Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-06-30

miration of the good and the great, II he have
no intimate relation to Jesus Christ. There is
pride and a depravity in his soul that ne mas
never discovered A brilliant outside Will De
no apology for depraved inside III IS no
theory of mine but an announcement OF 600,
who cannot lie, "By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh living be justified" Open the ooot OF
heaven and look in. Howard Is there. put ne
did not secure his entrance by the dungeons ne
illumined and the lazzarettos into whlcn ne
carried the medicines. Paul is there. put ne
did not earn his way in by the shfpwreeks ana
imprsonments and scourgings On throne
overtopping perhaps all others. except CnrlsEs:
the old missionary exclalms: 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 incarcerateo
wretches, exclam: "Oh. how much 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 corruptlon
they call them God-forsaken abodes. But you
might walk along the avenues through wnlch
the opulent roll IN their fourishing pomp ana
into mansions elegantly adorned, and hnd tnat
even in the admired walks of life Satan WORKS
Satan wrought in a garden, and he understands
yet thoroughly how to insnuate hlmse1 INTO
any door of ease and splendor. Men frequently
Judge of sin by the places In wh1ch II IL com
mitted, but iniuuity in satin is to God as loath-
some as iniquity in rags, and IN Inc Day OF
Judgmen. the sins of Madison avenue and Elm
not escape at last for being respectfully sinful.
You know Dives was clothed in purple and nne
linen and Jared sumptuously every day, out MS
fine clothes and good dinners did not save nlm
He might on earth have drunk something as
rich as champagne and cognac, but at last he
asked for one drop of water.
YOU CANNOT TRADE OFF
your attractive abodes here for a house of many
mansions on high and your elegant shade groves
here will not warrant you 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 or woman. By giving you so much
earthly luxury and refinement, he intimated
that He would have you enjoy yourselves, but
He would not have you wrap yourself up in
them as q cloak to hide your sins. God now
walks in your gardens as He did in Eden, even
in the cool of the day, and He stands by your
well as He did by a well in Samaria. and He
would make your comfort on earth a type OF
your rapture in heaven.
Furthermore: Mere soundness OF religious
belief will not hide our iniquities. There are
men whose heads are as sound as Jonathan
Edwards or John Wesley, whose hearts are as
rotten as Tom Paines or Charles Guiteau's. 1t
is important that we be theoretical Christians.
II is utter folly in this day, for a man to have
no preference for any one form of faith, when
it is easy to become conversant with the
faith of the different sects. An intoxicated
man staggered into my house one night beg
ging for lodging. He made great pretentions
to religion. l asked where he went to church.
He SAID: Nowhere; belong to liberal Chris
tianity." But there are those who never be-
come Christians because their obstinacy pre-
vents them from ever taking fair view of
what religion is. They are like brute beast
in the fact that their greatest strength lies in
their horns. They are combatant. and all they
ever willing to do for their souls is to enter
an ecclesiastical fight. 1 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 their sound
ness of religious theory. The doctrines of
mans depraylty and Christ's atonement and
Gods sovereignty are theoretically received by
them. But, alas! there they stop.
USELESS THEORIES.
1t 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 the truth
than 10000 Christians who have in their hearts
received it. If syllogisms and dilemmas and
sound propositions and logical deductions could
save their souls, they would be among the best
of Christians. Their could correctly define re-
pentance and faith and the atonement while
they have never felt one SORROW for
sin nor exercised moments conf
denee ,H in the great sacrifice Sd1 They
We cannot present anything about the
religion of Christ that they do not know. The
Savior described the fate of such one in His
parable: And that servant which knew his
Lords will and prepared not himself, peither
did according to His will, shall be beaten with
many stripes" theories in religion have
warmth of Christian life it is the beauty of |
hornblende and feldspar. Do not call such
coldness and hardness religion. The River Of
Life never freezes over. 1cicles never hang on
the caves of heaven. Soundness of intellectual
belief is a beautiful cloak, well woven and well
cut, but in the hour when God shall demand
our souls 1t will not of itself be sufficient to
hide our iniquities.
My friends, can it be that / have been un-
kind, and torn from you some hope upon which
you were resting for time and eternityf Verify
would be unkind IL having taken away your
cloak, did not offer you something better.
This is cold world and you want something to
robe to-day. Ii wove it Himself and He will
now with His own hand prepare it to fit your
soul. The righteousness He offers Is like the
coat He used TO wear about Judea, without
seam from top to bottom. There isa
DAY OF DOOM.
Coward would / be IL / did not daro tell
you this. II shall be q day of unutterable dis |
appointment to those who have trusted In their
official dignity in their elegant manners, In |
their outward morality, In their soundness Of |
intellectual belief But I see soul standing |
before God who once was thoroughly defiIed. |
Yet look at him and you cannot find n single |
transgression anywhere about him. How Is |
this you ask. Was he not once q Sabbath |
breaker, a blasphemer, q robber, a perjurer. n |
thief, n murderer? Yes, but Christ hath
cleansed him. Christ hath lifted him up.
Christ hath rent OFF his rags Christ hath
clothed him in q spotless robe of righteous.
ness. This is the reason why you cannot see
his former degradation.
This glorious hope in Christ's name is prof
fered to-day. Wandering and wayward soul, is
not this salvation worth coming for, worth
striving for? Do you wonder that so many with
bitter weeping besought it and with a very en-
of sorrow cried for divine compass
sion? Do you wonder at the earnestness of
those who stand in pulpits beseeching men TO
be reconciled to God? Nay, do YOU wonder at
the importantly of the Holy Ghost who now
striveth with thy soul? In many of the palaces
of Europe the wells are mosaic. Fragments of |
shells and glass are arranged by artists and
aggregated into a pictorial splendor. Whati
made out of broken shells and broken gIassi
Oh, yes; God grant that by the Transforming
power of His Spirit we may all be made part
Of the eternal palaces. our broken and frag-
natures polished and shaped and lifted
up to make part of the everlasting spendors
Of the heavenly temple!
For sinners, Lord, Thou CAM st to bleed.
And I'm sinner vile indeed.