The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-02-21
No Second Chance
<Sermon Delivered by Rev. William A Sunday in City Audi
torium Thursday Afternoon February 2OO

, And SO, the freedom of the will
- f ~. - - W >,s,,'t1ss-ts M, DO
risRt fSf wrong just as you please. 50
God made mankind and womankini
free God gave man a free will and
man has rebeiled agains. God. Can
king pardon rebel while he is
SIN in stare o. rebellion, and would
q government give pardon to a, rebel
who refused to lay dowu his arm /.
wouldn't a vow TO surrender be ex-
pectcd as the grounds upon which
they would pardon them7 Shall God
Almighty be untrue to himself?
Shall earthly rulers maintain their
rights when they would refuse to par
don rebel that wouldn't lay down
his arms and do you suppose that God
Almighty is going to pardon any
body when he u stiil la u state Of
rebellion? He will not He will not.
So don't you accord man the priv
ileges that you deny God In the world
Not at all!
And God reveals hirns>st not only
~ tbs father Of those who are
Christians. but as the Judge Of those
who are not and q fudge has nothing
to do, my friends, with mercy but to
pass sentence And II you approach
Some people and ask them to become
N.nF AALiAhns Luey Wlil say
A God OF Love.
y believe in a God of love; / BE-
lieve God In too good to damn any
one. / don't need to forsake my
sins Oh. God Is good; there is NO
permit q he'll? am trusting In
Gods goodness ! don't need 10 for
sake my sins I believe that all will
be saved
Does that meet the highest de-
nands OF your conscience7 When
your conscience comes TO you and
points out to you the fact that you
are living In gin, does II meet the
highest demands for you to say;
Yes. / know ! am SHINING. ] know
! arm living in defiance OF God and
tramplinG his law beneath my feet
know @sod gave his Son to die for
me. Yes, but ] take great delight In
doing Just what God don't want me
to do because God loves me"
Well. II that meets the demands OF
your conscience, all can say Ia,
you've got dirty. sinking. iow-down
conscience.
Here, for example. we will say. here
la q boy. He has been sick. and his
mother has watched over him care
fully. and now he has become conral-
play In the sunlight. and she suc-
cumbs to the dread malady. She In
lying On her bed OF affhction, and she
says TO him. You can 60 out and
pluck all the flowers from any bed IN
the garden but that one over In the
corner next TO the fence. That is n
choice one Of mine, and don't pluck
those. please You may have all the
others"
Al -. .ux Ga sA,. h-~ xrYf,r 80
up the flowers in that very bed. and
say. Didn't your mother ask you not
TO do that7 Why are you doing it,
'.Oh. my mother loves me and [
take a great delight In doing what
sac doesn't want me 10 do because
she loves me so much"
Well. what would do with a brat
like that? That is just exactly the
attitude OF n lot OF so-called respect
able people are taking toward God
today and his offer to them. have
known men and women to become
worldly and sinful because they had
been inoculated with the pcrnicious
error of future probation. which Is
an Internal lie. II punishment here
after is not contlnuous--that 10, for
ever and eternal--then you will be
corrected and purified. You mus,
reach a stage where you will be pur~
4Hsd Dy Ntle
The Bible says. Eternal damna-
uon and the wrath of God abideth
forever" So IL salvation was from
any other method than that. then 1t
would be besides the blood OF Jesus
Christ II a man was going to be
saved because his punishment would
be corrected. then he would be saved
by some other method Than by the
blood, wouldn't he,
What bible Says
But the Bible says. Neither is
there salvation in any other and
there Is none other name under
must be saved" Otherwise Christ's
death was useless. IL the punishment
hereafter would be purifying and
man would be saved over there.
through his punishment. Then Jesus
Christ needn't to have come into the
world, to have died st all Abso-
luteiy no sense Don't you see where
your argument goes to when you use
a little horse sense7
II you invited some person to come
to your home for dinner and they'd
refuse, and you repeated the invita-
ton and they'd refuse again. and II
you had made It a standing invita-
ton. and they'd refused for twenty.
thirty, forty or fifty years, you'd hard
~ Iee} that tney deserved any IuFtNer
opportunity to be your guest would
you?
God says. II have stretched ont my
hand all day long and no man re-
garded It He would not have my
counsel, he despised all my reproof."
1t seems to me IL would take a good
deal of nerve and cheek for a man
or woman to demand . second
chance after, death. After you had
continued to live. thirty. forty or fifty
years In this old world and refused
the thousand and one invitations that
God Almighty gave you. while you
were here, II seems to me 1t would.
know 1t would 50 far as ! am con-
cerned.
II this life lis fereiy stage of
probation, how can We hold that the
next stage will result in our reaching
our final destination? No! You reach
your final destination here, You de-
eide on this side, OF the coffin whether
1t will be heaven or noH. IL isn't on
he other side at all. And why
should 1t not always be stage OF,
probation and soul failing there, be
passed on to future probation? And
II they fail to obtain salvation in one
stage. on what grounds do you argue
that they will get II In the next
sage? II man don't get salvation