The free lance. (Fredericksburg, Va.) 1885-1926, 1910-02-10
A FINE SERVICE
DR.. Thackef breaches 10 Another
Crowded House.

Monday night saw another great
crowd at the opera house. DIR. rhacker
from the time he has commenced
preaching here has never waned in his
allegiance to the old story. He is a
biblical preacher.
Dr. Thacker grows upon the people
and the better he is known the more he
is admired.
The singing was good and the crowds
are delighted when the great chorus
sings such songs as, HE Will Hold Me
Fast, Let Us Crown Him." God
Will Take Care of Me-" and the
GLORY Song" Mr.. Fisher always
sings at every service a sweet solo.
DIR. Thacker took as his text Monday
night Ephesians 2-10, For we are his
workmanship. created in Christ Jesus
unto good works, which God hath be-
fore ordained, that we shall walk in
them" and drew as his theme. MAN
Essentially Religious.
He called attention TO the fact that
man is endowed with the faculty Of
choice. He has this God given faculty,
by which he can accept or reject the
Saviour.
l. Man is a religious creature. II is
as natural 70 Is TO be religious as it is
to be intellectual. The religious trend
of character is as much a part of mans
being as any other trend. We see this
in our own nature, where men instinc-
lively, at certain times, cry out for
God. Sometimes in moments Of great
natural disturbances man feels his
weakness and powerlessness. which
leads him to that sense of dependence
to higher power. In hours of deep
grief or despair the human heart turns
towards God.
2. Jesus Christ is the only ideal for
humanity. In John 10 it says, II am
the vine and We are the branches. p" And
this means that our intimate connection
unto Jesus Christ is so vital that we are
compelled by His union to bear fruit.
3. Ii is easier to believe in Christ than
not 20 believe in Him. 1t is easier to
be Christian than not 10 be one. IL
is easier to go to Heaven than II is to
go to hell DIR. Thacker explained that
this did not mean that it was easier TO
be good than to be evil. but that the
plan of salvation was so simple and so
plain and so easy to find that it was
harder for a man to miss that, in view
of his religious faculty, than il was
easier for him to find the opposite.
For, said the preacher. if a man be-
comes a drunkard, he comes TO this
condition over his own conscience, over
every conception of the best that is in
him, over every voice that summons
him to a better life. So that with all
of these things that tend TO lead him to
better life, with this religious tend
ency in his being to lift hin to higher
things, tbs necessarily an easier matter
for him not TO be a drunkard than il is
for him to be one.
4. Man, out of harmony with God,
brings sorrow and suffering into the
world. He pictured David, who by his
sins brought about a rupture between
him and his Heavenly Father, and it
was not until he had confessed his sin,
had come TO realize that his sins were
against God. that he came back in
TO that condition of happiness and peace,
which is the normal condition of man.
In the 5lst Psalms he says, Against
thee and thee only have | sinned," and
then says, Restore unto me the Joy
of thy salvation and then will | teach
transgressors their way and sinners will
come unto me-"
The life of Jesus is the pattern for
our life, for il says in Philippians,
LET this mind be in your which also
was in Christ Jesus" He gives is
peace not only in death, but peace in
the days of life.
After the message DIR. Thacker asked
that the people sign the cards confess
ing the Saviour. while Mr.. Fisher sang
sweet solo, after which the cards
were gathered up.
There have been more than $40 sig
natures on the part of the Christian
people. pledging themselves TO higher
and better living for the Master, and
over l60 confessions Of faith in the Lord
Jesus.