The Red Cloud chief., 1889-08-09

vertisemsn,S. you adorn your o win.
dowA you push those goods. you use the
fundamentally. o that mn were ~
wise in the matter Of the soul as they are
wise In the matter Of dollars and centsl
This doctrine Of Gods sovereignty. how
It is misquoted and spoken Of a. though it
were an iron chain which bound us HAND
and foot for time and for eternity. when,
90 far from that in every aber Of your
tody. in every faculty of your mind, In
every passion Of your soul, You are . free
man and it is NO more . matter OF FREQ
| choice whether you will tomorrow 60
| abroad or stay at home, han it is this
| moment . matter Of free choice whether
you will accept Christ or reject Him. In
| all the army Of banners there 10 moi one
conscript Men are to be d~raSooned into
Heaven. Among all the tens Of thousands
| Of the Lords soldiery there 10 not one man
but will tell you: II chose Christ; l
wanted Him: I desired to be in His ser
vice; / am not q con~script-l I'm . volun-
teer." o. that men had the same common
sense in the matters Of religion that they
have in the matters of the ~wOrld-the
same concentration, the same push. the
same enthusiasm! In tho one case . Sec
| ular enihusiasm; in the other, . conse.
craicl enthusia IN.
Again Iremark: We want more common
sense In the building ND and charging Of
our Christian character. There are men
here who hav for forty years been rum
ming the Christian race and they have not
run q quarter OF a mile.
No business man would b willing to
have his investments unaccumulative II
you invest . dollar you expe CT that dollar
to come home bringing another dollar on
its back. What would you think of aman
who should invest SO. 900 in . monetary
institution, then 60 of five years. make
no inquiry in regard to tho investment.
then come back, step ~ to tho cashier Of
the institution snd say: "Have you kept
those $4,000 safely that l lodged with
you," but asking no question about inter-
est or about dividend. Why. you say,
THAT Is NOT CON non sense" Neither Is
It but that is the wav we act in matters
Of the soul. We make Q far m re i'm.
portant investm mt than $40. OO. We in.
vest u soul It Is a~ccumulaiive? Are
We growing in grace: Are We getting bet.
ter? Are We getting worse? God declares
many dividends but We do no. collect
them. We 10 not ask about them, We do
not want them. o. that in this matter of
accumulation we were a. wise in the mat
ters Of the soul a. we are in the matters
Of the world!
How little common sense in the reading
Of the Scripturesf We get any other book
and We open it and We >ay: Now, what
does this book mean to teach me? 1t Is q
book on astronomy: il will teach me a..
tronomy. 1t is a book on political ecouo-
my; 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 90
into the Bible as botanists to pick flowers
or We 60 as pugilists to get something to
fight other Christians with. or We 20 rs
! gicians trying to sharpen our m .ntal
faculties for . better argument AMI we do
not like this about the Bible and We d. not
like that, and we do not like the other
thing. What would you think Of q man
lost on the mountain? Night has com.
down; he can not find his way home and
be sees . light in . mountain cabin; he
goes to II, he knocks at the door; the
mountaineer comes out and finds the trav.
eler and says: ''W oil. here l have Q Ian
tern; you can take 1t and it will guide you
on your way home" And suppose that
nan should say: II don't like that Ian.
tern; l don't like the handle Of it; there
are ten or fifteen things about it I don't
like; II you can't give me . better lantern
than that I WONT have any,"
Nov, God says this Bible Is to be q lamp
to our feet and . lantern to our path, to
guide Us through the midnight Of this
world to the gates Of the celestial ci y.
We take hold Of it in sharp criticism, and
deprecate this. and deprecate that O,
how much wiser We would b il BY its
holy light we found our way to our ever.
lasting home!
Then we do not read the Bible a. We
read other books. We read it perhaps
four or i've minutes just b fore We retire
at night. We are weary and sleepy, so
somnolent va hardly know VIII Oh end of
the book is up. We drop our eye perhaps
on the story of Samson md the foxes or
upon some genealogical table. important
in its place. but stirring no more religious |
emotion than - announcement that
somebody begat somebody else and he be-
gat somebody else, instead Of opening the !
book and aging: Now I mus read for
immortal life. Nv eternal destiny 10 |
involved in this book"
How little We use common sense In
prayerl We say: 20. Lord. give mo
this" and %. Lord, give me that" and
%. Lord, give me something else" and
We do n expect to get it We do not
know We have it. We have no anxiety
about it We do % watch and wait for
it, coming.
Al . merchant you telegraph or you
write to some other city for . bill Of
goods You say: Send me BY such OF.
press. or by such . steamer, or bv such .
rail train" Tho day srrivea You send
your wagon to the depot or to the wharf.
The goods do not come. You im~mediately
'What is the matter with the
goodsf We haven't received them. Send
them right away. We wan them now. or
don't van them at all" And you
keep writing. and you keep teleeraphine,
and you keep sending your wagon to the
depot or to the express Office, or to the
wharf, until you get the goodA
In matters Of religion We are not 90
wise ~ that We ask certain things to b
sent from Heaven. We do not know
whether they c. me or not We have not
any especial anxiety ~ to whether they
or not. We may get them and may
get them. Instead Of at seven O'CLOCK
In thu mOrnin1 aavinr: ssHavo I ont that l