Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1897-01-18

even unto death" The Christ joy is a
deep joy. not inconsistent with suffering.
A man may rejoice amid the greatest sor-
rows and sufferings of life if he but
keeps his eyes on the promises of God.
If there is sunshine on the face of the
Christian, others will believe that The
Lord our God is a sun and smiled" and
that Christ is the light Of the world -
But if we speak to sinners of that sun
and Of that light, which we never mani
fest they will not believe IN it.
A Christian ought not to be gloomy and
Respondent.
5. We must be true. Be perfectly true.
That does not mean simply not 10 tell
lies. 1t means to be transparent. Let
men see through you. see your motives.
see that there is no guile in you. that there
are no hidden schemes. that while you
profess to love God more than anything
else you are not loving other things more
than God. a great many persons are I'M
true. They profess to love God but any
thing is sufficient excuse to keep them
from his house If you take a stand in
favor of anything or any party. do 50
because you believe you are right. And
then II open and manly in advocating
your principle. Do not be one thing to a
mans face and another thing to his back
DO not use underhand trickery and
schemes to carry your point. There is
nothing that more lily becomes the Chris
tian character that hypocrisy. trickery
and underhand scheming. Christianity
loves light. 1t needs no darkness for its
deeds.
6. We must be humble. Christ was hum
bic. He was meek and lowly in heart
He did not look down upon or despise or
repell any one. no matter how poor, how
ignorant. And If he was so humble, what
ought we to be? What has a Christian to
be proud about? He knows that in him,
l. e.: in his flesh there dweleth no good
thing. That everything that he is or can
hope to be- is owing 10 the cleansing blood
of Jesus. Let us. therefore. glory in moth
ing but the cross of Christ who has re-
deemed us DO not try to impress sinners
with a sense of your superiority. II you
do you Will miss the mark altogether. Do
not try to impress them that ii is because
Of your superior merit that your hope is
based on the atonement of Christ and on
that only. Do not give them the impress
sion that YOU are proud and to avoid this
you had better not stay away from the
house of God just because you have not
a new hat or shoes. or can't dress as
well as some one else.
:. We must be holy BE We perfect, for
] am perfect. saith the Lord. And again.
BE We holy. even as / am holy All
through his word. God exhorts US to hoii-
ness. We must not only not commit sin.
but we must shun the very appearance OF
evil. He must not tamper with sin. Here
is where some processing Christians make
mistake. They think they can 20 TO
many places whore the ungodly go. as 10
the dance and theatre. etc. and do many
things that the ungodly do. as to play
cards and games of chance. etc. yet
commit no actual sin. These things may
not be absolutely wrong I'm themselves.
Yet they have led many into sin and hence
have the appearance of evil connected with
them. And no Christian can indulge
i'm them without losing more or less in
duence with sinners and endangering.
more or less. his own soul We must be
consistent. We cannot be children of God
and Of the world at the same time. We
must not merely become passably holy,
/. e.: arrive at that degree Of holiness
that Will keep people from talking about
us on account of our sins. but We must
become perfectly holy. You say we cam
not attain that point in this world. But
we can strive TO come as near rs possible.
The fact that perfect holiness cannot be
obtained here is no reason why We should
not strive for il. For the life beyond the
grave IS but continuance of the spiritual
life here.
We must let it appear from our conduct
that our religion is not "a mere matter Of
theory or talk. or motive but matter
of fact that enters into our every day
business. We must let the impression 20
out from our daily work and conversation,
that whatever we do is real. that # is
founded and grounded on reality. that the
strength Of our life is derived from heaven.