The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-01-07

Independent Presbyterians Again
Without a Pastor.

Without Pastor.
Rev. A. F. De Camp preached bis last SER
mon previous to his departure from Savan-
nah at the Independent Presbyterian church
last night He made no direct reference to
the close OF his ministry here.
His text was the Gospel of st. John xiv,
/, 2, 8.
Let not your heart be troubled ye believe in
God, believe also in me.
This chapter, said the preacher, is consid-
cred by many to be the supreme passage OF
sacred scripture, the apex, as it were, of
the gospel pyramid, and from its summit
came voices of encouragement TO every
one when distressed or troubled,
revealing to US our advocate, clothed in
majesty When these words were
first uttered the disciples were much dis
tressed. Their darling dream of a tenn
pOral kingdom received another stunning
blow. These words may be considered the
text Of the two chapters that follow Let
not your heart be troubled" Weeping
is not here prohibited. Christians have
their tears which wash away the dust Of
earth and clear our spiritual vision. Jesus
wept and his tears have mingled with and
consecrated all other tears. We may weep
for cause, but we must not be troubled in
heart, say rather like the depths of the
the waters above may be, are calm and
still at the bottom.
Let not your heart be troubled We
often us5 similar words to men, said the
p.eacher To a bankrupt friend we tell
him to cheer up" and TO a weeping child,
don't cry" but while our words seem trite
and meaningless, the words of our divine
Lord are full Of spirit and life. He never
exhorts to anything without giving good
and sufficient reason for his exhortatlon.
Ye believe in God, he said, but he did not
stop here, and he added believe also in
me-" l and my father are one. In my
fathers house are many mansions. Ear5a
is one mansion, heaven is another. go to
prepare place for you. 1t is best should
go away for / will send you the comforter
who will lead you into a knowledge of all
truth and prepare you for the man
sions which | 90 to prepare for you
From this passage. said the preacher, |
adduce the certainty of heaven as place.
The words Christ spoke were truth seeds,
and the disciples were truth-planters; but
the half of the truth concerning heaven
could not be told in human languages.
There is no human language able to bear
the burden of SO great a message and no
human soul could bear the rapture, if told.
Heaven is q place, said the Christi 90
TO prepare place for you. Some tell us
that earth is to lie heaven, and others that
the central star Of the universe will
be the future abode of the redeemed.
All we know about heavens location, said
the preacher, is that it is somewhere, and
that it IS a perpetual place. Half the
beauty and attractYene,s of earthly things
and earth itself are owing to these having
been prepared for mans enjoyment These
physical bodies are beautiful tabsrnacles
for our souls, because God prepared them
for that purpose, and there is no place like
home, be it ever so humble, because God
first prepared husband and wife, parent and
child for each other. Heaven is like the
earth, in that it is prepared for us, and it is
the grandest place Of all places throughout
the universe because God has made it a pre-
pared place for prepared people.
A piece of timber, said the preacher, is
not lifted to the top Of a building and there
hewn and fitted to its prOpe place, but it
is first prepared OH the ground; so God is
daily preparing us here for our place in
heaven.
In conclusion, the speaker said that
heaven is no more a place than a condition
and a state. The real tilial christian is now
in heaven IN a very essential sense, because
he carries it in his heart and holds fellow
snip with the Father and the Son. In
heaven he will hold still closer communion,
and see Christ face t. face.
The speaker spoke incidentally of the as
constituent OF many christians who, when
they get to heaven, will see a great many
people whom they did not expect to see.
The most telling parable, said he, that
Christ ever uttered, is that of the good
Samaritan. While tho man who had fallen
among thieves lay wounded by the way
side the priest or clergyman came along
| and also the Levite or church elder, and
both of them passed by on the other side
When the Samaritan came along he acted
| like a man and brother. In that day a
Samaritan was accounted dog, no man
or race of men was then considered further
from the kingdom than the Samaritans,
and vet Christ declared that he should enter
before the churchman or the church elder,
neither of whom had the spirit Of self
sacrifice or the principle Of him who went
about doing gOod.