Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-05-05

anu lell NE All you KNOW about Christ
| and heaven,''
Listen to two or three questions: Are
you as happy as you used to be when you
believed in the truth of the Christian re-
| ligion? Would you like TO have vonr
| children travel on in the road in which
| you are now travelling? You had a rela-
i tive who protested to be Christian. and
was thoroughly consistent, living and
| dying in the faith of the Gospel. WouId
| you not like to live the same uriet life
and die the same peaceful death? /
have a letter sent me by one who has re =
| jected the Christian religion, II saws:
III am old enough to know that the Jews
and pleasures of life are evanescent. and
to realize the fact that it must be oom-
Portable In old age TO believe In some
thing relative to the future, and to have
a faith in some system that proposes to
| save. am free 20 confess that / would
! be happier If could exercise the simple
| and beautiful faith that is nos
sessed by many whom 1 know. I
| am not willingly out of the church or out
of the faith. My state of uncertainty is
one of unrest. Sometimes 1 doubt NV
Immortality, and look upon the death
bed as the closing scene, after which
there is nothing. What shall l do that
have not done2 Ali sceptioism- is a
dark and dolefnl land. Let me say that
this Bible is either true or false. If it
be false, We are as veil of as you; if it
be true, then which of US is safer?
Let me also ask whether your trouble
has not been that you COMPOUNDED
Christianity with the inconsistent char
scter OF some who profess it? You are a
lawyer. In your profession there are
1anVa ON ahArn oAA
thing against the law? You are a doctor.
There are unskilled and contemplate men
in your profession. Is that ANYTHING
against medicine? You are a merchant.
There are thieves and defrauders in your
business. Is that anything against mer-
chandise Behold, then, the unfairness
of charging upon Christianity the wick
edness of its diciples. We admit some of
the charges against those who profess re-
ligion. Some of the most gigantic swim
dies of the present day have been carried
on 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 seouri-
ty. They leave their business dishon-
estes 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 reg
ular work; to serve God, sort Of play
spell.
WITH A SUNDAY SPONGE
they expect to wipe off from their busi-
ness slate all the past weeks incon sist-
enoles. You have no more right to take
such man IS life as a specimen of reli-
gion 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. It is time that we
draw 8 line between 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 seen? Do you Know any
book that has as much in it? Do you not
think, upon the whole, that its influence
has been beneficient? l come to you
with both hands extended toward you.
In one hand have the Bible, and in the
other have nothing, This Bible in one
hand l will surrender forever just as
soon as in my other band you can put
book that is better. To-day invite you
back into the good old fashioned religion
OF your fsthers-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
expectations. You have not been happy
a day since you swung of; you will not
be happy q 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 It is
disposition to anger that you have to con-
tend against; and perhaps, while in
very serious mood, you hear of something
that makes you feel that you must swear
or die. I know Christian man who was
ouce SO exasperated that he said. to
mean customer, al cannot swear at you
myself, for l am member of the
church; but if you will go down stairs
my partner in business will swear at
you All your good resolutions here
tofore have been torn to tatters by ex-
plosion of temper. Now there is no
harm in getting mad if you only get mad
at sin. lou 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 if you only
VA AhE " LhO bhAb "hAS- AAOSAS
mering. man who has no power of
righteous indignation is an imbeoile. But
be sure it is righteous indignation, and
not petulancy that biurs and unravels
and dspletes the soul.
There is large class of persons in mid
life who have still in them appetites that
were aroused in early manhood, az q
time when they prided themselves on be-
ing q "little fast, {" Thigh iivers,''
''free and easy - ''hail-fellows well
met They are now paying, in COM
pound Interest, for troubles they collected
twenty years ago. Some OF you are try
ing to escape, and you will-yet very
Gas with the skin of your
teeth. -
GOD AND YOUR OWN SOUL
only knows what the struggle is. On
nipotent grace has pulled outmany soul |
that was deeper ia the mire than You |
re. They line the beach of heaven |
the multitude whom God has res
cued from the thrall of sui |
cidal habits. II you this day turn |
your back on the wrong and start anew, |
God will help you. Oh, the weakness of /
human helpi Men will sympathize for a
while, ana then turn you off,. If You ask |
for their pardon they will give it, and
say they viii try you again; but, falling |
away again under the power of tempta-