Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1889-08-23

we open il and we say: snow, what does this
. book mean 20 teach meY IL is q book on as
tronomy; it viii teach me astronomy. lt is
a book ON political economy; it Will
teach me political economy Taking
up the Bible, do we ask ourselves what
il means TO teach2 It 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 go 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 we 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 cannot find his
way home aud he sees light in mountain
cabin; he goes to it, he knocks at the door;
the mountaineer comes out and finds the
traveller and says: "WeIl, here have Ian
tern; you can take it and it will guido 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 ten or fifteen
things about it l don't like; if you can't give
mo better lantern than that l won't have
anyn
Now God says this Bible is to be a lamp to
our feet and 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 depreeaGe this, and
deprecate that Oh, how much wiser we
would be if by its holy light we found our
way TO our everlasting home
Then we do not read the Bible as We read
other books. Weread it perhaps four or five
minutes just before we retire at night. We
are weary and sleepy, so somnoient we hardly
know which end of the book is up. We drop
our eye, perhaps on the story Of Sampson
and the foxes or upon some genealogical table,
important in its place, but stirring no more
religious emotion than the announcement
that somebody begGt somebody else,
and he bogat somebody else, instead
of opening the book and saying: "Now
must read for my immortal life. My eternal
destiny is involved in this book"
How little we uso common sense in
prayer! we say; ''Oh, Lcrd, give me
this" and ''Oh Lord, give ice that" and
''Oh, Lord, give me something else" and we
do not expect to get it, or getting it,
We do not know we have it, Wo. have
no anxiety about it. We do not watch
and wait for it's coming.
AS merchant, you telegraph or you write
to some other city for a bill of goods. You
say: "Sond me by such express, or by such q
steamer, Or by such rail train" The day ar
rives. You send your wagon to the depot or
to the wharf. The goods do not como. You
Immediately telegraph; "What is the matter
with those goods? We haven't received th3m.
Send thom right away. Wewant thom now,
or we don't want them at all." And you keep
writing aud 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 como or not We have not any special
anxiety as to whether they come or not.
Wo may get them and may not get them.
Instead Of at o'clock in tho morning
saying: Have got that blessing I"
got that blossing?' at o'clock in
the evening saying: "Haye 1 received that
blessing| and not getting it, pleading
pleading-beggfng, begging-asking, asking
until you get. Now, my brethren, is not
that common sense? II we ask q thing from
God, who has sworn by His eternal throne
that He viii do that which we ask, is it not
common sense that we should watch and
wait until we get it?
But remark again: We want more COM
mon sense III doing good. How many people
there are who want to do good and yet are
dead failures! Why is it? They do not ex-
ercise the same TACT the same ingenuity, the
same StTatagenl, the same common 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 mon
who have an arrogant way with
them, although they may not feel arrogant.
Or they have q patronizing way. They talk
to man of the world in n manner which
seems to say: Don't you wish you were as
good as [ am! Why, l have to look clear
down before | can see you, you are so far
beneath me-" That manner always dis
gusts always drives men away from the
kingdom of Jesus Christ instead Of
bringing them in. When I YVES a
lad was one day in a village store, and
there was large group Of young men there
full of roliicking and fun, and Christian
man came in, and without any introduction
of the subject, and while there were in great
hilarity, said TO one of them: George, what
is the first step of wisdom?" George looked
up and said: "Every man to mind his own
business" We'll, it was a very rough answer,
but it was provoked. Religion had been
hurled in there as though it were bomb
shell. We must be adroit in the pTeSenta-
ton OF religion to the world.
Do you suppose that Mary in her CONVEX
sation with Christ lost her simplicity? or
that Paul, laundering from Mars Hill, took
tho pulpit tone? Why is it people cannot
talk as naturally in prayer meeting and on
religious subjects as they do in worldly
circles? For no one ever succeeds in any
kind of Christian work unless he works
naturally. We want TO initiate the Lord
grass of the field. We all want to
initiate Him who talked with
farmers about tho man who went
forth to SOW, and talked with the fisher
men about the drawn net that brought in
fish of all sorts, and talked with the vine
dresser about the idler in tho vineyard, and
talked with those newly aflianced about the
marriage supper and talked with the man
crampod in money matters about the two
debtors, and talked with the woman about
the yeast that leavened the whole lump, and
talked with the shepherd about th6lost sheep.
Oh, We might gather even the stars of the
sky and twist them like forget-me-nots in the
garland of Jesus. We must bring everything
to Him-the wealth of language the tender
ness of sentiment, the delicacy of morning
dew, the saffron Of floating cloud, the tangled
surf of the tossing sea, the bursting thunder
guns of the storms bombardment Yes,
every star must point down to Him, every
heliotrope must breathe His praise, every
drop in the summer shower must flash His
glory, all the tree branches of the forest
must thrum their music in the grand march
which shall celebrate a world redeemed
Now, all this being SO, what is the common
sense thing for you and for me to do? What
we do l think will depend npon three great
facts. The first fact that sin has ruined us.
1t has blasted body, mind and soul.
We want no Bible to provo that we are
sinners. Any man who is not willing
to acknowledge himself an Imperfect
and a sinful being is simply fool and not to
be argued with. We all feel that sin has dis
organized our entire nature. That is one
fact Another fact is that Christ came to
reconstruct. to restore. to revise, to correct.
to redeem That is a second fact. The
third fact is that the only time we are sure
Christ will pardon us is the pres
ent. Now, what is the common sense thing
for us to do in view of these three facts?
You will all agree with me to quit sin, take
Christ and take Him now. Suppose some
business man in whose skill you had perfect
confidence should tell YOU that tomorrow