Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-01-30

/ 0CO1-
side the captain Who shall it be? You
or the captain? The captain says:
you"
You jump and are saved. He stands
there and dies. Now, you believe that
Captain Braveheart sacrificed himself
for his passengers, but you believe it
with love, with tears, with hot and
long-continued EXPLANATIONS, with grief
at his loss and JOY at your deliverance.
That is saving faith. In other words,
what you believe with all the heart
and believe in regard to yourself. On
this hinge turns my sermon; aye, the
salvation Of your immortal soul.
You often GO across bridge you know
nothing about You do not know who
built the bridge, you do not know what
material it is made OF; but you come to
it, and walk over it, and ask no ques-
tons. And here is an arched bridge,
blasted from the "Rock of Ages" and
built by the Architect of the whole
universe, spanning the dark gulf be-
tween sin and righteousness, and all
God asks you is to walk across it; and
you go little way on and you stop, and
you fall back and you experiment. You
say:
"How do know that bridge will hold
me?"
Instead of marching on with firm
step, asking no questions, but feeling
that the strength of the eternal God is
under you. o, was there ever a prize
offered so cheap as pardon and Heaven
/ Of 20 oh
million dollars? 1t is certainly worth
more than that But cheaper than that
you can have it. Ten thousand dol
lars? Less than that. One dollar?
Less than that. One farthing? Less
than that. without money and with
out price" No money to pay. No jour
ney to take. No penance to suffer.
Only just one decisive action of the
| soul!
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou
| shalt be saved.
Shall try to tell you what it is to be
saved2 can not tell you. No man, no
angel can tell you. But l can hint at it.
For my text brings me up to this point:
''Thou shalt be saved" 1t means hap
Ply life here, and peaceful death and a
blissful eternity. 1t is grand thing to
go to sleep at night. and to get up in
tie morning, and to do business all day
feeling that all is right between my
heart and God. No accident, no sick
ness, no persecution, no peril, no sword
can do me any permanent damage. 1
am forgiven child of God, and He is
bound to see me through. The mount
aims may depart, the earth may burn,
the light of the stars may be blown out
by the blast of the judgment hurricane;
but life and death, things present and
things to come, are mine. Yea, further
than that-it means peaceful death.
All, do not point down to the hole in
the ground, the grave, and call it a
beautiful place; unless there be some
supernatural illumination, 1 shudder
back from it. But now this glorious
lamp is lifted above the grave, and all
the darkness is gone, and the way is
clear. look into it now without sim
gle shudder. Now my anxiety is not
about death; my anxiety is that l may
live Alright, for know that my life is
consistent when l come to the last
these eyes are closed, and these hands
with which l beg for your eternal sal
walton to-day are folded over the still
heart, that then 1 shall only begin to
live. What power is there in any thing
to chill me in the last hour if Christ
wraps around me the skirt of his own
garment? What darkness can fall upon
my eyelids then, amid the Heavenly
daybreak? Odeath, will not fear thee
then Back to the cavern of darkness
thou rob5er Of all on earth. Fly, thou
despoiler of families. With this battle
axe hew thee in twain from helmet to
sandal, the voice of Christ sounding
all over earth, and through the heavens:
20 death, 1 will be thy plague. Ograve,
will be thy destruction"
TIE be saved is to wake up in the pres
ence of Christ. You know when Jesus
was upon earth how happy He made
every house He went into, and when He
brings us up to His house how great our
glee. His voice has more music in it
than is to be heard in all the oratorios
of eternity. Talk not about banks
dashed with efflorescence. Jesus is the
chief bloom of Heaven. We shall see
the very face that beamed sympathy in
Bethany, and take the very hand that
dropped its blood from the short beam of
the cross o, want to stand in eternity
with Him. Toward the harbor steer To
ward that goal l run. l shall be salts
fed when 1 awake in His likeness Oh,
broken-hearted men and women, how
sweet it will be in that good land to pour
all your hardships, and bereaVements,
and losses into the loving ear of Christ,
and then have Him explain why it was
best for you to be widowed, and why it
was best for you to be tried, and have
Him point to an elevation proportionate
to your disquietude here, saying: You
suffered with me on earth, come up now
and be glorified with me in Heaven
Some went into a house where there
had been good deal of trouble and said
to the woman there:
"You seem to be lonely"
eyes" she said, 81 am lonely"
''How many in the famliy?"
'Only myself"
slave you had any children2"
81 had seven children"
"Where are they?"
'Gone."
'All gomez
GAIL" Then she breathed a long
sigh into the loneliness, and said: 20,
sir, have been a good mother to the
grave"
And so there are hearts here that are
utterly broken down by the bereave-
ments of life point you to-day to the
eternal balm of Heaven. Are there any
here that am missing this morning?
o, YOU poor waiting maidl your hearts