Milford chronicle., 1895-04-12

{ are ordinary but look around at thesl
entrances to heaven and count them
One. two. three. four five, six, seven
eight nine ten, eleven, twelve. Hear Il
all the earth and all the heavens Twelve
gatesl
l admit this is rather hard on sharp SEQ
tarlanisms. If Presbyterian is bigoted
he brings his Westminster assembly cate
, ohism, and be makes a gateway out Of
that. and he says to the world, . You &c
through there or stay out. If a member
of the Reformed church is bigoted, he
makes a gate out Of the Heidelberg cate
chism, and he says, You go through
there or stay ont II Methodist is big
oted he plants two posts, and lac says,
Now. you crowd in between those two
posts or stay out. " Or perhaps an Episco-
palian may say, " Here is liturgy out OF
which / mean to make gate; go through
It or stay out Or a Baptist may say,
Here is a water gate; you go through that,
or YOU must stay out. " And so in all our
churches and in all our denominations
there are men who make one gate for
themselves and then demand that the
whole world go through it. I abhOr this
contractedness in religious views. Oh
small souled man, when did God give
YOU the contract for making gatesf l tell
You plainly l will not go in that gate l
will 90 in at any one Of the IL gates
choose. Here is a man who says, i can
more easily and more closely approach God
through a prayer book. / say, My
brother, then use the prayer book" Here
is a man who says, 1 believe there is only
one mode of baptism, and that is INNER
sion. Then 1 say, Let me plunge you.
Anyhow, I say, away with the gate of
] fnd
latch when there are IL gates, and they
are 12 pearls
DOctrined TO Death.
The fact is that a great many of the
churches in this day are being dootrined
to death They have been trying TO find
out all about Gods DEGREES, and they
want to know who are elected to be saved
and who are reprubated to be damned
and they are keeping on discussing that
/ subject when there are millions of souls
who need to have the truth put straight at
them They sit counting the number Of
teeth in the jawbone with which Samson
slew the Philistines. They sit on the
beach and see vessel going to pieces in
the ofiing, and instead of getting into
a boat and pulling away for the wreck
they sit discussing the different styles of
oarlocks God intended us to know some
things and intended US nos to know 9th
ers. 1 have heard scores of sermons ex-
planatory of Gods DEGREES, but came
away more perplexed than when l went.
The only result of such discussion is
great fog Here are two truths which are
to conquer the worid-man, a sinner;
Christ, a Saviour Any man who adopts
those two theories in his religious belief
shall have my right hand in warm grip Of
Christian brotherhood
A man comes down to a river in time
of freshet He wants to get across He
has to swim. What does he do? The first
thing is to put off his heavy apparel and
drop everything he has in his hands. He
must 20 empty handed if he is going TO
the other bank. And l tell you when we
have come down to the river Of death and
find it swift and raging we will have to
put of all our seotarianism and lay down
all our cum brous creed and empty handed
put out for the other shore What" say
YOU, would you resolve all the Christian
church into one kind of church? Would
you make all Christendom worship in the
same way, by the same formsr' Oh, no.
You might as well decide that all people
shall eat the same kind Of food without
reference to appetite or wear the same
kind of apparel without reference to the /
shape of their body Your ancestry, your
temperament, your surroundings, will de- /
eide whether you 90 to this or that church /
and adopt this or that church polity. One I
church will best get one man to heaven I
and another church another man. do I
not care which one of the gates you go /
through if you only go through one Of the .
IL gates that Jesus lifted
The Twelfth Gate.
Well, now, see all the redeemed of /
earth coming up toward heaven. Do you .
think they will all get inG Yes. Gate
the first, the Mo-avians come up; they
believed in the Lord Jesus; they pass
through Gate the second, the Quakers
come up; they have received the inward
light; they have trusted in the Lord; they
pass through Gate the third, the Lu-
therans come up; they had the same grace
that made Luther what he was, and they
pass through Gate the fourth, the Bap-
lists pass through Gate the fifth, the
Free VIII Baptists pass through. Gate
the sixth, the Reformed church passes
through. Gate the seventh, the Congre-
gationalists pass through Gate the eighth,
the German Reformed church passes
through. Gate the ninth, the Metho-
dists pass through Gate the tenth, the
Sabbatarians pass through. Gate the elev-
enth, the Church of the Disciples pass
through. Gate the twelfth, the Presby-
terians pass through. But there are q
great part of other denominations who
must come in, and great multitudes who
connected themselves with no visible
church, but felt the power Of godliness in
their heart and showed it in their life.
Where is their gate? VIII you shut all the
host out of the city? No. They
may come in at our gate Hosts Of God,
if you cannot get admission through any
other entrance, come in at the twelfth
gate Now they mingle before the throne.
Looking up at the one hundred and for
ty and four thousand, you cannot tell
which gate they came in One Lord. One
faith One baptism. One CLASSY sea. One
doxology. One triumph. One heavenl
''Why, Luther, how did you get imp Il
came through the third gate % " Gram
mer, how did you get inS' i came
the eighth gate. " Adoniram
Judson, how did you get throughp Il
came through the seventh gate. Hugh
McKail, the martyr, how did you get
through" II came through the twelfth
gate Glory to God, 12 gates, but one
heaven
In the third place, notice the points Of
the compass toward which these gates
look. They are not on one side, or on two
sides, or on three sides, but on four sidea
This is no fancy of mine, but a distinct
On the north three gates
on the south three gates, on the east three
gates, on the west three gates What does
that mean? Why, it means that all ma
tionalities are included, and it does not
make any difference from what quarter Of
the earth a man comes up. If his heart is
right, there is a gate open before him. On
the north three gates. That means mer-
cy for Lapland and Siberia and Norway
and Sweden On the south three gates.
That means pardon for Hindustan and
Alqiers and Ethiopia. On the east three
gates. That means salvation for China
and Japan and Borneo. On the west three
gates. That means redemption for Amer
lea. It does not make any difference how
dark skinned or how palo faced men may
be- They will find gate right before
them Those plucked bananas under
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