The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-03-24

The Penn Avenue Baptist church
was packed to the doors last night
| with one of the largest congregations
of the year, who came to hear Rev. DIR.
Haynes. of Binghamton, deliver an
evangelistic sermon. 1t was the most
successful of the revival meetings so
far conducted and many professions of
conversion were made at the after
| meeting.
"The Two objectionable Sins" was
the theme of DR.. Haynes powerful and
vigorous sermon. The first unpardon-
able sin, he said, is mentioned in
| Mathew Xii:31, where Christ says:
| Wherefore l say unto you, all man
| rer of sin and blasphemy shall be for
given unto men; but the blasphemy
against the Holy Ghost shall not be
| forgiven unto men,"
I'VE find here" said he, "first of all,
positive proof that probation ends at
| death. Certain teachers oppose this
view and preach the false doctrine that
| man will have chance to repent after
death. The Bible encourages no such
belief, but, on the contrary, we find in
it on almost every page, the injunc-
tion to accept salvation now, right
away. Now is the accepted time,
saith the Scriptures. Death ends all
probation. Do not be led by false
| teachers to believe otherwise. The uni
form testimony of clergymen is that
men who put off repentance until they
are on their supposed death beds and
who are granted another lease of life,
never life real Christian lives after
they recover. Their faith is not real.
II IS DIVINE.
"The other thing that this text
teaches us is that the Christian re-
ligion is divine. We like to know that
our church is divine and that it's foun-
der, Jesus Christ, was the divine Son
Of God. I have travelled in many
lands and heard all manner of bias
phemies, but 1 have never yet heard
a blasphemy against the Holy Ghost.
Men take Gods name in vain and
swear by the name of His Son, but
they never swear by His most precious
spirit. This proves that men have a
profound respect for the Word of God
Another sin which is never pardon
able is the persistent and final rejec-
ton of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you
PERSIST in ignoring Christ down to the
hour of your death, there will be no
pardon for you in the life to come
This fact is explicitly set down in many
places in the Bible.
"'He that being often reproved,
hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be
destroyed, and that without remedy
saith the Scriptures, and again: He
that hath an ear. let him hear what the
Spirit saith unto the churches God
puts the responsibility for your saliva
ton solely and entirely upon yourself
Christ says if I knock at your heart
and you open the door, ] will come in.
He leaves us to open the doors of our
hearts, which are fastened on the in
side and which must be opened from
within. Our life is as a long thread,
which may break in two unexpectedly
and at strange places
THREAD HAD BROKEN.
\ AT THIS point the doctor told story
of two scientific men who explored an
underground cave and who unrolled a
ball of twine as they entered, so that
they might find their way out to the
open air when they had concluded their
Investigations. When they started to
go out they found that the twine had
broken in two at the center, and that
they We're lost in the darkness and
gloom.
Our thread of life may break like
that twine," said he, land when the
break comes we may be just as unpre-
pared as We're those two scientists. We
may be cropping in the dark without
having Christ, who is powerful to save
even to the uttermost. There will be
no lengthening of the twine. When we
have reached the end there will be no
chance to unroll any more"
The doctor said that the three stages
of conversion are confession of Jesus,
profession of Jesus and possession OF
Jesus. He closed his remarks with an
eloquent exhortation calling upon those
present to accept Christ as their Savior
and as Il direct response to his appeal
a number of hands were raised in token
of acceptance.