Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1897-11-22
TIE S[IF-REu|AN1 FOOL. :
A Sermon Delivered at the Third
Presbyterian Church.

~
Rev. r. r. Bigger Tells in a Con-
vincing Why the Man Who Trusts
in His Own Heart is a Fool-No
Hope in Life or Eternity for He
Who Rejects Christ-The Last Of
a Series Of Special Sermons on the
Subjects Of Fools"
Rev. R. R. Bigger last evening
preached the last of very interest
ing series of special sermons on
Fools" These sermons have been
forceful and Indicative of much
thought, and last nights discourse
was as fully interesting and convinc-
ing as the previoussones of the series.
The subject dealt with was 'The Self
Reliant Fool" and is given below in
part
HE that trusteth in his own heart is
{ a fool Prov. 2S:26. This text is a
description of the man who proposes
to go to heaven without trusting
Christ. He would brush aside the au
thOrity of Gods word, and then die
tate to the God of the universe the
terms by which he would be saved.
AS the text says, he would trust in his
own heart. The word heart used here
embraced both the intellectual and
moral nature of man. Therefore, the
"self-reiiant fool on the one hand
leans to his own understanding solely
on the question: What must [ do to
be saved?" and on the other hand, he
considers his own righteousness suf-
sicient to put God under obligation to
save him from all the sins he has ever
committed. But let me tell you upon
the authority of the Bible-the only
real authority on that QuestiOn-that
trying to get to heaven without faith
in Christ is like machine moving in
a gymnasium. There is motion but
no movement. If there is a man in the
world who is to be pitied it is the
man who feels that he can live and
die without being a child Of God
through Christ Jesus. | pity such a
man far more than some of these men
who are deep in the ways of sin and
ulSSI dCc. VI luc pun ICliOW WIZ
on the highway of death because Of
some grievous sin, may be made to see
his danger, and with grief and hatred
toward his sin, he may turn from his
sin unto God and be saved; but the
self-conceited, self-reliant fool is so
blinded by his good opinion of himself
that no word of either God or man
can warn him of his lost condition
without Christ. In some instances he
substitutes morality for religion, and
then he lives and acts as though God
accepted such substitution.
The people who think that morality
is equivalent to religion had better
consult their dictionaries and their
moral PHILOSOPHERS if they have any,
and learn the difference between NOR
atty and religion The standard die
tionary tells us that morality is the
practice of moral duties as distin-
guished from religious duties The
moral man simply does his duty" and
in so doing he does not atone for a
single sin he has committed; he only
saves himself from neglect of duty,
which is sin Therefore, morality, as
far as it goes, saves us from commit
ting more sins in a sense, but does not
blot out or atone for the least sin we
have committed. And there is not a
man in the world that has not sinned
a thousand times, aye, more. Tell me,
moral man, how are you going to have
these thousands of sins blotted out
put away, atoned for, without going
to God through Jesus Christ, the medi-
ator between God and man and God
appointed savior Of men? Now we
have crossed the line between moral
ity and religion, and now we are
ready for the definition of religion
which is: "a belief. binding the spir-
itual nature of man to supernatural
being, on which he is conscious that
he is dependent" Notice that re-
ligion is belief, it is faith, dependence
in God. But our text says. the fool has
faith, dependence in his own heart.
The self-reliant man makes his own
little, finite opinion his law and Cos
pei. God is left out of the question.
If he has a god he does not even have
respect enough for him to trust him
for wisdom and salvation. The Bible
can teach the self-reliant fool moth
ing: he is away beyond the Bible; he
knows more than the Bible can teach
him. He is law unto himself. II
you tell such man that is not safe
without Jesus Christ; if you pray him
in Christ's stead to be reconciled upto
God, he looks upon you as credulous
weakling, though you may have for
gotten more science, philosophy, liter
ature, and of Gods revelation than
ever entered his skeptical brain. If
we tell him that God has an eternal
plan of salvation, and all who come
upto God must come in this divinely
.ppointed way, he refuses to believe
it, and goeth on the way that "seemeth
right unto him, but the end thereof
are the ways of death.
The self-reliant man feels no need
of Gods help. He feels sufficient in
and of himself God might as we'll not
exist as far as the self-reliant man is
concerned The Bible might as we'll
have never been written, for it has
no authority with him. DR.. Palmer re-
lates: Il call to mind, in the early
years of my ministery, a young man
who came into my study one Monday
morning, with flushing face, and
burst into the following invective:
You preachers seem privileged to ut
ter palpable contradictions in the pull