The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-05-04

abbreyiate them At the presen- mo- |
ment and in h present shape the are
a hindrance. Lazarus is alive. but
hampered with the old graveclothes.
II you want one glorious church, free
and unincumbered, take on the cere-
ments of Did eccleastical vocabulary.
Loose her, and let her go,
HINDERED BY DOUBTS.
Again, there are Christians who are
under spulchral shadows and fears
and hoppled by doubts and fears and
sins long ago repented OF. What h
need is to understand the liberty
OF the sons of God. They spend more
time under the shadown o Sinai than
at the base of Calvary. They have
been singing the only poor hymn hat
Newton ever wrote:
It's a point / long TO know;
Oft 1t causes anxious thought:
Do I love the Lord or no?
Am I his or I'm I not?
Long to know, do you? Why do you
find put? Go to work for God, and
YOU will very soon find out. The man
who is all the time feeling his pulse
and looking at his tongue to see wheth-
er it is coated is morbid and cannot
be physically well. The doctor will
say, go out into the fresh air and
into active life and stop thinking Of
yourself, and you will get We'll and
strong" So there are people who are
watching their spiritual symptoms,
and they all it self examination, and
they get weaker and sicklier in their
faith all the time. Go out and do
something nobly Christian. Take holy
exercise and then examine yourself.
and instead of Newton's saturnine and
and bilious hymn that / find quoted
you will sing Newton's other hymn:
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
that saved a wretch like me,
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now / see.
What many of you Christians most
need is to get your graveclothes Of. l
rejoice thai you have been brought
from the death Of sin to the life Of the
gospel, but you need to get your hand
loose, and your feet loose, and your
tongue loose, and your soul loose.
There is no sin that the Bible so ar
raigns and pnctures n flagellates as
the sin of unbelief, and that is what
is the matter with you oh" o say.
eff YOU knew what / once was and how
many times / have grievously strayei
YOU would understand why l do not
| come out brother" Then l think pou
would call yourself the chief of sin
ners. l am glad you hit upon that
term, for / have a promise that fits
into your case as the cogs of one wheel
between h cogS of another wheel or
as n key fits into the labyrinths of a
lcck.
A man who was once called Saul. but
a~fterward Paul, declared. This is a
faithful saying and worthy of all ac-
| ceptation that Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners, of whom /
| am chief" Mark that-'of whom l am
chief" Put down your ~overcoats and
hats. and I will take care of them While
you kill Stephen So Sau said TO the
stoners of the first martyr, Il do not
care to exert myself much, but 1 will
guard your surplus apparel while you
do the murder The New Testament
account says, 1.-The witnesses laid down
their clothes at a young mans feet,
whose name was Saul" No wonder he
said. Sinners, of whom I am the
chief"
PARDON TOR EVERY ONE.
Christ is used to climbing. He climb
ed to the top of the temple. He climb
climbed to the top of the cliffs about
Nazareth. He climbed to the top Of
Golgoth. And to the top of the hills
and the mountains of your tranSgreS-
sion he is ready to climb with pardon
for every n of you. The groan OF
Calvary is mightier han the thunder
Of Sinai. Full receipt is offered for al
your Indebtedness. If one throw a
stone at midnight into a bush where
the hedge birds rooSts, it Immediately
begins to sing, and into the midnigh:
hedges Of your dependency these
words I hurl, hoping to awaken you to
anthem. Drop the tunes in he p;;no!
key and take the major. Do you think
it pleases the Lord for you to be car
rying around with you the debris and
~carcasse of old tra~nsgreSSions? You
make me think of some ship that has
had a tempeStuouS time at sea anC
now that it proposes another voyage
keeps on it's davits the damaged life
boats and the splinterS of a shivered
mast and the broken glass of a smash.
ed skylight. My advice is: Clear the
decks, overheard with all the lama ged
rigging, brighten up the sailed smoke
stacks, open a new logbook, hau in
sci sail for heaven. You have had the
spiritual dumps long enough. You
will please the Lord more by being
happy thai by being miserable.
Have you not sometimes started Out
in the rain with your umbrella, anC
you were busy thinking, n you die
not notice that the rain had stopped
and, though it had cleared off, o still
had your umbrella up. and when yoJ
discovered what you were doing you
felt silly enough? That is what som
Of you are doing in religious things
You nave got so USED 10 SADNESS that
though the rain has stopped, you still
have your umbrella up. Come out Of
the shadow. Ascend the stairs of youl
sepulcher. Step out into the broa6
light of monday. We come around yor
to help remove your graveclothes, and
a voice from the heavens, tremulous
but omnipotent, commands. Loose
him, and let him 60"
l Again, my text has good advice con
corning any Christian hampered anC
bothered and boun by fear of his owr
dissolution. To such the book refers
when it speaks of those who through
fear of death were all their lifetime
subject to bondage. The most of US
even if we ave the Christian hope, are
towards about death. If a plank fall
from a s~caffolding and just erazes ouI
hat. how pale We ook If the Atlantic
ocean plays with the steamship, pitch.
ing it toward the heavens and LETTING
1t suddenly drop. how even the Chris.
tian passengers poster the steward OF
stewardesS Is to whether there is any
danger, and the captain, who has beer
all night on the bridge and chilled
rough coming in for a Gun of cof.