Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-08-05
sense that we should watch and wait un-

many people there are who want to d
good, and yet are dead failures! Why i
it? They do not exercise the same tact
the same ingenuity. the same strategem
the same common sense in the work o
Christ tff9t they do in worldly things
Otherwise2they would succeed i'll thb
directions ps.syell as they succeed
q otherss ThesS are many men who$hast
an affbeanf way with theth, alfhnhsl
they may pot feel arrogant q ssneJ
have patrorixtns way. They taisP to a
man OF the world in q ma1iltes sYhi0E
seems to say, {" Don t yoil Bgisi sou We.
as good as am? Wslly.
have to look clear down be-
fore I can see you, YOU are so far
beneath me. - That manner aIHhSs
disgusts, always drives men away rom
the kingdom of Jesus Christ instead OF
bringing them in When l was IadsI
was one day in village store, and thera
was large group of young men there
| fuI OF rollicking and fun, and d Chris
tan man came in, and without any in
PRODUCTION Of the subject, and while they
were in great hilarity, said to one OF
them: George, what is the first step of
| wisdom?p George looked up and said {:
Every man to mind his own business! .
Well, it was a very rough answer, but it
was provoked. Religion had been
hurled in there as though it were a bomb
she'll. We must be adroIt in the presen-
tation OF religion to the world.
BE NATURAL
! Do you suppose that Mary in her con-
! versation with Christ lost her simplicity?
or that Paul laundering from Mars hill
took the pulpit tone? Why is it that
! people can not talk as naturally in PRAYER
J m
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 Jesus Christ, who
plucked a poem from the grass of the
field. We all want to initiate Him who
talked with farmers about the man who
went forth to SOW, and talked with the
fishermen about the drawn net that
brought in fish OF all sorts, and talked
with the vine dresser about the idler in the
vineyard, and talked with those newly
afiiauced about the marriage supper, and
talked with the man cramped in money
matters about the two debtors and talked
with the woman about the Yeast that
leavened the " hole lump and talked with
the shepherd about the lost sheep. Oh.
we might gather even the stars of the sky,
and twist them like forget in the
garland Of Jesus. We must bring every
thing to Him-uhe wealth of language,
the tenderness 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 storm s
bombardment. Yes, every star must
point down to Him, every heliotrope must
breath His praise, every drop in the sum-
mer shower must fash 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, I think, will de-
pend upon three great facts The first
fact that sin has ruined us. 1t has
blasted body, mind and soul We want
no Bible TO prove that we are sinners.
Any man who is not willing to acknowl-
edge himself an imperfect and a sinful |
being is simply q fool and not to be ar
gGed 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 redeefA That is second fact.
The third fact is that the. only time
we are sure Christ wia pardon us is the
present. Now, what Is the common
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 morrow (Monday)
morning, between IL and p, o'clock,
you could by a certain financial TRANSACT
ton make five thousand dollars, but
that on Tuesday, perhaps, you might
make 1t, but there would not be any posi-
1veness about it, and on Wednesday
here would not be so much, and Thurs
lay less, Friday less, and so
IN less and Iess-when would YOU
attend to the matter? Why your com
non sense would dictate: Immediately
viii attend to that matter, between 1
md y o'clock tomorrow (Monday)
morning, for then l Cun surely accom-
dish it, but on Tuesday I may not, and
N Wednesday there is less prospect. l
viii attend TO it tomorrow. - Now, let
Is bring our common sense in this matter |
# religion. Here are the hopes of the
gospel. We may get them now. To-
morrow we may get them and we nav
lot. Next day we may ana we may not
he prospect less and less and less and
ess.
NOW IS THE ACCEPTED TIME.
Inc OILY sure Time QOW-nOW. / |
7ould not talk to you in this way if I did l
OF know that Christ was able to save all
he people, and save thousands as easily
5 save one. | would not 90 into a hos
ital and tear off the bandages from the
'ouuds if | had no balm to apply. | !
'Ould not have the face to tell man he '
sinner unless / had at the same time '
ne authority of saying he may be saved. /
oppose in Venice there is a Raphael, l
AIDED picture, great in its time, bearing .
)me marks of its greatness. History q
escribes the picture. It Is nearly faded l
way. You say: ooh, what a pity :,
lat so wonderful a picture by Raphael
lould be nearly defaced. - After f
while man comes up, very unskillful
art, and he proposes to retouch it.
on say: "Stand off! I would rather
ave it just as it is: you viii make it
Orse. After while there comes an h
fist who was the equal of Raphael. He s.
US: - will retouch that picture and s.
ing out all its original power - You
ave full confidence in his ability. He
uches it here and there. Feature after
allure comes forth, and when he is done
it'll the picture it is complete in all its CT
iginal power. Now God impressed his :,
lage on our race, but that image has hi
zen detaced for hundreds and thous- pl
Ids of years, getting fainter a
Id fainter. Here comes up 81
1iVinn Ponhna1 IL