Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1885-09-18
SAM JONES'.
The Closing Address at the Platts-
burg Camp-Meeting.
The FieetinS Pleasure of Sin-rhe Prcach-
er and the Orphans-How the Georgia
Evangelist Takes Up Coliec-
tion-The Result.

Evangelist Takes Up Coiiec-
tion-The Result.
When Sam Jones closed his Iabors at
the Plattsbarg (MA) clmp-msesiny be
/ did it in these worls:
| Now. we are going t. talk about fifteen
or twenty m nuSes. am too hot totalk.
and you are too hcated to listen very long,
/ | ut have a few words to say to you in
I concl ,siorL
| Yeu look over there in thu sec md chap
ter of the Gospel by st. Joha, and you
! will dnd these words:
/ But thou hast kept the good wine until
now.
/ select that text as illustrative of a
T principle. have wond ersd why il is the
devil has so many servants IN this world
and God so few. / have been looking at
the problem good deal. and want to tell
you to-day. You read this text and you
viii find the whole thing illustr a;el. The
devil gives fellow tho best things he has
frst, and then they 6 worse and worse
throu ,h all eterui-y. Coils pan is to
give the worst first, and then it gots bet
ter and better through all esernlty. That
is the secres OF the whole thing. Now, ]
will take leaf out OF my experience and
Illustrate, for eau i'll ustrate a heap fast
er than l can argua
Once, when / was stepping free, and
lost to all sense of accountability, the
devil took me by the hand aud I'D me ~
into large, capacious palace. 10 ked
around at the mag nificence and sriendor
of that palace; the beautiful, lowered
carpe.s; the clear. rounded windows; th0
beautiful pictures on the wall; the chair
of ease; the table of pleasure and the sofa
of contentment; and as looked around and
around at all this ma gnificelt play o
comforts, the devil said to ME: 'If you
will follow me, all this is yours" l oked
arounl again; viewed all the situation
and then said: "Well, if all this is mine
what do care for God aud heaven an
everlasting life?" Aud 1 took posses
sion.
walked out of there one day. and whel
came back somcb ly had taken my chair
of ease. Somehow or another l never felt
so easy in th ere q terward as did before
came back another day, and somebody
had taken my sofa of co3tentment and
never was well coutente1 in tn ere after
that-I couldn't tell you why. l came
back another day and nv table of pleasure
was gone, and somehow or another
l never did have much pleasure ir
there afterward. Came back another
day and one of thu beautiful pict-
ures had been waited away. Another
day, and another. and by and by l came
back one day and one OF the windows had
been taken l could see it was percepti-
bly, darker in tn re-. Another day, Fand
another window gone-larker sill. An
other day, and ore of the 'doorways was
missing. didn't have es many ways Of
ingress and egress. Another day, 'and
other things were gone and l 5 aid in
that palace until the last window had
been removed and the last piece OF furni-
ture gone, the carpets removed and tn.
last door taken out Lut one, and l walked
cu5 of that pala,e one day to see my
father die.
have never been hack in there since
A man staid in there a little longer than
id. He staid there till every window
was removed and nll the DOORS removed
and then the walls OF that large capacio Is
palace commenced coming together, day
by day, hour by honr, and one night abou
two O'Clock in the last agonies of death, he
admitted with his dying breath, as the
walls of that palace crushed to ether on
him, that the wages of sin was death, and
he entered eternity unl repaired, forever
aud ever.
There's the picture Law me, l. r1n back
a little over my youthful days. l recol-
lect the first drink over took. Oa. fel:
maaly then, but drank whisky until
despised myself for being drulkard.
recollect the first oath ever sw ro, and j
I II.
phemed the word of God until 1 was
ashame of myself in the presence of
decent being. And SO with every sin.
said Burns told the truth when he wrote:
/. But pleasures are like poppies spread.
You seize the flower, the bloom is shed;
Or, like the snowfall in the river,
A moment white, then melts forever.
A;dI went on in sin u til there wasn't
any enjoyment in sin for me. You know
what that means. 1 thought it was
mighty nice to start with, but it gets
worse and worse throurh all eternity.
Now, Gods plan is to give the worst
first. The first cup that God presents to
the human soul is the cup of conviction,
and when.Da took up his and drank 1t
down he said his knees smote toge her and
he called it ''wormwood and gall" and he
said: "The sorrows of death compassed
mo and the pains of hell got hold upon
me-" He found trouble and sorr wv. Oh
my! this bitter cup! Sure enough it is
wormwood and gall, hut blessed be God
it is a kind of liter that makes every
thing else taste weet after you have got
through with it.
All. me. will never forget the hour
when 1 was under convct ion OF sim
never. Aud after 1 drank the cup of con-
viction and felt its pains and pangs the
next cup given me was the cup of jus'ifi
cltion. took that and drank it down,
and blessed be God. 1 said: Surely
God has kept the good wine until now.
Heaven itself has nothing better than
this" And want tn tell you for thir-
teen years now, ever and anon, / have
been getting thess cups from God and it
gets better and bstter ami better all the
way along.
want to tell you here to-day, I have
seen more real leasure since have been
in Missouri than 7 saw in TWEEN -four
years o. sin Lord Byron, that Jroud au-
tocrat that tassed of every cup thu worli
could give, was sitting in company. SER
Gus, one day, and one of the company
said:
Byron, wha: are you thinking about?,
Said Byron: II was counting up the
number o. happy days have hal in this
he"
"Ald how many do you make it?"
Il can only count eleven, aud was site
ting here wondering IL would max, UP
/ the doz IN"
There was man who drank every cup
OF pleasure this world could give Oh,
brother, have had nearly a doz n happy
/ days sine, have been here in Missouri
Blessed be Godl Wen, if the wormwcod
HENRY FISHER. HORACE d. S
D-I- II