Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-05-08

some cnhrges against those VINO profess To-
hgion.
Some Of the most gigantic swindles Of the
present day have been carried on by mem
bers Of the church. There are men stand
ing in front rank in the churches who would
not be trusted for five dollars without good
collateral security. They leave their busi-
ness dishonesties in the vestibule OF the
church as they go in and sit at the COM
munion. Having concluded the sacrament,
they get up. wipe the wine nom their lips, go
out and take up their sins where they left
of. TO serve the devil is their regular
work; to serve God. sort OF play spell
With Sunday sponge they expect to wipe
on from their business slate all the past
weeks Inconsistencies. You have no more
right to take such mans life as a specimen
ofreilgion than you have to take the twisted
irons and split timbers that lie on the beach
at Coney Island as a specimen OF an Amer
lean ship. 1t is time We draw a line be-
tween religion and the frailties of those
who profess it
Do you not feel that the Bible, take It all
in all, is about the best book that the world
has ever seen2 Do you know any book that
has aSmuch in itS Do you think. upon the
whole that its influence has been beneficial?
come to you with both hands extended
toward you. In one hand have the Bible,
in the other have nothing. This Bible In
one hand will surrender forever Just as
soon as in my other hand you can put a
book that is better. To-day / invite you
back into the good old religion Of your
fathers-to the God whom they worshiped,
to the Bible they read, to the promises on
which they learned. to the cross ON which
they hung their eternal expectations. You
have Il ut been happy day since you swung
of; you viii not be happy a minute until
you swing back.
Again: There may be some OF you who.
in the attempt after Christian life, will
have to run against powerful passions and
appetites. Perhaps 1t is disposition to
anger that you have to contend against,
and perhaps, while in very serious mood.
you hear Of something that makes you feel
that you must swear or die. l know o
Christian man who was once SO exasper-
ated that he said to mean customer, L
cannot swear at you myself, for am a
member of the church; but if you go down
stairs my partner in business will swear at
you" All your good resolutions heretofore
have been torn to tatters by explosion Of
temper. Now there is no harm in getting
mad il you only get mad at sin. You need
to bride and saddle those hot breathed
passions, and with them ride down injus-
tice and wrong. There are a thousand
things in the world that we ought to be mad
at. There is no harm in getting red hot If
you only bring to the forge thatwhich needs
hammering. A man who has no power of
righteous indignation is an imbecile. But
be sure it is righteous Indignation, and
not a petulancy that blurs and unravels and
depleteS the soul.
There is large class Of persons in mid
life who have still in them appetites that
were aroused in early manhood. at time
when they prided themselves on being a
"little fast." "high livers," free and easy.
"hail fellows well met" They are now pay
in Int f,N. fhox
collected twenty years ago. Some Of you
are trying to escape, and you will-yet very
narrowly. las with the skin of your teeth"
God and your own soul only know what the
struggle Is. Omnipotent grace has pulled
out many a soul that was deeper in the mire
than you are. They line the beach Of
heaven-the multitude whom God has
rescued from the thrall Of suicidal habits.
If you this day turn your back on the wrong
and start anew God will help you. Oh, the
weakness of human helpl Men will sym
pathize for awhile and then turn you off. If
you ask for their pardon they will give it
and say they will try you again; but, falling
away again under the power of temptation.
they cast you off forever. But God for
gives seventy times seven; yea, seven
hundred times; yea. though this be the ten
'thousandth time. He is more earnest, more
sympathetic. more helpful this last time
than when you took your first misstep.
Ii. with all the influences favorable for q
right life. men make SO many mistakes, how
much harder is it when, for instance, some
appetite thrusts its iron grapple into the
roots of the tongue. and pulls a man down
with hands of destructioni If, under such
circumstances, he break away. there will
be no sport in the undertaking, no holiday
enjoyment. but a struggle in which the
wrestlers move from side to side, and bend
and twist and watch for an opportunity to
get in aheavier stroke, until with one final
effort. in which the muscles are distended,
and the veins stand out, and the blood
starts. the swarthy habit falls under the
knee of the victor-escaped at last as with
the skin of his teeth"
The ship Emma. bound from Gottenburg
to Harwich, was sailing on, when the man
on the lookout saw something that he pro-
nounced vessel bottom up. There was
something on 1t that looked like sea gull,
but was afterwards found to be waving
handkerchief. In the small boat the crew
pushed out to the wreck, and found that it
was capsized vessel, and that three men
had been digging their way out through
the bottom of the ship. When the vessel
capsized they had no means OF escape.
The Captain took his penknife and dug
away through the planks until his knife
broke. Then an old nail was found, with
which they attempted to scrape their way
out of the darkness. each one working un-
til his hand was well nigh paralyzed, and
he sank back faint and sick. After long
and tedious work, the light broke through
the bottom of the ship. A handkerchief
was hoisted. Help came. They were taken
on board the vessel and saved. Did ever
men come so near a watery grave without
dropping into it? How narrowly they es-
capped ESCAPED only with the skin Of
their teeth"
mhara orc ma, xyb< Iovo Hoo, no,,;rod
Of evil passions. and capsized mid-occan,
and they are thousand miles away from
any shore Of help. They have for years
been trying to dig their way out. They
have been digging away and digging away.
but they can never be delivered unless they
hoist the signal of distress. However weak
and feeble they may be, Christ will see it,
and bear down upon the helpless craft and
take them on board; and 1t will be known
in earth and In heaven how narrowly they
escaped ESCAPED as with the skin Of their
teeth"
There are others who, in attempting to
come to God, must run between great
many business perplexities. If a man go
over to Business at 10 o'clock in the morn
ing and comes away at 8 CLOCK in the af-
ternoon, he has some time for religion; but
how shall you find time for religious con-
temptation when you are driven from sun
rise to sunset, and have been for five years
going behind in business, and are FREE
quently dunned by creditors whom you can
not pay. and when. from Monday morning
until Saturday night, you are lodging bills
that you cannot meetP You walk day by
day in uncertainties that have kept your
brain on fire for the past three years. Some
with less business trouble than you have
gone crazy. The clerk has heard noise in
the back counting room, and gone in and
found the chief man q rayinQ maniac: or
the wife has heard the bang of a pistol in