e sun which imparts heat and light to everything. The sun
makes the earth warm; the watery vapors to ascend and form clouds
which give rain; the sap to rise and form itself into leaves, blossoms
and fruits. Every unconverted man and woman, just like that tree in
winter, is dead as to all divine or heavenly life in the soul. Let us
see: He is dead as to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. He does not love
him. He lives just as if there were no God to love and obey; no hell
to shun; no heaven to obtain. He does not love the people of God as
such. But, notwithstanding all this, he has a capacity, such as God
has given to every man, to be made alive in Christ Jesus. Christ is
called the Sun of Righteousness. He is so called because he, like the
sun in our sky, rises and shines upon the evil and the good; and
whosoever opens his heart to the light of this Sun is filled with the
light of _truth_ and _love_, and made alive to walk in the way of
righteousness before him.

This light comes through his Word, the Gospel of our salvation, as it
is proclaimed by his faithful ministers, and falls upon every sinner.
If the sinner will open his ears to the voice, and his eyes to the
light, the promise in the text is that he "_shall live_." Jesus says:
"I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall have the
light of LIFE. In him is light, and the light is the LIFE of men." But
if the sinner, like the owl, closes his eyes to the light of truth,
and his ears to the voice of the Lord, he will abide in death, and,
like the owl, love darkness rather than light forever.

SUNDAY, July 19, Magdalena Wampler and John Miller's wife baptized.

_Sermon by Elder Daniel Miller._

_In the German Language, at the Linville's Creek Meetinghouse._

TEXT.--And there went out unto him all the country of Judaea, and
all they of Jerusalem; and they were baptized of him in the river
Jordan, confessing their sins.--Mark 1:5.

Judging from the multitudes that went out to John's baptism, his
preaching must have created a lively sensation in Jerusalem and Judaea.
All who went out were Jews. In justice to the text, we must notice the
fact that the word ALL, as there used, applies only to the common
people. These came to John confessing their sins. He pointed them to
the "Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." The scribes
and Pharisees and lawyers, the chief men of Judaea and Jerusalem, went
not out to be baptized of John. The