Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-08-05

| UounQ US nanQ ana I00t IOr time anu lOl
eternity, when, so far from that. in every
fiber of your body, in every faculty Of your
mind, in every passion of your soul, you
are free man and it is no more a matter o.
free choice whether you will tomorrow &c
abroad or stay at home, than it is thil
moment matter of free choice whether you
will accept Christ or reject him. In all the
army of bapners there is not one conscript
Men are not to be dragooned into heaven.
Among all the tens of thousands of the
Lords soldiery there is not one man but
will tell you: 81 chose Christ; wanted
| Him; desired to be in His service; am
not a conscript-I am a volunteer" Oh
that men had the same common sense in the
matters of religion that they have In the
matters of the world-the same concentra.
tion, the same push, the same enthusiasm
In the one case a secular enthusiasm; in
the other, a consecrated enthusiasm.
Again remark: We want more common
sense in the building up and enlarging oi
our Christian character. There are men
here who have for 40 years been running the
Christian race, and they have not run q
quarter Of a milel
No business man would be willing to have
his investments unaccumulative. If you
invest dollar you expect that dollar to
come home bringing another dollar on its
back. What would you think of o man
who should invest $40, 900 in monetary in
stitution, then go off for five years, make no
inquiry in regard to the investment, then
come back, step up to the cashier and say:
'Have you kept those SO, 900 safely that
lodged with you 2" but asking no question
about interest or about dividend. Why, you
say, That is not common sense" Neither
is it, but that is the way we act in matters
of the soul. We make far more import
ant investment than $40, 900.
WE INVEST OUR SOUL.
Is it accumulative? Are we growing in
grace? Are we getting better? Are we
getting worse? God declares many divi-
dends, but we do not collect them, we do not
ask about them, we do not want them. oh,
that in this matter of accumulation we were
as wise in the matters of the soul as we are
in the matters of the worldi
How little common sense in the reading
of the Scriptures! We get any other book,
and we open it and say: Snow, what does
this book mean to teach me? 1t is book on
astronomy; it will teach me astronomy. 1t
is book on political economy; it will
teach me political economy" Taking up the
Bible, do we ask ourselves what it means to
teach? 1t means to do just one thing; get
the world converted and get us all to heaven.
That is what it proposes to do. But instead
of that, we 60 into the Bible as botanists to
pick flowers, or we 60 as pugilists to get
something to fight other Christians with. or
we go as logicIans trying to sharpen our
mental faculties for better argument, and
we do not like this about the Bible, and do not
like that, and we do not like the other thing
What would you think Of a man lost on the
mountains? Night has come down; he can
not find his way home, and he sees light
in a mountain cabin; he goes to it; he
knocks at the door; the mountaineer comes
out, and he sees the traveller and says:
"Well, here 1 have lantern; you can take
it, and it will guide you on the way home;"
and suppose that man should say: 81 don't
like that lantern; don't like the handle of
it; there are 10 or 15 things about it I don't
like; if you can't give me q better lantern
than that 1 won't have any,"
Now, God says this Bible is to be lamp
to our feet and a lantern to our path, to
guide us through the midnight of this world
to the gates of the celestial city. We take
hold of it in sharp criticism, and deprecate
this, and deprecate that Oh, how much
wiser we would be if by its holy light we
found our way to our everlasting homel
HOW TO READ THE BIBLE.
Then we do not read the Bible as we read
other books. We read it perhaps four or
five minutes just before we retire at night.
We are weary and sleepy, SO somnolent we
hardly know which end of the book is up.
We drop our eye perhaps on the story of
Samson and the ioxes, or upon some genealo-
gical table, important in its place, but STIR
ring no more religious emotion than the an
nouncement that somebody begat somebody
else and he begat somebody else, instead of
opening the book and saying: "Now 1
must read for my immortal life. Ny eternal
destiny is involved in this book"
How little we use common sense in prayerl
We say. "Oh, Lord, give me this, " and
"Oh, Lord, give me that, and "Oh, Lord,
give me something else," and we do not ex-
pect to get it, or getting it, we do not know
we have it. We have no anxiety about it.
We do not watch and wait for its coming.
As a merchant, you telegraph or you
write to some other city for bill of goods.
You say: Send me by such express, or by
such steamer, or by such rail train /"
The day arrives. You send your wagon to
the depot or to the wharf The goods do
not come. You Immediately telegraph:
''What is the matter with those goods? We
haven't received them. Send them right
away. We want them now, or we don't
want them at ALL" And you keep writing
and you keep telegraphing, and you keep
sending your wagon to the depot, or to the
express Office, or to the wharf. until you get
the goods.
In matters of religion we are not so wise
as that. We ask certain things to be sent
from heaven. We do not know whether
they come or not. We have not any special
anxiety as to whether they come or not. We
may get them and may not get them In
stead of at Z o'clock in the morning saying:
"Have got that blessing?" at II o'clock
ooEt II hat
ing?" at o'clock in the evening saying:
"Have received that blessing?" and not
getting it, pleading-pleading-begging,
begglng-asking, asking, until you get,
Now, my brethren, is not that common
sense? II we ask thing from God, who
has sworn by his eternal throne that he will
do that which we ask. is it not common
sense that we should watch and wait until
we get II?
MORE COMMON SENSE WANTED.
But remark again: We want more COM
mon sense in doing good. How many peo-
pie there are who want to do good and
yet are dead failuresl Why is it? They do
not exercise the same tact, the same inge-
nuity, the same strategem, the same COM
mon sense in the work of Christ that they
do in worldly things. Otherwise they
would succeed in this direction as well as
they succeed in the other. There are many
men who have an arrogant way with them,
although they may not feel arrogant. Or
they have patronizing way. They talk to
a man of the world in a manner which seems
to say: "Don't you wish you were as good
as am? Why, have to look clear down
before can see you, you are so far beneath
me-" That manner always disgusts, always
drives men away from the kingdom of Jesus
Christ instead of bringing them in. When
1 was a lad was'one day in villageg store
and there was large group of young men
there full Of rolicking and fun, and a