Milford chronicle., 1889-07-26

stopped, cried out; lone round morer He
srept around and went down, and was
brought out a corpse My friends, there are
thousands and tens Of thousands Of men .
losing their souls in that way. 1t is the one .
round more.
have also to say that if man wants to 7
return from evil practices society REFUSES (
him Desiring to reform he says, Now, l I
will shake off my old associates and viii /
find Christian companionship," And he ap ,
mars at the church door some Sabbath day, (.
aAd the usher creets him with a look, as
much as TO say, 'Why, you heres You are
the last man ever expected to see at church, /
Come, take this seat right down by the
doorp Instead of saying, Good morning;
am glad you are here Come; / will give
YOU a first rate seat, right up by the pull
pitt Well, the prodigal not yet discour-
aged, enters the prayer meeting, and some
Christian man with more zeal than common
sense, says, "Glad to see you The dy-
ing thief was saved, and suppose
there Is mercy for your The young
man, disguised, chilled, throws himself
hack on his dignity, resolved he never will
enter the house Of God again. Perhaps not
quite fully discouraged about reformation,
he sides up by some highly respectable man
be used to know going down the street. and
Immediately the respectable man has an
errand down some other street, Well, the
prodigal, wishing to return, takes some mem
Der of Christian association by the hand,
or tries to- The Christian young man looks
at him, looks at the faded apparel and the
marks Of dissipation, and instead OF giving
him a warm grip Of the hand, offers him the
tip end of the long fingers of the left hand,
/ which is equal to striking q man in the face.
Oh, how few Christian people understand
/ how much force and gospel there is in
good. honest handshalingl Sometimes, when
1 You have felt the need of encouragement and
/ some Christian man has taken you heartily
by the hand, have you not felt that thrilling
/ through every fiber of your body, mind and
soul. an encouragement that was just what
Won needed You do not know anything at
/ all about this unless you know when man
tries to return from evil courses of conduct,
he runs against repulsions innumerable. We
saw of some man, he lives a block or two
from the church or half mile from the
church. There are people in our crowded
cities who live thousand miles from the
church. Vast deserts Of indifference between
them and the house of God. The fact is, we
must keep our respectability, though thou
sands and tens of thousands perish Christ
sat with publicans and sinners. But if there
4 comes to the house of God a man with marks
of dissipation upon him, people throw up
their hands in horror, as much as to say,
"Isnit it shockingf How these dainty,
fastidious Christians in all our churches are
going to ret into heaven / don't know, I'M
less they have an especial train of cars, cush-
toned and upholstered, each one a car to him
! self They cannot go without the great herd
of publicans and sinners. Oh ye, who curl
your lip of scorn at the fallen, l tell you
nlainlv. if YOU had been surrounded by the
same influences, instead Of sitting today amid
the cultured and the refined and the Chris
= tian. YOU would have been a crouching wretch
in stable or ditch, covered with filth and
abominationl 1t is not because you are
naturally any better, but because the mercy
= of God has protected you. Who are you,
that brought up in Christian circles, and
watched by Christian parentage, you should
be so hard on the fallena
l think men also are often hindered from
rehlrn by the fact that churches are too
anxious about their membership and too
I anxious about their denomination, and they
G rush out when they see Il man about to give
M his sin and return to God, and ask him
how he is going to be baptized, whether by
n shrinking or by immersion, and what kind
Of a church he is going to join. On, my
friendsl it Is poor time to talk about Pres
bvterian catechisms, and Episcopal iturgies
g and Methodist love feasts, and baptistertes t.
3 q man that is coming out of the darkness of
1 sin into the glorious light Of the Gospel
!, WHY. it reminds me of a man drowning in
2 the sea and a lifeboat puts out for him
4 and the man in the boat says to th'
d man out Of the boat "Now, if ] gel
u YOU ashore, are you going to live in my
b street2" First get him ashore, and then tall
i about the non-essentials of religion. WHO
e cares what church he joins, if he only join
u Christ and starts for heaveni Oh, you ough
l. to have, my brother, an illumined face, ant
e a hearty grip for every one that tries to turn
Is from his evil way Take hold of the SAINT
p book with him, though his designations shak
u the book, remembering that he that convert
u eth sinner from the error of his ways shall
t save a soul from death, and hide a multitude
q Of sins.
ID HOW THE sHACKLEs MAY BE LoosED.
3 Now, | have shown you these obstacles be
y cause wait you TO understand | know al
1 the difficulties in the way; but l am now t
e tell YOU how Hannibal may scale the Alps
D and how the shackles may be unriveted, AM
how the maths OF virtue forsaken may be re
! gained Firstof all, my brother, throw your
Is self on God. Go to him frankly aud earnestly
q him if there is any help in all the resources o
c, omnipotent love, to give it to you. Do no
u 90 with a long rigmarole people call prayer
Ie made up Of ''ohs" and "ahs" and ''foreve
a and forever amensiS Go to God and cry 70
r heIpl helpl helpl And if you cannot cry 70
p help Just look and live. l remember in tn
s. war i was at Antietam and l went int
u the hospitals after the battle, and | SAT-
X To n man. "Where are You hurts
= He made no answer, but held up his arm
> swollen and sphntered. | saw where h
IS was hurt. The simple fact is, when MAJ
j. has a wounded soul an he has to do is to hol
II il IN before a sympathetic Lord and get
d healed. It does not take any long prayer
n inst hold up the wound Oh, it is no sma
" thing when man is nervous and weak an
e exhausted, coming from his evil ways, to fee
'h that God puts two oEinipotent arms aroun
about him and says young man, ! vi
stand by you'll The mountains may depar
n and the hills be removed, but | win neve
g fail your And then, as the soul thinks tn
e5 news is too good to be true, and cannot b'
III lieve it, and looks up in Gods face, God lift
G, his right hand and takes an oath, an aiiida9i
lg saving: "As | live, saith the Lord God,
y have no pleasure in the death OF him tina
"a dieth."
Id Blessed be God for such Gospel as thh
n ''Cut the slices thin said the VIE to the hus
~ band, "or there Will not be CROUCH to so al
As around for the children; cut the slices thin.
IN Blessed be God there is a full loaf for ever
Il one that wants it; bread enough and to spare
n No thin slices at the Lords table. ! remem
~ Der when the Master Street hospital, n Philf
II delphia, was opened during the war, tel'
Al gram came saying, "There will be three hun
IL dred wounded men tonight, be rcady to tai
Id care of them;" and from my church thei
IA went in some twenty or thirty men an
N women to look after these poor wounded fe
re lows As they came, some from one part {
ne the land, some from another, no one askC
"a whether this man was from Oregon, or frol
z. Massachusetts,, or from Minnesota,