The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-07-16

ana said: n a. Christian nsw. have
sewer been before" And %, again and
again, the Lien oe Judah's tribe has torn
20 pieces the Wild beasts Of martyriom.
This grace II also . restorative for the
backslider. Who do you mean by that?
you say. I mean you who used 10 fire.
quent the house Of God, bat seldom 90
there now; you who once used TO pray,
but never pray now; you who once sat at
the holy communion, but take not the
Lords cup now; mean you Who once re-
joiced In Christisn society, bat now sit
amid scofHers. Backslideri Oh, what
suggestive world Backslidsri From what
have you slid baekf Yoa have slid
back from your fathers faith, from
your early good habits. You have
been aiding back from Christ, from
the cross-sliding back from Heaven.
when . man begins 10 slide he
knows not where he win 60. You have
been sliding back toward darkness. You
have been Gliding hack toward an I'm.
blessed grave, toward precipice, the first
10000, 900 miles Of which downward are
only . small part Of the eternal plunge.
You were, perhaps, professors in the
country; you have made shipwreck in the
town. It may b that the club blasted
you; It may be that fashionable society
destroyed you; IL may be the kind Of wife
whom you married. You have no more
hope for heaven now than il you had lived
in Central Asia and never heard of Christ
and the Judgment. Oh. where is that
Bible You use to readi Where IL that
room where you used to pray? What
have you done with that Jesus whose
voice you once heardf Oh, muir.
dersd hours! Oh, massacred privilegesi
Oh, dead opportunities! Wake up now
and shrek in that mans ear until he shall
rouse himself from the horrible somnsm-
bulism, walking, as he does, fast asleep,
within an inch of hell. Oh, that he might
cry out now: "Golden Sabbaths, come
hack! Communion seasons, come back!
Wooings of the Holy Ghost, come back !"
But they will not come. Gone! gonsi
gone! Sorrow will come, but not they.
oh. that you might save the few remain
ing years of your life and consecrate them
to Christ! have seen sad sights, have
heard sad sounds; but, tell you, the
ghastliest thing outside the gates of the
damned is backslider's death bed. Do
you not feel like having applied to your
soul this divine prerogative? Do you
not feel like crying out with David: ERE
store unto me the joys Of Thy salvation"
For great sin, great pardon. For deep
wounds, omnipotent surgery. For deaf
ears, a divine aurist. For blind eyes, >
heavenly oculist. For the dead in sin, the
upheaval Of great resurrection.
But in the heavenly world we shall feel
the chief restorative power Of religion.
This is planet Of weeping we are living
ON. We enter upon life with a cry and
leave it with q long sigh. II could gath.
er up the griefs Of this audience and put
them in one sentence. and then utter 1t. it
would make every thing betw cen here and
the throne OF God shuddcr and
howl. The earth is gashed deep
with graves. As at the close Of the
war, sometimes we saw a regiment Of ono
hundred and fifty men, the fragment OF
the thousand men that went out; 50, rs
stand before you can not but realize the
fact that you are the fragments represent
ing hundreds of regiments Of joyful asso.
Citations that have been broken up forever.
o, this is q world of sorrowi But, blessed
be God, there will be no SORROW in Heaven!
The undertaken will have to have some
other business there In the summer time
our cities have bills Of mortality which are
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. in New York thou.
sand deaths in a week, sometimes it has
been two Thousand in London; but
in that great heavenly city there
will be not . single case Of sick
ness or death; not one black dress Of
mourning, but plenty of white robes Of
joy; hand shaking of welcome. but none
of separation. Why, il one trouble should
attempt to enter Heaven, the shining no.
lice of the city would put it under ever.
lasting arrest. II all the sorrows of life,
mailed and sworded under Apollyon,
should attempt to force that gate, one
company from the tower would strike them
back bowling to the pit Room in Heaven
the gate. but no room for the smallest
annoyance. though slight as a summer in
sect. Doxoloxy, but no dirge; banquet.
ing, but no Funeral baked meats"
No darkness at all; no grief at all; M
sickness at all; no death at all. A soul
waking up in that place will say: "Can it
be that I am here? will my head never
ache again? Shall l never stumble over q
grave again! Will I never say good-by
to loved ones again! Can it be possible
that the stream il past; that the hank is
gained; that the glory il begun! Show
me Jesus that may kiss his feet" When
the clock of Christian suffering has run
down, it will never be wound up again.
Amid the vineyards of the heavenly En-
gedi; that will be restoration without any
relapse; that will be day without any sue
caadin0 niUhf. that will ha sstl,a ssinlSa