The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-01-15
Christian Life Column,
A SINNER LOvABLE BUT LOST,

OAOoA young mdn NO pro-
family on his lips no blight of i'm
purity in his cheek; no fraudulent
gains on his wealth no mans blood
on his skirts. There is a record as
noble as it is rare Christ loved him
for it, thus putting high honor on
morality. But it does not satisfy
even the young man. Else why this
running, this kneeling, this anxious
question, "What lack I Yet?" That
was partly a question of pride, but
also a cry out of that aching void in
the soul which the world can never
I'LL. The soul is an ocean bed made
for divine love, and nothing less a
I'LL 1T. That was what Augustine
meant when he cried, go God, thou
hast made US for myself, and our
souls r restless till they rest in
thee" 1t was what Browning meant
when he wrote:
So the All-great we're the ALLOWING
too,
So through the thunder comes a hui
man voice
Saying, 60 heart 1 made, a heart
beats here!
And thou must love me who hast
died for thee"
The young mans 'lack'' was not
of Gods pitying love-every sinner
has that-but of pardoning love. And
of this he did not yet feel the need.
Not even when he looked in the glass
of the law had he een any sin upon
himself, and Christ must a third
time probe his soul to show him hat
he who thought he had kept all the
Commandments had not even kept
the first. Nowhere in the Bible are
we more strongly reminded of the
need of prayer for cleansing from
unconscious sins.
Cleanse thou me from unseen
faults.
The young ruler was "near and
vet so far" It makes ones heart
ache to think of such a clean, Iowa
BILE young man, who has escaped APP
petite and lust, but has been so
chained by covetousness that he can
turn his back on the Christ to whom
his heart is drawing him rather than
on the money which is e~nslaving
him.
eff thou wouldst be perfect, go, sell
whatsoever thou hast and give to
the poor" Christ saw that gold had
become the god of this otherwise ex-
cellent young man. With the firm
surgery of love he probed to the very
spot where that golden chain of
MammOn was eating out his life.
Peter might even be an apostle and
own a house, but this young man
must forsake all, like most of the
apostles and prophets and martyrs,
to emancicate his soul from its hiden
chain. "We can serve God without
reservation"
Let those who work with enquirers
note that Christ did not attempt to
make his entrance upon Christian
life easy. We have seen Christian
lives spoiled because enquirers were
not led in the valley of decision to
sacrifice their tipple or theatre going
or dancing or something else to
which they had previously given the
first place which belongs to God. A
lady who loved all things great and
small not wisely, but too we'll, saw a
butterfly struggling to free itself
from u cocoon and rise into it's higher
life. It's whole body throbbed with
the desperate effort. The lady cut
the cocoon, and the butterfly came
out, but only to flop instad of fly, for
the very struggle from which it had
been freed was necessary to develop
it's strength. So another lady, seeing
that one chicken from her hatchery
was having an unusually hard time
in pecking it's way out of its shell,
attempted to make its entrance into
it's new life easy, but the chicken
having lost the struggle, lost the
strength God gives through it, and
shortly died. One reason why our
new members in the churches of to-
day are so many of them weakling
is that they have been made to feel
bv false kindness that there is moth
ing to give up, no more sacrifices re-
ouired. In more lenses than one
the only way to life is by the
All through Gods world we must