The Opelousas courier., 1890-03-29

ing down fCr the first TIME On the spikes,
and while some hold the cross upright,
others throw in the dirt and trample it
down, and trample it hard. o, plant that
tree well and thorou .l1'y, for it is 10 bear
fruit such as no other tree ever bore. Why
did Chr ST endure itS He could hive taken
those rock and with them crushed His cruel.
fiers. He co Id have reached up and grasped
the sword Of the omnipotent God and with
one clean cat have tumbled them into perdi-
ton. But no, He was to di lie must d e.
His life for my life. Fl life for you life.
la on of the European cities a young man
died on tn scaffold or he crime of muir
der. Some time after, the mother of this
you1g ma , was dying, and the prizes; came
in, and she made con" ession to the
priest that she was the niurdo 6, a1
not Ter son: IL a me mint of anger sic
nad surtlcR ner IluSDalu Il DIow GIlaG Slew
him.. Tn son came suddenly into the room,
and was washing away the wounds and try
ing to resuscitate his father, when somo ONO
looked through the window and saw him, and
supposed him to be the criminal. That
young man died for his own mother. You
say: ut was wonderful that he never ex-
posed her." But l tell you Of o grander
thing. Christ, the Son of God, diod not for
His mother, not for His father, Lut for His
sworn enemies. o, such a Christ as that-sc
loving, so self sacriiicing-can you not trust
Him?
l. tlluH LnGib are uldLy ulluEE Jle SpiilG vi
God who are saying: II will trust Him if you
will only tell me how and the great qucs
tion asked by thousands in this assemblage
is: How? how?' And while | answer your
question l look up and utter the prayer which
Rowland Hill so often uttered in the nlidst
Of his ermons master, helpf' How are
you to trust in Christ? just as you trust
any one. You trust your partner in bust
ness with important things. If a com
mercial house give you q note payable
three months hence, you expect the pay
ment of that note at the end Of three
months, You have perfect confidence
in their word and i'll their ability. YOU go
home to-day. You expect there will be food
on the table, You have confidence in that.
Now, I ask you to have the same confidence
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He says: "You
believe; [ take away your SINS" and they are
all taken away. WHAT you say, "beforeI
pray any more? Before I read my Bible any
more? Before cry over my sins any more?'
Yes, this moment. Believe with all your
only waiting to get from you b you give
TO scores Of people every day. What ia that?
Confidence. II these people whom you trust
day by day are more worthy than Christ, if
they are more faithful than Christ, if they
have Done more than Christ ever did, then
give them the preference, but if you really
think that Christ is as trustworthy as they
are, then deal with Him as fairly. ooh"
says some one in a light way, Il believe that
Christ was born in Bethlehem, and I believe
that He died on the cross" Do you believe
it with your head or your heart?
l will illustrate the difference. You
are in your own house. In the morning you
open a newspaper, and you read how Cap
tain Braveheart on the sea risked his life
for the salvation of his passengers. You
say: What a grand fellow he must have
BEEN His family deserves very well Of the
country" You fold the newspaper and sit
down at the table, and perhaps do not think
Of that incident again. That is historical
faith. But now you are on the sea, and
and is ar night a~at sna 30 u the are ssrie Gslse E
Fire. You rush out on the deck.
You hear, amid the wringing of the
hands and the ~fainting, the cries: mo
hope! we are LOST we are lostm The sail
puts out its wings of fire, the ropes mako a
burning ladder in the night heavens, the
spirit of wreck Kisses in the waves, and on
the hurricane deck shakes out its banner Of
smoke and darkness. Down with the life
life boats" People rush into them. The
boats are about full. Room only for one
more man. You are standing on the deck
beside the Captain. Who shall it be? You
or the Captain The Captain sayss YOU"
You jump and are saved, He stands there
and dies. Now, you believe that Captain
Braveheart sacrificed himself for his passen-
gers, but you believe it with love, with tears,
with hot and long continued EXPLANATIONS,
with grief at his loss and with joy at your
d%eliveTance. That is saving faith. In other
words, what you believe with all the heart,
and believe in regard to yourself. On this
hinge turns my sermon; aye, the salvation
of your immortal soul.
You often go across a bridge you know
s1ALs- .L~,A Wa IL SA14 1rroIy r~1,1 I,4;iA
the bridge, yol do not know what material
it is made of; but you come to it, and walk
over it, and ask no questions. And here is
an arched bridge blasted from the "Rock of
Ages and built by the architect of the
whole universe. spanning the dark gulf be-
tween sin and Righteousness, and all God
asks you is to walk across it; and you
start and you come to it, and you
stop, and you go a little way on and
you stop. and you fall back and you
experiment. YOU says "How do / know
that bridge will hold me?' instead Of march
ing on with firm step, asking no Questions,
but feeling that the strength of the eternal
God is under you. o, was there ever a prize
offered so cheap as pardon and heaven are
offered to you' For how muchG A million
dollars? It is certainly worth more than
hat. But cheaper than that you can have
it. Ten thousand dollars? Less than that.
Five thousand dollars? Less than that. One
dolIar2 Less than that. One %farthing? Less
than that. "Without money and without
price" No money to pay, No journey to
take. No penance to suffer Only just one
decisive action of the soul: "Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. and thou shall be saved"
Shall l try to tell you what it is to be saved?
[ cannot tell you. No man, no angel
my text brings me up to this point: ''Thou
shalt be saved" Itmeans a happy life here,
and q peaceful death and a blissful eternity.
It is q grand thing to go to sleep at
night, and to get up in tho morning, and
to do business all day feeling that all
is right between my heart and
God. No accident, no sickness NJ
any permanent damage. | am a forgiven
child of God, and He is bound to see me
through. He has sworn He will see me
through. The mountains nay depart, the
earth ma burn, the light of the stars may
be blown out by the blast of the Judgment
hurricane; but life and death, things present
and things to come, are mine. Yea, farther
than that-it means . peaceful death.
Mrs. Hemans, Mrs. Sigourney, DIR. Young
and almost all the poets have said handsome
things about death. There is nothing beau.
tiful about it. When we stand by the white
and rigid features Of those whom we love,
and they give no answering pressure of the
hand, and no returning kiss of the lip,
we do not want anybody poetizing around
about us. Death is loathsomeness, and mid
night, and the wringing of the heart until the
tendrils snap and curl in the torture I'M
less Christ be with us. I confess to you to
ON infinite fear, a consuming horror, of
death unless Christ shall be with me.
I would rather go down into a cave of wild
beasts or a jungle of reptiles than into the
grave, unless Christ goes with me. Will you
tell me that I am to be carried out from my
bright home, and put away in the darkness?
I cannot bear darkness. At the first coming
of the evening / must nave the gas lit, and
the further on in life | gel, the more l like