Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1890-03-08

DOT necessary that he harmonic them. Every
sermon that I have ever heard that at
tempted such fermentation was to me as
clear as a London fog, as clear as mud. My
brother Of the nineteenth century, my
brother of the sixteenth century, give us
PauPs statement and leave out our own.
Better one chapter of Paul on that subject
than all of Calvin's institutes, able and honest
and mighty as they are. Do not try to
measure either the throne of God or the
thunderbolts Of God with your little steel
pen What do you know about the DEGREES?
You cannot pry open the door of Gods
eternal counsels You cannot explain
the mysteries of Gods government
now, much less the mysteries of His
government five hundred quintillion of years
ago move for a creed for all our denomi-
nations made out of Scripture quotations
pure and simple. That would take the earth
for God. That would be impregnabie against
infidelity and Apollyonic assault That
would be beyond human criticism. The de-
nomination, whatever its name be- that can
rise up to that will be the church of the mil
lennium, will swallow up all other denoml-
nations and be the one that will be the bride
when the Bridegroom cometh. Let us make
the kingdom Of God Do not hinder people by
the idea that they may not have been elected.
Do not tag on to the one essential OF faith IN
Christ any of the innumerable nonessentlals.
man who heartily, accepts Christ is
Christian and the man who does not accept
Him is not a Christian, and that is all there is
of it. He need not believe in election or rep
rotation. He need not believe in the eternal
generation of the Son. He need not believe
in everlasting punishment He need not be-
lieve in infant baptism He need not believe
in plenary inspiration. Faith in Christ
is the criterion, is the test is the pivot,
is the indispensable. But there are those
who would add unto the tests rather than
subtract from them. There are thousands
who would not accept persons into church
membership if they drink wine or if they
smoke cigars or IL they attend the theater
or il they play cards or if they drive fast
horse. Now do not drink wine or smoke or
attend the theater. never played game of
cards ard DO not drive fast horse although
/ would if l owned one. But do not
substitute tests which the Bible does
not establish. There is one passage of
Scripture wide enough to let all in
who ought to enter and to keep out all who
ought to be kept out: believe in tine Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved" Get
a mans heart right and his life will be
right But now that the old creeds have
been put under public scrutiny, something
radical must be done Some would split
them, some would carve them, some would
elongate them, some would abbreviate them.
At the present moment and in the present
shape they are a hindrance Lazarus is
alive, but hampered with the old grave
clothes If you want one glorious church
free and unencumbered take off the cerements
of old ecclesiastical vocabulary. Loose her,
and let her go
Again, there are Christians who are under
sepulchral shadows and hindered and hoppled
by doubts and fears and sins long ago re-
pented of What they need is to understand
the liberty of the sons of God. They spend
more time under the shadow of Sinai than at
the base of Calvary. They have been sing
ing the only poor hymn that Newton ever
wrote:
pTis point long to know
Oft It causes anxious thought
Do love the Lord or no.
Am His or am not?
Long to know, do you? Why do you not
find out? Go to work for God and you will
very soon find out The man who is all the
time feeling of his pulse and looking at his
tongue to see whether it is coated is morbid
and cannot be physically well. The doctor
will say go out into the fresh air and into
active life, and stop thinking OF yourself and
you viii get well and strong" So there are
people who arc watching their spiritual
and they get weaklier and sicklier in their
faith all the time. Go out and do some thing
nobly Christian. Take holy exercise and
then examine yourself, and instead of New
tons saturnine and bilious hymn that | first
quoted you will sing Newton's other hymn:
Amazing grace how sweet the sound
That saved wretch like mel
once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind but now see
What many of you Christians most need
is to get your grave clothes off. | rejoice
that you have been brought from the death
of sin to the life of the Gospel, but you need
to get your hand loose and your feet loose
and your tongue loose aud your soul loose.
There iSno sin that the Bible 50 arraigns and
punctdres and hagellates as the sin of unbe-
lief and that is what is the matter with you.
on you say, IF You knew what / once
was and how many times have grievously
strayed. You would understand why
do rot come out brighter" Then 1 think
you would call yourself the chief of sinners.
| anu glad you hit upon that term. for l have
a promise that fits into vour case as the cogs
of one wheel between the cogs of another
wheel or as the key fits into the labyrinths Of
lock A man who was once called Saul
but afterwar1 Paul declared This is a
faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save
sinners, Of whom | am chief" Mark that
-'of whom | am chief" Put down your
overcoats and hats and | will take care
of them while you kill Stephen
so Saul said to the stonerS Of the first
rartyr-'I do not care to exert myself
much, but ! viii guard your surplus apparel
Willie you do the murder" The New Tesla
ment account says: ''Tho witnesses laid down
their clothes at young mans feet whose
name was Saul" No wonder he said: "Sin-
ners, of whom | am the chief Christ is
used to climbing. He climbed to the top of
tile temple. He climbed to the top of Mourt
Ohvet. He climbed TO the top of tbs
cliffs about Nazareth He climbed
to the top of Golgotha. And to the
top of the hills and the mountains of your
transgression He is ready TO climb with par
don for every one of you. The groan Of Cal
vary is mightier than the thunder of Sinai
Full receipt is offered for all your indebted
ness If one throw stone at midnight into
bush where the hedgebird roosts. it i'm
mediately begins to sing; and into the mid
night hedges of your dependency these words
hurl, hoping to awaken you to anthem
Drop the tunes in the minor key and take
the major. Do you think it pleases the Lord
for you to be carrying around with you the
debris and carcasses of old transgresslons?
You make me think of some ship that has
mad a tempestuous time at sea, and now that
it proposes another voyage, keeps on its
davits the damaged life-hoats, and the splin-
ters OF shivered mast, and the broken
glass of a smashed skylight My advice is:
clear the decks, overheard with all the dam
aged rigging, brighten up the sailed smoke
saacKs, open new book, haul in
the planlrs, lay out new course and set sail
for heaven. You have had the spiritual
dumps long enough. You will please the
Lord more by being happy than by being
miserable Have you not sometimes started
out in the rain with your umbrella and you
were busy thinking and you did not no
| tice that the rain had stopped, and though it
had cleared off you still had your umbrella
up and when you discovered what you
were doing you felt silly enoughP That is
what some of you are doing in religious
| things. You have got SO used to sadness
that though the rain has stopped you still
have your umbrella up. Come out Of this
shadow Ascent the stairs of your
sepulchcr. Step out into the broad light of
monday. We come around YOU to help re-
move your grave clothes, and a voice from
the heavens tremulous but omuipotent,
commands: Loose him, and let him 60"
Again, my text has good advice concern
ing any Christian hanpered and bothered
and bound by fear of his own dissolution. To
such the book refers when it speaks of those
who through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to bondage. Thsmost of us,
even if we have the Christian hope, are
towards about death. II plank falls from al
scaffolding and just grazes our hat. how pale'
we look. If the Atlantic Ocean plays with
the steamship, pitching it toward the
heavens and letting it suddenly drop, how
even the Christian passengers poster the stew
| ard or sewardeSs as to whether there is any
| LANCER and the captain, who has been all
night ON the Drldge and chilled through
coming in for cup of coffee, is assailed with
whole battery of questions as to what he