Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1889-08-14

man expects to accomplish anything fol
this world without concentration and en-
thusiasm, how many there are expecting af
ter awhile to get into the kingdom of God
without the use of any such means. A mil
Ter in California, many years ago, held a
sparkle of gold until it bewitched nations
Tens of thousands of people left their homes.
They took their blankets and their pickaxes
and their pistols and went to the wilds OF
California. Cities sprang up suddenly OF
the Pacific coast. Merchants put aside
their elegant apparel and put on the miners
gaIb. All the land was full of the talk
about gold. Gold in the eyes, gold in the
ears, gold in the wake of ships, gold in the
strcets-gold, gold, gold. Word comes to
us that the mountain of Gods love is full
of bright treasure; that men have been dig
ging there, and have brought up gold, and
amethyst and carbuncle, and jasper, and
sardonyx, and chrysoprasus, and all the
precious stones out of which the walls of
heaven were builded. Word comes of a
man who, digging in that mine for one
hour, has brought up treasures worth more
than all the stars that keep vigil over our
sick and dying world. Is it bogus COM
pany that is formed? Is it undeveloped
territory? Oh no, the story is true. There
are thousands of people in this audience
who would be willing to rise and testify
that they have discovered that gold, and
have it in their possession. Notwithstand-
ing all this, what is the circumstance? One
would suppose that the announcement
would send people in great excitement up
and down our streets; that at midnight men
would knock at yonr door, asking how
they may get those treasures. Instead of
that, many of us put our hands behind our
back and walk up aud down in front of the
mine of eternal riches and say: "Well, if
l am to be saved, l will be saved; and if
am to be damned will be damned, and
there is nothing to do about it." Why, my
brother, do you not do that way in business
matters? Why do you not tomorrow go to
your store and sit down and fold your arms
and say: '1f these goods are to be sold they
will be sold; and if they are not to be sold,
they will not be sold; there is nothing for
me to do about it, No, you dispatch your
agents, you print your advertisements, you
adorn your show windows, you push those
goods, you use the instrumentality. Oh
that men were as wise in the matter of the
soul as they are wise in the matter of dol
lars and cents! This doctrine of God s
sovereignty, how it is misquoted and spoken
of as though it were an iron chain which
bound us hand and foot for time and for
eternity, when, so far from that, in every
fiber of yonr body, in every faculty of your
mind, in every passion of your soul, you are
a free man and it is no more a matter of
free choice whether you will to morrow go
abroad or stay at home, than it is this mo-
ment matter of free choice whether you
will accept Christ or reject him. In all the
army of 5anuers there is not one conscript.
Men are not to be dragooned into heaven.
Among all the tens of thousands of
oil iS
but will tell you: ~ chose Christ; l want
ed him; desire to be in his service; / am
not a conscript-I am a volunteer" Oh,
that men had the same common seuse in
the matters Of religion that they have in the
matters of the world-the same coucentra-
ton, the same push. the same enthusiasm!
In the one case secular enthusiasm; in the
other, concentrated enthusiasm.
Again, | remark: We want more common
sense in the building up and enlarging of
our Christian character. There are men
here who have for forty years been running
the Christian race, and they have pot run
quarter of a mile!
No business man would be willing to have
his Investments unaccumulative. 1t you
invest dollar you expect that dollar to
come home bringing another dollar on its
back. What would you think of man
who should invest ten thousand dollars in a
monetary institution, then 60 off for five
years, make no inquiry in regard to the in
vestment, then come back, step up to the
cashier of the institution and say: "Have
you kept those ten thousand dollars safely
that lodged with you?" but asking no
question about interest or about dividend.
Why, you say, "That is not common
: sense. " Neither is 1t, but that is the way
we act in matters of the soul. We make a
far more important investment than ten
thousand dollars. We invest our SOUL Is
it accumulative? Are we growing in grace?
Are we getting better? Are we getting
worse? God declares many dividends, but
we do not collect them, we do not ask about
them, we do not want them. On, that in
this matter of accumulation we were as wise
in the matters of the soul as We are in the
matters of the world!
How little common sense in tho reading
of the Scripturesl We get any other book
and we open it and we say, "Now, what
does this book mean to teach me? 1t is a
book on astronomy; it will teach me astron-
omy. 1t s a book on political economy; it
will teach me political economy" Taking
up the Bible, do we ask ourselves what it
means TO teachs 1t means to do just one
thing; get the world converted and get US
all to heaven. That is what it proposes to
CO. Bnt instead of that, we go 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 try
ing to sharpen our mental faculties for a
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 man lost on the noun
tainsp Night has come down; he cannot
find his way home and he sees light in a
mountain cabin; he goes to it, he knocks at
the door; the mountaineer comes out aud
finds the traveller and says: "Well, here l
have a lantern; you can take it and it will
guide you ou tt e 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 don't
like; if you can't give me a better lantern
than that l won't have any,"
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 .deprecate
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. We read it perhaps four OF
five minutes just before we retire at night.
We are weary and sleepy, so somnolent we
hardly know which end of the book is up,
We drop our eye perhaps on the story OF
, Samson and the foxes, or upon some gene.
illogical table, important in its place, but
stirring no more religious emotion than the
announcement that somebody begat some
body else and he begat somebody else, in
, stead of opening the book and saying
"Now l must read for my immortal life
My eternal destiny is involved in this
book"
How little we use common sense in pray
4 or! We say: "Oh, Lord, give me this" ant
. "Oh, Lord, give me that" and "Oh, Lord
I give me something else,'' and we do not ex
? pect to get it, or, getting it, we do not know
Z we have it. We have NO anxiety about
) it. We do not watch and wait for its com
ing