Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1886-07-05

BaekSllder! On, WHAT Sug-
gestive world! Backslider! From
what have you slid back? You have slid
back from your fathers faith, from your
early good habits. You have been sliding
back from Christ, from the crOSs-sliding
back from heaven. When man begins TO
slide he knows not where he will GO You
have been sliding back toward darkness.
YOu have been sliding back toward an un-
blessed grave, toward precipice, the first
ten million miles of which downward are
only small part of the eternal plunge.
You were, perhaps, professors in the coun-
try; you have made shipwreck in the town.
1t may be that the club blasted you; it
may be that fashionable society destroyed
you; it may be the kind of wife whom you
m lrried. You have no more hope for
heaven now than if you had lived in Cen
trail Asia and never heard of Christ and the
Judgment. Oh, where is that Bible you
used to read? Where is that room you
used to pray? What have You done with
that Jesus whose voice you once heard?
Oh, murdered hours! q, massacred privi-
leges! o, dead opportunities! Wake up
now and shrek in that mans ear until
he shall rouse himself from the horrible
SOmnambulism, walking rs he does, fast
asleep, within an inch of hell. Oh, that
he might cry out now: Golden Sab
baths, come back! Communion seasons,
come back Wooings of the Holy Ghost,
backr' But they will not come. Gone!
gone! gone! Sorrow will come, but not
they. oh, that you might save the few
remaining years of your life, and conse-
crate them to Christ! / have seen sad
sights, have heard sad sounds; but tell
you the ghastliest thing outside the gates
of the damned is 4 backSlider's death-bed.
Do you not feel like having applied to your
soul this divine restorative? Do You
not feel like crying out with David: Re
store unto me the joys of thy salvation?"
For great sin, great pardon. For deep
wounds, omnipotcnt surgery. For deaf
ears, 4 divine aurist. For blind eyes, a
heavenly Oculist For the dead in sin, the
uphcaval ola great resurrection.
But in the heavenly world we shall feel
THE CHIEF RESTORATIVE
power of religion. This is Il planet of
weeping we are living on. We enter upon
life with cry and leave it with long
sigh. If | could gather up the griefS of
this audience and put them in one SEN
tence and then utter it, 1t would make
everything between here and the throne of
God Shudder and howl. The earth is
g;lshcd deep with graves. As at the close
of the war, sometimes we saw 4 regiment
of one hundred and fifty men, the fragments
ofthe thousand men that went, so, us stand
before You | cannot hut realize the fact
Il. t.,,.,
hundreds of regiments Of joyful asSOcia- /,
tiOnS that have been broken up forever.
Oh. this is Il world of sorrow! Bat blessed
be God! there will be no sorrow in heaven.
Tho undertaken will have to have some
other business there. In the summer time
our cities have bills of mortality which are
rightful-sOmetimeS in New York a thou
sand deaths i'll week; sometimes il has
been two thousand in London; but in that
great heavenly city there will be not sim |
Gle case of sickness or death; not one black
dress of mourning, but plenty Of white
robes of joy; hand-Shaking of welcome, but
none of separation. Why, if one trouble |
should attempt to enter heaven, the shin |
ing police of the city would put it under
everlasting arrest. If all the sOTrows of life, |
anu SMOINlStl -ApOll1 Olll SllOuIu
attempt to force that gate, one company |
from the tower would strike them back |
bowling 10 the pit Room in hcayen for
all the raptures that ever knocked at the
gate, but no room for the smallest annoy
anee, though slight as q summer insect.
Doxology, but no iirSe. Banqucting, but !
no "funeral baked meats"
No darkness at all; no sickness nj all; no
death at all. A soul waking up in that
place will say: Can it be that am here?
Will my head never ache again? Shall | !
never stumble over a grave again? Will /
never say goodbye to loved ones again:
Can it be possible that the stream is passed |
that the hank is gained, that the glory is /.
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 restora-
tion without any relapse That will he
day without any succeeding night. That
will be "The Saints Everlasting Rest