Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-12-17

wretch.''
Spectacle the third: Paul-Paul insig-
niicant 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 hea-en 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: ''I am now
ready to be offered, and the
tme of my departure is at
hand; have fought the good
fight. I have finished my course, 1 have
kept the faith: henceforth there is laid
up for me Il 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- ulls in tempest,
drenched of the 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 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 a religiOn-a religion that can
do so much for "a man while ne lives, and
so much for a man
WHEN HE COMES TO DIE?
| 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 joke equal to the joke
uttured at the other end of his table.
ZeuXis, 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 |
die, shall be with the Lord, and if 1
live, the Lord shall be with me. - Or the
last words of Washington: 1T is well. -
Or the last words of Mcintosh, the
learned and the great: "Happy - Or
the last word of Hannah More, the Chris
tain poetCss: "joy.'' Or those thou
sands of Christians who have gone,
saying: Lord Jesus, receive my
quickly.'' 80 death where is thy
n y1-ba = vi,
Behold the contrast Behold the charm
of the one, behold the darkness of the
other. Now, l know it is very popular
in this day for young men to think there
is something more charming in 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. Ny
young friends, 1 want to tell you what 1
know from observation that while sllep-
ticism is beautiful land at the start, it
is the great Sahara desert at the last.
Years ago a minister's son went off
from home to college. At college he
formed the acquaintance of young man
whom 1 shall call Ellison. Ellison was
an infidel. Ellison scoffed at religion,
and the minister 5 son soon learned from
him the iufIelity, ana when he went
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 a hotel. The hotel keeper said: 81
am sorry that tonight 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 suGering.' The
yOuGg man retired to his room, bat could
not sleep. an night long he heard the
grooming of the sick man, or the step Of
the watchers, and his soul trembled. He
thought to himself: "Now, there is only
q thin wall between me ana departing
spirit! How if Ellison should
Ellison should find out how my heart
tiutters? 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: How is ttie
sick man?' ''Oh, g" said the hotel
keeper: "He is dead poor fellow, the
doctors told us he could not last through
the night - "wen," said the young
man, ''what was the sick ones name;
where is he from?'' "Well, - 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 70 no satisfaction until he entered
the Christian life, until he entered the
Christian ministry until he became one,
of the most eminent missionaries of ,tSs
cross, the greatest Baptist missionaHxxhB
world has ever seen since S
THE DAYS OF PAUL IT i
no superior to AdOniram JudsOn. Mighty
on earth, mighty in heaven-4d1afrastSN
Judson. Which do you like k4seS besiS
Judson' suffering for ChTasfss sa&&
Judson s almost martyrdom? Oh, young
man, take -FOUR choice between these two
kinds of lives. Your own heart tells You
this morning the Christian life is more
more peaceful, more com7st
and more beautiful.
Oh, if religion does so much for a man ]
on earth, what will ii do for him in,
heaven? That is the thought that comes !