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

ferna assault The air Is full OF evil
spirits. They accost you. They meet you
az the crossroads. They tell you the
wrong road. They try to unhorsc your
good resolutions, TO spike your guns, to
outfank you In every Christian movement,
and n YOU are ever successful at all 10
gaining the realm Of everlasting bliss, IL
viii be by rallying all yonr physical, men
tai and moral energies, aye, u will be by
calling upon the Lord Almighty by His
infinite aud omniDotent grace 10 help yon
And yet, II there were single man in all
this audience who should suddenly have
come upon him the impression that he
was going to miss heaven, there would 90
up shrek louder than that which is
heard between collldlng rail trains. There
is no man who expects to miss heaven.
But how are you going 20 get over all
these obstaclesY ask you as reasonable
men II the impediments IN the way
ought not to arouse you.
Another awakening consideration is In
the value OF the soul. Theodore forbade
the debasing Of the national coin. They
say, ave ought to debase II. We can
mix something else In 1t and II will be
Just as good" "NO,n said Theodore,
the emperor, 81 will not have my face
imprinted on debased coin" Here we
are; the image OF God has been i'm
pressed upon our soul, and yet
IL has been debased and has
become a counterfeit. We have all sinned
and we are all lost unless divine grace
rescue and redeem us. Now, here IS the
soul. What Is IL WORTH Is there not
something in It's value TO arouse usi
sometimes hear people compare the soul
in value TO a mine. That is very poor
comparison, for the silver and the gold
in the mine will melt after while and be
OF no more value than the scoria spit out
from Cotopaxi, while these jewels of the
soul will exist as long as there are vases
In eternity TO hold them. Might | not
rather take a scales. They are rightly
adjusted. The two sides are just even
now. hold up the balances. On the
one side OF that scale put in simply
soul, nothing else at all, no trappings, but
simply naked soul. That Is on one
side of the balances, On the other
side of the balances | put this
world with all its riches and honors and
gains, ponderous world. But that
world RISES, that side goes up,
while the other side, in which
Is the soul, comes down with
ltl luDubbiu lnllllOu lOu wight. ~ - ull
soul. 1t is priceless soul 1t
is Gagged now. IL beats sometimes against
the wires of the cage and tries TO escape
but it cannot; but let once the door of
that cage be opened the thousandth part
of an inch as IL Will be after while
opened, let 1t be opened never so little,
and that soul gees out, taking fifty worlds
at bound. OF "what shall it profit a
I.. b. fb..I nj To-
his own souli"
Another arousing consideration find
in the brevity of the time in which we have
to prepare for the next world. How long
IL took to complete the East River bridget
Twelve or thirteen years. II 1t had taken
twenty years from the day the foundation
stone was laid IL would not have been
great while for so magnifcenta structure
How long was st Peters in building2
Scores and hundreds of years. And st.
is vast work to be
done you expect it will take
Il great while to do it. Now here, they
tell us, is temple OF holiness to be built
in every mans soul How long are you
going TO give US to build that templc2 A
thousand years? ooh, no. you say,
''you can't have 30 much as that" Nor
seven hundred, nor five hundred, nor
three hundred, nor two hundred, nor one
and some Of us will not have
sixty, and some of us will not have llfty,
and some of us will not have thirty, and
some of us will not have twenty to build
this great temple. Oh, how vast the
work, and how short time there is to
do t.
When will this procession that you see
every afternoon from to O'Clock stop2
This long procession going out toward
the cemeteries. Not until all these mer-
chants have gone out OF their stores, and
MI these mechanics have gone out OF their
shops, and all these artists have gone out
OF their studios, and all these
and all this city shall be emptied
of this present population. The process
sion will keep going ON until all those
who are here this night shall have Joined
it in silence. o, how brief life isl We
talk about It until It gets stale truth,
but sometimes God strikes IL on the soul
with such vehemeuce that we are reused
up. My brother, missionary in China,
was telling me of an instrument that they
had at work In China during the insur-
said 1t worked a stroke something like
that (indicatlng), and at every stroke one
life went, and another, and another. And
| thought to myself, that is just like the
stroke OF the minutes. In Just that way
the generations pass OFF. Certainly as
quickly as that, A life--another is gone,
and another, and another, and another,
and another, and another The waves
OF humanity dash up on that other beach
IN quick succession. Every stroke
OF the heart says, "Be
quick2r The revolution of the
seasons; "Be quckp' The coming OF
the morning, the dropping of the night;
"Be quick!n
Another arousing consideration | find
in the glory TO be won. Paul was very
fond OF comparing the Christian life to
foot race. Those foot races have gone
out Of fashion. But you have seen racing
and you know that very often the speed
of the driver and his horse il influenced
by the wager He knows when &c Is