The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1890-07-05

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works can not be the ground of our sal
walton. What we do right can not paw
for what we do wrong. Admit that you
have all those traits of character which
give merely worldly responsibility and
influence, you must at the same time
acknowledge that during the course of
your life you ave done many things
you ought not to have done. How are
these difficult matters to be settled?
All, my friends, we must have an atone
ment No Christ, no salvation. The
great Redeemer comes il and says: 81
will pay your indebtedness" SO that
which was dark enough before, is bright
enough now. The stripes that we de-
serve are fallen upon Christ. On His
scOurged and bleeding shoulders He
carries US up over the mountain of our
sins and over the hills of our iniquities.
Christ's good works accepted are sufh-
Client 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 neces-
sarily open to us the gate of Heaven.
The plank that will be strong enough
for a house floor would not do for a
ships hulk. Mere morality might be
enough here but can not take you
through deaths storm into Heavens
harbor. Christ has announced for all
ages, 81 am the way, the truth and the
life. him that cometh unto Me | will in
no wise cast out" But pitiable in the
day of accounts will be the condition of
that man, though he may have given all
his estate to benevolent pu, poses and
passed his life in the visiting of the
distressed and done much to excite the
admiration Of the good and the great,
IL he have no intimate relation to Jesus
Christ. There is n pride and a d~epravity
in his soul that he has never discovered.
A brilliant outside will be no apology
for a depraved inside. 1t Is no theory
of mine but an announcement of God,
who can not lie: SPY the deeds of the
law shall no flesh living be justified"
Open the door of Heaven and look in.
Howard is there, but he did not secure
his entrance by the dungeons he illumed
and the lazzarettos into which he carried
the medicines. Paul is there, but he
did not earn his way in by the ship
wrecks and imprisonments and scourg-
ings. On a throne overlapping perhaps
all others, except Christ's, the old mis-
sionary exclaims: by the grace of
God ] I'm what i am"
Again: Exalted social position will be
no cloak for sim. Men look through
the wicket door of prisons, and seeing
the incarcerated wretches exclaim: 80,
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 lens of cor
ruption they call them Gods forsaken
abodes. But you might walk along the
avenues through which the opulent roll
In their f~iourishing pomp and into man
sions elegantly adorned, inc find thai
even in the admired walls of life Satan
works mischief and death. The first
temptation Satan wrought in a garden,
and he understands yet most thoroughly
how to insinuate himself into any door
of ease and splendor. Mon frequently
judge of sin by the places in which it Is
committed, but iniquity in satin is to
God as loathsome as ~iniquity in a and
in the day of judgment the sins of Madi-
son avenue and Elm street will all be
driven in one herd. Men can not
escape at last for being respectfully
sinful. You know Dives was clothed
in purple and fine linen and Jared
su~mptuousIy 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 for one
drop of water. You can not trade of
your attractive abodes here for a house
of many mansions on high and your ele-
CANT 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 a gar
den of delights and comforts will never
save o man or m 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 n
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 stands by
your we'll as He did by a well in Samaria,
and lie would make your comfort on
earth a type OF your rapture in Heaven.
Furthermore: Mere soundness of
religious belief will not hide our in
EQUITIES. There are men whose heads
are as sound as Jonathan Edwards or
John Wesiey's whose hearts are as rot
tens as Tom Paine's or Charles Giteau's.
1t is important that we be theoretical
Christians. 1t is utter folly in this day
for a nan to have 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 n night
begging for lodging. He made grea'
pretensions of religion. l asked whei
he went to church. lie said: Nowhere;
L belong to liberal Christianity" But
there are those who never become Chris
tfans because their obstinacy prevents
them from ever taking a fair view OF
what religion is. They are like q brute
beast in the fact that their greatest
strength lies in their horns. They arc
combatants, and all they are W will
ing 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 tho
| fourteenth chapter of John. But there
fare those who, having escaped from
this condition, are now depending en-
tirely upon their s%oundness OF religious
theory, The doctrines of mans de-
pravity and Christ's atoncment AMI
Gods sovereignty are theoretically re-
ceived by them. But alas! there they
stop. 1t IL only the shell of Christian
ity, containing no evangelical life.
They stand looking owe into Heaven
and admire its beauty and its song, and
are so pleased with the looks from
the outside that they can not DO in
duced to enter. They could make u
better argument for the truth thai 49,
900 Christians who have in their hearts
received it. II s~yllogisms and dilem-
mas and sound propositions and logical
deductions could save their souls
they would be among the best
Of Christians. They could correct
ly define repentance and faith and
the atOnement, while they have never
felt one sorrow for sin nor exercised q
moments confidence in the great sac
rifce. They are almost ~immovable in
their position. We can not present any
thing about the religion of Christ that
they do not know. The Saviour de-
scribed the fate Of such a one in His
parable: "And that servant which
knew his Lords Will and prepaid not
himself. neither did according to His
will. shall be eaten with MANY