Thomas County cat., 1890-07-24

a burial, or on horseback. q power seized
us and made US get down and made us
tremble, and made us kneel and made
us cry for mercy, and we tried to wrench
ourselves away from the grasp, but we
could not. 1t flung us fiat and when
we arose we were as much changed as
Gourgis the heather, who went into a
prayer meeting with dagger and a
gun to disturb the meeting and destroy
it, but the next day was found crying.
"Oh, my great sins! Oh, my great
Savior" and for eleven years preached
the gospel of Christ to his fellow noun
taineers, the last words on his dying
lips being Free grace!" Oh it was
free grace!
There is man who was for ten years
hard drinker. The dreadful appetite
had sent down its roots around the pal
ate and the tongue, and OIL down until
they were interlinked with the vitals of
body, mind and soul; but he has not tax
en- any stimulants for ten years. What
did that? Not temperance So
cieties. Not prohibition laws. Not
moral suaSiOn. Conversion did it.
"Why," said one upon whom the great
change had come, 'sir, 1 feel just as
though were somebody else!" There is
sea captain who swore all the way from
New Y ork to Havana, and from Havana
to San Francisco, and when he was in
port he was worse than when he was on
the sea What power was it that washed
his tongue clean of profanities and made
him psalm singer? Conversion by the
Holy Spirit. There are thousands of
people in this assemblage today who are
no more than they once were than wa
ter lily is nightshade, or morning
lark is vulture, or day is night.
Now, if l should demand that all
those people here present who have felt
the converting power of religion should
rise, so far from being ashamed, they
would spring to their feet with more
alacrity than they ever sprang to the
dance, the tears mingling with their ex-
hilaration as they cried, ave are wit
nesses!.' And if they tried to sing the
old gospel hymn they would break
down with emotion by the time they
got to the second line:
Ashamed of Jesus. that dear friend
bov -
No? When blush. be this my shame:
That n more revere His name."
Again [ remark that 1--WE are wit
nesses" of the gospels power to COM
fort. There are Christian parents here
who are willing to testify to the power
of the gospel to comfort. Your son
had just graduated from school or col
lege and was going into business, and
the Lord took him. Or your daughter
had just graduated from the young
ladies' seminary, and you thought she
was going to be a useful woman and of
long life; but the Lord took her, and
you were tempted to say, "All this cul-
ture of twenty years for nothing! Or
the little child came home from school
with the hot fever that stopped not for
the agOnized prayer or for the skillful
physician, and the little child was
taken. Or the babe was lifted out of
your arms by some quick epidemic, and
you stood wondering why God ever
gave you that child at all, if He SO soon
was to take it away. And yet you are
not repining, you are not fretful, you
are not fighting against God. What
has enabled you to stand all the trial !?
"Oh," you say, Il took the medicine
that God gave my sick soul. In my
distress threw myself at the feet of a
sympathizing God; and when l was too
weak to pray or to look up, He breathed
ipto me peace that l think must be
the fortaste of that heaven where there
is neither tear nor a farewell nor
grave" Come, all We who have been
out of the grave to weep there-come,
all We comfOrted souls, get up off your
knees. Is there no power in this Cos
pei to soothe the heart? Is there no
power in this religion to quiet the worst
paroxysm OF grief? There comes up
an answer from comforted widowhood,
and orphanage, and cnildlessness say
ing, GAY, ay, we are witnesses"
When a man has trouble the world
comes in and says, "Now get your mind
off this; go out and breathe the fresh air:
plunge deeper into. business" What
poor advice. Get your mind off it!
When everything is upturned with the
bereavement, and everything reminds
you Of what you have lost. Get your
mind off it! They might as well advise
you to stop thinking. You cannot stop
thinking, and you cannot stop thinking
in that direction. Take a walk in the
fresh air! Why, along that very street.
or that very road, she once accompanied
you. Out of that grass plat she plucked
flowers, or into that show window she
looked fascinated SAVING ssCooo con