The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1895-04-26

miscellaneous ................ IUi.Io
IOGdl. ................ .ol,UIO 10
OF the above the ladies contributed
S316 16; the Y. p. S. G. E. S68.00, and
the Sabbath school $48.98. The Sun.
day school raised altogether Sl99. So;
the Y. P. S. G. E. $22S.95; the Junior
Endeavor $24.42. and the Hope Mis-
sion $51.00.
CONGREGATIONAL EXPENSES.
Home Sunday: school 1882
Organ fund .................. 1s6.4s
Current expenses of church. $4,000 S 3,547.6 SO
Building fund. ............. 1S,450.S0
Total. ..... So, 1896. 4s
Of which the ladies raised 81, 1870 81;
the young ladies $151.53. This does
toward the new church the past year,
but what they have raised.
The above is most gratifying re-
port to make during a year of such
hard times. There is now needed
auditorium which ought to be done
this summer, as the present accom-
modations are too small for the con-
gregations that assemble each Sab
bath.
After singing hymn of gratitude
the pastor spoke from the text, Acts
20 80: "And now brethren l commend
you unto God and the word of His
grace, which is able to build you up
and to give you an Inheritance with
them which are sanctitied."
l. The source of the chracter is
"God and the word of His grace"
II. The blessings of the character
are progress and perfection.
I. A man is saved on the ground
of what he is, not on the ground of
what somebody else is. 1t is true we
are not saved on the grace of our own
goodness, for we have all sinned. But
neither are we saved on the ground Of
Christ's goodness, unless Christ's good
ness is transmitted or enforced into
our lives, transferring our weakness
into His strength, our deficiency into
His sufficiency, our sinfulness into His
righteousness. Christ's righteousness
never censures for our righteousness
until Christ's Righteousness has be-
come our righteousness. Salt will
preserve meat, but not if kept in a
separate barrel. 1t must be transfer
red from the salt barrel to the meat
barrel.
The difference between Christian
man and a so-called moral man is, the
former realizes his shortcomings and
also his need of Christ to help him.
The latter realizes his shortcomings
but "goes it alone" / would define
a Christian as man who realizes his
own usefulness, and with the help of
God and the word of His grace isseek-
ing to rise above his usefulness to the
inheritance of the sanctifed.
AS in nature, so in character; ''a
stream can never rise higher than it's
source" No character is more beauti-
full than the fountain from which it
drinks-no not quite SO beautiful. No
place along the stream is water quite
so cold or sweet as at the fountain
head. The farther you have to carry
water before using it, the less palat-
able it becomes: so in morals and
religion. My neighbor gets his morals
and religion from Sinai, the sermon
on the mount. If / get my words
from that neighbor they will not be as
pure as his. No man can reach very
high moral character who feeds his
soul on the driblets Of other mems
morals. We drink from the common
dipper at the public fountain with a
merital protest in the name of good
health; why not in the name of good
words protest against getting our
words from the common tactics of
men, and each with our own cup OF
faith drinks from the fountain-head
of ''God and the word of His grace. }"
If man gets his words from Wall
street, Frog alley, Broadway OF Five
Points, his words will be poor. But if
he gets his morals from God and the
word of His grace, he can go down in
TO Wall street or Frog alley without
harm.
"God and the word of His grace" is
the fountain head of morals and re-
ligion. Not from the men with whom
we meet shall man find out Gods