The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1906-09-26
THE PULPIT.
A BRILLIANT SUNDAY SERMON BY
REV. EDWARD LAWRENCE HUNT.
Subject: "rhat They Might Have
Life"

His church breaches this through her
chief sacrament: MY flesh I give for
the life of the world"
"Oh, the wild joys of living!
The hunt of the bear"-are these
the Presidents holiday words or
Browning's? Even that life Is the
gift of God through Jesus Christ,
without whom was not anything
made that was made"
Physical life is good. There is
something better. The high man"
who would not discount life, as fools
do" who would mot live thus, but
know is "still loftier than the world
suspects" There is something higher
still. "'Fo know" is not eternal life,
but to know God-and the gift of
God is eternal life, through Jesus
Christ. This is life eternal, that
they might know Thee, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou
hast sent"
To give man that life, Jesus must
come. Il came that they might have
life" Why could not the living
Creator give that life by His mere
word?
First, because death had passed
upon all men, for all sinned. The
God Of Law, who breathed into mans
nostrils the breath of life, when man
became a living soul, ordained the
law, 1.-THE soul that sinneth, it shall
die; or, to put the same truth in
other words: The God Of Love
warned man that "the wages of sin
is death" Man scorned loves
warning and sinned. Then felt with
in him that sin is a fatal disease.
/ So came Jesus to put away sin by His
death, that as sin reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign through
righteousness, unto eternal life
through Jesus Christ.
Grace" means He died for our
sins that we, set free from sin, made
alive unto God, might live. He came,
then, to free us from that death
which means separation from the liv-
ing God; to reconcile US to God in
one only way, by death, so that here
on earth we might live with God.
And, further, He came to free us
! from the fear Of that death which Is
| the blowing out of the candle. BY
rising from the dead, and so bring
ing life and immortality to light by
His Gospel, He inspires the hope Of
immortality. Hence we do not
Stretch lame hands of faith and grope,
And family trust the larger hope,
but we lay strong hold on the hope
set before us, as an anchor of the
soul, sure and 'steadfast, entering in
to that within the veil. =.
This eternal 1ifo rnuct bo 1o;d hold
OF by man, II came that they might"
not>must. Man gets 1T by faith :S"He
that liveth and believeth on Me shall
never die" It is "whosoever be-
lieveth" that need not perish, but
have eternal life"
Remember eternal life is not mere
duration. Jesus is the quality. How,
not how long, we live; and because
Of quality, endurance: mo one Is
able to snatch them out Of My
Fathers hand" To know God, to
share His life, to walk in love with
Him until God is tired of you, means
to live with Him forever.
Second, He came because man
must have teacher and an example
Of the best life. If when we were
enemies we were reconciled to God
by the death of His Son, much more,
being reconciled, we shall be saved
by His life"
Jesus life is the hope of the race
One man has lived in the fullest
healthy exercise of all his powers
no man need despair. The ideal has
been realized. He has also given
US the secret Of success. 1t is willing
surrender to God It is to learn
Gods purposes and with loving
sympathy work them out with Him.
This involves first and always the
destruction Of selfishness. 1t means
we must follow Christ. And "If any
man will come after Me, let him deny
himself and take up his cross. For
he that will gain his life shall lose It:
but he that will lose his life for My
sake shall find it"
Except corn of wheat shall fall
into the ground and die, it abideth
by itself alone. But if it die it shall
! live abundantly. What a pitiable
time the mean, selfish man must have
to abide alone here on earth with
the grasping fellow even he himself
despises. And If at last, in disgust
at himself, he should follow the ex-
ample Of q Judas (whose association
with Jesus gave him at least enough
conception Of a true manhood to be
enough disgusted with himself to kill
himself) then? Then he must keep
on abiding by himself alone,"-for-
ever with murderer, alone.
Judas-Jesus! Grasping-giving!
Which will you follow?
If you would live you must first
wish for it. One object Of Jesus
lifo was to awaken your desire for
the fullest life. Contrast, then, your
lifc with His, with the life Of the
best character you know, with the
man you hoped in your youths beset
dreams you might some day be.
Note the appalling railroad wreck
OF the past week. Read its allegory.
See two pictures-the freight car
loaded with blessing; two cars with
dynamite with power for good; the
passenger train with its freight of
souls. What thrill OF the music in
dustry in the song OF the whizzing
wheels and the whishshsh Of the
| greeting as the two iron steeds Of
strength and speed, fed with black
bread from the heart of the earth,
rush past, each on its own track!
Few sights are beautiful.
But look again. Some freight cars
leave their track, fall across the
others track-and woe!-the sicken-
ing, sightless horror Of the wreck;
the groans of the dying, the ghastly
! dead unknown.
It's the lesson of our life, with it's
trains of body and spirit-on their
God-laid tracks fraught with bless
ing. Earth has no picture more