Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-07-04

Wnat we do wrong. Admit that Won have
"i nose traits of character which give
,ne,ols worldly responsibility and influence.
you must at the same time ~acknowlaane
that during the course of your life v y I'VE aEe
zone many things you ought NOT to have
uohe. How are these difficult matters 70
oc secuted! All, my friends, we must, have
M atohement. No Christ. no salvation.
viii sau.e heaeelner m in and says: Il
VIII pay your Indebtedness" SO that (which
was dark enough before Is bright enough
NV NV nne stripes that We deserve are fallen
upon christ. On His scourged and hjecd-
ing shoulders He carries us up over the
HaouaIalh OF our sins and the hills or our in
sq Is Christ's good works accepted are
suInclent for us, but they who reject them.
depending on their own. must perish. Trait,
y enaIacter that may make us influential
on taftn VIII not necessarily open to us the
gaze OF heaven. The plank that will be
s.s9hg enough for a house floor would not
h ho a shlp,s hulk. Mere morality might
ue enough here. but cannot take You.
1nroush deaths storm into heavens harbor.
onrlsI mas announcedfor all ages:"I am the
way lhe truth and the life: him that cometh
un.o me Will in no wise cast out" But
p1laoie III the day of accounts will be the
o1mul'loh OF that man, though he may have
gwen all his estate to benevolent purposes,
ald passed his life in visitingt the distressed,
ana done much to excite the admiration of
lle GOOD and the great, if he nave no init
maze relation to Jesus Christ. There is q
Plioe ana a aepravity in his soul that he
mas never discovered. A brilliant outside
VIII be no apology for a dcpraved inside. 1t
IS no theory of mine, bu: an announcement
OF God, who cannot lie: BY the deeds of
me law shall no flesh living be justified"
open the door OF heaven and look in. How
ara Is there, put he did not secure his en-
trance by the dungeons he Illuminated and
the lazzarettos INFO which he carried the
medicines. Paul is there, but he did not,
earn ms way BY the shipwrecks and i'm
Prisonments and scourgings. On a throne
~oNcrtopplng perhaps all others. except
Christs. the old missionary exclaims: BY
the grace OF GOO l am what l am"
Again, exalted social position will be no
cloak Tor sin. Men look through the
wlcket-door of prisons, and seeing the in
carcerated wretches, eXclaim: "Oh, how
much vice there is in the world!" 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 f~iourishing pomp. M 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
lmquity in satin is as loathsome to God as
lniquity 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
for one drop OF water. You cannottrade off
your attractive abodes here for IL 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 a garden of delights
and comforts will never save a man or a
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 yourselves up in
them as a cloak to hide you 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 Il type OF
your rapture in heaven.
Furthermore, mere SoundneSs Of re-
ligious belief will not hid our iniquities.
There are men whose heads are as sound
as Jonathan Edwards or John Wesley's
whose hearts are as rotten as Tom Paine's
or Charles Guiteau's. 1t is important thai
we be theoretical Christians. 1t is utter
folly in this day for Il man to have nc
preference for n one form of faith wheI
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-
went to church. He said: "Nowhere; ]
belong to liberal Christianity" But there
are those who never become Christians. be.
cause their obstinacy prevents them from
ever taking a fair view OF what religion is
They are like a brute beast in the fact thai
their greatest strength lies in their horns
They are combatant. and all they are eve1
willing to do for their souls is to enter al
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. Blu
there are those who. having escaped from
this condition. are now depending %entirel,
upon the ]soundness of religious theory
The doctrines Of mans depravlty. ant
Christ's atonement and Gods sovereign.
are theoretically received by them. But
alas! there they stop. 1t is only the shell
of Christianity containing no evangelical
life. They stand looking over into Heaven
and admire it's beauty and its song, ant
are so pleased with the looks from the out
side that they cannot be induced to enter
the truth thar ten thousand Christian!
who lave in their hearts received 1t.
syllogisms and dilemmas and sound propo
%sitions and logical deductions could say
their souls they would be among the best Q
Christians. They could correctly define re
p%entance and faith and the Atonement
while they nave neverfelt one sorrow for ST
nor exercised a moments confidence in tn
great sacrifice. They are almost immovabl
to their position. We canno present any
thing about the religion of Christ that the
do notknow. The Saviour described tn
fate of such a one in his parable: And tina
servant which knew his Lords willard pre-
pared not himself, neither did accordingt
his will shall be beaten with many stripes:
Theories in religion have IL beauty OF thel
own, but if they resultinn warmth OF Chris
tian life it is. the beauty Of hornblende an
feldspar. DO not call such GOODNESS and hard
ness religion The River Of Life neverfreeze
over. Icicles never hang on the caves {
heaven. Soundness ofintellectual belief
a beautiful cloak, well woven and well Gu
but in the hour when God shall demand on
soul it will not of itself be sufficient to hid
our iniquities.
NY friends, can it be that have been IN
kind, and torn from you some hope upo
which you were resting for time and etel
nifty? Verify, 1 would be unkind il. havln
taken away your cloak, I did not offer 20
something better. This is q cold world an
YOU want something to wrap around yo1I
=. /,l-;.+ r. a,r ~ n rnhn fn-IDV. III