Evening journal., 1916-01-17

not very bad" No one said you were.
You are not condemned for your bad
ness, or received for your goodness.
Salvation is not 2 matter of merely
good or bad. or of good or better. It
is a question of life or death. The
condemnation is for rejecting Jesus
Christ
But another interposes. Il will take
my chance" That is unreasonable
Supposing q train were coming down
grade sixty miles an hour and |
would go out and lie down on the
track with my neck across the rail,
you would shout to me. Get off the
track, you will be killed" Supposing
/ would look up at you and say, "Oh.
/ will take by chance" There is no
chance about it: it is a sure thing.
Between salvation and damnation,
there is, as It were, a barbed wire
fence and you cannot sit on il. You
are on the one side or the other.
But" says another one. 81 have mt
feeling upon this matter" Il is not
a question Of feeling, but of faith. Not
once in the Scripture is it said that
man is saved by his feelings. but five
hundred times il is said that he h
saved by faith. ! remember just now
Of only one man in the Scripture that
depended upon his feelings. and that
was Isaac He thought he was feeling
of Esau when he was really feeling
Of Jacob. He was mistaken-he got
the wrong man. Feeling Is sometimes
the result of salvation but is never
the cause of salvation. You do not
feel an organ in the body when il Is
healthy. Il is only when il gets dis
eased that you feel IT, You do not de-
pend upon feelings merely. in othe,
( important matters. DO you working
men get up in the morning and go
TO your work only when you feel like
il? II you did. fear many OF you
would lose your job. Supposing you
were at a hotel and you had to eaten
a 4.30 train in the morning in mid
winter Your room is icy cold: the
clerk comes and raps on your door
and saws. -Four o'clock" Would you
get up? yes. because / must catch
that train. Every dollar I have in
the eworld is at stake" Would you
feel like getting up? No
How unreasonable this excuse is for
waiting for feeling. Many say. when
I feel all right I will accept Christ. q"
Supposing friend Of yours wac seri-
ously i'll with some dangerous disease
You bring him a remedy which is "a
sure cure for that ailment You tell
him to take Il regularly every half
hour until the next day and he will be
well. Supposing you come the next
day and find him worse than he was
before. You say 10 him. Did you
take the medicine?" He says, "No.
didn't feel any better and therefore
I did not take the medicine" "
First Of all accept Christ as your
Savior because It is right to do so.
feeling or no feeling Then when you
have done this go out into Christian
work and endeavor to bring someone
else to Christ When God has used
your words. your influence, or your
example to bring another to saliva
ton, you will have more feeling than
you can stand. In other words, feeling
comes not so much through salvation
as through service. Waiting for feel
ing would be a good deal like a man
going into the timber with his axe or
cold winter day, and sitting down ol
a stump and waiting for sweat.
, Still another excuses himself fol
]
, saying. Il am afraid ] could not hole
out You do not have to hold out
, all you have to do is to hold OH
is Christ that does the holding out
No excuse offered is more unreason
able than this one. Someone says. "
, am not going to begin the Christian
life until / am sure that / have
enough grace to carry me clear
through to heaven" But that is nor
, the way that God deals with man
Supposing I should start from Chi
, cago to New York and would step VI
, to the engineer and say 10 him, Have
you enough steam in your boiler tC
| carry us clear to New York;" He
, would reply, "No. certainly l hav,
! not" We'll, then" l would say. 81
am not going TO get on the train un
) til / am sure you have enough steam
, to carry us clear through" why,
he would reply, IF we would try e
! get up enough steam in the boiler Il
, carry us to New York it would burs
( the boiler all to pieces. All we d,
/ here in the station is to general,
, enough steam 10 start the train anC
/ then we create power as we go" Tha
. is the way that God does in dealing
, with the human soul When He leC
! the children of Israel through thu
!, wilderness for forty years, He die
: not give them enough provisions a
! the start to keep them the entire time
He gave them mama fresh every day
. His promise is. "As thy day is, so shal
= thy strength be-"
4 Supposing young man has got ;
. good business and built him a resi-
dence and now is looking around fol
r a wife. He centers his affections
, upon a certain girl and at last on
Y evening when he is calling upon he
S he draws his chair up q little close
;. and says. Now. my dear, | love yol
o with my whole heart. and ! woull
e like to be your husband. if I though
o my love would hold outl" Did yol
= ever know Of anyone to act that way
n The glory Of the Christian life is tina
n it keeps getting better and better. an
k richer and richer, as the years go OF
Il Are you saying that you would b
II a Christian if you could live it? Blu
e listen. you must live. anyway. whethe
>. YOU are a Christian or whether yo
n are not You have your problems {
= solve, your burdens to bear. you
q temptations TO overcome, your char
v acter to form, anyway. Becoming
n Christian does not create your respol
l. sibilities. They are already upon you
IT life. What your becoming Christia
IS does is 10 help you bear the respons
r bilities that you already have. TIL
question reverts then down to this
s the last analysis: How can bear m
l. burdens and solve my problems, an
.e overcome my temptations. and forl