Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-11-20

all your neart, your hlhu anu EVui
soul.
Present your bodies" Past. pres
ent or future. Your strength, your
weakness, your wisdom, your igno-
rance-all you have suffered, all you
have heard. all you have loved. all you
have enjoyed-give the whole thing to
God
u beseech you. brethren. by the mer-
cies of God"
Never was there a victory won that
did not cost suffering. Paul preached
and they chopped off his head. Jesus
Christ demonstrated and they nailed
Him on the cross. Abraham Lincoln
signed the Emancipation Proclama-
ton and John Wilkes Booth paid him
with a bullet.
Never was there victory without suf-
fering.
Present your bodies as a living sac
rifice" That is what the wife does. she
saws. Il give myself wholly to the hus-
band" And he says. ct give myself
wholly 20 the wife"
Lots of people shy AT that word
wholly" If that were our watchword
in business what a wonderful world this
would he What a stampede there
would be I'm short yard sticks.
Graft would he unknown. No lying IN
advertisements. No fire sale" when
there
tred blocks OF It, There would be no
difference in Goodness in business ana
Godliness in the church.
II that were true there would be no
licensed saloons, no vomiting and spew-
ing out their drunken horde. No drunk
ards Keeling and staggering to the tudg-
ments Of God. No fallen women mer-
chandisinC their womanhood. No thieves.
Nobody to stick a gun under your nose
or mine and say. Your money or your
life" No infidelity. Nobody to wriggle
their carcass across our threshold and
try TO seduce your wife and wreck our
home.
Oh. I think one of the noblest attri-
butes of God is reason. I think He Is
never unreasonable. God only asks His
rights. God only asks you to do what
makes you better. if you do and what
hurts YOU if you don't do.
I believe no law was ever made for
us that we would not have made our
selves. If we had known the truth as
God knows it, God doesn't ask you to
do anything that you would not demand
Yourself TO do if you knew everything
as God knows IT. God never asks us to
do anything that you were not better
of by doing
God never asks humanity to do any
thing that is not for the good of it.
on. I will admit all these things, then
I am through. God will ask some
things that are hard things-1 will ad-
NIT that, but never unreasonable.
1t was a hard thing when God said
to Abraham. you go out with your son.
Isaac" and he took him upon the noun
tain as a sacrifice; but God had reason.
Abraham understands tonight, and he is
satisfied.
1t was a hard thing that God asked
of Joseph, to be torn out of the arms of
his father and mother. sold to the Ish-
maelites, then TO have that miserable, Ii
centiOus woman trying to put one over
on him, seduce him from virtue and
truth. When he stood in the midst of
the fires of temptations, he looked her
square in the eye and said, How can /
do this great evil and sin against God?"
And God used Joseph to preserve the
posterity of the Jewish nation, although
he had TO lie in prison for four years
because they framed up something on
him.
Oh. It was a hard thing that God
asked of Joseph. but God had a reason,
and Joseph understands tonight, and he
is satisfied.
God asks some hard things. will ad-
nit: but God never asks anything un-
reasonable. Never. 1t was a hard thing
that God asks of Moses. to take that
great horde of half civilized people, Of
Jews who had been for four hundred
and thirty years in Egyptian bondage,
and lead them TO the promised land.
They grumbled and growled. One day
he got so mad he pulled out his rod and
walked up to the stone and He said, "Oh,
Jesus. shall we bring water out of this
rock?"
God said. come her. Moses, come
here
He took him up on the mountain
and he said, DO you see that country
1t is great, Lord. What is it?'
That is the Promised Land"
Where We are going?
NO. Not where you are going. You
can't do il. You forgot that the rock
God Almighty was trying to teach
these people was his idol" They had
keen worshipping idols and had been
giving Moses the credit for his power
1t was a hard thing that God asked
Moses to do but He had a reason. AMI
Moses understands tonight. lie is salts
tied.
Il was a hard thing that God asked
OF JOB; TO be covered with boils from
head TO foot and his wife said. Curse
God" but did he? No. He said.
Though He slay me yet will 1 trust
Him"
Oh God had reason, and Job under
stands tonight, and is satisfied.
L will admit God asks some things
that are hard but God has a reason.
II was a hard thing that God asked
of Paul. To be cursed. beaten and at
last beheaded, but God had a reason.
Paul understands, and he is satisfied.
1t was a hard thing that God said
to His only begotten Son. Son, go
down. be born of the Virgin Mary, suf-
fer under Pontius PLATE, be crucided.
dead and buried"
But he walked the earth, and he was
spat upon, damned, Stoned and called 4
wine bibber and a glutton. And they
treated him with all the brutality that
hearts inspired by the devil could do.
and then they nailed him on the cross
and hec ried. 1T is finished"
He burst through the gates into the
city. ., Christ is risen. Jesus Christ
understood that God had n reason for
this, and he was satisfied.
II was a hard thing when God said
to me. Go up and down the land and
preach"
I said, Il haven't the learning I would
like to have, but / will do it," ] have
gone for twenty-one years and held up
the bleeding form of Jesus Christ. I
have gone into the ranks of sin; been
lied about; slandered, black-mailed,
l.