The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1898-09-16
Sermon
PREACHED AT THE BAPTIST ROLL
CALL AT S. LONDONDERRY, SEPT.
8, BY REV. S. H. TAYLOR OF
JAMAICA
JAM AlCA

Speak unto the children of Israel, that
they go forward.-Exodus xiv, l5.
These words seem an appropriate text
for this occasion. This is your annual
roll-call, and it is fitting after your his
tory, mingled as it will have been with
sunshine and shade, losses and victories,
that you should be urged to go forward.
But there can be no real going forward
| to success or happiness without sense
of the divine favor. Israel expected to
be directed either to the right or the left
hand, but God told them to go forward
as If there were a fleet of ships waiting
success and happiness were in the faith
and obedience. This passage of the Red
Sea is typical of many things in both
Testaments. 1t meant terror to the
Canaanite, (Joshua, III, 8, 10Y, it meant
triumph and praise to the Israeli.e Psalm
1869, ia: 3, 1856: 10, I'D This passage
OF the Red Sea is typical of the sinners
conversion. Isa. IL /: 10y the baptism of
the believer CSt. Cor. l0-l2) and the final
overthrow of the impenitent( Rev. 20-l4)
| Go forward was Gods command then, it
is Gods command to his people now.
The circumstances of the then suggest
the possibilities of the now. In bring
ing this command or mandate to you, as
a church, it will be necessary to keep in
mind those to whom it was first sent and
learned it's lesson to us.
Mr.. Taylor then said: This mandate
comes to those who have been delivered
from bondage. You have only to recall
the history of Israel to see how that peo-
pie were the bond servants of the Egyp-
tians. The cruelty of Pharaoh, the cruel
ty Of the taskmasters, and the making of
bricks without straw are an old story
with which we are all familiar But God
sent delive. e., Moses. He came to say
the set time for deliverance had come,
but not until Israel was out of Egypt,
did God send this mandate to go forward.
Before this it would have meant going
forward to death but now it means going
forward to life and Immortality. Now
although the bondage of the old has not
come into the new dispensation yet there
is bondage. Satan is as cruel as Pharoah
but Christ is better than Moses. Moses
came as leader and commander of the
D ople, but Christ comes girt with light.
love and liberty, what words How
much they mean to us Here is light by
which we sec ourselves children of God
love by which we call God Father, and
| liberty by Which we go in and out and
find pasture-favor So if there is bond
age there is deliverance, for the deliver
er has come into our conditions, that he
might deliver us from the fear of death
| (Heb. 2: A, 15). Brothers, sisters, go
forward. for the deliverer, Jesus Christ,
will go with you, and not hair OF your
| head shall perish. What is true of the
individual member of the church is true
of the individual church. There is bond
age. 1t comes in many shapes some.
times in the likeness of a committee oil
trust, financial stress or Inconsistent fel
lowship, for the church is bound as mucl
by committees and trusts as by weakness
and Inconsistency of fellowship. All ol
any of these is bondage enough to pre-
\ vent the free operation of forces, 81 aces
and affections which make strong ant
healthy church. l do not know by what
or to what extent you have been bound
but l have known churches bound b.
committees and trusts until they coult
not operate upon the districts in whicl
they stool, and surely if wedge of golt
could prevent Israel before All, wha
will not an iron-clad committee, lack