The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1890-05-07

r--~-v-~T-T-T-1--r
this be the ten-thousandth timc, He ~
more earnest, moro Sympathetic, moro
helpful, this last time than whom you
took your first misstep. ii bio yu d
II, with oil the influences favorable
for a right life, men make SO many mis-
takes, how much harder IL is when, for
instance, some appetite thrusts its iron
grapple into the roots Of the tongue,
and pulls man down with hands Of
iestructionl II, under such circun-
stances, he breaks 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 oppor-
tunity to get in heavier stroke, until
with one final effort, in which the mus
cles are distended, and the veins stand
out and tn blood starts, the swarthy
halt falls under the knee OF the victor
escaped at last as '.with theiskin OF
his teeth"
The ship Emma, bound from Cotton
burg to Harwich, was sailing on, when
the man on the lookout saw something
that he pronounced 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 a capsized
vessel, and that three men had been dig
ging their way out through the bottom
of the ship. When the vessel capsized
they had no means Of escape. The cap
tain took his penknife and dug away
through the plank 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 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 escaped!--es-
capped only with the skin Of theii
teeth" uE
There are men who have been cap
sized OF evil passions, and capsized mid
ocean, and they are thou sand miles
away from any shoreof 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 will hoist some
signal of distress. However weak and
feeble 1t may be, Christ will see 1t, and
bear down upon the helpless craft, and
take them on board; and 1t will be
known in earth and in Heaven how mar
rowly they escaped-"Escaped as with
the skin OF their teeth" r....
There are others who In attempting
to come to God, must run between o
great many business perplexities. II
a man go over to business at ten O'Clock
in the morning, and comes away at three
o'clock In the afternoon, he has some
time for religion; but how shall you
find time for religious contemplation
when you are driven from sunrise tc
sunset, and have been for Ave years
going behind In business, and are fre-
quently dunued by creditors whom you
can not pay, and when, from Mon
day morning until Saturday night, you
are lodging bills thatyou can not meeti
You walk day by day in uncertainties
that have kept your brain on fire for the
past three years. Some with less bust
ness troubles than you have gone crazy.
The clerk has heard q noise in the back
counting-room, and gone In and found
the chief man OF the firm a raving
maniac; the wife has heard the bang
Of q pistol IN the back parlor, and gone
In, stumbling over the dead body Of her
husbands suicide. There are In this
house to-day three hundred men pursued,
harassed, trodden down, and scalped Of
business perplexities, and which way
TO turn next they do not know. Now
God will not be hard on you. He knows
what obstacles are In the way Of your
being Christian, and your first effort
in the right direction He will crown
with success. Do not let Satan, with
cotton bales and kegs and hogsheads
and counters and stocks OF unsalab o
goods block up your way to Heaven.
Gather up all your energies. Tighten
the girdle about your loins. Take ap
agonizing look into the face Of God, and
then say, Here goes one grand effort
for life eternalw and then bound away
for Heaven, escaping as with tho skin
Of your teeth"
In tho last day 1t will be found that
Hugh Latimer and John Knox and
Huss and Ridley were not the greatest
martyrs, but oaristian men who went
up incorrupt rom the communications
and perplexities OF Wall street. Water
street, Pearl street, Broad street, State
street, and Third street On earth they
. were called brokers, or stock jobbers, or
retailers, or importers; but in Heaven,
Christian heroes No faggots were
heaped about their feet; no inquisition
demanded from them incantationi no
soldier aimed pike at their heart; but
they had mental tortures, compared
with which all physical consuming is as
the breath Of . spring morning.
flnd in the community large class
Of men who have been so cheated, so
lied about, so outrageously wronged,
that they have lost their faith in every
thing. In world whore every thing
seems so topsy-turvey, they do not see
= L. ii