The Washington herald., 1918-02-07

Billy Sunday last night delivered
this sermon:
This evening the text IL In Acts,
the seventeenth chapter, thirtieth
verse.
God commands all men everywhere
to repent" Not /, God. God COM
mands, He doesn't entreat. He com
nands all men, the rich and the poor,
the black and the white, learned or
unlearned, native or foreign. He com
mands all men everywhere. office, shop
store, factory. bank. legislative hall.
college, university, on the street, the
haunts Of sin and vice-"God COM
mands all men everywhere to repent
The first thing John the Baptist
preached about was repentance. The
rirst thing the disciples preached about
was repentance. It Is seldom you hear
a sermon on repentance today. There
ara plenty Of preachers who in the
course Of q long ministry have given
repentance a wide berth, possibly for
the same reason that the old colored
preacher never preached about steal
ing chickens, for he said the audience
froze up towards him and people were
cold.
The Successful Preacher.
But the man who breaches re-
petance in the power Of God is
bound to stir up snakes. 1t doesn't
take some preachers long to find
out that it is q good deal easier to
hold their job and have their sal
aries increased occasionally If they
will make people satisfied with
themselves.
~ inc
else. anything that reveals our
selves to ourselves. We all hate
anything that shows US our faults
or blemishes-
Vi, One reason why a good many
people don't like the Bible is be-
cause 1t makes them see their wick
ed hearts and they can't bear that.
They don't like the preaching that
goes after them rough-shod and
touches up the sore spots. They
want the sermons of the "You-tick-
le-me-and ndPll-tickle-you variety
the preaching that pats them on
the head and makes them feel like
a boy with his mouth full of but
terscotch is good preaching to them.
You make a man feel as though
God admired him and couldn't run
this universe without him and you
will be a great preacher to that fell
low.
. oh. a long step has been taken in
maintaining a hig standard of in
dividual and public morals when
sins are called by their right names;
grossness, vileness, rottenness,
drunkenness.
So. the devil appears as an angel
of light and in that disguise he does
his most effective work. A plain
devil in sight wouldn't tempt any
decent man or woman. or anybody
that wants to be respectable at all
II the devil could come up here
where you would look at him, you'd
hate yourself to think you were
even fool enough to do anything
that the devil wanted you to do, to
think that you were associated with
a lobster like that.
One of the awful things about sin
10 that it grows so fast. You take
one drink and by the end of the
year you will be taking nifty drinks.
You start with one thing and it
grows so fast
God will give light to the man
that is lost IL you want to be saved
in Gods way. You will be saved in
Gods way or you will go to hell.
There is no other way to be saved
than Gods way. 1 have no way.
Some fools here in town talk about
Bilfs hell. You big idiots. 1 haven't
any hell, 1t is Gods, it isn't mine!
But I am preaching it to you, you
false leader! You pose as though
you were preaching Gods truth and
you are pumping the DEVILS lies
into the crowd and sending them
straight to hell and you will go
there with the rest of them, 1 will
tell you that much!
Repentance Not Fear.
Now, IL may help US to look at
some things that repentance is not.
God commands all men everywhere
to repent"
Repentance is not fear. o. good
many have a mistaken idea. They
think that nobody can repent in
way that will please God until he
q Is half scared to death. Some peo-
pie think that before a man can ever
become a Christian, he has got to