The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1882-04-13
AFTER INGERSOLL.
Continued from Page ..

can take the frenZied soul into His
bosom and hush il with the lullaby of
heaven. That heavy grief will never he
lifted from your heart till Jesus lifts it.
Is it not the loss of your friends and
the scattering of your estate, and the
pursuit of your enemies, and the fall of
your earthly prospects that cOmpels to-
day from the souls OF hundreds in this
audience the question, spelled out with
tears aud grOans, and heart aches,
"What must do to be saved?"
Further, it was question hasty and
immediate. 1t was put on the run.
Look at his face as he holds up the light
to find where the apostles are. What
an earnest and startled look! No time
to comb his hair, no time to arrange his
apparel. He must have 1T answered then
and there before the earthquake had
stopped rocking, or perhaps 1T might
never be answered at all. Is that the
way you put the question, or do you
dTawl it out as much as to say, 81 shall
be satisfied if this question is answered
any time within fifteen years." You
have no time to spare. If really you
feel the earthquake under your soul
better take light and hurry in and cry
it out at the top of your voices. There
are tens of thousands of men who did
not ask this question in time. If all
those who have missed heaven could
utter only one word of warning in our
ears it would come sounding up like
howl of the everlasting storm. Now!
nOwW There are young men who pro-
crastinate, but the rail car was hurled
from the track, or their foot slipped ON
the icy pavement, and the skull was
fractured, OF a typhoid came down on
them, driving them out of life in deli
rum. Others put off Christ till their
business peTplexities should be gone,
but they died without any preparation.
In the attempt to gain the world they
lost their soul. They have no use for
their ledgers, and day-bOoks, and Govern
ment securities, and bills of lading, and
safety deposits, and stores beyond this
world. Others put off religion till their
hearts were hard, and they tried to re-
pent, but could not; and attempted to
pray, but failed; and, with tOttering
| step they came on, bearing heavier and
heavier on the staff till it broke, and
| they fell headlOng. Are you wise enough
tiOn, or are you putting it off till the
last hour? The probability is that
| ninety-nine out of the hundred death
| bed repentanceS never amount to any
| thing. With the scores of people who
| are mentioned in the Bible as. dying,
| how many are represented as success
| fully Tepenting in the last hour? Fifty?
|
| No. Five? No. One? Only One Barely
one. That is to say, it is barely possible
| that man be saved in the last hour, but
| improbable, vastly improbable, so i'm
probable that the chances are hundred
| to one against him. The last hour is
| the most unfit hour of all our life for re-
| pentance-the doctors standing by with
| their medicines and the lawyer with a
| half written will, the family in cOnster-
| ffnV, 10 hot 10 70 nf
| and all the bells of eternity ringing out
the soul from the body, and all the past
rushing upon us, and all the future, and
| angels flying through the room, and
devils plotting for the eternal overthrow
that man is an infinite fool who thinks
of nothing till his death hour for re-
pentance. My text does not tell you
how to be saved. 1t only, with the deep,
impOrtunate, wailing cry, asks it. 1t is
the following verse that tells how, and
strict rules of sermonizing might say,
Leave that till another time" But
what are the rules of sermOniZing to me
when | am after souls immortal? Wait
till another time? l cannot wait. |
might be dead before 1 had another
chance at them, and there are those here
whom | will never confront again.
Some of you will not come because you
do not like the way of the preacher.
Some of you leave for other places. Some
of you, in the slight headache that how
eTs about your temples, or the cold that
OppTesses your lungs, have the Fremont
tiOn of your last sickness. Some of you
will go to the north, some to the south,
some to the east, some to the west, some
across the sea, and so | must not miss
this my last chance. The most useless
thing in all the world is that any man
be lost. Have you ever heard of Jesus,
how mighty He is to help, and how will
ing He is to savel He died with all the
sorrows of earth and the agOnies of hell
! pressing out from his heart the prayer:
Father, forgive them; they know not
what they do" By His feet bfisteTed of
the mOuntain-way; by His back whipped
till the skin came off; by his death-cOuch
of four long spikes-twO for the hands
and two for the feet; by the sepulcheT
in which he lay, for the first time in
thirty-three years the cruel world let
ting him alone; by the heavens from
| which he bends to-day with fayOrs of
pardon and help for a dying world,
beg you to come and lay your all at His
feet.
81 one hanging a tree in agonies and blood
Who fixed His languid eyes on me as near His cross
stood.
OH never till my breath will forget thatloo
1t seemed to charge me with His DEATH though not
word He spoke"
In the troubled days of Scotland Sill
John COchTane was doomed to death by
the King. The death warrant was OF
the way. Grisel, the daughter of the
condemned man, resolved that her father
should not die. 81 shall die," said the
father. you shall not die, said Grisel
the daughter, as she left the prison door
Not long after a wayfarer is waiting OF
the moor for the hOTseman carrying the
mail-bags containing the death Warrant
of John Cochrane. Springing out upOI
the mail carrier, the disguised travele,