The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-04-22
WHAT Is SALVATION?
REV. CHARLES II. sTRoNG's vIRILE
AND GLOWING SERMON.
CURRENT CONCEPT WRONG.
NO ADJECTIVES TO DESCRIBE IT'S
sELFISHNEss, SAYS MIR. STRONG.

World Has Misunderstood Christian
SaIvatiOn-PeopIe Think II Means
Some Mystic Operation, by Which
Man Is Saved From the COnse-
auences of His Sins-Mr. Strong
Says Such Concept of Christ's
GIFT tn the World Is the SubIima-
ton of EccIesiasticaI selhshness.
To Save Men From Their sins, MOI
From Sins Consequences.
At St Johns Church last night Rev.
Charles II. Strong preached sermon of
virile strength and power. in which ne
attacked, with a bitterness he acknowl-
edged himself he lacked words to frame,
what is certainly the current concept
of Christian salvation.
Rev. Mr.. Strong began his sermon by
saying that nothing, in the whole range
of religion, had been so entirely misun-
derstood as the meaning of the salvation
| that the Savior brought to the world. His
text was taken from Matthew, 1:21, Thou
shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall
save His people from their sins" From
this text he deduced what he declared to
be the real meaning of Christian saliva
| ton.
| "If I should stand before the average
congregation of Christian people," said
Mr.. Strong. land ask them what they
understood by salvation, there would be
but few of the many who would give
an answer that accorded with the teacn-
ings of the gospel. The many would say
| bof ba IF +fo
and atoning power, by which mankind
was separated into two classes; the mem
bers of one fated to receive an eternity
| of happiness, and those of the other DOOM
ed to suffer the torments of an eternal
hell.
These would rather liken salvation to
a plank, which one of shipwrecked crew
clutches from the crest of an engulfng
wave and rides upon to safety, without
thought for his unhappy fellows. sinking
to death on every side.
Il have not at my command the die
tionary of the language, but if l had
there would not be adjectives enough to
stamp and stigmstlze such a concept of
Christian salvation. 1t is narrow, cruel.
mean-the very incarnation and sublima-
ton of ecclesiastical selfshness.
ION this theory of salvation" said Mr..
Strong, the people of this earth are di-
vided into two classes, denominated the
| saved and the 'unsaved.' BY the saved
are meant those certain men and women,
| who, under the influence of some great
and exciting fear-and pity the preacher
| holding in his hands the thunderboits of
! religion who cannot 10 fears Of
| his ngregation--looking back upon the
| picture of their sins and forward to the
| picture of these sins punishment, painted
| for their inspections; by the exercise of
| what they are told is an act of faith, but
| which is really an act of credulity; accept
! the sufferings and death of Christ as
substitute for the otherwise inevitable
consequences of the sins they have COM
| mitted.
These are the saved, and that is SAL
| walton. Not a thought of how a man
| shall conquer himself, of how he shall
make himself better and purer, how to do
| good for himself and for others in this
| world in which he lives.
| Think, then, who are the unsaved.
| They are the great body of our fellow
| citizens. The honest merchant the up
right man of business, the woman of So
! ciety who has never undergone this pro-
| cess of salvation and never received the
| OTQllldIlC6S OF IilG church, ne OF Sne may
| sometime in the future experience this
mystic change of heart. and then will he
or she be removed from the ranks of
| the unsaved to those of the saved. Not
till then.
Such a definition is absolutely false
| said Mr.. Strong. In this. in other
matters, the world has missed the true
| intent of Christ's message, and His bless
ed gift to the world The world has over
| looked the central and controlling idea
Salvation has no such selfish and restrict
ed meaning.
mo salvation is not this. 1t is not to
| save men from the consequences of their
sins; not to stop the operation of Gods
just and necessary. and immutable laws;
not to make of you that wretched, de-
| spicable thing, the creature who looks
| only to his own safety, and is content
while others perish. 1t is not to save
men from the consequences of their sins,
but from their sins. Thou shalt call His
name Jesus, for He shall save His people
from their sins
salvation is what? 1t is the moral aud
| spiritual uplifting of our manhood and
womanhood. Religion is morality sublim-
! ated. The scepdcs teach that utility. the
| greatest good of the greatest number, is
the reason and inspiration of the moral
| life; religion teaches that to do good has
its highest inspira ton in ones love for
God and for his fellow man
What are the three things you and /
would like best to accomplish. Why,
| first of ali, we would like to overcome our
sins; then to bear with patience and for
| titude the ills the sufferings and the acts
of injustice of this life; lastly, to live
to accomplish some good, so that we may
| feel that after we are gone, our life has
not been merely like a breeze that stirred
| the branches and was past, but that some
good thing we had done lived in its con-
| sequences after US. Well, salvation is no
more and no less than the power which
| enables us to accomplish this and these.
mot to save us from the consequences
| of our sins. Gods laws are changeless
and the consequences of transgression in
| evitable. Every sin carries its own pun
| ishment and the result of our offending
is here. Not in some unknown planet. not
| at some unknowabie time, but here and
now in this very flesh. is there an ever
| present hell for those who violate the
! laws OF God. Not from the consequences
| OF sin, but from our sins will Jesus save
us. Not that we may escape punishment
| for what we have already done, but that
through Gods grace and help. we may
overcome ourselves and avoid sin, Is the
plan and purpose and blessed gift OF sal
walton.
ITO bear the ills OF the flesh. They are
| many and griyeous, and il is only by the