The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1889-12-26

You are In glorious companionshlp, God
will see you through all trials and He will
deliver you My subject also impresses me
with the fact that good people sometimes get
very much frightened,
In the tones of these disciples as they
rushed into the back part of the boat | find
they are frightened almost to death. They
say, ''Master, carest Thou not that we
perishYn They had no reason to be frightened,
FOR Christ was in the boat, suppose il we
had been there we would have been just as
much affrighted, Perhaps more, In all ages
very good people get very much affrighted.
II Is often so in our day, and men say
"Why look at the bad lectures; look at the
various errors going over the church of
God; we are going to founder; the church
is going to perish; she is going down."
Oh, how many good people are alright
ed by iniquity In our day, and think
the church of Jesus Christ Is going to be
overthrown, and are just as much aifrighted
as were the disciples OF my text, Don't worry,
don't fret, as though iniquity were going to
triumph over Righteousness. A lion goes
into cavern to sleep He lies down with his
shaggy name covering the paws Meanwhile
the spiders spin a web across the mouth of the
cavern and say "We have captured him."
Gossamer thread after gossamer thread, un-
with the spiders web, and the spiders say:
.'rhe lion is done; the lion is fast" After a
while the lion has got through sleep.
ing, he rouses himself, he shakes
his name, he walks out into the sunlight; he
does not even know the SPIDERS web is spun,
and with his voice he shakes the mountain.
SO men come spinning their sophistries and
skepticism about Jesus Christ; He seems to
be sleeping They say: ave have captured
the Lord; He will never come forth again
upon the nation; Christ is captured forever.
His will "a communist
among men," But after while the Lion OF
the tribe of Judah will rouse Himself and
come forth to shake nightly the nations.
What's q spiders web to the aroused honY
Give truth and error fair grapple and
truth will come off victor.
But there are great many good people
who get affrighted in other respects; they
are aifrighted in our day about reyivals.
They say: "Ohl this is a strong religious
gale we are afraid the church of God is 60
ing to be upset and there are going to be a great
many people brought into the church that
are going to be of no use to it, and they are
affrighted whenever they see revival TAX
ing hold of the churches. As though ship
Captain, with five thousand bushels of wheat
for a cargo, should say some day, coming
upon deck; "Throw overheard oil the car
gon and the sailors should say:
"Why, Captain, what do you
mean3 Throw over all the cargoT'
"Oh, F." SAYS the Captain, I'VE have peck OF
chaff that has got into this five thousand
bushels of wheat, and the only way to getrld
of the chatf is to throw all the wheat over
board" Now, that is great deal wiser than
the talk of a great many Christians who
want to throw overheard oil the thousands
and tens Of thousands of souls who are the
subjects Of revivals Throw all overheard
because they are brought into the kingdom
of God through great reyivals, because there
is peck of chaf, aquart of chaff, pint of
chaff say let them stay until the last day; the
Lord will divide the chaff from the wheat.
Do not be afraid of a great revival. Oh that
such gales from heaven might sweep through
all our churches! Oh, for such days as Rich
ard Baxter saw in England, and Robert Nj
Cheyne saw in Dundee! Oh, for such days
as Jonathan Edwards saw in Northampton
have often heard my father tell of the fact
that in the early part of this century
q revival broke out at Somerville, 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 Livingston 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
Sabbath, and looked over the solemn audi
tory, 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 upon 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 fin
ger and the thumb, and he said; "Oh, thou
impentent, thou art falling now-falling
from life falling away from peace and
heaven, falling as certainly as the cane is
falling through my hand-falling certainly,
though perhaps falling slowlyw- And the
cane kept on falling through John Liv
lngston's hand The religious emotion in
the audience, was oyerpowering, and
cane kept falling and falling, until the
knob of the cane struck Mr.. Livingston's
hand, and he clasped it stoutly and said:
But the grace of God can stop you as |
stopped that cane;" and then there was glad
ness all through the house at the fact of par
don and peace and salvation. "Well," said
the people after the service, 'Iguess you had
the revival worse" Oh, for gales from
heaven to sweep all the continents! The dan
ger 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 counte-
come. Look at Him, He is a man-bone of
our bone, flesh of our flesh. Tired, He falls
asleep; He is man. But then find Christ
at the PROV of the boat; / hear Him say:
peace be still" and see the storm kneel-
ing at His feet and the temptests folding
their wings in His presence; He is God.
Ii l have sorrow and trouble and want
sympathy, | go and kneel down at the back
part of the boat and say: ooh, Christ weary
ma f GapnnSarat ~ tbiza with all NV
SORROWS man of Nazareth, man of the cross"
A man, man. But if / want to conquer
my spiritual foes, if ] want to get the victory
over sin, death and hell, come to the front
of the boat and I kneel down, and I say:
"Oh, Lord Jesus Christ, Thou who dost hush
the tempest hush all my grief, hush all my
temptation, hush all my sinw A man,
man: a God, God.
| learn once more from this subject that
| Christ can hush tempest.
1t did seem as ii everything must go to
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. Oh, yes! Christ can hush the tempest
| You have had trouble. Perhaps it was the
| little child taken away from you-the sweet
| est child 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 heart.
| Perhaps it was an only son, and your heart
has ever since been like desolate castle, the
owls of the night hooting among the fallen
arches and the crumbling stairways. Per-
| haps it was an aged mother. You always
went to her with your troubles. She was in
| your home towelcome your children into life,
and when they died she was there to pity
you; that old hand will do you no more kind
ness, 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 her wrinkled brow in the
home circle Or in the country church. Or
your property gone, you said: II have SO
much bank stock l have SO many govern
ment securities, | have so many houses,
have so many farms-all gone all gone. u
Why, sir, all the storms that ever trampled
with their thunders, all the shipwrecks, have
not been worse than this to you. Yet you
have not been completely overthrow. Why
Christ says: 81 have that little one in Ny
keeping. l can care for him as well
as you can, better than you can,
| o bereaved mother ~ flushing the