Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-12-26

L
who are the subjects of revivals- Throw
all overheard because they are brought
into the kingdom of God through great
revivals, because there is q peck OF
chat, a quart of chat. pint Of chat!
1 say let them stay until the last day;
the Lord will divide the chaff from the
| wheat.
Do not be afraid of q great revival.
Oh, that such gales from Heaven might
sweep through all our churches! Oh,
for such days as Richard Baxter saw IN
England, and Robert McCheyne saw
in Dundee! Oh, for such days as JON
athan Edwards saw in Northampton!
have often heard my father tell OF the
fact that in the early part OF this cent
ury revival broke out at Someryille,
n. j., and some people were very much
agitated about it. They said: 'Oh, you
are going to bring too many people into
the church at once;" and they sent down
to New Brunswick to get John Living
ston to stop the revival. Well, there
was no better soul in all the world than
John Livingston. He went and looked
at the revival; they wanted him to stop
it. He stood in the pulpit on the Sab
bath, and looked over the solemn au-
ditory, and he said: ''This, brethren, is
in reality the work of God; beware how
you try to stop it?'
And he was an old man, leaning
heavily on his staff-a very old man.
And he lifted that staff and took hold Of
the small end of the staff, and began to
let it fall slowly through between the
finger and the thumb, and he said: ''Oh,
thou impenitent, thou art falling now
falling from life, falling away from
peace and Heaven, falling as certainly
as that cane is falling through my hand
failing certainly, though, perhaps,
falling slowly"
And the cane kept on falling through
John Livingston's hands. The religious
emotion in the audience was overpower-
ing, and men saw type of their doom,
as the cane kept falling and falling, I'M
til the knob of the cane struck Mr..
Livingstons' hand, and he clasped 1T
stoutly and said:
But the grace of God can stop you as
I stopped this cane" and then there was
gladness all through the house at the
fact Of pardon and peace and salvation.
"Well," said the people after the serv-
ice, 81 guess you had better send LiV-
tngston home; he is making the revival
worse"
"Oh, for gales from Heaven to sweep
all the continentsl The danger of the
Church of God is not in revivals.
Again, my subject impressed me with
the fact that Jesus was God and man
in the same being. Here He is in the
back part of the boat. Oh, how tired He
looks, what sad dreams He must have!
Look at His countenance. He must be
thinking of the cross to come. Look at
Him, He is a man-bone of our bone,
flesh of our flesh. Tired, He falls asleep;
He is a man. But then find Christ at
the PROV of the boat; hear Him say:
'Peace, be still;" and 1 see the storm
kneeling at His feet, and the tempests
} folding their wings In His presence; He
J is God.
have sorrow and trouble, and want
sympathy, go and kneel down at the
back part of the boat and say:
!, ''Oh, Christi Weary one of Gennesa-
!, ret, sympathize with all my sorrows.
man of Nazareth, man of the cross"
A man, a man. But if want to con-
: quer my spiritual foes, if l want to get
} the victory over sin, death and hell, /
come to the front of the boat, and l
} kneel down, and say: 'Oh, Lord Jesus
} Christ, Thou who dost hush the tempest,
7 hush all my grief, hush all temptation,
= hush all my SIM" a man, a man; God,
God.
learn once more from this subject
3 that Christ can hush a tempest. 1t did
? seem as if every thing must go tC
ruin. The disciples had given up the
idea of managing the ship; the crew
) were entirely demoralized; yet Christ
rises, and He puts His foot on the storm
and it crouches at His feet. o, yes
7 Christ can hush the tempest. You have
had trouble. Perhaps it was the little
child taken away from you-the sweet
t estchild of the household, the one who
/ asked the most curious questions and
stood around you with the
, greatest fondness, and the spade
cut down through your bleeding
5 heart. Perhaps it was an only son, and
: YOUR heart has ever since been like q
| desolated castle, the owls OF the night
: hooting among the fallen arches OF the
! crumbling stairways. Perhaps it was
, an aged mother. You always went to
} her with your troubles. She was in
| YOUR home to welcome your children
: into life, and when they died she was
there to pity you; that old hand will dc
| Won no more kindness; that white lock
of hair you put away in the casket or in
, the locket didn't look as it usually did
: when she brushed it away from hel
wrinkled brow in the home circle or In
the country chruch.
Or your property gone, you said: 81
J have so much bank stock, have sc
MANY Government securities, have Sc
many houses, 1 have so many farms-all
gone, all gone" Why, sir, all the
storms that ever trampled with theil
thunders, all the shipwrecks, have mol
been worse than this to you. Yet you
have not been completely overthrown
Why, Christ says: Il have that little
one in my keeping. 1 can care for him
as well as you can, better than you can
o bereaved MOTHER flushing the tenn
: pest. When your property welt away
God said: There are treasures il
) Heaven, in banks that never break
7 Jesus hushing the tempest. There
3 is one storm into which we will have
, to run. The moment when We let
5 90 of this world and try to takG
t hold of the next, we will want ali The
3 grace possible. Yonder see Christian
3 soul rocking on the surges Of death; al