The Penn's Grove record., 1907-02-15
NUMBER 80.

pastor, took as his text Titus 2:14, GA
people for His W possession" He
laid:
The mission of Jesus Christ to men
was to reveal to them the fulness of
livine truth unto the establishment
If the Kingdom OF God in their
hearts. Those who are citizens Of
that kingdom are in a very lively
sense an 'elect race; a royal priest
hood; a holy nation; a people for
Gods W possession" To serve
God well and to the end is not child's
play but q 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
0f 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 verities.
If 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 sartorial or educational,
but vital. 1t depends not upon the
cut of the hair, or upon the fashion
of clothes, or upon the lack or abun-
dance of schooling a man may have
experienced, but upon his manner of
life. To walk our streets and dis
.inguish 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 shaver 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
~ apostle ideals. motives e-d
thoughts.
1t IS not my purpose to intimate
that in many an instance 1t is not
perfectly easy TO mark good men from
evil. The liIeameuts OF sin sooner Or
later are impressed indelibly upon
the faces of those who lead lives Of
ghamo, no matter what sort Of clothes
they wear or how neat they may be.
Contrariwise, the purity of Christ is
revealed in the Countepance Of hih,
Who lives near to Cod, Even q child
may point a drunkard by his rags and
D priest by his garb. These diHen-
ences are patent.
But 1t is not Of the difference :. tt
DloJL5s, "a <-Sn aianC at the bank,
! or the mental culture of Christians
auG Aon-Christians that I wish 20
speak.
s difference between those who
I iufe Christ and those WING are unth-
ing about Him Is not in e~Etarlalitles
. hut In fundamentals We are con
( earDsd moi 20 r.uch with what a maC
/ ezt5 or we5ms. IS Wilh what he thinks,
! N.Cb lilc motives ny which ne IS aC-
tuaCed, win 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 ~differentiates Christians from
the world. Titus tells us in our text
that we have been redeemed oy
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 own possession"
These two statements state much
truth in a nutshell and lead us to in
uuire what amer of men Gods
own are.
The Christian is a man of fine prin-
ciple. Paul tells is 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 prerogatives 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 its 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. / am not only my own 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 nan 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 but what they ought to have;
they point 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 n of
principle. Christians are principled,
finely and highly; the men who serve
mammon are unprincipled and ire
sponsible.
Christians are men of pure motives
and of high ideals; worldly men are
not. Where there are noble, uplift-
ing, sanctifying motives there is the
essence of the Gospel found. Those
who are princes in the Kingdom of
Jehovah are men of single purpose,
of unsullied devotion to the truth, OF
unified motive. There is no double
dealing in the heart of man who real
ly lives within Jesus. He does bust
ness on the square and is not merely
waiting his chance to knife you. If
he does good he does it not that he
may scure praise or profit thereby,
out in order that he may be and bring
a blessing into a needy life. The pro-
testations and pronuneiamentos of
the Christian, his affirmed convictions
and declared ideas, are not different
H. -. -