1887 



GLEANINGS IN liEE CULTURE. 



711 



dm peME?. 



The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin. 

 —I. John 1 : 7. 

 Ye must be born atiiiiu-— John It : 7. 



fllK question is continually arising, 

 •'What does Chiislianity do for a 

 man V" A good many whose atten- 

 tion is called to the matter reply. 

 '• How much does it amount to, any 

 way V How much ditterent is the man who 

 is a Christian, from anyl)ody else V Is it 

 really of any very great (U)nsequence V The 

 friends who love righteousness, no doubt 

 feel hurt and chilled by such expressions as 

 these ; but they are continually coming 

 from the world, and those wlio treat lightly 

 the subject of Christ's claims upon us are 

 all continually demanding tiuit we prove to 

 them that there is a reality in the religion 

 of Christ Jesus. They often say, " How can 

 you prove to us that it amounts to any thing 

 more than these various other things that 

 come up V Various societies urge the im- 

 portance of their special organization, and 

 what has Christianity to offer more than 

 a thousand and one other things T" In oth- 

 er words, the world insists, or. at least, a 

 great part of tlie world, that Christianity is 

 on a level witli ever so many other things, 

 and that there is no particular need that it 

 be the ail-absorbing topic 



Skeptics and inhdels, however, often un- 

 derstand and acknowledge our claims, but 

 they declare the facts don't prove it. At a 

 temperance meeting some time ago, the 

 matter of gospel temperance was under dis- 

 cussion. Some of the unbelievers of our 

 town, who are friends of temperance, de- 

 manded a non-partisan temperance meeting. 

 They wanted to attend and take part, but 

 they objected to gospel hymns and prayers. 

 A smart lawyer, who seemed their leader, 

 expressed himself sometliing in this way : 



" Some of us who have not had our ' sins 

 washed away " are interested in the temper- 

 ance reform, and wish to help the matter 

 along." 



When he spoke about sins being washed 

 away, he made a somewhat comic expression 

 with his face, and glanced around at the 

 professors of religion, expecting them to 

 smile at his witticisms. Some of them, per- 

 haps, did smile ; but my good old mother, 

 who was present, didn't smile. In fact, she 

 had never heard such talk, and was so much 

 pained that she declared she could not stay 

 where such language was used. In thinking 

 the matter over, however, it has occurred to 

 me that there was a good rebuke in the 

 lawyer's words, for many of us. I wish to 

 say, however, that few- Christians of my ac- 

 quaintance have claimed that their sins are 

 all washed away, in the sense in which the 

 lawyer used it. 'We do claim, and we have a 

 right to claim, that a free pardon has been 

 granted us, for sins committed before we 

 enlisted in Christ's service ; but we do 

 not claim that our lives are sinless or spot- 

 less. We are but dust after all— even as the 

 Psalmist says, " He knoweth our frame, 

 that we are but dust." Hut even though 

 this be true, I do think, dear friends, that 



we are all of us a good deal more '■ dusty," 

 as a former pastor of mine used to express 

 it, tiian we need to be. The blood of ('lirist 

 does cleanse from all sin, as our text de- 

 chtres, providing our trust, oui- whole trust, 

 is in Him wiio died that we might be cleans- 

 ed. 1 do not know wiiether or not Christians 

 will be graded or chissilied in the great un- 

 known future ; but I am compelled to ad- 

 mit, that tiiere are many grades of Chris- 

 tians here in tliis world. And while 1 admit 

 this, 1 am also compelled to acknowledge that 

 there are but very few, comparatively, who 

 reach the liigh Christian attainment that is 

 open tf) us all. There are thousands of 

 church-members who seem to be, judging 

 from such glimpses as we get of them in 

 their every-day life, but little more than 

 cluirch-members. Now, lest you tiiink 1 

 am going to tind fault with others, 1 will 

 come nearer home, and say that I am afraid 

 that a good main see nothing in me nor in m> 

 own life, particularly indicating that I arii 

 any thing more than simply a chuich-mem- 

 ber. In saying this, I do believe it is a 

 grand thing to be a cliucli-member, if noth- 

 ing more ; that is. it is a great thing to let 

 your life show to the world an absence of 

 any thing wrong, oi' any thing that would 

 be derogatory to a i)rofessor of religion, 

 even if it does not show much on the other 

 side ; that is, a negative sort of religion is 

 better than none at all. But, my friends, a 

 real, live, bright, active religidu is better 

 still — a religion that carries praise with it 

 as well as prayer, and this, overflowing day 

 by day and hour by hour with the joys of 

 tiie Christian's hope. 



When we enter Christ's service, we ought 

 to be different from what we were before, 

 and in one sense we ought to be different 

 from other people. A change should be 

 recognized in us at once, and it should be so 

 great that our friends recognize us as differ- 

 ent persons. Christ said to Nicodemus, you 

 may remember. " Ye must be born again," 

 indicating that the change from the worldly 

 man to the follower of Christ shoud be so great 

 that it would be in reality a true and new 

 birth. I am sure it is our privilege to show- 

 to the world a greater change if we would. 

 We ought to be growing in trust and grow- 

 ing in grace. We ought to be making prac- 

 tical applications of the words of the Mas- 

 ter whom we follow, every day and every 

 hour. 



A few days ago a young man whose life 

 has been remarkably free from fault, and 

 who, in fact, seems to be free from any ot 

 the temptations that beset the rest of us, for 

 almost the first time in liis life got entangled 

 in a worldly matter. I should say, he got 

 into a quarrel, but I am afraid, now, he 

 would hardly be willing to admit it. I hope, 

 friends, you wull excuse me for saying that, 

 in one sense. I felt a little glad to know that 

 he had got into a quan-el, foi- 1 wanted to 

 see him use his weapons, and test them 

 fully. Here in our factory w^e have got 

 some fire-extinguishers. Before 1 })urchased 

 them I saw them tested on a bonfire in oui' 

 public square. They worked splenidly on a 

 make-believe fire. Well, since then I have 

 been somewhat anxious to see a real fire — 



