Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-11-28
THREATENING WEATHER HAS
EFFECT ON CROWD BUT
EvANGELlsT's EFFORTS ARE
INTENSE AND THRILLING.
SPARE ROOM NOT
PLACE FOR CHRIST

PICTURES OF ERRONEOUS AT.
TlTuDEs PEOPLE HAVE TO-
WARD SAVIOUR.
Some of you relegate Jesus Christ
to the spare room in your homes. DID
you ever sec a spare room? Did you
ever sleep in one? It's usually in the
northwest corner of the house, upper
deck. and not a stove within three
blocks of It. They are kept for the
preachers and eyangelists. It's enough
ITO give a man pneumonia just to look
IN the door of a. spare room. I'd as lief
crawl in between two cakes of ice
as crawl between the sheets in the
bed of a.tspare room They are usually
SO small you have to hack out to turn
around. The paper on the walls and
1.-THE carpets on the floor of the spare
room usually. match. They are covered
with lizards, polliwogs, alligators an1
snakes. The windows nor door Of the
spare room are never opened except
when they want to air it to staye off
nlildewing few days longer. I
wouldn't sleep in a spare room if
they'd give me a deed to the house.
And yet that's the place many of you
keep Jesus locked up In your homes. "
The picture Of the spare room was
but one of the many strong scenes
that Evangelist Billy Sunday paint
ed last night depicting the erroneous
attitudes that many people Of today
entertain toward the proper places in
their lives for Jesus Christ.
Owing to the threatening weather,
the tabernacle was not filed, and the
speakers voice penetrated to every
part Of the house with materially less
exertton than usual. Because Of this
fact, Rev. Sunday spoke in a new
tone. His voice was low and thrilling,
and selecting one Of his strongest
sermons, the discourse was intensely
powerful and appealing.
Behold. stand at the door and
knock; If any man hear my voice and
open the door, will come III Will,
him and sup with him and he with
me- Revelations III 20, was the text
which the evangelist used with such
telling force that forty-three men and
women came forward following the
meeting, and joined the forces Of
Christianity
The sermon IN full follows:
Copyright. 1908. by William Ashley
Sunday.)
In the third chapter of Revelations,
the twentieth verse: Behold, stand
at the door and knock; il any man
hear my voice and open the door.
will como in to him and will SIP
with him and he with me-
This is part of the message Of
Jesus through the Apostle John. writ
ten while on the island of Patmes.
TO which he had been banished by or
der Of the king, and was given to the
church. There were many
enjoyed wonderful and exalted p-ivi-
I1eges that are not ours. They had
seen Jesus Christ In the flesh: they
had heard him speak; they had been
the recipients Of his miracles and
they had associated with the most
marvellous parsonage that ever trod
this earth. They heard the precents as
they fell from His lips and had JIM
bibed the power that came from asso-
citation, and he sent this message
through the Holy Spirit and Johr to
bring them to realization of what
they should be and what he wished
they should be-
Jesus Waits.
want you to know am not pes
sirnist, but am an optimist Of the op-
timists Churches are rising and the
increasing. and the wave
of religious zeal started at the close
of the seventeenth century under the
of Wesley and WHITFIELD
has not lost it's power, although it is
having trer endous odds with which
to contend. but it is going on with :ri-
umphs and gaining victories. And yet
something seems to be lacking. We are
increasing in goods, yet there are the
same poor. and naked. and blind. and
J. believe that Jesus Christ stands at
the door of the church life. and I be-
lieve that there is no music, there is
no ritual, there is no progress in ma
terial matters that have a feathers
weight with God. We admit philosophy,
we admit education and ethics. Goa
would not repudiate you; the Lord
ciety and you admit q hundred AND
one things God would keep out and
things which you admit and make 3
religion out Of don't amount to a
snap of your finger, and yet you com
pei Jesus Christ to await without.
If you would let him come in, out
would GO suspician, jealousies, slam
ders, backbiting, wrath malice. fac.
tions, feuds, uuarrels that wreck the
church and disgust God and the
neighborhood. If Jesus Christ should
come In these would all go out, Not
only in my opinion does it apply to
the church, but to every soul tills.
shuts Jesus Christ out of his or her
life. There he stands at the door
pleading; there you are careless III
habitant. a. careless attendant. bol:ing
the door of your will and refusing
Jesus Christ the privilege to enter.