The Russellville Democrat., 1889-03-28

cause they hnst do not learn the ruin or their own hearts. They have not found out that ethe heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" They had an idea that they were almost right, and they built religion as sort of exten- sion, as an ornamental cupola. There was a superstructure of religion built on substratum of unrepented sins. The 1 trouble with a good deal of modern the- ology is that instead of building on the right foundation, it builds on the debris of an unregenerated nature. They at- tempt to rebuild Jerusalem before, in the midnight of conviction, they have seen the ghastliness of the ruin. They have such poor foundation for their religion that the first northeast storm of tempta- | ton blows them down.
 have no faith in mans conversion if he is not converted in the old-fashioned way-John Bunyan's way, John Wesley's way, John Calvin's way, Pau's way, Christ's way, Gods way. A dentist once said to me: "Does that hurt?v Said I. "Of course it hurts. It is in your busi- ness as in my profession. We have to hurt before we can help.u You will never understand redemption until you under stand ruin. A man tells me that some one is a member of the church. It makes no impression on my mind at all. simply want to know whether he was con- verted in the old-fashioned way, or wheth- CT he was converted in the new-fashioned way. If he was converted in the old-fash- toned way he will stand. If he was con verted in the new-fashioned way he will not stand. That is all there is about it. A man comes to me to talk about religion. The first question 1 ask him is: ''Do you feel yourself to be @ sinnerg" If he say: "Well, I-yes," the hesitancy makes me feel that that man wants Q ride on Nehe- miah's horse by midnight through the ruins-in by the gate of his affections, out by the gate of his will: and before he has got through with that midnight ride he will drop the reins on the horses neck, and will take his right hand and smite on his heart and say, God be merciful to me a sinner, Twill take his feet out of the stir rups, and he will slide down on the ground, and he will kneel, crying: Have mercy on me, o God, accord ing to thy loving kindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies; blot out my transgre ssions, for l acknowl- edge my transgressions and my sins are ever before thee" An, my friends, you see this is not a complimentary gospel.
  1t comes to man of million dollars and impenitent in his sins and says: You're pauper." It comes to a woman of fair est cheek, who has never repented, and says: "You're sinner" It comes to man birding himself on his independence and says: "You're bound hand and foot by the devil" It comes to our entire race and says: 'You're ruin, ghastly ruin, an illimitable ruin"
 Satan sometimes says to me: "Why do you preach that truth? Why don't you preach gospel with no repentance in it? Why don't you fatter mems hearts so that you make them feel all right? Why don't you preach a humanitarian gospel with no repentance in it, saying nothing about the ruin, talking all the time about redemptionp I say: "Get thee behind me, Satan" l would rather lead five souls the right way than twenty thousand the wrong way. The redemption of the Cos pei is a perfect farce if there is no ruin. ''The whole need not physician, but they that are sick" "If any one, though he be an angel from Heaven, preach any other gospel than this," says the apostle, ''let him be accursed." There must be the midnight ride over the ruins before Jeru- salem can be built. There must be the clicking of the hoofs before there can be the ringing of the trowels.
 Again. My subject gives me a specimen of busy and triumphant sadness. If there was any man in the world who had right to nope and give up every thing as lost, it was Nehemiah. You say: ''He was a cup bearer ill the palace of Shushan, and it was grand place." So it was. The hall of that palace was two hundred feet square, and the roof lowered over thirty six marble pillars, each pillar sixty feet high; and the intense blue of the sky, and the deep green of the forest foliage, and the white of the driven snow. all hung trembling in the uphol- stery. But, my friends, you know very we'll that fine architecture will not put down home sickness. Yet Nehemiah did not give up. Then, when you see him going among these desolated streets, and by these dismantled towers, and by the torn-up grave of his father, you would suppose that he would have been disheartened, and that he would have dismounted from his horse and gone to his room and said: "Woe is me! My fathers grave is torn up. The temple is dishonored. The walls are broken down. 1 have no money with which to rebuild. I wish had never been born. I wish were dead" Not so says Nehemiah. Although he had a grief so intense that it excited the commentary of his King, yet that penniless, expatriated Nehemiah rouses himself up to rebuild the city. He gets his permission of absence. He gets his passports. He hastens away to Jerusa- lem. By night on horseback he rides through the ruins. He overcomes the most ferocious opposition. He arouses the piety and patriotism of the people, and in less than two months, namely, in ffty-two days, Jerusalem was rebuilt. That's what l call busy and triumphant sadness.
 My friends, the whole temptation is with you, when you have trouble, to do just the opposite to the behavior of Nehemiah, and that is to give up. You say: "I have lost my child and can never smile again" You say; "I have lost my property, and can never repair my fortunes" You say: 'I have fallen into sin, and I never can start again for new life." If Satan can make you form that resolution, and make you keep it, he has ruined you. Trouble is not sent to crush you, but to arouse you, to animate you, to propel you. The black smith does not thrust the iron into the forge and then blow away with the bellows, and then bring the hot iron out on the anvil and beat with stroke after stroke to ruin the iron, but to prepare it for a bet ter use. Oh that the Lord God of Nehe- miah would rouse up all broken hearted people to rebuild. Whipped, betrayed shipwreoked, imprisoned, Paul went right on. The Italian martyr, Algerius, sits in his dungeon writing a letter, and he dates it Prom the delectable orchard of the Leonine prison." That is what call tri- umphant sadness. 1 knew mother who buried her baby on Friday, and on Sab bath appeared in the house of God and said: "Give me class; give me Sabbath school class. 1 have no child now left me, and I would like to have class of little children. Give me real poor children. Give me a class of the back street"