The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1914-06-29

AN NAANs 11lISc aL1 Uk1EAbSOuSOS
Is sin, every sin Is a spot upon the
robe, whether It be committed wilfully
or tgnorantly. All faithful children Of
God should use all diligence in keep.
ing their garments free from b1emish.
This may be done by daily thinking
about the robe, and nightly asking the
Lord to emove each spot-to forgive
each failure made that day. The blood
OF Jesus Christ keeps cleansing all
who ask that they be cleansed.
This is the Heavenly Fathers ar
rangement for His children. He de-
sires them to walk circumspectly,
watching where they tread. Thus they
learn every detail in respect to their
own imperfections. No one can live
for even u day without t~respassing
upon the perfect Law Of God; for by
nature we are all imperfect. In heart
the child Of God does not sin; the New
Creature does not sin. It is merely
that the flesh Is weak. But we have
the comforting assurance of the Scrip
ture that 'if any nan sin, we have an
Advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the Righteous" Our Lord is
there to make good with the Father for
all the Adamic weaknesses.
The Pastor then discussed two kinds
Of sin, one OF which he declared 10 DO
forg1vable and the other unforaivable.
If to any extent the mind consents to
the deed, to that extent the sin ia will
full. Then emily that portion which was
net wiltul will be forgiven. Whatever
part was not forgivable is punishable.
The individual will receive stripes,
punishments, Of one sort or another,
proportionate to the degree In which
the will consented to the sin.
There Is naturally such sympathy be-
tween the flesh and the mind that some
times eve the will OF the New Crea-
ture permits the flesh to take it by
force, as it were. This should not be;
the viii is responsible, and because Of
its c~arelessness will receive stripes Of
some kind. But SO long as the indi-
ViduaI feels sorry as 500 al the yield
ing to temptation has passed. he may
know that his will does not love sin.
Should his will ever change and pre-
fer sin, he would not be sorry. after
the sin was committed.
taew 20 BE an ovsroonasr.
It was then shown that every con-
secrated child OF God must be an over
conner in fighting the COED fight Of
faith, and In obedience to God must
put down everything that pertains to
sin and un~righteousness in himself,
and stand for that which is pleasing In
the sight OF God. This is the test Of
our loyalty to Him and b the prtnct-
pies Of His righteous Government
Many sins are really weaknesses Of the
flesh which overcome the will monaen-
tarily. Just here the New Creature
must conquer In the fight. He must
get the victory over the flesh. If we
sin, If we trespass, we must go to the
Fountain of Grace and be forgiven.
The great difficulty, the Pastor de-
clared, seems to be that after we have
had some experiences Of this kind, we
properly enough feel ashamed that We
have not done better. This Ia the
time when the Christian is in danger.
He Is liable to fail to ask forgiveness
at the Throne of the Heavenly Grace;
for he feels that already he has been
forgiven perhaps many times for the
same tregpass. Therefore he may try
to forget the spot, to forget the "robe,"
almost to forget the Lord. Gradually
a veil GENES between him and GodS
the Father is not % near ana 20 dear
as once He was. While He is still his
Heavenly Father, while still the erring
one trusts in Him, nevertheless there
is a lack of the fellowship Of the Spir-
1t. Earth-born clouds have hiddea the
Fathers face.
This is the experience Of hundreds Of
the people of God; for they cannot be
in His presence with spots upon their
robes, and they do not resolve that
they will not live away from Him.
They cannot have fellowship with the
Lord while their robes are spotted, nor
can they have proper Christian life
while absent from the Lord. The les
son on this point, the speaker declar-
ed, is that we watch and keep humble.
To come to the Lord and say, 20 Lord,
another time I have failed! How
ashamed I anal" is to take the right
step. Humility Is one Of the very
foundations upon which all other
graces must be built. So the Apostle
Peter says, Humble yourselves there
fore under the mighty hand of God,
that He may exalt you In due time"
The Cleansing Blood of Christ.
=. The number OF those without spot or
wrinkle or any such thing is very
small, said the Pastor. Many Chris
tians have not kept their wedding robes
with sufficient care, and thus have
shown their lack of appreciation Of the
wedding and Of their invitation to at
tend. II the attention Of such be call
ed to the spots, they try to put them
out Of sight, to ignore them, to declare
that everybody has spots on his robe.
This is an unwise procedure; for the
robe Is u passport into the Kingdom.
Ii the spots are not removed, they
gradually become more and more a
hindrance to those who seek to be d.
counted worthy OF q place In the Bride
class.
The Pastor then reminded his audi
nee that when the Christian first re-
ceived his robe, 1t was pure white,
with a certain design stamped thereon;
and that he was expected to embrotdef
it with the Observation-Disclosures Of the
Lord. IL he has gotten the robe spot