The Newtown bee., 1895-03-15
BHker PiY C., Bangor. Me.

ance or Him as personal Saviour IS mere form about which ministers waste
 much talk, who are deceiving themselves with the fancy that to be a moral man, pay one's debts, live squarely with the l world, not indulge in sharp tricks in trade, is about all that is necessary or required by God, if perchance they stop to think | at all of what God requires?
 Yes, men may deceive themselves, | may completely befool others but they cannot deceive God. Ananias lied not | unto men, but unto God; and straight way he found his secret sin unveiled and himself stripped of all his deceit and un-
 masked of all his hypocrisy, convicted | man before God. Men may deceive l themselves all their lives here; but what about the revelations of the Judgement Day To those on the left=of the Judge will come the condemnation II was an l hungered, ,and ye gave me no meat; 1 was | thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; l was a stranger, and ye took me not in." Then shall come the answer of total be- l wilderment and surprise: "Lord, when
 saw we thee an hungred or athirst or a stranger, and did not minister unto thee?" And then they shall find that in this life they had so blindfolded their eyes and wrapped their imaginations and cheated themselves with foolish thoughts, that Christ passed by at their doors, and they saw Him not, needed Him not, and now alas in hopeles ruin and despair they see, in the full light of clearest day. that they have cheated themselves out of l 8 Saviour's love and joyful home in Heaven.
 "And laid it at the Apostles feet" This offering of the money was done as
 an act of worship.
 IT MUST HAVE BEEN
 in the presence of the assembled believers, | for only by 8 public offering could An
 anias have gained his desired object,
 credit in the church, we read, too in | verse II, "Great fear came upon all the church, so the church
 must have witnessed this scene. l And so much the worse for | Ananias. On his part it was an act of professed devotion to God Himself; and | he knew his saintly air, his assumed ap-
 pearance of lavish giver, was all a hol- | low sham. He knew he was acting a
 dreadful lie. Under the pretence of wor-
 shipping God, Ananias knew he was de- l liberately mocking Him. This deed was
 committed in an appointed place of wor- l ship and under the name of religion. It
 took holy cause to it's aid, to further a l bad deed, and so it merited the fearful
 punishment which followed.
 | Lying and deceit are always bad; but,
 when they mask themselves under holy
 associations, they do double mischief.
 They drag not only the evil-doer down, | but the church or the community of be- lievers which he was joined. And so up
 on every churl h member comes heavy
 responsibility; when he enters into the
 obligations which church membership in
 wolves, he voluntarily turns the full light of public scrutiny upon himself. The
 fair cause he is upholding demands that by word or nod or manner he bring it into
 no shame. He is expected to be and to do more than other men; otherwise, what
 honor has he, what reason to be set l apart, to be called one of Gods peculiar | people. Still let us not too much grieve,
 when here and there men and women are found in the church who have no busi.
 ness to be there, who daily bring re. proach upon us all. Did you ever yet see
 a diamond of the first water in which the
 microscope would reveal no imperfection ever a crystal of such marvellous sparkle and clearness as to be without the slight.
 est flaw? Did wheat of finest culture ever grow without having in it some chaffi
 Was there ever yet September sky o1 such deep azure that nowhere in it's blue depths could be seen one floating cloud,
 though the cloud be no bigger than g | man s han0!
 BE NOT DISCOURAGED.
 Gods church has her imperfections
 Many wolf hides within the sacred fold
 The church is the bride of the spotless Lamb. But yet the skirt of her beaute ous garment trails in the dust. She is the consummate flower of this earth, but yet heath the silken petals there turk the
 sharp thorns. She shally yet triumph and
 triumph. .gloriously. The church! Fire ;. cannot burn her, water cannot drown her, persecution cannot throttle her, foes from without only make her spring with greater zeal to the fray, and foes from
 within but send her to her knees in peni
 tent prayer. Ride on, o Church, con. quering and overturning, till all enemies
 are trampled beneath thy feet and the
 King Himself adorns the with thy gilt. tering crown.