The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1906-10-24

be tenderer and deeper and I shall
say, My own, dear friend, l come
back to you with friendship that Is
have been inside where the door was
shut"
I wonder where this door is to be
found. 1 wonder, sometimes, when ]
try to have a secret moment in my
own life, if there might not have
been second meaning in the word
when He said: II am the door" For
surely there is nothing in this uni
verse responsive enough, great
c. ough to shut everything else out
and to shut the soul in-great enough
in tenderness-so that the slightest
touch of an infant soul will shut the
door" Here is the authority Of Jesus
Christ. No one knew the world out
side as He knew it; no one knows
the world inside as He knows it; no
one else will take my thoughts, my
feelings, my soul; no one else can
shut the world out and the soul in.
Here is man who has been trying to
pray and shut the door as Jesus told
him to do. 1t takes more intellect
to shut that door than to write Hin
dustanee or Shakespeare; more char
acter than to marshall an army and
lead it to battle. No muscular power
will do it; no intellectual refinement
or process of philosophical investiga-
tion, no wealth. All, you will have to
leave your wealth outside. Shut
the door, 1t is only the man in the
grandeur of his solitude, in the pres
ence of God, when he means more to
God than ever before, it is only then
that finally he gets the door shut
just because Jesus is our entrance.
He is the door. I realize, day by
day, how finite He is when I touch
Him; how infinite He is when He
touches me-
How about that past? There it IS.
Nothing rankles more than mans
past, that will lif. its head up and
say: "Ah, here 1 am. Look at me.
1 know you. I have heard you pray
before. Those hands, know where
they have been. That heart. I know
how dark it is" Have you ever tried
to shut the door against past like
that? Have you ever known what it
is to have the past hiss and sting?
Sometimes you think you have the
door shut, but oh, how that past,
that seems giant, fully armed, too
big to get into the door, suddenly
transforms, flattens itself out, lies
like serpent, and by and by you
hear it wiggling at the door, Kissing.
fitting, that whether the past slithers
like a serpent or comes like a giant,
I can shut that door. Oh, how at last
the soul takes hold of one thing and
sewers all from the past, and that one
thing is Jesus Christ.
am interested in mems problems.
Do you know anything that is inter-
esting enough in this world to keep
the past out, except Jesus Christ? Is
there anything that so appeals to
your interest that you actually turn
your back upon the past and say: Il
have a present. Thank God. I have
a present I am looking to Him who
says, Follow Me- He has never
yet told US we have followed Him too
far. Since He says that, and as long
as my heart pulses and as long as
my will keeps in harmony with Him.
i nave 1uCure. your past lS Out OIL
doors; your present and your future
here, simply because you have Shut
the door," tell you, brethren, the
manifest, the grandest, the greatest
thing you can do this morning Is SIM
ply to accept Jesus Christ as the door
into the communion. The door moves
upon such hinges of love that you
need but to say: II am sinner: I
want to be alone with God," to start
it moving-to get in, with the past
outside. My friends I will look for
them by and by. And my enemies?
I want to conquer only one of them.
I want to be alone. I will shut the
door," May Gods holy Spirit, who
is here this morning, quicken every
heart. Get back this very day-now,
and shut the door," You need not
be afraid that the world will lose
anything. You will be better man
when you go out, with whittier face,
cleaner hands, a more loving and
braver '.eart. Shut the door,"