The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-10-18

want
DENY your Lord, and yet such a testi-
ira. YOU know, so extreme; and then YOU
remember YOU did feel angry inside. yes
tertiay, although it did not succeed in
breaking out Well, what are YOU going
to do about it: You are wholly the Lords:
CAN YOU TESTIFY THAT THE
WORK is DONE?
| In sort of despair you fall back on the
last form of your argument with the
dolbter. and say, am forgiven for the
| past | trust forgiveness now and
! leave the future with Jesus; what more
can do?
Dear soul, do not SIN ink, and the
sw ord shall enter the last joint of your
harness You believe you are forgiven
for the past? Well and good. What do
| you mean by the past? Evidently, YOUR
past actions, words and thoughts. For
givencss means that they are set aside as
if they had not existed. But let me ask
| you, do or did those words, acts and
| thoughts need anything more than for
giveness? Did they need to be sanctified
| wholly? Did they need to be pure and
clean? How absurd Then do you not
| see that for the past you need to think,
and do think, only of justification. or
| plainly of pardon, pure and simple. The
with purity or holiness. God himself can
not make your past actions or life holy
| and pure. He can only blot them out in
| absolute pardon. Hence there is no dan.
ger in alluding to absolute pardon in the
| past, and no Christian can dream of dis
! putting it for II moment. But do you not
see that the reason for his concord lies in
| the fact that you have avoided the con-
| troversy altogether? So, when you come
| down to the present moment. the deceit
| fulness of the devil and the sulking cold
man" blinds you to the sophism that you
select an intangible, feeting second of
time, so short that you haven't any time
! to sin, and theref fore you feel safe to say
! hurrriedly, 81 am clean forgiven Just
now,n and in the next breath you stave
! off the dreaded yes, dreaded future by
| the sop to Cerbcrus, ''1lhe future has
not come yet. Sufficient unto the day is
the evil thereof How true. 1t is sufli-
| cient indeed; and the plain truth is. my
abundantly full with evil that is trying
to show itself this present moment.
| Don't you?
A Southern governor, very wicked
man, once asked his body slave. by way
of amusement, what he believed on the
subject of election. The negro replied
with Il statement of his views, when the
governor, thinking. to put him in place
he would fear to answer candidly, said:
"Well, what do you think of my chances
for getting to heaven?n Whcreupon the
slave replied: ''Ah, massa guv'nor, I
neber heard ub any man get tin lected,
| who wasn't a candidate fur de offis.''
My brother, are you Il candidate for
the otiicey Did you ever take the fifth.
sixth and seventh steps recorded hereY
Have you not been asking the Lord in u
general way for an experience that re-
quires sharp, clean cut request? Have
you not been hoping for an experience in
the possibility of which you did not really
believe;S Let the whole soul step to the
front and face Jesus. Do you believe
that Jesus is not only able, but willing,
to pardon and to cleanse your heat from
all committed sin, and from the old ma
ture, which has co-eXisted in you with
the new nature implanted at conversions?
Are you willing to step over your conse-
Grafton against which you have stumbled
so long, and offer the sweet incense of a
straightforward prayer to God for II
clean, pure, holy heart? Are you ready
to exercise present, believing faith in
that wonderful atonement, even to the
extreme of Gods all? If so, do these, and
then close the hanging of the outer court
it will not be long before you have Pen
tecost in your soul.
But let us look for moment at the
reason for this hesitation ut the fourth
step. Why do so many STUN BILE here?
Simply and plainly because at this point
works end and faith begins. This is the
whole thing in nutshell. Men will de-
sire, and desire earnestly; they will in
spect their hear is rigidly and make the
most tremendous conservation to God
without hesitating. because this is all
! their work. But at this point the soul
apprehends that it has done with works,
and that simple belief must now be exer-
cised Immediately there is revolt.
Asking God for clean heart trenches on
the ground of faith; the soul sees that n
belief in such il gift and in Gods word
is necessary, and at once the stumbling
begins. But, my brother, this is the
great foundation stone of the whole
scheme of redemption. You must build
upon it alone. Let it not become stone
of stumbling and rock of offence to YOU.
You must bring yourself into the condi-
| ton where yon are determined to believe
God without a particle of human testi-
mony-naked faith in naked promise
and then you are ready to take the re-
naming steps. If you send out the
spies, they will report ten to two against
| God every time, and you will weep for
fear of the giants; but if you follow Caleb
and Joshua in regarding not the giants,
but rest simply in the Word of the Eter-
nal, you can go mp at once and possess
| the land. The plain truth then is chat
| you stop ut the point of conservation and
decline to 90 further, beca Use you want
to be sanctilied by works. You may not
have thought of this, but the trap has
caught you.
| 4 II tIrnttUh thic nrtinIo no l,,,.o