Birmingham age-herald., 1895-03-25

ment in saying that they believe In Chri.t. God cannot fail to do the saving if we do the trustin g lis the theory upon which he proceeds, and as to whether one believes or not is just as much. a primary fact of consciousness as hearing or seeing.
 There are those in the church today just like those to whom John wrote, and the first class we notice are those who lack as- surance of their salvation and acceptance by Christ on account of ignorance. Would 1t not be silly for man to say, TT guess love my wife; II guess nave faith in her;' .'I hopeI love my children;' "i guess l have put my money In the bank;' II hope my wife is my wife," Yet peo. pie will ssy, s'I hope am a Christian; ;p ''I guess am Christian. - Poor. misera. ble, doubting,. skepiical creature, you had iassss Tf saeTs pSt it '9s bops hops guess he was true to his word and accepted me. when gave Him my faith; if did" There is more infdelity in the church than we imagine.
 fou say you are doubting Christian. Can there be such Christian? The idea of faith negatives the idea of doubt, and the idea of doubt negatives the idea of faith. They will not mix. You either have be- lieved to the saving of your soul or you have not. You must know that you have or have not believed. If you have, tthen God will say l am married unto you' and no doubt can enter into so holy rela- ton.
 Do you believe on Him? Yes. What have you then? Everlasting life. The only room for any uneasine5s along this line IS as to whether one has exercised that faith that will take no denial, and so Paul ex- horts the Corinthians to examine thep,- selves to see whether they were in the faith. And yet how can one fail to know that they have placed their lives on deposit with God?
 We now turn to Acts xiii, 39, and find this language: .'And by Him all that be- lieve are justified from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses.'' Then do you believe? Yes. What follows? 1 am justife From whatf From all things.
 But one will say, have Ireally believed? l do not know; but do know that you must know or else you are unable to take any cognizance of the operations of your own mind and heart, and If you are so un- able you do not need faith, since you are Irresponsible.
 We turn once more to Eph. i, 13, and hear Paul say: 'In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also af- ter that ye believed were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
 There are those who lack assurance by reason of sin, was next discussed, among whom were backsliders and lukewarm Christians generally?
  was, 'Can assurance be made perfectf'' This does not involve the idea of sinless perfection; 1t is a twin sister to final per- severance, for each involves the other. But any Christian should have perfect as- surance and an absolute sense of safety.
 And in support of this we offer the fol- lowing in conclusion;
 John, iii, IA: "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.''
 1 John, V, 19: ''And we know that we are of God"
 Can we say, then: ''I know that my Re- deemer liveth;D that we are saved with an everlasting salvation2 And does this assurance inspire us and ippel us by the irresistible impulse of a responding love to approach Him we trust day by day? If we are safe and saved there will be no lack of evidence of that fact, for by their fruit ye shall know them.
 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
 The services at Il a. m. In the First Presbyterian church were conducted by the Rev. MT. Robertson, who is the su- perintendent of synodical home missions.
 He took for his text, the iv, 1 chapter of the Third Epistle of John: 'I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.'
 The minister stated that the object of his mission today was to present to this church congregation the necessities of home mis- sion work in the synod of Alabama, which includes the presbytery of North Alabama, the presbytery of South Alabama and the presbytery of Tuskaloosa. He said that there were ten counties in the presbytery of North Alabama in which there was not a Presbyterian church; and seventeen coun- ties in the other presbyteries, making twenty in all, in which there was not single Presbyterian church. Quite a number of the counties had only one, and some had but two churches.
 He spoke of the great destitution in re- gard to church privilegea in many parts of the state, and the urgent call upon the lib- erality of Christians to supply these wants. He said that David, king Of Israel, ruled over territory less than one-fourth as large as the state of Alabama and less than one-half as large as the presbytery of Tus- kaioosa. And he said that David's king tural pursuits for it's wealth; that it had no coal mines or iron mines. But that David, out of his poverty and out of his own pri- vate fortune, gave with great liberality; that he gave toward the bull ding of the house of God 5000 talents of the gold of Ophir and 1000 talents of the hue silver in J swish money, which was more than $S3,- 900 ,000.
 There were about 12 1000 members of the Presbyterian church in the synod of Ala bama, upon whom the synod calls for 60 cents per capita, or about S7000, for prose- cutting the home mission work throughout the state. His appeal to those present to contribute of their profits and of their means to sustain this work was earnest. At the conclusion of the service collection was taken amounting to ever $2O0.
 NIGHT SERVICE.
 The service in the First Presbyterian church at 7:30 p. m. was conducted by the Rev. A. B. Curry, pastor. He preached from Genesis iii, 9-fO: "And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him,