Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-12-28

These hours of toll and danger
Theprescher took his tex; from Romans,
Kill, IL: "Enowing the time, that now it
is high time to awake out OF Sleep" Fol-
lowing is the discourse in full:
While this morning with glad anthem
we celebrated the Christmas hour, has it
occurred to you that this is the last Sab
bath night OF grand and beautiful and
eventful and joyous and solemn eighteen
hundred and eighty-fve. The occasion is
nightly suggestive.
Starting out on long journey on horse.
back, you ride along without stopping for
many mile, until after awhile you come
on top of 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 ravines
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 won
der how far it will be before You come to
| the place of destination. Aud so to-day
we come up ON the Sabbatic Mount OF
privilege. No hOrseman ever spurred
on steed faster than we
have gone up the sleeps OF life, and down
| the dangerous declivities; but having
! come here to-day, we stop and look back
upon the way through which we have
cOme-the darkness and the sunshine
the accidents and the suceesses-and then
| look forward, and wonder how long or
| how short will yet be the way. Aud cit
| ting and standing here, the hour seems to
me, as to you it must be, mOmentOus.
| put my finger on the pulse of this mo-
ment, and / feel that it beats high and
eternal destinies. You aud have started
on in Life which will continue to live
after the sun has gone out, cold in death,
and this wrecked and foundeted world
shall have strewn its timbers
! on the coast of an eternal desolation. O.!
! it is a mean question for me to ask my
/ self and you to-day: "Where am / ? What
am /? Whence came !? And whittier am
l boundr' The simple, factais- that each
one Of US bas soul to save. Now, when
any man in olden times had saved the life
OF Roman citizen from drowning. for in
| stance, that man, VINO rescued the un-
| fortunate, was hOnOred. He was allowed
sometimes to sit IN the Senate; he was al
lowed TO ride in great professions, and
when he entered room the people would
| rise up to greet him aud do him honor,
would to God that tonight we might as
pire tor the higher honor Of saving a soul
an immortal soul.
There are three or four reasons that i
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
tioR. Now, there is no need of our hiding
this fact. We sometimes hear people
talking TO the unconyerted and saying:
! sit is just as easy for you to become a
/ Ibrfcfran a a n IE fn q nd -
1t is not. There are tremendous obsta-
cles in the way of your becoming a Chris
tian, and every man that has tried in
thorough earnestness to becOms a child
of God has found that there are obsta-
cles. That is not a wise gen.
eral VINO depreciates the force OF an
enemy-who says to his men: "My
troops, you will haye 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 will gain the victory" No
A wise General says: 'sTh0se 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 il you ever overcome that
host, it will be by mighty rallying Of all
your energies" And l have TO tell you
now, that II you are ever going TO get to
heaven, it will be by going out in a con
test as one against hundred, as one
against thousand, as one against q
hundred thousand, aye, il is an infinite
impossibility that you ever succeed BY
any strength OF resolution OF your own
and il there were not some supernatural
aid to be offered and some Divine promise
to take hold OF, we would be lost, and W.
would all be lost
In the first place, there are the obsta
cles in the wOrldliness that surrounds
you. / need not tell you, men OF Brook
lyn and New York, that there Is a tide o.
worldliness setting away from God anC
from heaven. You have felt IL. You
have waded down in IL until the food
came TO your knee. until IL came 20 your
girdle, until it has come 20 your lip. You
rise in the morning; ryeu Ind 10 is a few
moments later than you thought 1t was
you are in great haste; you hurry through
the morning meal; YOU race down the
street; you 20 10 your office; you oper
the letters and you answer them; yOt
examine the money market; you ruf
hitner and thither; your life Is tot
and a turmoil. The long day, save ths
fifteen or twenty minutes IN which ybu
lunch, is given up 70 the influence OF this
world, and II Is very rare. Indeed
that from O'Clock In tbs
morning until or O'cl0cl
ia the afternoon that yOI
have single thought about thS
great future. some thought may, whils
you are standing at the counter or IN tbs
banking house, some stray thought Of the
future world may come through your
mind, but II darts out again, just like d
swallow that In summer time wheels int
the open window, makes a circuit Of a few
minutes, and then goes out. q. this tide
OF worldllness. You have felt IL. II setl
away from God and away from heaven
You know IL.
Then there are obstacles IN the way o
your getting ~ heaven, In Satanic and IN
iernal assault. Tue air Is fun Of eyi
spirits. They acc0st you. They meet yOt
at the cross roads. They tell you tbs
wrong road. They try 20 unborse YOU
good resolutions, 70 spike your guns, e
Outhank you Ia every Christian move
ment. ann n you are ever successful n
all Ia gaining the realm of everlasting
bliss, Ii will be bg raiiying All your physi
cal, mental and moral energies, aye. 1
Will BE- By calling upon the Lord Almighty
by fls Infinite ana omnip0i9nt grace x
help you. And yet. n there were a sinRll
man IN All ihis audience who should mud
denly have come up0u him The Impression
that he Was Rolne ~ mise heaven. then
would 70 up a sbriek louder fnau tha
which is heard between colildlnR rail-