The national leader., 1889-04-06
Nehemiah loved his Jerusalem. The

Nehemiah loved his Jerusalem. The
fact is that
YOU LOVE THE CHURCH
of God so much that there is no spot
on earth so sacred, unless it is your own
freside. The Church has been to you
so much comfort and illumination that
there is nothing that makes you so
irate as to have it talked against. If
there have been times when you have
been carried into captivity by sickness.
you lOnged for the Church, our holy
Jerusalem, just as much as Nehemiah
longed for his Jerusalem, and the first
day you came out you came to the
house of the Lord. When the Temple
was in ruins. as ours was years ago,
like Nehemiah you walked around and
looked at it. and in the moonlight you
stood listening il you could hear the
voice of the dead organ, the psalm of
the expired Sabbaths.
What Jerusalem was to Nehemiah,
the Church Of God is to you. Sceptics
and infidels may scoff at the Church as
an obsolete affair, as relic OF the dark
ages, as convention Of g0Ody-goody
people, but all the impression they have
ever made on your mind against the
Church of God is absolutely nothing.
You would make more sacrifices for it
to-day than for any other institution,
and If 1t were needful you would die in
its defence. You can take the words OF
the klngly poet as he said, "If l forget
thee, o Jerusalem, let my right hand
forget her cunnIng.n You understand
In your own experience the pathos, the
homeslckness, the courage, the holy
enthusiasm of Nehemiah in his mid
night ride around the ruins Of his be-
loved Jerusalem.
Again, my text impresses me with
the fact that before reconstruction there
must be an erplorotion of rans. Why
was not Nehemiah asleep under the
coyersp Why was not his horse
stabbed in the midnightp Let the
police of the city arrest this midnight
rider out on some mischief. No. Me-
hemiah is going to rebuild the city,
and he is making preliminary explora-
ton.
In this gate, out that gate, east.
west, north, south. All through the
ruins. The ruins must be explored
before the work of reconstruction can
begin. The reason that so many people
in this day, apparently converted. do
not:stay converted is because they did
not first explore the ruins Of their own
heart. The reason that there are o
many professed Christians who in this
day lie and forge and steal and commit
adultry and go to the penitentiary, is
because they first do not learn the ruin
of their own hear. They have not
found out that 1.-THE heart is deceitful
above all things. and desperately
wicked" They had an idea that they
were almost right, and they built re-
ligion as sort of extension, as an
ornamental cupola. There was su-
perstructure of religion built on a
substratum of sins.
The trouble with good deal of mod
ern theology is that instead of building
on the right foundation. 1t builds on
the debris of an unregenerated nature.
They attempt to rebuild Jerusalem
before, in the midnight of conviction
they have seen the ghastliness of the
ruin. They have such a poor founda-
tion for their religion that the first
northeast storm Of temptation blows
them down. l 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, Paul's way,
Christ's way, Gods way. A dentist
once said to me, ''Does that hurt?"
Said l, "Of course it hurtsl 1t is in
your business as in my profession; we
have to hurt before we can help"
You will never understand redemption
until you understand ruin. A man
tells me that someone Is member of
the Church. 1t makes no impression
on my mind at all. I simply want to
know whether he was converted In the
old fashioned way. or whether he was
converted in the new-fashioned way. Ii
he was converted in the old-fashioned
way, he will stand. If he was con-
verted IN the new-fashioned way. he
will not stand. That it all there is
about it.
A man comes to me to talk about re.
ligion. The first question | ask him is,
"Do you feel yourself to be sinnerr"
If he say. ''Well, I-yes," the hesi-
fancy makes me feel that that man
wants ride on Nehemiah's horse by
midnight through the rulns-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" and before he had
stabbed his horse he will take his feet
out of the stirrups, and he will slide
down on the ground, and he will kneel,
crying, "Have mercy on me, o God,
according to thy loving kindness: &C
cording unto the multitude OF thy ten
der mercies blot out my transgressions.
For / acknowledge my transgressions.