The record-union., 1898-06-05

spiritual stupidity, their moral pervers-
| lty. The rejection and crucifixion of Je-
sus is the crime of crimes, because
when truth and purity and goodness
and mercy stood before men incarnate,
stood before men to enlighten them, to
befriend them, to confer on them all
| divine benefits, instead of receiving Him
with reverence and joy they rejected
| Him with disdain and hate. Jesus had
right to say that the sin of all sins
is the sin of rejecting Him. He said
| that when the Holy Spirit came he
would reprove men of sin-of sin be-
| cause they believe not on Me. The
cIowning evidence that a mans life is
| under the binding blight of sin is the
| fact that he refuses to give to Jesus
Christ faith and reverence and obedi-
| ence. The hymn we sometimes sing
expresses this truth with clearness and
| power:
| 20 Jesus Thou art standing
| Outside the faSt-closed door,
| In lOwly patience waiting
| To cross the threshold Ger.
| 20 Jesus, Thou art pleading
| In accents meek and low,
| I died for you, my children,
| And will ye treat Me so?
| 80 love that passeth knowledge,
| So patiently to wait!
| sin that hath no equal.
| So fast to bar the gate
Do you not see that the rejection Of
Jesus is the perfection Of all that is
highest and divinest? He who refuses
to join himself to Jesus refuses to fol-
| low what is highest in truth, what is
purest in life, and what is divinest in
character. He who turns away from
Jesus turns away from the light and
i turns to the darkness.
This is the condemnation" What
is the condemnation? The rejection of
! Christ is the condemnation. Why is it
| the condemnation? Because it is the
refusal to follow light and do the right.
| This is the condemnation that light is
to come into the world in the person Of
Jesus Christ, and men loved darkness
rather than light.
This is why men to-day reject Jesus
Christ. They love darkness rather than
light. They choose vice instead of vir-
tue. They prefer the pleasures Of sin
| to the paths of holiness. They take the
| lower rather than the higher. They
are SO perverse that they marry the
hag of hell, when they might have we'd
ded the bride of heaven. What stupid
fools these mortals be! They will leave
the fathers house where there is bread
| and to spare and all noble companion
ship, and go into the far country to
| herd with swine and to feed on husks.
The rejection of Jesus, the refusal to
| hear His truth and do His will, is the
| wickedest and stupidest thing a man
can do. In the rejection of Jesus man
| rejects truth for error and purity for
vileness; he rejects moral beauty for
| l-c l. oh,
| for baseness; he rejects eternity for
| time; he rejects heaven for hell. The
rejection of Jesus is sin that has no
equal, for it is the rejection in one act
of all that is highest and divinest in
| the reach of man.
| When the young ruler turned away
] from Jesus and made "the great re-
| fuSal." he doomed himself to a lower
plane of thought and purpose and en-
deavor He made it impossible to live
the high and noble life he was capable
of living. He took the commonplace
| instead of the heroic. He chose the
| inferior in preference to the superior.
| And this is what men and women do
| to-day when they neglect or refuse to
| live the life God calls them to, in the
| Gospel of His Son.
| There is nothing arbitrary or unrea-
scnable in the demands of Jesus or in
| the claims of Christianity. The call
| of the Gospel is a call to men to live
| w to the highest that is possible to
| them. The Gospel puts high honor on
man 1t assumes that man was made
| in the image of God, and made for
| cCmpanionship with God. 1t assumes
| that man may become affiliated with
| God and grow Godlike. The demands
of the Gospel are prophecies of what
man may become BE We holy, for |
am holy" What tribute that is to
the greatness of man, What proph-
| ecy it is of the possibilities of man.
Whenever God says to man thou
shalt" He also says thou canst." The
| commands of God are a revelation of
mans splendid possibilities When
| Jesus said to the woman that had
been sinner Go sin no more,
He opened before her a golden
pathway of hope The command was
an assurance that it was possible
| for her to break away from her
Old black past and live life Of crys-
| talline purity. 1t was an assurance
| that the highest and divinest things of
! the life that now is and of that which
/! is to come We're within her reach. 1t
was an assurance that the lost purity
might be regained, the lost character
restored The call of God is always
call upward.
The Gospel is revelation Of Gods
belief in man. God seems to act on
the principle that man will choose
what is highest and best when the
highest and best are clearly put before
him. God is trying in manifold ways
to get men to see what is highest and
best. He is pleading with men to live
up to what is highest. He is dangling
before men the riches of His grace,
the nobility of His service, the splendor
of His heaven. Surely man will love
the highest and choose the highest
when he sees it. No sane man will
deliberately live a life of vice when
he might live a life of virtue. No
reasonable man will go through life
stumbling with the devil, when he
might be walking with God. 1t is
hardly thinkable that a man will take
the road hellward, when be might walk
in the heavenly way No right-minded
man will prefer to wallow in the mire