The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1908-02-29

Will get a gOOQ drink. Inc eNdusSIiS|iS
church is a reservoir OF pure water
with a pipe to every heart in the COM
munity and every nation in the world.
Evangelical may mean truth on ice;
evangelistic means truth on fire.
Evangelical may meal a bomb-proof
for defense; ev%angelistic means an
army on the march with every ace
toward the foe.
Evangelical sings: Hold the fort.
for I am coming" ~evangelistic sings;
Storm the fort, for God is leading
The need of the church is not evan
gelicalism as a thing to fight for, but
evangelism as a force to fight with.
The evangelical creed merely held
and defended becomes a fossil, only a
thing of interest; but the evangelistlc
life which feeds upon evangelical
truth is a force against which the
gates of hell cannot prevail.
An evangelical may be a mere for
malist and there is no recognition OF
him in the New Testament, except as
he is rebuked; but a New Testament
evangelist is a man full Of the life Of
God and making alive those to whom
he ministers.
What It Means.
1t is certainly more than inducing 8
person to join the church. That is inn
portant. There are too many believers
who attend churches and refuse to be-
come an organic part of any one.
They are spiritual pleasure seekers.
They are gospel tasters. They look
at the papers and go where the sub
feet or the music seems most attrac.
tive. At best they are only bush
whackers" and ought somehow to be
pressed into the regular army. "One
shall chase a thousand, and two put
ten thousand to flight" that is, two
together are ten times stronger than
n alone. Organization multiplies
your influence by ten. You have no
right, therefore, to remain outside the
organized church of Christ. But you
can join the church, be baptized and
partake of the Lords Supper without
being a Christian. We may make our
churches so worldly in spirit that
worldly people will feel perfectly at
home as members Ct them. They be-
come adherents, and adherents, you
know, are barnacles that help to sink
the ship. The real convert has be-
come a 'partaker Of the divine ma
ture." g Peter 1:4.) He has been
- &c. HN
You Must Accept.
Conviction of sin, however, is not
enough. LAS many as received him,
to them gave he the power to become
the sons Of God, ven to them that
believing on his name" John 1:2.)
There must be acceptance of Jesus
Christ. Even turning from sin is not
sufficient. God did not tell the bitten
Israelites merely to look away from
the bite of the serpent, but to look to
the serpent of brass uplifted in the
camp. Reformation is simply turning
from sin; regeneration is turning from
sin unto Christ. Reformation is white
washing; regeneration Is washing
WILLIE. IL lClOlIh 10 W lOhldIh uO"
formed; to be born again by faith in
the uplifted Jesus is to take into our
hearts the life that will make Christly
character.
You Must Have New Birth.
Jesus said: Come We after me and
1 will make you to became fishers of
men, Now, it is not our mission to
feed fish, that is, to cultivate the nat
ural man until he has so greatly inn.
proved that he may be labeled a
Christian. The fish that live in the
lower realm of darkness, grub and
gravel must be transformed by the
new birth into sheep fitted for the
higher realm Of landscape, sun and
sky. The Babel process Of reaching
heaven by building up from beneath
is not the New Testament method.
"Ye must be born from above" George
Whitfield preached over 800 times
from this text, and, when asked why
he had preached so often from the
same text, he replied: Because We
must be born again" Christ can en-
I9I Tile u6dItS VI tAC tltCoI anu lAdhC
them sons of God. The need of the
day is a re-emphasis of sudden, In
Simultaneous conversion, a crisis with a
view to a process Of growth.
The Secret of Power. 4
Back of real evangelism is Q praying
church. Back of the reformation OF
the sixteenth century were the cal
loused knees OF Philip Melancthon and
the 'Bene orasse est bene studisse'
Ito have prayed well is to have stud
led welD Of Martin Luther. 1t was
not the thunderbolt of Luther's ana
thema, but the power of persistent
prayer that gave a new sunrise. to
the church of Christ. The habit of
John Wesley was to rise for prayer
and meditation every morning at four.
There never vas a genuine revival
Of Christianity which did MOI have it,