The Brookhaven leader., 1889-03-28

was not Nehemiah asleep under the COW
ersp Why was not his horse stabbed In
the midnight? Let the police OF the city
arrest this midnight rider out on some
mischief. No. Nehemiah is going to re-
build the city, and he is making the pre-
liminaTy exploration. In this gate, out
that gate, east, west, north, south. All
through the ruins. The ruins must be ex-
plored before the work of reconstruction
can begin. The reason that so many peo-
pie 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 so many pro-
fessed Christians who in this day lie and
forge and steal, and commit adultery,
and go to the penitentiary, is be-
cause they first do not learn the ruin OF
their own hearts. They have not found
out that "the heart Is deceitful above all
things, and desperately wicked" They
had an idea that they were almost right,
and they built religion as a sort Of extern
sion, as an ornamental cupola. There
was a superstructure of religion built on
substratum of unrepented sins. The
trouble with good deal OF modern the
ology is that instead of building on the
right foundation, it builds on the debris
of an unregeneratcd 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 a mans conversion IL
he is not converted in the old-faShiOned
way-Johu Bunyan's way, John Wesley's
way, John Calvin's way, Paul's way,
| Christ's way, Gods way. A dentist once
| said to mo: "Does that hurt?" Said |:
''Of course it hurts. 1t is in your BUSH
ness as in my profes sion. We have to
hurt before we can help" You will never
understand redemption until you under
stand ruin. A man tells me that some
one is a member of the church. 1t makes
no impression on my mind at all. |
simply want TO know whether he was con-
verted in the old-fashioued way, or wheth-
or he was converted in the new fashioned
way. If he was converted i'll the old-fash-
toned way he will stand. If he was con-
verified 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 l ask him is: "Do you
feel yourself to be a siuner?" If he say:
"Well, YES" the hesitancy makes me
feel that that man wants n 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, Good 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 trans gre 5siOns, for | acknOwl-
edge my transgre ssions and my sins are
ever before thee" All, my friends, you
sea this is not q complimentary gospel.
That is what makes some people so mad.
1t comes to man of a million dollars and
| impenitent in his sins and says: YOU'RE
| pauper." 1t comes to q woman of fair
| est cheek, who has never repented, and
says: YOU'RE a sinner" Ii comes to
man priding himself on his independence
and says: you're bound hand and foot
by the devil" 1t comes to our entire race
and says: you're a ruin, CHASTITY ruin,
an illimitable ruin"
Satan sometimes says to mo: "Why do
you preach that truth? Why don't you
u
| Why don't you fatter mems hearts so
that you make them feel all right? Why
don't you preach humanitarian gospel
with no repentance in it, saying nothing
about the ruin, talking all the time about
redemption" l say: "Get thee behind
me, Satan" would rather lead five souls
the right way than twenty thousand the
wrong way. The redemption Of the Cos
pei is perfect farce if there is no ruin.
"The whole need not physician, but they
that are sick" al 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 cup
bearer in the palace of Shushan, and it
was a grand place" So it was. The hall
of that palace was two hundred feet
square, aud 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 Gesolated
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 aud said: "Woe is me! Ny
fathers grave is torn up. The temple is
di5hOnOred. The walls are broken down.
have no money with which to rebuild. |
wish had never been born. wish were
dead" Not so says Nehemiah. Although
he had grief so intense that it excited
the commentary of his King, yet that
peuniless, eXpatriated Nehemiah rouses
himself up 10 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
fifty 1.-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 ia n rive Won E1I bava Loot