Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1919-05-23

| .$$& a SCrucJlOn IN InlS
d passage of Scrip
l <A-A ture. Gods advice
as to how to act
costs nothing. 1t is altogether of grace,
or favor. If it were not for this grace,
Oftentimes greatly abused, human af-
fairs would Immediately collapse, but
Gods hand is stretched out still, and
We are simply to take what he offers.
To every one who accepts his saliva
ton, through faith in the atoning sacri-
fee of his Son, God imparts his own
nature, by the Holy Spirit. When a
man is thus possessed, he hates sin in
himself and others because God hates
it, and he denies-he will not practice
or sanctiOn-"ungodline and worldly
lusts," and he lives ,"soberly, righteous
ly and godly in this present world"
Under human government life for
the individual, and for society, has
two divisions-prohibitio or negation,
and then positive obedience, or action.
However men may object to prohibit
tiOnS, they remain as facts in all laws
Man finds that there are many things
that he must not do; he must deny
ungodliness and desires that encroach
on the rights of others. A man only
| needs to look about him to see ungodli-
ness, practically of all kinds, and he
must decline to enter into it, Probably
| this is not very difficult for those who
read this sermon, but the most secure,
in moral life, need to be careful, for
Peter fell from the position of primacy
among the apostles to the position of a
common laughing-stock and liar.
There is no ''no mans land" between
the prohibitions and positive injunc-
tions. If man ceases to do wrong, he
must Immediately begin to do right,
he must study the practice of sObriety,
he should live righteously And that
is what the president of the United
States is seeking to have the nations
of the earth do. and this side of the
direct divine government on the earth
this is the best guarantee of perma
nency Of peace conditions.
But man should go further, ht
should be godly, and this he canno
be in reality until he accepts Gods
salvation through Christ.
A godly, righteous man is-the fines
type of man. To be truly religious il
not to be fanatical or superstitious,> Il
go back to the sixteenth century. 1t Vi
to be abreast of the age in which W,
live. The genuinely religious man i
forceful man and has power of in1u
ence beyond others.
To everything in life there must b.
motive, and here it is-the ''blesset
hope of the glorious appearing of tn
great God and our Saviour Jesu
Christi
The child always looks forward t
the time when he will be a grown-up
the young man looks to the time whe
he can take his fathers business o
: profession, and the mature man, If h
I is not willing to be considered worr
out horse, only fit to die, looks bt
. yond this life.
Even those who have Immortality
{ mind are quickened by that hope, BIT
] here the hope is deined-the hope {
{ the glorious appearing of the gres
God and our Saviour.
Is that statement merely a rhetoric;
! appeal to the Imagination or fgur;
{ tive? AS men and things are falling L
all the time,. and some of the wise:
7 men are saying that the whole soci'
world is about to go to pieces unles
one little thing happens-the feedin
{ of the starving peoples of Europe
it not fine to have something that ma
S does not manage?
Jesus Christ, as God, with his il
:, finite power, will gloriously appear c
. >, this earth, and the arch-enemy of IL
y race, Satan, will be bound, and reig
of righteousness be inaugurated, ar
: that reign will never cease.
There is not a hope that the worl
= has today but is questioned, and tho:
hopes are many; but when the hope
the world rests on the infallible Wol
of God, indeed on God himself, ma
can speak and act with absolute co
- fidence. If the coming of the gre
God was the same to all people, v
Il might not urge the Importance of tn
u text, but to only those who deny u
gedliness and worldly desires, and see
sobriety, Righteousness and godlines
will the blessings from that coming
Is secured. Those not thus described w
=! be visited by destruction, with whi'
: the destruction of the peoples On ear
IS years will be as childs play.