The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-07-11

wearing the appointed uniform who
nevertheless really belonged to the op
posing host Thus must the Heavenly
Shepherd look upon those who, though
they are not his sheep, have climbed ur
some other way, and thus must the
Lord of Hosts look upon those who pre-
tend 70 be soldiers Of the cross while
they are his armed enemies II any oil
you find yourselves deficient in the
great tests of Christian character, dc
not / beg Of you. look upon your pro
fession of religion as any thing consola-
tory. If you have taken your present
position from view that you have OF
Christ and your need of Him, rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory
clap your hands for gladness, but if you
lind yourself with nothing but the name
of life, while dead in trespasses and
sins, arouse before the door is shut
That gilded profession-the world may
not be able to see through 1t, but in the
day of divine reckoning it will be found
that you have no cloak for your sin.
Furthermore: Outward morality will
be no covering for the hidden iniquity
of the spirit The Gospel of Christ
makes no assault upon good works
They are as beautiful in Gods eye as in
ours Punctuality, truthfulness, aims
giving, affection and many other excel
lences of life that might be mentioned
will always be admired of God and man,
but we take the position that good
works can not be the ground of our sal
walton What we do right can not pay
for what we do wrong Admit that you
have all those traits of character which
give merely worldly responsibility and
influence, you must at the same time
acknowledge that during the course of
your life you have done many things
you ought not to have done. How are
these difficult matters to be settled?
All, my friends, we must have an atone
ment. No Christ, no salvation. The
great Redeemer comes in and says: 81
will pay your Indebtedness" So that
which was dark enough before, is bright
enough now. The stripes that We de-
serve are fallen upon Christ On His
scourged and bleeding shoulders He
carries us up over the mountain Of our
sins and over the hills of our iniquities.
Chrfst's good works accepted are suffi-
cient for us, but they who reject them,
depending upon their own, must perish.
Traits of character that may make US
influential on earth will not neces-
sarily open to us the gate of Heaven.
The plank that will be strong enough
for house floor would not do for a
ships hulk. Mere morality might be
enough here but can not take you
through deaths storm into Heavens
harbor. Christ has announced for all
ages, 81 am the way, the truth and the
life, him that cometh unto Me I will in
no wise cast out" But pitiable in the
day of accounts will be the condition of
that man, though he may have given all
his estate to benevolent purposes and
passed his life in the visiting of the
distressed and done much to excite the
admiration of the good and the great,
If he have no intimate relation to Jesus
Christ There is pride and depravity
in his soul that he has never discovered.
A brilliant outside will be no apology
for depraved inside. 1t is no theory
of mine but an announcement of God,
who can not lie: "By the deeds of the
law shall no flesh living be justified"
Open the door Of Heaven and look in.
Howard is there, but he did not secure
his entrance by the dungeons he illumed
and the lazzarettos into which he carried
the medicines. Paul is there, but he
did not earn his way in by the ship
wrecks and imprisonments and scourg-
ings. On throne overlapping perhaps
all others, except Christ's, the old mis-
sionary exclaims: 'By the grace of
God am what am"
Again: Exalted social position will be
no cloak for sin. Men look through
the wicket door of prisons, and seeing
the incarcerated wretches exclaim: 30,
how much vice there is in the world!"
And they pass through the degraded
streets of a city, and looking into the
doors of novels and the dens of cor
ruption they call them Gods forsaken
abodes. But you might walk along the
avenues through which the opulent roll
in their flourishing pomp and into man
sions elegantly adorned, and find that
even in the admired walls of life Satan
works mischief and death. The first
Satan wrought in garden,
and he understands yet most thoroughly
how to insinuate himself into any door
Of ease and splendor. Men frequently
Judge of sin by the places in which it is
but inieuity in satin is to
God as loathsome as iniquity in rags, and
in the day of Judgment the sins of Madi-
son avenue and Elm street will all be
driven in one herd. Men can not
escape at last for being respectfully
sinful. You know Dives was clothed
IN purple and fine linen and Jared
,umptuously every day, but his fine
clothes and good dinners did not save
him. He might on earth have drunk
something as rich as champagne and
cognac, but at last he asked for one
lrop of water. You can not trade of
your attractive abodes here for a house
Of many mansions on high and your ele-
CANT shade groves here will not warrant
you'a seat under the tree of life. When
Tod drove Adam and Eve out of Eden,
BE showed that merely living in gar
len of delights and comforts will never
ave man or woman. By giving you
70 much earthly luxury and refinement
he intimated that He would have you
enjoy yourselves, but He would not
rave you wrap yourself up in them as a
.loak to hide your sins. God row walks
n your garden as He did in Eden, even
n the cool Of the day, and He stands by
,our well as He did by well in Samaria,
md He would make your comfort on
,arth type of your rapture in Heaven.
Furthermore: Mere soundness of |
'eligious belief will not hide our in
quities There are men whose heads |
ire as sound as Jonathan Edwards or |