Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1888-12-15

poIs Anu III AleNiOlCuS ne SAYS 'luOu Hnalb
not go up and down as a tale-bearer" Take
not into your ear that scum OF hell that
people call titUle-tattle. Whosoever willingly
listens to SANDER is equally guilty with the
one who tells it, and an old writer says
they ought both to be hung. the one
by the tongue and the other by the
ear. Do not smile upon such spaniel. lest.
like pleased dog. he put his dirty paw upon
you Throw back the shutter Of your soul.
oh. Christian men and women, and see ie
there be within you vulture with filthy
talons and cruel beak. Let not this unclean
thing roost in your soul, for my text says:
"Ye shall hold in abomination among the
fowls, the vulture."
Again: taking the suggestion Of the text
drive out the bat from your SOUL No wonder
God set this bird among the uuclean. It is
an ofense to every one. Let 1t nv into the
window of a summer night. and all the
hands, young and old, are against it, Il is
half bird and half mouse. II seems made
partly to walk and partly to fly, and does
neither we'll and becomes an emblem of
those Christians who try to cling to earth
and heaven at the same time. They want to
walk on earth IN worldliness, and vet fly to-
ward heaven in spirituality and their soul,
between feet and wings is perplexed. Oh
my brethren, he one thing or the other!
Choose the world, If You prefer it; and see
how many dollars you can win. and how
Iuupu dppiduS9 you can gam, anu now large
a business you can establish, and how grand
a house you can build, and how fast
span of horses you can drive You
may he prospered until you can fail for five
hundred thousand dollars, instead of having
the disgrace of failing for only ten thousand
as some unenterprising people do. 1t is
quite reward to be able for ten
of the solid men of Brooklyn or Boston; and
then. to make your fortune last as long as
possible, we will give you splendid funeral,
and you shall have twenty-five carriages fol-
lowing you, with somebody in the most
of them, and your coffin shall have
silver handles on the sides, and we
will mourn for You in splendid pocket
handkerchiefs boand with Grape. and bonn
bazine twenty full yards long, trailing half
across the parlor so that all the company
may stand upon it, and we will write our
letters for the next six months on paper edged
with black. But my friends your worldly
fortunes will not last. | will buy out now
all that you will be worth in worldly estat,
seventy5five years from now. l have the
Here it isl Twoce 1t is large sum to
offer for all you will possess at the
close of seventy-five years. Choose the
world il you want to; but if not, then
choose heaven. That estate lies partly on
this side of the river, but mostly on the
ODhOAs ~ 10 ONCA AnO PtOo-
pect of it makes one independent
of earthly misfortunes, so that Rogers,
the martyr, slept SO soundly the night before
his burning, they violently shook him in
order to get him awake in time for
the execution; and Paul exnlts at the
thought of the Joy unspeakable and
full of glory" Oh, choose earth or Heavenl
Make up your mind whether you will walk
in earthly joys, or fly with heavenly ex-
pectations. Be not bat. fit neither to walk
nor fly. having just enough of heaven to
spoil the world, and so much Of the
world as to spoil heaven. Christ says
that your present condition nauseates him to
neither cold nor hot, l Will
sDew thee out of my mouth" In the
ruins Of POmpeii there was found a petrified
woman, who instead of trying to fly from
the destroyed city, had spent her time in
gathering up her jewels. She saved neither
multitudes making the same mistake
In trying to get earth and heaven they
lose both. aye cannot serve God and
Mammon." Be one thing or the other.
Tread the earth like a lion, or mount the air
like the eagle; for my text says: ''Ye shall
have in abomination among the fowls, the
bat"
Again: taking the suggestion of the text,
drive out the chameleon from your soul.
There is some difference among good men as
to the name of this creeping thing
which God pronounced unclean, but / shall
take the opinion which seems best suited
to my purpose The chameleon is a reptile,
chiefly known by its changeabeness of color,
taking the color of the thing next to it, some
times brown, sometimes red, and
sometimes gray, but always the color
Of its surroundings, type Of that class
Of Christians who are now one thing In re-
igious faith, and now another. just to suIt
circumstances, always taking their color Of
religious belief from the man they are talk
ing TO. They go to one place, and are first
rate Unitarians "Jesus was a good man,
but nothing more" They go to Princeton,
aud they are Trnitarans, almost willing to
die for the divinity of Jesus Among the
Universalists they refuse the idea of future
punishment: and going among those Of
a hell with a gusto that makes you
think they are glad of it. Drive out that
uncean chameleon from your soul Do not
be ever changing the color of your faith. My
friends, liberal Christianity, falsely so-called,
believes in nothing God is anything
you want to make Him The
Bible to be believed in so far as you
like it Heaven grand mixing up Of Neros
and Pauls. The man who dies by suicide in
his right mind in 1888, beating into glory by
ten years the Christian man who dies a
christian death in 1898; the suicide proving
himself wiser than the Christian. Oh, my
friends, let us try to believe in something.
An infidel was called to the bedside of his
daughter The daughter said: "Father,
which shall ! believe, you or motherl Mother
took the religion of Christ, and died in its
embrace You say that religion is humbug.
Now am going to die, and am very much
perplexed; shall / believe you, or take the
belief of my mother.' The father said:
"Choose yourself" She said: mo: / am too
weak to choose for myself; l want you 10
choose for me- "Well," said the father,
after much hesitation and embarrassment:
MARY, l think you had better take the
religion Of your mother" The time will come
when we shall have to believe something. We
can not afford to be on the fence in religion,
Truth and error are set opposite TO each
other. The one Is infinitely right. and the
other infinitely wrong. On the Judgment
day we must give an account OF what we
believed as well as for what we acted.
The difference between believing truth
and believing error is the difference between
paradise and perdltion. beg you, in the
light of the Bible, and on your knees be.
fore God, to form your religious opin-
ion and then stick TO IL, though business com
.panions SCOT, and wits caricature, and the
air craclsles with the fires Of martyrdom.
Surely truths in behalf OF which Christ
died, and angels Of God trooped FORTH and
the whole universe Is marshaled, are worth
living for and worth dying for Amidst the
most unclean things is this everchanging
s.l.o rtola -