Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1885-12-28

StIlnOu hpplVpliubc w tue VCchHlOus liz
hymn sung Was:
''My days arc gliding swiftly by.
And Ia pilgrim stranger.
Wuuid not dctain them rs they fly
These hours OF toll and danger"
The preacher took his text from
Romans, chapter 10, V. II "Knowing the
time, that now 10 If high time TO awake
out OF Sleep Following is the discourse
in full
While this morning with glad anthem
we celebrated the Christmas hour, has II
occurred TO you that this Is the last Sab
bath night OF grand and beautiful, and
eventual, and Joyous, aud solemn eighteen
hundred and eighty-lyei The occasion is
nightly suggestive.
Starting out on q long Journey on
horseback, you ride along without stop
ping for many "A mile until, after while,
you come on top Of a high hill. You rein
In the steed. The horse smokes by
reason Of the length of the way. You
take your feet out OF the stirrups. You
turn around IN the saddle. You look off
upon the rayines through which you have
passed and the hills over which you have
come, and make an estimate OF how
many miles You have travelled. Then
turning around again in the saddle and
putting your feet in the stirrups, you
look ahead and wonder how far 1t will
be before you come 10 the place Of desti-
nation. And so to-day we come
up on the Sabbatic mount of priv
ilege. No horseman ever spurred
on steed faster than we
have gone up the sleeps of life and down
the dangerous decliyities but having
come here to-day, we stop and look back
upon the way through which we have
comc-the darkness and the sunshine, the
accidents and the successes--and then
look forward and wonder how long OF
how short viii yet be the way And sit
ting and standing here, the hour seems TO
me, as to you IL must be, momentous.
put my finger on the pulse Of this moment
and feel that II beats high aud eternal
destinies, Iou and have started on In
a life which will continue to live after the
sun has gone out cold in death and this
wrecked and toundered world shall have
strewn its timbers on the coast of an
eternal desolution O! 1t is mean qucs-
ton Tor me 20 ask myself and you to-day:
"Where am ~ What am II Whence
came /? And whittier am | bouud2" The
simple fact Is that each one of us has a
soul TO save Now, when any man in
olden times had saved the life OF
Roman citizen from drowning for
instance, that man who rescued
the unfortunate was honored. He was
allowed sometimes to sit ia the senate, he
was allowed 10 ride IN the great process
siOns, and when he entered room the
people would rise up to greet him and to
do him honor. would 70 God that to.
night we might aspire for the higher
honor of saving soul--an Immortal soul.
There are three or four reasons that !
can think OF why we should obey the in
junction OF my text and wake up. The
first arousing consideration that occurs
TO my mind Is the fact that there are so
many obstacles In the way of our saliva.
ton. Now, there is no need OF our hiding
this fact. We sometimes hear people
talking to the unconycrted and saving:
at Is Just as easy for you to become
Christian as it Is 70 turn over your hand.n
II is not. There are tremendous obsta-
Giles In the way OF your becoming Chris
tlan, aud every man that has tried In
thorough earnestness TO become child
of God has found that there are obstacles.
That Ia not q wise general
who depreciates the force of an
enemy--who says 10 his men ''My
troops, you will have an easy time OF It.
Those castles can be captured without
any very serious bombardment There
are only few enemies In that opposing
host. 1t will only be few moments as.
sault and we win gain the victory" No.
wise general says: "Those are strong
battlements; those men who are coming
out TO assault US are armed and they are
brave men. II you ever capture those
fortresses, and II you ever overcome that
host, II will be by a mighty rallyng OF all
yom energies" And have TO tell you
now, that " you are ever going to get TO
heaven, II will be by going out In con
test as one against hundred, as one
against thousand, as one against hun
dred thousand, aye, II Is an infinite impos-
slbility that you ever succeed by any
strength OF resolution OF your own, and II
there were not some supernatural aid to be
offered and some divine promise to take
hold OF we would be lost, and we would
all be lost.
In the first place, there are the obsta-
Giles In the worldlluess that surrounds
you. need not tell you, men OF Brook
Ign and New York. that there Is tide Of
worldliness setting away from God aud
from heaven. You have felt It, You
nav NNNNA NNhh "a ~ NAAl Ailt nunu
came TO your knee, unti il came to your
girdle, until 1t has come TO your lip. You
rise In the morning. You find II Is a
few moments later than you thought IL
was You are In great haste, You
hurry through the morning meal, You
race down the street, You 90
10 your office. You open the letters
aud you answer them. You examine the
money market You run hither and
thither. Your life is toll and tur-
MOL, The long day, save the fifteen or
twenty minutes In which you lunch, Is
given up to the influence Of this world,
and II Is very rare indeed that from
O'Clock In the mornlng until 4
or O'Clock In the afternoon
that you have single thought about the
great future. Some thought may, while
you are standing at the counter or In the
clearinghouse, some stray thought OF the
future world may come through your
mind, but 1t darts out again, Just like a
swallow that IN summer time wheels into
the open window, makes circuit OF a