The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1890-09-04


ion if the heart be renewed can not be
exaggerated Christ positively and with
the earnestness of the night before His
crucifixion commanded it. But 1t IS
the result of Christian character, not
the cause of it. Our church certificate
is a poor title to Heaven. We may
have the name and not the reality.
There are those who seem to
throw themselves back with COM
placency upon their public confess
sion of Christ although they gave no
signs of renewal If Satan can induce
O man to build on such a rotten founda-
ton as that, he has accomplished his
object. We can not imagine the abb
horrence with which God looks upon
such procedure. What would be the
feelings of shepherd if he saw a wolf
in the same fold with his flocks how
ever quiet he might seem to lie, or
General if among his troops he saw one
wearing the appointed uniform VINO
nevertheless really belonged to the
opposing host. Thus must the heav-
emily shepherd look upon those who,
though they are not His sheep,
have climbed up some other way,
and thus must the Lord of hosts
look upon those who pretend
to be soldiers of the cross while they
are His armed enemies If any of you
find yourselves deficient in the great
tests of Christian character, do not, L
beg of you, look upon your profession
of religion as any thing consolatory. If
you have taken your present position
and your need of Him, rejoice with joy
unspeakable and full of glory and clap
your hands for gladness, but if you find
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 it, but in the
day of Divine reckoningi 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 eyes as
in ours. Punctuality, truthfulness.
alms-giving, affection and many other
excelences of life that might be men
toned will always be admired OF
God and man, but we take the po-
sition that good works can not be
tho ground of our salvation. 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 in
fuence, 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
atonement. No Christ, no salvation.
The Great RedeBmer comes in and says,
81 will pay your Indebtedness. So
that which was dark enough before, is
| bright enough now. The stripes that
we deserve are fallen upon Christ. On
the scourged and bleeding shoulders He
carries US up over the mountain of ouI
sins and the hills of our iniquities.
| Christ's good works accepted are suffici.
ent for us, but they who reject them
depending upon their own, must per-
ish. 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
ships hulk. Mere morality might be
| enough here, but can not take yoI
| through deaths storm into Heavens
| harbor. Christ bias announced for ali
ages: II am the way, the truth ant
| the life, him that come tn unto Me will
in no wise cast out" But pitiable il
the day of accounts will be the condi
ton of that man, though he may have
given all his estate to benevolent
purposes and passed his life in the Wis
iting of the distressed and done much
to excite the admiration of the good
and the great, if h e have no intimate
relation to Jesus Christ There is a
pride and a depravity in his soul that
he has never discovered. A brilliant
outside will be no apology TO a de
PRAYED inside. 1t is no theory of mine
but an announcement of God, who cal
not lie: by the deeds of the law shall
no flesh living be justified. Open the
door of Heaven and look in. Howard il
there, but he did not secure his en-
trance by the dungeons he illuminet
and the lazzarettos into which he car
ried the medicines Paul is there. bu
he did not earn his way in by the ship
wrecks and imprisonments and scourg
ings On throne overlapping perhap
all other, except Christ's, the old mis-
sionary exclaims: by the grace of Coz
am what / am. "
Again: Exalted social position viii
be no cloak for sin. Men look through
the wickets of prisons, and seeing tn,
incarcerated wretches exclaim: ooh
how much vice there is in the worIdl
And they pass through the streets of
degraded city, and looking into tn,
doors of novels and dens of corruption
they call them God-forsaken abodes
But you might walk along avenue
through which the opulent roll in thei
fourishing pomp and into mansion
elegantly adorned, and find that ever
in the admired walks of life Satal
works mischief and death. The frs
temptation Satan wrought in a garden
and he understands va+ 40,