The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1886-05-27

quick and spontaneous will be the ransom
of your soul. This morning you are max.
ing Q calculation. You are on the track
of some financial or social game. With
your pen or pencil you are pursuing it.
This very morning you are devouring the
prey; but tonight you will be in differ
emit mood. You find that all heaven is of.
fered you. You wonder how you can
get II for yourself and for your family.
You wonder what resources it will give
you now and hereafter. You are dividing
peace and comfort and satisfaction and
Christian reward in your soul. You are
dividing the spoil.
On Sabbath night at the close of the
service said to some persons:
"When did you first become serious
about your sOulF'
And they told me:
"To.night."
And said to others:
"when did you give your heart to
God?"
And they said:
"To-night"
And said to still Others:
"When did you resolve to serve the Lord
oil the days Of your life"
And they said:
"To.nighr."
I saw by their apparel that when the
grace Of God struck them they were de-
vouring the prey but saw also in the food
of joyful tears and in the kindling rap
lures on their brow, and In their exhil.
arant and transporting utterances. that
they were dividing the spoil. At night,
with one touch of electricity, all these
lights blaze. Oh, would to God that
the darkness of your souls might be
broken up, and that by one quick. over.
whelming, instantaneous fash of illum-
ination you might be brougt into the
| light and the liberty Of the sons of God
You see that religion is different thing
from what some Of you people supposed.
You thought it was decadence; you
thought religion was emaciation; you
thought it was highway robbery; that IL
struck one down and left him half dead;
that 1t plucked out the eyes; that il
plucked out the plumes Of the soul; that II
broke the wing and crushed the beak as IL
came clawing with its black talons through
the air. No. that is not religion. What is
religion? 1t is dividing the spoil. 1t is
taking defenseless soul and panoplying
it for eternal conquest. 1t is the distribu-
tion Of prizes by the kings band, every
medal stamped with q coronation. II is
an exhilaration, an expansion. 1t is i'm.
! paradisation. It Is enforcement. Re.
ligion makes a man master of earth, and
death, and hell. 1t goes forth to gather
the medals of victory won by Prince EN-
manuel. and the diadems Of heaven and
the glories OF realms terrestrial and celes-
tial, and then after ranging all worlds for
everything that is Respondent, it divides
the spoil.
What was IL that James Turner, the
famous English evalgelist wac doing when
in his dying moment he said "Christ 10
all! Christ is all" Why, he was enter.
ing into light; he was rounding the Cape
of Good Hope; he was dividing the spoil.
What was the aged Christian Quakeress
doing when at eighty years of age she
arose in the meeting one day and said:
"Ths time of my departure is come. Ny
grave CLOTHES are falling off," She was
dividing the spoil.
She longed with wings 20 hy away,
| And mix with that eternal day.
What is Daniel now doing, the lion
tanner? and Elijah. who was drawn by the
flaming coursers. and Paul, the rattling OF
whose chain made kings quakes and all
the other victims of food, and fire, and
wreck, and guillotinei Where are they :
Dividing the spoil.
Ten thousand times ten thousand,
| In sparkling raiment bright,
The armies Of the ransomed saints
Throng up the sleeps OF light
IT'S finished, all 10 finished,
Their fight with death and sin;
LIT high your golden gates
And let the victors In.
Oh, what Q grand thing It Is TO be q
Christiani We begin on earth to divide
the spoil, but the distribution will not b<
completed to all eternity. There is y pow
erty struck soul, there IL . business de.
spoiled soul, there is a sin struck soul, there
is bereaved soul-why do you not come
anu R0t JUG bpOtlS VI OuTtStiou CuoiuCooI
the comfort, the Joy, the peace, the saliva
ton that am sent to offer you in my
masters namei Though your knee,
knock together in weakness, though
your hand tremble in fear, though you
eyes rain tears of uncomfortable weeping
come and get the spoils. Rest for all tn
weary. Pardon for all the guilty. Labo
for all the bestormed. Life for al th'
dead. verify believe that there are SOM
who have come In here outcast because tn
world Is against them, and because the,
feel God 10 against them, who will e,
away to-day saying:
Icame to Jesus a. was,
: Weary. and worn, and sad:
found in him resting place.
VI And He has made me glad.
Though you came in children Of tn
world, you may 60 away heirs OF Heaven
Though you were devouring the prey, now
all worlds witnessing, you may divide th
spoil.
Il The Youngest in the Land.
, II is probable that Henry Count,
{, Va, has not . parallel in the youthful