St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-01-16

day that Jesus came from the tomb TO
present the proof Of eternal life. The
third step is love, is it not? That is the
kind of repentance VIC want to preach.
| said before we would abhor evil (be-
fore we repented) we must love the
good. Then the sinner loves God before
he repents, and repents through his love
of God. Oh, if religious leaders would
convince the repentant sinner of that,
and that the love Of God, not fear of
| wrath, wrought his repentance, what
hope, joy and confidence it would give
| him to press on
Therefore, since love of good works
! repentance, we must seek first
to bring men TO love the
| Father instead Of holding their sins up
before them and picturing the anger of
God. This inspires dread and dislike
of Him. Ii we desire to lnstill love
| through and through and ''in Him is no
darkness at ALL" Picture Him in His
true character, loving and the One alto
gether lovely. The prodigal abhors his
| evil; he has come to himself. He is on
| his way back home. Now let him see
! that father coming to meet him and
| know he has never been angry and
never can be. Let him realize evil alone
has punished him and he will abhor 1t.
| If he saw anger and revenge in God. his
maker, he could not hope to destroy
| them in himself. 1t is recognized by
the world that repentance through fear
Is no virtue. A man may repent of his
| deeds through fear when he is about to
be sent to the penitentiary, passive
! fear which we call dread. the dread of
| spending long months or years in the
! prison walls. But his keepers say:
Let him go free and he will go straight
way and do something as bad or
worse" The boy in the apple tree is
always sorry he is there when he sees
the man and the dog coming; he is sor-
ry because he is afraid of the dog. If he
Is properly sorry and prOmlses"neve to
do so any more" the man holds the dog,
and so he escapes unmolested, but the
boys only regret is that he did not get
| away with the apples without being
discovered. This may cure him of the
action, but the thievlng propensity re-
mains the same, and as he grows older
and wiser he will steal Ill ways calcu-
lated
10 Avoid Punishment.
We are taught that God sends sick
ness and all kinds of misfortunes to
punish. Truly, If we had been taught
our sins had sent these things upon us,
and that God can destroy both sin and
sickness and turn aside misfortune, we
would have learned long ago to love
Him. There is nothing in the world can
destroy evil but good. If God is abso-
lutetly good he must destroy evil. And
since He destroys it, He cannot also Gre
ate it, for no cause can produce opposite
effects. Nothing can oppose itself:
il God Is good He is absolutely good
and there is no evil in Him. According
, n @ OF &c
posed to know anything about the love
of God until conversion, yet at revivals !
they will bring before him the
picture of wrathtul God. ready to
grind him to powder" if he does not |
love Him and hate evil. Imagine taking |
child before a monster in human form. |
foaming with hatred, ready to plunge |
him into endless tortures if he does not !
obey his behests, could the child love |
him? No, and man never loved such a |
Deity. When John and Jesus came, did i
They cry, Repent, for the wrath of |
God is about to fall upon you?" No, |
is at hand" What Is the kingdom of !
heaven? Heaven is the harmony of !
love, and to make Him know in such a
way that man could not help loving |
Him, was the only method They ever
sought to bring men to repentance. Why, !
John described the coming of this king
dom as a condition perfectly harmonic
7OuS. Everything should be in harmony,
the crooked should be made straight,
the rough ways smooth, and the low
and the high be upon the same plane.
This would be plan of perfection.
Jesus disciples did not half understand
the height to which he wished them to
attain; they were striving among them
selves as to who should be the greatest;
il one is greatest the others must be in
significant. Jesus said: ''Be We per-
feet" and when we are perfect no one
can be greater or greatest; so when
they were Quarreling among themselves
as to who should be greatest they were
not aspiring half as high as He wished
them. When we see perfection in God
can we help loving him? This kingdom
He described as being sat hand''-is
here and now land no angry God to ap-
pease)-if we will but recognize and &C
cept it.
1t was in this way John and Jesus
brought the people to repentance
through natural and spontaneous love.
The PhariseeS came out to Johns bap-
tism through fear. They reasoned
this teaching Of Johns to be
right, and they came because
they thought to make sure Of heaven
through outward forms. knowing
they came through fear, John said to
them: 30 We generations of viperS.
who hath warned you to flee from the
wrath to Gomez" Not John, indeed.
He knew that fruits meetfo repentance
was the destroying of error, and he babe
them 'bring forth" these fruits. John
never tried to bring men to come by
forcing them to adopt outward forms,
but to destroy evil with good. This is
the meaning of that seemingly strange
sentence in the Bible; God is a con-
Stunning fire." God is love. What does
love consume? Evil. All the evil we
ignorantly know must be consumed by
love. John knew it was said 1.-The axe
must be laid at the root of the tree"
He knew that frightening men into a
course of outward virtue instead of
seeking to win them into love which
alone destroys error, would not accom-
plish salvation. The "outside of the
platter" only would be clean. What |
are three of the most notable instances
of repentance in the New Testament?
The strange woman, who poured the |
ointment upon the feet of Jesus; Peter !
at the palace of the high priest, and !
Judas when he saw
Jesus Actually Condemned.
What was it that brought these three |
to repentance? Was it fear, or was it a
desire to be like Jesus? 1t was the lat
ter. This woman came into the place |
where Jesus sat and met the contempt |
of the host, and doubtless Of all save |
one. She had met contempt every
where; had it brought her to repent
ance? No, it had only hardened her,
and only hardens her today. But what
did she see in Jesus? Only love, purity |
and innocence. He seemed to love her
equally as we'll as any other. She had
seen him on the hillside and listened to
his ineffably sweet words of life, at the
roadside healing the blind, talking with
the Seribes and Pharisees who hated |
him. and never once had she known him
to show contempt for the sinner; only
love and goodness always. She loved |
him involuntarlly, and she longed to be
like him: she came with broken heart
and falling tears. and Jesus spoke the
words of love and forgiveness: ''Woman,
thy sins are forgiven thee"