Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-09-29
eopardize America Trying to Save Liquor
BY FAITH ALONE IN HIM WHO SUFFERED
AND DIED IS THE TRANSGRESSOR SAVED

At the morning hour yesterday
Rev. Mr.. Sunday spoke on the sub
ject, 1.-THE Three Groups" which
he explained were present at the be-
trayal of Christ, the mob without
the Garden of Gethsemane, the
eight disciples within and the
three faithful close to Jesus. He
took as his text, Lord, Is 1t I?''
and said in part:
God made man a free moral
: agent without having freedom to
| sin if he wanted to sin or to do
right II he wished to do right A
man without the freedom to do
either would be nonentity and so,
when God created man free, that
I left him free either to do right or to
do wrong. while God tells him the
reward if he does right and the
punishment if he does wrong.
But man ate the forbidden fruit
and God gave him the promise that
the seed of the woman should
bruise the serpent's head. and in
the fullness of time Jesus Christ
was born in the Manager, born of a
virgin, suffered under Pontius Pi-
late, was crucifed, dead and buried
and no matter what He said or did
the Jews refused to acknowledge
His claim and own Him as the
Messiah, the fulfiller of the Messi-
anic prophecies, and their enmity
finally eliminated in the greatest
tragedy that the eye of God ever
Witnessed, or the brutality of men
ever stopped to, the crucifixion of
Jesus Christ under the testimony
of false witnesses.
l want you to notice for your
edification and health and for your
rebuke too, if need be, and | pray
God you have your mind and heart
open that my message may apply
to you. Never mind the one that
rubs elbows, the one that sits in
front or behind, don't take my
message and pass it on to the next
fellow behind you and you pass it
on behind you until you pass it
out. Get a lesson out of it for
yourself. Never mind the other
fellow.
Woe unto them when all men
speak well of you"
And about the worst thing that
the preacher can say over your
body when they put you in the cof-
fin is that you had no enemies. You
have been an absolute nonentity.
If you had lived for Jesus Christ
the way you ought to, you'd have
made plenty of enemies, and they'd
be enemies because you are de-
cent and want other people to be
decent.
o, not that God is not grieved
over the sins of anybody, but par
ticularly those with names on the
church book who profess to be
soldiers and followers of Him
think, perhaps. the trouble with the
majority of people in the church
is not so much the thing that they
are doing that God does not want
them to do as the things that they
are not doing that God wants them
to do. The trouble with this gov
eminent today is not that the peo-
pie are doing what the government
don't want them to do, the trouble
is they are not willing to offer to
do what the government wants
them to do.
The sin of the American people
is not the sin of commission of
things against the government but
the things against the government
the sins of commission. The trou-
bic is. you are not doing what the
wants done 1t is not
so much the things that you are
doing in the church as it is the
things you are not doing, you are
too darned lazy, that's what's the
matter with you.
The Man Higher Up.
And if we were found doing
in this world that was not
in keeping with our birth from
above, we would have brought this
old, God-for-saken, Sabbath-break-i
ing, whisky-soaked, gambling-rid- 2
den, disappearing world to Jesus
Christ long, long ago, but we have
been playing with religion and
you can't do as you please.
The higher up you climb, the
palmer you see. When you begin to .
do as you please you are an an
archist You can't live as you /
please meath the Stars and Stripes. |
If you don't submit to the laws,