The Russellville Democrat., 1888-07-12
PHARMACIES SERMON.
4 Discourse on the Efficacy of Faith
 in Jesus.
That Which Damages the Commercial World Also Damages the Spiritual
 Jesp-5. ssIend Always Pres ent when Wanted.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talraage, in recen sermon, took for his subject: "None Like Jesus" his text being:
 Unto you. therefore, which believe he is pre- cious. Il Peter, it., z
 He saiG: We had for many years in this country commercial depression. i What was the matter with the stores? With the harvests? With the peoples Lack of faith. Money enough, goods enough, skillful brains enough, indus | trious hands enough, but no faith. Now what damages the commercial world damages the spiritual Our great lack is faith. That is the hinge on which eternity l turns. The Bible says we are saved by | faith
 | "O," says some one in the audience, "I have faith. 1 believe that Christ came down to save the world"
 l I reply that, in worldly matters when you have faith you always act upon it. l For instance, if could show you busi- l ness operation by which you could make l five thousand dollars, you would immedi- | ataly go into it. You would prove your faith iff- what I tell you by your prompt 1 and immediate action, Now, if what you call faith in Christ has ffst9 you to sur | render your entire nature to Jesus arts-ssso | corresponding action in your life, it is genuine faith, and if it has not, it is not | faith at all.
 | There are some things which believe with the head. Then there are other things which 1 believe with the heart. And then there are other things which believe both with the head and heart. I believe, for instance, that Cromwell lived. That is a matter of tho head. Then there are other things which I believe with the heart and not with the head. That is, have no especial reason for be- lieving them, and yet 1 want to believe them and the wish is the father to the ex- pectation But there is very great diff ference between that which we believe about ourselves, and that which we be- lieve about others. For instance, you re- member not great while ago there was disaster in Pennsylvania, amid the mines; there was an explosion amid the damps, and many lives were lost In the morning you picked up your newspaper and saw that there had been great dis aster i'll Pennsylvania You said: "Ah, what sad thing this is; how many lives lost! Ol what sorrow!" Then you read a little further on. There had been an almost miraculous effort to get those men out. and few had been saved. "O,p you said, "what brave thing, what a grand thing that was How we'll it was done" Then you folded the paper up and sat down to your morning repast. Your ap- petite had not been interfered with, and during that day. perhaps, you thought only two or three times of the disaster. But suppose you and 1 had been in the mine, and the dying had been all around us, and we had heard the pick-axes just above us as they were trying to work their way down, and after awhile we saw the light, and then the life bucket let down through the shaft, and, suffocated and half dead, we had just strength enough to throw ourselves over into it, and had been led out into the light. Then what an appreciation we would have had of the agony and the dark ness beneath, and the joy of deliver anee. That is the difference between be- lieving thing about others and beliey- ing it abont ourselves.
 We take up the Bible and read that Christ came to save the world. That was beautiful" you say, "a fine specimen of self-denial. That was very grand in- deed" But suppose it is found that we ourselves were down in the mine of sin and in the darkness, aud Christ stretched down his arm of mercy through the gloom and lifted us out of the pit, and set our feet on the Rock of Ages, and put a new song into our mouths. o, then it is 6 matter of hand -clapping; it is matter of congratulation, it is a matter of deep emo- tions. Which kind of faith have you, my brother?
 It is faith that makes a Christian, and it Is the proportion of faith that makes the difference between Christians. What was it that lifted Paul, and Luther, and Pay sou, and Doddridge above the ordinary level of Christian characterf It was the simplicity, the brilliancy, the power and the splcndor of their faith. o, that we had more of it. God give us more faith to preach and more faith to hear. Lord! we believe, help thou our unbelief." gro you which believe he is precious"
 l. remark Christ is precious to the believer, as Saviour from sin. A man says:
 gro whom are you talking? I am one of the most respectable men in this neIgh, borhood; do you call me sinnery" Yos! ''The heart is deceitful above all things aud desperately wicked" You say:
 How do you know any thing about my heart;"
 know that about It, for God announces 1t in His Word; an1 what God says is al- ways right. When man becomes @ Christian people say: That man sets himself above us." O, no! Instead of setting himself up he throws himself down. He cries out:
 'I was lost once, but now 1 am found. was blind once, but now see, I prostrate myself at the foot of the cross of the Saviour's mercy"
 What grand thing it is to feel that all the bad words have ever uttered, and all the bad deeds have ever done, and ell the bad thoughts that have gone through my mind, are as though they had never been, for the sake of what Christ has done. You know there is difference in stains. Some can be washed out by water, but others require chemical preparation. The sin of the heart is so black and indelible a mark that no hu- man application can cleanse it, while the blood of Jesus Christ can wash out for ever, O, the infinite, the .omnipotent chemistry of tho Gospell Some man says ''l believe all that. believe God has forgiven the most of my sins but there Is one sin can not forget" What is its 1 do not want to know what it is, but l take the responsibility of saying that God will forgive it as willingly as any other sin.
 Ger sins like mountains for their size,
 The seas of sovereign grace expand,
 The seas Of sovereign grace arise.
 There was very good man, about sew enty-fve years of age, that once said;
 "I believe God has forgiven me, but there was one sin which 1 committed when was about twenty years of age that never fosgave myself for, and l can't feel happy when think of it."
 He said that one sin sometimes came over his heart and plotted out all his hope of Heaven. Why, he lacked in faith. The grace that can forgive a small sin can for giv, a large sin. Mighty to save. Mighty to save. Who is the god like unto our God that pardoneth iniqnitys c, what Jesns is to the soul that believes in him The soul looks up into ChrisRs face anu says: "Io what extent wilt thou forgive ls. tt f. h