Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1902-02-04
FIRST SERMON
Of the PentecOst Meeting at the
Tabernacle
Prof. E. 0. Excel Here and a
Marked Improvement at First
Meeting.

Notwithstanding there is no i'm
! provement in weather conditions
as compared with those which pre-
vailed during the series Of services
conducted by DR.. Pentecost from
! December 8th to 10Th, there were
probably 1000 people at the Taber-
nacle Sunday afternoon to hear the
first of the new series OF sermons.
The Doctor, though suffering some
from cold, was in apparent good
condition and delivered one of the
best sermons that our people have
heard from his lips. 1t was with
out ornamentation but deeply prac-
teal, aud spoken with that deep
earnestness that characterizes all
his utterances. 1t would be super
Auous to say that it received care
full attention,
The basis Of his remark was 1st
John Sd chapter and LIST verse:
"Behold what manner of love the
Father has bestowed upon us, that
we should be called the sons Of
God.
He prefaced his remarks by say
ing that every great mountain
range or mountain peak-like the
Andes, Hlmalaya, Matterhorn,
Alps, Pixies Peak, Mount Blanc,
are distinguished by some peculiar
name. So there are chapters and
verses in the Bible that rise up
like mountains of truth and fact.
The affirmation that Christians
are the sons OF God is one of the
mountains of truth in Gods word.
1t means more than adoption into
the family of God-it is being born
again, becoming a new man, a new
nature. The world does not under
stand this; for nineteen centuries
the world has denied this fact.
Then if we who are here this after
noon do not know that we are the
sons of God then we are nothing but
religious enthusiasts and Christ
was the most stupendous fraud the
world has known for nineteen hun
dred years-when theJews failed to
recognize him as God manifest in
the flesh. They acknowledged now
that there was a man called Jesus
who lived nineteen centuries ago,
that he was even a kind mana
good man-but you who Will not &C
cept him as the son OF God are as
guilty as those back in the centu-
ries who would not believe in his
sonship. The Jews cruci6ed him
because he claimed to be equal
with God. If he was not, then for
nineteen centuries his followers
have been the most monstrously de-
luded people that has ever been
known. The declaration of Peter
that He was "the Christ the Son of
the living God" is the rock on
which we Christians stand. Dur
ing all the centuries the church, in
the face of all opposition, the most
stubborn obstacles, the world has
ever experinced has stood firm on
the rock that Christ is the son of
God.
The Doctor spoke at length on
Christians knowing that they are
the sons of God. To those who will
not believe on Him he asked if they
believed that those present who
confessed him and tried to live
Christian lives were all impostors
or fanatics. Turning round to the
ministers he asked them if they be-
lieved they were the sons of God,
which was, of course answered in
the affirmative. The trouble is
that the world will not accept
Christ as the son, of God, and,
therefore can not understand how
| it is that Christians believe they are
the personal, actual sons of Cod
to whom call things have passed
away, all things have become new, 7"
in Christ Jesus. The religion of
Christ differs from all other relig-
ions.
The sermon was 80 comprehen-
sive and broad in it's conception
thar it is impossible in this space to
give anything like a fuller synop-