The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1903-02-27
MUST BE PURE
TO KNOW GOD.
DIR. John z. Nc Ferrin, of Biz.
mingham, breaches Power
full Sermon at First Methodist
Church i'm Columbia. Was a
Former Pastor i'm This City.

DR. John P. McFerrin, pastor OF th
First Methodist church at birmingham
and his brother, Rev. A. P. McFerrin
pastor of tho First Methodist churcl
of this city, exchanged pulpits Sun
day.
DR.. McFerrin serves the larges
church in the South. He breaches
every Sunday to two thousand people
His church auditorium is as broad as thu
Methodist church OF Columbia is long
and about twice as long as it is broad
The gallery of that church will sea-
about as many people as this church
will seat, and the average attendance
upon church worship there is estimated
TO he about fifteen hundred.
DIR. McFerrin is great favorite here
as he is wherever he goes, and as such
big Drained, big hearted, big-souled men
always are. But early impressions are
the strongest, and somehow Columbia
feels peculiar interest and peculiarly
tender love for him. His first passionate
was at Cross Bridges, in this county,
nearly forty years ago, and from
there he came to Columbia; and few
men ever get hold of people like he
got hold of the boys Of Columbia Of those
DAVIS. He was young and handsome
and stalwart and brilliant;he had fought
in the trenches with them; they had
buried their comrades together; they had
loved the same flag, and faced the same
foe; they had seen his uhdaunted courage
GA the battlefield where the bullets rat
tied the thickest, and they had seen him
weep like a child while he kneeled and
prayed and penciled the dying message
Of a soldier boy clad in gray; they had
seen him tried so many times in so many
ways. and they knew that he was all
he seemed-a brave, brilliant, earnest,
consecrated, christian man-and they
opened their hearts to his gospel mes
sages; and the seed sown in that mallow
ground is bringing forth fruit to this
good day.
His sermon yesterday morning was a
grand discourse from the text, BLESSED
are the Pure in Heart, for They shall
see God!" The human heart, Jeremiah
saws, sis deceitful above all things, and
desperately wicked" And no man can
purify his own heart. And yet to see
God, and to know Him, ones heart
must be pure. Moral reformation and
the purpose to do better, could not
atone for sin. An honest balance with
the world from now on would not llqul-
date an old debt. To get square with
the books. man must pay the old &C
count; and to get square with God
sinner must not only turn from his ways
but he must repent them, and seek for
giveness and be pardoned. where do
you expect to live in the future" asked
the preacher. "Among the pure and the
goods And do you think the impure
and unclean can company with the pure
and good" In every heart, however
desperately wicked, there is warm
spot, good impulse; and that impulse
comes from God. Without these warm:
ing Influences, coming from tho love 3!
God, the heart would be cold and Barren
and sterile. But as the sun warns the
earth, so may Gods regeneratlng love
warm and purify the heart of man. Not
purify 1t for the life to come;but purify it
for dhe life that is. Not cleanse it that we
may see God hereafter, but that we may
see Him now. God dwells in humanity,
and must be seen through His children.
II get tired, awfully tired, some
times" said the speaker, ''of preaching
to the rich and we'll TODD, comfortable
and satisfied christian class, who open
their mouths like so many little birds
and swallow whatsoever is put into them,
and then 90 on their way, and pass un-
needing by the debauched and debased
son of God in the gutter, and scorn the
fallen women on the street. MY soul
sometimes cries aloud to me to come
=, l,,st nd
the poor, the destitute, the hungry ana
the wicked, as my Master did, and try
to save them.
II saw God in a Jew In Birmingham
last week. He came to my study to
talk to me about fallen woman. And
as we talked and planned to rescue that
poor sin cursed sister from her hell OF
shame and as the tears rolled down
his cheeks saw the dove OF God in
the eyes IT that son Of Abraham.
II saw God in jaii once. spent
two nights ia Jail, with two boys
doomed to die; reading and talking
and praying with them, trying to
lead them to where they might find the
way to eternal life. And in those
dark dungeons saw G0d.
"Tne cIearest glimpses have ever
gotten of God has been when l had
nav arm under some fallen brother
trying to lift him up; or by kind
words and admonitions / was seeking
to show some lost girl back to the
path of honest living from which she
had been lured.
lone of the richest promises in the
Bible is given to those who have pure
hearts; for they shall see God.
.'Have you seen Goa this ~eekr'