Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1904-06-30
EFFECTIVE ! / !: LABORS
OUR REGULAR SUNDAY SERMON

OUR REGULAR SUNDAY SERMON
The Speaker Touches Eloquentix on
the Duties We Owe to God and Onr
Fellow Man.
BEooKLYN, N. Sunday night, in the
Lafayette, Avenue Presbyterian Church.
the Rev: George r. Lunn, assistant pas
tor, preached on ssChrist's Gift of Lfe.'
|: The text was taken from John x:lO: II
am come that they might have LIFE" Mr..
Lunn said:
am sure that do not exaggerate when
Il say that no words of our Lord are more
profoundly significant than these words of
the text. We have in compact form
| statement OF the purpose OF Jesus Christ
| All else is subordinated to this great and
| predominate aim. Jesus Christ has come
into the world to give that life in ever in
creasing abundance. This is not a conclu.
sion Of mine worked out after special in
| testigatien; it is the simple and clear and
forceful statement of our Lord Himself I
I rest upon His word as fnality. And I
find in this verse fuller and richer ex-
preston Of the purpose Of Christ than is
| found anywhere else.in Scripture.
| What, then, is the life which Christ
with God, the Father; fellowship. begun
on earth and continued throughout the
ages of eternity. It is the life Of spiritual
oneness with God, united to Him in
| thought, in purpose, in all our varying ac-
tivlties.. 1t is the larger life which COM
prehends ou1 present life, enriching it with
all the holy purposes Of God, our Saviour,
lifting us by it's power into the purified at
mosphere of noble deeds, done for His
sake. In other words, it is the life of
which our Master spoke. when He said that
\ to lose it was calamity, even though a
man should gain the whole world
/ l think am right in saying that great
many people interpret the words and work
OF our Lord as applying chiefly to the other
world, not altogether, but chiefly. They
ance Of safety for the next world rather
than definite program Of activity for the
present. They think more of the saving
Of the soul after death than Of saving the
life before death. No stronger illustration
| OF this thought can be found than the
large numbers of men who delay their de-
cision in reference to Christ to some more
but at some future time, will settle the
great question of my souls relation to
God. You cannot find man who will not
express some wish to lead better life;
but IN nearly every case they see no need
OF an immediate decision. In my pastoral
|
perlence time and again. And as I have
| endeavored to understand what is the un-
derlying cause Of so much indecision re-
gardlng religious things, [ find that most
of 1t can be traced to this fundamental
mlslnterpretation of the words and work
Of Jesus Christ our Lord. You may ex-
press this in many ways, but at heart the
point is this-.the saving of the soul after
death, instead of saving the life right here
and now; the gaining of heaven hereafter,
rather than entering into heaven now.
And because of this Interpretation men
feel no Immediate necessity of getting
right with God. So long as they are rea-
sonably sure Of life here, they are willing
to delay the great decision of the soul.
Against this view of religion allow me to
bring the message of the Saviour, II am
come that they might have life and that
they might have it more abundantly." You
cannot read the gospels without coming
every turn. Repeatedly do you find the
word life. We are struck with the fact
how constantly the word life was on the
| lips of Jesus. It is word which gives us
the very heart of Jesus teaching. He was
always praising, always promising life. 'If
thou wilt enter into life keep My com
mandments," "He that believeth on Me
hath life" CAS- the Father hath life in
Himself, so hath He given to the Son to
have life in HIMSELF Because live We
shall live ALSO" eye will not come unto
Me that yee might have life Everywhere
we find this same eager pleading with men
to enter into life, and we further find that
Jesus identified life with goodness. To
Jesus life consisted in goodness. Wicked
ness is death. ''The soul that sinneth, it
shall die'' is not so much a threat as the
; statement of great truth. For the sin
ming soul dies by reason Of the very fact o1
its SHINING. There is no life for the hui
L L. ,4,o.
therefore, uses language which we may
justly call violent when He referred to the
possibility Of mans losing his higher
| life. Better to cut off the offending hanG
or foot if it hinders the aspiring soul
, Better to pluck out the eye which causes
stumbling if by that means the real life O
God may be gained. l have called this
} Jesus anticipated any literal interpreta
| ton and literal following. The forcefu
illustration Is used to emphasize a terrible
and an eternal truth. The very possibilit,
,, of a mans failing to enter into the life O
fellowship with God, was thought which
brought strong tears to the eyes of the Sa
viour Of men. tell you that in these day
! we are harboring in our hearts senti
l mental sympathy which overlooks sin ant
: condones iniquity and seeks to apologiz
l for the stern words Of the Saviour. Their
3 was no doubt a ringing doom against sin
but IL was not Cne doom OF q Jnredl
Jesus never threatened. He reveale
what sin is; its very nature is death. Th
: open door of life in God is before me1
9 To pass by that door does not mean tina
Y God will arbitrarily punish, but that th
very passing it by is death. The issue Q
sin is doom, exile into the night, tn
= eclipse Of desolation and abandonment.
Does there move in your hearts the sus
: ; picion that such doom is exaggerated an
!. overdone? When that suspicion comes t
r me, and it often comes: I remember tn
9 | words of sainted preacher: s1When al
tempted to think that the doom is ovel
done, must remember that the Son {
God, my Saviour, with an infinite insigh
into all things, superlatively sensitiv,
knowing the inmost heart Of life, He, or
/ Saviour, pronounced the doom to be jus
e This Christ, who gave Himself for us, wh
: loved us, told us in words-I venture /
I say loving words, Of appalling terror-ths
= ! Tor the deliberately sinful and for the d.
9 hberately unjust, there is 10 place but tt
s night, no place but the outer darkness, n
d place but ultimate separateness, no plat
4 but ultimate forsakenness and abandon
ment These are my Masters words, an
8 against them I will rear no petty imagin
n ton of my own; I will rather silence m
II own unillumined suspicion and humbly an
!. quietly take nv place with Him. TT