Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-01-30
DO NOT NEGLECT
YOUR SALVATION
DELAY MAY MEAN YOUR ETER.
NAL DAMNATION SAID REV.
LINCOLN MCCONNELL.
CALHOUN DOCTRINE
Revivalist Raps Religion, Which He
Claims Sends Men and Women to
He'll; Explains Why Thief
Was Saved on Cross. ..a

'~"'o SSIOS VtCII anu "OTICH 10
He'll; Explains Why Thief
Was Saved on Cross. ..u
Urging upon all the acceptance OF
the salvation offered by the Almighty
God now, lest delay and neglect may
place eternal life beyond the power OF
the sinner. and taking broadside rar
at the Calhoun doctrine Of salvation
Rev. Lincoln Mcconnell in his sermon
at the First NJ E. church last night
sought to show the fallacy of think
ing that 1t matters not when a man
enters upon a Christian life He
showed by mans own mental makeup
wherein it was foolish to think that
salvation can be secured as easily in
future years as 1t is now. He de-
clared that human nature gradually
but surely alienated man from the
thought of eternal happiness after
death. He pointed out the danger OF
the feeling that II am not ready to
come to God now and I won't until
get ready" Physical life may end, Mr.
Mcconnell said, before men with
such an attitude toward salvation
make up their minds to accept Jesus
Christ. The Calhoun doctrine, which
leads men to believe that they have
the same chance of salvation at the
fatal hour as at the natal hour, was
denounced and the evangelist showed
by the bible and by the contradictory
nature of man himself, wherein such
a doctrine or theory is fundamentally
wrong. Mr. Mcconnell declared that
now is the accepted time and If a
sinner does not take advantage of
the opportunity and continues to ne
elect and delay his future spiritual
life, he may find himself one among
the damned.
Spiritual Neglect Greatest.
There is no department of the hui
man life that suffers such great ne
elect as the spiritual life. We take
care of ourselves physically, and with
no great amount Of neglect, for the
reason that it is pressing fact of the
present We do not neglect our edu-
cation very much as we realize the
needs of a successful earthly life
These are the needs of the present.
But, friends, how we neglect the spir-
itual life. We give it but little thought
and it Is the greatest need of all. Ne
elect and delay is damning to eternal
life and will sooner or later place a
man in a position where he will find
salvation impossible. You will find
men who believe they have the same
opportunity Of salvation at the fatal
hour as at the natal hour l can con-
ceive of nothing more erroneous or
more false than this doctrine Of Cal
houn, which teaches such a destroy
ing theory. 1t is contrary to the make
up of man. From the beginning to the
end of our holy bible, man is told that
he must act himself to gain salvation.
Man must act. Man must use that
power to accept what God has given
him.
"Yet men will believe the doctrine
that God will save them at the time
Of death, when it is utterly contradic-
tory to the word of God. Negligence,
my friends, will cause you to lose
eternal life. Man must do something
himself, must receive before he will
gain salvation. The bible reiterates
to cover. There is time when man
can get salvation, but there comes a
time when his saving is utterly i'm
possible. Who changes? God doesn't
change, my friends; but man does
change. He changes in his physical
being. God is the same forever and
ever and his biblical truths remain
the same, but mortal man is human
and therefore is susceptible to change.
Man Loses Faculty.
Neglect of function means the loss
Of faculty. If I should bind my arm
to my side and refuse to use it year
in and year out it would not be long
before I would be unable to use that
arm to perform the functions that 1t
does now. I would have the arm al
right but it would be dead as far as
using it was concerned. I would lose
the faculty Of using it. Having eyes,
they see not having ears. they hear
not What caused Jesus to make this
statement and what does it mean
What warning is it? These men who
could not see the divinity of Jesus, my
friends, had ears, but heard not; had
eyes, but saw not. They killed him
because they could not see and hssr.
Why? Because they had lost the
power of seeing and hearing; because
they had neglected to use their eyes
and ears. Men are like the fish in
Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. The fish
there are blind because they choose
TO live in the dark recesses, whore
their eyes are useless, instead of in the
river where all is brightness. They
neglect to use their eyes. Men today
lose their power of seeing spiritually
because Of neglect. They choose to
live in the dark recesses where soon
they lose all sight of salvation and it
becomes an impossibility. Friends,
there are tens of thousands of men
and women today who go to their
death because they have neglected
salvation so long that it is impossible.
AN old man came up to me in one
of my meetings some time ago. tremb-
ling with old age. He had but few
more years, perhaps days, to live. He
shook hands with me and said that