4. It destroys the happiness of families, and in this way adds to the wretchedness of the one who does all this mischief and damage.
6. It produces remorse, uneasiness of mind, shame, hatred of self.
7. It is what makes men shudder and shiver like convicts under the gallows, when they think of death and come near death. My own fear of death was something terrible.
8. But this fear of death, this awful lashing of conscience on the verge of the grave, is but the intimation and the beginning of those awful experiences in the future world which the Bible describes in words of such dark and fearful import.
But there is a remedy for sin, there is a fountain opened in the house of King David for sin and uncleanness. Yes
"There is a fountain filled with blood Drawn from Immanuel's veins, And sinners plunged beneath that flood Lose all their guilty stains.
"The dying thief rejoiced to see That fountain in his day, And there may _you_, though vile as he, Wash all your sins away."
And beside that, when He gives salvation from the guilt of sin, He sends, also, the power to keep you from sin in the future. It is a full salvation and a _free_ salvation.
How much better to accept Christ while you are in health and let your life of holiness and purity and devotion _prove_ that the work is a genuine work and that you really have been saved. I have almost _no_ faith in death-bed repentances and conversions. Hardly one in a hundred is genuine. And then there is no way of testing the genuineness of it; but if you turn to Christ _now_ you can have time and opportunity to exemplify and manifest the fruits of regeneration in your life. Christ has power to forgive sins, to give peace and to keep from sin and sinful habits. An experience of five years on my part enables me to speak boldly and confidently on this point. God grant some of you may turn to Him to-day.
NOTE.--This was delivered at the funeral of some man who died unsaved in a hospital. Mr. Holcombe is frequently called on to officiate at the funeral of such men, and of gamblers, and of strangers and unknown persons.--ED.
"The kingdom of heaven is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost."
We heard some time ago of the coming of the kingdom of heaven. Christ, at His coming, brought it near and proclaimed it to the people. At the time when our text was written, the kingdom had been set up, established among men, and many, very many, had entered into it. And now, St. Paul, finding that some of these had fallen into wrong notions as to what constituted citizenship in that kingdom, corrects these wrong notions, and sets before them the right and proper notions about the matter.