The Opelousas courier., 1890-07-26

condition of that man, hOugh he may nave
given all his estate to benevolent plr-
POSES. and passed his life in the visiting of
the distressed, and done much to excite the
admiration Of HE good and the great, II he
haVA to Ultimate relation TO Jesus Christ.
ffGt5isa REid9aH,la deprayityin his soul that
he nag TtcYcf aS~a sEe1 z Brilliant otftsida
will be no a9o4o 3 Tor a teprav6l Inside. ttis
no theory OF mine, Int an announcement Of
God, who cannot lie: by the deeds OF the
law shall no flesh living he j%ustiiel l." Open
the door of heaven AMI loo in. Howard is
there, bHt lis tttt not secure his entrance by
TIC ~d-iigeohg te llatsiHed and. tae lazzaret-
tos into which he carried ta5 LEtdssesl1es,
Paul is there, but he did not earn his way in
by the shipwrecks and imprisonments and
scourglngs On a throne overlapping per
baps all Others, except Christ's, the old mis-
sionary esclaims: SPY the grace of God | am
what / am"
Again. exalted social position will be nc
gioak for sin; Men look through the wicket
9sgt of MrisonS; did secing tho incareeratsd
wretcbes exclaim, 'Oh, how mulch vice there
is in the worldr' And they pass through the
degraded streets of a city, and looking into
the doors of novels and the dens of corrup-
ton they call them God-forsaken abodes.
But YOU might walk along the avenues
through which the opulent roll in their flour
ishing pomp, and into mansions elegantly
adorned. and find that even IN the admired
walks of life Satan works mischief and death.
ths first temptation Satan wrought in a gar
dgn. and he Understands ye6 most thorough =
R5w 10 insinnate himself into any door OF
ease and sriendor. Men frequently j1tdge
of sin by the places in which it is committed,
but iniquity in satin is to God as loathsome
as iniquIty in rags, and in the Day of Judg~
ment the sins of Madison avenue and ELM
street will all be driven in one herd. Men
cannot escape at last for being respectfully
sinful. You know Dives was clothed in pur-
pie and fine linen and Jared sumptuously
every day, but his fine clothes and good din
ners did not save him. He might on earth
have drunk something as rich as champagne
and cognac, but ct, last lie asked for Ole
drop of watet. Ybu cannot trade off
your attractive abodes here for a House
of many mansions on high, and
you elegant shade groves here will
not warrant you a seat under the tree OF
life. When God drove Adam and Eve out
of Eden He showed that merely living in a
garden of delights and comforts will never
save a man OF a woman. By giving you so
much earthly luxury and refinement He in
tin1ated that He would have you enjoy your
serves, but He would not have you wrap your-
self up in them as a cloak to hide your sins.
God now walks in your garden as He did IN
Eden, and He stands by your well as lie did
by a well in Samaria, and He would make
your comfort on earth a type of your rapture
IN heaven
Furthermore, mere s~oundness of religious
sIeiief will not hide our iniquities. There are
nea whose heads are as sound as Jonathan
slwards's Or john Wesley's, whose hearts
are as rotten as Tom Paiue's or Charles
Guiteau's. 1t is important that We be theo-
retical Christians. 1t is utter folly i'll this
day for a man to Lave no preference for any
form of faith when it lis so easy to become
conversant with the faith Of the different
sects. An intoxicated man staggered into
my house one night begging for lodging:
lie made great pretensions to religion. [
asked where he went to church. He said.
Nowhere; | belong to liberal Christianity
But there are those who never become
Chr stians, because their obstinacy pre-
vents them from ever taking a fair
view of what religion is, They are
like a 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 SOILS Is to enter an &c
clesiastical fight. | have met men who
would talk all day upon the ninth chapter of
Romans, who were thoroughly. helpless be-
fore the fourteenth chapter of John. But
there are those who, having escaped from
this condition. are now depending entirely
upon their ~soundness Of religious theory.
The doctrines of mans depravity and hrists
atonement and Gods sovereignty are
theoretically received by them. But, alasl
there they stop. It is only the shell 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 cannot be induced to enter. They
could make a better argument for truth
than ten thousand Christians who lave in
their hearts received it. IL ~syllogisms and
dilemmas and sound propositions and logical
deductions 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 a moments
confidence In the great sacrifice. They are
aImostimmovable in their position. Wecan-
not present anything about the religion Of
Christ that they do not know. The Saw
Jour described the fate OF such q one in
His parable: "And that servant which knew
his Lords will and prepared not himself,
neither did according to His will, shall be
beaten with many stripes Theories in reli-
gion have a beauty of their own but Ii they
result in no warmth in Christian life it Is the
beauty of ~hornblende n feldspar. Do not
call such boIdness and hardness religion. The
River Of Life never freezes over. Icicles
never hang On the caves of heaven. Sound
ness Of intellectual belief is a beautiful
hour when God shall demand our souls 1t
will not of itself be sufficient to hide our In
Equities.
NV friends, can it be that / have been IN
| kind, and torn from you some hope upon
which you were resting for lime and eter-
nity? Verify, I would be unkind il, having
taken away your cloak, / did not offer yot
| something better. Thisis a cold world and yol
want something to wraparound your spirit
Christ offers you a robe to-day. He wove /
Himself, and He will now with His owl
hand prepare it just to fit your soul
The Righteousness He offers is like the Goa
He used to wear about Judea, without sean
from top to bottom. There is a day Q
doom. Coward would I be If did not dar
tell you this. It shall be a day of unutter
able disappointment to those who hav
trusted in their official dignity, in thei
elegant manners, in their outward morality
in their soundness of intellectual belief. Blu
see q soul standing before God who one
was thoroughly defiled. Yet look of bin
and you cannot find a single transgressioI
anywhere about him. How is this, you ash
Wa he not once q Sabbath breaker, a bias
phemer, arobber, a perjurer, q thief, a muT
derer? Yes, but Christ hath cleansed him
Christ hath lifted him up. Christ hath ren
off his rags. Christ hath clothed him in
spotless robe of righteousness. That is th
reason why you cannot see his former degrs
dation. This glorious hope in Christ's nam
is proffered to-day. Wandering and waJ
ward soul. is not this salvation wort
coming for. worth striving for9 Do 80
wonder that So many with bitter weepin
have besought it, and with q very enttus
asm of sorrow cried for divine compassion
Do you wonder at the earnestness OF tho;
who stand in puipits be%seeching men to |
reconciled to Gods Nay, do you wonder
the Importantly Of the Holy Ghost wi
now stTiveth with thy soul? In many /
the palaces OF Europe the walls are mosai
FRAGMENTS of shells and glass are arrange