Sunday, April 26. Meeting at the Elk meetinghouse, in Page County, Virginia. I speak from Heb. 2:3. Text.—"How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?"
I always feel embarrassed when I attempt to speak from this text. The subject is so vast, and the matter so important, that my best efforts fall far below the just demands of my theme. Nothing can properly be said to be saved which has never been lost or in danger of being lost. And in every case where anything is saved, the greatness of the salvation depends upon the value of the thing saved, together with the measure of effort and sacrifice required to effect it. Some years ago a very destructive fire was raging in the city of Pittsburg. A gentleman, who claimed to have been an eyewitness of the fire, related the following incident to me. He said the firemen had just rescued a family from a burning building, and thought they had all out, when one of the rescued ladies looking around screamed out, "O, save my Bessie!" "Where is she?" was cried out. "In the north room up stairs!" A noble-hearted fireman, almost exhausted, risked his life to rescue what he of course supposed to be a child; but what was his indignant surprise on reaching the room, to find that the missing "Bessie" was only a pet cat! The enraged fireman kicked the cat and cursed its mistress. But his feelings would have been different had Bessie been a little child softly sleeping in its cradle. This incident may help us to realize the truth contained in the statement already made, that the greatness of any salvation depends upon the value of the thing saved as well as upon the effort and sacrifice made to save it.
It is plain that man's salvation is the subject of the text. But is man lost? And if lost, in what sense is he lost? We read in Matt. 18:11, "For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost." It is man's life that is lost—natural or bodily life, and supernatural or spiritual life. But is man's bodily life lost? It is, "for death hath passed upon all men." The sentence of bodily death: "It is appointed unto man once to die." "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." If any supposes the death of the body to be a small thing, let such a one go to a well-filled graveyard and pass one hour in serious meditation in this silent city of the dead. Let him think of the tears that have fallen there, of the sighs of anguish that have reluctantly escaped from broken hearts. Let him think of the innocent beauty and loveliness that lie buried there, of the hopes and the joys that have been driven from the heart by the hand of the destroyer; and then let him ask himself if "the wages of sin" is a thing of small account. Let his mind run a little further, and he can but see that the graveyard's solemn tale to the end of the world must be yearly told. Death here writes his name anew every passing season in the fresh mounds raised above the dead. And not only so, but the voice of reason whispers into the ear of every passer-by the solemn word, "This place is waiting for you."
Now, an apostle says: "It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." And another apostle, as if commenting on this passage says: "He shall change our vile bodies that they may be fashioned like unto his glorious body." I now ask, Does not this show that the salvation in the text is truly a great salvation? But I have as yet but touched the hem of the garment. And, indeed, in our low and contracted state of mental power here we are barely able with our highest and broadest reaches of thought to lay hold of more than the hem of salvation's garment. "Heaven is his throne, and the earth is the footstool of his feet." What the footstool is to the throne, nay to him that sits upon it, such are our highest and purest conceptions to the salvation which the Lord has provided. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to know what God hath provided for them that love him."
I stated that man's life is lost. I have said something about the bodily life that is lost by sin. I now turn to say something about the spiritual life that is lost by sin. Paul says, and I am sure he means what he says: "To be carnally minded is death." Now, what is it to be carnally minded? Or, in other words, what is the carnal mind? Paul answers in a general way, that it is enmity against God. Such a degree of enmity that all who are carnally minded cannot and do not love God, nor take pleasure in his service. Life is love; and love is life. The spiritual life that is lost by sin is what Jesus came to redeem and save, and this life is man's love. Man's love is perverted. It is turned away from the Lord God and the neighbor, and directed to self and the world. And when a man loves himself more than God, and the world with its sinful lusts and pleasures more than he does his neighbor, he is carnally minded.
Now let us turn to the Lord's words. In the Gospel recorded by Luke a certain lawyer is represented as asking the Lord this question: "Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus said unto him: "What is written in the law? how readest thou?" He answering said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself." Jesus said unto him, "Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live."
Brethren, does not this look like the key to salvation? Does it not open the door to a view of eternal life and blessedness? Our Lord says: "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." When any one gives his heart to God in love like this, I think he is in a saved state. And is it not a great salvation? Perfect love of that which is good is perfect peace, because it drives evil from the heart, which is the cause of all human misery. But the Lord, and the Lord only, can change man from darkness to light and from death unto life. He is the only Savior. He saves man by his Word and Holy Spirit. He stands at every man's door and knocks. If any man will open the door, he will enter that man's heart and dwell with him forever; and Christ in the heart is salvation and eternal life.
Thursday, May 14. Go to Abraham Funk's. George Sellers is nearly well, and in fine spirits. At half past five o'clock I start to the Annual Meeting. Stay all night at Jacob Wine's.
Friday, May 15. Dine and feed at Newman's furnace. Then go up through the Trout Run valley, cross the Church mountains and get into the Lost River valley near the place where the river disappears at the base of the mountain. Stay all night at Landes's. I have seen no scouts or pickets to-day.
Saturday, May 16. Get dinner at Jonathan Flory's, and stay all night at Abraham Miller's.