The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1922-02-02

ofOESoiiiS Inc Sfu NATURE InaC naQ got
ten the better of him.
There is another form of sin known
as respectable sin. 1t is so common
That it does not shock anybody. You
may be a. respectable sinner and vet
carry no social stigma. Respectable
siC is the sin that is tolerated by re-
spectacle society and does not have
the ioor shut in its face The respec-
table sinner never shocks or startles
people; he or she never outrages the
feelings or society, or breaks its un-
written laws.
God however uses scathing langu-
age when he speaks of the respec-
table sinners. Jesus Christ fairly
blistered such in his day and unmerci-
fully held them US to scorn. He was
severe on respectable sin because of
its deadening influence on the con-
science. When a man can do things
without shocking the society in which
he lives he takes it for granted he is
all right. When he detects no sign of
disapproval he thinks all is well, and
so he is perfectly satisfied with him
self, and yet he is on the way to per-
dition as surely as the murderer or
the thief who have not repented.
What is the slanderer but respec-
table sinner? You can use your tongue
and ruin reputation and blast life
and yet not lose your place in the
church or society. What is the
gambler on the stock market but re-
spectacle sinner? You can rake in
your shekels playing the game in the
bucket shop or on the floor of the ex-
change and still be member of the
exclusive clubs and pass the plate in
church.
The SNUG hypocrite belongs to this
class. When a bad man pretends to
be saint he is the worst type of man
for he steals the livery of heaven to
serve the devil in. He puts a fair
glove on foul hand. A hyocrite will
meet you with a smile and smite you
with club.
The most common form of sin is the
sin of neglect. 1t leads to death just
as certain as the gross or respectable
sin. The great unanswerable question
of the Bible is: "How shall we escape
if we neglect so great a salvation?"
If man neglects the grace of God in
any form he does it at his peril. There
is law running through all nature,
material, mental and moral and it is
this, "to misuse or to disuse is to lose
any faculty that God in his goodness
has made over to US"
You know that if you neglect your
garden it will run to weeds and waste.
1t is fact that cultivated strawber-
ries if left alone for some years will
become small like wild ones. It is the
same with your physical body, neglect
results in loss There are men in
India who made a VOW in the name of
religion never to lift their hands from
their sides for so many years and now
their arms are withered and helpless.
A monk took vow he would not
speak for fifty years and at the end
of that time when he tried to speak
he had no voice. Darwin tells us he
neglected music in the interest Of
science and when fifty years eff age
he discovered his love for music was
gone as a result of that neglect.
Hear me now! You can persist in
life of sin until your moral and
spiritual faculties are dead. The light
may still shine but you are unable to
see it. Truth still knocks but you
cannot hear it. Virtue beckons but
you are blind to her signals.
Without being VIGOROUSLY wicked,
without being foul ibertine or q
confirmed thief you have murdered
every opportunity that came your way
to help you become a Christian. You
have had thousands of opportunities
but have neglected them all until now
it is almost impossible for you to re-
spond to God. You have been drifting
toward place where even God cannot
save you and are almost a dead soul.
How Canyon escape if you neglect
Gods salvation?
Neglect is the prime minister of the
bottomless pit, the arch fiend of all
the ages. Neglect is the sin that un-
leashed the tangled hounds of con-
science in the ashes of perdition to
sting and burn the souls of those
who are lost forever. Neglect is the
sin an eternal wall of woe and despair
from the lost to echo and re-echo
along the desolate shores of that lurid
lake whose burnings never cease. Neg
lect is the sin that lands soul in that
land of midnight darkness where no
light ever enters and no star of hope
ever shines.
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