The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-06-22

TO give them to you you are Feady lo recfiye
them. God he]p you to say, tonight Il will be
a mani viii follow the teaching Of Cod will
follow the counsel Of mother, and father will
take tip my journey to that world beyond. where
loved ones are waiting for my coming"
Following Mr.. Small's brief talk, DIR. Jones
came forward and said;
Brethren, my heart is full to overlooking; and
1t is full of mingled feelings of JOY and sadness
Oh, how our natures are subdued and now our
better feelings are brought out by these mingled
feelings. have shaken hands with many men
in indianapolis; l will grasp that hand over
yonder, by and by, with the fight Of life beam
ing from our eyes and the glow OF beauty on our
cheeks forever. tell you why am sad. Ii l
am faithful to God and my vows will tell many
man goodbye, may be, tonight that will never
see again; and you may search this city 60 from
house to house until you get to novels and go
from hovel to gutter. and there Is not human
being in this city that would not kneei down
by his side this moment and honestly pray
God to give this man or this woman
as good a home in heaven as God will
give me, or nv wife, or one OF my
children. Thank God for heart that loves
humanity and sympathizes with humanity.
Now. brother, you listen. You Will turn your
back tonight on every call we can make You
will turn your back at last on the last CALL and
that is the saddest thing ever said about i'm
mortal man. Listen to me moment L just
direct your attention to one thought moment
i
and just to forgive our sins, and TO cleanse US
from all unrighteousnesS. Let every unsaved
man tonight walk right square up on that one
blessed promise and stay there. Ihere is
naked, blessed promise. Walk up on it tonight
and let US live and die on this blessed promise
You can get up there, and / will tell you how;
this promise is to every man of US. 1t is life. l
wish could have seen that promise when l was
lost like see it now, and like l ought to have
seen it then. | want to tell yor brethren OF the
ministry, and you brothers of the churches, my
little Bob when he was five years old, had more
religious sense than had when l was twenty
four. Listen to me now, brother. | got home
on Monday, once. ] said, when l walked in and
spoke to my wife, "Wife, where are the chill
drenp'
''They have gone up to hear brother George
Smith preach He has been preaching here
three or four days and the children are very
much interested in his preaching"
He is our Sunday school instructor and knows
how to talk to children. 1t is a special gift OF
God.
Directly little Bob ran in ahead of the others
1 took him in my lap and kissed him and his
mother asked him, bob. what sort OF meet
ing did you have2"
Had a good meeting, mamma.
what did you dot"
= "Well. he said "Mr Smith preached a good
sermon and invited us up to the altar
His mamma said, did you go, BobP
"Yes'm."
He said, 81 went to have my sins forgiven"
'Did you get them forgiven9'
''Yes'm."
Chow do you know you got them forgiven?"
''Well Mr.. Smith said if we came up and
asked the Lord to forgive US He would do it,
and l went up and asked him"
Do you get the idea?
She said: Bob. are you going to sin any
more2"
''Yes'm, I spect WILL"
hat rair %r do han
II will wait until Mr.. Smith comes around
and 1 will go up again"
You see, the little fellow had the whole thing
If 60 up and ask God to forgive me He will do
it, and if sin again, have got an advocate
with the father. The only trouble with the lit
tie fellow was he had the priest IDEA, and great
many grown people have that idea yet. I am
going to try to get it out OF bis head, though.
That little fellow, at our first Bush Arbor meet
ing at Gainesville, came out on the front porch
he had been attending several meetings. 1t
was about dusk, and he crawled up on my knee
and said: Papa. am going to get blessing
tonight"
"Well," said /, Bob, who blesses folks9".
He said: "The good Lord blssses them"
"How does the Lord bless them, BobT
why" says Bob, 'if they promise TO do bet
ter the Lord will bless Them
"Well,' said, II hope you will get it tonight
then"
That night, while I was preaching, the little
dancing in his head all the time / was talking.
and when called up the penltents, and they be-
gan to walk up, Bob started and his mamma
grabbed him and said: Hold on son, you are
too little; they will crush you"
He said: "Oh, mamma, turn me loose; I want
to get blessing"
And he just tore loose from her, and went up
there. and finally got around where Bob was
kneeling, and he was praying for it with all his
might ! lost sight of him in the crowd, but
r. ii r 81.
out from the altar-he had got out of the
straw where he was--he came and took my
hand, and looked around at him, and the first
thing l thought Of was Bob's blessing. I said
son. did you get your blessing"
Eyes, sir; did,
And he did, too, just as certain as the sun
shines he got it that night--a good case of re-
ligion. A good many joined the churches, and
among others seventy eight Joined the Metho-
dist Church. There were 1l6 in all, but there
were seventy-eight in the class called out The
preacher called and little Bob went up next day
and Joined the church. That night the preacher
stood there in the altar and called seventy eight
names, and they all marched out in front of the
pulpit Wife told me herself little Bob was sit
ting by her, and directly he commenced crying
like his heart would break; his mother turned
around to him and said: Son. don't do that,
don't cry at church, please don't cry. What is
the matter with you, Roberts"
He says, .'Oh mamma Mr. Robbins never
preacher, and he walked down there, and my
wife told him little Bob's heart was broken be-
cause he did not call his name among those join
ing church. The preacher put down his name,
and walked back to the pulpit and called out his
name, and little Bob wiped the tears out of his
eyes and walked up there, and he looked like a
tree toad standing there by those great men and
women. He stood there looking up at the
preacher, and took the vows of the church and
was brought into the church of Jesus Christ
believe eternity will reveal that in that straw
that night at the Bush Arbor meeting, God con-
verted the little boys soul. Look here Coin
to let little five or six-yearsold boy get religion.
and you, great big fellow like you, can't get it,
That won't do.
Now. listen; am talking for your good. You
men out of the church, want to say this to you:
/ will tell you how the best man, whose life was
the light of middle Georgia for years, got to be
religious, and you can be if you want to.
He left his wife at home on a certain Sabbath
perhaps only few weeks after they were mar
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