Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-08-05

be saved l will be saved; and ff [ am {
be damned, 1 will be damned, and Their
is nothing to do about it, - Why, m
brother, do you not do that way in bust
ness matters? Why do you not to-mor
row go TO your store and sit down and foIt
your arms and say: eff these goods ar
to be sold, they will be sold; and if the,
are not to be sold, they will not be sold
there is nothing tor me to do about il.
No, you dispatch your agents, you prin
your advertisements you adorn YOU
show windows, you push those goods, yoI
use the fundamentally. Oh that mel
were as wise in the matter of the sou! as
they are wise in the matter of dollars an6
cents! This doctrine of God IS sover-
eighty, how it is misquoted and spoken oil
as though it were an iron chain which
| bound us hand and foot for time and
eternity, when, so far from that, in every
! fiber of your body, in every faculty of
| your mind, in every passion of your soul
you are a free man, and 1t is no more a
matter of free choice whether you will to-
morrow go abroad or stay at home, than
| IL Is at this moment matter of free choice
whether you viii accept Christ or reject
! Him. IN all the- army OF ban
! ner bearers there is not one
! conscrlpt Men are not TO be
! dragooned into heaven. Among all the
tens Of thousands Of the Lord 5 soldiery
! there is not one man but viii tell you:
81 chose Christ; [ wanted Him: | de-
sired to be in His service; l am not a
conscript-I am a volunteer - Oh that
men had the same common sense i'll mat
tiers Of religion that they have IN the
matters Of the world-the same concen-
tTation, the same push, the same en-
thusiasm. In the one case, a secular
enthusiasm; i'll the other, consecrated
enthusiasm.
THEY MAKE HASTE SLOWLY.
Again 1 remark: We want more COM
mon sense III the building up and enlarg-
ing of our Christian character. There
are men here who have for forty years
been running the Christian race, and
they have not run quarter of mile.
No business man would be willing to
have his investments unaccumulative
If you invest a dollar you expect that
dollar to come home bringing anOt Their
dollar on its back. What would You
think of a man who should invest ten
thousand dollars in a monetary instItu-
ton, then go Off for five years, make no
inquiry in regard to the investment, then
come back, step up to the cashier OF the
institution and say: ''Have you kept
those ten thousand dollars safely that 1
lodged with vou?'' but asking no question
about the interest or about dividend.
Why, you say, THAT is not common
sense Neither is it, but that is the
way we act in matters of the soul. We
make far more important investmen
than ten thousand dollars We invest
our soul. Is it accumulative? Are we
growing i'll grace? Are we getting better?
are we getting worse? God declares
many dividends, but we do not collect
them, we dc not ask about them, we do
not want them. Oh that III the matter Of
accumulation we were as wise in the mat
ters OF the soul as we are in the matters
of the world!
COMMON SENSE IN SCRIPTURE READING.
How little common sense in the reading
of the Scriptures! We get any other
book and we open It, and we say: 90 Now
what does this book mean to teach meEJ
1t is book on astronomy; it will teach !
me astronomy. It is Il book OH political !
economy; 1t will teach me political econ |
Omy.' Taking up the Bible, do we ask |
ourselves what it means to teach? It |
means to do Just one thing: get the world !
and get us all to heaven. That !
Is what it proposes to do. But instead of |
that, we go into the Bible as botanists to
pick flowers, or we go as pugilsts to get
something to fight other Christians with |
Or we 20 IS lOgicans trying TO sharpen
our mental faculties for 4 better argu-
meut, and we do not like this about the
Bible, and we do not like that, and we
10 not like the other thing. What would
you think Of man lost on the mountains?
Night has come down; he cannot find
lis way home, and he sees light in a
mountain cabin; he goes to If, he knocks
It the door; the mOuntaineer comes out
md finds the traveller and says: ''Weu,
lere l have a lantern; you can take it
md it viii guide you on the way home;''
ma suppose that man should say: 81
lon Z like that lantern; 7 don It like the
handle of it; there are ten or fifteen
hiugs about it I don t like; If you can t
rive me a better lantern than that l
vou t have any. -
Now, God SAYS this Bible is to be a
amp to our feet and lantern to our
'ath, TO guide us through the midnight
f this world to the gates of the celestial
ity. We take hold of it in sharp criti-
ism, and depreciate this and deDreciate
hat. Oh, how much wiser we would be
T, 10y its holy light. we found our way to |
uT everlasting home!
Then we do not read the Bible as we
cad other books. We read it perhaps
our or five minutes just before we retire
t night. We are weary and sleepy, so
we hardly know which end of
be book is up. We drop our eyes per-
APPS on the story of Samson and the
)Xes, or upon some genealogical table,
Important in its place, but stirring no !
lore religious emotion than the an !
ouncement that somebody begat some |
o6y else, instead of opening the book +,
nd saying: "NOw ! must read for my
IMMORTAL life. My eternal destiny is in
olyed IL this book. -
We SHOULD PRAY sENsIBLY. +
How little we use common . sense in 5
rayer! We say: ''Oh, Lord, give me n
lis, - and ''Oh, Lord, give me that, - il
nd "Oh, Lord, give me something y
Sc, - and we Go not expect to get it, h
>, getting it, we do not know we have "
. We have no anxiety about it. We a
} not watch and wait for its coming. s.
As merchant you telegraph or you b
rite to some other city for a bill of n
,ods. You say: ''Send me by such t,
,press or by such a steamer of by such f,
rail train. The day arrives. You v
nd your wagon to the depot or to the O.
hart. The goods do not come You il
lmediately telegraph: ''What is the b
after with those goods? We haven't a
ceived them. Send them right away ! a
e want them now, or we don 4 want |