Sharp County record., 1890-06-05

uToppIng INTO II! HOW narrowly lHcJ
escaped.-escaped only with tie skin
OF their teeth"
There are others who in attempting
to come to God must run between a
great many business pcrpleXiticS. If a
man goes 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 to sunset,
and have been for five years going be-
hind in business and are frequently
dunned by creditors whom you can not
pay, and when, from Monday morning
until Saturday night, you are dodging
! bills that you can not meet? You walk
day by day in uncertainties that have
kept your brain on fire for the past
three years. Some with less business
troubles than you have gone crazy.
The clerk has heard a noise in the back
counting-room, and gone in and found
the chief man of the firm a raVlng
maniac; or the wife has heard the bang
of pistol in the back parlor, and gone
in, stumbling over the dead body OF
her huSband-a suicide. There are in
this house to-day three hundred men
pursued, harrassed, trodden down and
scalped, of business perpleXities, and
which way 60 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 a 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
unstable goods block up your way to
Heaven. Gather up all your energies.
Tighten the girdle about your loins.
Take an agonizing look into the face of
God, and then say, "EIere goes one
grand effort for life eternal" and then
bound away for Heaven, escaping as
with the skin of your teeth"
l find in the community large class
of men who have been 50 cheated so
lied about, so outrageously wronged
that they have lost faiyh in every thing.
In a world where every thing seems so
topsy-turvey they do nots see how there
can be any God. They are cOnfounded
and frenzied and misanthropic, Elab-
crate arguments to prove to them the
truth of Christianity, or the truth of
any thing else, touch them nowhere.
Hear me, all such men. | preach to
you no rounded periods, no ornamental
discourse, but put my hand on your
shoulder and invite you into the peace
Of the Gospel. Here is a rock on which
you may stand firm, though the waves
dash against it harder than the Allan
tic, pitching its surf clear above Eddy
stone Lighthouse. Do not charge upon
God all these troubles of the world. As
long as the world stuck to God, God
stuck to the world but the earth seeded
from His government, and hence all
these outrages, and all these woes. God
is good. For many hundreds Of years
He has heen Coaxing the world to come
back to Him; but the moro He has
coaxed the more violent have men been
in their resistance, and they have
stepped back and stepped back until
they have dropped into ruin.
Try this God, ye who have had the
bloodhounds after you, and who have
thought that God had forgotten you.
Try Him and see if He will not help.
Try Him and see if He will not pardon.
Try Him and see if He will not save.
The flowers of spring have no bloom
so sweet as the towering Of Christ's af-
fections. The sun hath no warmth COM
pared with the glow of His heart. Tho
waters have no rofreshment like the
fountain that will slako the thirst Of
thy soul, At the moment the rein.
deer stands with his lip and
nostril thrust in tho cool mountain
torrent the hunter may be coming
through the thicket Without cracking
stick under his foot he comes close by
the stag, aims his gun, draws the trigger,
and the poor thing rcars in It's death,
agony and falls backward, its antlcrs
crashing on the rocks; but the painting
heart that drinks from the water.br brooks
Of Gods promise shall never be fatally
wounded, and shall never die
This world is poor portion for your
soul, oh business man! An Eastern King
had craven on his tomb two fingers,
represented as sounding upon each
other with snap and under
them the motto "All is not
worth that" ApiCius Cmllus hanged
himself because his steward informed
him that he mad only $50, OO0lefS All
Of this worlds riches make but small
inheritance for soul, Robcspiorrc at.
tempted to win the applause of the
world; but when he was dying woman
came rushing through tho crowd cry
ing to him; "Murdercr of my kindred,
descend to hell, covered with the curses
Of every mother IN Francow Many
who have expected tho plaudits of tho
world have died under its Anathcma
Maranathn.
Oh, find your peace in God, Mako one
strong pull for Heaven. No halfway
work will do IT, There sometimes
comes n timo on shipboNrd when oycry
thing must be sacrificed 10 sovo tho