Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1886-03-25
PLAIN AND ORTHODOX,
without the Usual Humorous and Sensa-
tioual Trimmings

Without the Usual Humorous and Sensa-
tional Trimmings.
CHICAGO. March 10-The audience at
Casino rink Tuesday afternoon was smaller
than had previously gathered TO hear Rev.
Sam Jones' He took for his text:
Remember without ceaSing your work Of
faith and labor of love and patience of hope
in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God
and our her.-Thessalonians i, g.
These three constituent elements, he be-
gan, made up the Christian character: work
of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope.
This TheSSaionian church had power with
God and influence with men. l believe in
the primitive church, and l would take it
with its puritanism and transcendentahsm
before l would the nineteenth-ce century
church with all its fun Apostolic Chris
tianity involved great deal; believers gave
up all and received all. The way to heaven
was straight and marrow, but the reason so
few found the gate was because they were not
looking for it lLaughter.l Now, we have
made great MANY Improvements in other
things, but where lave we improved apo
stolic Christianity St Paul said to this
churlh: Remember without ceaSing your
work of faith" What is faithl 1t is giving
something to God that He asks you for.
That's all it is It's a heap more pleasant
to give than to receive. I'd rather be an
American citizen and give 81, 900 year for
foreign missions than be heathen and re-
ceive the 81 OJ0 I'd rather be a father with
a loving wife caring for the loved ones at
home and giving $50 year TO an orphan
asylum than 10 have my wife dead and my
children have to go to the ophan's home.
You see it is more blessed to be where you
II give. Every perfect gift comes from
God, but He doesn't say to stand and re-
Gel. e salvation witt fear and trembling.
He says work out your salvation with fear
and trembling.
Scriptural faith either takes or gives
something every time you hear from it. and
some faith is like an old pond-it receives
everything and gives up nothing but mus
quitoes and miasma, and there are a good
many such in the church Laughter. If
you only got spiritual itch like you have
physical itch you would keep every post
rubbed smooth [Laughte:. Faith is to
take what is offered you. When God offers
you thing take it and go on. Then there is
a giving faith, and that is what we are talk
ing about There is work of knowledge,
and it is such when a man knows he is going
to get his wages at the end o. the week.
The work of faith is to believe God will save
the old major, and then to go to work and
pray for him and help save him. The work
of faith is not one of feeling, either. The
devil is preaching feeling the year round and
God is preaching faith. There is past and pres
ent and future faith, but it ought to be like
the Hebrew verb and only have a present
tense. Whatever faith we have got, let's have
it now If YOU have got faith that we will
have good meeting next week, just pull it
back and have good meeting now and
better one tonight The best way I know
my children have faith in me is to see them
go and do thing when l tell them to with
out my explaining a reason why. If the
Lord had to use time and eternity explain
ing the reason why He wants us to do a
thing, He might as well come down and do
it Himself and be independent of us A fel-
low came to me the other day and said the
Lord had impressed him l would pay his
house rent l was little in doubt about
the Lord wanting me to pay it He was a
big, able-bodied man Laughter But l
paid his house rent, all the same. Bless the
Lord, o my soul The best hours l have
are reading the Bible and at family prayer.
presume if Brother Lorimer should go to
prayer-meeting and find his house full he
would think something was wrong, and
would take to his heels [LaughterJ 1
know of man who started out to be re
igious, and to lead a right life, and he
commenced by having prayer, and saying
grace, and kissing his wife, and saying:
Now we're going to start out right, and
God pity the man who has got enough real
genuine hog in him to sit down to the table
and eat without asking Gods blessing for
the food [Laughter.1 And l believe it is a
part of a mans religious duty to kiss his
xryif I I NV
ten times better than when l was married.
[LaughterI And I'd like to court her over
again about once a month. Laughter
But there are some men like the Irishman
who said: Faith, l know one fellow will re-
gret my death"
"And who is thatl"
Faith, it will be the one that gets my
wife" Laughter
There are hosts of Christian people that
would frighten their relatives if they COM
menced living right, and if the old man
should commence with saying grace and
family prayers the children would put their
heads together and think he was going to
die. [Laughter1
Brother, let us start out and live right
one day, and commence at o'clock this
afternoon. I'd rather be a preacher than
be a king 1 would. 1 wouldn't swap
WIFI OTONoT OloNeldHu- Ou, you say
that isn't SO. Well, 1 wouldn't let on but
what it was so, anyway. God helping me,
| will do my part, and I'll outshine any
man that's been president when get to
heaven, other things being equal Glory be
to God for the privilege of doing what God
wants me to do, and when get into heaven
I'll unpin my wings and lay them down.
III have no further use for them I've got
there, don't you see: [Laughter.l
know these big meetings are not the best
in the world About all the time we have
at a revival is to give you your book of
instructions and show you how to start to
work
Mr.. Jones' sermon at night was something
of a surprise to those who had heard him be-
fore and was not punctuated all through
with laughter provoking jokes: His text
was: As righteousness tsndeth to life, so he
that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own
death.-Proverbs xi, 19.
The tendency of human nature is down.
ward and hellward. Just as the virus of
cancer will surely kill the hody, so the virus
Of sin is certain to kill the soul at last We
are diseased unto death 1 thank God that
800 years before my mother sang my
lallaby fountain was placed in the house
Of David to wash away my sin. Have you
He that pursueth evil does it to the death
Of his conscience. 1t is a subtle poison
The most wicked sin committed is the sin
against your own conscience. Every sin of
your life is stab at your conscience. Men
stab their consciences to death when it
would lead them to better things The
great trouble in America to-day is that con-
science is dead. Church members live in sin
because their conscience is dead Workings
live and gloat in sin because conscience is
dead. To-day a man can walk and carry
his head erect with a sin that century ago
would have made him hide his head for
shame. l warn you tonight How
is your conscience! Is it slumbering in the
grave of your transgresSions! If you are
going down grade to hell at great mo-
mentum and there is a brake of conscience
attached to your nature turn it on before
you plunge into everlasting damnation! Old
men, Young men middle-aged men call q