The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1911-04-18

MORALITY Will
NOT ALONE Save
sinful MANKIND
MANY PEOPLE WHO LIVE PURE,
CLEAN LIVES LACK THE
"DIvlNE QUALITY"
WHAT is ETERNAL LIFE?
Preached by DR.. Massee at the
First Baptist Church.

The First Baptist church, both Sun
day school and auditorium room, was
u crowded last night and Dr. Massee
preached another fine sermon, which
reached the hearts as well as ears of
all who listened intently to him.
Master Forest Neal Pack was the
violinist accompanying the choir on
this occasion, and the music was very
good. Calling the Prodigal Home"
was one of the favorites which took
with the congregation during the half
hour of music, which preceded the
sermon
4 Rev. E. d. Solomon, of the Colum-
bia Street Baptist church, gave an ear
nest prayer for the surrender of the
wills and hearts of the unsaved
DR.. Masse began by criticising Sc
verely the Baptists who keep their
church letters in their trunks and
then announced his text: Teacher.
. what good thing shall do that | may
have eternal life?' (The rich young
mans question to Jesus.) He eXplod-
ed the theory that the needles eye
referred to by Christ, 1T is as hard
for camel to go through a needles
eye, as for rich man to go to heav
en-" means a gate in old Jerusalem,
as there was at that time no such
gate there: therefore the text should
be interpreted literally as a cambric
needle.
Declaring this question asked by
the rich young man of Christ to be of
historic and supremest universal in
terest, he said every man is born into
the world with an inherent deathless
life. The word immortal" is men
toned in the bible eight times, and
always referring to the body so that
1t will be the same hereafter.
What is Eternal Life?
Eternal life was defined as life
that has no beginning and no end, it
is more than everlasting. The seri-
BUSINESS of the question asked by the
young man was pointed out and how
he realized the something lacking in
his life. In all Gods universe there
is only one life like the life of God,
the life that has no beginning or end,
but has the divine quality.
Telling how this divine quality
changes mans whole life, DIR. Mas
see discussed the process of graft
ing fruit trees, comparing it to the
man coming to God and having Gods
fruit instead of mans fruit The
wonderful beauty and simplicity sof
sAChrist's answer to the young man to
<sss-eyood, be moral, was pointed out
alsg| the fact that Jesus only mention
ed six out of the ten commandments,
taking it for granted the young man
kept the other four.
Morality Alone Will Not Save.
DR.. Massee declared his belief that
there are many, many men who live
clean, pure lives, just as this rich
young man did; yet this young man
still lacked the divine quality. Jesus
did not have to tell him that morality
would save him. "Why the pur-
est, most chaste man in the universe
is lost soul if he have not the love
of God in his heart" DR.. Masse de-
clared.
Jesus explained what was lacking
in the young man, telling him to go
sell what he had and give it to the
poor. Here the speaker drew an elo-
quent picture of the power OF wealth,
which, especially when inherited,
brings culture, things beautiful and
esthetic, education, sense of inde-
\ pendence, high social position and the
esteem of men; and of Christ telling
the young man to give up all of this
and face God with his bare soul, ending
with the question: "Will your morali-
ty face that? What Jesus meant"
said the speaker, was to come out
without thing and face Him. The
silence of the young man was Shown.
meaning Il can't do it," and many
people are saying that today.
Closing with tribute to Mr. Hay,
the Christian statesman, who was in