The Tupelo journal., 1903-03-20

E 49, ~
feels the foundations Of the prison
giving way, sees the walls trembling
like a ship in a storm, and an awful
fear takes hold of his heart. Every
door which he had so carefully shut and
bottled stands wide open. He hears the
chains as they fall clanking to the floor.
In mad despair he seizes his sword and
would have killed himself, supposing
that the prisoners had fled. Within
that inner prison Paul stands freed
from his letters. The hand of Gods
power has pressed open the doors of
that prison as though they had been
made of paper and the bolts had been
but pencil marks. His fingers have
cut the iron bands as though they had
been but ropes of sand. And Paul and
Silas realized that they were in the
hollow of that hand which was
moving so nightly in their behalf.
Yea, and knowing this, Paul stands
calmly and dignitiedly in his place and
cries to the jailer to do himself no
harm, for they are all there. And now
we will let the jailer tell who the Man
in Prison is. His cry: what must |
do to be saved" shows that he has
caught a new glimpse of himself. He
is a lost man, shut up in the prison
house of sin. He sees his doom written
all over the black walls of his hard
heart. In the anguish of his despair
he cries out for deliverance.
II 80 +La ,,,, -lo =.
prison who wants to get out. Every
soul is in prison who has not been set
free by Jesus Christ. But oh, sad, sad
fact! thousands upon thousands of
people all over this land, all over the
world, are in prison and do not realize
it. will not believe il! Like the iailer
at Phillppi, they sleep in the comfort
OF their own self-confidence and believe
that they are safe and free. But the
earthquake of Gods judgments is COM
ing as 1T came there that night at Phil
ippi. God grant that you, my friend,
II you T in the prison house of sin,
may wake up to a realization of YOUR
lost condition before it is too late
for the Deliverer to reach your side and
make you free. We cannot argue and
show you by human reason that O
are in prison. Paul did not convince
the Jaller that he was the Man in Pris-
on. God, by the convicting power of
His Holy Spirit, did that. Paul might
have spent all that night IN forcible
argument trying to convince that taller
that he was in prison, but the light of
the morning sun would have seer him
still laughing the apostle to scorn.
But Paul let some little seed fall into
that j%ailer's heart that night as he was
leaving, after claiming them in the
INNER prison, and the Holy Spirit used
1t to convict the jailer of sin.
And as soon as he realized that he
was a sinner, that he was a helm
less prisoner in the prison house of
san, ne Immediately began to cry for
oeIVerance. Satan blinds the human
heart to its real condition and nre-
vents the lips from uttering the cry:
what must L do to be saved" he uses
every device to keephis prisoners safe.
ne encourages the heart to make all
ann of~eXcuses for not accepting
ohrlst as the only Deliverer. What is
ne holding up before your ewes which
is making you blind to the fact that
you are a hopeless, helpless prisoperin
oatans death cell? Let Gods Word
convince your heart that "all have
sihned and come short of the glory of
God;" that "the soul that sinne+b -
shall die" that there is salvation IN
non other than in Jesus Christ; and
mat II the Son shall make YOU free
ye shall be free indeed"
LYDIA, Paul's first convert at Phil
lppl- was in prison until the Lord
opened her heart under the nreaclr-
ing OF the apostle down bv the river
pahk ana set her soul free in Christ
Jesus. Before Paul's coming she was q
oevout soul. She believed in God. She
was honorable in her dealinos Sbc
was benevolent and kind TO those
about her. She was faithful in bor
nome duties, even though the cares
0 a successful business pressed upon
her. But, notwithstanding all this
Lydia was in prison. Her weekly
prayers by the river bank and the
daily prayers in the home could not
break the prison bars of soul death
ana save e All her virtues and her
devotlons to her home were not
strong enough to open the door to
the prison house of her soul and give
1t the right to an eternal DWELLING
place in Heaven. No! Neither will
church membership or religious sery-
Ice as devout and sincere as that of
Lydia save you. my friend, from the
prison house of death which sin has
built around your soul. Neither can
you break its walls down by batter
ing it with all your virtues. or tie
virtues of your wife. or sister, or
mother, be they yer so many and
ever so rare. You are in prison. as
was Lydia, unless Christ has shaken
down the walls by the tread of His
wounded feet, and unless His nail
pierced hands have struck the shack
les from your fettered limbs.
In Prison.-Being in prison implies
wrong-doing. They put the violator
of the law in prison. but the law-abid-
ing citizen has no fear of the lock-
up. The soul is in prison because it
has transgressed Gods holy law, net
once. but cores of times. But even
if only once. and monty one particu-
lar, Gods Word declares that. "who-
soever shall keep the whole law, and
yet offend in n point, he is guilty
Of oil Tho thiae doac - la.o L.