Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-12-21

rum supposing Christ standing by the
bedside-his last words; "Crush that
wretch!''
Spectacle the third: Paul-Paul insig-
nificant in person, thrust out from all re-
fined association; scourged, spat on,
bounded like wild beast from city to
city, yet trying to. make the world good
and heaven full; announcing resurrec-
ton to those who mourned at the barred
gates of the dead; speaking consultations
which light up the eyes of widowhood and
orphanage and want with glow of certain
and eternal release; undaunted before
those who could take his life, his cheek
flushed with transport. and his eye on
heaven; with one hand shaking defiance
at all the foes of earth and all the princi-
palities of hell, and with the other hand
reckoning messenger angels to come and
bear him away, as he says: 81 am now
ready to be offered, and the
time of my departure is at
hand; 1 have fought the good
kept the faith; henceforth there is laid
up for me crown of righteousness which
the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give
| me -
Which of the three spectacles do you
| most admire? When the wind of death
struck the conqueror and the infidel they
were tossed like sea-gulls in a tempest,
| drenched of sthe wave and torn of the
| hurricane, their dismal voices heard
through the everlasting storm; but when
| the wave and the wind of death struck
Paul, like an albatross, he made a throne
of the tempest, and one day fioated away
| into the calm, clear summer of heaven,
brighter than the dove, its wings COW
cred with silver, and its feathers with
| yellow gold. Oh, are you not in love
with such q religion-a religion that can
do so much for man while he lives, and
so much for man
| WHEN HE COMES TO DIE?
| l suppose you may have noticed the con-
trast between the departure of Christian
and the departure of an infidel. Deodo-
rus, dying in chagrin because he could
not compose a joke equal to the joke
| uttured at the other end of his table.
Zeu1is, dying in a fit of laughter at the
| sketch Of an aged woman-a sketch made
by his own hand. MaZarin, dying playing
| cards, his friend holding his hands be-
cause he was unable to hold them him
self. All that on one side, compared
with the departure of the Scotch minis
ter, who said to his friends: 81 have no
interest as to whether live or die; if 1
die, l shall be with the Lord, and if L
live, the Lord shall be with me. - Or the
last words of Washington: cit is WE'LL
| Or the last words of Mcintosh, the
learned and the great: "Happy - Or
| the last word of Hannah More, the Chris
tain poetess: "Joy!" Or those thou
sands of Christians who have gone,
saying: "Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit. Come, Lord Jesus, come
quickly.'' go death where is thy
sting? o grave! where is thy victory?'
Behold the contrast. Behold the charm
of the one, behold the darkness of the
other. Now, I know it is very popular
in this day for young men to think there
is something more charming i'll skepti-
cism than in religion. They are ashamed
of the old-fashioned religion of the
cross, and they pride themselves on their
free thinking on all these subjects. My
young friends, l want to tell you what l
know from observation that while skep-
ticism is beautiful land at the start, it
is the great Sahara desert at the last.
Years ago q minister's son went off
from home to college. At college he
formed the acquaintance of a young man
whom 1 shall call Ellison. Ellison was
an infdel. Ellison scoffed at religion
and the minister s son soon learned from
,
home on his vacation
BROKE HIS FATHERS HEART
by his denunciations of Christianity
Time passed on and vacation came and
the minister's son went off to spend the
vacation, and was, on journey and came
to hotel. The hotel keeper said: 81
am sorry that tonight 1 shall have to put
you in room adjoining one where there
is a very sick and dying man. can give
you no other accommodation. - "Oh, -
said the young college student and minis
ter's son, that will make no difference
to me except the matter of sympathy
with anybody that,is suffering. - The
young man retired to his room, but could
not sleep. All night long he heard the
grooming of the sick man, OF the step of
the watchers, and his soul trembled. He
thought to himself: ''Now, there is only
thin wall between me and departing
spirit! How if Ellison should |
know how 1 feel? How if |
Ellison should find out how my heart |
flutters? What would Ellison say if he |
knew my skepticism gave way? He slept |
not. In the morning, coming down, he |
said to the hotel keeper: GLOW is the |
sick man?'' "Oh, - said the hotel |
keeper: "He is dead poor fellow, the |
the night. - 'Well,'' said. the young |
man, "what was the sick ones name;
where is he from?' "WeI, - said the |
hotel keeper, che is from Providence
College, providence College! what
is his name?'' "Ellison!' Oh, how
the young man was stunned 1t was
his old college mate-dead without
any hope. 1t was many hours
before the young man could
leave that hotel. He got on
his horse and started homeward, and all
the way he heard something saying to
him: dead! Lost! Dead! Lost' He
came to no satisfaction until he entered
the Christian life, until he entered the
Christian ministry until he became one
of the most eminent missionaries of the
cross, the greatest Baptist missionary the
world has ever seen since
THE DAYS OF PAUL
no superior to Adoniram Judson. Mighty
on earth, mighty in heaven-Adoniram
Judson. Which do you like the best,
Judson suffering for Christ's sake,
Judson S almost martyrdom? Oh, young
man, take your choice between these two
kinds of lives. Your own heart tells YOU
this morning the Christian life is more