Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1891-12-05
HOW TO SAVE SINNERS.
THEY MUST BE LED WITH KIND
WORDS AND GENTLE MANNER.
A Practical Sermon Preached by eth
Rev. Hugh Price Hughes of London.
A System that is
Rotten.

the famous London preacher ard
missionary, who was delegate to
the Ecumenenical Council of the
Methodist Episcopal Church at
Washington, preached to a large
congregation at Mount Vernon Place
M. e. Church. I heconversion of
Zaccheus, the publican and sinner,
by the Saviour. was used to illus.
trate the attitude of the church and
of many of its members at the pres
ent time to those outside the pale,
and many interesting and instruc-
tive lessons were drawn from it.
Zaccheus, he said, among all his
bad qualities, had one good one, and
that one Christ laid hold Of and
made it the fulcrum of the lever
with which He lifted him from hell
to heaven. The more he thought of
this act of the Saviour the more it
impressed him. When Christ met
this degraded man He didn't preach
at him until he closed his heart to
all influences for good, as is often
the case with those seeking to save
the erring these days. He didn't
say to him "Zaccheus, you are liar,
cheat and scoundrel; you de-
serve all the evil that is said and
thought of you, and unless
you repent you will go to hell"
If he had said that He would have
said that what was entirely true, but
how completely the publican would
have set his teeth against all efforts
to save him, and never would he
have set foot in the house of God.
But Christ spoke to him in the gent
lest manner: "Zaccheus, make
haste and come down | shall be
your guest to-day" This appeal to
his better self showed him that
Christ trusted him.
Such trust as Christ reposed in
that disreputable man had been many
time the cause of stupendous results
for good.
There was too much distrust of
each other among men in all the re-
lations of time. The smart, sagaci-
GUS business man who acted on this
basis was in reality fool, because
in trying TO outreach others he out
reached himself. All systems found
ed on suspicion and distrust were
rotten, and he looked forward to the
day when they could not exist in
civilized Christian communities, and
as consequence, to day when
the military and prison systems
would disappear, and through Christ
man would trust his brother.
The religious classes were aston.
ished at the way Christ treated Fac
chcus, as they always are at such
| things He was afraid this tendency
was the besetting sin of the times.
From the time of Abraham church
people had been in the habit of
thinking worse of worldly people and
those outside of the church than they
ought to. In business and in social
intercourse and in politics appeals
should be made to the best elements,
in men, and they ought to be con-
vinced that they were trusted. There
was glorious capacity for goodness
in men. When Christ spoke of the
generation of vipers" he was not
talking to the pubfcans and sinners.
but to those who paid their seat rent
and prayed in the temple.
ENcoUR AGE THE DEGRADED.
The degraded needed to be en-
couraged, and not denounced. Christ
looked through everybody, and saw
their soul-side. He knew what
goodness they were capable of, and
trusted them. What be was in Jeri-
cho two thousand years ago, He
was in Baltimore to-day, and as near
the people who live now as He was
to Zaccheus. He had met, in his
work, atheists and agnostics, but he
had never yet met anybody who re
| jected Christ. Never had Christ
been SO attractive as to-day.
IRRELIGIoN IN THE UPPER TEN.
Speaking of the results of his mis-
sion work, he said he went to West
London four years ago and found