The Forrest City times., 1890-05-10


 serve God sort of play spell. With . Sunday sponge they expect to wips on ! from their business slate all tho past week s Inconsistencies You have no more right to<ake such a mans life as specimen of
 religion than you have to take the twisted iron and split timbers that lie on tho beach at Coney island as a specimen of an Ameri- i can ship. It Is time that ws draw a line between religion and tue frailftles of those | who progcss 1t.
 Do you not feel that the Bible, take 1t all | in all, Is about tho best book that tho world | has ever secni Do you know any book that | has as much in itf Do you not | think, upon the whole that it's in
 fiuence has been bcnidcen.i I come to yol
 with both hands extended toward you In one hand have tho Bibl,, ard iu the o her
 I have nothing. This Bible in one hand l will surrender forever just as soon as in 1 my other hand you can pus book that is | better To-day invite you back into the ] good old fashioned religion of your fathers | ito the God whom they worshlpped,, 10 the | Biblo they read, to the promises on which | they leaned, to the cross on which they hung their eternll expectations. You have not been happy day since you swung of; i; I you will not be happy minute until you
 swing back.
 Again: There may be some of you who, in the attempt after a Christian life, will | have 10 run against powerful passions and
 appetites, Perhaps 1t is q disposition to 1 anger that you have to contend against;
 and perhaps, while in a very serious moof. | You lie T something that makes you feel that you must swear or die. know a i Christian man who was once so exasperated ] that he said to mean customer: 'I can not swear at you myself, for l am mem
 Der of tho church, but if you will go down 1 stairs my partner in business will swear at you
 All your good resolutions heretofore have
 been torn to tattcrs by explosion of temper.
 Now. thero is no harm in getting mad if sou only get mad at sin. You need to
 bridle and saddio those hot breathed pas 1 sions. and with them ride down injustice
 and wrong. There arc a thousand things
 in the world we ought to be mad at There
 is no harm in getting red hot If you only
 bring to the forge that which needs ham
 mering. A man who has no power of righteous indignation i. an imbeeie. But
 be sure it is n righteous indignation and
 not a peulancy that burs and unravels and depletes tho soul.
 There is largo class Of persons in mid l life who have still in them appetltes that
 were aroused in early manhood. at time
 when they prided themselves on being a
 little fastn "high livers," "froc and easy" "hail fellows well meLn They are now paying in compound interest for trou.
 bes they collected twenty years ago. Some Of you are trying to escape, and you will - yet very narrowly, "as with the skin Of your teeth'' God and your own soul only l know what the struggle is. Omnpotent 1 grace has pulled out many a soul that
 was deeper in the miro than you are.
 They lino tho beach ol heaven the multi ! tuda whom God has rescued from the i thrall of suicidal habits If you this day
 turn your back on Tho wrong and start anew God will hcip you. o, the weakness Of human help. Men will sgmp thize for while, and then turn you ofr. If you ask
 for tholr pardon, they will givo it an say
 thoy will try you again, but, falling away 1 again under the power of temptation. they
 east you of forever, But God forgivos seventy times seven; yea seven hurdral
 times; yea, though this be tho ten thou. sandth time. He is more earnest, more sym i pathetic. more helpful, this Inst tune than
 when you took your first miss'ep
 ] If. with all the influences favorable for n
 right fife, men make so many mistakes, l how much harder is it when, for in.
 stance, some appetite thrusts it's iron grappe into the roots of the tongue aud pulls maa down with hands os destruc- ton H. under such circumstances, he 1 break away there will he no sport In tho l undertakn,. no holiday enjoyment. bu, a struggle in which the xrcstiars move from
 side to size, and bend nd twist and watch for an opportuu ty 10 get in heavier ! stroke, untn with ono final effort, in which tho muscles are dstenhcl and tha veins l stand ont and the blood starts, the swarthy 1 hahsf fatfa ttnjar sh, Nupss nf | 2ef.4tts.. escaped at last as "wltn the skin of his teeth"
 The ship Emma, bound from G0tteubarg ta Harwich, was sailing on, when Inc man on tho lookout saw something that he pro.
 nounacd vessel bottom up. There was something on it that looked tike sea gull, but was afterwari found to oe a waving ] handkerchief la tho small boat tho crew ! pushed out to tho wreck au3 found that it . was capsl1od vessel and that three men
 had been digging teeir way or; throu sh ] the bottom of the shp When tho vesset ! capsisad they bad no means og escape Tho captain took his penknifa and dug away ! through tho planks until hs knlfo broke Then an old nal was founa wi h which they attempted to scrape their wJy out Of ] the darkness, each one working uhtl his l hant was wallnigh parAyxed aud h. sank ] back faint and sick, Alter long as1 tedious ] work tho light broke through tho b ttom of tho ship. A handkerchief was hois ed i Help came. They were taken on board the ! vessel and saved. Did ever men come so near watory grave without dropping inta i,t How narrowly they escaped ,-~cseapsi
 only with the skin of thcir taeth.r
 Therc arc men who have hoen eapsssed ot evil passions and capsisol mid ocean, and ! they are n thousand miles away from any ' xh nf hpln h.fa fof b.es, 1 trying 10 dix their way out They have l becn digging away. anu digging away, but they can never ba delivered nnsess they 1 wilt hoist some signal of distress How. ever weak and feeble it may be Christ will sec it and boar down npon tne helpless craft and take them on board and it will be
 known in earth and heaven how narrowly they escared- escaped as with the skin 1 Of their teeth"
 There arc others who in attempting to come to God must run between gro | many bnsiness perpexities, II a man go 1 over to business at i9 o'clock In the morn.
 ing and comes away at o'clock ia the af ernoon he has some time for religion but how shall you fad time for religious
 contemplation when You are driven from
 sunrise 10 sunset and have been for five years going behind in business aud arc frequently dunnei by creditors whom you
 can not pay, ani when, from Monday
 morning until Saturday night, yoa ara dodsins bills that you can not meet
 You walk day by day in uncertain ties that have kept your brain on fro for the past three years. Some with less business ! troubles hayo gouc crazy. The cler6 has l heard a nolso in tha back counlingrnom, and gone In, and found the chief man ol the firm raving maniac, or the wifo has
 heard tho bang of pistol in the back par. Tor, and gone in, stumbling over tho dead
 body of hor husband~a suicide. There arc In this house today three hundred men ] pursued. harassed, troiden down, and scalpe1 of busiaess perplexitles, and which way 10 turn next they do not know. Now { God will not be hard on you He knows l what obstacles are ia the way or your be ing Christian, and your ilrst effort in tho 1 right direction He will crown with success | Do not let Satan, with cotton bales and