The Grenada sentinel., 1903-12-19

j.: :: $: !:
flk1Hu 1Qt tensely sincere ex~
ponent and pro-
- mulgator OF the |
[t44Uo< faith which had |
tc him. Like the |
energetic drummer who has superior |
and greatly-needed article which he is |
placing on the market, and which ne |
loses no opportunity of Offering to the
tradesmen whom he is able to reach. |
so Paul, conscious of the power OF his
message, and burdened with sense OF
the need everywhere for that message, !
lost no opportunity OF preaching the
Gospel Of Jesus Christ. He was instant
In season and out OF season." 1t made
no difference to Paul where c1rcum-
stance found him, his supreme purpose
was to tell the story of Christ. Wheth-
er In the synagogue or by the Ways1de'
whether on shipboard or on journey by
land, whether surrounded by the super
stitious ignorance of Asia Minor or the
culture and wisdom of the Greeks,
whether standing in the presence OF
kings and rulers or sitting on the river
bank with a few women as his auditors,
whether in prison chained to his Ro-
man guard or dwelling in his own pri-
vate house, whether working hard day
after day at his trade of tent making or
resting on the Sabbath day. he never
failed to count the situation In which
he found himself as an opportunity for
the preaching of the Gospel. 1t had
come to be to him 1.-The glorious Gospel
of Christ
DUT it had not always been such. He
- used to call it heresy, and took de-
light in witnessing the Imprisonment
and death of the disciples of the de-
spised Gospel. While under the power
of the "gOd of this world" his mind was
darkened so that he was blind to the
beauties and glories OF the Gospel, but
when the light of that Gospel had shat
tered the bars of his will and flooded
his soul he was crushed to the ground
by sense of his awful mistake. Surely
it was a glorious Gospel which could
take him, the "chiefest of slime rs," and
transform him into the humblest of
saints, which could turn the bitterest
foe into the most loyal disciple, which
could mould a proud, exclusive, bigoted
Pharisee into the great apostle to the
Gentiles. But this is what the Christ OF
the Gospel which he preached had done
for him, and it was only part of the story.
He had seen multitudes at the thriving,
busy city of Antioch changed from
money-getting, pieasure-loving people
to generous-hearted, noble-minded
Christians, who delighted to send re-
lief to the poor Jews at Jerusalem and
gave gladly and willingly their beloved
Paul and Barnabas to the heather
world. He had seen idol-worshipinG
people,, stepped in all the evil and IL
centi<hlsnes,s of their pagan religion,
freed from heir bondage through Christ
and living Pure,- holy, self-sacridcing
lives. He lad seen men and women
snatched from the maelstrom of vice
which surged through the city OF Cor
inth and made clean in their lives and
filled with zeal for God. He had seen
the wicked and cruel jailer at Philippi
transformed into an humble, repentant
and tender man. And at Ephesus, prob
ably at the time he wrote his letters to
the Corinthians, he was witnessing the
power of the glorious Gospel, as the
people who had accepted the truth of the
Christ brought their books OF black art
and sorcery and burned them in the
public square. It was the Glorious Cos
pei of Christ, indeed. Both from his own
personal experience, and what he had
seen wrought in the lives of others, he
knew that the tidings of the Christ were
the most glorious tidings which the
world had ever heard. And it is still the
glorious Gospel.
TT is the glorious Gospel because Of
/ it's origin. 1t bears the stamp Of
Heaven. The love and mercy and justice
of God can be traced all through it. Ard
herein is the difference between the re-
ligion Of Jesus Christ and the great
world religions. The latter are the lit
ventions of men; the former is the mar-
velous working out of Gods plans made
before the foundation Of the world. Man
in the imaginations of HIS own heart
can devise systems OF religion, but In
yariably- man is left to the hopeless task
of attaining by his own efforts the higher
and better life Of the hereafter. But the
Gospel Oh Christi Is from above. It does
not oct snDan to a. hopeless task. but IL
yttes him to the acceptance Of saliva
ton and righte ousness which are hy
faith. Water will not rise higher thah
tfs source. and man cannot push himself
ehove his own level. But God can reach
down and lift man up until he stands
= HIS very presence and joins his song
vttl that of the angels over the glorj.
8 .,,,e ealyafion In Christ Jesus. The tab
.rnsclee vss constructed after = patterr
daIivered to Moses by God. and In itl