Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1896-12-24
REWARDS OF OBEDIENCE.
From Slavedom to Noble Manhood-The
House Upon O Rock.

From Slavedom to Noble Manhood-InH
House Upon Rock
The Scriptures do not seek to deter
men from evil ways simply by pointing
| out the consequences of wrong doing;
they present the mostattractive pictures
of the righteous life, it's inner content
ment, its enlargement of every power,
and it's success, viewed in the lower and
higher relations. 1t is easier for the
prophet to warn than to incite, and this
probably is the reason why SO many
appeals to better life are stronger in
their characterization of the conse-
quences of evil than in their presenta-
ton of the possibilities of the righteous
life. 1t is distinctive note of the best
modern preaching and religious teach
| ing that, while it does not lose sight Of
what it is from which Christ saves men,
it places increased emphasis upon what
1t Is to which Christ saves them. We
have come to see that salvation does not
mean simply an act of emancipation,
which strikes off the shackles from the
slave, but that it means the inner trans
formation of the slave into a noble
manhood.
Thespirit of trust in God is result of
obedience. This is truth we are often
tempted to lose sight of. To trust God,
in some aspects of it, does not look diff
cult, but practically the spirit which is
willing to put life and all it's interests in
His keeping, and peacefully rest in His
ordering, rs one of the finest fruits of
spiritual experience. And this spirit
comes TO us, not by arguing ourselves
into the conviction that we ought to
trust Him, nor by resolving that we
will trust Him, but by obedience to the
will of God as it is revealed to us. With
the obedience comes the inner iIlumin-
alton, and the restfuIness and peace of
faith The experience of the vast ma
iority of Christians will confirm the
statement that faith was born in their
hearts in the act of obedience. "As they
vent they were healed" is n parable of
the inner life And there is hardly amy
rich and satisfying than just the spirit
Of trustful confidence in God.
1t is quite In consonance with the
spirit of the Old Testament that ma
terial prosperity should be viewed as
one of the distinctive rewards of right
eousness. 1t is often said that pros
perity is the reward of the Old Testa-
ment, but adversely Of the New That
is only half-truths The principles of
Gods government have not changed in
the new revelation The adversities of
the righteous, to which the New Tesla
ment constantly alludes, are generally
connected with persecution of the
faith. 1t is the evil in human hearts
and not the nature Of things that often
makes the path of the good a hard one.
But it is as true now as it ever has been
that righteousness tends to material
success. Conscientious faithfulness,
scrupulous integrity, industry andskilI,
which obedience to God implies, are the
very conditions of success. Zone can
not do business to-day honestly and
succeed" said one merchant to an
other. you cannot do business dis
honestly and not fall was the reply.
And the general experience of men con-
firms the truth of the answer. The dis
honesty that apparently succeeds Is
never avowed. 1T masks itself I'm the
garments OF integrity. It's only posi-
BILE chance of success is by assuming to
be what it is not.
"The requirement of it is better than
the possession of silver, and the gain
thereof than fine gold" Character is
the precious thing in human life that
gives it strength and beauty and no.
bility, and it comes from the habit 90
obedience to God as directly as the
athletes vigor comes from daily exer-
else, or the disciplined mind from men
tai drill and study.
Look wherever we will, the men to
whom their fellows turn in times Of
trial, when everything seems uncertain
and unsatisfying, are the men of char
acter whose lives have been enriched
and enlarged by the habit of daily obe-
dience to the law Of God. We feel that
they alone have wisdom and that
they alone have wrought into their per-
sonal lives something of the strength
and permanence and grandeur of the
eternal law of God. AS Jesus said, such
men build their houses upon a rock"
Boston Waterman.