Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1886-09-25

to prominent merchantF' es, yes, do. "
He says: 81 am the man. That was my first
step toward q fortune; but l have retired
from business now, and an giving my time
to phlanthropies and public interests. Come
up to my country place and see me- Or a
man comes to you and says: II want to in
troduce myself to You. l went into prayer
meeting some years ago. l sat back by the
doc. You arose to make an exhortation.
That talk changed the course Of my life, and.
if | ever get TO heaven, under God, l will
owe my salvation to you" In only ten,
twenty or thirty years. the circle swept out
and swept back again to your own grateful
heart. But sometimes it is wider circle
and does not return for great while. saw
bill of expenses for burning Latimer and
Ridley. The bill of expenses says:
One load of fir fagots. go. Ss. a.
Carriage of four loads of wood. Is. "a
Item, post. ................... Is. 90.
Item, two chains. ............... oS. ~.
Item, two staples. ............... Us. %.
Item four laborers. ............. rs. ca.
That was cheap fire. considering all the
circumstances: but it kin1led light which
shone all around the world; and around the
martyr shirt: au1 out from that burning OF
Inc mc0nesU un1ng mon can 90 Is, arCer
some difficulty has been settled, TO bring "
up again, and God will not be SO mean as that.
Gods memory is mighty enough to hold all
the events of the ages, but there is QUE thing
that is sure to slip his memory, one thing he
is sure to forget, and that is pardoned trans
gression How do / know it, l will prove
it. "Their sins and their ini4uities will re-
member no more" Come into that state this
morning, my dear brother, my dear sister.
"Blessed is the one whose trangressions are
forgiven"
But do not make the mistake of thinking
that this doctrine of the circle stops with this
life; it rolls on through heaven. You might
quote in opposition to me what st. john says
about the city of heaven. He says it .iieth
four square" That does seem to militate
against this idea; but you know there is
many square house that has family circle
facing each other, and in a circle moving,
and l can prove that this is SO in regard to
heaven. st. John says: II heard voice
of many angels round about the throne,
and the beasts and the elders" And;
again he says: s'There was a rainbow round
about the throne" The two former instances
circle; the last either a circle or semi
circle. The seats facing each other, the
angels facing each other, the men facing
each other. Heaven an ampitheatre OF glory:
Circumference of patriarch, and prophet. and
! apostle. Circumference of Scotch covenant
ers, and Theban legion, and Albigenses. Cir
conference of the good of all ages. Periph-
cry of splendor, unimagined and indescrlba-
BILE. A circlel A circle
You maltreat an aged parent. You be-
grudge him the room in your house. You
are impatient of his whimsicalities and gar
rulity 1t makes you mad to hear him tell
the same story twice. You give food he
cannot masticate You wish he we're away
You wonder il he is going to live forever.
He will be gone very soon. His steps are
shorter and shorter. He is going to stop
But God has an account to settle with you
on that subject. After while your eye will
be dim and your gait Will halt and the soun9
81 be In and will fell
the same story twice. and your children will
wonder if you are going to live forever, and
wonder if you will never be taken away.
They called you Father once; now they
call you "the cid man." If you live few
years longer they will call you 1.-THE old
chap" What are those rough words with
which your children are accosting You They
are the echo of the very words you used
in the ear Of your old father forty years
ago. What is that which you are trying to
chew, but find it uumastcable, and your
jaws ache as you surrender the attempts
Perhaps it may be the gristle which you gave
! to your father for his breakfast forty years
| ago. A gentleman passing along the street
saw son dragging his father into the street
by the hair of his head The gentleman, out
ragged at this brutal conduct was about to
punish the offender, when the old man arose
and said: Don't hurt him; it's all right;
forty years ago this morning dragged olt
my lbIltT Nv lHC Hull VI blc ~ 10 a
circle. My father lived into the eighties, and
he had very wide experience, and he said
that maltreatment of parents was always
punished in this world. Other sins may be
adjourned to the next world, but maltreat-
ment of parents is punished in this world.
The circle turns quickly, very quickly.
| OH what stupendous thought that the
, good and the evil we start come back to us.
Do you know that the judgment day will
be only the points at which the circles join,
the good and the bad we have done coming
back to us, unless divine intervention hinder
coming back to us welcome of delight or
curse of condemnation.
OH / would like to see Paul, the invalid
missionary, at the moment when his influence
comes to full orb--his influence rolling out
through Antioch, through Cyprus, through
Lystra, through Corinth, through Athens,
through Asia, through Europe, through
America. through the first century, through
five centuries, through twenty centuries.
through all the succeeding centuries, through
earth, through heaven, and. at last, the wave
Of influence having made full circuit strikes
ais great SOUL Oh, then | would like to see
him! No one can tell the wide sweep of the
circle of his influence, save the One who is
seated on the circle of the EARTH / should
not want to see the countenance of Voltaire
when his influence comes ID full orb. When
the fatal henorrhage seized him at eighty
three years of age his influence did net cease.
] The most brilliant man of his century, he had
, usel all his facult es for asslulting Chris
tianity; his bal influence widening through
France, widening out through Germany,
widening through all Europe, widenins
through America, widening through the lOl
years that have gone by since be died, widen
ing through earth, widening through hell,
until at last the accumulated influence OF his
bad life in fierv surge of omnipotent wrath
will beat against his destroyed spirit, and at
that moment it will be enough TO make the
black hair OF eternal darkness turn white
with the horror. No one can tell how that
bad mans influence girdled the earth, save
the One who is seated ON the circle Of the
earth-the Lord Almighty.
"Well now say people in this audience
this, in some respects, is a very glad theory
and in others very sad one we would like
10 have all the coed we have done come back
to u.s. but the thought that all the sins we
have ever committed will come back to IFS
| fills us with alright" My brother, have to
tell you God can break that circle, and will
do so at your call can bring twenty pas
cages of scripture to prove that when God, for
Christ's sake, forgives man, the sins of his
past life never come back. The wheel may
roll on and roll on, but you can take your
position behind the cross and the wheel
strikes the cross and it is shattered for
ever The sins fly off from the circle into the
perpendicular, falling at right angles into
complete oblivion, For given! Forgiven
Latimer and Ridley rolled the circle, wider
and wider efartin0 other circlas cOuyOut-