Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-10-11
Religion Is Antitoxin to Render Immune From
Sin and Blast to Send Out After Other Fellow

tons and whenever men adopt
this policy, invariably, their whole
/ life is spent in attempting not t.
be bad.
OF course there must be a mega
| tive side to morality Man can
never be what he ought to be UNI
! less he doesn't do certain things
| but that is only one-half of NOR
aIity-that is Just half of it. You've
| seen men whose whole religion and
| in simply a decalogue of don'ts
don'ts, dOn'ts, dOn'ts! whose whole
effort seemed to be TO curb the life
| of the world.
Trying not to be bad, that's
about the most difficult and dis
couraging Job IN this world you
ever tackled. It's Just like trying
not to be extraYagant or trying not
to be anything else and If you've
ever tried not to be extravagant
you know what a hard job it is,
don't you?
What Christian Is.
And, therefore, the man who is
wrapped up in doing big. positive
LAl4IESy DCCtA A4Ol WIZ oOOGI AAAC
bad things. Running away from the
world, in order to be good, is not
Christian not at all! It's not
Christian.
Of course l know that that ad-
;ective Christian is subject TO
various definitions for various
people and there are so many no
lions Of what the idea Of Chris
tian" is that you are never quite
sure an audience understands it
when you say Christian"
To some of you Christian"
means putting on new dress on
Sunday morning and going TO
church and putting a little money
in the collection plate and saying
a few prayers. What is Christian?
I'll tell you. A Christian is any
many. woman or child, here's a
biblical definition, man, woman or
child who comes to God as a lost
sinner, accepts the Lord Jesus
Christ as their personal Savior,
surrenders to Him as their Lord
and Master, cOnfesseS Him as
such before the world, takes the
bible as the infallible rule Of faith,
and prays and honestly strives 70
please God in everything he does.
That man or woman is a Christian
in whatever they do, but nobody
else.
A Christian is any man, woman,
or child who comes to God as a lost
sinner, accepts the Lord Jesus
Christ as their personal Savior,
surre1ders TO Him as their Lord
and their Master, confesses Him as
such before this world, takes the
bible as their infallible rule of
faith. and pray and honestly strive
to please God in everything that
they do: that man or that woman
is a Christian and nobody else.
Your sole thought should not he
TO keep the man or the woman, by
your side, from dragging you to
hell, but your thought should be,
what can / do to take than man and
woman to heaven with me? Oh, l
get SO sick and nauseated 1 want a
soda mint to settle my stomach
1 repeat, your problem should not
be Just simply the not and
don't" that's the negative, that's
only half. That's why the church
is not a power, she is nothing but
the negative side.
Jesus was no aesthete-no, no!
His goodness was not OF the hot
house variety-no. no. no. 1t was
robust, red blooded, my friends,
Jesus Christ did not fear contact
with people of the world No,
And for these four reasons I am
convinced that to be a
doesn't demand that l run
away from the world, hide in a
or hide behind the stone
walls OF a church on Sunday morn
ing or lock myself in my pew, my
MOI Not on your life!
Religion is just two things. Now,
here they are. AntitOXin to render
you immune from the poison and
the sins of this old world. Il pray
not that thou shouldest take them
out of the world, but that thou
shOuldest keep them from the evil
that is in the world
In the theology Of Jesus, relig-
ion is just two things. First: an
antitoxin which renders you i'm
mune from the sins of this old
world. Second: a powder blast
sending you like a bullet out into
the heart of the world, there. to
act, as a leaven to Ieaven the lump
and bring this world to Jesus
Christ That's religton-the whole
thing summed up in a nutshell. |
That's all there is to II. In the
Of Jesus, it makes you
immune from sin and it sends you
put after the other fellow to bring |
him to Jesus Christ. That's relig- /
ion. There It is.