Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 162, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1916 — Excuses for Not Being Saved [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Excuses for Not Being Saved

By REV. JAMES M. GRAY, D. D. Dean of tba Moody Bibla Inatitote of Chicago

TEXT—Lord I will follow thee, but-'*— Luke 9:61. This is what a good many people are saying in their heart* If not with

their lip*. They know the Gospel plan of salvation. They know they must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be saved, and they know that when They do believe on him with their hearts they win foUow him in their life and conduct. The latter la something they do not wish to do because it means

a turning away from things In which they now find profit or pleasure* They do not reckon on the fact that when they truly believe on the Lord Jesus Christ they will receive a clean, heart and have renewed within them a right spirit. When a man is thus regenerated he no longer wishes to do the things he used to do and finds it easy to follow Christ. In their struggle to put off the day of decision they frame various excuses, like the man of the text who, when our Lord said unto him: “Follow me,’’ replied: "Lord I will follow thee, but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at my home.” Ordinarily there could be no objection to a man’s doing that, but on this occasion the command of Christ was peremptory, and the man’s action, would determine at once whether he preferred his family to Christ. There comes a time In every man’s life when he must decide this question, and determine in the presence of his own soul and in the presence of God whether God comes first or not. Hypocrites In the Church. 1. Some say there are so many hypocrites in the church, forgetting that there are many hypocrites in the business or profession by which they earn their livelihood, and yet they do not renounce that business or profession. A good way to meet this Objection is to ask whether they think hypocrites will go to heaven? As they will certainly answer, no, then It might be asked whether they themselves can go to heaven without Christ. As they must reply to this question, as well as to the other, in. the negative, they will be brought to see that they must dwell with hypocrites throughout eternity unless they become saved. The Inquiry brings to mind the case of a certain man who was always giving this reason for not accepting Christ. And yet his faithful wife heard him cry in the night more than once: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” It is a sad thing for a soul under conviction of sin, to cast away the hope of salvation for so flimsy a reason as the presence of hypocrites tn the visible church. Giving Up or Taking On, Which? 2. Others hesitate to accept Christ because they think they will have so much to give up/ But they are ignorant of the fact that the QJjyistian life is from every point of view a gain rather than a loss. You give up sin. but you take holiness. You give op sorrow, but you take joy. You give up death, but you take life. .You givo up self, but you take God. D. L. Moody used to tell of a soap manufacturer who was under conviction of sin, but hesitated to accept Christ. He pressed him for a reason, and at last he said it was his business that kept him back. “That soap,” said he, "will do everything I claim for it, but the fact is it will destroy the clothes. Now if I accept Christ, I must give it up.” Here was a plain issue which many another man has had to face, but what folly it is to hesitate a moment which way to decide! Moreover, many a man has given np his business for Christ and found afterward feat Christ had a great deal better business to give him than he had ever dreamed of; for, as the Bible says, "Godliness Is profitable unto a* things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.” 3. “I am afraid I won’t hold out,” is another very common excuse. But the mistake here lies in the fact that the man is thinking of his own strength Instead of the strength of the Savior. There is a Latin motto on the facade of a Y. M. C. A. building la New England that sets this‘truth before us very tersely and beautifully. The words are “Teneo et teneor” which means, "I hold and am held.” It suggests the picture of a strong man with a child in his arm ascending a dangerous cliff. The child h clinging to the man, but it Is because the man is holding the child that the latter makes the ascent with safety. In like manner the faith of the believer causes him to cliilg to Jesus Christ, but it is Jesus Christ that keeps and saves him to the end. ■-> Let us not be afraid to accept him. as our Savior and follow him ah our Lord.