Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-10-03

>
and his sermon last night on God
Commands all Men to Repent" was
an earnest appeal TO the sinner To
turn from his ways and seek for
giYeness Of sins. In part he said !:
This evening the text is in Acts,
the 18th chapter, 18th verse.
God commands all men every
where to repent" Not I, God. God
9 commands, He doesn't entreat He
commands all men, the rich and the
poor, the black and the white,
learned or unlearned, native or
foreign. He commands all men
everywhere, office, shop, store, fac
tory, bank, legislative hall, college.
university, on the street, the haunts
OF sin and vice-"God commands
all men everywhere to repent"
Religion is not a product of the
emotions. Religion is obedience TO
a command of God, and God COM
mands all men everywhere to re-
pent
The first thing John the Baptist
preached about was repentance.
The first thing the disciples preach
ed about was repentance. 1t is sell
ance today. There are plenty Of
preachers who in the course of a
long ministry have given repent
ance wide berth, possibly for the
same reason that the old coloTed
preacher never preached about
stealing chickens, for he said the
audience froze up toward him and
people were cold.
But the man who breaches re-
pentance in the power of God is
bound to stir up snakes 1t doesn't
take some preachers long TO find
out, that it is a good deal easier
to hold their job and have their sal
aries increased occasionally if they
will make people satisfied with
themselves.
All of US hate above everything
else. anything that reveals our
selves t. ourselves. We all hate
anything that shows us our faults
or blemishes.
One reason why a good many
people don't like the bible is be
cause it makes them see their wick
cd hearts and they can't bear thai.
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
tickle me-and I'll tickle-you Va
'iety''-the preaching that pats
hem on the head and makes them
EEL like a boy with his mouth full
Of buttersCotch is good preaching
20 them.
You make a man feel as though
!, In
this universe without him and you
will be a great preacher to that
fellow.
Whenever you hear a preacher
say that he doesn't believe in 4
personal devil, you can bet thou
sands of dollars to doughnuts that
he never preached a sermon on re-
pentance. for if he had he would
know there was a devil, for he
would have heard him roar against
his preaching always.
And if you want to hear the
devils gang roar, howl you try to
be decent and do something for God
in the name of Jesus Christ, and
they will cuss you and damn you
and jump on TO you with both feet,
just as they did in the days OF
Jesus Christ.
A long step has been taken in
maintaining a high standard of in
dividual and public morals when
sins are called by their right
names; grossness, vileness, rotten
ness, drunkenness.
Most people take poison through
misunderstanding If every bottle
containing poison would be marked
with the skull and cross bones,
there wouldn't be so many that
would take it.
So. the devil appears as an
angel of light and in that disguise
ne does his most effective work. A
plain devil in sight wouldn't tempt
any decent man or woman, or any
body that wants to be respectable
at all. If the devil could come up
here where you would look at him,
you'd hate yourself to think you
were ever fool enough to do any
thing that the devil wanted you to
do. to think that you were asso-
ciated with a lobster like that.
Now l don't believe it is a good
thing to have synonyms, my
friends. for sin, for lying, stealing
and adultery.
Anybody who takes what doesn't
belong to him is a thief You can
call him a kleptomaniac, but that
doesn't change the fact that he is
thief
The man who deceives his neigh
Dor is a liar. It doesn't make any
difference what other name you put
it under.
Adultery is adultery. You can
call it affinity if you want to. Thou
shalt not commit affinity"
One of the awful things about sin
is that it grows so fast. You take
one drink and by the end OF the
year you will be taking so drinks. !
You start with one thing and il
grows so fast
God Gives Light.
God will give light to the man /
that is lost if 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 | have no way. /
Some fools here in town talk about .
Bills hell. You big idiots. l haven't /
any hell 1t is Gods, it isn't mine, /
But l am preaching it to you. you /
false leader You pose as though !
you were preaching God truth and |
you are pumping the devils lies /
into the crowd and sending them
to hell and you will go
there with the rest of them, | will /