Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-09-21

oase, Dut Wnlch Is really not tnat messag
at all. Some OF the words are changed, tn,
emphasis is altered, something is left out
or put In. and the message is not Godi
message.
And when this garbled invitation comel
10 some hidden guest, he listens to it ant
declines it. He misunderstands it. He re
fuses to believe in God as we have preached
Him, or in the Church of Christ as we have
represented it. He may love God better thar
we do. But we bring the invitation, and hi
refuses IT, And God knows why. God knows
whose fault it is And one day when the
consummation of all things is at hand, when
the Judgment is upon us, that hour o.
great surprises, we will behold men going
Into the kingdom OF God, to the marriage
1east OF heaven, whom here we accounted
lar on from salvation, heretics and inhdels
to whom the servants came bringing Gods
invitation, and they declined it; we will see
tnem entering in, and some OF the servants
Will be cast out. For God knows. GOO
Judges every man with per .ect justice.
THE SPIRIT OF REBELLION.
But the servants come back and the King
learns that the answer in this case does moi
mean misunderstanding, but rebellion. A
rebellious temper is abroad. The feast is
taken as an occasion for displaying it. Or,
perhaps more truly. the invitation to the
least discovers the rebellious spirit, makes
1t visible for the first time, even to the rebels
themselves. They have for long time
lost all genuine loyalty, and now
all at once this spirit OF dis
loyalty meets crisis, comes into
the foreground, is seen to be alive and real.
All rebellion awaits a crisis. When such a
crisis comes the thoughts Of mems hearts
are revealed, the spirit OF rebellion exists
IN the heart as vague unrest and dlscon-
tent-in solution, We may say. At last a
crisis comes; and this unrest and discomfort
is at once precipitated out of solution into
visible and definite rebellion. The man for
the first time discovers his own disloyalty.
Such crisis the call of God brings some
times into the spiritual life. In the hearing
OF some plain preaching OF the will OF God,
in the exhortation to holy life, in the
| presence of some sublime emergency, in the
face OF some crushing sorrow, in the pain of
disappointment or bereavement, the dis
loyal soul, which has thus far been
suddenly turn rebel, may emphatically cry
mo" to this divine invitation, and may
make the great refusal. Every religious
revival, every recurrence of the annual ap-
peal to the unconfrmed, every return of the
penitential seasons of Advent and Lent,
makes such discoveries in mems souls. Gods
invitation comes, and men defantly de-
cline it.
CARELESSLY AND ABUSIvELY.
The Kings invitation encountered two
kinds of unfavorable reception. Some de-
clined it .carelessly. and some abusively.
The first made light of it, and went their
ways, one to his Iarm, another to his mer-
chandise. These men put aside the King s
call, not because they particularly disliked
the King, but because then had other and
more attractive interests. These interests
were connected with the possession OF
wealth. One man had made his fortune.
He owned a farm. He had a fine
estate in the country and a hand
some house upon it. These were
an immense pleasure and satisfaction
to him, and he cared for nothing further.
The other man had not made his fortune,
but was very busy constructing it. He had
merchandise. He owned store. He had
no interests outside of his counter and cash
book.
The whole mind of these men was occu-
pied. One of them had no interest, the other
had 10 leisure for anything which could not
be set down on paper with dollar mark at
the lett of it and added up into sum of
large figures. There was no money in the
marriage feast, therefore they declined to go.
They listened to the invitation, perhaps re-
spectully, at least silently, as men listen to
sermons, and they did not give it two sober
thoughts. In their hearts they made light
OF it, and as soon as the invitation had been
given they turned about and went away in
just the opposite direction.
THE OTHER CLASS.
"And the remnant took his servants and
treated them spitefully and slew them" 1t
seems almost incredible that men should
seize upon the bearers of gracious invita-
tion and misuse them, even to the extremity
of death. But it has happened again and
again. I can believe that Christ, in his
description of these two kinds of refusers-
the careless and the vicious-was looking
forward to the two kinds work which would
tall to the lot of His servants-work at
home, among the Indifferent, and work
abroad in mission fields, among the violent
and the vicious. AT any rate, the history Of
Christian nilsson from the beginning is full
of parallels with this abusive reception of the
message. When savage men in the South
killed Bishop Pattison and Bishop Han
nington, when savage men in the North
gouged the missionaries eyes out and put
red Goals In the bleeding sockets, they re-
enacted the story of the parable.
The men who killed the Kings servants
by way OF more emphatic declination of the
Kings invitation were not careless men,
only in the mission field; they live in every
parish. They are men who find no place
for the Kings feast in their lives because
their lives are full of evil passions.
THE KING AROUSED.
By these two kinds of men, by the indif.
ferent and the vicious. the divine call to the
wedding>ieast. no matter what dutyor priv
ilege that may mean Tor them, is wilfully |
declined. But then came anger, and |
armies and destruction. Punishment fol- |
lowed refusal. For re usal to accept Gods |
invitation is sin. 1 say that because some |
people do not seem to understand it.
There are some who would seem to think |
that the only failure which God Furnishes is !
the failure which follows an attempt to obey
Him, and that failure to even make that |
attempt is not regarded by Him. 1t is |
sin to take the vows Of Christian disciple |
ship and then break them. But is it no sin |
never to enrol oneself among Christ's dis |
ciples at all? 1t is sin to partake of the |
sacrament OF the Lords Supper unworthy. |
But is it no sin to disobey Him altogether |
who said 'Do this in remembrance of me?" |
To decline Gods invitation to the marriage |
feast, to be aware of a duty undone and to |
make no effort to do it, to be conscious of |
possibilities which you are making no en- |
deavor to develop, to see an ideal and to be |
approaching no nearer to it,-this is sin.
THE SIN OF OMISSION.
And all sin will certainly be punished. |
All sin OF commission or of omission. will |
be punished. But not with arms, |
not with destruction, not with burning. |
Sin is its own punishment The punish. |
n,ent which God will in a ,ct unon ova.u -