Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1890-07-07


the lightning of heaven his errand boy,
and it was proved conclusively that the
thing could never be done; but now all
the news of the wife world, by Asso-
ciated Press put in your hands every
morning and night. has made all ma
tons witnesses.
So in the time of Christ it was proved
cOnclusively that it was impossible for
him to rise from the dead. 1t was
shown logically that when man was
dead he was dead. and the heart and
the liver and the lungs having ceased
to perform their offices, the limbs would
be rigid beyond all power of friction or
arousaI They showed it to be an abso-
lutte absurdity that the dead Christ
should ever get up alive; but no sooner
had they proved this than the dead
Christ arose and the disci Piles beheld
him, heard his voice and talked with
him, and they took the witness stand
to prove that to be true which the wise
acres of the day had proved to be i'm
possible; the record of the experience
and of the testimony is in the text:
Him hath God raised from the dead,
whereof we are witnesses.
THE sKEPTIC's ARGUMENT.
Now, let me play the skeptic for a
moment. There is no God" says the
skeptic, for l have never seen him
with my physical eyesight Your Bible
is pack of contradictions. There never
was a miracle. Lazarus was not raised
~, ~,
turned into wine. Your religion is an
imposition on the credulity Of the ages ~
There is an aged man moving over yon-
der as though he would like to respond.
Here are hundreds of people with faces
a little flushed at these announcements,
and all through this assembly there is
a suppressed feeling which would like
to speak out in behalf of the truth of
our glorious Christianity, as in the days
of the text, crying out: eve are wit
nesses!"
The fact is that if this world is ever
brought to God it will not be through
argument, but through testimony. You
might cover the whole earth with apol-
ogies for Christianity and learned trea-
tises in defense of religion-you would
not convert Il soul. Lectures on the
harmony between science and religion
are beautiful mental discipline but
have never saved u soul, and never will
save a soul. Put man of the world
and man of the church against each
other, and the man of the world will
in all probability get the triumph.
There are a thousand things in our re-
Ggion that seem Illogical to the world
and always will seem illogical.
Our weapon in this conflict is faith,
not logic; faith, not metaphysics; faith,
not profundity; faith, not scholastic
exploration. But then, in order to
have faith, we must have testimony,
and if five hundred men, or one thou
sand men, or five hundred thousand
men, or five million men get up and
tell me that they have felt the religion
of Jesus Christ a joy, a comfort, help,
an aspiration, 1 am bound as fair
minded man to accept their testimony
l want just now to put before you three
propositions, the truth of which think
this audience will attest with over
whelming unanimity.
RELIGION BRINGS A CHANGE OF HEART
The first proposition is, We are wit
nesses that the religion of Christ is able
to convert a soul. The Gospel may
have had a hard time to conquer us,
we may have fought it back, but we
were vanquished. You say conversion
is only an imaginary thing. We know
better I'VE are witnesses" There
never was SO great change in our
heart and life on any other subject as
on this. People laughed at the mission
aries in Madagascar because they
preached ten years without one con-
vert; but there are SO, 900 converts in
Madagascar today.
People laughed at DR.. Adomram Jud-
son, the Baptist missionary, because he
kept on preaching in Burmah five years
without a single convert; but there are
twenty thousand Baptists in Burnah
today. People laughed at DR.. Morri-
son, in China, for preaching there seven
years without single conversion; but
there are twenty-five thousand Chris
tians in China today. People laughed
at the missionaries for preaching at Ia
hiti fifteen years without single con-
version, and at the missionaries for
preaching in Bengal seventeen years
without a single conversion; yet in all
those lands there are mu1titudes of
Christians today.
But why go so far to find evidence
of the Gospels power to save soul2
eve are witnesses. We were SO proud
that no man could have humbled us;
we were so hard that no earthly power
could have melted us; angels OF God
were all around about us; they could
not overcome us. But one day, per-
haps at Methodist anxious seat, or at
a Presbyterian catechetical lecture, or
at burial, or on horseback, power
seized us, and made us get down, and
made us tremble, and made us kneel,
and made us cry for mercy, and we
tried to wrench ourselves away from
the grasp, but we could not. 1t flung
US fiat, and when we arose we were as
much changed as Gourgis, the heather,
who went into prayer meeting with
dagger and gun to disturb the meet
ing and 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 mountaineers, the last words
on his dying lips being, Gree grace"
Oh, it was free gracel
CONVERSION DID IT.
There is man who was for ten years
a hard drinker. The dreadful appetite
had sent down its roots around the pal
ate and the tongue, and on down until
they were interlinked with the yitals OF
the body, mind and soul; but he has
not taken any stimulants for ten years.
What did that? Not temperance soci-
cites. Not prohibition laws. Not
moral suasion. Conversion did it.
why" said one upon whom the great
change had come, ''sir, / feel just as
though were somebody elsep There
is sea captain 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 pro-
Ton;%sac anJ v,,ado him, Y1col,,a