The Monitor-register., 1897-07-16

0OlUR OUT luGO WOrlu VI u61us1oA
and sham, pretend to be no more than
you really are. If you have the grace
of God, profess it; profess no more than
you have. But l want the world to
know that where there is one hypocrlte
in the church there are 500 outside OF
it, for the reason that the field is larger.
There are men in all circles who will
bow before you, and who are obsequl-
Gus in your presence and talk fiatter-
ingly, but who all the while in your
conversation are digging for bait and
angling for imperfections. In your pres
ence they imply that they are every
thing friendly, but after awhile you find
they have the fierceness OF catamount,
the slyness of snake and the spite of
devil. God will expose such. The gun
they load will burst in their own hands,
the lies they tell will break their own
teeth, and at the very moment they
think they have been successful in de-
ceiving you and deceiving the world the
sheep will bleat and the oxen will bel
low.
Responsibility.
learn further from this subject how
natural it is to try to put off our sins
on other people. Saul was charged with
disobeying God. The man says it was
not he; he did not save the sheep; the
army did it-trying to throw it off on
the shoulders of other people. Human
nature is the same in all ages. Adam,
confronted with his sin, said, "The
woman tempted me, and did eat. "
And the woman charged it upon the
serpent, and if the serpent could have
spoken it would have charged it upon
the devil. / suppose that the real state
of the case was that Eve was eating
the apple and that Adam saw it and
begged and coaxed until he got piece
of it. l suppose that Adam was just as
much to blame as Eve was. You can
not throw off the responsibility of any
sin upon the shoulders of other people.
Here is young man who says: II
know I am doing wrong but I have not
had any chance. I had a father who de-
spised God and a mother who was a
disciple of goddess fashion. l am not to
blame for my sins; it is my bringing
up" All, no; that young man has
been out in the world long enough to
see what is right and to see what is
wrong, and in the great day of eternity
he cannot throw his sins upon his fa-
ther or mother, but will have to stand
for himself and answer before God.
You have had conscience, you have
had a Bible and the influence of the
Holy Spirit. Stand for yourself or fall
for yourself
Here is a business man. He says, 81
know don't do exactly right in trade,
but all the dry goods men do it and all
the hardware men do this, and I am
not responsi BILE. " You cannot throw
off your sin upon the shoulders of other
merchants. God will hold you respon-
sible for what you do and them re-
sponsible for what they do. want to
quote one passage of Scripture for you
i think it is in Proverbs-''f thou be
wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself,
but if thou scornest thou alone shalt
bear it. -
All OF None.
learn further from this subject what
God meant by determination. Saul was
told to slay all the Amalekites and the
beasts in their possession. He saves
Agag, the Amalekite king, and some of
the sheep and oxen. God chastises him
for it. God likes nothing done by halves.
God will not stay in the soul that is
half his and half the DEVILS. There
may be more sins in our soul than there
were Amalekites. We must kill them.
Woe unto us if we spare Agag. Here is
a Christian. He says: "I will drive out
all the Amalekites of sin from my heart.
Here is jealousy-down goes that Anal
ekite. Here is backbiting-down goes
that Amalekite," and what slaughter
he makes among his sins, striking right
and left! What is that out yonder, lift
ing up his head? 1t is Agag-it is world
illness. 1t is an old sin he cannot bear to
strike down. 1t is darling transgres-
sion he cannot afford to sacrifice. Oh,
my brethren, l appeal for entire conse-
Grafton. Some of the Presby yterians call
it the "higher life. 3" The Methodists,
I believe, call it perfection. do not
Oe'1O N1lub SOu Sd11 1tJ W1luOub uOll-
ness no man shall see the Lord" I
know men who are living with their
soul in perpetual communion with
Christ and day by day are walking
within sight of heaven. How do know?
They tell me so. I believe them. They
would not lie about it. Why cannot we
all have this conservation? Why slay
some of the sins in our soul and leave
others to bleat and below for our ex-
posure and condemnation? Christ will
not stay in the same house with Agag.
You must give up Agag or give up
Christ. Jesus says, "All of that heart
or none" Saul slew the poorest of the
sheep and the meanest of the oxen and
kept some of the finest and the fattest,
and there are Christians who have slain
the most unpopular of their transgres-
sions and saved those which are most
respectable. 1t will not do Eternal
war against all the Amalekites-no mer-
cy for Agag!
learn further from this subject that
it is vain to try to defraud God. Here
Saul thought he had cheated God out
of those sheep and oxen, but he lost
his crown, be lost his empire. You can
not cheat God out of single cent.
Here is man who has made $4,000
in fraud. Before he dies every dollar of
it will be gone, Or it will give him vio-
lent unrest. Here is a Christian who
has been largely prospered. He has not
given to God the proportion that is due
in charities and benevolences. God
comes to the reckoning, and he takes it
all away from you. How often it has
been that Christian men have had a
large estate and it is gone. The Lord
God came into the counting room and
said: 81 have allowed you to have all
this property for 10, 15 or 20 years, and
you have not done justice to my poor
children. When the beggar called upon
you, you bounded him off your steps;
when my suffering children appealed to
you for help, you had no mercy. l only
asked for so much or SO much, but you
did not give it to me, and now will
take it all"
The Safe Course.
God asks of us one-seventh of our time
in the way of Sabbath. Do you suppose
we can get an hour of that time success
fully away from its true object? No, no.
God has demanded one-seventh of your
time. If you take one hour of that time
that is to be devoted to Gods service
and instead of keeping his Sabbath use
it for the purpose of writing up your
accounts or making worldly gains, God
will get that hour from you in some un-
expected way. God says to Jonah, lyon
go to Nineveh. He says: "No, l
won't. I'll go to Tarshish. He starts
for Tarshish. The sea raves, the winds
blow and the ship rocks. Come, ye
whales, and take this passenger for Tar