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YOL. I.
SANDERSYTLLE, GEORGIA, FEBRUARY 14, 1873.
NO. 33.
J. M. G. MEDLOCK. JETHRO AT.LIKE. E, L. RODGERS.
B> 7Ie«Ilo’ck, Srtine & Rodgers.
The Herald is published in Sanders ville,
Ga every Friday morning. Subscription
price TWO DOLLARS per annum.
Advertisements inserted at the usual rates.
No charge for publishing marriages or
deaths.
POETRY.
“What Must I Do to be Saved”’
How simple is the gospel plan,
Which makes salvation sure to man!
’Tis not by any creature deeds
Tha sinner gains the grace he needs;
’Tis not through penalties and pains
The souhits peace with God obtains;
Nor offerings of golden stores
Will ever open Heaven’s doors;
Nor may we for salvation build
On sacraments, and rites fulfilled.
But ’tis the blood of Christ alone,
Once shed, that can for sin atone
Faith, which to Him in love ascends,
And on His only work depends;
Which pleads His merits—trusts in Him,
That will from death and sin redeem.
Christ says. ‘‘Poor soul, believe in Me.”
Faith says, “I do believe in Theel”
The Spirit thus the Lord reveals,
And on the heart true pardon seals.
The grace which righteousness imputes,
Produces good and holy fruits;
And thus the evidence is given
Of what is “bron of God” for Heaven,
Simple the way, hut sure to thee;
“Only believe”—thou saved shall be.
Correspondence.
Sanders ville, Ga. , Feb. 3, 1873.
jElder IP. C. Moreau—Dear Sir:
The congregation to whom your able and
convincing discourse on “The Doctrine of
<&od” was preached on last Lord's day morn
ing. in the Christian church of this city, be
lieving that much good will be accomplished
by its publication, have appointed the un
dersigned a committee to respectfully solicit
your permission to have the sermon publish
ed in the Sandersnii.de Herald. Hoping
that our request may meet with a favorable
resjjonse, we remain, dear sir,
Very respectfull, yours,
C. C. Parsons,
G. W. H. Whitaker,
Ivy W. Duggan,
E. E. Parsons,
Wm. B. Adams,
J. J. Sparks,
James F. Tanner,
S. G. Jordan,
J. B. Roberts.
Sandersville, Ga., Feb. 3, 1873.
Mr. C'. C. Parsons and other gentlemen of the
Committee— Gentlemen:
I should he made of. impenetrable stuff
indeed, not to be deeply touched by the flat
tering request in your kind note of the pres
ent date. Sharing in the hope so gracefully
expressed by you, that the discourse in the
larger delivery of the press will do good, it
is herewith placed at your disposal.
I have the honor to be, gentlemen,
Very respectfully yours,
W. C. Moreau.
The Doctrine of God.
If any man will do his tvill, he shall
know the doctrine, whether it he of
God or whether I -speak of myself.
John vii—17.
introductory.
The gospel of salvation or doctrine
of God is presented in a dual or two
fold form. As. the sum and conclus
ion of all wisdom ; as God’s highest
and best truth, it stands in the broad
highway Df life, and demands of man’s
reason, of his intellect, full and com
plete recognition.
Challenging entire credence, no re-*
luetant, doubting acquiesence, no
shuffling, insincere acceptance, no
mere halfway, evasive compromising
belief will suffice it; a prompt, man
ly and hearty acknowledgement of
its full scope and meaning as the.
veritable truth of God must be ac
corded to it and nothing short of this
will meet and satisfy the divine re
quirement. In the gospel, the stron
gest, clearest sense of man’s intel
lectual nature must see and receive
the son of God. In its other phase
or form, the gospel comes to us in
au equally strong, though not so
peremptory manner. To man’s af-
fectional or emotional nature it makes
its wonderfully moving and loving
appeal; its wooing, yearning spirit
finds apt and beautiful expression in
the divinely impassioned entreaty,
“Son give me thy heart.” In a voice
through whose melting intonation
the tears of Gethseamane rain, the
sublime pathos of the last cry to God
on calvary breathes, and all the lov
ing tenderness of Christs’ earthly
ministry throbs, the sweet, dear
gospel of the Saviour makes con
stant plaint at the door of every hu
man heart, pleading that this cruci
fied, risen and glorified Lord be per
mitted to enter.
No matter how stained and defiled
by the corrupting presence of sin,
your heart may be; no matter how
greatly it may be estranged from all
good and pure and holy influences;
no matter how great its grief or care
or pain, only open its door and the
Lord of glory -will enter in and make
it his abode forever.
Sceptisim has stoutly contested
every inch of ground occupied by
the gospel in its purely ethic or intel-
ectual phase, it has set its most for
midable engines of attack over against
its strongest positions and rained
dark, hurtling showers of doubt and
suspicion upon them ; but from every
conflict where the humanities of the
gospel have entered the lists, it has
fled in wild dismay and disorder. The
Pharisees disputed the teaching of
Christ in the temple; but silence
came upon them when he ministered
to the sufferings and afflictions of
humanity. The doctrine of the gos
pel may be called in question by the
eager, critical unbeliever; but before
the grand miracle of the whole earth
ly life of the Saviour, so manlike in
its Godliness, so Godlike in its noble
unselfish, spotless manliness, he must
stand abashed and dumb, the zest of
carping critisism is spoiled and dis
armed by a single fact, it can neither
reason away nor lose sight of itself.
To the man who has received the
gospel of Jesus Christ in the full
force of its twofold manifestation,
whose heart and mind are alike im
bued with its hallowed and exalting
influences; who with his mouth hath
confessed Christ unto all men and
received him in his heart as his Sav
iour and God, there has opened up a
new and beautiful life. The old has
become new and the new has taken
on a lovelier beauty and a tender
charm; nature, all glorious and bright
before, now appear dressed in the
rarer graces of a glorified •vision, en
rapturing and enchanting all his sen
ses and his full, joyous heart goes out
in earnest and grateful adoration of
nature’s God; the same blessed
spirit of change runs through his
who’ e life ; if he was a good citizen
before, he will be a much better one
now ; if he was a loving, affectionate
considerate husband and father be
fore, he will have reached new and
higher degrees in all these delightful
qualities and be more loving, more
affectionate more considerate now;
if he was a faithful, zealous friend
before, he will be a more engaging
and devoted friend now; and as he
shall continue to grow in grace and
in the knowledge of the Lord the
seal of every grace shall be set up
on him to mark the Christian.
The Directness of the Gosi>el.
Avoiding all ambiguity and uncer
tainty of expression, the gospel makes
its eloquent appeal with singular
directness of purpose immediately
to the heart aud conciousness of man;
the barbed arrow from the bended
bow of the archer, is not more true
to its aim ; the upward flight of. the
eagle, soaring to the sun, is not by a
straighter line; the swift plummet,
cleaving the yielding waters in its de
cent among the hidden mysteries of
the deep, is not more unerring in its
course than is the word of life in the
gospel.
The tangled web into which the
stubborn dogmatism of the Chief
Priest and Rabbis, and the numerous
traditions of the Pharisees had woven
the law of Moses and rfhe covenants
of God was unravelled with the
quickness of thought, and a great
flood of glorious light and beauty
thrown over all the concealed mys
teries of the law by the plain and
direct teaching of this doctrine of
God; with rare boldness of manner
and forceful beauty of expression, the
Saviour declares that he is “the way
and the truth and the life ; no man
cometh to the Father but by me.”
No longer must the earnest, penitent
seeker after God thread the intricate
windings of the outer and inner courts
of the temple in search of an earth
ly priesthood to make atonement for
him with the blood of beasts and
birds; but directly as the gospel has
come to him, he with cheerful alacri
ty and equal directness goes to the
Father through Christ, the way, and
life, and truth. The teaching of Christ
was characterised by this direct,
straightforwardness. In his answer
to the young man who sought to
know of him what he who had obey
ed all the commandments and kept
all the laws from his youth up,
should do to merit salvation, there
was no labored dissertation on doc
trine, no profound display of learn
ing and logical acumen; with terse
brevity but loving emphasis the Sav
iour said uoto him, “Go sell all thou
hast and give to the poor.” To
Nicodemus, who sought him by
night that he might know from Him
self what manner of doctrine He
taught, the same directness and
clearness is manifested ; the Saviour
informed the enquiring Jew, that he
must be born again, and become as
a little child" before he could enter
into the kingdom of heaven. To the
poor, shrinking, trembling woman
who had been brought to Him for
judgment He addressed Himself
with the directness of infinite pity;
“Woman,'hath no man condemned
thee ? neither do I condemn thee, go
and sin no more.” What a chance
was here to deliver an interesting
homil) ! what a subject too; the new
law of love and mercy brought into
dramatic contact with the old law of
wrath and vengeance; on the one
hand the followers of the old law sup
ported in their fierce clamor for the
blood of their already judged and
condemned victim by the mandates
of that law of God which had been
given their fathers from the flowing
summit of Sinai, and whose binding
force no one had ever dared question;
on the other, a plain, simple man,
without insignia of rank or emblem
of power, unsupported by armed
followers, known to them from infancy
as the son of Joseph the carpenter,
one of themselves in his Jewish
lineage, yet claiming to be the Au
thor of a new covenant in virtue of
which he took from them this woman,
condemned to death under their law,
and in the exercise of a power which
could belong to God alone, relieved
her from the judgement of death,
pardoned her offense, and bade her
go and sin no more ; so sheltered un
der the protection of divine power,
clothed and covered with the broad
mantle of charity .and mercy, the
parched and arid desert of his life
made again to bud .and blossom with
truth and purity by the glad streams
of living waters flowing over it from
the never failing fountains of Jesus’
love, tliis poor woman went forth
.unharmed of the law, and no
one dared hinder nor molest
her. In His miracles as in His
teaching, the same directness of
method was maintained by the Sav
iour; no tedious preliminaries nor
wearisome observance of petty de
tail marred the simple granduer of
his work. He stood before the
mouth of the. tomb while the stone
was being rolled away in silence and
the loud voiced, earnest command
“Lazarus come forth,” falling upon
the quickened ears of the dead was
the first sound to reach those of the
living: the long buried dead man all
instinct with the vigor of a new life
and manhood walked forth to bear
living witness of the divinity of Christ.
In the hushed death chambers of
the rulers’ house he stood by the cold
form of the beloved daughter; the
thickened senses, numbed by the
chill deaih, caught the strong, deep
“Maid ariseand the fair girl cast
from her eyelids the slumber of death
and from her eyes the sleep of the
grave and feeling in all the purple
courses of her veins the rapt ectsacy
of a new life went forth to gladden
with her restored presence the hearts
of her parents. Such great results
needed no introduction and it was
results alone at which the Saviour
aimed ; and they were sought by no
devious paths; whenever it became
necessary to assert the divine power
possessed by him; he addressed him
self directly to the object sought,
and whether it was to heal the sick,
open the eyes of the blind or raise
the dead he asserted his power in
the simple word of command and
the result always found it to be the
power of God.
simplicity of the gospel.
While the gospel is thus direct
and certain in its teaching, it is al
most severe in its pure simplicity.
Compared with the abstruse subtle
ties of the various system of Philos
ophy with their difficult and recon
dite teachings, with the tortuous and
perplexing theories of Greek and
Roman mythology, laboring through
multitudinous families of impossible
divinities, the plain, simple theory
of the gospel is at once restful and
refreshing. It is like comparing the
rugged and obscure path of the Al
pine hunter among the crags and
precipices and through the gloomy
defiles of his native mountains, to
the clear, smooth Appian way. View
ed beside the extravagant fancies
of the so called religions of the far
ther East, the strange mingling of
sensual delights and gross super
stition, the gospel of Christ appears
so inviting in its simple beauty, its
natural and unforced appropriate
ness, its perfect adaptation to the
needs and aspirations of humanity,
so free, from objection in the lofty
purity of its whole thought, that we
are filled with wonder that we could
ever name any other system or the
ory a religion.
So to the quick skilled eye of a
time artist would the chaste beauty
of a Greek temple appear when
compared with the barbaric splen
dors of an Indian palace. The one
with its perfectly plain, unomamen-
ted columns, large and strong,spring
ing gracefully from massive bases
and reaching far up to unadorned
capitols, airy and light as pillars of
mist that shoot up from the still bo
som of a mountain lake in the morn
ing sunlight seeming to support the
whole weight of the bended heavens
above them, harmonious and sym-
etrical in 'every part, massiveness of
proportion relieved by breadth and
grandeur of outline, chaste, severe
simplicity, the prevailing thought in
all the magnificent whole. The oth
er with its wild profusion of exuber
ant, fanciful architecture; slight flu
ted columns tottering under enor
mous pediments, fantastic in their
elaborate ornamentation; its ceilings
a confused wilderness of groined
and fretted archings, its perfect maze
of pinnacles and towers; the whole
structure given up to a diffuse and
lavish use of ornament at once inapt
and offensive, intended to captivate
and intoxicate the senses, but re
pelling the eye and offending the
judgement, weak and effeminate,
where it should be strong and solid,
and clumsy and bulky, where it
should be light and graceful, rude
profusion, ignorance, and gross sen
suality being the predominant ideas
in every part. An hour would suf
fice us in the latter, while in the
former, we could enjoy its calm,
strong beauty forever.
Thus the pure, sweet simplicity
of the gospel becomes its chiefest
charm; from the numberless gods
of one system, the Christian turns
with comprehending gratitude to his
“One God,” from the lifeless, mo
tionless, feelingless god of the Pan
theist, the Christian turns with lov
ing adoration to liis “Living God;”
from the irrational and unnatural
gods of all other systems the Chris
tian turns with childlike trust and
confidence to his “God and Father
of us all,” threefold in His divine
existence, yet, whether as the great
God who created the heavens and
the earth and all that in them is; the
Holy Spirit who guides and directs
our weak and erring feet into the
ways of all truth; or the God mani
fest in the flesh to be one with ns in
care and suffering, in pain and sor
row, bearing for us the burthen of
our iniquities, being scourged for us
that by his stripes we might be
healed, enduring for us the unutter
able anguish of the garden, and, at
last dying for us upon the cross that
we, through his death, might have
everlasting life; still, our Father and
our God.
acceptance of the gospel.
The gospel comes to us stripped
and shorn of eveiy condition either
precedent or subsequent save the
single one of acceptance.
It does not lead its followers
through forty years of wilderness and
gloomy,cheerless desert travel, afflict
ing them with hunger and thirst,
visiting them with fiery serpents and
consuming fires and devouring earth
quakes; ah! no, it takes them lov
ingly, tenderly by the hand and
leads them by the side of sweet wa
ters into pleasant pastures, ushering
them with pleasing haste into all
the -blissful joys of the promised
land. The hand of Jesus is extend
ed toward us, and all that is asked
of us is to go, to be led by Iiim
withersoever he will; see that dear
hand, how eloquent in its silent en
treaty, all quivering still with the
cruel torture of the piercing nail
which tore its fierce way through
the soft palm, crashing through
shrinking flesh and writhing nerves,
bleeding too, oh! sinner bow your
head and let one drop of that sa
cred tide fall upon it, a holy chrism,
consecrating you forever to God.
Look up from the hand, the gentle,
loving hand, to the dearer lace of
Him who would be your Saviour;
that pure, calm, holy face wears up
on it still the agony of Gethsemane,
a quick, earnest, intense expres
sion of apprehended calamity ; it is
not to-morrow’s indignity and con
tumely in the judgement hall of
Pontius Pilot, that clothes it in that
melting expression of pain to-day;
it is not the cruel torture and terri
ble agony of Calvary on the morrow
that clouds that dear face with an
guish now; not His own dreaded
death, but your great peril, my dear
friend, you who have so long re
fused His outstretched hand, gives
back to the Saviour the sorrow and
pain of the Garden.
Will you not accept this gospel,
this beautiful, direct,’ simple gospel;
will you not go confidingly to this
loving Jesus and, taking his exten
ded hand, walk with him in all ho
liness and truth, and purity forever ?
the test of the doctrine. ’
It is only by obedience to the
commands of the Gospel, doing the
will of God, that you aru to know the
truth of the doctrine of that gospel;
obedience is thus made not the test
of the believers truth,but the test of
the truth of the thing he is called
upon to believe. The proposition
here is just this : Jesus Christ here
says to the world, “I place the whole
theory of the gospel before you and
by the simple test of obedience to
its requirements on your part shall
it stand or fall.”
No where in all God’s holy word,
is there an argument so sweeping in
its terms, so powerful in its perfect
simplicity, and so conclusive in all
its results, in favor of the claims of
Jesus Christ and the gospel taught
and proclaimed by him as that con
tained in this proposition made by
the Saviour. The whole field of
discussion is narrowed down to this
one practical test; logic and rheto
ric are needless and experiment may
and can determine whether Christ
himself and his gospel are of God
or whether they are spurious and
false. Try to form an adequate con
ception of the awful majesty of this
though^; you cannot take m all its
grandeur, all its powerful signifi
cance and meaning in a moment.
Remember all that is snbmitted* here
to final decision. It is the truth or
falsity of the whole theory and plan
of man’s redemption and salvation
from si®, and immortality in heaven.
Ah these great matters, so full of
interest to every suffering man and
woman in the world, are handed
periment, which any one may try ;
but no one can try it for another,
each must make the experiment him
self and its results are to him alone.
To you, dear friend, it is no less a
matter than your own eternal wel
fare, your own salvation. As the
result of this experiment, Christ is
to-be to you the veritable Son of
God, your blessed Redeemer and
Saviour, or he is to become a cheat
and his gospel a fraud. The sweet,
holy image of the blessed Jesus you
have carried with you all the years
since yon left your mother’s knee,
always expecting sometime to follow
her dear counsel and give yourself
to that tender Saviour, is now to be
confirmed in its preeminence or re
moved in dishonor and shame, you
are now to know that the doctrine
held by that sainted parent is of
God or that it is a boundless decep
tion and you are to endure the hu
miliation of feeling that for years
you have been the easy dupe of a
wretched delusion. The whole
thought and religious method of
your life aro to be broken up and
destroyed or they are to be strength
ened and renewed. Before commen
cing this test experiment in whose
result such mighty interests are made
to depend ; you look carefully about
to discover against the hour of need
some new basis of thought upon
which to found a new method, but
you fail to find a sure resting place
and are made to feel how deep and
strong is the hold the childish. faith
you once had in Jesus upon the
springs of your being, how it was
enfibred in your very nature and
how dark and drear and solitary the
world will be to yon without the
good Christ in it to fight and glorify
it.
To just this test the Saviour sub
mits his doctrine and himself. He
says to you, “you doubt the truth of
the gospel, you deny my divinity;
now I will submit my doctrine and
myself with all the eternal interests •
involved to a single test and its
faithful determination shall be left
with; you shall dp the will of God,
obey His commandments and thus
you shall know the truth of the gos
pel I preach.” Here is none other
than the power of God ; now do you
begin to comprehend tho force, and
strength and awful sublimity of this
action of the Christ ? Abandoning
analysis and turning to synthesis,
the proposition made to us by the
Lord Jesus Christ means to every
one of us, God, Christ, Heaven, in
or out of humanity and the world,
as we shall determine for ourselves
after we shall have done His will.
Upon each one of us the great res
ponsibility of deciding this question,
so far reaching in its immediate re
sults, is thrown; we must make tho
experiment 'ourselves and for our
selves alone. Not the least marvel
ous feature in this test proposed by
the Saviour for the truth of His
doctrine is the character of the part
the unbeliever is called upon to per
form ; if the experiment fails he is
the gainer in his own heart and con
science, while should it succeed, his
joys are beyond all human expres
sion, he obtains not only happiness
here, but eternal blessedness hereaf
ter.
Now that we have some limited
conception of the proposition made
by the Lord touching the truth of
his doctrine, let us examine with
some care the steps we are required
to take, to make this great test of
doctrine.
RELIEF IN CHRIST.
We are to do His will and we have
no other place to go in which to
learn what His will concerning us is
than His holy word, in that we are
told that “This is his commandment;
that we should believe on the na me
of his son Jesus Christ.” Whatever
difficulty is to be met witb and con
quered in this experiment, lies right
at the threshhold of the underta
king.
We must believe in Christ Jesus,
in his Messiahship, in uis Divinity ;
must believe that he is, indeed and
in truth the son of God and the Sa
viour of all that will accept him.
* The belief in Christ Jesus is not
to be a mere mental process, an in
tellectual conviction and acceptance
of the physical fact of his exis
tence ; we are not permitted to stop
with receiving the fact that Jesus
Christ lived and taught, suffered and
died, as we receive the fact that
Homer lived and wrote the Illiad.
Why we might have lived in the days
of Jesus, stood by the cool Jordan
and witnessed its limpid waters close
over him in crystal burial when John
baptised him, heard the voice of the
Father in divine attestation of his
mission, journeyed with him during
all the days of his ministry among
men, stood awed at the wonderful
works which he did, been entranced
with the wondrous glory of the
transfiguration, wept with him when
LazArous died, sorrowed for him on
Calvary,waited with eager impatience
the ushering in of the third day, vis
ited the empty sepulchre and wit
nessed his ascent into heaven, giv
ing entire and implicit confidence to
believed on and received him as our
Saviour. It is not sufficient that
our critical judgment accepts and
approves of all 'the facts connected
with Christ’s ministry, that it even
accepts Him, all that will still avail
us nothing; there is something more
than this required of us and we
must do it. We must believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ with all our
hearts ; we must embrace him with
all the warm, loving impulses of our
nature ; there must be a oneness of
life and being with the Saviour ; we
must surrender up everything and
taking Christ into our hearts, into
our fives; mingling with him at tlie
fountain head of being, we shall in
deed become partakers with bim in
all the joys of the Father. This
taking in of Christ is not a simple
passive or receptive process in which
we are only quiescent. We are
called upon to prepare our hearts
and open them to the Saviour, it is
true, he stands at the door and
knocks, but we must open tho door
and bring him in, we cannot sit with
folded hands and cry “come in” in
response to his knock. We must get
up and open the door and bid him
enter. Jesus Christ never entered
a human heart the door of which
was not opened unto him and it is
safe to say he never will; while the
messengers of -life continue to pass
to and fro upon the crimson high
ways through its gates, he will still
stand at the door of yonr heart and
knock ; but all the mental processes
in the vast realms of thought, all
the earnest beseeching for faith in
the world will never take him across
the threshhold until the door is
opened and he is invited in, and it
is exactly this action of the heart that
is required of you.
Years ago, when you were a little
child, your father left your home in
the far interior, anxious to accumu
late a competence by more rapid
means than were afforded in the
little town in which he lived, like
many others he determined to join
the throng of gold hunters who w r ere
pressing to California. Many years
passed on and yet no news of your
absent father; you have passed
through all the stages of the grief
occasioned by his unexplained ab
sence and by the later conviction of
his death ; time and Infinite Mercy-
have dealt tenderly with you, and
your bitter wounds are well nigh
healed. While at some distance from
your home, in a large city, you be
come acquainted with a gentleman
whose pleasing manner and agree
able conversation prove so enter
taining to you that you are constant
ly seeking his society. You know
him to be a gentleman; with great
beauty of person, elegance and dig
nity of deportment he combines a
rarely endowed and well stored
mind. After considerable inter
course with him, you find that you
admire his character greatly, his pu
rity and gentleness are a constant
revelation and surprise^ you honor
most profoundly his exalted senti
ments and esteem his noble life; in
a word, he calls forth from you ev
ery intellectual tribute it is in your
power to render, but your heart is
no more interested in him than if
you did not possess one, your affec
tions are all unenfisted and undis
turbed.
One day you are talking with this
pleasant, agreeable stranger whom
you so highly esteem and by some
chance allusion to your early home
and loss, it is suddenly discovered
that this man whose noble charac
ter has won from you such unstinted
honor and regard is your father.
Why should I destroy by attemping
to describe a scene so easily real
ised? Now your heart goes out in
great passionate throbs of loving
tenderness to your father, now your
know that he has his place there
forever, that he is part and parcel
of your life, that you live in him and
he in you, that there is a perfect
unity and harmony in your fives.
It is just in this way yon most recieve Je
sus ; He must enter into and form a part of
your life and yon must merge into him your
own existence. He must be to you not sim
ply the accepted, accredited Christ of history;
he of whom the prophets spoke aforetime;
He must be to you in every thought of your
.mind and impulse of your heart, the Christ
of your salvation, the author and the finisher
of your faith, dwelling in you and forming
for you the endless hope of glory and eternal
life.
but out of all this sorrow for sin, this flood
tide of bitter self accusation, this shame and
humiliation is born the good resolve to turn
from sin forever, to consecrate your life to
the new and better influences and spirit to
which you have surrendered it; to live for
ever in Christ that you may keep him forever
in you.
You have now accepted Christ as your Sa
viour you have trulv repented of all your sins
and turned from theih forever; it now remains
for you to take the last and only open public
step required of you by the gospel as doin-r
His will. This is 3
BAPTISM.'
Baptism follows belief and repentance as a
necessary sequence; it is commanded as be
lief and repentance are commanded; if wo
may dispense with baptism we may with
equal rignt dispense with belief or renent-
ance orboth. It is not more essential than
belief and repentance nor is it less so; as tho
new man in Christ Jesus could not be form-
*kree of the positive elements
of his existence being present, they are all
and each and each andjall to that extent abso
lutely essential.
As belief and repentance are all internal in
then- operations, baptism is the outward sum
or seal by which the child of God makes
open confession of his Saviour beforo tho
world; it is God s Sign Manuel of adoption
by which men and angels are to know and
recognise the new child of Heaven; and ns
this outward, manifestation of the new life is
given by the believer, ns he thus shows to
God-that he has obeyed all tho command
ments, so God in fulfillment of His own
promise, as the now man rises from his bap
tismal burial with Christ, grants to him full
remission of all sin and endows him with tho
Holy Spirit and he goes his way rejoicing in
new ness of life. Baptism is for the remis
sion of sin, because baptism is the end of
obedience and remission of sins is the fulfill
ment of the promises. As baptism could not
be reached without belief and repentance
neither could. remission of sin be reached
without baptism. Belief, repentance, bap
tism are all required to secure salvation from
sin and no one can plead God’s promises
without first having rendered full compli
ance with the divine commands. ’
THE TEST DETERMINED.
At last we approach the Conclusion. You
have taken Christ at his word and have sub
jected the great Doctrine to the simple, prac
tical tsst to which he invited you to subject
it. One by one the several steps in the pro
cess of His will have been taKen and now
nothing remains for yon but to give your de
cision, and for that we need not wait well
knowing what it must be.
You have believed on the name of Jesus
Christ, have opened the door of your heart
to him and he now dwelleth with you for
evermore. All the dark places of your life
are made bright and happy by the* glory of
His presence; the long hushed fountains of
your soul are all unsealed and their pure,
crystal waters are making glad the waste pla
ces of your heart; the Comforter has come to
you and all yonr life is clothed with light,
life and beauty; God has smiled lovingly up
on yon and every sense of your being thrills
to the soft touch of a new delight, yon know
that you have indeed passed from death un
to life.
The marvellous confidence of the Saviour
has been most fully met; the glorious gospel
of the cross has stood the experiment and
God is again vindicated in his son; the onlv
result possible to the grandest argument in
all the store house of God’s wisdom has been.
again reached; another son has been added
to the household of faith, another fadeless
star in the Lamb’s crown of rejoicing, anoth
er strain to the eternal harmony of the an
gels in heaven, another soul prepared to
join the innumerable throng of those who
have washed their robes and made them all
white and glorious in the blood of Christ.
Through obedience to God you have lifted
yourself up to the full height of this great
argument; upon the sure rock of his Word
revealed to yon in its fitting conclusion you
will now rest secure; in vain will the enemy
of souls assail yon while you are guided by
the word of His counsel; no doubt will evor
have power to move yon nor any fear to shake
your sure faith, centered in God, filled with
the Holy Spirit, sustained and upbuilded by
the presence of the Saviour ever with yon, your
life will flow sweetly on until the greater
glory of God and heaven are revealed to your
immortal vision.
over to the single test of a simple ex- every thing we beheld trad yet not
REPENTANCE.
Having recieved Christ, believed on him
whom God has sent, you are now prepared
to take the next step in the way of doing the
will of God; that is repentance; your recep
tion of Christ being thorough and entire there
is no fear but, that your repentance will be
sincere. All that is lovely and pure and holy
in Christ will work in you a deep and genu
ine Godly sorrow for everything in your own
life that is not lovely, pure and holy; the
years yon have wasted in sin and folly will
pass in sad retrospection beforo you and by
the new light that is within you, they will ap
pear thickly studded with golden opportuni
ties.. now lost to yon forever;, like beautiful
green islands in fair summer seas over which
yon have sailed in the night time while slum
ber locked yonr vision against the beauties
among which you were drifting. It will not
be the lightest of yonr sorrow when yon turn
to the great gifte with which God has endow
ed yon and see them all soiled and stained
and worn in the evil uses to which yon have
put them in other years, and yon will feel
very sad and humble indeed when yon tnm
to your Saviour and ask him to accept and
use them for himself in all the years to come.
Deep and hitter will be yonr sense of guilt _
as the long record of yonr sins Is brought to"
your view by a sorrow quickened memory;
The Horrors of Shopping.—We
Lave often admired the patience, of
shopmen and the politeness with
which they take down and unfold
piece after piece of goods to satisfy
the troublesome customers. But the
following scene which took place late
ly in a Parisian magazine, will at once
prove the superiority of French man
ners. An elegantly dressed lady
asked to see some materials for pa
letots. The shopman mounted the
steps and took down several pieces
of striped velvet. “The rain would
spoil it,” said the lady. “Show m'e
some swanskin.” Several pieces be
ing laid upon the counter. “Too
thick,” said the lady, after an exam
ination of ten minutes; “show me
some lady’s cloth.” Several great
rolls were laid before her. They were
too thin. Then came velvet, silk,
satin, moire, until the counter disap
peared under the-piles of stuffs, be
hind which stood the nearly invisi
ble shopman, still patient and polite.
At last “I have decided.” said the
customer, “in favor of flannel—blue
flannel.” Ten or twelve pieces were
placed upon the heap. “That will
do,” she said, after a long and min
ute scrutiny. “How much J will it take
to make a dog’s paletot?” “A paletot?
asked the shopman, not at all dis
concerted, and appearing to make a
mental calculation. “Will it have
pockets, madame?^’
A neat compliment was paid the
other day to a lady. She had just
swallowed a petite glass of wine, as a
gentleman in company asked for a
taste. “It’s all gone,” said she, laugh-#
ingly, “unless you take some frony
my lips.” “I should he most happyy
he replied, “but I never take su J
in mine.” *
It’s a cow this time. She wae kill
ed in Augusta, Ga., last Thursday,
and in her stomach was found a full
peck of small stones, about a dozen
porcelain plates, a three hundred-
pound shot, a sewing machine, and
a frog calmly playing “Root Hog, or
Die” on a single-keyed Ante.
Best calicoes, 101 cts. per yard.
M. A. EVANS*CO.
