The Down and Out and the Up and Out. W E ARE accustomed to speak of sinners as the down and out class, referring of course to those who have become the victims of the liquor lust, elope a n d - o t h er so-called habits. In our thoughts we carry the picture of the sinner as photographed to us in the lives of these people. If we speak about work for the lost we think of the jail or the slums, of the bar room and the bawdy house, of the dance hall and the gambling den. We shall surely find sinners in all of these places. We will find men and women out of money and means. Men out at the knees and toes, out of friends and out of homes, out of work and out of the way, out of society and out of sorts, down in the mouth and down in the mire, down in the depths and down iri despair; going down deeper and going out farther and farther. Our hearts are full of sorrow because of their suffering aind shame and sin and we seek to cast the life-line down and out to rescue them and we do well in the sight of God and angels and men.- There is another class, however, for whom we seem to have no concern. They are the Up and Out. We mean the men and women who circle in another sphere, who are well to do financially, who live in elegant homes amidst luxurious and cultured surroundings and who are as much out as the others. They are out of harmony with their own being and out of fellowship with God. Out of coiimunion with the saints, out of sympathy with righteousness. Out of harmony with the Divine will and out of touch with Christ. Out of the way and out of the ark, they are on the broad road and in peril of perdition. Why not or- ganize a mission for the up and out class and up and at them? We have a double standard of virtue for men and women, but God has one; and we have a double standard for sinners, but Christ has but one. The down and out are all more easily reached we know, for the fact has always bee;n that the publicans and harlots go into the kingdom before the self- righteous moralists. Many of these up and out people are living in luxury and lust, living sordid and selfish lives. They have inherited the fruits of our gospel land and have denied the tree that bore the fruits. They owe all of theiT comfort and blessings to the Word of God and they trample its precepts under their feet. Their children are growing up uneducated in thè Bible and untaught in morals and are often a menace to society. They are forming vicious habits which will land them among the down and outs in good season. Why not see-things as God sees them? Why not see that what we call the ups are really the downs? They travel the same road as their less fortunate brethren, although they may not be on speaking terms. One class goes on foot and the other by auto, but both are on speaking terms with the devil and on the the same broad guage down grade that leads to hell. God loves them all, the Gospel is de- signed for them all. | How. to make conjunction between these jvqnst. () f all up and out sinners and the Word of God is the serious question.
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