The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-05-05

to confess that l would be happier IL
could exercise the simple and beautiful faith
that is possessed by many whom know. l
am not willingly out of the church or out
of the faith. My state OF uncertainty is one
of unrest. Sometimes doubt my immor-
tality, and look upon the death-bsd as the
closing scene after which there is nothing.
What shall do that have not donegn Ahi
skepticism is dark and doleful land. Let
me say that this Bible is either true or false.
If it be false, we are as we'll off as you; If it
be true, then which Of us is saferl
Let me also ask whether your trouble has
not been that you confounded christianity
with the inconsistent character Of some who
profess it'll You are q lawyer. In your
profession there are some mean and dishon-
est men. Is that anything against the laws
You are a doctor. There are unskilled and
contemplate men in your profession. Is
that anything against medicinel You are a
merchant. There are thieves and defraud-
ers in your business. Is that anything
against merchandise Behold, then, the
unfairness OF charging upon christianity
the wickedness of its disciples. We admit
some of the charges against those who pro-
fess religion. Some Of the most gigantic
swindles of the present day have been car
ried OH by members of the church. There
are men standing in the front rank in the
churches who would not be trusted for five
dollars without good collateral security.
They leave their business dishouesties In the
vestibule of the church as they go IN and sit
at the communion. Having concluded the
sacrament, they get up, wipe the
wine from their lips, go out, and take up
their sins where they left off. To serve the
devil is their regular work; TO serve God a
sort Of play-spell. With Sunday sponge
they expect to wipe off from their business
slate the past weeks Inconsistencies You
have no more right to take such mans
life as a specimen Of religion than you have
TO take the twisted irons and split timbers
that lie on the beach at Coney Island as
a specimen of an American ship. 1t is tims
that we draw the line between religion and
and the fraities of those who profess 1t.
Do you not feel that the Bible, take it all
in all. is about the best book that the world
has ever seen! Do you know any book that
has as much in itl Do you not think upon
the whole, that its influence has been benefl.
cents l come to you with both hands ex-
tended toward you. In one hand | have
the Bible, and in the other l have nothing.
This Bible in one hand will surrender for
over just as soon as in my other hand you
can put book that is better. To-day in
vite you back into the good old-fashioned
religion of your fathers--to the God whom
they worshipped, to the Bible they read, to
the promises on which they leaned, to the
cross on which they hung their eternal ex-
|
day since you swung off; you will not be
happy a minute until you swing back.
Again: There may be some of you who,
in the attempt after a christian life, will
have to run against powerful passions and
appetites. Perhaps 1t is a 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. | know a
christian man who was once so exasperated
that he said to a mean customer, II cannot
swear at you myself, for / am a member Of
the church; but if you will go down stairs
my partner in business will swear
at yon." All your good resolutions
heretofore have been torn to
tatters by explosion Of temper. Now there
is no harm in getting mad if you only get
mad at sin. You need to bride and saddle
those hot-breathed passions, and with them
ride down injustice 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 il you only bring to the
forges that which needs hammering. A
man who has no power of righteous indig-
nation is an imbecile. But be sure it is q
righteous Indignation, and not petulancy
that blurs and unravels and depietes the
soul
There is a large class of persons in mid
life who have still in them appetites that
were aroused in early manhood, at time
when they prjded themselves on being a
''little fast, "high livers," "free and easy"
"hail fellows we'll met" They are now
paying, in compound interest, for troubles
they collected twenty years ago. Some of
you are trying to escape, and you will. yet
very narrowly, ''as with the skin of your
teeth" God and your own soul only know
what the struggle is. Omnipotent grace has
pulled out many soul that was deepar in
| ha mi
beach of heaven the multitude
whom God has rescued from the
thrall Of suicidal habits. IL you this day
turn your back on the wrong and start
anew, God will help you. Oh the weakness
of human helpl Men will sympathizs for a
while, and then turn you off. Ii 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 forgives
seventy times seven: yea, seven hundred
times: yea, though this be the ten
thousandth Jime he is more earnest, more
sympathetic, more helpful, this last time
than when YOU took your first misstep.
III, with all the influences favorable for a
right life, men make so many mistakes.
how much harder it is when, for instance,
some appetite thrusts its iron grapple into
the roots of the tongue and pulls man
down with the hands Of destruction If,
under such circumstances, he break away,
there will be no sport in the undertaking,
no holiday enjoyment, but struggle in
which the wrestlers move from side to side,
and bend and twist, and watch for an
opportunity to get in heavier 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 a vessel bottom up. There was
something on it that looked like sea gull,
but was afterward found to be waving
handkerchief. In the small boat the crew
pushed out TO the wreck, and found that it
was capsizsd vessel, and that three men
had been digging their way out through
the bottom of the ship. When the vessel
capsized they had no meaus of escape.
The captain took his penk 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 until
his hand was wellnigh paralyzed, and he
sank back faint and sick. After long and
l - <H.. a.