The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1897-04-17

comfort and illumination that there Is
nothing that makes you so irate as
to have it talked against. II there have
been times when you have been carried
into captivity by sickness, you longed
for the church, our holy Jerusalem,
lust as much as Nehemiah, longed for
his Jerusalem. and the first day you
came out you came TO the house OF the
Lord. When the temple was in ruins.
like Nehemiah, you walked around and
looked at it, and in the moonlight you
stood listening If you could not hear
the voice of the dead organ, the psalm
of the expired Sabbaths. What Jeru-
salem was to Nehemiah, the church of
God is to you. Skeptics and infidels
may scott at the church as an obso-
lete affair, as relic of the dark
ages, as convention of the goody-
goody people, but all the impression
they have ever made on your mind
against the church of God is absolutely
nothing. You would make more sacri-
fees for it to-day than any other insti-
tuition, and if it were needful you
would die in its defense. You can
take the words of the kingly poet as he
said: IF forget thee, o Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget her cunning"
You understand in your own expert
ence the pathos, the inconsistencies, the
courage, the holy enthusiasm of Nehe-
miah in his midnight moonlight ride
around the ruins of his beloved Jeru-
salem.
Again, my text impresses me with the
fact that, before reconstruction, there
must be an exploration of the ruins.
Why was not Nehemiah asleep under
the covers? Why was not his horse
stabbed in the midnight? Let the po-
lice of the city arrest this midnight
rider. out on some mischief. No, Ne
hcmiah is going to rebuild the city, and
he is making the preliminary explora-
ton. In this gate, out that gate, east,
west, north, south. All through the
ruins. The ruins must be explored be-
fore the work of reconstruction can
begin. The reason that so many peo-
pie in this city, apparently converted,
do not stay converted is because they
do not first explore the ruins of their
own heart. The reason that there
are so many professed Chris
tians who in this day lie and
forge and steal, and commit abimi-
nations, and go to the penitentiary, is
because they first do not learn the ruin
of their own heart. They have not
found out that the heart is deceitful
above all things, and desperately
wicked" They had an idea that they
were almost right, and they built re-
ligion as q sort of extension, as an or
namental cupola. There was super
structure of religion built on sub
stratum of unrepented sins. The
trouble with a good deal of modern
theology is that instead of building on
the right foundation it builds on the
debris of an unregenerated nature.
They attempt to rebuild Jerusalem be-
fore, in the midnight of conviction,
! they have seen the ghastliness of the
ruin. They have such poor foundation
| for their religion that the first north
east storm of temptation blows them
| down. / have no faith in mans con-
version if he is not converted in the
old-faShioned way-John Bunyan's
way, John Wesley's way, John Calvin's
way, Paul's way, Christ's way, God S
way. A dentist said to me: Does
! that hurt?' Said /: "Of course il
hurts 1t is in your business, as in my
profession. We have to hurt before we
can help You will never understand
redemption until you understand ruin
A man tells me that some one is mem
Der of the church. 1t makes no impress
sion on my mind at all. l simply want
TO know whether he was converted in
the old-fashioned way, or whether he
was converted in the newfashioned
way. If he was converted in the old.
fashioned way he will stand. If h,
was converted in the new-fashioneC
way he will not stand. That is al
there is about it.
Again. My subject gives me speci
men of busy and triumphant sadness
If there was any man in the world wht
had right to NOPE and give up every
thing as lost, it was Nehemiah. Yor
say: "IIe was a cupbearer in the pal
ace of Shushan, and it was CRANE
place" So it was. The hall of tina
palace was 300 feet square, and the roo
, lowered over SO marble pillars, each pill
{ lar 60 feet high; and the intense blu
, of the sky, and the deep green of tn
, forest foliage, and the white of the driv
: en- snow, all hung trembling in tn
5 upholstery. But, my friends, you know
very well that fine architecture will
) not put down inconsistencies. Yet Ne
, hemiah did not give up. Then, whe
, you see him going among these desc
l lated streets, and by these dismantle
towers, and by the torn-up grave of hi
G father, you would suppose that h
4 would have been disheartened, and tina
? he would have dismounted from hi
t horse and gone to his room and sale
C "Woe is me! My fathers grave is tor
e up. The temple is dishonored. Tn
n walls are broken down. l have n
S money with which to rebuild.
t wish had never been born
: wish l were dead" Not S
y says Nehemiah. Although he had
q grief so intense thatit excited the con
!" mentary of his king, yet that penn
|, less, expatriated Nehemiah rouses hin
p self up to rebuild the city, iIe gets h
: passports. He hastens away to Jer,
It salem. BY night on horseback he rid,