Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-12-11
READING THE BIBLE.
1t Would Be a Good Thing to Try It
in German or in Hebrew.
NEED OF A NEW PRINTED FORM.
Night Pc Well to Put 1t Up in the shape of
the Modern Novel.
RATIONAL WAY TO STUDY THE BOOK
rwIIrrEN FOR THE D1sPATcH.l

btateluenb InaI Ine holy scriptures are
profitable reading. The Bible has more
than once wrought reformation.
| There was that old Bible which the King
found in the church cellar in Jerusalem. 1t
was the only Bible in the country. The Holy
| Scriptures had been lost out OF the memories
of men for years. Somehow even the Church
| had forgotten the Bible. And then this
roll of writing was found among the rub
blsh; and the King read it. And behold,
it was the word of Godl And that word
gave law; thus and thus must they behave
J who would please God And all Jerusalem
and all Judea were every day breaking that
law. The whole nation was disobeying
God Repentance, then, and reforrnationI
Sackcloth and ashes, and tears and peni-
tential prayers for the past, and promises
for the future. Thus the Bible changed the
lives of men in King Josiah's time.
The Reformation Through Luther.
There was that other Bible which the
monk found in the monastery in Germany.
Again the Bible had been lost; again the
laws of God were set at naught, and even
the Church had ceased to teach men out of
Holv Scripture. And the monk took the
Bible in his hand and went out and read in
the ears of men what he found written
there, and tyrants trembled, old despotisms
in Church and State prepared for flight, the
Middle Ages came to an end, the era of
civil and religious liberty, of the right of
every man to think his honest thought. the
era of representative Government and of
spiritual religion began. That is what the
Bible did in Luther's day.
The Holp Scriptures are able to make men
wise unto salvation. That we know.
The Holy Scriptures, however, are not
able to make anyman wise unto salvation
unless the man is able to- make wise use of
the Holy Scriptures Nor Is it, perhaps,
quite plain what is meant by this phrase,
"wise unto salvation" What is salvation?
The sentence needs for its complete under
standing knowledge of the saving pur-
pose and of the saving use of Holy Scrip
lures. In what sense will the reading of
the Bible save us? And how shall we read
the Bible that it may thus save us? This
sermon is in answer to these two questions.
The Central Idea of Christianity.
The whole purpose of religion is summed
M in this word salvation" The "Holy
Scriptures" which are here alluded to are,
of course, the books of the Old Testament.
These, st. Paul says, have been known BY
Timothy even from his childhood. All that
Old Testament religion was meant to save
men. When Christ came, he reafirmed
this supreme purpose of religion, and en-
phasized it. His mission was to seek and
save the lost. The central idea of Chris
tianity is contained in this word "salva-
tion.'' What is religion for? 1t is to save
the souls of men.
And yet, important as this word is, and
familiar as it is, mistakes are made as to its
meaning. In spite of repeated definition,
and of the plain sense of Holy Scripture,
salvation is taken to be blessing which
awaits men in the future. Death comes,
and the soul goes forth on its untrayeled
way, and there are two paths. one to the
left and the other to the right. And the
soul goes on, impelled by choice already
made. along one or the other OF these paths.
And one path sinks into the pit OF damna-
tfon, while the other climbs the shining
mountain of salvation. Salvation, that is,
is made synonym of heaven.
1t Is an Escape From Sin.
We desire to be saved. What must do
to be saved? Is the cry of the race. But to
be saved from what? Why, from that tear
tul fall at last into the black pit, from the
abode of the undying worm and of the eter-
nally ascending smoke. But is that what
the Lord Christ promised? He came, He
said, to save US from our sins. To save us,
not in the distant future when We die, but
to save US now, to-day; to save us not from
punishment, but from that which merits
punishment. No man will be saved when
he dies who is not saved while he lives.
Salvation does not mean an escape from
pain, but an escape from sin. Salvation is
simply spiritual health.
Some things that have been said of late in
he ralo of Tar fha
missionary work among the heather lead
me to illustrate the meaning of salvation by
a reference to the motives of missions.
What is the motive of missions? Un-
doubtedlv, the word which contains the
essential meaning OF missions is this word
''saIvation." 1t has, indeed, been taught,
and is still taught by some people, even, L
am informed, by some missionary societies,
that the chief purpose of the missionary is
to save souls from the everlasting burnings
The Gospel of Wrath.
It has been represented that the whole
pagan world, the bad and the good together,
lies under the curse of God; God hates
pagans. the only people whom God loves
are Christians. And the Christian mission
ary goes out preaching the Gospel of the
wrath of God, and persuades one here and
another there out of the darkness
of heathenism into the light of
Christianity, and these souls are saved.
The rest, even the best of them, so we are
taught, go into hell. The argument which
touches the Christian purse is that all the
heathens who are not made Christians are
LOST everlastingly. And the preaching
which touches the pagan heart is the preach
ing of the maledlctIon OF God. That is
what some say.
And SO deeply rooted is this old error
about the meaning and the effect OF saliva
tion that good many people think that
when we learn enough of the real Gospel to
reject the heresy OF the damnation of the
heather We have lost all missionary motive.
If God, who is the Father of the most
ignorant and superstitious pagan as much
as he Is of the most Christian saint, will not
everlastingly punish the heather for being
heather, why, then, some people ask, should
we try to make them Christian?
Because we believe that Christianity is
the religion of salvation, the religion of
spiritual health. We have learned which
they do not know in pagan lands; and these
truths we account Of such Importance, OF
such spiritual help, that we want ali men
to know them.
The Motive of Missionary Work.
What blessing to be sure that the Su-
preme Spirit loves us and is our Father!
What blessing to be sure that after death
is lite eternal! These great truths are, in
deed, guessed at even in heather lands.
But guess is not enough. Sorrow comes,
bereavement comes, death approaches, and
men lose faith in guesses. What we want
is certainty. And that we have in the
word of Jesus Christ; and we desire that
all men should know it. We caanot rest
while life goes on anywhere without the