Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1903-03-06

account OF your domestic obligations
The simple fact Is your home duties
and sorrows ought to be mighty inspi.
rations to send you TO the feet OF Christ
The Duty of Parents.
Besides. parents, how can you have
the right influence over your children
unless you are consecrated Christian
men and women? How can a father
and mother tell their children how to
love the Lord Jesus unless they them.
selves have accepted the invitation 10
the gospel banquet? Can the blind
lead the blind? Can something come
from nothingf 1 lift clay vase In my
hand and smell the sweetest fragrance
L say: 20 vase, whence came thy Der.
runner Were thy substances fragrant
before the hot fires OF the potter's fur.
mace touched theeT' may" answers
the vase. The reason l am perfumed
is because hundreds of flowers have
been plucked and have been allowed
to kiss me with their red and white
lips" Upon the sand dunes of the sea-
shore pick up curiously twisted
she'll. l place 1t to my ear and hear a
low, moaning sound. say TO the she'll,
shell. why dost thou moan like n sick
child?" Because" answers the shell.
Il have been rolled over and over in
the bottom OF the seas. L have been al.
lowed TO place my ear against the
great throbbing. aching heart of the
mighty deep. l am merely echoing the
sorrow of the sea waves that are now
tapping at thy feet" Thus we find
that by the direct law OF nature there
Is no effect without a cause. If you. q
parents, desire your children's lives To
be redolent with the perfume of right
eousness aud their hearts and lips to
be musical with the songs of heaven,
you must take care that they are sur
rounded with heavenly influences while
they are young. If you want them to
be at the gospel banquet, you must
lead the way and not yourselves an
swer the invitation with a frivolous
excuse.
Let US try to generalize the excuses
or the hundreds of other guests under
two simple headings. First, 1 believe
that they all with one consent began
to make excuse" because they were
unwilling at that time to give up their
sins. To hear some people talk. one
would suppose that the greatest enemy
OF the Christian church today Is infidel
thought. 1 do not believe 1t. / believe
that the reason you and do not come
TO Christ, IL we are not already Chris
tians, is because we are not ready to
give up our pet sins. We do not stand
before God In an attitude of a doubter.
We stand In the attitude of defiance.
We stand wrapped around by the pol
luted garment OF sin. "And deliberate
sin, what Is it?' once cried out Joseph
Parker. 1T is shut hand, n cl;pched
list, an appraised arm, the muscles to
the full tension, and the object God
Almighty's face" Sin Is the cause of
ninety-nine In every hundred refusals
to come to Christ; not skepticism. not
inhdeltty, not agnoSucism, not doubt.
II ! as messenger Of God come to
you with the gospel invitation and you
refuse to come, 1 know that in all
probability. deep down In your heart,
you are concealing some secret sin
which you refuse TO give up.
oh. the destroying power of sinl
Some years ago n diver was sent down
to explore the bottom Of the sea. While
there he thrust his hand into hole
which seemed TO be the retreat of
some kind OF q living creature. In
stantly his arm was seized as by n
wise. The long tentacles of an octopus
wound themselves about his arm. He
dared not give the signal for the friends
overhead to pull him up because he
knew that his arm would be pulled of.
but he had presence of mind enough
to take sharp steel knife which he
had strapped to his side and with II he
cut on the arms OF that octopus, and
when the diver was pulled up attached
to his body were the arms OF that oc-
topus, still clinging, one OF the tenta-
cles over eight feet long. The octopus
or secret sin has many a man and xo-
man in fatal clutch. We are not will
Ing to destroy that sin now. Therefore
we keep saying to the messenger of the
gospel. IL pray thee have me excused"
The next reason why ''they all with
one consent began to make excuse"
was because they expected at some fu-
ture time TO accept the gospel invita-
ton. This is most natural SUPPOSE
ton to make In Interpreting the text,
They might have stayed away and
made no excuse. but then the host
would have been offended and would
never have invited them again., They
wanted 10 keep his good will so that
he might invite them at some future
time. IL those invited guests never
expected to accept an invitation TO the
good mans house, they would have
said to themselves: what is the good
OF my sitting down every little while
and writing to that good man that l
cannot accept his invitations? He is
becoming nothing but perfect bore.
What i will do hereafter il Just to
throw his invitations into the waste
basket. Then, after awhile, he will
cease 10 write and Will stop his impor-
tunities." But, no. That is not the
course these invited guests took. They
said to themselves, II will
keep ON sending my declination, year
In and year out. and then some day,
when I am old and sick and helpless
and about to die. l will just be carried
down on my sickbed and that good
man will take care OF me and forgive
all the Indifference and sin of my past
life" You expect to some day come to
Christ. but you keep saying to the gos-
pei messenger: 'Not now. Not now.
Not now"
Accept the Invitation Now.
My brother and sister invited to Je-
sus Christ, am not going to force you
to any decision. I am going to leave
the whole matter with yourself. In
stead OF asking you to come to the Cos
pei banquet now / am going to ask you |
when you will come. VIII you come to
Christ ten years from today? ooh, no." |
you answer; II would not hike to post |
pone the gospel invitation as long as |
that may never live ten years. Ten
years Is very long time. AS I look |
back over my past life l can see how
many unexpected things have hap
pened during ten years. Many of my
best and dearest friends have died dur
Ing those ten years. They were Just