The Russellville Democrat., 1890-05-15


craft, and take them on board; and Il
will be known in earth and In Heaven
how narrowly they escaped 'escaped
as with the skin Of their teeth. 2
There are others who in attempting
TO come to God must run between
great many business perplexities. II .
man goes over 10 business at ten o'clock
In the morning, and comes away ct three
o'clock in the afternoon, he has some
time Tor 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
Hpay, and when, from Monday morning
until Saturday night, you are lodging
bills that yeu can not meet2 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 noise in the back
counting-room, and gone in and found
the chief man OF the firm raving
maniac; or the wife has heard the bang
OF pistol In the back parlor, and gone
in, stumbling over the dead body OF
her husbands suicide. There are in
this house to-day three hundred men
pursued harrassed, trodden down and
scalped, If business perplexities, and
which way to 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 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 20
Heaven. Gather up all your energies.
Tighten the girdle about your loins.
Take an agonizing look into the face Of
God, and then say, Here goes one
grand effort for life eternal" and then
bound away for Heaven, escaping as
with the skin of your teeth"
! find in the community large class
of men who have been so cheated, so
lied about, so outrageously wronged
that they have lost faith in every thing.
In world where every thing seems so
topsy-turvey they do not see how there
can be any God. They are COMPOUNDED
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. I 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 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 como
back to Him; but the more 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 IL He viii Got help.
Try Him and see II He win not pardon.
Try Hin 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. The
waters have no refreshment like the
fountain that will slake the thirst of
thy soul. At the moment the REIN
deer stands with his lip and
nostril thrust in the cool mountain
torrent the hunter may be coming
through the thicket Without cracking
a stick under his foot, he comes close by
the stag, aims his gun, draws the trigger,
and the poor thing rears in its DEATH
agony and falls backward, its antlers
crashing on the rocks; but the painting
heart that drinks from the wa ter brooks
of Gods promise shall never be fatally
wounded, and shall never die.
Oh, find your peace in God. Make one
strong pull for Heaven. No halfway
work viii do it. There sometimes
comes time on shipboard when every
thing must be sacrificed to save the
passengers. The cargo is nothing, tho
rigging nothing. The captain puts the
trumpet to his lips and shouts! "Cut
away the mast!' Some OF you have
been tossed and driven and you have,
in your effort to keep the world,
well-nigh lost your soul. I'm
til you have decided this mat
ter. let every thing else go. Over
board with all those other anxieties
and burdens! You will have to drop
the sails of your pride and cut away
the mast. With one earnest cry for
help put your cause into the hand OF
Him who helped Paul out of the break
ers OF Melita, and who above the shrill
blast of the wrathiest tempest that
ever blackened the sky or shook the
ocean, can hear the faintest imploration
for mercy.
/ shall go home to-day feeling that
some of you who have considered your
case as hopeless will take heart again,
and that with blood-red earnestness,
such as you have never experienced be-
fore, you will start for the good land of
the Gospel-at last TO look back, saying
What a great risk ranl Almost lost,
but saved just got through and nc
morel Escaped by the skin Of my teeth.