The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1900-08-24
PREACHER AND SINNER.
NOT so FAR APART IN THEIR VIEWS AS TO
DENoMTN ATIoNALIsM

DhNOM IN AiioNALiSM
Behold to obey is better than sac
rifice, and To hearlxen than the fat Of
rams. LIST Sam, 1922.
"And now / am no more in the world,
but these are il the world, and | come
to thee. Holy Father keep through
thine own name those whom thou hast
given me that they may be one, as we
are. John, l7:ll.
The above are the texts taken by Rev.
w. +. Allen OF the First Baptist church
for his sermon last Sunday morning on
"Christian union; or, is churchanlty
christianity" reviewing the letters Of
Zone of the Sinners" as published from
time to time in The True Northerner.
The first half of the address was taken
up with discussion of the necessity OF
obedience, and comparisons were made
between the christian religion and other
religious systems. In the latter part OF
the sermon, referring more directly TO
the subject under discussion, Mr.. Allen
spoke in part, as follows:
Through forgetfulness OF God and
disobedience TO his commandments, man
wandered far, far away from the path of
duty, and now he blindly endeavors to
extricate himself from the folly into
which he has fallen 10y adherence to
some human system, the very existence
of which is linked inseparably with his
own transgressions. All this cannot 60
uppunished. Can it? | think not.
christianity is a system of religion,
but unlike other religions, it is divine.
* The glory of christianity lies in
the fact that it offers what no other re-
ligion can: 1t offers poor, lost, sinful man
a Saviour aud salvation. IN this fact, we
have an unanswerable argument as to
the value of the religion Of Jesus above
all other systems. COniucidnlsm has
nothing good and essentiai for man that
the religion Of Christ does not have.
Neither has Buddhism, Mohammedan-
ism nor any other of the worlds great
systems of religion But these all insist
on various things which are not good
and essential for man, and the worst of
all, not one of them holds out to its
votaries that which the human heart
desires above all other gifts, namely in
carnate love and everlasting life. Chris
tianity presents what no other system
has, and hence is the only system of re-
ligion worthy of acceptance. Jesus is
the Christ of God and the only
perfect man the world has ever
seen, or can ever see, and his is the only
perfect religion. Other leaders and
other religions have many excellent
points, but none are perfect. They all
lack the absolutely essential quality of
perfection, namely divinity.
Christ is divine, hence his plan for
mans redemption is divine. What is this
planY Here it is in part The blood of
Jesus Christ, his sou, cleanseth us from
all sin But,the average sinner does not
understand this, and needs something
more tangible than general statement
of this sort. Jesus says: i am the way,
the truth, and the life; no man cometh
unto the Father but by me- But how
come? BY believing, repenting, and fol-
lowing the precepts of his religion. In
other words 10y accepting his holy lead
ership and following where he leadeth,
living up faithfully to the requirements
of the gospel.
The Lord Jesus expects US to carry
forward his work here in the world
while he prepares for US eternal man.
sions in his Fathers house We have
explicit directions in the sacred volume
explaining how to do this work, and We
cannot fail to win glorious victories over
the powers of darkness and sin, if we fol
low the directions of the book But il
we think our way is as good as God!
way, if we, even from the purest o
motives, ignore the teachings of his
word, then do we wound our Maste
and injure his cause, and that TOT
in the house of his supposed
friends And this, be it said with sham
and sorrow, is what denominationalisu
Continued on oh page.)