The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-02-17
OPERA HOUSE MEETINGS
4 LARGE AUDIENCE PRESENT 1T
 YESTERDIY'S SERVICES.

Sermon by Rev. MT. Poteat-Special Meet ings to be Continued During the Winter To Go On With the Work Begun by Rev. B. Fay Mills.
 A special meeting to continue the work started by the Mills meetings was held at the Grand opera house yester- day. The meeting began at 3:30 o'clock and was opened with prayer by Rev. MT Mason of the First Baptist church. Previous to the sermon there was song service lasting about fifteen min utes. The large choir, most of the members Of which sang in the Mills meetings, was seated on the stage and was led by Professor Chandler. Sev- eral selections were rendered by the "B" quartet, composed of F. R. Lang dale, first tenor; E. c. Woodstock sec- ond tenor; W. s. Cook, first bass; and D. c. Bennett, second bass. MT, Hogg- son, who plays the organ at Calvary Baptist church, presided at the piano, while Andrew Bamburg played the cor net.
 Rev. Dr. Twitchell presided at the meeting and made brief introductory remarks, in which he stated that the special Sunday meetings would be con- tinued at the Grand opera house during the rest of the winter and would be ad- dressed by the various city pastors. The expenses of these meetings will be borne by subscriptions.
 At the close of Dr. TwitchelPs re- marks collection was taken up. An audience of about 1,200 persons was present.
 The sermon was delivered by Rev. MT. Poteat of Calvary Baptist church, who first read from the nineteenth chapter of Matthew and took as his text Mark S:35, 36, For whosoever shall save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gos- pers the same shall save it. For what shall it profit man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul" MT. Poteat said:
 "In the form of this question Jesus implies that the gain of life or of the world for man is personal gain; in other words, that the salvation which we proclaim to-day is a present saliva ton.
 Present salvation is not an insurance against a future contingency. Of course when a man is saved he goes to heaven, but that is not a primary reason. The gaining of the soul is a rresent gain. If you are disposed to doubt the future heaven and to say it is a soft poultice with which men com fort themselves, remember that. trans formation of character is something of the present.
 ''The question of present salvation does not appeal to those people who want their sin now and heaven here after. A minister was once telling an audience of boys the story of Lazarus and the rich man and told of how the rich man begged of Lazarus to simply moisten his tongue. He them asked the boys which they would rather be-Laz- arus or the rich man. One of the boys said: I would rather be the rich man while live and Lazarus after die.''
 'SThe young man told of in the nne- teenth chapter of Matthew was an ex- cellent young man and kept the law, was square in his dealing, and came to Christ for eternal life. When Christ told him to sell all he had, the tender spot was touched. The young man tOuldA ulCCL tulo lpouS. IHClC ID tii issue iil each mans life which he must meet and the present one Is whether we prefer our own salvation or the whole world. The loss of the soul is a present loss. People used to think that a lost soul meant a soul in the lost world-in hell. In the Persian religion there is the conception that when a per- son dies he comes to a great bridge ;e toti ba 1ul,o has kept account of all his choices dur ing life. If his good choices outnumber the bad ones, he is allowed to cross over into the kingdom of light, but if the bad choices are the more numerous he is sent across into the kingdom of dark ness To be lost or to be saved are there considered as experiences to be en- tered into after death. That conception is true, but it does not say what is also true-that lost soul in eternity is only continuation of a condition cA earth Christ put the emphasis of his preaching on the present condition of man. He saw the shriveling of the soul when men preferred something else to present salvation If you are making such choices to-day you are lost
 Sin is wrong preference. Make up your mind whether you will change your program and win Jerusalem or keep it up and gain the world and lose your soul. What profiteth it a man if he make a choice like the last, when a mans soul is smirched by the choice of evil?
 Character is the passport to the Kingdom of Heaven. Things cannot lift you up to heaven like a Tower of Babel. There is no darker sign on the horizon of our American life than the choice of money. This is the rejection of Jesus, the choice of men instead of God. Jesus has said that a wrong choice is de- tachment from God, and this means a corruption"
 The closing prayer was offered by Rev. MT. Mason.