Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1890-05-22
they escared--"escaped as with tho skin

|
| come to God must run between a gre At
many business perplexities. II man 60
| over to business at 10 o'clock in the morn
| ing and Gomez away at 3 o'clock in the
afternoon he has some time for religion;
but now shall you find time for religious
contemplation when you are driven from
sunrise 10 sunset ant have been for five
years going behind in business, and are
frequently dunaed by creditors whom you
can not pay, and when, from Monday
morning until Saturday night you are
| lodging 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 have gone crazy. The clerx has
heard o noise in tho back coun,ingroom,
and gone in, and found tho chief man of
the firm raving maniac; or the wife has
heard the bang Of pistol in the back par
lor, and gone in, stumbling over the dead
body Of her husbands suicide There
are in this house to-day three hundred men
pursued, harassed, trodden down, and
scalped OF 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 be-
ing 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 ener
gies. Tighten the girdles 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"
In the last day 1t will he found that
Hugh Latimer and John Knox and Huss
and Ridley were not the greatest martyrs,
but Christian men who went up incorrupt
from the communications and pcrplexities
OF Wall street, Walter street. Pearl street,
Bro I'd street, State street and Third street.
On earth they were called brokers, or stock
1obbers, or retailers, or importers; but in
heaven, Christian heroes. No fagots were
heaped about their feet; no inquisition de-
manded from them recantation: no soldier
aimed pike ut their heart; but they had
mental fortunes, compared with which all
physical consuming is as the breath Of u
spring morning.
find in the community large class Of
men who have been so cheated, so lied
about, so outrageously wronged, that they
Lave lost their faith in everything. In a
word where everything seems so topsy
turvey, they do not see how there can be
zied and misanthropic. Elaborate argu-
ments to provo to them the truth Of Chris.
tianity, or the truth Of any thiug else, touch
them nOWaere.
Hear me, all such men. preach to you
no rounded periods, no ornamental dis
course; 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 Atlantic, pitching Its surf
clear above Eddystone 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 been coaxing the world to come back
to him; but the more he has coaxed, the
more violent men have been in their resist
ence and they have stepped back and step
ped back until they have dropped into
ruin.
Try this God, We who have had the blood
hounds after you, and who mad thought
that God had forgotten you. Try Him, and
sec il He will not help. Try Him and see
IL He will not pardon. Try Him, and soc
il He will not save. The fowe rs OF spring
have no bloom so sweet as the Towering OF
Christ's affections. The sun hath no
warmth compared with tho glow OF His
heart The waters have no refreshment
like the fountains that will slake the thirst
OF thy soul. At the moment the reindeer
stands with his lip and nostril thrust in the
cool mountain torrent tho hunter may be
coming through the thicket. Without crack.
ing 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 back ward, its an llers crashing on
the rocks; but the painting heart that
drinks from the water brooks OF Gods
promise shall never bs fatally wounded,
and shall never die.
This world Is poor portion for your
soul, oh business mani An eastern king
had craven on his tomo two ingers repro.
sented as sounding upon each other with
snap, and under them the motto: "All Is
not worth that" Apicius Coelius hanged
himself because his steward informed him
that he had only eighty thousand pounds
sterling left All OF this worlds riches
make but small inheritance for soul
Robespierre attempted to win the ap-
plause of the world but when he was dying
woman came rushing through the crowd
crying to him "Murderer of my kindred,
descend to hell covered with the curses Of
every mother in France!' Many who have
expected the plaudits OF the world have
died under its anathema maranatha
Oh, find your peace In God. Make one
strong pull for heaven No half way work
will do it. There some times comes time
on shipboard when everything must be
sacrificed to save the passengers. The
cargo is nothing, the rigging nothing. The
captain puts the trumpets to his lips and
shouts:
'Cut away the mastv' Some OF you
have been tossed and driven. and you have,
in your effort to keep the world, we'll nig1
lost your soul. Until you have decided this
matter let everything else go. Overheard
with oil those other anxleties and burdens!
You will have to drop the sails OF your
pride and cut away the masts. With one
earnest cry for help put your cause into the
hand Of Him who helped Paul out OF tho
breakers Of Melita, and who, above tho
shrill blast Of the wrathiest tempest that
ever blackened the sky or shook the ocean,
can hear tho faintest imploration for mercy.