The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-03-20

Brooklyn, N. Y.-Preaching at the
Irving Square Presbyterian Churcn
on the theme, "a Separated People,
the Rev. Ira Wemmell Henderson,
oastor, took as his text Titus 2:l4, "A
people for His own possession lie
said:
The mission of Jesus Christ to men
was to reveal to them the fulness or
divine truth unto the establishment
of the Kingdom of God in nell
j hearts. Those who are cltlzens OF
that kingdom are in a very livery
sense an "elect race; a royal priest
hood; a holy nation; a people Tor
Gods own possession TO serve
God well and to the end is not ch1ld,s
| play but a mans work. To swear al
| legiance to the King of Kings is to
cut loose from sin and to enter into
| the warfare against Satan upon terms
of decided and continuous opposition
and resistance. The fight against
evil is not a sham battle, but a bitter
struggle to the death, with mo quar-
ter for the slogan. Constructively,
| the Kingdom is for men who are
working up toward goodness entire
through the yielding Of self to do the
will of the Father. The members of
the Kingdom are men who are not
the servants of the world. Citizen
| ship is conditioned upon loyalty to
revealed truth and upon growth in
the appropriation and realization OF
divine veritleS.
II there is any one thing that needs
| emphasis in this day and time it is
the fact that Christians are different
from those who serve the Baals OF
the present. The difference is not
~tonsorial or s~artorial or educational,
but vital. 1t depends not upon the
cut of the hair, Or upon the fashion
of clothes, or upon the lack or album
dance of schooling a man may have
experienced, but upon his manner OF
life. To walk our streets and dis
tinguish Christians from the men who
are not brethren of Christ Except
they be marked with the plain, facial,
disreputable evidences of SIM is not
easy. The thief and the church trus-
tee may each be shaven in the same
shop and both be Immediately neat.
The same style of ready-to-measure
garments may array the deacon and
the crook. Everywhere we may find
men who under similar or Identical
exteriors yet harbor and foster total
ly opposite ideals, motives and
thoughts.
1t Is not my purpose to intimate
that in many an instance it is not
perfectly easy to mark good men from
evil. The lineaments of sin sooner or
later are impressed indelibly upon
the faces Of those who lead lives OF
shame, no matter what sort of clothes
they wear or how neat they may be.
Contrariwise, the purity of Christ is
revealed in the countenance OF him
who lives near to God. Even a child
may point a drunkard by his rags and
q priest by his garb. These diffen-
ences are patent.
But it is not of the difference in the
clothes, or cash balance at the bank.
or the mental culture of Christians
and non-Christians. that I wish to
speak.
The difference between those who
love Christ and those who care moth
ing about Him is not in e~xternalities
but in fundamentals. We are con-
cerned not so much with what a man
eats or wt.rs, as with what he thinks,
with the Motives by which he is &C
tuated, wiki the principles by which
his actions are tested and justified,
with the sort of soul life he lives.
The possession of a Christ inspired
soul, energiZed by God blessed no
tives and aspirations and ideals is
what d%ifferentiates Christians from
the world. Titus tells us in text
that we have been redeemed by
Christ that we may be set apart "a
people for His own possession" and
st. Peter informs us also that we are
"a people for Gods OWL possession"
These two statements state much
truth in a nutshell and lead us to in
quire what name OF men Gods
own" are.
The Christian is a man Of fine prin-
|. ciple. Paul tells us that all things
are lawful unto us, but that all things
are not %eXpedient. The man OF prin-
ciple acts, not that he may be insured
in the exercise and p~rerogatives OF
his personal rights only, but in order
that the welfare of society may be en-
HANGED. He inquiries not what are
my rights, but what are my obliga-
tions? His chief concern is not to
gain all that is coming to him in a
material way, but to live that the
sum of human happiness shall be in
creased. The Christian is the last
man to insist upon his right to en-
JOY anything that in itself is harmless
and that. in his hands may result in
no wrong, that in it's influence upon
other men may lead to their souls
destruction. The worldly man, on
the other hand, is chiefly anxious that
he shall reap his share of all things.
The influences, conscious or uncon-
scious, of his actions weigh little up
on his heart. He is not worried
about the life of his brother, because
to him his brother is a law unto him
self. I am not only my W but my
brothers keeper, is a part of the phil
osophy of men of principle alone.
The Christian would rather be right
than to win; the worldly maj would
be right If convenient and anything
to get the victory. The Christian
cuts the way for the onward move
ment Of the world with the X Of
truth; the worldly man marches with
the ranks, content with conditions
as they are. Those who love Christ
give the world not what they wish al
ways ut what they ought to have;
they Lint us to what we ought to be
and what by the grace of God, if we
cared, we might be. The world
servers keep their ears to the ground
and give US only what we say we
need. The difference is only me of
principle. Christians are principled,
finely and highly; the men who serve
mammon are ~unprincipled and ire
sponsible.