will decide whether YOU
90 to this or that church, and adopt
this or that policy. One church will
best get one mar To heaven and another
which gate you 90 through, if you only
90 through one of the twelve gates
that Jesus lifted.
Looking out at the one hundred and
forty and four thousand and you can
not tell at what gate they came in.
One Lord. One faith. One baptism.
One glossy sea. One d~oxolo"v. One
heaven. ''Why, Luther, how did you
get imp" Il came through the third
gate sCranmer, how did you get
IMP" Il came through the eighth gate"
''Adoniram Judson, how did you get
through" 81 came through the seventh
gate" Hugh McKail. the martyr,
how did you get ~through?' Il came
through the twelfth gate?' Glory to
God. twelve gates, but one heaven!
In the third place. notice the points
of the compass towards which these
gates look. They are not on one side,
or on two sides, or on three sides, but
on four sides. This is no fancy of
mine, but a distinct announcement. On
the north, three gates, on the south,
three gates, on the east, three gates,
on the west, three gates. What does
that mean? Why. it means that all
nationalities are included, and it does
not make any difference from what
quarter of the earth a man zones up;
IF HIS HEART Is RIGHT,
there is a gate open before him. On
the north, three gates. That means
mercy for Lapland, and Siberia, and
Norway, and Sweden. On the south,
three gates. That means pardon for
Hindostan, and Algiers, and Ethiopia.
On the east, three gates. That means
salvation for China, and Japan, and
Borneo. On the west, three gates.
That means redemption for America.
1t does not make any difference how
dark-skinned or how pale-faccd men
may be, they will find a gate right be-
fore them. Those plucked bananas
under a tropical sun. Those shot
across Russian SHOWS behind reindeer.
From Mexican plateau, from Roman
Campana, from Chinese tea-field, from
Holland dyke, from Scotch Highlands.
they come, they come. Heaven is not
a monopoly for a few precious souls.
1t is not "a Windsor castle for
royal families. 1t is not a small town
with small population, but John saw it
and he noticed that an angel was
measuring it, and he measured it this
way. and then he measured it that, and
whichever way he measured it, it was
fifteen hundred miles, so that Babylon
and Thcbes. and Tyre and Nineveh,
and st. Petersburg and Canton, and
Pekin and Paris, and London and New
| York. and all the dead cities of the
nact apI oil tho 1yipn ni.inS ,nf tho