The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1897-04-09

mlah Tor sacred Jerusalem. winch IN
all ages has been the type of the church
of God, our Jerusalem. which we love
| Just as much. as Nehemiah loved his
Jerusalem. The fact is that you love
the church of God so much that there
is no spot on earth so sacred, unless it
be your own fireside. The church has
been to you so much comfort and illu-
mination that there is nothing that
makes you so irate as to have it talked
against. If there have been times when
you have been carried into captivity by
sickness, you longed for the church.
our holy. Jerusalem, just 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 listen
ing if YOU could not hear the voice of
the dead organ, the psalm of the ex-
pired Sabbaths. What Jerusalem was
to Nehemiah. the church of God is to
you. Skeptics and infidels may scott
at the church as an obsolete affair, as
relic of the dark ages, as cOnven-
ton 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 sacrifices for it to-day than
any other institution, 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
! ln4 ,orhA hop1 fOPrraf
/ her cunning You understand in
your own experience the pathOs, the
/ inconsistencies, the courage, the holy
enthusiasm of Nehemiah in his mid
night, moonlight ride around the ruins
/ of his beloved Jerusalem.
| Again, my text impresses me with
the fact that, before reconstruction,
there must be an exploration of.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. Nehe-
miah 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
did not first explore the ruins of their
/ own heart. The reason that there are
so many professed Christians who in
this day lie and forge and steal, and
I =,
penitentiary, is because they first do
not learn the ruin of their own heart.
They have not found out that 1.-The
heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked" They had
an idea that they were almost right,
and they built religion as a sort of ex-
tension. as an ornamental cupola.
There was a superstructure of religion
built on a subStratum of unrepented
SINS The trouble with a good deal of
modern theology is that instead of
building on the right foundation, 1T
builds on the debris of an unregener-
ated nature. They attempt to rebuild
Jerusalem before, in the midnight of
conviction. they have seen the ghastli-
ness of the ruin. They have such poor
foundation for their religion that the
first northeast storm of temptation
blows them down. / have no faith in
mans conversion if he in not convert
ed in the old-fashioned way-JOhn
Bunyan's way. John Wesleys way,
John Calvin's way. PauFs way, Christ's
way. Gods way. A dentist said to me,
''Does that hurt?" Said l, ''Of course
it hurts. 1t is in your business. as in
my profession. We have to hurt be-
fore we can help" You will
never understand redemption until
you understand ruin. A man
tells me that some one is a member of
the church. 1t makes no impression
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 new-fashioned way.
If he was converted in the Old-fash-
toned way he will stand. If he was
converted in the new-fashioned way he
will not stand. That is all there is
about it. A man comes to me to talk
about religion. The first question l
ask him is, "Do you feel yourself to be
sinner" If he say. well, Yes
the hesitancy makes me feel that man
wants ride on Nehemiah's horse by
midnight through the ruins-in by the
gate of ais affections. out by the gate
of his will; and before he has got
through with that midnight ride he
will drop the reins on the horses neck,
and will take his right hand and smite
on his heart and say, God be merci-
full to me a sinner; and before he
has stabbed his horse he will take his
feet out of the stirrups. and he will
slide down on the ground; and he will
knee !, crying; Have mercy on me, o
God, according to thy loving kindness.
according to the multitude of thy ten
der mercies blot out my transgressions,
for / acknowledged my transgressions,
and my sins are ever before Thee"
All, my friends, you see this is not
complimentary gospel. That is what
makes some people so mad. 1t comes
to man of million dollars. and i'm
penitent in his sins, and says: You're