Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-07-03

that during the course OF your HfetFou have
done many things you ought not 10 have
done. How are these difficult matters TO
be settledg All, my friends, we must have
an atonement- No Christ. no salvation.
Inc great Redeemer comes in and says: i
viii pay your Indebtedness" So that which
was dark enough before is bright enough
now, The stripes thatwe deserve are fallen
upon Christ. On His seourged and bleed
ing shoulders He carries us up over the
mountain OF our sins and the hills or our in
iquIties. Christ's good works accepted are
sufficient for US. but they who reject them.
depending on their own, must perish. Traits
OF character that may make US influential
on earth viii not necessarily 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 cannot take you
through deaths storm into heaven harbor.
Christ has announcedfor all ages: L am the
way, the truth and the life him that cometh
unto me will In no wise cast out But
piuable 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 visiting the distressed,
and done much to excite the admiration of
the good and the great, II he have no inti-
mate relation TO Jesus Christ. There is a
pride and depravity In his soul that he
has never discovered. A brilliant outside
VIII be no apology for depraved inside. 1t
is no theory of mine but an announcement
of God, who cannot lie: by the deeds of
the law shall no flesh living be justified" :"
open the door Of heaven and look in. How
ard is there, but he did not secure his en-
trance by the dungeons he Illuminated and
the lazzarettos in5o which he carried the
medicines. Paul is there, but he did not
earn his way by the shipwrecks and i'm
prisonments and scourgings. On throne
oyertopping perhaps all others, except
Christ s, the old missionary 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 in
carcerated wretches, exclaim: ~Oh, how
much vice there is in the worldl" And
they pass through the degraded streets of a
city, and looking into the doors Of novels
and the dens of corruption they call them
God-forsaken abodes. But you might walk
along the avenues through which the opu-
lent roll in their hourishing pomp, and into
mansions elegantly adorned, and find that
even in the admired walks of life Satan
works mischief and death. The first temp
tatlon Satan wrought in a 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 committed, but
iniquity in satin is as loathsome to God 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
purple and fine linen and Jared sumptu-
ously 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
| Tor one drop OF water. You cannot trade off
your attractive abodes here for house Of
many mansions on high, and your elegant
| shade groves here will not warrant YOU q
seat under the tree Of life, When God
drove Adam and Eve out of Eden he showed
that merely living in q garden of delights
and comforts will never save a man or a
woman. By giving you so much earthly
luxury and refinement He intim ated that He
would have you enjoy yourselves, but He
would not have you wrap yourselves up in
them as cloak to hide your sins. God
now walks in your garden as he did in
Eden. even in the cool Of the day, and he
would make your comfort on earth type of
| your rapture in heaven.
| Furthermore, mere soundness Of re-
| ligious belief will not hide our iniquites.
There are men whose heads are as sound
as Jonathan Edwards or John Wesleys,
whose hearts are as rotten as Tom Paines
or Charles Guiteau's. 1t is important that
we be theoretical Christians. 1t is utter
lOAy III tuIS uhY IOE d HAL TO nave no
preference for any one form of faith when
| it is so easy to become conversant with the
| faith of the different sects. An intoxicated
| man staggered into my house one night
begging for lodging, He made great pre-
tensions to religion. [. asked where he
went to church. He said: Nowhere; 1
| belong to liberal Christianity" But there
are those who never become Christians, be-
| cause their obstinacy prevents them from
ever taking fair view ofwhat religion is.
They are like 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 were thoroughly helpless
before the fourteenth chapter of John. But
there are those who, having escaped from
this condition, are now depending entirely
upon the soundneSS of religious theory.
The doctrines of mans depravity and
Christ's atonement and Gods sovereignty
are theoretically received by them. But.
alasi there they stop. 1t is only the shell
Of Christianity containing no evangelical
life. They stand looking over into Heaven
and admire its beauty and it's song, and
are so pleased with the looks from the out
side that they cannot be induced to enter.
They could make q better argument for
the truth than ten thousand Christians
who have in their hearts received it. II
synogisms and dilemmas and sound propo-
sitions and logical deductions could save
their souls they would be among the best of
Christians. They could correctly define re-
pentanee 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
to their position. We cannot present any
thing about the religion of Christ that they
do not know. The Saviour described the