The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1912-05-07

der Of the king, and was given to
the church. There were many who
We're on earth in those days who en-
joyed wonderful and exalted privileges
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 mar
velous parsonage that ever trod this
earth. They heard the precepts as
they fell from His lips and had inn
bibed the power that came from assoc
citation, and He sent this message
through the holy spirit and John to
bring them to a realization of what
they should be and what He wished
they should be.
81 want you ito know / am not a
pessimist, but / am an optimist of
the optimists. Churches are rising
and the membership increasing, and
the wave of religious zeal started at
the close of the seventeenth century
under the preaching of Wesley and
Whitfield has not lost its power, al
though it is having tremendous odds
with which to control, but it is going
on with triumph and gaining victories.
What Is Lacking.
And yet something seems to be
lacking. We are increasing in goods,
yet there are the same poor, and
naked, and blind, and l believe that
Jesus Christ stands at the door of
the church life and / believe that
there is no music, there is no ritual,
there is no progress in material mat
tiers that have q feathers weight Of
worth with God. We admit philos-
ophy: we admit education and ethics.
God would, not repudiate you; the
Lord would not say you nay. You
admit society and you admit a hun
dred and one things which o admit
and make a religion out of don't
amount to a snap of your finger, and
yet you compel Jesus Christ to await
without.
eff you would let Him come in, out
would go suspicion, ~jealousies, SLAM
ders. blacksliding, wrath, malice, fac
tions, feuds, quarrels 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 that
| shuts Jesus Christ out of his or her
life.
There He stands at the door plead
ing; there you are, a careless inhabi-
| tant, a careless attendant, boiling the
door of your will and refusing Jesus
Christ the privilege to enter. Your
religion is in your will, not in your
L 49, AlI4AG TF M mill m xynITNs
life is not in harmony with the re-
vealed will Of God, then you are not
religious, you are not a christian.
Religion comes from the word re-
Iigiop and means the conscious rela-
ton between man and God. Man
forfeits his standing with God when
he sins. God looks upon the sinner as
if he didn't live, and he doesn't live
spiritually. A sinner is a rebel.
Some people say, We'll, it's hard
To get acquainted with God It's the
easiest thing in the world to get &C
uuainted with God, and If you are
here tonight and are not a christian
it is because you don't want to be a
christian. If you are here tonight
without the touch of God on YOU life
1t is because you don't want it. II
you are here tonight a rebel against
God it is because you would rather
be a rebel against God than to be
Gods disciple.
Will You Let God In?
"Some man says to me, How am
/ to know God wants to come into
my life?' / will play the Yankee and
answer your question by asking one
If you knew God wanted to come into
your life would you let Him come
in? If you knew that God wanted
TO lock arms and go with you down
to the store would you let him?
IF you knew that God wanted t.
go into you home and start family
prayer would you do it? / tell yoI
that crying out is mans nature fol
that which he hasn't-that something
which causes you to hurry home anC
clean up-to drop the instruments o.
toll and lock up your store and hurry
10 this tabernacle-that is your ma
ture reaching out after God.
when we speak of Jesus as tn,
WAY, the Truth and the Life WI
speak of the personal Christ, who hai
mower on earth to forgive sin.
lover in Egypt they dug up
mummy, and when they ~unwrapped
and deciphered the wedge-shaped HE
rogIyphics they found that for 800
years that mummy had been lyinl
embalmed and about it were kernel
Of wheat OF a peculiar kind, such a.
they had not known. and they tool
those kernels and planted them in tn
fertile valley of the Nile. Fecundate'
by the sun and the rich soil, the,
terminated and grew aid in a fey
years they harvested some 5000 bush
els of Vheat from the handful o
kernels they found. and although TO
5000 years it had been lying ther
still it contained the power and gerr
} IF nroduct.on.