The Washington herald., 1918-03-03
Billy Said: "You Will Never Know Until
You Get to Glory How Much You
Are Indebted to the Prayers and
Tears of Some One Who Held You
Dear and True"
EVENING SERMON
Thou Art Not Far from the Kingdom"

want. You need the touch of God
all your life, and then you will be-
come all that God had for you In his
plans.
1t. is sad to see thing that would
be perfect If 1t did not lack one thing.
There Is the electric light that has no
current. There is a locomotive but
it has no steam. There Is q human
being but it has no life in it. Things
that would be perfect but for the lack
of one thing.
You can take the finest handspring
made in the United States or In Switz-
erland and you can put It into the
handspring barrel of a watch and then
you can jewel the top and bottom
with rubies and diamonds and then
you go through the rest of the as
sembly and miss one thing and II your
watch is all ready and lacks that one
thing, it renders all the others OF no
use. You had left out the hair-spring.
That is all, just a hair-spring.
And so a great many people lack
one thing. There are many things
desirous- Education is desirous. All
honor to the man or woman that
deprives himself or herself OF the
comforts of life that their boy or
girl may have an education. But an
education is not necessary to get into
Heaven. God does lot require that.
Many things are desirable, but not
necessary.
Wealth is desirable. and money is
the medium whereby we buy and
exchange commodities in life, but God
does not compel or require that you
have a rating in Bradstreet or r.
G. Dunn's before the gates OF Heaven
will let y)I across the threshold
Wealth Is desirable, but God does
not require you to have a certain,
amount Of wealth before you can get
into Heaven.
With Wrong Crowd.
Salvation is necessary. You have
made education and wealth the main
points. leaving salvation out. So II
Is sad to see things that would be
perfect but for the lack OF one thing.
Most of US here tonight came from
Christian homes. You have the men,
ory of a goty father or mother. You
have been surrounded by Christian
influences On our coins we stamp:
I'm God We Trust"
Under the influences OF it, you have
turned as naturally toward this tab
ernacle as a flower will turn toward
the sun, when it lifts its lips to be
kissed by the sunshine and the dew.
And then, companions. Many are
in heaven because Of the influence
of companions. Others are in hell be-
cause they have gone with the wrong
Gro Td.
Many a man has n good godIy wife,
or he had a godly mother, and / be-
ieve the prayers of many a mans
wife are a lightning rod above his
head to keep God from knocking him
down in his cussedness and sin. So
therefore, for the sake of companions;-
you can thank the Lord
Sometimes I think If 1t were not for
a wife many a man would have been
in hell long ago. So you will never
know until you get to glory, how much
you are indebted to the prayers and
tears Of someone who held you dear
and true.
And you are likely 20 drift away
from God. Thou art not far from
the kingdom of God"
Religion Reasonable.
I will never forget that there are
two gates which lead into the inner
nature of every man and woman. One
is the heart, the other the head. The
heart must be purified of sin; no
matter what your mind may be able
to conceive, il your heart is wrong
tha1 very heart will condemn you.
If you want 10 get into my heart,
come through the door of my reason.
Now then, 1 don't want to say any
thing, my friends, my sympathies are
too profound, my respect is too great,
to say anything bitter and reproach-
full toward the man or woman who
is honestly saying, IF you want
to get into my heart convince my
reason" And IN all my preaching
here have tTied to put the heart
side of the Gospel. have tried to
show you that religion is the most
thing on earth and that
you must be moral idiot that you
don't see that a man is unreason-
able IL he is unrighteous and that
and reasonableness are
synonymous terms. Nobody is rea-
sonable unless he is a Christian.
1 don't know any class or profess
sion that is more exposed to the
taunts and the assaults of infidelitS
than the legal profession. why? They
are always dealing with the unpleas-
ant side of life. Somebody Is trying
to put 1t over on the other fellow
all the time. Somebody is trying
to pick somebody else's pocket.
They live iii an atmosphere. of COM
troversy. 1t would seem as though
the religion OF Jesus Christ, which