The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1886-12-02

II teing evident that you win be safe in
sny ar The evangelical denominations, pro
eeed o remark first: If one Of the married
! eosIplo be a Christian and tho other not, the
one a Christian Is bound to 20 anywhere TO a
J churclrlrhere the unconveTted companion IS
willing to 60, il he or she will go to no other.
You, OF the connubial partnership, are a
Christian. You are safe for the skies Then
it is your first duty to secure the eternal
safety Of Your lifetime associate. Is not the
everlasting welfare of your wife inlpenitent,
( or your husband impenitent, Of more i'm
pOrtance than your church relationship Is
not the residence Of your companion for the
| next quadrillion Of years migbtier considera-
! ton 10 yOu than the qualification of your
ecolesiastirzil taste for forty or fifty years7
1 A man or a woman that would stop
balf a minute to weigh preferences as
to whether le ar she had ktter go with the
nnconverted companion TO this or that
church denomination has no religion at
| all, and never has had, and fear never viii
! have. You are loaded up with what you
suppose TO be religion, but you are like Capt
! Frobisher, who brought back from his voy-
age of discovery shipload of what he sup
! posed valuable minerals. yet instead of being
silver and gold, were nothing but common
stones of the field. 70 be hurled ont finally as
useless. Mighty God! In all Thy roalm is
there one man woman protesting religion,
| yet so stOlid 50 untitled, so far gone unto
death that there would be any hcsitancy in
surrendering all preferences before such an
opportunity OF salvation and heavenly re-
union7 If you Christian wife, are an attend
ant upon this Brooklyn Tabernacle, and your
unconverted husband does not come here, be-
cause he does not like its preacher, or its
music, or its architecture, or its uncomfort-
able crowding, and goes not to any house of
worship, but would go if you would accom-
pany him somewhere else, change your
church relations. Take your hymn book
home with you to-day. Say good-by to
your friends in the neighboring pews, and go
with him TO any one of hundred churches,
till his soul is saved and he joins you in the
march to heaven. More important than that
ring on the third finger OF your left hand,
it is, that your Heavenly Father command
the angel of mercy concerning your husband
at his conversion, as in the parable of old:
GPut ring on his hand.p
No letter of more Importance ever came to
the great city of Corinth, situated ON what
was called the Bridge of the Sea-" and
glistening with sculpture, and gated with
style of brass the magnifcence of which the
following ages have not been able successfully
TO initiate, and overshadowed by the Aero
Corinthus, fortress of rock 1000 feet high
say no letter ever came to that great city
of more importance than that letter in which
Paul puts the two startling questions; "What
knoWest thou, oh wife, whether thou shalt
save thy husband7 Or how Enowest thou,
oh man, whether thou shalt save thy wife9"
The dearest sacrifice on the part of the one is
cheap if it rescue the other Better go to the
smallest, weakest, most insignificant church
on earth, and be co-partners in eternal bliss,
than pass your earthly membership in most
att oh
companion stays outside of evangelical privi
lege. Better have the drowning saved by
scow or sloop than let him or her go down
while you sail by in the gilded cabins of a
Britannia or a Great Eastern.
Second remark: If both of the married
couple be Christians but one is so naturally
constructed that it is impossible to enjoy the
services of a particular denomination, and
the otheris not so sectarian or punctilious,
let the one less particular go with the other
who is very particular. As for myself, 1 feel
as much at home in one denomination of
evangelical Christians as another, and 1
think must have been born very near the
line I like the solemn roll of the Episcopal
liturgy, and l like the spontaneity of the
Methodists, and like the Importance given
to the ordinance of Baptism by the Baptists,
and 1 like the freedom of the Congrega-
tionalists, and I like the government
and the sublime doctrine Of tho
Presbyterians, and I like many of the
others just as good as any have mentioned,
and could happily live and die, and preach,
and be buried from any of them. But others
are bora with so stout and unbendinz and
inexorable liking for some denomination
that it is a positive necessity they have the
advantage of that one. What they were in
tended to be in ecclesiasticism was written
in the sides of their cradle, il the father and
mother had eyes keen enough to see
it. They would not stop crying until
they bad put into their hands as
playthings a Westminster Catechism or
the Thirty-nine Articles The whole cur
rent of their temperament and thought and
character runs into one sect of religionists as
naturally as the James river into tn,
Chesapeake 1t would be torture
to such persons to be anything outside
that one church. Now, let the wife or hus-
band who is not so constructed sacrifice th,
milder preference for the one more inAexib1e
and rigorous Let the grapevine follow tho
rugosities and sinuosities of the oak or
hickory. Abram, the richer IN fIocks of
Christian grace, should say to Lot, who is
built on a smaller scale: "Let there be no
strife, 1 pray thee, between me and thee, and
between my herdmen and thy herdmen- Is
not the whole land before theeg" As you can
companion to the church to which he or she
must go or be miserable.
Remark the third: II both the married
couple are very strong in their sectarianisns,
let them attend the different churches pre-
ferred. It Is not necessary that you attend
the same church. Religion is between your
conscience and your God Like Abram and
Lot. agree to differ. When on Sabbath morn
ing you come out of the door of your home
together, and one goes one way and the other
the other, heartily wish each other good
sermon and a time OF profitable devotion, and
when You meet again at the noonday>repsst
let it be evident each to each, and to your
children, and to the hired help, that you have
both been on the Mount of TRANSPORTATION,
although YOU went up by different paths, and
that YOU have both been fed by the bread of
life though kneaded by different hands, in
different trays, and baked in different ovens.
sBut how about the children?" / am often
asked by hundreds of parents. Let them
also make their choice. They VIII grow up
with reverence for both the denominations
represented by father and mother, if you,
by holy lives, commend those denominations.
III the father lives the better life, they will
have the Iuore favorable opinion OF his de
nomination. II the mother lives the better
life they will have the moro favorable
opinion Of her denomination. And some
day both the parents will, for at least one
service. go to the same church The neigh
bors will say: al wonder what is going on
to-day, for saw our neighbor and his wife,
who always go to different churches, going
arm in arm to the same sanctuaryl' Well,
will tell you what has brought them
together, arm in arm, to the same altar.
Something very important has happened.
Their son is to-day uniting with the church.
He is standing in the aisle taking the VOWS
Of Christian. He bad been somewhat way
ward. and gave father and mother a good
deal Of anxiety, but their prayers have been
answered in his conversion, and as he stands
10 the aisle and the minister of religion says: