The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1901-1903, 1902-09-21
A SERMON Fox SUNDAY
RELPFUL AND READABLE DISCOURSE
ENTITLED "a LIFE MADE OVER"

Press-God Has Plan For Every Lite.
New YORK CITY.-The Rev. DR.. ]. Will
bur Chapman, the popular pastor-evanGel-
list, who breaches to overlooking congrega-
tons in this city, has furnished the follow
ing eloquent sermon to the press. 1t was
preached from the text $50 he made it
again" jeremiah IS: 4.
To any one familiar with the prophecy of
Jeremiah up to this point in the Scripture
1t will be apparent that Israel was rushing
on to destruction, and Jeremiah seems
poweriess to stop them IN their mad
course. One day as he passes along the
highway he beholds a potter working in a
booth, and as he turns aside he beholds
him with the clay in his hands and the
wheel revolving, toIling away until this
piece Of work is finished. He looks at It
with disappointment, and then crushing it
into his hands he kneads it over and over
and finally makes it again as the text de
elares. Jeremiah is interested, and Their he
saw the spiritual significance of il all as
we read in the fifth and sixth verses of
this 18th chapter, Then the word of the
Lord came to me, saying, O, house of
Israel, cannot I do with you as this pot
ter? Saith the Lord Behold as the clay
Is in the p0ster's hands. SO are We in Mine
hand, o house of Israel" The trouble was
not with the potter: he was evidently a
good workman, nor with the wheel, for
that seemed TO do its work well, bat en-
tlrely with the clay. Sometimes the cay
was coarse and difficult to mold, other
times it was full of grits, but there were
two courses that were opened to the pot
ter. First, he could purify the clay by re
moving the coarser elements, and second.
he could make rude vessel of the material
ct hand This is familiar figure in the
Scriptures for we read in Isaiah "a: s.,
But now, o Lord. Thou art our Father;
we are the clay and Thou our potter; and
we all are the work of Thy hand and
then we read in the New Testament in
Paul's Epistle to the Romans, the 9Th
chapter and the Dist and 22d verses,
Hath not the potter power over the clay,
of the same lump TO make one vessel unto
honor and another unto dishonor? What
If God, willing to show His wrath, and to
make His power known, endured with
much long suffering the vessels of wrath
fitted to destruction"
I.
We are the clay, God is the potter Clay
In itself is most unattractive, but the art
ist looks upon it with interest because of
what he sees in it in the way of beauty al
ter his hands have touched it. This makes
the difference In two pieces of canvas, one
if touched by the master hand and is n
masterpiece, the other is simply canvas in
Its natural state and is not interesting.
A traveller stood watching potter work
In the factory one day and said to him.
why is it in these days when such Won
derful mechanical tools are constructed
this work is not done by machinery rather
than by hand, and the potter said,
There are some pieces of work which can
only be brought to perfection by the
touch of human hand" and so it is in
the formation of character Whatever
may be ones social position or his financial
wealth he will not be able to please God
nor to be prepared for heaven until the
hand OF God has touched him. This is q
picture of our regeneration, for regenera-
ton is the coming into us Of the life oil
God. | stood one day in Venice watching
the glassblowers, and while glass in Its
natural state was most uninteresting, just
as soon as the workman began to blow the
breath of his own life into it it became a
thing Of beauty. Adam, back in the Old
TestsRent becoming a living soul is the
Old Testament story Of Gods inbreathing
ment is the New Testaments story Of that
same inbreathing.
II.
The day of our conversion we yielded
ourselves to God: that was the closing oil
ourselves in the hands of the potter. As
we came into the light with Him God saw
imperfections in our makeup, things that
were uDL p4EGStuR 10 I1liils ana 50 NE Dul
His finger upon this or that; some of these
things we have not been willing to give up,
and so our lives have been married, We
have had a controversy with Him, and
wherever there is controversy there is
no peace. We are Christians, it is true
but we are fruitlcss and jovless, and many
Of US are shorn OF power. The vessels were
marred in the making. but it is a comfort
ing thing to know that we are in the hands
cf tba cfill and alt bortrb rt.a failed
Yesterday we need not fail tomorrow, for
He will fashion us if we will but permit
Him to do 30 in the likeness Of His own
dear Son. We are to be holy, we are to
be pure OF heart, we certainly are to have
fellowship with Christ, we have been in
bondage long enough, now the question is
shall we Weld or not Suppose we do not
yield, are we then lost@ Certainly not.
Paul says, '"He is able to keep that which
have committed unto Him." and in the
eighth chapter of Romans he seems to ex-
haust language to soar into heaven and to
make his way to the very depths Of the
earth and then to cry aloud, Nothing
shall be able to separate us from the love
of God which IS in Christ Jesus our
Lord" but we shall be shorn of peace and
OF power and of blessing and while certain
kinds of work will go on in our lives an
other kind Of vessel will be made. Ro-
mans 8; 81, Hath not the potter power
over the clay, of the same lump to make
one vessel unto honor and another unto
dishonor" We might have been vessel
in the kings palace, we might have heen
in the throne room of the king we might
have been used to carry life to the dying
and God would and you would not is a
sad story of many life.
Ii.
God has a plan for every life. jeremiah
did not know what was in the mind of the
potter, but he knew that he was working
according to plan, but we know what is
in Gods mind. Romans S: %, "For whom
He did foreknow, He also did predestiuate
to be conformed to the image of His Son,
that He might be the first born among
many brethren" Philippians 3: II, Not
as though / had already attained, either
were already perfect, but follow after. if
that may apprehend that for which also
I am apprehended o. Christ Jcz3g" God
cannot be satisfied with anything less than
this A workman in a factory fsshioning a
beautiful design saws an imperfection in
the plan. To carry it on meant ruin, and
20 he carried it back to. the artist and
found that it was an error of the copyist,
and that is the officially of an inconsistent
life. 1t nnisrepresents Jesus Christ. There
are people in this world who would scorn
to be heterdox so far as the Scriptures are