Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1915-10-14
LAST NIGHTS SUBJECT
WAS INTERESTING
Evangelist Newlin Used For Hi.
Subject "The Call to Repent
ance" and Was Mastery
Appeal for Sinners to Re-
pent From Their Sins
God Now Commanded all
Men Every Where to Repent"
Acts 1890.

III NhCh ENCFy "hcEc W INcpcHt.
Acts 1890.
Repentance is positive command
of God and lies at the very founda-
ton of all true religion. This is
clearly set forth both in the Old and
New Testaments. Some have preach
ed after this fashion, you must re-
pent, as 1t were, and be converted,
in measure, or you will be damned,
to some extent" But that kind of
preaching is not in accord with the
more than sixty clarion calls of the
A Bible to repentance in such words as,
Repent and turn yourselves from all
your transgressions, so iniquity shall
not be your ruin" (Ezek. 1890
and, Except we repent We shall all
likewise perish" (Luke 1879. All
4 the epistles were written to teach the
importance of repentance. One may
make a profession of religion and
join any church in the country, but
4 If he has not gone down upon his
face before God and repented of all
4 sin from the bottom of his heart he
I will be a miserable failure as "a
Christian and will never reach heav-
en- in the end.
This doctrine was preached by the
/ prophets of old, and in fullness of
time there appeared John, the trum-
! pet tounged herald, who emerged
from the solitudes of the Judean
hills, and proclaimed the key note of
true repentance. He was a strange
man with a strange message, His
first text was, Repent We, for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand" He
preached in the power of the Spirit
and his message got hold of the peo-
pie. He insisted that men make the
crooked places straight, the black
white and all wrong, right. Crowds
gathered about him and many re-
pented. The popular church crowd
of Jerusalem came out to hear him
and to them he said IN erect, Don't
begin to say we belong to Abraham s
church. The axe Is at the root Of
the tree and il there is not fruit for
repentance on il surely IL will be cut
down and cast into the fire"
King Herod heard of this great re-
vival and sent for the evangelist to
come up and conduct a service in his
palace. He was given cordial re-
ception but he lost his popularity
when he announced his text He
preached the same Gospel up there
In the palace that he had preached
in the back woods along the Joruan.
His sermon was to this effect, Her
cd, you need to repent like common
sinners. You are living with anoth-
err mans wife" The Gospel of re-
pentance offended this adulterous
woman and she silenced him by hav-
ing him beheaded. But when the
head of John rolled into that charger
there arose greater than John the
BAPTIST and He knew where to begin.
JESUS took up Johns message His
first text being, Repent ye for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand"
When he sent out the twelve Apost-
les they were TO proclaim that the
kingdom of God was coming nigh
and that they must repent or they
could not enter the kingdom. When
He sent out the seventy, two and two,
they were to go saying, Repent for
the kingdom of heaven is at hand. y
All through His ministry He preach
ed the doctrine of repentance, and
Just before returning to Glory He
called the Apostles about Him and
commissioned them to preach repent
ance.
When He went back to heaven Pet
er took up that cry and as he preach
ed repentance to Jerusalem sinners
on the day of Pentecost The Holy
Ghost placed His seal upon the mes
sage and three thousand were saved
in one day. And when Jesus was
back again on the throne in heaven
and had received from the angels
and archangels the welcome which
He deserved, as though He know that
some OF us would shrink from press
ing the unwelcomed message of re-
pentance, He calls to Saul and COM
missions him to go to the Gentiles
and make themhear it-make them
them do works, meet for repentance.
In our text Paul in obedience to that
charge is in Athens raising the will
derness cry. commanding all men to
repent. When he was led by the
Holy Spirit to Ephesus to conduct a
revival he preached repentance and
may confessed their sins and brought
their books on curious arts and burn
ed them in the streets of the city.
If we have an old time revival of
true repentance a great change will
take place in this city. There will
be burning of novels and cards and
books on Christian Science and Hyp-
notism and No-hellism and Millen-
nial-dawnism and Higher Criticism,
these would all go into the fire and
half-nude pictures would come down
from the walls of many homes and
public buildings. What bonfire all
these would make if we could only
get people to repent. 1t means much
for men to repent All old debts
would be paid, all grudges settled
and forgotten, stolen goods would
find their way home, some men would
change business and all crooked trans
actions would be set right. Repent
ance swings the gate of mercy open
and robs hell of its spoils and pre-
pares the world for the coming of the
King in His Glory. Every repenting
heart is a new garden in which God
plants His seeds of love and grace
and waters them from the fountain
of everlasting salvation.
Repentance! What theme! John
Wesley preached from this text but
he did not invent 1t. George Whit
field preached from this text three
hundred times but it is older than
Whitfield Finney and Moody and
Sam Jones all preached from this
text but il was old before they were
born. General Booth who belted the
globe with a golden cable of saliva
ton, lifting tens of thousands from
the slums and sewers of the city to
walk the streets of heaven in white
\ preached from these words but they
are older than the Salvation Army
These words came from heaven and
they came from the burning fires OF
hall also He'll sent one message To