Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1892-07-05


"Rock of Ages" Take hold OF Christ's
hands and draw him to your soul with
perfect abandonment and hurl yourself
into the deep sea of his mercy. He
comes and says, 81 will save you" If
you do not think he is hypocrite and
a liar when he says that, believe him
and say: Lord Jesus, | believe; here is
my heart. Wash it. Save it. Do it
now. Aye, it is done; for | obey thy
promise and come. can do no more.
That is all thou hast asked. come.
Christ is mine. Pardon is mine. Heav-
en- is mine"
Why. my friends, you put more trust
in everybody than you do in Christ, and
in everything: more trust in the bridge
crossing the stream, in the ladder up to
the loft; more trust in the stove that
confines the fire. more trust in the cook
that prepares your food; more trust in
the clerk that writes your books, in the
druggist that makes the medicine, in
the bargain maker with whom you
trade-more trust in all these things
than in Christ, although he stands this
InOIneuJ OllCIiuS MltuOuI iiihit anu
without mistake and without exception
universal pardon to all who want it.
Now is not that cheap enough-all
things for nothingp
This is the whole of the Gospel as !
understand it--that if you believe that
Christ died to save you you are saved.
When? Now. No more doubt about it
than that you sit there. Nomore doubt
about it than that you have right
hand. No more doubt about it than
that there is a God. If you had com
mtted five hundred thousand transgres-
sions, Christ would forgive you just as
freely as if you had never committed
bat one; though you had gone through
the whole catalogue of crilnes-arson
and blasphemy. and murder-Christ
would pardon you just as freely, you
coming to him, as though you had com
mitted only the slightest sin of the
tongue.
THE BoUNDLESS LOVE.
Why, when Christ comes to pardon a
soul he stops for nothing. Height is
nothing Depth is nothing. Enormity
is nothing. Protractedness is nothing.
Ger sins like mountains for their size,
The seas to sovereign grace expand,
The seas of sovereign grace arise.
Lord Jesus, give up all other props,
give up all other expectations, Ruined
and undone, lay hold thee. | plead
thy promises. | fly to thy arms. Lord,
save me; perish"
When the Christian commission went
into the army during the war there
were great multitude of hungry men
and only few loaves of bread, and the
delegate of the commission was cutting
the bread and giving it out to wounded
and dying men. Some one came up and
said, "Cut those slices thinner, or there
will not be enough to go around" And
then the delegate cut the slices very
thin and handed the bread around until
they all had some, but not much. But,
blessed be God, there is no need of econ
omv in this Gospel. Bread for all; bread
enough and to spare. Why perish with
hungerp
Again, advise you, as one of the best
things you can do with Christ, to take
him into your love, Now there are two
things which make us love any one-in-
herent attractiveness, and then what he
does in the way of kindness toward us.
Now Christ is in both these positions.
Inherent attractiveness-faire than the
children of men, the luster of the morn
ing in his eye, the glow of the setting
sun in his cheek, myrrh and franklin
cense in the breath of his lip. In q
heaven of holy beings, the best. In a
heaven of mighty ones, the strongest.
In heaven of great hearts, the tender
est and the most sympathetic.
Why, sculpture has never yet been
able to chisel his form nor painting to
present the flush of his cheek nor music
to strike his charms; and the greatest
surprise of eternity will be the first mo-
ment when we rush into his presence
and with uplifted hands and streaming
eyes and heart bounding with rapture
we cry out, This is Jesus!'
All over glorious is my Lord,
He must be loved and yet adored;
His worth, II all the nations knew,
| Sure, the whole earth would love him too.
THE SUBLIME SACRIFICE.
Has he not done enough to win our
affections2 Peter the Great, laying aside
royal authority, went down among the
ship carpenters to help them, but Russia
got the chief advantage of that conde-
scension. John Howard turned his back
upon the retinements and went around
prisons to spy out taeir sorrows and to
relieve their wrongs, but English Grim
|
inals got the chief advantage of that
ministry. But when Christ comes it is
for You and me. The sacrifice for You
and me. The tears for you and me. The
crucitixion for you and me.
If were hopelessly in debt and some
one came and paid my debts, and gave
me receipt in full, and called off the
pack of bounding creditors; if were ON
laundering ship, and you came in a
lifeboat and took me off, could ever
forget your kindness? Would | ever
allow an opportunity to pass without
rendering You service or attesting my
gratitude and love? Oh, how ought we
TO feel toward Christ, who plunged into
the depth of our sin and plucked us out!
Oughtit not to set the very best emotions
of our heart into the warmest, aye, red
hot glowG The story is so old that peo-
pie almost get asleep when they are
hearing it, And yet there he hangs
Jesus the man, Jesus the God
Was there anything before or since,
anything to be compared to this spec
tacle of generosity and woe? Did heart
strings ever snap with IA worse torture9
Were tears ever charged with heavier
grief Did blood ever gush, in each glob-
ule the price of a soul? The wave Of
earthly malice dashed it's bloody foam
against one foot, the wave of Internal