The Alaska citizen., 1916-01-31


 Now if you will stop to think here you will realize that you are lost sure. The devil Is trying to get you to believe just such a thing and if you are believing it, the old fellow is not bothering you much just dropping around occasionally to see how complete Is his deep tion with you. You need a little of the Bible here. There is none righteous, no, not one" The text does not say. there is none self righteous most anyone knows tha' there would be plenty to supply such utteranCes, and Jesus has no came to save sinners, and justify the ungodly." Just take a good look at that righteousness of yours and see how utterly you have been deceived. You are in sore need of help, and it is freely offered to you by Jesus, who came to justify the ungodly.' Now just listen. When a physician gets ready to hang out his shingle' where does he go? Where the people are all we'll and no one ever gets sick? No he de sires to go where he can practice" on the people, for without service he is without source of income. "The whole have no need of a physician but they that are sick" If you are self-righteous there is little hope for your case. You will just have to go on in your sins, with self-right- eousness the greatest of them all But if you are really undone by req son of your shortcomings and desire to be justified in the sight of God and be restored into His favor. but are the one whom God had in mind when he brought forth this system whereby you might be justified.
 Now it is common for some to believe that they must be lost ju"t because they are sinners. This is the best argument you can bring forth that you can be saved. The 1 Lord Jesus Christ came into the world for just such as you and He is desirous of accepting your case at once. Jesus came to seek and to save that which is lost. When men are not playing with words or calling themselves miserable sin ners" for mere compliment, the Savi- or is anxious to espouse their cause and mediate their case. Bona fide sinners are tte only ones who need to expect mercy at the hands of Jesus, and, ill fact, the only ones who would come to Him for help Our Lord Jesus did not cone to satisfy imaginary sins, but he came to make atonement for sins that are deep red, and to wash them white as snow.
 He that Is a black sinner is the one for whom Christ came. A gos- pei preacher on one occasion preached a sermon from, Now also the axe Is laid to the root of the trees; ' and he delivered such a sermon that one of his hearers said to him, Que would have thought that you had i been preaching to criminals. Your sermon ought to have been delivered in the county jail" "Oh, no," said the good man, Eff I were preaching in the county jail, I should not preach from that text There l should preach, This is faithful saying, and worthy of all accepta- i tion, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" Just so The law is for the self-right- eous, to humble their pride; the gospel is for the lost, to remove their despair.
 If you are not sick why should you have need of physician? If you are not lost what need have you of a Savior? Why should the woman sweep the house for the piece of money that was not lost at all? Why should the shepherd go out on the barren mountain to find the sheep that had never been away from the fold? Why should the 1 father await the return of the son who had never absented himself from the kind care of a tender love such as was that of his father so dear to him, and yet he not willing to recognize it until he had plains of Judea as he "fain ate the husks that the swine did eat? ?' No, the doctor is for the diseased; j; liberation for the bound; pardon for the guilty. Can you account for the death on the cross of the Savior for any other reason than that men were ungodly and this act would render them godly? The sinner is the gospels reason for existence. If you are "undeserv, ing, ill-deserving, hell-deserving' you are just the one for whom Christ died, just the one for whom the gospel was ordained and manifest in the flesh'
 It has been the purpose here to make this plain to the understand ing of all who read, but it is not possible for man to make this plan of Justification plain and compre