The Tupelo journal., 1903-07-24

life! Oh, that they might pluck out
the thorns of worldliness and love of
riches, and give the tender growth of
the new life in Christ a chance to devel-
op and become strong and fruitful!
nEMAS began all right, but he didn't
- hold out. 1t is not the beginning
but the end which tests what a man is.
1t is easy to start in a race, but it takes
pluck and muscle and endurance to COW
er the course and come in winner. De-
mas exhausted all his zeal in the first
squirt of his Christian experience. l re-
member years ago a young man who,
after his conversion, developed a most
surprising zeal for the Lords work. He
was the first speaker and the longest
talker in meeting. He was active in all
the work of the church. His enthusiasm
was a rebuke to the steadier, more even
efforts of the faithful membership of the
church. And SO it continued for weeks
and even months. And then there came
a change. The thrill and enthusiasm of
the first experience wore off. The sud-
den growth of spiritual activity which
SO remarkably manifested itself with
cred in the MONDAY heat of life's trials.
No new and deeper experiences came to
thrill the inner life and keep alive the
new-found hope and joy. He slipped
farther and farther away until at last
the old life and old ways claimed him
again. 1t was the case of a modern
Demas. What did his early zeal profit
him now that it must be written of
him: He hath forsaken the Lord, hav-
ing loved this present world, and is de-
parted to the conditions of the old life"
And how many, many there are with a
similar experience!
WHAT opportunities Demas had! A
w Paul to work with. A Paul to ad-
monish, instruct and advise him. As
we contemplate his desertion of Paul,
and his return to the pleasures and am
billions of the world, we marvel. And
yet, had we been in Demas' place, would
Pau have been able to have written
differently of us? We think so. But
we forget the Demas weakness in our
" lINCS, INV VIC nave OSSSI Icu OuI
pastor, or our superintendent, or our
teacher. or leader of some department
or work in the church just at a time
when our cooperation and help were
most needed, and we think If we had
been privileged to labor with Paul we
would have been true to him and the
cause of Christ. The test is not what
we think we would have been or would
have done If we had lived in the days
of Paul and had been with him at
Rome, but what we are in the place
where God has put us. How prone we
are to attribute to ourselves virtues
faithfulness in the face of trial, heroic
devotion when persecution and danger
confront us-under imaginary condi-
lions, and then utterly fail in the ac-
tual experiences of life. Great oppor-
tunities you say Demas had! Greater
opportunities have you. to-day! You
have all and more than Demas had. You
have Paul in fuller and deeper measur
than ever Demas had, for all the wealth
of his record, and his marvellous doc
trinal epistles, unfolding the tran
~scending mystery of the church, lie
spread before you in Gods printed
Word. You have all the increasing
light of the centuries as spread abroad
by the church of Jesus Christ. You
have the record of it's development and
growth. You have the superior privi-
leges and advantages and glorious lib
erty of the twentieth century. And
with so much to help you that Demas
had not, what have you to say for your
faithlessness, for the desertion of your
trying post of duty, and slipping off to
the Thessalonica of worldly pleasure
and ambition? When the great Swiss
reformer, Zwingli, was a boy he made
this resolution: 81 will be true and up
right before God in every situation in
which He may place me-" He learned
to be steadfast and unmovable in the
duties of the everyday life, and when
the supreme testing of later years came,
he did not fail to stand faithful to God
and the cause he had espoused. And so
1t must be with every Christian. If
you hope to escape the failure of Demas
when the great testing time comes, you
must be true and upright before God
in every situation in which He may
place" you.
NOU may be sure that Paul ex-
l hausted every effort to keep his
fellow laborer from DESERVING the
Lord, and departing for Thessalonica.
But the tears and prayers of Paul and
his earnest pleading were of no avail.
Demas had made up his mind, and he
would go. He wanted to go. And SO
go he would. Again we say it Is
strange that he would not listen to
Paul's urgent pleading, but have you
never let your heart be drawn In its
desire away from God, and despite all
! that the still small voice could do as
He pleaded with you that you were do
ing wrong, despite the pleading of
friends and loved ones, perhaps, or Of
pastor or Sunday school teacher, you
have rushed headlong after the pleas
ure Of the world at Thessalonica? You
know it is so. You do not have to
think very. long before the sad circum-
stances Of your forsaking of the Lord
and the rushing after the selfish de-
sires Of your own heart are clearly re-
called. Why was it that Demas back
slid? Why is it that you desert the
Lord and get back into the world?
NEGLECT of prayer; neglect Of
~ Bible reading; f~orgetfulness Of
the atoning power Of Jesus blood