The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1897-02-26


twist out of a Scripture passage that
has for all the Christian centuries been
interpreted another way" You say:
II do not like Princeton theology, or
New Haven theology, or Andover
theology" j do not ask you on board
either of these great men-of-war, their
portfolios filed with the great siege
guns of ecclesiastical battle. But l do
ask you to take the one plank of the
Gospel that you do believe in and strike
out for the pearl-strung beach OF
heaven.
Says some other man: "I would at
tend to religion II l was quite sure
about the doctrine of election and free
agency, but that mixes me all up"
Those things used to bother me, but
have no more perplexity about them;
for l say to myself: IF l love Christ
and live a good, honest, useful life,
am elected to be saved; and IL l do
not love Christ, and live a bad life, l
will be damned, and all the the theo-
logical seminaries OF the universe can
not make II any different" founder
ed along while in the sea of sin and
doubt, and 1t was as rough as the Medi-
terranean on the fourteenth night,
when they threw the grain overheard,
but / saw there was mercy for a sim
ner, and that plank l took, and have
been warming myself by the bright fire
on the shore ever since.
While l am talking to another man
about his soul he tells me: Il do not
become a Christian because l do not
believe there is any hell at ALL" All!
don't You? Do all the people of all
beliefs and no belief at all, of good
morals and bad morals go straight to
happy heaven? Do the holy and the
debauched have the same destination?
At midnight, in hallway, the owner
of house and burglar meet; they
both fire, and both are wounded, but
the burglar dies in five minutes and
the owner of the house lives week
after; will the burglar be at the gate
OF heaven, waiting, when the house
owner comes in? Will the debauchee
and the libertine go right in among
the families of heaven? l wonder II
Herod is playing on the banks of the
river of life with the children he mas
sacred: / wonder IL Charles Guiteau
and John Wilkes Booth are up there
shooting at mark. | do not now con-
! trovert it, although / must say that for
such a miserable heaven l have no ad-
miration. But the Bible does not say:
Believe in perdition and be saved {"
Because all are saved, according to your
theory, that ought not to keep you from
| loving anG serving Christ. Do not re-
fuse to come ashore because all the
others, according TO your theory. are
| going to get ashore. You may have a
different theory about chemistry. about
astronomy, about the atmosphere
from that which others adopt, but you
are not, therefore, hindered from ac-
ton. Because your theory of light is
different from others, do not refuse to
open your eyes. Because your theory
of air is different you do not refuse
to breathe. Because your theory about
the stellar system is different, you do
not refuse to acknowledge the north
star. Why should the fact that your
theological theories are different him
der you from acting upon what you
know? If you have not a whole ship
fastened in the theological drydocks
to bring you to wharfage, you have
at least a plank. Some on broken
pieces of the ship"
But l don't believe in revivals!"
Then go to your room, and all alone
with your door locked, give your heart
to God, and join some church where the
thermometer never gets higher than
fifty in the shade.
But l do not believe in baptlsm!
Come in without it and settle that mat
ter afterward. But there are sc
many inconsistent Christians" Then
come in and show them by a good ex-
ample how professors should act. But
don't believe in the Old Testament
Then come in on the New. But
don't like the Book of Romans" Then
come in on Matthew or Luke. Refus-
ing to come TO Christ, whom you admit
to be the Savior of the lost, because
you cannot admit other things, you are
like a man out there in that Mediter-
ranean tempest, and tossed in the Me-
lita breakers, refusing 10 come ashore
until he can mend the pieces of the
broken ship. hear him say: II won't
go in on any of these planks until
know in what part of the ship they
belong. When I can get the windlas:
in the right place, and the sails set
and that keel-piece where it belongs
and that floor-timber right. and these
ropes untangled, / will go ashore. / an
an old sailor, and know all about ships
for forty years. and as soon as can gel
the vessel afloat in good shape l will
come in" A man drifting by on g
piece of wood overhears him and says
"You will drown before you get thai
ship reconstructed. Better do as an
doing. / know nothing about ships
and never saw one before | came OF
board this, and cannot swim stroke
but am going ashore on this shiveret
TIMBER" The man in the offing, while
trying to mend his ship goes down
The man who trusted to the plank Il
saved. o my brother, let your smash