Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 December 1898 — Ministers Column. [ARTICLE]

Ministers Column.

Abstracts of Last Sunday’s Sermons. Synopsis ot Sermon. By Elder Y. 0. Fritts, of the Mission ary Baptist Church, Sunday Even ing. Subject The Atonement. Text:—Heb. 9:24-26. The atonement is a basal doctrine. To make a mistake here is to make a mistake all through theology. It has been denominated the “Key doctrine.” We will examine it first negatively then explain what it is. 1. It is not a commercial transaction. We cannot imagine that God would sell the price of his son’s blood. It is not a bargain in which God in consideration of our penitence grants pardon and eternal life. In that case it would require more blood to atone for .some men than for others. It has been argued by others that one drop of Christ’s blood is sufficient to atone for the sins of the whole world. Then every other drop was shed in vain. Crimes can be atoned for hut debts must be paid. The terrible results of the late war did not atone for the sinking of tbe Maine. Spain could only atone for that crime by ferreting out the crimimb <u>d <=" renting them Every execution is a part of atonement to the state for the blood shed. 2. The atonement differs from reconciliation. In reconciliation

man acts. o a tonement is not redemption. They differ (a) In object The object of the atonement is appeasing justice. The atonement is the price paid for redemption. (6) They differ in design. (c) They differ in Nature. The atonement. is universal and embraces those wtio accept it. Some argue that tho ..tenement was made for a limited number but it was for all, redemption is limited. (d) The atonement was made once for all. “In that He died once for all.” But redemption occurs every time a soul is saved. What the atonement is. It is a covering up, a satisfaction. The word means to cover up. Jacob made an atonement to Esau when he sent him a present. Even Noah’s ark was said “to be atoned with pitch within and without.” A father has a wayward son who wastes his substance and angers the father, how shall I restore things as they were? I can pay all the debts incurred, that is redemption. I can have the son confess then comes reconciliation but there must be an atonement to restore confidence. The father’s authority must be maintained. King Zeleucus passed a law that the adulterer should lose his eyes. His son was the first offender. The King put out one of his son’s eyes and one of his own. The sight of that sightless eye would humble the son and unite to the father. Jesus Christ was not for atonement he himself was the atonement. We may beatoned for, redeemed and saved but are deserving of God’s wrath and henoe are saved only by grace. It should greatly humble us to think of it.

Synopsis of Sermon- . \ (l)Christ e aid to his followers, “ye are the salt of she earth.” Salt is as essential to the preservation of life as is food. If man or beast is deprived of salt for a long time, he is absolutely certain to die. Salt is also a preservative of meats and suoh things which are subject to decay. (2) Bin and evil-doing are rapidly sapping the life blood from human society, ami their finished results, death and destruction, a:e seen ou every hand. The people who have worshipped (tod. have, in every age, been the Saviors and preservers of Immunity. There are good people outside of the church, and bad people inside.

The meanest man in the world is a bypocrit in the church, is meaner to be a hypoorit outside the church who is always damning the church because it has some ♦ members in it that are as mean as he is himself. The only salvation for the human race, which is so often in Rensselaer and everywhere, more beastly than even the beast, is the Christian Religion. Take away from our city the seven churches, and in their stead place seven more saloons run by good (?) men, and Hell would be a more comfortable place for our living drunkard’s widows and orphans than is Rensselaer. Verily, God’s people the the salt of the earth. Sunday morning at Christian church by

ELDER N. H. SHEPPARD.