The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1890-07-02

woman. By giving you so much earthly
luxury and refinement, He intimated
that He would have you enjoy your
selves, but He would not have you wrap
yourself up in them as cloak to hide
your sins God now walks in your gar
den as He did in Eden, even in the cool
OF the day, and he stands by your well
as He did by we'll in Samaria, and he
would make your comfort on earth q
type Of your rapture in Heaven.
Furthermore: Mere soundness OF re-
ligious belief will not hide our iniquities.
There are men whose heads are as sound
as Jonathan Edwards or John Wesley.
whose hearts are as rotten as Tom
Paine's or Charles Guiteau's. 1t is Inn
portant that we be theoretical Chris
tians. 1t is utter folly in this day for q
man to have no preference for any one
form OF faith, when 1t Is so easy to be-
come conversant with the faith Of the
different sects. An intoxicated man
staggered into my house one night beg
ging for lodging. He made great pre-
tensions to religion. asked whore he
went to church. He said: "Nowhere; !
belong to liberal Christianity" But
there are those who never become
Christians because their obstinaoy
prevents them from ever taking fair
view Of what religion is. They are like
q brute beast In the fact that their
greatest strength lies in their horns.
They are combatant, and all they are
ever willing to do for their souls is TO
enter an ecclesiastical fight. / have
met men who would talk all day upon
the ninth chapter Of Romans, who was
thoroughly helpless before the four
teenth chapter OF John. But there are
those who, having escaped from this
condition, are now depending entirely
upon theirsoundness Of religious theory.
The doctrines Of mans depravity snd
Christ's atonementan God sovereignty
are theoretically received by them. But,
alasl there they stop. It's only theshell
Of Christianity containing no evangelical
life. They stand looking over into heaven
and admire its beauty and its song, and
are so pleased with the looks from the
outside that they can not bo induced TO
enter They could make better argu-
ment for the truth than ton thousand
Christians who have in their hearts re-
ceiveS 1t. II syllogisms and dilemmas
and sound propositions and logical de-
ductions could save their souls, they
would be among the best Of Christians
They could correctly define repentance
and faith and the Atonement, while
they have never felt one sorrow for sin
nor exercised moments confidence in
the great sacrifice They are almost
immovable in their position. We
can not present any thing about the re-
ligion OF Christ they do not know. The
Saviour described the fate Of such one
in his parable: sand that servant
which knew his Lords will, and pre-.
pared not himself, neither did accord
ing to his will, shall be beaten with
many stripes" Theories in religion
have beauty of THAR own, but II they
result in no warmth OF Christian life II
is the beanty OF hornblende and field
spar. Do not call such coldness and
hardness religion. The River Of Life
never freezes over. Icicles never hang
on the caves of heaven. Soundness OF
intellectual belief is a beautiful cloak,
we'll woven and we'll cut, but in the
hour when God shall demand our souls
1t will not OF itself be sufficient to hide
our iniquitios.
My friends can 1t be that have been
unkind. and torn from you some hope
upon which you were resting for time
and eternity2 Verify, would be unkind
II, having taken away your cloak, did
not offer you something better. This is
a cold world and you want something to
wrap around your spirit. Christ offers
you a robe to-day. He wove 1t Himself
and He will now with His own hand pre-
pare II Just to ct your soul. The
righteousness He offers is like the
coat He used TO wear about Judea,
without seam from top TO bottom.
There Is a day OF doom. Coward would
/ be II did not dare TO tell you this.
It shall be q day OF unutterable disap-
pointment to those who have trusted In
their offictll dignity, in their elegant
manners, in their outward morality, In
their soundness OF intellectual belief.
But see soul standing before God
who was once thoroughly defiled. Yet
look at him and you can not find sin
gle transgression anywhere about him.
How is this, you ask. Was he not once
Sabbath breaker, a blasphemer, a
robber, perjurer. thief, murdererf
Yes, but Christ hath cleansed him.
Christ hath lifted him up. Christ hath
rent of his rags. Christ hath clothed
him in a spotless robe OF righteous.
ness. That is the reason why you can
not see his former degradation. This
glorious hope in Christs name is prof
ferred to-day. Wandering and wayward
soul, is not this salvation worth coming
for, worth striving for9 Do you wonder
that so many with bitter weeping have
besought 1t, and with very enthusiasm
OF sorrow cried for divine compassion
Do you wonder at the earnestness Of
those who stood in pulpits beseechine
men to be reconciled to God9 Nay, dc
you wonder at the importantly OF the
Holy Ghost who now striyeth with thy
soul? In many OF the places o.
Europe the walls are mosaic. Frag
ments OF shells and glass are arranged
by artists and aggregated into a pic
torial splendor. What made out oI
broken shells and broken glassl o, yes
God grant by the Transforming powei
Of His Holy Spirit we may all be made
q part of the eternal palaces, our broker
and fragmentary natures polished and
shaped and lifted up to make part o.