The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-02-25

defy your authority and make your name a byword and ridicule through the com munity. Then I expect you to honor me and do for me just as much you would do for the rest of the children What would you do? What you'd you say? | An if you are a true. just parent, l can ! tell you what you'd say. You would look | your boy in the face and answer: My | son, as long you are true to me ana | true to your mother and true to your sis l ters and true to yourself you shall. be i looked upon as member of my family 1 All that I have then is yours. But If 1 you persist in being untrue to us and untrue to yourself you must leave my
 house and leave me. You have forfeited 1 your rights of sonship, and you cannot be looked upon as one of my children.
 Has not God a right to do the same with us?
 I will put this truth in even more l startling way. Let us suppose you are q a judge upon the bench. Your own son, your own flesh and blood, moral degen- i crate Is brought before you for trial In | your own heart you feel that he has done wrong and Is not repentant of his sins and will do wrong again if he gets the i chance. What would you do as a wise and just judge? Would you say, My son, ! thou art free?" No You would do just as the late Recorder Smyth of New York | did scores and hundreds of times. Speak ing 10 me one night in New York city
 he said: "They say judges have no hearts. An. they have hearts! But as just,judges.
 what are they to do? l have had several
 young men and young women come before me for trial and sentence who were sons 1 and daughters of my intimate friends. l would have done anything that was just l to save them. But what could l do? l knew they were guilty. l knew they ! ought to go to jail for their own good as
 I,af.r all | I sentenced them even though to do 1t
 seemed to be tearing my own heart out l by the roots."
 Would not you have done as Recorder I Smyth did even though the criminals before you were your own children | Now, God as a loving Father has made
 all possible provision for the salvation
 of his children by the blood of Jesus l Christ He has said: Come. repent or
 your sins. come in my Sons name and l | will forgive all and take you back into
 my family, and I shall be your Father. I But if you do not repent, if you do not l give up your sine. then as a just Father
 and a just Judge l will say fe must
 all likewise perish" Is the great cardi- | nal condition of salvation through Christ
 by giving up of all sin an absurdity? ! An my brother, no longer cling to the
 false belief that God has sent a Saviour | to deliver us only from punishment! i Christ came to save us from sin. He
 will save the worst sinner who will re-
 nounce his sin, but he will not save any
 who cling to their sins. He saves every l prodigal who comes into the old home
 stead of heaven as one of Gods own re- | pentant ones.
 Another Misleading Argument.
 But Satan does not stop here. He
 comes to us and says: Salvation by l iub+ eli
 but you are not a sinner What is the
 good of a man squeezing through the
 bankruptcy court to escape his just
 debts if he has no debts to pay? What is the use of man talking about par
 don through Christ's blood when he has
 never sinned? Of course you have done
 minor wrongs You have committed
 insignificant moral misdemeanors, but
 you have never murdered a man. You
 have no blood money upon your fingers.
 In the sight of God you are not a sim
 ner any more than your sainted mother
 was a sinner Thus says Satan to us.
 And many of us have begun to argue
 ourselves into the belief that we are
 almost moral and spiritual perfection
 ists, even as the Pharsee of old thought
 himself to be when he arose in the tenn
 pie and thanked God he was not as
 other men, But though we may have ]
 into the belief that we are all right
 morally and spiritually, somehow the
 supposition does not look so bright to
 us now when we begin to think of
 standing before the judgment seat of
 Christ
 We know away down in our hearts
 that we would not like to tell the world all the evil thoughts that have passed
 through our minds and all the evil deeds we have done all of our sins of omis-
 sion. The world may not suspect us of these sins. But some day shall have to be judged for all the actions and the thoughts of our lives Then what are we going to do if we have not received par don through Christ? For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether 1t be good
 or whether it be evil"
 l But as a last resort Satan comes to ) us and says: "Ah. yes of course we grant that you have a bad past But !, don't worry. You are like a child who has had a bad attack of diphtherla, which has left the heart little weak.
 The child if he takes care of himself will outgrow his physical infirmity. You } will outgrow your spiritual weaknesses. You are spiritually getting better every i day. Besides, if death does come crawl ing around, why, then you can repent in toto. and all will be well. Don't worry.
 Everything will turn out all right" , Have not you heard Satan speaking to i you in this way? I have, my brother.
 Have not you? Now. what are the facts?
 You know that while you are living
 away from Christ instead of growing , better you are gradually becoming spir-
 itualy worse. Your heart is ossifying to- } ward Gods touch. You know that you , are becoming more and more selfish. You , know that instead of looking at sin with | horror you Onca did yOIl are hegin- , ming more and more to fondle sins hand as that of a friend. You furthermore know that, like the prodigal of my text feeding upon the husks, you grad ; ually sinking lower and lower in the , quagmire of rebellion against Christ
 What ought you to do? You ought to do
 as did the prodigal. You ought to get | right upon your feet and start for God