The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1890-07-18

angels of God were all around about
us, they could not overcome us; but
one dry, perhaps Mt Methodist anx
ious seat, or at Presbyterian cat
echet!cal lecture, or at a burial, or or
horseback, n power seized us, and
made us get down, and made us
tremble, and made us kneel, and
cry for mercy, and we tried to wrench
ourselves away from the grasp, but
we could not. 1t flung us flat, and
when we arose we were as much
changed as Gourgis, the heathen.
who went into prayer meeting with
a dagger and gun, to disturb the
meeting and to destroy it, but the
next day was found crying, "Oh, my
great sins! Oh, my great Saviour!''
and for eleven years preached the
Gospel of Christ to his fellow noun
taineers, the last words on his dying
lips being, "Free Grace!" Oh, it was
free grace!
There is a man who was for ten
years hard drinker. The dreadful
appetite had sent down its roots
around the palate and the tongue,
and on down until they were inter
linked with the vitals of body, mind
and soul; but he has not taken any
stlmulants for ten years. What did
that? Not temperance societies; not
prohibition laws; not moral snasion.
Conversion did it. "Why, sir" said
one on whom the great change had
come, IL feel Just as though 1 were
somebody else!" There is sea cap
tain who swore all the way from New
York to Havana and from Havana to
San Francisco, and when he was in
port he was worse than when he was
on the sea. What power was it that
washed his tongue clean of profanities,
and made him a psalm singer? Con-
version by tho Holy Spirit. Thcro
are thousands of people in this as
semblage to-day who are no more
what they once were than water
lily is night shade, or a morning
lark is vulture or day is night.
Now, if l should demand that all
those people here present who have
felt the converting power of religion
should rise, SO far from being asham-
ed, they would spring to their feet
with more alacrity than they ever
sprang to the dance, the tears ming
ling with their eXhilaration as they
cried, "We are witnesses' And if
they tried to sing the old Gospel
hymn, they would break down with
by the time they got to the
second line:
Ashamed OF Jesus, that dear Friend
On whom my hope OF heaven depen d?
No! When blush. lie this my shame:
That no more revere His ma me.
When man has trouble tho world
comes in and says, "Now get your
mind off this; go out and breathe the
fresh air; plunge deeper into bust
ness" What poor advice! Get your
mind off it! When everything is up
turned with the bereavement, and
eI erything reminds you of what you
have lost. Get your mind off it!
They might as well advise you to
stop thinking. You cannot stop
and you cannot stop think
ing in that direction. Take q walk
in the fresh air! Why, along that
very street, or that very road, she
once accompanied you. Out of that
grass plat she plucked flowers, or
into that show window she looked,
saying: "Come see the
pictures" Go deeper into business?
Why, she was associated with all
your business ambition, and since
she has gone you have no ambition
left. Oh, this is clumsy world
when it tries to comfort broken
heart. 1 can build Corliss engine,
I can paint a Raphaels Madonna"
I can play q Beethoven's "Eroica
Symphony" as easy as this world can
comfort broken heart. And yet
you have been comforted. How was
it done? Did Christ come to you and
say, "Get your mind of this; go out
and breathe fresh air; plunge deeper
into business?" No. There was q
when he came to you-per-
haps in the watches of the night,
perhaps in your place of business,
perhaps along the streets-and He
breathed something into your soul
that gave you peace, rest, infinite
quiet, so that you could take out the
photograph of the departed one and
look into the eyes and the face of the
dear one, and say, ''It is all right
she is better off; I would not call her
back. Lord, I thank Thee that Thou
hast comforted my poor heart"
In our sermons and in our lay eX-
hortations we are very apt, when we
want to bring illustrations of dying
triumph, to go back to some distin-
guished personage-to n John Knox
or Harriet Newell. Butt want you
for witnesses. want to know if you
have ever seen anything to make you
believe that the religion of Christ can
give composure in the final hour.
Now, in the courts, attorney, jury,
and Judge will never admit mere
hcarsay. They demand that the wit
ness must have seen with his own
eyes or heard with his own ears, and
so I am critical in my examination
of you now; and / want to know
whether you have seen or heard any
thing that makes you believe that
the religion Of Christ gives compos
ure in the final hour.
ooh, yes" you say, II saw my
father and mother depart. There