The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1892-11-08
INTERESTING DISCOURSE.
Rev. Powick's Sermon In the NJ. E. Churol
Sunday Night.

Rev. Powick's Sermon In the NJ. E. Church
Sunday Night.
The sermon in the M. E. church on Sunday
evening was from ! Peter iii-1S, Christ also
hath once suffered for sins, the just for the
unjust, that he might bring us TO God" The
scriptures represent the sinner as living in a
state of alienation from God. This aliena-
tion is set forth under the material idea Of
separating space intervening between. "fe
who sometimes were far of are brought nigh
by the blood of Christ" Not that the sinner
can escape from the essential presence
OF God, for He is everywhere present.
WHITTIER shall ! go from Thy presence and
whittier shall l fee from Thy spiriU If
ascend up into heaven Thou art there, if
make my bed in hell behold Thou art there
if take the wings Of the morning and
dwell in The uttermost parts Of the earth
even there shall Thy hand lead me and Thy
right hand shall hold me-" No, we cannot
get away from God The distance that is
said to separate us is moral-the separation
of alienation, of arrangement. When David
| said my kinsmen and my friends stand aiar
off" he did not mean that they had run
away from him but that they had withdrawn
their affections from him. In this sense man
| is far from God and needs to be brought back.
And our text teaches that the reason why
Christ came into the world was to bring us to
God. Not to bring God to us but TO bring us
to God God never withdrew his love from
| Al.
Not the good only but the bad-the worst OF
men no less than the best of men. Men
| have sometimes conceived of God as some
arbitrary tyrant who makes impossible re-
quirements of men and then pursues them to
the death for failing to meet them. He so
| loved the world as to give his only begotten
son that whosoever believeth in Him should
not perish but have everlasting life. But for
his love there had been no Saviour. Christ
came into the world not toreconcile God unto
the world but to reconcile the world unto
God.
There can be no reconciliation until sin is
| put away. Violated law opens an awful
chasm which must be bridged. The sinners
| conscience no less than the law Of God and
the honor Of his government demands that
satisfaction be made This has been done by
Christ once for all. BY one offering He has
perfected forever them that are sanctifed.
Affairs have been erected in every land and
by every race upon which to offer sacrifice
for sin No truth is more deeply engraved
| upon human hearts than this: without
shedding of blood there is no remission"
| The law of sacrifice found its highest devel-
opment in Judaism. Sacrifices were oft re-
peated. But Christ has put an end to such
sacrifices by the offering Of himself the just
for the unjust "The guilty conscience needs
no sacrifice beside" Sacrifices and penances
with every species of voluntary humility
have lost all the virtue they ever had because
there remaneth no sacrifice for sim"
There is nothing like true spiritual view
of the cross and its awful tragedy to melt the
sinners heart The exhibition of divine
love in a crucifed Christ is Gods chosen
method of breaking stubborn hearts and
subduing rebellous Wills 1t was under the
| inspiration of this thought that the Apostles
cried God forbid that ! should glory, save in
| the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom
| the world is crucifed unto me and l unto the
world" 1t was this that made Luther the
mighty man of God that broke the fetters OF
faith and emancipated the world from hoary
superstitions and restored to it the old doc
/ triue of justification by faith and sounded
| the death knell Of self torture as condition
of salvation 1t was this that made John
Knox shake Scotland from centre TO circum-
ference, and John Wesley do the same fol
England And it is this that furnishes the
moral power that lies behind every truly
uplifting movement among men.
81 tried a bottle OF salvation Oil on wound
and was cured within several days. ieYei
] had such q good remedy as sulyNuOn VI ln my