The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-12-11
The Baptists Gathering
i'm Convention at
Durham.
CONTINUED from First Page.)

! BY words, sweet words? Words are 80
| cheap. by deeds surely Paul thought
| that a mightier demonstration than any
of verbal kind that there existed IN
| the heart of God a redeeming love TOT
| man, was an unmistakable act, expressive
Of love.
| So when he strove to enforce this great
| truth, the shining climax of all the
| Gospel revelation of the love of God ne
! did not quote Christ's gentle words as
| to himself, or His Father-he did not
| point to anything that He said. but he
pointed to one thing that He did:
| There, that cross is the proof You
will never tap the source of Jesus power
if you confne yourself to His teachings,
| or even to the lower acts of His beauti-
| full life. You must go to His cross. He
| has spoken words of sweetness un-
| paralleed about the love of God. But
words however eloquent. however true,
are not enough for the soul to rest its
eternal hope upon. We must have deeds.
deathless deeds. and these are all sum-
med up in, while we were yet sinners
| Christ died for u.s. Come back to the
cross again. Come up here with me to
| this round skull shaped mountain top,
just outside the wall, and see God break
| ing His own heart in a supreme effort
| TO break our hard and obdurate hearts.
| The sun darkens, the earth shudders; the
! air trembles. 1t is the lamentation Of
! God. Hear Him, as it were, moving
| through the chambers of the universe,
and shaking the heavens by the utter
ances of his grief over His mpenitent
| and rebellious children. BE astonished,
! 0 We heavens, at this, and be we horribly
| afraid" Do We not as distracted par
ents, pace our chambers in the darkness
| of the night, and mourn bitterly the
revolt of our first born, sobbing and
| grooming under the sting of a thousand
recollections which throng upon our
| hearts,?
| God, abandoned by his children, grieved
and wounded by those on whom he had
lavished the resources of His love, calls
| upon the heavens to be astonished, and
| upon the works of His hands to be hor-
| ribly afraid and the very rocks rend
in responsive sympathy. 1t was a token
OF Gods breaking heart. The soul Of
the Son echoed back the unswaged an
guish of the Fathers heart. my God,
my God" His great deliverances had
been forgotten, His heritage had been
defled, His dignity had been spit upon
and spurned His mercy treated with
contempt, and now this expression or
His tenderest love is nailed to the cross
of shame. Here at the foot of the cross
our cold, hard hearts are touched with
godly sorrow, as with dull eyes we be-
hold Him. wounded for our transgres-
! sions, and bruised for our iniquities.'
80 thou who hast our sorrow borne.
IIal,N To l-A
If here at the foot of the cross. and
no where else. is consummated mans
first act of obedience and reconciliation
Repentance toward God-the first COM
mandment of the new covenant is obeyed.
~ Confession of the hearts faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ: Whom do We
say, that I, the Son of Man, amp Thou
art the Christ the Son of the living Cod"
He accentuated the Importance of a pub
lie confession of Himself by building His
blood bought church upon this Great
Confession" with the heart man be-
lieveth unto righteousness, and with
mouth confession is made unto saliva
ton. Strike from the heart of man
kind the principle of faith, and men
would have no more history than a
flock of sheep said Lord Lytton in one
of his great speeches.
The faith toward the Lord Jesus
Christ that saves is Paul's obedience
or faith" 1t must be SO vital and in
dividual that l can look on Christ as
the Jews in the Wilderness with the
SERPENT virus throbbing in their
veins, looked upon the brazen SER
pent and lived. BY faith ! must find
my cleansing from sin in the fountain of
His blood as real as Naaman's cleansing
from leprosy was after dipping in the
Jordan. By faith l must lay myself at
His feet, in conservation as unre-
served as were laid the Magis gold.
frankinsense and myrrh at the feet of
the babe of Bethlehem. By faith l must
follow Him as the sheep follow the
shepherd, as the traveller follows the
guide, as the child follows the mother
as the soldier follows the captain to
the high places Of the field. BY faith |
must feed upon His flesh and blood as
Israel fed upon the heavenly mama. BY
faith, each word of His promise must be-
come round in the ladder by which 1
ascend on Him from the gloom of earth
TO the glory of heaven. His primacy
must be so supreme in my personal life
that l can truthfully say and sing:
my Lord, My life, My sacrifice,
My Saviour and my ALL"
Jesus himself has taught US how thus
to believe, by His own example in be-
lieving in US. Jesus believed in man
because he believed in God. No one ever
so depended upon God to re-enforce man
at his best. No one ever stayed so faith
fully by man at his worst. He would
not even save Himself at Calvary from
mans fury. He would rather trust that
man would come again to Calvary, age
after age to find if one drop of His pre-
cious atoning blood still quivered there.
Believest thou thus? Believest thou
this? Help thou mine unbelief
CD Repent and be baptized" was the
Holy Spirits command through the lips
of Peter to three thousand convicted and
penitent sinners on the day of Pentecost
No man since the day of Pentecost has
preached a full gospel who did not urge
the penitent believer to prompt obedience
in baptism.
Baptism is an essential part of "the
obedience Of faith 1t is in baptism that
the soul bows to the authority of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and receives out