This evening closes the work of another year. The record of this year is now nearly complete. Have I any idea of that record? I think I have. Of one thing I feel sure. It has not been kept with paper, pen and ink. Neither has it been written in the skies. Each one's yearly record is written by no hand but his own, and upon no tablet but that of his own heart. Each one's life, therefore, is his record. This, before God and the angels, is a faithful transcript of his mind and heart within. "A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth good things; likewise an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth evil things." The good things of the one and the evil things of the other constitute the life record of every man. This makes character, and character is the basis on which men make up their opinions of one another; but the heart, out of which the character grows, is the book that will be opened before the throne, out of which every one will be judged. A good heart is each redeemed saint's book of life: and an evil heart is each lost soul's book of condemnation.
Hence we are told by our Lord "that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment;" and that "whatsoever is spoken in the ear in the closet shall be proclaimed upon the housetop." Good words leave the lines of their light upon the heart's love-tablet; but evil words leave their shadows in the chambers of the soul, and deepen the darkness there.
Sermon by Elder John Kline.
Preached on Lost River, West Virginia,
March 3.
Text.—Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many be they that enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few be they that find it.—Matt. 7:13, 14.
It is declared that our Lord spake to his disciples in parables; "and without a parable spake he not unto them." A parable is a brief statement of such facts as men are well acquainted with; which facts are designed to correspond to or represent things they are not well acquainted with. Every parable, then, carries with it two lines of thought. The one line is natural, and is based upon the natural things given in the parable. The other line is spiritual, and follows the natural line, as a shadow follows its substance. My text is not properly a parable, but it is in the parabolic form, and must be treated as such.
We notice at once the two gates and the two ways. We also notice that these two ways or roads lead in opposite directions and to opposite destinies. These statements the simplest mind can lay hold of. Even young children know what gates are, and what roads are. They can also look in thought toward the ends of roads, and comprehend, in some measure at least, what is meant when they are told that one road ends in a great fire that will burn forever, and that the other ends in a delightful garden where flowers of beauty and fragrance, with fruits of exquisite taste and healthfulness, hang upon trees and vines of unfading loveliness.
It is never necessary to speak to the simple-minded man or child about the freedom of the human will. Their lessons in this are learned from observation and experience. By experience every one knows that he has the power to choose what he likes and to reject what he does not like. Even beasts, and birds, and reptiles do the same. They choose and appropriate the foods they like. They mate together according to the same free will, which is their love. Birds select their roosting places, and construct their nests where and how they will. "Foxes have holes;" but this is so because God first made the caverns in the rocks, and the foxes afterward chose them for their habitations. Every unit in the whole animate world, not only chooses the place of its abode, but also the modes and means of its subsistence. Even plants in a state of nature conform to this general law. Shall man, born to glorify God and enjoy him forever, be cut short in the free exercise of his will? I cannot believe it. But I do believe that the brightest saint in heaven is where he is because it was first his will to go there; and being there, it is forever his will to stay.
I am not ignorant of the arguments advanced by the other side. Many good, but, I believe misguided men, hold the opinion that man is so depraved as to his will, so lost to all sense and understanding of what is good, that he is wholly incapable of choosing the right and shunning the wrong. But I believe the Lord knows just what man can do and what man cannot do. And it is a thing self-evident to my mind that Goodness and Wisdom has never yet commanded man to do anything that is out of man's power to do.
Let us grant that man is dead in trespasses and sins, as Paul represents him. But does not Jesus say: "My words are spirit and they are life"? The Lord's words have life in them; and if man will but hear them with his natural ear, as you now hear me speak, and then be not a forgetful hearer, but be a doer of the Word; this man shall be blessed in his deed; and soon be filled with the new life of God.