Dodge City times., 1890-01-02

not smooth sailing. So you have found
) it; SO I have found. Did you ever notice
the end Of the life of the apostles OF
Jesus Christ? You would say, if ever
men ought to have had o smooth life, a
smooth departure, then those men, the
disciples of Jesus Christ, ought to have
had such a departure and such life.
st. James lost his head. st. Philip was
hung to death on q pillar. st. Matthew
had his life dashed out with halbert.
st. Mark was dragged to death through
the street. St. James the Less was
beaten to death with fuller's club. st.
Thomas was struck through with q spear.
They did not find following Christ
smooth sailing. Oh, how they were all
tossed In the tempest! John Huss in
the fire; Hugh McKail in the hour of
martyrdom; the Albigenses, the Wald-
enses, the Scotch Covenanters-did they
find it smooth sailing? But why &C into
history when We can draw from our own
memory illustrations of the truth of
| what l say: Some young man in a store
trying to serve God, while his employer
SCOTS at Christianity; the young men in
the same store, antagonistic to the
Christian religion, teasing him, tor
menting him about his religion, trying q
to get him mad. They succeed in get
ting him mad. saying, You're a pretty
Christian" Does th,S young man find
1T smooth sailing when he tries to fol-
low Christ? Or you remember Chris
tlan girl. Her father despises the
Christian religion; her mother despises
the Christian religion; her brothers and
sisters scott at the Christian religion;
she can hardly find a quiet place in
/ W ich 70 Oh G,.l
| it smooth sailing when she tried to fol-
low Jesus Christi Oh, no! All who
would live the life of the Christian re-
ligion must suffer persecution; if you do
not find it In one way, you will get it
in another way. The question was
asked: Who are those nearest the
throne?" And the answer came back:
These are they who came up out of
great tribulation-great failing. as the
original has it; great failing, great
pounding-and had their robes washed
and made white in the blood of the
lamb" On, do not be disheartened!
| Take courage. You are in glorious
companionship. God will see you
through all trials and He will deliver
you. Ny subject also impresses me with
the fact that good people sometimes get
very much frightened.
Al ehC tohco VI tutoC uioClpiGo I'd tucN
rushed into the back part of the boat, I
| find they are frightened almost to death.
They say: Master. carest thou not that
We perish?" They had no reason to be
frightened. for Christ was in the boat.
l suppose if We had been there We would
have been just as much affrighted. Per-
haps more. In all agesvery good peo-
pie get very much affrighted. 1t is often
SO in our day, and men say: Why, look
at the bad lectures look at the various
errors going over the church of God; we
are going to founder; the church is GO
ing to perish; she is going down." Oh,
how many good people are affrighted
by inquity in our day, and think the
Church of Jesus Christ is going to be
overthrown, and are just as much af-
frighted as were the disciples of my
text. Don't worry, don't fret, as though
iniquity were going to triumph over
righteousness. A lion goes into a cav
ern to sleep. He lies down, with his
shaggy name covering the paws. Mean
while the spiders spin web across the
mouth of the cavern and say, I'VE have
captured him." Gossamer thread after
gossamer thread, until the whole front
of the cavern is covered with the
spiders web, and the spiders say: THE
lion is done; the lion is fast" After a
while the lion has got through sleeping;
he rouses himself, he shakes his name,
he walks out into the sunlight; he does
not even know the spiders web is spun,
and with his voice he shakes
the mountain. So men come
spinning their sophistries and
skepticism about Jesus Christ;
He seems to be sleeping. They say:
I'VE have captured the Lord; He will
g. ~
Christ is captured forever. His religion
will never make any conquest among
men," But after a while the Lion of the |
tribe of Judah will rouse himself and
come forth to shake nightly the ma
tions. What's spiders web to the |
aroused lion? Give truth and error a
fail. r.grappie and truth will come off |
victor.
But there are great many good peo-
pie who get affrighted in other re-
spects; they are atfrighted in our day
about revivals. They say: ~Oh! this is |
q strong religious gale; VIC are afraid |
the church of God is going to be upset, |
and there are going to be great many |
people brought into the church that are |
going to be of no use to it," and they |
are affrighted whenever they see a revi- |
val taking hold of the churches. AS |
though a ship captain, with 5000 BUSH |
els of wheat for q cargo, should say |
some day, coming upon deck: Throw |
overheard all the CARGO" and the sailors |
should say: Why, captain, what do you |
mean? Throw over all the cargo?" ""Oh,"
says the captain. I'VE have neck of |
chaff that has got into this 5000 BUSH
els of wheat, and the only way to get |
rid of the chaff is to throw all the wheat |
overheard" Now, this is a great deal |
wiser than the talk of q great many |
Christians who want to throw overheard |
ali the thousands and tens of thousands
of souls who are the subjects of revi-
walls. Throw all overheard because they
are brought into the Kingdom of God
through great revivals, because there is
a peck of chaff, a quart of chatf, a pint
of chatf! l say, let them stay until the
last day; the Lord will divide the chaff
from the wheat. Do not be afraid of
great revival. Oh, that such gales from
Heaven might sweep through all our
churches! Oh. for such days as Richard
Baxter saw in England, and Robert Nc
Cheyne saw in Dundee! Oh, for such
days as Jonathan Edwards saw in
l have often heard my
father tell of the fact that in the early
part of this century arevival broke out
at Somerville, n. D., and some people
We're very much agitated about
it. They said: -Oh, you
are going to bring too many people into
the church at once; and they sent down
to New Brunswick to get John Livings-
ton to stop the revival. Well, there was
no better soul in all the world than John
Livingston. He went and looked ut the
revival; they wanted him to stop it. He
stood in the pulpit ON the Sabbath, and
looked over the solemn auditory, and he
said: This, brethren, is in reality the
work of God; beware how you try to stop
it." And he was an old mau, leaning
heavily on his staf-a very old man.
And he lifted that staff, and took hold
of the small end of the staff, and began
to let it fall slowly through between the
finger and the thumb, and he said: "Oh,
thou impenitent, thou art falling now
falling from life, falling away from
peace and Heaven, falling as certainly
as that cane is falling through my hand
falling certainly, though perhaps fall
C1n lrto Anl tha oana taDk ~, 60 i