The Tupelo journal., 1903-12-25

WuelHeF III prison Chained 10 HIS Tto-
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 the glorious Gospel
of Christ"
UT it had not always been such. He
II used to call it heresy, and took de-
light in witnessing the Imprisonment
n 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 a sense of his awful mistake. Surely
it was a glorious Gospel which could
take him, the "chiefest of sinners" 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 lone
for him and it was only part of the story.
He had seen multitudes at the thriving,
busy city of Antioch changed from
mo~ney-getting, pleasure-loving people
10 generous-hearted, undetermined
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 Ii
c~entiousness of their pagan religion,
freed from their bondage through Christ
and living pure, holy, self-sacrificing
lives. He had seen men and women
snatched from the maelstrom of vice
which surged through the city of Cor
NTH 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 quare: 1t 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.
1T is the glorious Gospel because of
L its origin. 1t bears the stamp of
Heaven. The love and mercy and justice
of God can be traced all through it. And
herein is the difference between the re-
ligion of Jesus Christ and the great
world religions. The latter are the in
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 SySlt1uS VI tllSlOU UuL IN
variably man is left to the hopeless task
of attaining by his own efforts the higher
and better life of the hereafter. But the
Gospel of Christ is from above. 1t does
not set man to a hopeless task, but in
vites him to the acceptance OF a saliva
ton and righteousness which are by
faith. Water will not rise higher than
its source, and man cannot push himself
above his own level. But God can reach
down and lift man up until he stands
in His very presence and joins his song
with that of the angels over the glori-
Gus salvation in Christ Jesus. The tab
ernacle was constructed after a pattern
delivered to Moses by God, and in its
many details typiied the Christ and
gave to the Jewish nation and the world
a foregleam of the Messiah and Re-
deemer. 1t was so with the Temple
which Solomon built. The plans were
delivered to David by GOD and then
given in turn to Solomon to execute.
The Temple, the plan of which was pre-
na7ed in Heaven, again typiied the
Christ who was to come. The prophets
nj old realized that God was preparing
; great and universal blessing for man
l;nd Peter says: THE prophets in
ouired and searched diligently" and
then .splopkesied of tie grace that
sbould come unto you: searching what,
or what manner of time the Spirit OF
christ which was in them did signify,
when He testified beforehand the SUI
ferings of Christ, and the GLORY