Virginia gazette. [volume] (Williamsburg, Va.) 1893-192?, 1901-05-11

You only have to present Christ In
your own way.
Jonathan Edwards preached Christ
In the severest argument ever penned.
and John Bunyan preached Christ in
the sublimest sllegory ever composed
Edwarx. Payson. sick and exhausted.
leaned up against the side of the pull
pit and wept out his discourse. while
George vhitefeld. with the manner
and the voice and the start of an ac-
tor. overwhelmed his auditory. It
would have been n different thing IL
Jonathan Edwards had tried to write |
and dream about the pilgrims prog |
rcss TO the celestial city or John Bun
van had attempted an essay on the |
human viii.
Brighter than the light. fresher !
than the fountains, deeper than the |
seas. are these Gospel themes. Song !
has no melody. flowers have no sweet
ness. sunset sky has no color, COM
pared with these glorious themes
These harvests OF grace spring up
quicker than we can sickle them.
Kindling pulpits with their fire and
producing revolutions with their
power, lighting up dying beds with
their glory, they are the sweetest
| thought for the poet and they are
| the most thrilling illustration for the
| orator. and they offer the most in
tense scene for the artist, and they
| are 20 the ambassador OF tie sky all
| enthusiasm. Complete pardon for the
| direst guilt. Sweetest comfort for
! ghastliest agony. Brightest hope for
| grimmest death. Grsndest resurrec-
tion for darkest sepulcher. Oh. what
| a Gospel 20 preach. Christ over all
In IT, His birth. His suffering. His
miracles. His parallels His sweat, His
tears His blood, His atonement, His
intercession-what glorious themes!
Do we exercise faith. Christ is its
object. Do we have lover IL fastens
on Jesus. Have we a fondness for
the church? II is because Christ died
for IL. Have we a hope OF Heaven
It is because Jesus went ahead, the
herald and the forerunner.
The royal robe OF Demetrius was
so costly. so beautiful. that after he
had put IL of no one ever dared put
il on. but this robe OF Christ, richer
than that, the poorest and the wan
nest and the worst may wear.
''Oh, my sins, my sins" said Mar
tin Luther TO Staupitz. ''my sins. nay
sinsi" The fact is that the brawny
German student had found n Latin
Bible that had made him quake. and
nothing else ever did make him
| quake. and when he found how
+ through Christ he was pardoned and
saved he wrote 20 n friend saying:
Come over and join US. great and
: awful sinners saved by the grace of
b God. You seem 10 be only slender
sinner. md you don't much eNtol the
p mercy Of God. but We who have been
\ such very awful sinners praise His
grace the more now that we have
= been redeemed" Can il be that you
are so desperately egotistical that
e YOU feel yourself in first-rate spir
itual trim and that from the root OF
the hair 10 the tip OF the toe you are
p scarless and immaculate2 What yoy
need is looking glass, and here Il
, is in the Bible Poor and wrctcheC
and miserable and blind and nakeC
e from the crown OF the head 10 IN,
2 sole OF the foot, full of wounds ans
4 putrefying sores. No health in us
u And then take the fact that Chris
4 gathered up all the notes against u
l. and paid them and then offered u
u the receipt.
r And how much we need Him in ou
sOrrowsl We are independent OF cir
] cumstances If we have His grace
Why. He made Paul sing in the dun
} geon. and under that grace st. Johi
u from desOlate PatmOs heard the bias
OF the apOcalyptic trumpets. Afte
= all other candles have been snuffe
out this is the light that gets bright
er and brighter unto the perfect day
and after under the hard hoofs @
! calamity all the pools of worldly er
joyment have been trampled int
> deep mire at the foot of tho eterns
rock the Christian. from cups c
granite. lily trimmed and vine covere,
% puts out the thirst of his soul.
a thousand feet underground.
- light of torch tOiling in a miner
shaft, ledge of rock may fall upo
- us. and we may die a miners dealt
n Far out at sea. falling from the sill
. . perry ratlines and broken on the ha
- yards. we may die sailors dealt
=, On mission of mercy in hospital ami
\. broken bones and reeking leprosis
~ and raging fevers we may die a phi
"A ianthfopist's death. On the field
h battle, serving our God and our coul
N try, siugs through the heart, the gu
m carriage may roll over us. and "
a may die a patriots death. But aft.
ur ali there are only two styles OF d
m | parture. the death of the righteoS
an and of the wicked, and we all want
- 1 die the former