p. 197 | DANGER AND DUTY by Methodist Recorder

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 30, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 13.

DANGER AND DUTY.

By Methodist Recorder

DR. WATTS, the Christian poet and hymn writer, said, near the close of his life, that of all the converts to a truly spiritual religion he had ever known, only one of them had been led to his first awakening by the amiable aspects of Christian truth. That such is generally, if not universally, the case is doubtless true. Men's hearts are naturally prone to evil, and they love the sins in which they indulge; and so long as they feel that they are safe in pursuing the pleasures of sin, and that no serious consequences will result to them, they are not likely to attempt to restrain their evil propensities and forsake their sinful gratifications.

Men must be brought to feel that their course is not only wrong but dangerous, and if persisted in will involve disastrous consequences before they will be willing to pursue a different and better course. Men in their natural, unconverted state do not love the pure and the good. To them the pleasures of sin are far more attractive than the beauties of holiness. It is not until after their hearts have been renewed by divine grace that they can clearly see the real odiousness of sin, and the supreme excellency and loveliness of the divine benevolence.

To arrest men in their course of sin, and bring them seriously to consider their ways, their fears and self-interest must be addressed.

They must be made to feel that their souls are in danger of being lost before they will consent to seek salvation. It is only the man who feels that he is sick that will send for a physician; it is only the man who feels that he is in danger that will call for help and accept deliverance. Men, if we would lead them to the Saviour, must be made to feel that they are exposed to eternal perdition, and that "God, out of Christ, is a consuming fire;" that "the wages of sin is death;" and that "the soul that sinneth, it shall die."

When men are brought to this state of mind, and not before, they will be willing to flee for refuge to the hope set before them in the gospel. The thunders of Sinai as well as the melting strains of Calvary must be sounded in the sinner's ears; the justice as well as the mercy of God must be presented to his view; for it is only in his deliverance from wrath that the mercy of God is clearly revealed. In saving men we want the plain, solemn truths of the gospel, and not sickly sentimentalism; the clear presentation of facts as they are, and not rose-water theories of divine pity that ignore moral distinctions. We should remember that nothing can be merciful that is not just.