The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-10-17
DIR. CHAPMAN'S SERMON
4 SUNDAY DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
PASToR-EVANCEusT.

Go sin.
New York CITY-The Rev. DR. J. VIII
bur Chapman's sermons continue 10 excite
the proloundest interest and TO give the
greatest satisfaction To that large number
Of American people who demand a strk-
ing discourse for weekly reading. The
popular pastor-evangelist has prepared the
following sermon for the press. IL is en-
titled "The Song of the Lord and Is
preached from the text, "The song OF the
Lord began also" IL Chronicles 20. q.
The difference between the 18th and the
Goth chapters of H. Chronicles presents 30
us an illustration of that difference which
we frequently see in the church as she
passes from times Of enthusiasm to days
Of depression and back again, and for
which there seems 20 be no human expla-
nation. So also is It the picture of many
families where the cody father has an un-
godly son and an ungodly father a godly
son, which il entirely contrary to the rules
which in our own house we have deter
mined should abound. So also is it a pic
ture Of many individuals who after weeks
and months and even years are found reg
ularly in the house of God the most devout
Of worshipers, and then suddenly stop un-
able almost 10 explain to themselves how
they have lost interest and why their zeal
10 uuEuNMNls 4uE NAAhEu ANlkn VI AAAAaa
and the reign OF his righteous son Heze-
kiah thus furnish us with practical illus
tration.
Ahaz was the eleventh king of Judah,
the son Of lothian. His example was holy
and his reign was peaceful and prosper
Gus. Not so of his son. He was a gross
idolator actually sacrificed his children to
the gods, remodeled the temple that it
might be fit for idolatrous uses and owned
chariot horses that were dedicated to the
SON. Upon all of this the Judgment of God
falls, but because of it the condition of the
people is something dreadful. He is an IL
lustraton of the power of sin. First, in its
palace and plundering the temple, places
which had always been sacred both to the
king and to the people, but which he pre-
Bents as dishonored in the DIST verse of
the 28th chapter, TO the king of Assyria
but somehow sin seems always to present
the same sort of an infatuation to those
who walk for any length Of time in its way.
Second in its degradation. There could
be no worse sin than that described in
verses "a and % of the 28th chapter, where
Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the
house of God, shut up the doors of the
house, and in all the cities of Judah made
a picture very much ike il is found in
che 9Th chapter of Daniel the Sd and 9Th
verses, where the temple vessels are taken
by the king and used in midnight revelry,
when suddenly the fingers of a mans hand
are seen writing on the wall, Thou art
weighed, in the balance and found want
ing" However, it is true that any man
who uses his powers of body or of mind to
sin is as dedantly sinful as was Ahaz the
king.
Third, in his death he is picture of the
end of sin. He died when only thirty-six
years of age an untimely death, and he
sleeps in a dishonored grave, for they
would not bury him in the tcmbs of the
kings, a perfect illustration of the text,
"Sin when it is finished brings forth
death" In the city of Paris in burning
letters of fire a certain place of dangerous
sin greeted the passer-by with these words,
all Of them written in fire, Nothing to
pay" but he who enters in through the
door will find that the wages of sin is
death. This has always been true. Heze-
kiah, the son of Ahaz, began to reign
when he was twenty-five years old. In
bis parental heritage he had everything
against him, but his mothers name was
Abzah, and she was the daughter of
Zechariah man who had understanding
in the views of God This is undoubtedly
the secret of Hezekiah's goodness. Boys
frequently go right when their fathers are
wrong, but when the mother is wrong very
rarely do they walk in the paths of recti-
tude.
For sixteen years there had been no song
in the temple, This was a great loss, be-
cause the people had always been accus-
toned 70 sing from the time at creation
when the morning stars sang. together and
all the sons OF God shouted for Joy to the
marching through the Red Sea where the
sons of Israel were led by Miriam in the
singing, and the birth of the Saviour where
the angels were the choir, the last supper
where the Lord Himself was one of the
singers, up to the new heaven and the new
earth where they sing the new song the
world has had much to do with music The
temple service when men lived in right re
lations with God and the house was clean
was beautiful. Some Psalms were written
in the temple in letters of gold, and the
people chanted them to the accompani
ment of the cOnsecrated instruments, the
antiphOnal choirs answered each other al
for example, in the oath Psalm, one choii
would say, Lift up your heads, W
gates, even lift them up, We everlasting
doors, and the King of glory shall come
IN, and the other choir would respond
''Who is this King of glory" only to have
the other singers reply, "The Lord o
Hosts, He is the King Of glory" But 20
sixteen years there had been no song
First, why was this? The best expla
nation is given in the 28th chapter of II
Chronicles, the oath and 25th verses
"And Ahaz gathered together the vessel
of the house of God, and cut in pieces tn
vessels Of the house of God, and shut u
the doors Of the house of the Lord, an
he made him affairs in every corner c
Judah he made high places to burn il
eense unto other gods and provoked to an
ger the Lord God of his fathers" Their
Is many life to-day without a song, an
to all such | give my message The reaso
for this is found in the fact of sin We 81
in our outward acts, but God can keep U
from that if we will let Him and give L