Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-02-27
"OUR DEBTS"
Interesting Sermon at the Christ.
Ian Church.

Rev. J. B. Jones preached yesterday m morn.
ing at the Temple street Christian Church,
taking for his text Romans L: Ia, Is: II am
debtor both to the Greeks and to the bar
barians; both to the wise and to the unwise
So as much as in me is, am ready to preach
the gospel to you who are at Rome also"
The theme was, "Our Debts to the Lost ,
in discussing which the speaker said: Paul
accepted the protection Of the civil govern
and about to be scourged at the hands of a
centurion under the direction of Lysias,
the Chiliarch. He was not ashamed to
urge that tribute be paid for the support
of civil government, although it had many,
scars upon 1t and was full of imperfections.
The good of the race demanded that there
be special men appointed to do the work
for the common veal, and that in this work
What Is true OF governm ent and its officers
is true of all professions and occupations
Work done is the fulcrum that balances be-
tween the man who creates a good ON one
hand and the man who receives it on the
other. This is the basis of debt in the or
dinary acceptiop of the term. But in the
before, the speaker held that the basis of
debt was on higher ground. 1t wasad-
mitted that the principle that gave the gov
eminent the right to live, and the various
vocation the right to recognition was also
applicable to the Church. It the Church
does not create moral force, If it does not
In the hearts of the people. 1t should
perish. But it was not any good received
from the government, not mer.
chandise received from the mer-
chants, medical attention from phys
icians, farm products. from the farmer
wool from the shepherds, that created the
debt in question. There is another principle
involved. 1t is the exception of the rule:
"If any man will not work, neither shall he
eat" There are those who cannot work.
There are human beings who cannot see, or
hear, or speak, or reason. The common
wealth In effect says, 81 will be eyes to the
blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the
to the insane." Thus neither man nor God
expects impossibilities. There is debt
which we owe to the helpless in the ordi-
nary walks of life. This principle under
lies the debt that Paul owed to the lost.
world was lost: 1t was helpless and hope
less. "God so loved the world that He gave
His only begotten Son, that whosoeyer be-
neveth IN Hin I'm might d not perish, put have
the same basis that constitutes the founda-
ton of our many asylums. When he looked
over the world he saw that sin had wrought
Its ruin and he longed to substitute hope for
for despair, peace for unrest, Joy for sorrow,
and eternal life for condemnation that rests
on the sinner. His hearts desire and pray
ers to God were for the salvation of the
race. There was no rest till he had spent
1t was a debt not restricted to him as an
Apostle. 1t belonged in sense to the whole
Church. 1t was true that Apostles as wit
nesses are no longer here. Their work is
stereotyped in the new testament, and it is
the standard of Judgment for the churches.
Elders and deacOns presuppose in their
work Church already in existence, hence
they are not to "go' into all the world to
pay the debt to the lost. Nor is it COM
paiible with reason or relation to urge that
all are to personally preach, though each
may give a reason of the hope within him,
for this would disrupt society and contradict
the fact that each one is not mentally and
morally fitted to preach? The evangelist is
the man who represents the "g,' part of
the commission as his title implies. The
whole Church throughout its entire
membership is to be the pillar and the sup
port of the truth. When the evangelist
goes to Japan or elsewhere, the Church goes.
When he breaches the Church breaches.
In the day Of judgment, the man who is
accepted will be he who has fed the hungry,
clothed the destitute, visited the impris
oned and shown the spirit OF Christ to those
who came to be ininistered unto.
The debt is, therefore, the debt of
strength to weakness, hope to despair,
order to chaos, salvation IN condemnation.
We cannot be the followers Of Christ and
repudiate his debt. God measures His love
by the gift of His Son. He measures ours
by what we are willing to do and to bear for
the good of the humanity. -