The leader., 1889-12-21

streets st. James the Less was beaten to
death with fuller's club. st. Thomas was
struck through with a spear. They did not
ma following Christ smooth sailing. Oh,
now they were all tossed in the tempesti John
Huss In the fire; Hugh McKail in the hour of
martyrdom, the Albigenses, the Waldenses
the Scotch Covenanters-did thew find
G smooth sailing? But why go into
history when we can draw from our
own memory illustrations of the truth of
wnat say! Some young man in store try
ing TO serve God. while his employer SCOTS
at Christianity; the young men in the same
store, antagonistic to the Christian religion,
teasing him, tormenting him about his re-
hglon, try to get him mad. They succeed in
getting him mad, saying: you're pretty
Christianp Does that young man find it
smooth sailing when he tries to follow Christ?
Or, you remember Christian girl Her
father despises the Christian religion: her
mother despises the Christian religion; her
brothers and sisters scott at the Christian re-
place in Wv Which to ~ say Esr prayers ss.
Did she find it smooth sailing
when she tried to follow Jesus Christ? Oh,
no! All who would live the life of the
Christian religion must suffer persecution; if
you do not find it in one way, you will get it
who are those nearest the throne%' And
the answer came back: "These are they
who came up out of great tribulation-great
nalllng, as the original has it; great failing,
great pounding-and had their robes washed
and made white in the blood of the Lamb
On, do not be disheartened! Take courage
You are In glorious companionship. God
will see you through all trials and He will
deliver you My subject also impresses me
With the fact that good people sometimes get
very much frightened
An the tones OF these disciples as they
rushed into the back part of the boat, find
they are frightened almost to death. They
say: Master, carest Thou not that we
perlshr They had no reason to be frightened,
tdr Christ was in the boat. l suppose if we
mad been there we would have been just as
much affrighted. Perhaps more In all agea
very good people get very much affrighted.
lt is often SO in our day, and men say:
WE look at the bad lectures; look at the
vark9lz errors going over Une church of
&c We are going to founder; the church
Is going to perish; she is going down"
ed ~ iniquity in our day, and think
the church Of Jesus Christ is going to be
overthrown, aud are just as much affrighted
as were the disciples of my text Don't worry,
don't fret as though iniquity were going to
triumph over righteousness. A lion goes
into cavern to sleep. He lies down with his
shaggy name eoSeri g the paws. Meanwhile
the spiders spin Y - across the mouth Of the
cavern and saY ('We have captured him. u
GosSamer thread after gossamer thread, uu-
til the whole front of the cavern is covered
with the spiders web and the spiders say:
''The lion is done, the lion is fast" After a
while the lion has got through sleep
ing; he rousts himself, he shakes
his name, he walk out into the sunlight; lie
does not even knoV the spiders web is spun,
and with his VOICE he shakes the mountain.
so men come splnnlns their sophistries and
skepticism about Jesus Christ: He seems to
0e sleeping. They say; eve have captured
the Lord; He will never come forth again
upon the nation; Christ is captured forever
His religion will never make any conquest
among men" But tafter while the Lion of
the tribe of Judah will rouse Himself and
come forth to Shake nightly the nations
What's SPIDERS web to the aroused lion?
Give truth and error a fair grapple AID
truth will come off victor.
But there are a great many good people
who get afrighted in other respects; they
are affrighted in our day about rcvivals
They say. "Oh! this is q strong religious
gsle; we are afraid the church of Col is go
ing to beupset, and there are going to be great
many people brought into the church that
are going to be of no use to it" and they are
affrighted whenever they see a revival TAX
ing hold of the churches. AS though a ship
Captain, with five thousand bushels OF wheat
for a cargo should say some day, coming
upon deck: Throw overheard all the car
go;' and the sailors should say;
why, Captain, what do you
ooh" says the Captain, ''we have peck of
chaff that has got into this five thousand
bushels of wheat, and the only way to get rid
of the chaff is to throw all the wheat over
board" Now, that is great deal wiser than
the talk of a great many Christians who
want to throw overheard all the thousands
nd of thousands of NAbn tba
subjects of revivals- Throw all overheard
because they are brought into the kingdom
of God through great revivals, because there
is peck of chaf, aquart of chaf, a pint OF
chatf say, let them stay until the last day 1.-The
: Lord will divide the chaff from the wheat.
Do not be afraid of great revival. Oh, that
such gales from heaven might sweep through
all our churches! Oh, for such days as Rich
ard Baxter saw in England, and Robert Nc
Cheyne saw in Dundee! Oh, for such days
as Jonathan Edwards saw in Northampton
l have often heard my father tell of the fact
that in the early part of this century
a revival broke out at Somerville, n.
j.; and some people were very much
agitated about it. They said: ''Oh, you
are going to bring too many people into the
church at once;" and they sent down to New
Brunswick to get John Livingston to stop the
revival. Well, there was no better soul in
all the world than John Livingston. He
WcAb duu lOOhOQ db CuO lOfANdAf VhCJ hohOcN
him to stop it. He stood in the pulpit on the
Sabbath, and looked over the solemn audi
tory, and he said: ''This, brethren is in
reality the work of God; beware how you
try to stop it." And he was an old man,
leaning heavily upon his staff-a very old
man. And he lifted that staff, and tool
hold of the small end of the staff and began
to let it fall slowly through between the fin
ger and the thumb, and he said: ''Oh, thou
impenitent thou art falling now-falling
from life, falling away from peace and
heaven, falling as certainly as the cane is
falling through my hand-falling certainly,
though perhaps falling slowly" And the
cane kept on falling through John Liv-
ingston's hand. The religious emotion in
the audience was overpowering, and
men saw a type of their doom, as the
cane kept falling and falling, until the
knob of the cane struck Mr.. Livingston s
hand, and he clasped it stoutly and said
But the grace of God can stop you as
stopped that cane:" and then there was glad
! ness all through the house at the fact of par
! don and peace and salvation. "Well," said
the people after the service, II guess you hat
| better send Livingston home; he is making
| the revival worse" Oh, for gales from
| heaven to sweep all the continentsl The dan
| ger of the church of God is not in revivals.
| Again. my subject impressed me with the
| fact that Jesus was God and man in the SAM
being. Here He is in the back part of tn
boat. Oh, how tired He looks; what sa'
| dreams He must haveI Look at His counte
nance; He must be thinking of the cross t.
4 bon n