News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-04-12


l think men also are often hindered from
return by the fact that churches are too anX-
ious about their membership and too anxious
ABOUT their denomination, and they rush out
when they see man about to give up his SIN
and return to God and ask him how he Is
going to be baptized whether by sprinkhng
or immersion, and what kind of a church he
is going to join. Oh. my friends, 1t Is a poor
time to talk about Presbyterian catechlsms,
aud Episcopal Iiturgies, and Methodist love
feaSts and baptiStrieS to a man that Is COM
ing out of the darkness of sin INTO the glorl-
GUS light of the gospel. Why, 1t reminds me
of m IN drowning in the sea, and life boat
puts out for him, and the man in the boat
says to the man out of the boat: Now, If
get you ashore, are you going to live on my
streetP' First get him ashore, and then talk
| about the nOn-eSSantia's of religion. VINO
cares what church he joins, if he only joins
| Christ and starts for heavenF Oh! you ought
| to have, my brother, an ilumined face and
| hearty grip for every one that tries to turn
from his evil way. Take hold of the same
book with him though his designations shake
| the book, remembering that ''he that con-
verteth sinner from the error of his ways
| shall save soul from death and hide null
| titude of sins"
| Now, have shown you these obstacles be-
cause want you 20 understand 1 know all
| the difficulties i'll the way; but l am now to
| tell you how Hannibal may scale the Alps,
and how the shackleS may be unriveted, and
| how the paths of virtue forSakeh may be re-
| gained. First of all, MY brother, throw
| Yourself or God Go to Him frankly and
earnestly, and tell Him these habits you have,
and ask Him, if there is any help in all the
resources of omnipotsut love, to give 1t to
you Do not go with long rigmarole people
call prayer made up of ''ohs and "ahs, and
forever and ever, amansl' Go to God and cry
| for help help! help! and if you cannot cry
| for help, just look and live l remember III
| the late war, was at Antietam, and | went
into the hospitals after the battle and said to
man: "Where are you hurtsh He made no
answer but held up his arm, swollen and
| splintered. / saw where he was hurt The
| simple fact is, when a man has wounded
| soul, all he has to do is to hold it up before
| sympathetic Lord and get it healed. 1t does
not take any long prayer. ) ust hold up the
| wound. Oh, it is no small thing when man
| is nervous and weak and exhausted, coming
| from his evil ways, to feel that God puts two
omnipotent arms around him, and says:
! young man will stand by you. The mount
| aims may depart, and the hills be removed, bus
| | will never fail you" And then as the soul
| thinks the news is too good to be true, and
cannot believe it, and looks up in Gods face,
| God lifts his right hand and takes an oath,
an affidavit, saying: "As l live, saith the
| Lord God, have no pleasure in the death of
him that diethn Blessed be God for such
gospel as this Cut the slices thin said the
wife to the husband, cor there will not be
enough to go all around for the children; cut
the slices thin Blessed be God there is a
enough AMI to spare. No thin slices at the
Lords table. l remember when the Master
Street Hospital, in Philadelphia, was opened
during the war, q telegram came, saying:
| There will be 300 wounded men to-night be
ready to take care of them;" and from my
church there went in some twenty or thirty
men and women to look after these poor
wounded fellows As they came, some from
one part of the land some from another, no
one asked whether this IN was from Ore
gon, or from Massachusetts, or from Mime
sofa, or from New York. There was a
wounded soldier, and the only question was
how to taSe off the rags the most gently, and
put on the bandage, and administer the
cordial And when a soul comes to God, He |
hoes not ask where you came from or what |
your ancestry was. Healing for all your
wounds. Pardon for all your guilt. Com
fort for all your troubles.
Then, also, | counsel you, il you want to |
get back, to quit all your bad associations. |
One unholY intimacy will fill your soul with |
moral distempar. In all the ages of the |
church there has not been an instance where
a man kept one evil associate and was re-
formsd Go home to day, open your desk,
take out letter paper, stamp and envelope,
and then write letter something like this:
'My Old Companions-Is start this day for
heaven; Until am persuaded you will join
me in this farewell
Then sign your name and send the letter
Oy the first post. Give up your bad COM
panionS or give up heaven. 1t is not ten bad
companions that DESTROY a man, nor five bad
companions, nor three bal comDanions, nor
two bad companions, but one What chance
is there for that young man saw along the
street, four or five young men with him,
hating in front OF grogshop, urging him to
go in, he resisting, violently resisting, until
after while they force him to go in3 1t was
a summer night and the door was left open,
and they put the cup to his lips and they
forced down the strong drink. What chance
is there for such young man!
counsel YOU, also, seek Christian advice. |
Every Christian man is bound to help you
If you find no other human ear willing TO
listen to Your story of struggle, come to me,
and will by every sympathy of my heart,
and every prayer, and every toll OF my hand
stand beside you in the struggle for reforma-
ton; and as l hope to have my own sins for
given, and hope to be acquitted at the Judg-
ment seat of Christ, will not betray you.
First of all, seek God; then seek Christian
council. Gather up all the energies of body,
mind and soul, and, appealing to God for
success, declare this day everlasting war
against all drinking habits, all gaming prac
tices. all houses of sin. Half and half work
will amount to nothing; it must be w ater-
loo Shrink back now and you are lost. Push
on and you are saved. A Spartan general
fell at the very moment of victory, but he
dipped his finger in his own blood, and wrote
on rock near which he wasodying: Sparta
has conquered" Though your struggle to
get rid of sin may seem to be almost death
struggle, you can dip your finger in your
own blood. and write on the Rock of Ages:
Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. " Oh!
what glorious news it would for some of
these young men to send home to their
parents in the country. They go to the post
Office every day or two to see If there are any
letters from you. How anxious they are to
hear Nothing would please them half so
much as the news you might send home to-
morrow that you had given your heart to
God know how it is in the country. The
night comes on. The cattle stand under the
rack through which bursts the trusses of
hay. The horses Just having frisked up
through the meadow at the night fall, stand
knee deep in the bright straw that invites
them to lie down and rest The perch of the
hovel is full of fowl, their feet warm under
the feathers. In the old farm house at night
no candle is lighted, for the flames clap their
hands about the great backlog, and shake
the shadow of the group up and down the
wall. Father and mother sit there for half
an hour, saying nothing. l wonder what
they are thinking of. After a while the
father breaks the silence and says: "Well, l
wonder where our boy is in town to-night:"
and the mother answers: ''ln no bad place, !
warrant you; we always could trust him
when he was home, and since he has been
away there have been so many prayers
offered for him we can trust him stinn
Then at o'ciock-for they retire early in the
country-at o'clock they kneel down and
commend you to that God who watches in
country and IN town, on the land and on the
sea.
Some one said to a Grecian general:
''What was the proudest moment of your
life!n He thought a moment and said: ''The
proudest moment of my life was when sent
word home to my parents that had gained
the victory" And the proudest and most
brilliant moment in your life will be the mo-
ment when you can send word to your par
ents in the country that you have conquered
your evil habits, by the grace of God, and
become eternal victor OH despise not
parental anxiety. The time will come when
you will have neither father nor mother, and
you will go round the pace where they used
to watch and find them gone from the house.
and gone from the field, and gone from the
Cry as loud for forgiveness
as you may over the mound in the church
yard, they will not answer. Deadi Dead!
And then you will take out the white lock of
hair that was cut from your mothers brow
just before they buried her and you will take
the cane with which your father used to walk,
and you will think and think, and wish that
you had done just as they wanted you to, and
would give the world if you had never thrust
pang through their dear old hearts. God
pity the young man who has brought dis
grace on his fathers name. God pity the
young man who has broken his mothers
heart. Better if he had never been born
better il, in the first hour of his life, instead
of being laid against the warm bosom of ma.
ternal tenderness, he had been coffined and
sepulchred- There is no balm powerful