The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1919-05-31

GAv1 lure. coos auvlce.
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-
flee 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-'ungodliness 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-prohibition, or negation,
and then positive obedience, or action.
However men may object to prohibit
lions, 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 primary
among the apoStlesSs to the noSitian g. e. !
common laughing-stock and liar.
There is no mo mans land" between
the prohibitions and positive injunc-
tons. II a 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, he
should be godly, and this he cannot
be in reality until he accepts Gods
salvation through Christ.
A cody, righteous man is the finest
type of man. To be truly religious Is
not to be fanatical or superstitious, TO
go back to the sixteenth century. 1t is
to be abreast OF the age in which we
live. The genuinely religious man is
a forceful man and has power Of influ-
ence beyond others.
To everything in life there must be
motive, and here 1t is-the blessed.
hope of the glorious appearing of the
great God and our Saviour Jesus
Christ" y
The child always looks forward to
the time when he will be a grown-up;
the young man looks to the time when
he can take his fathers business or
profession, and the mature man, If he
is not willing to be considered worm
out horse, only fit to die, looks be-
yond this life.
Even those who have Immortality In
mind are quickened by that hope, but
here the hope is defined-the hope Of
the glorious appearing Of the great
God and our Saviour,
Is that statement merely rhetorical
appeal to the imagination or figura.
tive? AS men and things are failing us
all the time, and some Of the wisest
men are saying that the whole social
world is about to go to pieces unless
one little thing happens the feeding
of the starving peoples of Europe-is
1t not fine to have something that man
does not manage?
Jesus Christ, as God, with his In
finite power, will gloriously appear on
this earth, and the arch-enemy of the
race, Satan, will be bound, and reign
of righteousness be inaugurated, and
that reign will never cease.
There is not hope that the world
has today but is questioned, and those
hopes are many; but when the hope of
the world rests on the infallible Word
Of God, indeed on God himself, man
can speak and act with absolute con-
fidence. If the coming of the great
God was the same to all people, we
might not urge the Importance Of this
text, but to only those who deny UNI
godliness and worldly desires, and seek
sobriety, righteousness and godliness,
will the blessings from that coming be
secured. Those not thus described will
be visited by a destruction. with which
the destruction Of the peoples on earth
In the war areas within the last Eve
years win be as child's play.