Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1898-05-18
SERMONS OF THE DAY,

TEXT: 'These that have turned the world
upside down are come hither also."-
Acts xviii, 6.
There is a wild, believing mob around
the house of Jason, in Thessalonica. What
has the man done SO greatly to offend the
people? He has been entertaining Paul
and his comrades. The mob surround the
house and cry: Bring out those turbulent
preachers! They are interfering with our
business! They are running our religioni
They are actually turning the world upside
downl"
The charge was true, for there is moth
Ing that SO interferes with sin, there is
nothing 50 ruinOus to every form of estab-
lished iniquity, there is nothing that has
such tendency to turn the world upside
down as our glorious Christianity. The
fact is, that the world now is wrong side
up, and it needs to be turned upside
down in order that 1t may be right side up!
The tim was when men wrote books ent
titling them apologies for Christianity.H
hope that day has passed. We want no
more apologies for Christianity. Let the
apologies be on the part of those who do
not believe in our religion. We do not
mean to make any compromise in the mat.
tel. We do not wish to hide the fact that
Christianity Is revolutionary. and that its
tendency is to turn the world upside down.
Our religion has often been misrepre-
sented as principle of tears, and mild
ness, and fastidiousness; afraid of crossing
peoples prejudices; afraid of making
somebody mad; with silken gloves, lifting
the people up from the church pew into
glory, as though they were Bohemian
glass, so very delicate that with one touch
it may be demolished forever Men speak
of religion as though it were a refined I'M
becility; as though 1t were spiritual
chloroform, that the people were to
take until the sharp cutting OF life were
over. The Bible, so far from this, repre-
sents the religion Of Christ as robust and
Mountaineering and upsetting ten
thousand things that now seem to be set
tied on firm foundations. 1 hear some
man In the house say, Il thought religion
was peace" That is the final result. A
mans arm is out Of place. Two men come,
and with great effort put it back to the
socket. 1t goes back with great pain.
Then it gets wsll. Our world is horribly !
distorted and out of joint. 1t must come
under an omnipotent surgery, beneath |
which there will be pain and anguish be- |
fore there can come perfect health and |
quiet. 1proclaim, therefore, in the name
of my Lord Jesus Christ-revolution!
The religion of the Bible will make a |
revolution in the family. Those things |
that are wrong in the family circle will be
overthrown by it, while justice and har. |
mony will take the place. The husband |
will be the head of the household only |
when he is fit to be. know a man who |
spends all the money he makes in drink as |
well as all the money that his wife makes, |
and sometimes sells the children's clothes |
for rum. Do you tell me that he is to be |
the head Of that household? If the wife |
have more nobility, more courage, more |
consistency, more of all that is right, she
shall have the supremacy. You say that |
the Bible says that the wife is to be subject /
to the husband. 1 know it. But that is a !
husband, not masculine caricature. |
There is no human or divine law that |
makes a woman subordinate to a man un-
of har Chrisf in NIT
into domestic circle it will give the do |
minancy to that one who is the most |
worthy of it.
Again: Christianity will produce a revo-
luton in commercial circles. Find me fifty |
merchants, and you find that they have |
fifty standards of what is right and wrong |
You say to some one about a merchant, rs |
he honest?" "Ohi yes" the man says she |
is honest but he grinds the faces of his |
clerks. He is honest; but he exaggerates |
the value of his goods. He is honest: but |
he loans money on bond and mortgage,
with the understanding that the mortgage |
can lie quiet for ten years, but as soon as
he gets the mortgage, he records it and |
begins foreclosure suit, and the Sheritf's |
writ comes down, and the day of sale ar
rivcs, and away goes the homestead and |
the creditor buys it in ut half price," Hon
est2 When he loaned the money he knew |
that he would get the homestead at half |
price. Honest? But he goes to the insur-
tells the doctor that he is well, when he |
knows that for ten years he has had but |
one lung. Honest? Though he sells prop
erty by the map. forgetting to tell the pur.
chaser that the ground is all under water;
but it is generous in him to do that, for he
throws the water into the bargain.
The fraudulent man piles up his gains
bond above bond United States security
above United States security, emolument
above cmolument, until his property has
become a great pyramid; and, as he
stands looking at it, he thinks it can never
be destroyed; but the Lord God comes ard
with His little finger pushes it all over.
You build a house and you put into it n
rotten beam. mechanic standing by
says: 1T will never do to put that beam
in; it will ruin your whole building" But
you put it in. The house is completed.
Soon it begins to rock. You call in the
mechanic and ask: "What Is the matter
with this door? What is the matter with
this WALTZ Everything seems to be giving
out" Says the mechanic: you put a
rotten beam into that structure, and the
whole thing has got to come down." Here
is an estate that seems to be all right now
1t has been building great many years.
But fifteen years ago there was dishonest
transaction In that commercial house.
That one dishonest transaction will keep
on working ruin in the whole structure un-
til down the estate will come in wreck and
ruin about the rossessor's ears-one dis
honest dollar in the estate demolishing all
his possession. 1 have seen it again and
again; and so have you.
You have an old photograph OF the signs
on your street. Why have those signs near
" ali changed within the last twenty years?
Does the passing away of generation ac-
count for 1t? On, no. Does the fact that
there are hundreds of honest men who go
down every year account for 1t? Oh, no.
This is the secret: The Lord God has been
walking through the commercial streets OF
our great cities; and he has been adjusting
Things according to the principles of eter-
nal rertitute.
Tle time will come when, through the
power If the Gospel a false.
hood, instead OF being called exaggeraton,
or evasion, will be branded
liei And stealings, that now sometimes
go under the head of percentages and
and bonuses, will be put into
the catalogue of State prison offenses.
Society will be turned inside out and up
side down, and rausacked OF Gods truth,
until business dishonestieS shall come to
an end, and all double-dealing; and God
will overturn, and overturn, and overturn:
and commercial men in all cities will throw
up their hands, crying out, ''These that
have turned the world upside down are
come hither.'
The religion of Jesus Christ vii! produc,
n revolution in our churches. The non.
committal, do-nothing policy of the Church
|
conquest. Piety in this day seems to md :
to be salted down just so "a to keep. IL .
seems as if the church were chiefly anxious {
TO take care OF ITSELF and il we hear oil
want, and squalor, and heathenism outside
we say: What pity!''' and we put our
hands in our pockets, and we feel around 4
for two-cent piece, and with a great
flourish we put it upon the plate and are
amazed thai the world is not converted ir | !
six weeks. Suppose there were great
war and there were three hundred thou.
sand soldiers, but all OF those three hun.
dred thousand soldiers, excepting ten men,
were in their tents or securing their musk.
cts. or cooking raslons. You would saw ,
"Of course, defeat must como in that
case" Is is worse than that in the church.
Millions of the professed soldiers OF Jesus
Christ are cooking rations, or asleep in ,
their. tents, while only one man here and
there goes out to do battle for the Lord.
I saw in some paper an account Of !
church in Boston in which, II Is said, there