The Delaware ledger. (Newark, Del.) 1879-19??, 1888-06-30

Hold faith and good conscience,
and you will weather ever blast, you
will outride every storm, and at last
bring your bark safely into harbor
And lest some should fail to know
what we mean by having living
faith, we will simply add that it is
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as
your Saviour. Men may tell us this
is an old fogy faith, and wornout
creed; but still let us give all dill
gence to make it ours for without it
Paul himself tells us what we may
expect, - -shipwreck. Have you any
conception of what that word ex-
presses. During the blizzard of last
March quite u number of vessels
were driven ashore at that place,
supposed to be place of safety, the
Delaware Breakwater. On those
vessels some of which were in immi-
nent danger of houndering, and did
at last go down amid the angry
waves, were men, within a few hun
dred yards of the shore, upon which
they would have been safe, and
upon which stood hundreds of peo-
pie, who would have done anything
to have rescued them, but they were
poSerless. 1t was a sad sight for
those who stood there to see that
vessel with eleven or more souls
drift out into the deep where all on
board perished; and another with
five or more meet with a similar
fate. But that may have been only
the loss of their bodies, a shipwreck
Of what in few years must have
been worn out. But the shipwreck
spoken of in our text is infinitely
worse than that. 1t is spiritual
shipwreck. And we would have
you note that the Apostle does not
deal in mere generalities, but passes
ON to mention two instances in
which they were probably young
men, having put away good con-
science, and lost their faith, they
met with moral shipwreck. And we
would have you note what he, who
was possibly their teacher, says, he
did with them. Gave them over to
Satan. What fate to overtake
promising young men. Paul does
not for moment hint that Timo-
thy would do so. In fact in his
second epistle he says he will not,
but he points to these cases to illus
trate the danger. Here is the way
the matter generally progresses.
First, put away a good conscience,
then abandon the faith your father
and mother gave you, and if you do
not meet with a moral shipwreck
and loose your soul, you will be the
first one that has not done so. Near
ly, if not every man that goes wrong
begins by tampering with conscience.
Here are two young men starting out
in life; as near as we can tell they
are alike intelligent, alike in char
acter and religious faith. They met
with the same temptations. One
resists; he tramples under foot every
solicitation to impurity and vice; is
conscientious in money matters to
the fraction of a cent; is honorable
and straightforward and above the
shadow of reproach. The other
yields to the tempter; gets off the
rails of virtue drives conscience be-
hind him; and presently loses his
character and self-respect. Ii We
tell you the sad fact that one of these
young men has become Il scoller,
you will know at once which one it
is. When Il good conscience is put
away, all too soon faith follows; then
there is nothing to look but spirit
ual shipwreck. This age like all
others before it, has many tenlpta-
tions to scepticism. Would you be
safe from such danger, maintain at
all hazards a good conscience. Men
such as those whom Paul mentions
in this connection, believing themz
selves Il little better and wiser than
everybody else, have hoisted their
mutinous flags and thought to draw
away after them the whole Christian
fleet but instead Of that they lie
there upon the shore two pitiful
wrecks over which the winds moan
in eternal dirgc. How many thou
sands in the ages since have met a
similar fate. Voltaire was in some
respects a very remarkable man, but
in no other way more strikingly so
than in his presumption. lie him
self summed up his whole literary
life in that idle empty boast, you
have doubtless heard, in which he
said: 81 am tired of hearing it said
that twelve men were enough to es-
tablish Christianity. hope to show
that only one is necessary for its