The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1882-08-31
SOUND SERMON.
Continued from 1st Page.)

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soul. l have doubted whether the Bible
was true. l have doubted my own eXls-
tence. l have doubted everything; and
vet out of that hot desert | have come
into the broad, luxuriant, sunshiny land
of gospel hope, and peace, and comfort;
and 80 have confidence in preaching
to you and asking you to come in. How
ever often you may have spoken against
the Bible, or however much you may
have caTicatured religion, step ashore
from that rocking and tumultuous sea.
You do not want your children to come
up with your skepticism. You cannot
afford to die in that midnight darkness,
can you? If you do not believe in any
thing else, you believe in loVe-a fathers
love, mothers love, a wife's love,
child's love. Then let me tell you that
God loves you more than them all. You
will come in. The great heart of Christ
aches to have you come in, and Jesus at
this very mOment-whether you sit or
stand-loOks into your eyes and says:
"Other sheep l have which are not OF
this fold"
Again, l remark that the heavenly
shepherd is going to find a great many
sheep among those who have been flung
Of evil habit. 1t makes me mad to see
Christian people give up prOdigal as
lost. There are those who talk as though
the grace of God was chain of forty or
fifty links, and after they had run out
there was nothing to touch the depth of
a very bad case. If they were hunting
and got off the track of the deer they
would look longer among the brakes and
bushes for the lost game than they have
been looking for their lost soul. People
tell us that if a man has delirium tTe-
mems twice he cannot be reclaimed; that
after woman has fallen from her in
tegrity she cannot be restored. The
Bible has distinctly intimated that the
Lord Almighty is ready to pardon four
hundred and dinety times-that is,
seventy times seven. There are men be-
fore the throne of God who have wal
lowed in every kind Of sin, but, saved
by the grace of Jesus, and washed in
His blood, they stand there radiant now.
There are those who plunged INFO the
very lowest hell Of Elm street, New
York, who have for the tenth time been
lifted up, and finally, by the grace of
God, they stand in heaven glOr1ously
glOriOusly rescued by the grace prom
fsed to the chief of sinners. 1 want to
tell you that God loves to take hold of
very bad case. When the church casts
you off, and when the Club-rOOm casts
you off, and when society casts you off,
and when business associates casts you
off, and when father casts you OF, and
when mother casts you off, and when
everybody casts you OFF, your first cry
for help will bend the Eternal God clear
down into the ditch of your suffering
and shame. The Good Templers cannot
save you, although they are a grand in
stitution. The Sons of Temperance can
not save you, although they are mighty
for good. Signing the temperance
pledge cannot save you, although be-
lieve in it. Nothing but the grace, of
the eternal God can save you, and that
will if you thow yourself on 1t. A man
l cannot be delivered. l have tried
everything, sir; but now l have got in
the habit of prayer. and when l come to
drinking saloon [ pray that God may
take me safe past, and pray until l am
past. He does not help me-" For every
man given to strong drink there are
scores of traps set; and when he goes
out on business with his bill of goods on
Broadway, or John street, or Fulton
in infinite peril, and no one but the
everywhere present God can see that
man through. Oh, they talk about the
cataeOmb5 of Naples, and the catacOmbs
of Rome, and the catacombs of Egypt
the burial places under the city where
the dead of great multitude lie, but
lell you Brooklyn has its catacombs, and
NEW lOIh lLS CdIdCOuuu5, anu DOSgOu lbo
catacOmbs, and Philadelphia its cata-
combs! They are the underground res
taurants, full of dead mems bones and
all uncleanness. Young man, you know
it. God help you.
There is no need of going into the art
gallery to see in skillful sculpture that
wonderful representation of man and
his sons wound around with serpents.
There are families now wrapped in the
martyrdOm of fang and scale and venom
"a living LAGOON of ghastliness and
horror. What are you to do? am not
speaking into the air. l am talking to
hundreds of men who must be saved by
Christ's Gospel or never saved at all.
What are you going to do? Do not put
your trust in bromide Of potassium, or
in Jamaica ginger, or in any thing that
apothecaries can mix. Put your trust
only in the eternal God, and he will see
you through. Some of you do not have
temptations every day. 1t is periodic
temptation that comes every six weeks
or every three months, when it seems as
| if the powers of darkness kindle around
about your tongue the fires of the pit.
1t is we'll enough at such a time, as
some do, to seek medical counsel; but
your first and most impOrtunate cry
must be to God. If the fiends will drag
| you to the slaughter make them do 1t on
your knees. o God, now that the
paIoxysm of thirst is coming again
upon that man, help himl Fling back
into the pit of hell the fiend that as
saults his soul! Oh, my heart aches to
see men go on in this fearful struggle
without Christ. There are those whose
hands so tremble from dissipation that
| they can hardly hold book, and yet I
have to tell you that they will vet
preach the Gospel, and on communion
days carry around the eOnseerated bread,