The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-01-14
THE VOICE OF THE PULPIT
"GOoD NEwsp SHORT SERMON BY
THE LATE DWIGHT l.. MOODY.
A ForcibIe Discourse I'm Which the
Great Evangelist Portrayed the
Value Of the Gospel.

lMr. Moody's exultant dying words give
| to this sermon an exceptional interest:
Earth recedes and heaven opens before
| me- If this is death there is nothing awful
| here. 1t is sweet This is bliss! Do not
call me back God is calling me. / must
| 60 There is no valley here. 1t is all
Moreover. brethren. 1 declare unto you
the gospel" I Cor. XIV, 1.
Gospel" means good news" The Cos
pei is good tidings of great Joy. No better
news ever fell upon the ears of the family
Of man. When the angels came down to
proclaim the tidings. what did they say
to those shepherds on the plains of Beth
lehem? Behold, bring you sad tidings?'
no. Behold. 1 bring you pad news?"
No! Behold, 1 bring you good tidings Of
great joy. which shall be to all people"
If those shepherds had been like a good
many people at the present time, they
would have said: I'VE do not believe It
is good news 1t is all excitement. These
angels want to get up a revival. These an
gels are trying to excite us. Don't believe
them" That is what Satan is saying now.
Don't believe that the gospel is good
news; it will only make you miserable"
He knows that the moment a man believes
good news. he just receives it. And so no
one who is under the power of the devil
really believes that the gospel is good
| news. But those shepherds believed the
message that the angels brought, and their
hearts were filled with joy.
If boy came with dispatch to some
one, could you not tell by the receivers
looks what kind of a message 1t was?
If it brought good news. you would see
1t in his face in a moment. If it told
him that his boy, away in some foreign
land, a prodigal son, had come to him
self, like the one in the 18th of Luke.
don't you think the fathers face would
light up with joy? And he would pass
the good news on to his wife and her
face would brighten, too, she shared
his JOY. But the tidings that the gospel
brings more glorious than that. We
are dead In trespasses and sins, and the
gospel offers life We are enemies to God
and the gospel offers reconciliation. The
world is in darkness, and the gospel offers
light. Because man will not believe the
gospel, that Christ is the light of the world,
the world is dark to-day. But the moment
man believes, the light from Calvary
streams upon his path and he walks in an
unclouded sun.
WHY HE LIKED THE GOSPEL.
I want to tell you why like the gospel
1t is because it has been the very best
news have ever heard. That is just why
like to tell 1t to others. because it has
done me so much good. No man can ever
tell what 1t has done for him, but think
can tell what it has undone. 1t has taken
out Of my path three Of the bitterest enc
mics I ever had.
There is that terrible enemy. the last en-
envy. death. The gospel has taken it out Of
the way. My mind very often runs back
many years, before was converted, and I
think how dark 1t used to seem as
thought OF the future. / well remember
how l used to look on death as a terrible
monster, how he used to throw his dark
shadow across my path; how ] trembled as
thought of the terrible hour when he
should like to die Of some lingering disease,
such as consumption. so that might know
when he was coming. 1t was the custom in
our village to toll from the old church bell
the age of any one who died. Death never
entered that village and tore away one or
the inhabitants but l counted the tolling Of
the bell. Sometimes 1t was seventy, some
times eighty; sometimes it would be down
among the teens, sometimes it would toll
out the death of some one Of my own age.
1t made a solemn impression upon me- I
felt coward then. thought Of the cold
hand of death feeling for the cords Of life.
1 thought of being launched forth to spend
my eternity in an unknown land.
But that is all changed now. The grave
has lost its terror. AS go toward heaven
1 can shout: 20 death! where is thy sting?"
and / hear the answer rolling down from
Calvary-''buried in the bosom of the Son
Of God" He took the sting right out of
death for me and received 1t into His own
bosom. Take hornet and pluck the sting
out; you are not afraid OF it after that any
more than of a fly. So death has lost It's
sting: That last enemy has been overcome.
and can look on death as a crushed vic
tim. All that death can get now is this old
Adam, and do not care how quickly get
rid of 1T. shall get glorifed body, a res
direction body. body much better than
this.
MADE AN ENEMY A FRIEND
Suppose death should come stealing up
this moment and lay his icy hand upon
my heart, and it should cease to throb
1 should rise to the better world to be
present with the King. The gospel has
made an enemy a friend. What glo-
rious thought that when you die you
only sink into the arms of Jesus, to be
borne to the land of everlasting rest!
ITO die" the apostle says, lis gain"
l can imagine when they laid our Lord
in Joseph's tomb might have
death sitting over that sepulchre, say
nave he Is my NlCtlI1. he
said He was the resurrection and the
life. Now L hold Him in my cold en-
brace. They thought He was never
going to die, but see Him now. He has
had to pay tribute to me-" Never! The
glorious morning comes, the Son of
man bursts asunder the bands of death.
and rises, Conqueror. from the grave
Because / live" He shouts, I'VE shall
live also" Yes. We shall live also; is 1t
not good news? All, my friends, there
is no bad news about a gospel which makes
1t so sweet to live and SO sweet to die.
Another terrible enemy that troubled me
was sin. What a terrible hour / thought
1t. would be, when my sins from childhood,
every secret thought, every evil desire, ev-
erything done in the dark, should be
brought to light and spread out before an
assembled universe! Thank God. these
thoughts are gone. The gospel tells me my
sins are all put away in Christ. How far
away are they. and can they ever come
back again? LAS far as the east is from
the west, so far hath He removed our
transgressions from u.s.
Not some of them; He takes them all
away. You may pile up your sins till they
rise like dark mountain. and then null
tjply them by 10000 for those you cannot
think of; and after you have tried to emu
merate all the sins you have ever commit
ted. just let me bring one verse in, and
that mountain will melt away: THE blood
of Jesus Christ His Son, cleanseth us from
all efx,ts- oil cfx IN, I've nd