The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1903-01-23
Contrasting Christ.

School at Pleasantview, KY: As / can
not be with you in the Sunday school
next Sunday, will write few lines on
the subject--the important subject OF
"Confessing Christ, and when to be-
come Christian
All you boys and girls in the Sunday
school are my friends aud a great many
OF you are my old schoolmates. For this
reason you are very dear to me, and my
wishes are that you all may confess
Christ
What is the meaning OF this express
sion so commonly used now confess
ing Christi" The word confess means
great deal more than most of us think
it does. To confess thing means to
own il; to confess Christ means to own
him as our Lord and master, and to do
whatever he says for us to do. We also
confess Christ by coming into His
church it is our duty to do this
Look at the accounts OF Cornelius, the
Ethiopian eunuch; the Phillippian jailor,
Saul OF Tarsus, and number of others /;
what noble confessions OF Christ they
made. 1t is beautiful story, / enjoy
reading them over and over; you read
them and you will enjoy them also
These confessions are good examples for
US. To confess Jesus Christ as our Lord
and Savior and repent OF our sins and
be forgiven, is a grand thing. When
we do this, God promises to forgive our
past sins and to grant us help of His
Holy Spirit to do right and to prepare
for heaven. Jesus said, 'twhosoeyer
therefore shall confess me before men,
him viii confess also before my Father
which is in heaven
Somebody asks, "When ought we to
confess Christ2n | think we ought to
confess Christ as soon as possible; we
ought to first understand what we are
doing, then go ahead. Most all OF you
boys and girls know what you ought to
do to become Christians. Your Sunday
school teacher has doubtless taught you
and you have read in the book of "Acts'
how people joined the church; it is a
simple story truly told.
You have been going to Sunday school
a long time, and have seen many of your
friends join the church and be baptised; ;
you see them eating bread and drinking
wine on the Lords day. You used to
wonder at this, you could not see how
understand this, so now is the time to
begin to serve God. Life is passing by
swiftly; soon we will be old, now is the
time to begin, while you are young
Solomon said, Remember the Lord in
the days Of thy youth.p BY beginning
to serve God and work faithfully for
Him while we are young, we overcome
two things: First is not being willing to
confess Christ while we are young and
have the opportunity; second is because
we may never have the opportunity to
confess Him if we keep on putting it off
Some day the death angel will come
along and we will follow. You might
say ''well, if God takes me before have
the opportunity to confess His son, He
surely will not condemn me-" You do
not have to wait for an opportunity; /;
you have the best OF opportunities every
week, and now when the preacher gives
the invitation call to come to the Lord,
do YOU imagine YOU can hear the dear
Savior, who died for you and of whom
you have read SO many beautiful lessons
and sung SO much about, saving softly
to you, "Come, dear friend, now is the
time, why do you wait?R
You may say well | don't believe /
can hold out faithful, ] have not the
courage, etc. (" You don't know what
you can do until you try. When God
sees that you are trying with all your
might to serve Him, lie will help you
ii you fall behind sometimes He will
help you up ii you trust in Him. We
ought to trust more in God than We do.
Surely He will not let us fall by the
wayside; what is Gods great strong
arm for ii it's not for us 20 lean uponP
remember we'll the day confessed
Christ. / had been attending several
big meetings, all OF different denomina-
tions, for long time, and had got so
confused and mixed up in "denomina-
tionsp that | could not tell just what to
do. had made up my mind to join
some church but didn't know which
one to join. | would talk with one
preacher and he would tell me to do q
certain way, that his church was the
right one; another preacher would tell
me that they were in the right church,
and soon. wondered why they weren't
all together, like the Scriptures say in
Eph. iv, A.; v, $3.50; Rom. xii. 5, and
John x, 16. | studied about this sim
cerely for long time; in the meantime
read the book of Acts two or three
times and was convinced that the
church. was the church of Christ, and
that was good enough for me, so i'm
mediately Joined the church and have
thanked God for the day | did it.
think it's enough to be called Chris
tian, and a Christian only.
N5.,.. 10 mould gt,r apapfry ba like
il the church and Sunday schools were
blotted out? Just think about this.
What would your life be? You who
have been raised up in Christian home
probably think because of this you are
Christian. If we confess Christ in our
hearts it won't do very much good, we
must confess Him before men. Now
YOU can see this is right, and 1t is your
duty to makea start, so. why not start
now2 Begin today, you will never re-
gret the day that you began to serve
God. Your conscience tells you to do
this and do it at once. Do you know
how happy your parents and friends
would be to see you 20 forward and con-
Tess Christ and be baptisedP Your
friends would be happy on earth and
the angels would rejoice in heaven.
After joining the church our work has
Just begun. Ii we don't intend TO do
any work for the Lord we might as well
to STAY out OF the church. l have seen
church members when called on to lead
in prayer beg to be excused, and
they made good leaders at some parties.
We all should SO live in the church as
to set good example before some OF
our friends in the world; il We do this
and hold out faithful, 1t will be the
means OF bringing some of your friends
to the lord. There is an obligation
resting upon each OF us. II Christ gave
his life for us, ought we not in return to
acknowledge Him and give ourselves
unto His servieey | am, Your true
Friend, W. i. GoDsEY'
Hood River, Or, January 10, 1868.
Heaping Goals.
Three hundred and fifty years ago,
at the instigation of John Calvin,
Michael Servetus was burned at the
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