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Hebrews, 2:3: “How shall we escape if we
neglect so great salvation?”
HERE is an old tradition that on
the Northwest coast of France
there was once a beautiful village
that through some great subterra
nean disturbance,.went down be
neath the waters of the sea, and
not a trace of it until this day has
ever been seen. But, according to
the stories of the fishermen and
T
sailors of the olden times, when the sea is
greatly agitated and the waves rolling espe
cially high, in the trenches made by the waves
there is occasionally to be seen the top of the
church spires, and sometimes it was possible
to hear the music of their church bells. This
village was known as the village of Is, and le
gend is known under the subject of “the ring
ing of the bells of Is.” Though this is purely
a legend, it is a parable of the truth that I am
desiring to set forth today.
I want to speak to you about a submerged
Christian experience. There are many people
in this very presence this morning who at one
time have had a bright and happy Christian ex
perience, who enjoyed their Bibles and read
them with great regularity and with love; who
enjoyed the public worship and would go to
any trouble to get there, and were never absent
when it was possible in the providence of God
to be on hand; who kept in sufficiently close
touch with the Spirit of God as ‘to hear the
whisper of the still small voice at any time, day
or night, when they were awake.
But I am persuaded, from what I see and
hear, from the spirit of the times in which we
live, that that is not true of many today about
whom it was true in days gone by. The letter
to the Hebrews was written to cure just such
an existing condition. Those to whom this let
ter was written were Jews, who had been con
verted from Judaism to Christ, who had come
out from the Judaistic form of worship with its
ceremonies and symbols, into the simple wor
ship of the Son of God, and, according to evi
dence that we get in the letter, at first they
were elated; during the first enthusiasm they
were greatly delighted with thir new found re
ligion, their new hope and they lived in very
close touch with God.
But there came a time when these converted
Jews began to feel again the longing for the
old things. They began to feel the longing
possess them for the old ceremonies and the
glare and the glitter of the old Judaistic form
of worship, and they became dissatisfied with
their present condition, and being dissatisfied
with their present religious condition, they be
gan to turn back to the world and to do as
other men did, so that at the time this lettei
was written they simply had a name to live but
were dead. This letter is written to them with
the hope of again kindling into a flame the
smouldering fire.
THE CURE FOR BACKSLIDING.
First, attempts to bring them back to their
old religious life and experience, not by any
special criticism of their method of life, but
simply by holding up Jesus Christ. The Epis
tle to the Hebrews is but a picture of Jesus
Christ, in His superiority under the old types,
First, he shows them, the superiority of Jesus
Christ over all the old Jewish rites and cere
monies. Then shows that Jesus Christ is su
perior to the fathers; to the angels, for whom
they had such great respect; he shows that
Jesus is superior to Moses; he shows that He
is superior to the law of Moses, and to the
Aaronic priesthood, and in this picture that he
presents of Jesus he is able to show that in
Him is contained everything that the soul life
of the people can desire to make it happy and
prosperous.
And in connection with this beautiful and in-
SUBJ'ITRGE'D CHRISTIANITY
The Golden Age for February 16, 1911.
Tabernacle Sermon by Reb. Len G. roughton, D.D.
Stenographically reported for The Golden Age. —Copyright applied for.
spiring picture of Jesus Christ that he draws
for this backsliding people, he raises the cry
of our text, “How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation?” This text is almost al
ways used to apply to unconverted people, but
it was not intended primarily for them. It ap
plies to them also, of course, but the primary
purpose of this text is to call back into a life
of active Christian service the backslider who
has gone away from his Lord.
And so I come to you this morning after a
great deal of thought and prayer concerning
this text, to speak to you upon the same theme.
I feel quite sure that never in the history of the
church has there been so much backsliding as
we are witnessing today. We have plenty of
churches, but to find a church whose
membership in its entirety has a
real vital religious experience is one
of the rarest things possible, and as I
speak here this morning I feel sure that there
are those in this house who are saying, “That
is true of me.” I do not mean that you have
gone into sin as we usually speak of sin. I sim
ply mean that for one reason or another your
religious experience has become submerged.
You are like the town of Is, sunk beneath the
waves, so that no man as you move among
your fellows would ever judge you to be Chris
tian.
Sometimes, perhaps, when the storm clouds
gather and the winds begin to blow, the winds
of sorrow and suffering and great tribulation,
you feel a bit of the old touch, and then, too,
you hear a bit of the old music that used to
characterize your life. But it never is heard in
the days of calm and quiet when prosperity is
at hand.* It takes the trials and tribulations to
bring you out into the light.
My brother, is that true of you? Is it true
that though you are a Christian as a matter of
fact you are lacking in the old time Christian
experience? If so, why is it? I. want to assure
you in the outset that it is not God’s fault; and
1 want to assure you also that it is not the fault
of your community. Oh, how hard it is to get
us from throwing our fault on other people.
My brethren, the fault is with the one who
stands guilty.
If the writer of the letter to the Hebrews
could lay the blame on the individuals under the
circumstances that environed their lives, sure
ly he would say to us this morning, “You have
no right to throw off your responsibility on
your environment, for our environment is one
of respect for religion, and they had nothing
but curses and persecutions environing them.
What is the cause of this existing condition?
What is the cause of the submerged religious
experience in your heart and life? Will you be
patient with me this morning and help me to
find it?
NEGLECTING PRAYER.
There is one word that is contained in our
text that to me explains the whole situation,
and that is the word “neglect.” “How shall
we escape if we neglect so great salvation?”
We have neglected, to begin with, our secret
private devotions. I do not believe that any
man will ever lose his Christian experience
who rigidly maintains His secret devotions. I
have had experience in that line. When I was
a boy I was converted; I haven’t a doubt
about my conversion. I had a mother who
taught me to pray at night and I kept up my
prayer saying every night until I went to col
lege, and so long as I kept up my prayer say
ing, I enjoyed my religion. I enjoyed every
thing connected with the work of the church.
I was a happy Christian when I went to col
lege. But there oftentimes I sat up until mid
night working on my lessons, trying to be pre
pared, and would be so tired and sleepy that I
decided I could say my prayers in bed just as
well as by the side, and so I began that. The
very moment I began that I began to backslide.
Finally I closed my eyes by the time I got in
bed; next morning I would rush out without
praying and never would think of it during
the day, until after awhile I waked up to real
ize that I had no religious experience. I did
not love to go to prayer meeting nor to Sunday
school. I did not love to go to preaching. I
did not care anything about associating with
religious people. I shall never forget that man
of God, who died a member of this church,
whose widow sits in this building this morn
ing, our beloved father in Israel, Dr. W. A.
Nelson. He came to Wake Forest and con
ducted a meeting among the boys, and he
found me in that cold religious condition and
came to me and talked with me about it. And
how tenderly he talked to me about my neglect
of prayer, and I began that very day that habit
that I had let drop and my religious fire began
to burn and has never gone out. I am talking
to people that are just like I was. I know it.
You have simply lost out because you have
failed to keep up, at all costs, your private de
votions.
Then again, it is true, doubtless, because you
have ceased to read your Bible. I won’t even
say to study it; I just say read it. Ido not be
lieve any man will ever backslide far who
keeps up regularly his habit of reverential Bi
ble reading. Mr. Moody used to say, “the Bi
ble will keep a man from sin, or sin will keep
a man from the Bible.” I remember some years
ago burying a woman, a member of this church.
She was not known far out of her ordinary cir
cle of friends, but nobody ever touched her life
that did not feel the throb of God. And when
I went to pay a call at the house the next day
after she died, for the purpose of getting data
necessary for the funeral service, her son, who
had been a very devoted son, who loved his
mother with great devotion, handed me her Bi
ble. It was the Bible her husband and his fath
er had at the time when he was killed in the
civil war. It had been brought back to her and
she had kept it through these years. As he
handed me that Bible he said: “If you will
look through this Bible you will find the ex
planation of mother’s sweet Christian life.” I
went through it, and I pledge you there was
scarcely a page not marked and almost every
page on the margin had some special note. I
was almost surprised to find it so, a woman of
her busy life, having to devote her energies
hour by hour throughout the whole of her life
to the cares of her family. I was surprised to
find under such circumstances, that there had
ben so much time spent in Bible reading and
Bible study. And all through it I saw sweet,
tender, sentimental poetry gathered there;
much of it gathered during the days of civil
war; some concerning the death of special
friends, some poetry of later date, and here and
there I saw small curls of hair cut from the
heads of the babies in the home. Some had
died and their hair was marked with a little
card to show the date of death and the name of
the child. A sacred repository, as sacred to her
as the ark of God was to Israel, a place where
she kept the most precious things of life. And
I said, “Surely, that explains the secret of her
sweet Christian life.”
NEGLECT OF GOD’S WORD.
Now that you have lost the fervor of your
religious experience, haven’t you lost your love
for your Bible? Do you read it like you once
did? Don’t you put more time on the Sunday
newspaper than on the Bible? Answer to
your heart, with God as vour judge. And how
can you expect ever to have your religious ex
perience renewed as long as that is true?
Perhaps you have dropped out from public
worship. Here again I am able to say that I
have rarely seen man or woman fall far who
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