Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-05-08

argument; if With sarcasm, YOU would
answer me with sarcasm; blow for blow
stroke for stroke; but when l come and
knock at the door CT your heart, you
open it and say Come in my brother,
and tell me 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 your
| children travel on in the road in which
| you are now travelling? You had a rels-
| tive who professed TO be Christian, and
was thoroughly consistent, living and
| dying in the faith of the Gospel. Would
you not like to live the same quiet life.
and die the same peaceful death? !
| have letter sent me by one who has re-
| jeeted the Christian religion. 1t says:
"I am old enough to know that the joys
| and pleasures of life are evaneseent, and
TO realize the fact that it must be COM
| Portable in old age TO believe in some
| thing relative to the future, and to have
faith in some system that proposes to
save. I am free to confess that would
! be happier If [ could exercise the simple
| and beautiful faith that is pos
sessed by many whom know. 1
am not willingly out of the church OF out
| of the faith. My state of uncertainty is
| one of unrest. Sometimes 1 doubt my
Immortality, and look upon the death
| bed as the closing scene, after which
| there is nothing. What shall do that
/ have not done? All! sceptioism is
dark and doleful land. Let me say that
this Bible lie either true or false. If it
| be false, we are as well off 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
aoter of some who profess it? You are a
| lawyer. In your profession there are
mean and dishonest men. Is that any
thing against the law2 You are 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 securi-
| ty They leave their business dishon-
estes in the vestlbule 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
| ont, 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 of from their BUSH
ness slate all the past weeks inconsist-
encies. You have no more right to take
such a man g 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. 1t Is time that We
draw q 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 benefcient? / 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 1 will surrender forever just as
| soon as in my other hand you can put q
book that is better. To-day / invite 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
GROSS on which they hung their eternal
! expectations. You have not been happy
a day since you swung of; 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
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. 1 know Christian man who was
once so exasperated that he said to
mean customer, 81 cannot swear at you
myself, for I am q 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. You need to bride and saddle
those hot-breathed passions, and with
them ride down injustice and wrong.
There are Thousand things in the world
that we ought to be mad at. There is
no harm in getting redhot if you only
bring to the forge that which needs ham,
mering. A man who has no power of
righteous indignation is an imbecile. But
be sure it is a righteous indignation, and
not petulancy that b,urs and unravels
and depletes the soul.
There is large class Of persons In mid
life who have still in them appetites that
were aroused in early manhood, at q
time when they prided themselves on be-
ing q ''little fast, thigh livers,"
''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
narrowly, ''as with the skin of your
teeth. -
GOD AND YOUR OWN SOUL
only knows what the struggle is. ON
nipotent grace has pulled out many a soul
that was deeper in the mire than you
re. They line the beach of heaven
the multitude whom God has res