Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1890-07-11


On His scourged and bleeding shoulders He
carries us up over the mountain OF our sins
and the hills OF our iniquities. Christ's good
works accepted are sufficient for us but they
who reject them, depending upon their own,
must perish. Traits Of character that may
make us influential on earth will not nee esSari-
ly open to us the gate OF heaven. The plank that
will be strong enough for house foor would
not do for a ships hulk. Mere morality
might be enough here, but cannot take you
through deaths storm into heavens harbor.
Christ has announced for all ages: II am the
way, the truth and tho life; him that cometh
unto Me | will in no wise cast out" But
pitable in the day Of accounts will be the
condition OF that man, though he may have
given all his estate to benevolent pIr-
poses, and passed his life in the visiting OF
the distressed, and done much TO excite the
admiration OF the good aud the great, II he
have no intimate relation to Jesus Carist.
There is pride aud a depravity in his soul that
he has never discovered. A brilliant outside
will be no apology for a depraved inside. 1t
no theory of mine, but an announcement or
God, who cannot lie: by the deeds OF tho
law shall no flesh living DO jGs.!ae1 Open
the door of heaven and look in. Howard Is
there, but he did not secure his entrance by
the dungeons he illumined ant the lazzaret-
tos into which he carried the medicines.
by the shipwrecks and imprisonments and
scourgings. On throne overlapping per-
haps all others, except Christs, the old mis-
sionary 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 tie incarcerated
wretches exclnim, "Oh. how much vice there
is in the worldr' And they pass through the
degraded streets OF city, and looking into
ths doors of novels and the dens OF corrup-
ton they call them God-forsaken abodes
| But you might walk along the avenues
through which tho opulent roll in their flour
| ishing pomp, and into mansions elegantly
adorned, and find that even in the admired
walks of life Satan worSs mischief and death
( The first temptation Satan wrought in gar
den, and he understands yet most thorough y
| how to iusinnate himself into any door or
ease and srlendor. Men frequently judge
of sin by the places in which it is committed,
| but iniquity in satin is to God as loathsome
as iniquity in rags, aud in the Day of Judg-
ment the sins of Madison avenue and Elm
street will all be driven in ono herd. Men
cannot escape at last for being respectfully
sinful You know Dives was clothed in pur-
pie and dne linen and farei sumptuously
! every day, but his fine cloth ss AMI good din
ners did not save him. He might on earth
| have drunk something "a rich as champagne
and cognac, but at last he asked for one
drop of water. You cannot trade oil
your attractive abodeJ here for house
OF many mansions on high, and
your 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 q
garden OF delights and comforts will never
save man or woman. By giving you 50
much earthly luxury and refinement He in
timated that He would have you enjoy your
selves, 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 we'll In Samaria, and he would make
your comfort on earth aty?e Of yoIr rapture
In heaven.
Furthermore, msro soundn 81; OF religious
belief viii not hide oar iniqatties. There are
men whose hsads arc as sound as Jonathan
Z Elwardss or JOAN Wesley's, whoss hearts
are as rotten rs Tom Paine's or Charles
Guteau's. 1t is important that we be theo-
raticll Christians It IL utter folly in this
dav for n man to have no preference for any
form of faith when IL is 50 elsy TO become
converSant with tio faith Of the different
sec.s An intoxicated man staggered int
my house one night begging for lodging
He made great pretensions to religion.
asked where he went to church. He said
Nowhere; belong to liberal Christianity.
But there aro those who never becom
Chr stians, because their obstinacy pre-
vents them from ever taking fai
view of what religion is. They ar
like brute beast in the fact tina
their greatest siren eth lies in their horns
They are combltant, AMI all they ara eve
willing to do for their solls is 10 enter an &C
clesiastical fight, / have met men whC
would talk all day upon the ninth chapter o.
Romans, who wera thoroughly helpless be
fore the fourteenth chapter Of John. Blu
there are those who, having escaped from
this condition, are now depending entirely
upon their souudness of religious theory
The doctrines of mans depravity and Christ
, atonemant and Coils sovereignty ar
theoretically received by them. But, alas
there they stop. 1t is only the shell o
Christianity containing no evangelical life
t They stand looking over into heave
, and admire its beauty and its song an
I are so pleased with the looks from the outSid
: that they cannot be induced to enter The
4 could make a better argument for trut
i than ten thousand Christians who have
: their hearts received it. II syllogisms au
q dilemmas and sound propositions and logict
|, deductions could save their souls they woul
' be among the best of Christians. They coul
4 correctly define repentance and faith an
Il the Atonement, while they have never fe
!. one sorrow for sin nor exercised moment
confidence in the great sacrifice. They al
n almost immovable in their position. We cal
a not present anything about the religion
c Christ that they do not know. The Sa
; iour described the fate OF such one
i His parable: "Aud that servant which kne
4 his Lords will and prepared not himsel
t neither did according to His will, shall
q beaten with many stripes" Theories in RE-
n gion have a beauty of their own, but II tht
d result in no warmth In Christian life 1t is Il
n beauty of hornblende and feldspar. Do n
v call such boldness and hardness religion. III
/ River of Life never freezes over. lcicl
Il never hang ON the caves Of heaven. Soun
n ness of intellectual belief is a beautif
l. cloak, we'll woven and well cut, but in Il
10 hour when God shall demand our souls
n will not OF itself be sufficient to hide our i
If iquities.
10 NV friends, can it be that have been IL
'r kind, and torn from you some hops up;
l. which you were resting for time and etc
10 nityf Verify l would he unkind II, havii
T. taken away your cloak, / did not offer y
u something better This is a cold world and Y,
N want something to wrap around your spir
p, Christ offers you a robe to-day. He wove
IS Himself, and He will now with His oy
10 hand prepare it just to fit your SOL
" The Righteousness He offers is like the co
I'd He used to wear about Judea, without sea
s. from top TO bottom. There is a day
,k doom. Coward would l be If | did not da
lg tell you this. 1t shall be day of uuuttt
s. able disappointment to those who ha
ve trusted in their official dignity, in tn,
Ch elegant manners, in their outward moralit
ip in their soundness OF intellectual belief. B
I'd see soul standing before Go1 who on
e, was thoroughly dedle1. Yet look at h
'e- and you cannot find a single transgressi
IS anywhere about him. How is this you a,
ee Was he not once Sabbath breaker, a bl
II phemer, robber, a perjurer, thief, a m,
ak dererP Yes, but Christ hath cleansed hi
Christ hath lifted him up. Christ hath rt
be off his rags, Christ hath clothed him II