The Newtown bee., 1897-01-15

gain happiness, not to escape the tor ments of He'll. am Christian because l want to be true man and to do right. I am Christian because I cannot be truly manly and noble, filled to my true measure, without being obedientto God. I am really free only as I have caught the thought of divine service. I am ruler and master of myself only as let Christ rule in my heart and submit my whole being to the great Master of souls.
 Personal consecration means the giving or ones self to personal Saviour, and the giving must be like that of the Mace donian Christians, to whom Paul refe1s !: it must be irrevocabIe, it cannot be taken back. You have seen the little child run to it's mother and deposit some little Irlnket in her lap, and a few moments later come and take the toy away again. and bring it back and take It away again, | and repeat this many times in half an hour. Not so is the giving of the heart to Christ; it is giving that means for ever. You have watched the streamlet owing through the meadows. You have seen the water now rushing into that small cove or hollow, now stopping to eddy and swirl around the exposed roots of tree, now caught for moment in tiny whirlpool by some obtruding stick or stone; but the staying of the water was only for moment, on they kept with their flowing, on, on, to the river. on, on, to the wide, deep sea. So is the course of the eonsecrated life. It has no thought of turning back every year that comes only binds it more firmly to its purpose, only joins it's will more closely with the will of God. It slips, it falters. it goes into this and that sin; but these things do not show the trend of the life, they do not reveal the index of the heart. You do not judge Peters life by the mo- ment m which be timorously quails be- fore the word of little girl; but you | think his life purpose is indicated when. ] in answer to Jesus question, he says Lord, Thou knowest all ithings; Thou knowest that love Thee.'' trust that speak to many this morn ing who are beginning this new year con- | scious of their shortcomings in the past, but yet more firmly resolved than ever to CONSECRATE THEMSELVES ANEW TO GODS WORK
 and service. You are glad, then, that, though you know you have often slipped and failed, yet out of the sincerity of your heart you can say on this first Sab bath morning of the New Year: ssLord. Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that l love Thee" say to you. my peo- pie, that the thought has never come to me so seriously before. my responsibility in the leadership of this church. have had the year 1896, can never have it back again. I now have the year 1897 ]; how much in it may do for you? how much in it for God? ca, the things that should like to do for Yon Oh, the things that should like to have you do for me, no, not for me, for God! Breth- ren, we are but dreaming of the power of the Chnrch; we have just passed over the border-line of the possibilities before her. tremble when remember that no water rises higher than it's source, that no leader, by any possible art of rhetoric, by any possible trick Of elo- quence, can lift his followers to any nor al height which he has not himself at- tained. Even Jesus never dreamed that He could make people better than Him. self. aFor their sakes,n He said, Fl sanctify Mysels." "And I, if be lifted up from the szsrth, will draw all mel. unto Me'';; 1t ss the noble self sacrifice of the Saviours expressed in bleeding wounds and bleeding heart, that makes His life tho supreme attractive power of the ages. Let us, chen, pastor and peo- d pie, at thia altar to-day again make