The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1890-03-20

rather than subtract from them. There
are thousands who would not accept
persons into church membership il they
drink wine, or if they smoke cigars, or il
they attend the theatre, or il they play
cards, or il they drive fast horse. Now
| do not drink wine or smoke or attend
the theatre, never played game Of card:
aud do not drive iast horse. although
would il owned one. But do not sub
stitute tests which the Bible does not
establish. There is one passage Of scrip,
ture wide enough to let all in who oughi
TO enter and to keep out all who ought
to be kept out: "Believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. y
Get mans heart right aud his life will
be right. But now that the old creeda
have been put under public scrutiny
! something radical must be done. Some
would split them, some would carve them,
some would elongato them, some would
abbroviate them. At the present moment
and in the present shape they are him
dranCe. Lazarus is alive, but hampcred
with the old grave clothes. If you want
one glorious church free and unencum
bered take off the eerenents Of old &C.
clesiastical vocabulary. Loose her, and
und let her go!
Again there arc Christians who are
under scpulchral shadows aud hindcred
and hobblcd by doubts aud fears and
sins long aga repented Of. What they
neGG ;s to understand the liberty Of the
sons Of God. They spend more time
under the shadow OF Sinai than at the
base of Calvary. They have been sing
ing the only poor hymn that Newton
ever wrote:
'Tis point long TO know,
Oft it causes me anxious thought
Do love the Lord or no,
Am his or am / not?
Long to know, do you2 Why do yon
not fnd out2 Go to work for God and
you will very soon find out. The man
who, all the time feeling Of his pulse and
looking at his tongue to see whether it
ie coated, is morbid, and cannot be
physically well. The doctors will say:
go out into fresh air and into active
life, and stop thinking of yourself, and
you Will get well and strong" So there
are people watching their spiritual
symptoms, and they call it selfeXamina
ton, and they get weaker and sieklicr in
their faith all the time. Go out and do
something nobly Christian. Take holy
exercise and then examine yourself, and
instead of Newton's saturninc and bill
lious hymn that fret quoted, you will
sing Newton's other hymn:
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved wretch like me,
Once l was lost, but now I'm found;
Was blind; Lut now 1 see.
What many Of you Christians Eeod is
70, NJ of
that you have been brought from the
death of siN to the life of the gospel, but
you need to get your hands loose and your
feet loose and your tongue loose and
your soul loose. There is no sin that
the Bible so arraigns and punctures and
aagelatcs as the sin Of unbelief, and
that is what is the matter with you.
"Oh," you say, "lf you knew what l
once was and how many times l havo
grievously strayed, you would under
stand why do not come cut brighter" ="
Then think you will call yourself the
chief Of sinners. am glad you hit upon
that term, for have promise that fits
into your case as the cogs in one wheel
between the cogs of another wheel or as
the key fits into the labyrinth Of lock,
a man who was once called Saul but af-
terwards Paul declared: "This 10 a
faithful saying and worthy of all accep-
tation, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners, of whom l ana
chief" Mark that-"of whom l am
chief" "Put down your ovcrceats and
hats and will take care Of them while
you kill Stephen"-so Saul said to tho
stoners of the first martyr-"I do not
care to exert myself much, but l will
guard your surplus apparel while you do
the murder" The New Testament ac-
count says: ''The witnesses laid down
their clothes at a young mans feet
whose name was Saul" No wonder he
said: "Sinncrs, Of whom / am chief. "
Christ is used to climbing. He climbed
to the top Of the temple. lie climbed
to the top of Mount Olivet. He clinbed
to the top of the cliffs about Nazareth.
He climbed TO the top of Golgotha.
And to the top Ell the hills and the
mountains Of your transgrcssions and he
is ready to climb with pardon for every
one of you. The groan Of Calvary is
mightier than the thunder of Sinai.
Full receipt is offered for ali your in
dcbtcdness. If one throws stone at
midnight into bush where tho hedge.
bird roosts, it Immediately begins tC
sing; and into the midnight hedges OF
your dependency these words / hurl
hoping to awaken you to anthem. DROP
the tunes in the minor key and take tho
major. Do you think it pleases the
Lord for you to be carrying around
with you the debris and carcasees of elC
transgrcssions2 You make me think O
some ship that has had a tcmpestuou
time at sea, and now that it proposes
another voyage, keeps on it's davits tht
damaged lifeboats, and the aplinters o
shivered mast, and the broken glass o
q smashed skylight. My advice is Cea
the decks, overheard with all the dam
J aged rigging. brighten up the saltec
Smokestacks, open new log book, heu
in the planks, lay ont new course, aut
act sail for heaven. You have had tn
spiritual dumps iOng enough. You will
please the Lord more by being happ.
than by being miserable. Have you no
: sometimes started out in the lain wit
your umbrella and wero busy thinking
, and you did not notice that the rain hat
0 stopped, and though it had cleared OF
r you still had your umbrella up, an,
| when you discovered what you were dc
4 ing you felt silly enough2 That is wha
l some Of you are doing in religious things
= You have got so used to sadness tina