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creed *is made up of a series of negations. You
go to them and ask them to come to this, or do that,
and they stay, ‘ ‘ Oh, no! I never engage in such
things. lam dead; lam crucified.” You say,
“Oh, come along, and let’s have a bit of fun. Therte
is no harm in this,” and they answer, “1 cannot;
I am dead.” Now, some of these are the best peol
- in the world. Some of them are the m.st
miserable. I had to deal with some of them. I
once had a rose on my coat. It happ ned to be
a red one. I liked it. It suited my taste exactly.
A woman came to me at the close of the sermon
and said: “Pastor, I don’t like to see you wear a
rose, especially a red one.” I said, “Why?” And
she said, “It is not becoming in a minister to do
that,” and her face was as long as my arm. I said,
“Well, your husband would be better pleased with
you if you would put one in your hair.” I would,
if she had been my wife.
The other class that we have in churches is that
class which has a creed made up of a series of posi
tives. They are always on hand. You can’t spring
anything thait they won’t be there. They come to
prayer-meeting, Sunday school, ladies’ meeting—
everything under the sun that you can spring. The
trouble is that they do everything; they will go to
ia prayer-meeting tonight, and a theater tomorrow
night; a ladies’ meeting today, and a card party
tomorrow. They are a class of hustlers. They are
workers. Their names are always in print when it
comes to advertising the workers of the church, but
they have never known what it was to be crucified.
Now, the other class is the ideal class. It is the
class in between these two extremes. They have
united the crucified, or the “don’t” side of life,
with the risen, or the “do” side of life by the plus
sign of ithe cross. I believe that we have been
talking too much about the cross. We have talked
so much about Christ on the cross that we have
forgotten that we must ourselves be on the cross.
What we want is to cease eternally looking at
Christ on the cross, and go to seeing ourselves
on the cross. Just as when we go to the mirror
we look for ourselves, so when we go to the cross
on which Christ is crucified, the ideal Christian is
the one who can see reflected from Him as a mirror
his own image, crucified. When we bring every?-'
thing to the cross, our lives, the things that we
want to be assured about, we will get information,
no doubt, about it.
FAITH.
The last need that I want to speak of is faith.
Let us go back just a moment. The Spirit of God
can be of no practical benefit to any man who
holds on to sin. He can be of no practical beneAt
to any man who fails to dedicate his life for ser
vice. Until you stretch out your hand for service
you need never ask God for the Spirit. An old
man got very much stirred up about this very ques
tion. He sold out his business, went to his home,
furnished him a study, got down over his Bible.
The more be studied, and the more he prayed, the
gloomier the outlook. He decided that he was too
much interrupted there, so he left h’s home and
wen/t out into the mountains, dug himself a caviej,
and hid himself with his Bible. There he studied
and read. Finally, one night he heard the crying
of a child. It is true that it was in a dream that
he heard it, but to him it was very real. Finally,
someone tapped on his door. It was an angel, and
the angel said to him: “Don’it you hear that child
crying?” and he said, “Yes; but I must first be
filled with the Spirit before I can do anything.”
The angel left him. After awhile someone else tap
ped on the door. It was the Lord. He said: “Don’t
you hear the cries of that child?” and he said,
“Yes, but I can never serve until I am Spirit
filled,” and the Lord said, “Go and relieve the
cries of that child, and you shall know what the
Spirit filling means.” When he awoke, the law
of God was plain.
If all the people who are praying today for the
filling of the Spirit would extend their hands and
present for service, they would have the Spirit.
Bint our faith must be a strong thread in the
Spirit cable. I have no doubt every one of us feels
that, but there is such ignorance in the world about
faith. We talk so much about it, read so much
about it, that it becomes so common that we know
no-thing about it. The faith that I speak of is not
The Golden Age for January 24, 1907.
that which we are putting in practice today. If
I know anything about faith as taught in the word
of God, it is this: undertaking for Him a thing
the end of which we cannot see. Abraham is a
faithful expression of it. Abraham was quietly
resting in his home,, thinking of his family, and of
the child that was dear to him. God called to him,
and God told him to take Isaac, his son, on the
mountain, and offer him as a sacrifice. He told him
to do the hardest thing that He could possibly have
suggested. Yet Abraham did it. On the way, Isaac
looked up into his father’s face and said: “Where
is the lamb for the sacrifice?” Abraham said:
“God will provide Himself a lamb.” And He did
it. The altar was made ready. Isaac was bound
upon it, and then Abraham, expecting in some way
thait God was going to provide a sacrifice, prepared
to do just what God commanded; he lifted the
knife and started to make the awful thrust into
the heart of his child; but just before the point
of Ithe knife struck the breast of his child, God
called again, “Abraham!” Abraham said, “Here
am I, Lord,” confidently expecting that God was
going to reveal something; and God said, “Stay
thine hand!” Just then Abraham found in the
bushes a lamb for the sacrifice.
My brethren, I believe Abraham had a faith that
believed that somehow God would provide another
sacrifice for that altar. He went to do it at all
cost, believing as he went that somehow God would
work out a means by which his son would be spared
and the sacrifice accepted. Now God wants us to
have just such a faith, and before we ever know
the power of the Spirit we must have it.
There is sunlight for tomorrow,
Though today is veiled in gloom;
Joy is woven with our sorrow— „
Life lies just beyond the tomb.
From the midst of pain and sighing
Sweetest music sometimes wakes;
Often hope is almost dying
Just before the morning breaks.
Weary heads find softest pillows;
Rest is where the shadows lie;
Faith looks out across life’s billows
For a golden by-and-by.
God His noblest lesson teaches
Through the discipline of pain,
And the darkest valley reaches
Out to our eternal gain.
Syllabus of Romans.
Used by Dr. 'Broughton for his Friday night Bible lectures.
I. THE PLACE WHERE WRITTEN.
Difference of Opinion.
Three names in the epistle indicate that it was
written while the apostles were in Corinth.
Gaius’ house in Corinth.
Phoebe lived in Cenchrea, a suburb of Corinth.
Erastus, treasurer of Corinth.
11. TIME OF THE WRITING.
A. D. 58, March.
Five months before Paul’s arrest. Church at
Rome not organized by Paul or Peter. Probably
organized by converts from Pentecost. Romans
written because he could not pay the church a visit.
111. THE PURPOSE.
Not for the mere correction of Jews or Pagans.
Other epistles local. Romans to set forth the basic
principles of the kingdom of grace as opposed to
the kingdom of law.
Key.—Ch. 1:17: “For therein is revealed a right
eousness of God from faith unto faith; as it is
written, but the righteous shall live by faith.”
IV. THE GENERAL PLAN AND SCOPE OF
THE BOOK.
(1) The Introduction Ch. 1:1-17.
(2) The Doctrinal,—Ch. 1:18 to 8:39.
(3) The Dispensational.—Ch. 9 to 11.
(4) The Practical.—Ch. 12 to 15:13.
(5) The Personal.—Gk. 15:15 to 16:27.
V. SUBDIVISIONS tF GENERAL PLAN.
1. The Introduction.—Ch. 1-17.
(1) His testimony of himself.—Ch. 1:1.
(2) His testimony of Christ. —Ch. 1:3-7.
(3) His testimony of the church—Ch. 1:7-15.
(4) His testimony of the gospel.—Ch. 1:2-16.
2. The Doctrinal Ch. 1:18 to 8:39.
(1) God’s attitude to sin.—Ch. 1:18 to 3:20.
(2) God’s provision for salvation.—Ch. 3:21
to Ch. 8:30.
(3) How brought about.—Ch. 4:25 to Ch. 5.
(4) The place and puipose of Christ’s d ath
in bringing it about.—Ch. 6 to Ch. 7.
(5) The life of victory.—Ch. 8.
3. The Dispensational—Ch. 9to 11.
(1) The Jews’ rejection.—Ch. 9 to 10.
(2) The restoration.—Ch. 11.
4. The Practical. —Ch. 12 to 15:13.
(1) Personal attitude to God.—Ch. 12:1-2.
(2) Spiritual gifts.—Ch. 12:3-8.
f 3) One to another.—Ch. 12:9-21.
(4) Governments.—Ch. 13:1-14.
(5) Conscience.—Ch. 14.
5. The Personal.—Ch. 15 to 16.
(1) Brotherly preferment.—Ch. 15:1-6.
(2) His own plans told. —Ch. 15:14-33.
(3) Fellow workers commended.—Ch. 16:
1-16.
(4) Admonitions to peace.—Ch. 16:17-20.
(5) Final words and benediction.—Ch. 16:
17-27.
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SEA J. THOMPSON,
, Business Manager of The Golden Age.
Fog.
John B. Tabb, in Harper’s.
The ghost am I
Os winds that die
Alike on land or sea.
In silence deep
To shroud and keep
Thy mournful memory
A spirit white,
I stalk the night
And, shadowing the skies,
Forbid the sun
To look upon
My noonday mysteries.
Smith—Good morning, Jones, I hear you have a
son and heir?
Jones—Yes; our household now represents the
United Kingdom.
Smith—How’s that ?
Jones—Why, you see, I am English, my wife’s
Irish, the nurse is Scotch and the baby wails.
•
W .T. WINN, Fire, Accident and Health Insur
ance. Both Phones 496. 219 Empire Building.
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