Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1890-05-05
SAVED AS BY FIRE.
Continued from First Page. I

Il ldlih IN some system thdJ proposes 10
save. | am free TO confess that l would
bee happier if could exercise the simple
and beautiful faith that is possessed by
many whom | know | am not willing
ly out of the hurch or out of the faith.
My state of uncertainty is one of unrest.
Sometimes | doubt my Immortality, and
look upon the death-bed NJ the closing
scene. after which there is nothing.
What shall do that | have not done?''
An. Scepticism is dark and lonely land.
Let me say that this Bible is either true
OF false. If il be false, we are as well
of as YOU; if il be true,
THEN WHICH OF Is Is SAFER?
Let me also ask whether your trouble
has not been that YOU COMPOUNDED Chris
tianity with the Inconsistent character
of some who profess it? You are law
yer. In Your profession there are mean
and dishonest men. Is that anything
against the law? You are doctor.
There are unskiled and contemplate
men i'm your profession. Is that any
thing against medicine? You are a
merchant. There are thieves and de-
fraudcrS i'm your business. Is that any
thing against merchandise? Behold.
then, the unfairneSS of charging upon
Christianity the wickedneSS of its dis
ciplcS We admit some of the charges
against those who profess religion.
Some of the most gigantic SwindlcS of
the present day have been carried on by
members of the church. There are men
standing i'm the front rank i'm the
churches who would not be trusted for
five dollars without good collateral
security. They leave their business
diShoneStieS in the yeStibule of the
church as they 60 in and sit at the
communion. Having concluded the
sacrament, they get up, wip, the wine
from their lips. 90 out, and take mp
their sins where they left of. To serve
the devil is their regular work; TO serve
God. a sort of play-SpeN. With sun
day sponge they expect to wipe of from
their business slate all the past week :
Inconsistencies. You have no more
right 10 take such a mans life as a
specimen of religion than you have to
take the twisted irons and split timberS
that lic ON the beach at Coney Island as
a specimen of an American ship. 1t is
time that we draw Il line between re-
ligi0n and the frailticS of those who
profess il.
DO You not feel that the Bible, take
10 all I'M all. is about the best book
that the world has ever seen? DO You
know any book that has as much i'm il?
DO YOU not think, upon the whole, that
its influence has been benctcent? |
come to YOU with both hands extended
toward You. I'm one hand have the
Bible. and In the other l have nothing.
This Bible I'm one hand l will surrender
for ever just as soon as i'm my
other hand You can put book
that is better. To-day invite you back
into the good old-faShioncd religion of
your fathcrS-tO the God whom they
worShipped. TO the Bible they read, to
the promises ON which they leaned. 10
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 minute until YOU
swing back
4 COMBAT WITH APPETITE.
Again; There may be some OF You
who, i'm the attempt after Christian
life. will have TO run against powerful
passions aud appctitcS. Perhaps it Is
"a disposition TO anber that you have
tocoutcud against. and perhaps, while
in very serious mood, you hear OF
something that makes YOU feel that You
must swear or die. ] know a Christian
man who was once 50 cNaSperatcd that
he said 20 mean customer. Il cannot
swear at YOU myself, for l am mem
Der of the church: but if YOU will 60
down stairs my partner in business will
swear at YOU" All your good reSolu-
tions heretofore have been torn to tat
terS by explosion of temper. Now there
is mo- harm i'm getting mad if You only
get mad 40 sin. You need 10 bride and
saddle those hot-breathed passions, and
with them ride down injustice and
wrong. There are a thousand things
loo the world that we ought To be mad
at. There is no harm i'm getting red
hot If YOU only bring 10 the forge that
which needs hammcring. \ man who
has no power of righteous indignation
is am imbccilc. But bee sure 10 is a
riJht,0lS Indignation. and not petu-
lancy that blurS and unravelS and de-
plctes the soul.
There is large class of persons in
mid-life who have still in them appe-
titeS that were aroused in early
manhood. at a time when they pridcd
themselves on being a "littlc fast,
"high livcrs. free and easy, 'hail-fel-
lows well met" They are now paying,
in compound interest, for trouble they
collected twenty years ago. Some of
Won are trying To escape, and you will
vet very narrowly, las with the skin OF
your teeth" God and your own soul
only know what the struggle is. Om-
nipotcnt grace has pulled ont many a
soul that was deeper in the mlre than
Won. They line the beach of heaven
the multitude whom God has rescued
from the thrall of suicidal habits. If
You this day turn your back ON the
wrong and start anew. God viii help You.
Oh, the weakness of human help, Men
will Sympathize for while. and then
turn YOU of. If You ask for their par
don. they will give il. and say they Will
trv You again: but, falling away again
under the power of temptation. they
east YOU of forever. But God iorgives
seventy times seven; yea, seven hundred
times: yea. though this be the ten
thousandth time. He is more earnest,
more sympathetic. more helpful, TINS
last time than when you took your first
miSStep.
II. with all the Influences favorable
for a right life. men make SO many mis-
takes. how much harder it is when, fol
instance. some appetite thruStS It's iron
grapplc into the roots of the tongue
and pullsa man down with hands oil
destruction. If, under such circum
stances. he break away, there will be nc
sport i'm the undertaking; no holiday en-
iovment. but "A struggle in which the
wrestlcrS move from side To side, anc
bend and twist. and watch for an OPP
opportunity To get i'm heavier stroke
until with one final effort, in which the
muscles are diStended, and the Veln'
stand out, and the blood starts th'
swarthv habit falls under the Knee o
the escaped at last as with th'
skin of his teeth
FIGHTING FOR LIGHT.
The ship Emma, bound from Gotten
burg To Harwich, was sailing ON, wnel
the man ON the lookout saw something
that me- pronounced a vessel bottom up
There was something on il that looked
/ like a Sca-gull. but was aftcrward iouu'
To be a waving handkerchief. In th'
small boat the crew pushed out to th'
wreck. and found that it was capSizet
vessel. and that three men had beer
digging their way ont through the bot