The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1903-03-05
of the Christian church today is infidel


of the Christian cburch +odov &C. irsao,
+houyht do not ho,ioro ~ h,1iox,,
that tho reason Won md 10 not co,,a
tn Christ If wa oro no+ o1r,od,, u,br;s
tians is hecausa vvo oro NOT reodv tn
give III, our nor eins ,vo T., mot sto,&n
before Cod in IN ,ttit,1n of q douhtur
We stand In thc attitu,l, of dpti,n.m
We stand wropucJ around bv thn mol
lutrd garment of sin ",uI lrlihoroto
sin. what is it, once. cried ont Jnsr,,h
Parker at is q shut hand q rIinchrI
fist, I'M upraiSrl arm. tn. ul1~..lcs to
fbc fun tension. and The object God
AInirhtv's fncr." Sin l. tlr ro,l.,. OF
nnrty.1,fuc in every Inrnlr,l rrru.:,ls
to come 10 Christ; NOT Skrpt&risIu not
jufihrIjry not agun%tirjs,Y moi dpu,t
If ms = ,nrssru,y,r Of ,;oJ conn, "a,
Won with tLn ,,n,urI iu,jtofinu o,,I Won
=, fuse in come Know nat IN ,ll
nr,.InbiIity drrn down, in yn1Ir heart
You arc ,u,itnaIjn., sui;p, secret sin
! ,yhjrh vow rrIlls, to Give ~,
! on. the d,,trnyir.r Bower of sin,
/ Some years ago Il diver WA; sept ,?ovn
to explore tin, button, Of tine sea. Nhilr
/ there ne thrust his band into hole
which srrrucd to be- tire retreat OF
some Kind Of Il living ,rpatlIrr, In
! stnnt1y his arm WIS seized y. by -
wise. Tho long tentarIrs OF an octonus
wound themselves about his arm. He
dared not give the signal for the friends
overhead to pull him ND l,rc1,lse he
| knew that his arm would be pulled off.
but he had presence Of mind enough
to take a sharp steel knife which he
had strapped to his side and with 1t he
cut off ths arms of that octopus. and
when the diver was pulled I'D attached
to his body were the arms of that oc-
topus, still clinging, one of the tenta-
cles over eight feet long. The octopus
of secret sin has many q man and wo-
man In q fatal clutch. We are not will
ing to destroy that sin now. Therefore
we keep saying to the messenger of the
gospel, II 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 a 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 to keep his good will 80 that
he might invite them at some future
time. If 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
cannot accept his invitations? He is
becoming nothing but a perfect bore.
What I will do hereafter is just to
throw his invitations into the waste
basket. Then, after awhile, he will
cease to write and will stop his impor-
tunities." But. no That is not the
course these invited guests took. They
practically said to themselves, II will
keep on sending my declination, year
In and year out, and then some day,
when / am old and sick and helpless
and about to die, 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 Cos
pei messenger: mot 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. Will you come to
Christ ten years from today? "Oh, no.
you answer; II would not like to post
pone the gospel invitation as long as
that. / may never live ten years. Ten
years Is a very long time. AS | look
back over my past life | can see how
many unexpected things have hap