The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1892-11-05

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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 al
| 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 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 a clean heart" II
you have no such aspirations as that, it
proves that you have mistaken your
way, and if you will only look up and
see the finger-board above your head
you may read upon it the words:
There is a 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 carry along your sins, your
lusts, your worldliness, and yet get to
the end of the Christian race, you are
SO awfully mistaken that, in the name
of God, this morning shatter the de-
fusion.
Still further, the road spoken of is a
plain road. 1.-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 were a philosopher. The Inn
beetle 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 1t swings open,
while there has been many a man who
can lecture about pneumatics and
chemistry, and tell the story of Fara-
DAYS theory of electrical polarization,
and yet has been shut out of Heaven.
There has been many a man who stood
in an observatory and swept the
heavens with his telescope, and yet
he has not been able to see the morn
ing star. Many man has been famil-
lar with all the higher branches of
mathematics, and vet 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 a
fine reader of tragedies and poems, and
yet could not read his title clear to
mansions in the Skies Many a 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. Every thing is plain.
He who tries to get on the road to
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
sins away, and will take all troubles
away" Now what is the use of my
discussing it any more? Is. not that
plain? If you wanted to go to London,
and / pointed you out highway
thoroughly laid ont, would be wise in
OBTAINING yon by a geological discus
sion 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 hui
man will, or whether the atonement is
limited or unlimited? There is the
road-go on it. 1t is 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. SUNLESS you become as
a little child, you can not see the king
dom of God" If you are saved it will
not be as philosopher, it will be as a
little child. "Of such is the kingdom
of Heaven" Unless you get the spirit
of little children you will never come
ont 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 mangled car
cass by the roadside. But, says my
text, mo lion shall be there" / wish
/ could make you feel this morning
your entire security. tell you plainly
that one minute after man has become
a 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, but he can not be
destroyed. Kept by the power of God,
through faith, unto complete salvation.
INCREASINGLY safe.
The serverest trinl to which you can
subject 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
old slippers that he throws aside just
before putting on the sandals of light.
His soul, you can not hurt it. No fires
can consume it. No floods can drown
it. No devils can capture it.
Firm and unmoved are they
Who rest their souls on God.
Fixed in 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 ups
Why, then, it will only be change of
investments from earthly to heavenly
securities. but, You say, suppose his