The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-09-17


your sins; indeed, if you want to carry
them along, you are not on the right
road. That bridge will break, those
overhanging rocks will fall, the night
will come down, leaving you at the
mercy of the mountain bandits and at
the very next turn of the road you
will perish. But if you are really
On this clean road of which l have
been speaking, then you will stop ever
and anon to wash in the water that
stands in the basin of the eternal rock
Ay, at almost every step of the journey
YOU will be crying out: Create within
me clean hearth If you have no such
aspirations as that, it proves that you
have mistaken your way; and II you
will only look up and see the finger
board above your head you may read
upon it the words: ''There is way that
seemeth right unto man, but the end
thereof is death" Without holiness no
man shall see the Lord; and if you have
any idea that you can carry along your
sins, your lusts, your worldliness, and
vet get to the end of the human race,
YOU are so awfully mistaken that, in
the name of God, this morning shatter
the delusion.
Still further, the road spoken of is
plain road. s"The wayfaring men,
though fools, shall not err therein. +"
That is, if a man is three-fourths an
idiot, he can find this road just as well
as if he was philosopher. The imbe-
cile boy, the laughing-stock of the street
and followed by mob hooting at him
has only just to knock once at the gate
of Heaven, and it swings open; while
there has been many a man who can
lecture about pneumatics, and chemis-
try, and tell the story of Fareday's
theory of electrical polarization,
and yet has been shut out OF
Heaven. There has been many man
who stood in an observatory and swept
the heavens with his telescope, and yet
he has not been able to see the morning
star. Many man has been familiar
with all the higher branches of mathe-
MATES, and yet could not do the simple
sum: "What shall it profit man if he
gain the whole world and lose his own
soul?" Many man has been line
reader of tragedies and poems, and yet
could not ''read his title clear to man
sions in the skies" Many man has
botanized across the continent, and yet
did not know the ''Rose of Sharon and
the Lily of the Valley" But if one
shall come in the right spirit, asking
the way to heaven, he will find it
plain way. The pardon is plain. The
peace is plain. Everything is plain.
h ho r0od tc
Heaven through the New Testament
teaching will get on beautifully. He
who goes through philosophical discus
sion will not get on at all Christ says:
''Come to Me, and will take all your
troubles away" Now what is the use
of my discussing it any more? Is not
that plain? If you wanted to go tc
London. and 1 pointed you out high
way thoroughly laid out would l be
wise in OBTAINING you by geological
discussion about the gravel you will
pass over, or physiological discussion
about the muscles you will have to
bring into play? No. After this Bible
has pointed you the way to Heaven, is
it wise for me to detain you with any
discussion about the nature of the hu.
man will or whether the atonement is
limited or unlimited? There is the
road, go on it. It is a plain way.
This is faithful saying, and worthy
of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. :"
And that is you and that is me. Any
little child here can understand this as
well as can. "Unless you become as
little child you cannot see the king
dom of God" If you are saved it will
not be as a philosopher, it will be as
little child ''Of such is the kingdom
of Heaven" Unless you get the spirit
of little children, you will never come
out at their glorious destiny.
Still further: This road to Heaven is
a safe road. Sometimes the traveller in
those ancient highways would think
himself perfectly secure, not knowing
there was a lion by the way, burying
his head deep between his paws, and
then, when the right moment came,
under the fearful spring, the mans life
was gone, and there was a mauled car
cass by the roadside. But, says my text,
'sNo lion shall be there" I wish could
make you feel this morning your entire
security. tell you plainly that one
minute after man has become child
Of God he is as safe as though he had
been ten thousand years in Heaven. He
may slip, he may slide, he may stumble;
put he cannot be destroyed. Kept by the
power of God, through faith, unto COM
plete salvation. INCREASINGLY safe.
The severest trial to which you can
subiect Christian man is to kill him,
and that is glory. In other words, the
worst thing that can happen child Of
God is Heaven. The body is only the
Did slippers that he throws aside just
before putting on the sandals of light
His soul, you cannot hurt it. No fires
.an consume it. No floods can drown
| It. No devils can capture it.
Firm and unmoved are they
| Who rest their souls on God;
| Fixed as the ground where David stood,
| Or where the ark abode.
His soul is safe. His reputation is
safe. Everything is safe. "But, you
say, Suppose his store burns up?'
Why. then, it will only be change of
investments from earthly to heavenly
securities. But" you say, suppose
I l. L