The herald., 1896-12-14
FIRST METHODIST.
To Give the Lost Ones the
Gospel

At the First Methodist church, on
Broadway, the pastor, John A. r. Will
son, D. D., preached on Deliverance as
Part of the Program of Christianity.
from Luke, iv:1S: ITO preach deliver
ance to the captives, the recovering Of
sight to the blind. and to set at liberty
them that are bruised"
He said, in part: The antithesis Of
the evil we feel most sensibly is the
thing we always want. The longing Of
the hungry is for food, the thirsty for
water, the naked for clothes and the sick
for health. And what name to the cap
tive is so sweet as liberty? An appre-
citation OF it in others is intensified in us
by its loss and regaining. A man in
foreign garb stood in front of bird
store looking at the little prisoners of
song until his eyes filled with tears.
Going into the store he priced and pur-
chased, paying in foreign gold, cage af-
ter cage full, and relieved them as pur-
chased, until the last bird had plumed it's
wings and with happy song assembled
toward the zenith. In answer to the
inquiring looks of the crowd that thought
him mad, he replied, II myself have been
a captive; know the sweets of liberty"
So Jesus came to preach deliverance
unto the captives. His system is in
augurated to help humanity in the low
est depths and lift it to the most exalted
heights. There is slavery of the body
and of the mind and of the soul. Who
ever heard Of heather or, Mahomedan
crusade against slavery? But it took
but the centuries of Christian domnia-
in a tn
slavery. And under the benign infiu-
ence of the Gospel legalized slavery has
disappeared from every Christian ma
ton, and actual as well as statutory
slavery is destined to disappear under
the same benign influence. Under it the
condition of the masses has been inf
nitely exalted, and in it are to he found
the spirit and the potency which shall
yet adjust every question between cap
ital and labor and secure more equal
distribution of the products of toll.
Under what other system has the
captivity of the mind been assailed? Free
schools for the masses, colleges and uni
versities accessible to every condition of
people, But the great, the primal de-
liverance is a moral one, after which all
the others follow as the tide follows the
rising moon. Save where this prevails
and in the ratio of it's success is the
uprising of sentiment for general edu-
versal peace.
I admit frankly THAT much we call
Christianity is churchanity-a merely
nominal relationship to Christ. admit
before the charge is made that there is a
large element of fraud of veneer, Of
plate. in the Christian governments, So
called, and even in much of the Chris
tianity about us. But in spite of SO
much unreality, results have been
achieved which demonstrate the divin-
ity Of the system which, in spite of adul-
terations, has put mercy in govern
ment until, supported by the state. we
have everywhere in Christendom insti-
tutions for the care of the INDECENT, while
eleemosynary conceptions of every kind
for every class dot the countries of the
cross.
But the supreme deliverance is from
the guilt, the power and the habit of
sin. 1t is what Henry Drummond' calls
''the liberty to stop SHINING" and the
power to set the heart right, to renew the
springs Of action, comes from Christ
1 know men who say, 1T is impossible,
! can't quit SHINING" but know the hid
ings of power where you can obtain de-
liverance.
But this tells Of more than liberty.
The ancients were accustomed not only
to imprison, but their prisoners of rank
they would thrust their eyes out with
spear. This text speaks of a restora-
tlon OF moral perceptlonS; the opening
of the eyes of the blind. The world is
full of them-money blind, politics
blind, pleasure blind, passion blind 1
wish you could behold the object lesson
which I have seen in the police courts
of this city during the week-the blear
eyes of misery, debauchery and sin; the
faded, lost unto sim men and women,
whose faces were the saddest commen-
tary on the lives they lead. / have
brought away a great heartache every
day have been there. ! have read in
their unhappy faces their misery and
ruin. and l would not add to, but miti-
gate, their misery. 1 tell you today I
cannot live in Los Angeles without put
ting forth some special effort to save
them and those who are lost with them.
They must hear this gospel of deliver
ance. And yet sins of selfishness and
greed, in fine apparel and in homes of