St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1902-12-20

! right to indicate by what door his
! guests shall enter? Has not God a
| right to indicate the Door by which
| the soul shall enter into His palace Of
Eternal Life? At the door Of the
palace of the king all provision is made
for the reception of the guests. The
| servants of the king stand ready to
| provide for the comfort and needs of
the guests and to announce to the
| king the arrivals. The guest who
would willfully climb in some other
| way would rightfully incur the dis
| pleasure of the king and be justly
banished from his presence. The
| guest without the wedding garment
on of Christ's parable never came in
| to the wedding supper of the Lamb by
| way of the Door, for if he had his
coming would have been announced
to the King and a wedding garment
| provided. Undoubtedly he had walked
side by side with the other guests to
that supper, and with ready tongue
explained his theory of the way to
| gain entrance to the palace and the
wedding supper, but when the search
ing eye of the King had quickly dis
covered him he was speeches. All
his skillfully reared theories came
crashing to the ground. The false
door of his own construction gave not
safe entrance to the wedding supper,
but was the gateway to his own de-
struction. What supreme folly it was
that he did not accept the invitation
of the King and pass through the
Door the King had provided for His
guests. But how is it with you, my
friend? What are you trusting in?
Are you trusting in a false door to
gain entrance to Eternal Life? Does
the door to eternity, before which
you stand, bear the words: "lndltfer-
ence,' or "Carelessness," or 'Procras-
tination." or Selfish Love of Ease and
Pleasure?" If so, the door will never
swing to admit you to Heaven, but on
the other side of that door is the
toboggan slide to the bottomless pit.
Jesus says: 81 am the Door," There
is no other. By Him IF any man en-
ter in he shall be saved, and shall go
in and out, and find pasture"
Jesus the Open Door.-There is
vast difference between an open door
and a shut door. One says: Come
in," the other says: keep out" And
there is vast difference, too, between
. real open door and what appears to
be an open door. l remember good
many years ago experiencing consld-
cradle embarrassment in attempting
to enter an open door just before me
and instead slamming against
heavy plate glass mirror covering one
side of the large room. My eyes
told me that an open door was before
me, but they deceived me. My little
child with the large picture before
her sees through the open doorway
the little one playing on the floor in
the beam of sunshine, and she tries to
get behind the picture to play with
that other little girl, but finds en- the
other side that it is only piece OF
canvas, and dusty at that. 1t the
human eye can be SO deceived the hui
man heart is liable to the same error.
Many soul basking in the sunshine
Of its own devices will find that what
has appeared to it an open door into
the sheepfold of God is nothing but
reflection of it's own imaginings.
What an awakening it will be when
it discovers it's mistake and it is too
late to gain the Only Open Door into
Gods presence.
Jesus the Open Door: An Open
Door that admits to the security, the
success, the happiness, the enlarged
opportunities of the sheepfold! An
Open Door to all that is good and true,
and abiding! The wild beasts of
Satan's breeding are without the fold
to devour the souls of men, but with
in are safety and shelter. Jesus is
the Open Door to success. That sue
cess which is not measured by the
bounds of the human life, but that
success which builds for eternity. Not
that success which gains the whole
world at the sacrifice of the soul, but
that success which comes from faith
full stewardship in handling Gods
time and money and talents. Not
that success which is marked by the
holding of great world power, but that
success which is the reward of him
who learns how to subdue his own
spirit. Jesus is the Open Door to
happiness. Where among all the
worlds children will you find one who
is really happy? Riches, honor, fame,
worldly pleasures, intellectual attain
ments, cannot impart real and abiding
happiness. These are not foods upon
which the human soul can feed and be
satisfied, but Christ is the Open
Door to true happiness. The Chris
tian's secret of happy life is not
secret at all. 1t is an Open Door.
which all may enter. The reason there
are so many unhappy Christians is
because somehow or other the soul,
having entered the Open Door of
Christ's salvation, has wandered back
again into the worlds pastures and
is trying to feed on the husks OF the
world.
Jesus is the Open Door to enlarged
opportunities. The country lad who
studied astronomy out of his book
and searched out the stars with his
naked eye came after time to the
great university and catching view
Of the heavens through the gigantic
telescope exclaimed: "How the uni
verse has expanded and grown since
l came from the country" And the
soul which has studied life through
the natural vision exclaims, after it
has passed through Christ the Door:
elbow life has expanded and grown!"
Before, the vision was limited to the
span Of this life, and now, it reaches
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