Believing Confidence in God's Word

Believing does not come by trying. If a person were to make a statement of something that happened this day I should not tell him that I would try to believe him. If I believed in the truthfulness of the man who told the incident to me, and who said he saw it, I should accept the statement at once. If I did not think him a true man I should, of course, disbelieve him; but there would be no trying in the matter. Now, when God declares there is salvation in Christ Jesus I must either believe Him at once or make Him a liar. – SPURGEON.

The Superiority of Christian Faith

With the results of Christianity before him and in him, the Christian may confidently say to all his foes: "If a lie can do all this, then a lie is better than all your truth; for your truth does not pretend to do it. And if our lie is better in every possible legitimate result than your truth, then your truth is proven to be a lie, and our lie is the truth." Of all short methods with infidelity, this is the shortest. — J. G. HOLLAND.

Pastor Stands by Saloonkeepers

1905

Rev. George M. Bock, pastor of a Lutheran church in Mahony City, Pa., has resigned from the Ministerial Association of that city because of some features connected with its war on saloons. The association opposed the granting of a license to a man whose saloon is opposite Mr. Bock's church. The clergyman declares that the man is "a good neighbor" and that his place is "clean, decent, quiet and respectable." Therefore the preacher can not endorse the fight that is being made. He adds: "I have been pastor of the church for the past twelve years and have always endeavored to mind my own business."


True Sayings Indeed

If a man is a coward he always claims to be conservative.

The truth is always the strongest argument. — Sophocles.

Instead of doing things today the wise man did them yesterday.

The boy who ate twenty-nine bananas to win a $1 prize probably needed the money.

Getting to Know the People of the Church

1905

Whenever Mrs. Joshua Ely declared that for her part she believed in speaking the truth and not mincing matters, her hearers know that somebody's reputation was about to suffer. Mrs. Ely, herself, said that she always had been outspoken, and she intended to be. Her neighbors said various things. The fact of the matter was that as Mrs. Ely was the possessor, in addition to her sharp tongue, of an imposing presence and much force of character, nobody in the village dared openly oppose her.

Nobody, that is, until the new minister's wife came. The new minister's wife was a slender, girlish-looking creature whom Mrs. Ely "sized up" at once as being one of those women who need somebody to form their opinions for them, and this responsible duty she promptly took upon herself. She was the first to call, and in the course of a long monologue she enlightened the minister's life in regard to the failings of a large number of her husband's parishioners.

"I think it is better to know the truth in the first place," she declared, slowing up a moment for breath.

Then the minister's wife spoke with quick earnestness:

"I quite agree with you, Mrs. Ely, only don't you think that, after all, there is nothing to difficult to know as the truth? Because, of course, the truth about a person means the whole person; it is no more fair to pick out one trait and call that the truth than it would be to define a rose bush as a bush with thorns. That is true, but it is only a part, and very small part, of the truth.

"I've thought a good deal about this since I've been a minister's wife, and I've made up my mind to learn just as much of the truth as I possibly can. This is especially necessary in coming to a new place, where we don't know anybody; and that's why I'm so glad that you came in this afternoon.

"You are just the one to help me, you've lived here so long and know everybody so well. I'm going to ask you, just as a beginning toward the truth, if you won't go over the list of church members with me, and tell me the very finest and bravest thing you know about everybody. You've no idea how it will help."

—Quoted from Youth's Companion.

The Press and the Clergy — Telling the Truth?

1910

A certain writer has said that no newspaper which took truth for its standard would make a pecuniary success. The press might return the compliment by remarking that no minister who told the truth about his congregation, alive or dead, would occupy the pulpit much longer than on Sunday afterward. The press and clergy go hand in hand with the whitewash brush, rosy spectacles magnifying little virtues and kindly throwing little deformities into oblivion. The pulpit, the pen and the gravestone are partners in saint making.


Hopewell Church Notes

CALVARY BAPTIST

Rev. Edwin S. Fry, pastor.

OUR KING — On next Sunday the thoughts of millions of Christians will be turned to the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, and to the acclaim, of the multitude, "Blessed is the King that cometh in the name of the Lord; peace in heaven and glory in the highest." Jesus Christ reigns today. In all lands and among all classes there are multitudes who place loyalty to Christ above every other allegiance, who render to Him a willing obedience. The explanation of His power over human affections is given in the following words credited to Napoleon. "Alexander, Caesar and myself founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ alone founded his empire upon love and at this hour millions of men would die for him." This the divine force that is conquering the world. Those who feel the love of Christ constraining them recognize its conquering power and gladly join with devout Isaac Watts in saying

Jesus shall reign where'er the sun,
Doth his successive journeys run;
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore
Till moons shall wax and wane no more.

—The Hopewell Herald, Hopewell, New Jersey, March 16, 1910, p. 3.

Gems of Thought — "Patience is Sorrow's Slave"

1877

Gems

Gathered by Mrs. Felix Van Wyke

Patience is sorrow's slave.
Every path has its puddle.
Time passed never returns.
Talkers are no good doers.
There is no joy without alloy.
The more law the less justice.
Great bargains empty the purse.
Strew not roses before swine.
A good fellow is a costly name.
The little alms are the good alms.
He that is down needs fear no fall.
Saving is a greater art than gaining.
The cock is lord on his own dunghill.
Think to-day, and speak to-morrow.
An idle brain is the devil's workshop.
Quick believers need broad shoulders.
Every one is the son of his own works.
Pin not your faith on another's sleeve.
Though a lie be swift truth overtakes it.
Virtue is but dryly praised, and starves.

— The Reynolds Herald.

Moral Fitness and Endeavor

1895

"There is no book, no church, no inward monitor, no testimony within, without, that can make us to know the truth without moral fitness and endeavor on our part. There must be truth in the inward parts in order to our finding truth anywhere. But, with this, there is truth for you and me, to believe, to know, to live by and to die by. The book, the conscience, the experience of humanity, through all and above all, the life and testimony of Jesus Christ, these are fountains through which the living stream wells forth. What prophets have seen, sages thought, and saints lived is true. What Jesus believed, knew and taught is true. You shall sooner convince me that yon sun emits darkness than make me believe other than this. Yea, you and I have seen human lives that we know were based on truth.

"So the truth which shall judge us at last marshals us to right or to left today.

" 'Heard are the voices,
Heard are the sages,
The Worlds and the Ages!
Choose well, your choice is
Brief and yet endless.' "
—Rev. J. Westly Earashaw.

Truth

1895

"Truth, like food, is valuable to men as they are prepared to digest and appropriate it. Only as they were able to bear it, did Christ reveal the truth to His disciples, and He distinctly declared that, 'He had many things to say to them, but they could not bear them now,' To the inner circle to whom it was given to know the mysteries of the kingdom, He uttered plainly what He could utter to others only in parables. He withheld His disciples from speaking of the truth which they were prepared to confess — namely, that He was the Christ of God — because there would come the puzzling and seemingly contradictory fact that He must be denied, betrayed and crucified. Till the crowning proofs of His divinity by the resurrection were in, the people were not ready to accept the truth which the disciples saw. Truth may as surely be damagingly misused as food may." — Christian Intelligencer (Baptist).

Evangelist Makes The Air Tingle: Takes On Sin, Churches, Pastors, Newspaper

Van Wert, Ohio, 1912

STIGMATIZING SHAFTS

Promise of Fur Laden Atmosphere Fully Realized Upon by Large Audience.

Evangelist Makes the Air Tingle — Critics Held Up to Shame for Adverse Comment.

By CAPLES FOSTER

The official promise issued from the platform of The Tabernacle, carrying notice that a fur-laden atmosphere would prevail at the service of last night, breaking the complacency which existed on the preceding days of the week, brought out an increased attendance and was realized upon to the fullest, the utterances of The Evangelist extending in their scope to that carnivore of the weasel family whom the experienced and informed always flee in mad haste.

Oliver spoke from the text "Turn Ye to the Stronghold," found in the book of Zechariah, in reference to protection found only in The Jehovah or in The Savior. He dealt with the subject in three divisions — The Absence of Hope, embracing the people who have no expectation of the Heavenly reward in the great hereafter, persons whose physical being is completely burned out by the disease and plague of sin and exist merely because God, in His mercy, has not struck them down; people who are confined in the prison house of condemnation, upon whom the sentence of death has already passed because they believeth not; people who are caught in the tremendous speed of the age and are rushing with the currents, unmindful of their soul's salvation because they can not extract themselves from the every day affairs of this despicable age, this shallow age, this superficial age, this age merely living on the surface; this age in which the weightier matters of the law of God and the law of home are lost sight of; this age where the dizzy rush makes life take on the appearance of a dish of succotash for the posers of piety in the church who attempt to mix religion and amusements.

Branching out into the text, Dr. Oliver spoke at length upon three phases of his subject, setting forth that certain highways lead unerringly to that blessed stronghold — The City of God. First, the Highway of Bible Study. There are too many Bibles in Van Wert considering the number that are reverently and daily read. It would be better that many never heard of the Bible than to sell the soul as Faust of old. Gen. Lew Wallace walked down the highway of Bible Study when he wrote that masterpiece Ben Hur. The highway of Bible Study is the highway to repentance, the highway of hope; it establishes the standard for living by all classes both the old and the young.

Second, the Highway of Confession. Confess your faults one to another, your sins, your transgressions. There are some who would rather go to hell than to expose their wickedness of the past; some who would rather go to Hell than tell their wives of the sins of the years gone by; some who would rather go to hell than confess that they Have lied about meetings like this; some who would rather go to hell than to have the manhood of confessing that they have lied about the ministers of the gospel. You don't have to leave Van Wert to find a great bunch of that kind. At this juncture The Evangelist gave vent to his deepest feelings and broke into the most thunderous burst of oratory ever heard in a Van Wert pulpit, in which he took recognition of contributed articles printed in The Van Wert Daily Times, under the head of "The Forum," accompanied by the explanation that the matter is the personal opinions of its readers whose names are affixed to the article. In this connection Dr. Oliver said in part:

Do you know why some men hate me in this town? Do you know why they write polecat letters for one of your newspapers in this town, which doesn't have character enough to come out boldly and attack these meetings and openly express its own opinions? It is because I have advocated that these men should clean up and confess their dirty sins, their dirty lives before God and before men. I have not read the letters to which I refer. I am a gentleman. But my attention has been called to them by prominent citizens who are sick and tired of the whole matter. I have less respect for any editor who will print such dirty stuff in his paper than I have for the polecat who will write it. There are people in this town who can never enjoy the respect of the community until they clean up in regard to moral rottenness. The pure men and the pure women are with us.

Dr. Oliver continued his remarks with a special address to husbands and wives in which it was declared with emphasis that any and all who live in adultery or are guilty of adulterous acts can not enter the Kingdom of God until they confess their sins. This section of the sermon was illustrated with a number of pointed stories touching upon disregard of the binding vows of the marriage ceremony and with the further declaration that "I have no desire to bear the story of your sins, the ministers don't want to hear these stories of your sins, but public confession of Christ is commanded by the Creator Himself.

There are people who put off decisions in this campaign in the expectation that they will slip into church after the fight is over, flip into church where a backbonelesss puppet occupies the pulpit. The man or the woman who is staying away from this meeting and fails to clean up does so because they expect to get into church on a compromise. The real soldier does not enlist after the war is over. The real soldier stands for and comes out foursquare for God and purity, for public decency, for civic righteousness and all kinds of decency. This thing of slinking around with a lot of dirty, drunken reprobates should be made a thing of the past; the floors of decent homes should be closed against the dirty bums who fight religion. The fight is on. Do you want to get on God's side or do you want to go to hell? You can draw your own conclusions about the fellows who haven't the character to come out when the fight it on.

Third, the Highway of the Church of The Lord, of Jesus Christ. It getting hard enough to find Christians within the church. There are too many who proclaim "I go to all of them." They constitute a sort of religious hobo. They go to all of them get a hand-out without paying any them. The church is the only organization on the face of the earth which is authorized to administer the sacred rights of baptism. The Bible mentions it specifically. The sweetest time the child of God has this side of Heaven is there where be has before him the emblems of the suffering of the Savior. We need the church and we need active, consecrated members. Convert, join the church and live up to, the rules. If the preacher doesn't preach to suit you tell him to shoot bigger shells. If it hurts you, go the preacher and thank him for having the backbone to preach the truth.

In closing Dr. Oliver related the story of the heart-broken soldier of the Civil War who sought an audience with the President in order that he might procure leave to go to the bedside of his dying wife, but was denied admission to the White House by the sentry, but, later, through the kind-hearted little Tad Lincoln was led into the executive mansion and was handed the much-sought for furlough, accompanied with the blessing of that great man of God, the greatest of our presidents. You can search in vain for a more beautiful story of intercession on earth without avail, until you turn to nineteen hundred years ago when one walked out, following sin-burdened, weeping humanity and said: I am the way, the salvation.

—The Van Wert Daily Bulletin, Van Wert, OH, April 5, 1912, p. 2.

Blasts From Ram's Horn: Misfortunes Are God's Call

1903

Misfortunes are God's call to new ministries.

The broad mind will not have the big head.

What we gain in form we may lose in force.

The indulgence of the flesh dwarfs the spirit.

The man who never begins never has to break off.

Stolen fruits are sweet only to a deranged appetite.

External forms of religion often mark its extinct fires.

To pander to the lower faculties is to paralyze the higher.

Some people are planning already to move for a change of administration when they get to heaven.