The Opelousas courier., 1891-02-28

- ~S-~ ~ p~1 NA4 8 SOA11C
s.eptici in the store or factory. Or it may be
probably is the case-that you were dis
Eusted with religion and disguised with
Christianity because some man who pro-
assed to be a Christian defrauded you, and
a!e being a member OF the church, and you
tan religion, you said, SWELL, If that's re-
llgIon, l O n want any Of it,"
l do not know how you came to reiect
Christianity, but you frankly tell me you do
reject it; you do not think the Bible is the
word of God, although there are many
things In it you admire; you do not think
that Christ was a divine being, although you
think He was a very good man. You say,
"lf the Bible be true-the most Of the Bible
be true nevertheless think the earlier part
of the Bible is an allegory." And there are
fifty things that | believe you do not be-
Heve. Nevertheless they tell mel regard to
you that you are an accommodating, you
are an obiging person. Il l should come to
you and ask Of you a favor you would grant
it if it were possible. 1T would be a Joy for
you to grant me a favor. If any of your
friends came to you and wanted an accom-
mediation and you could accommodate them,
how glad you would bel
Now I am going. to ask Of you a favor. |
want you to oblige me-. The accommoda-
ton will cost you nothing, and you will give
Inc sIedb napPMneSs. VI course you WIZ uot
deny me. l want you as an experiment to
try the Christian religion. IL 1t does not
stand the test, discard it; If IT does, receive
i'd.
If YOU were very sick. and You had been
, given up of the doctors, n L came to you,
and | took a bottle of medicine from my
pocket and said, "Here is medicine I am
sure will help you; ithas cured fifty people"
you would say, "Oh, / haven't any conf
dence in it; they tell me all these medicines
will fail me-" "Well," I say, twill you not,
as a matter of accommodation to myself,
just try itF" 'Well," you say, 81 nave no
objection to trying it; if it will be any sat-
i%sfaetion to you I will try it," You take it.
Now you are sick in disquietude, sick in sin.
You are not happy. You laugh sometimes
when you are miserable. There come surges
OF u~nhappiness over your soul that almost
swamp you. You are unhappy, struck
through with unrest. Now, will you not try
this %so!ace, this febrifuge, this anodyne, this
Gospel medicine?
oh you say, 81 haven't any faith in it"
As a matter Of accommodation, let me in-
Great Physician. "Why," you say, Il
haven't any faith in Him." Well, now, will
you not just let him come and try His power
on your soul? just let me introduce Him to
you. I do not ask you to take my word for
it. ] do not ask you take the advice of cler-
gynen. Perhaps the clergymen may be
prejudiced; perhaps we may be speaking
professionally; perhaps we may give you
wrong advice: perhaps we are morbid on
that subject; SO I do not ask you to take the
advice OF ~clergymen. | ask you to take the
advice of very respectable laymen, such as
William Shakespeare, the draniatist; as
William Wherefore, the statesman; as Isaac
Newton, the astronomer; as Robert Boyle,
the philosopher; as Locke, the metaphysi-
clan: as Morse, the electrician.
These men never preached-they never
pretended to p~reach-but they come out, and
putting down, one his telescope, and another
the electricians wire, and another the par
1lamentary scroll-they come out, and they
commend Christ as a comfort to all the peo-
pie, a Christ that the world needs. Now I
10 not ask you to take the advice OF clergy
men. Take the advice of these laymen. 1t
does not make I'M difference to me at this
j~uncture what you have said against the
Bible; 1t does not make any difference to me
at this j%uncture how you may have carica-
tured religion. Take the advice of men who
are prominent in secular affairs, as these
men whom | have mentioned and Others who
Immediately occur to my mind. You see [
do not scott at skepticism. ] never scoffed
at skepticism. 1have been d natural skeptic.
lido not know what the first word was that
[ uttered after entering the world, but I
think it m u nave been ''why?'
There were times when [ doubted the exist
ence of God, when I doubted the divinity of
Christ, when [ doubted the immortality Of
the soul, when I doubted my own existence,
when I doubted everything. I have been
through the whole curriculum of doubt, n
you can tell me nothing new about it. |
have come out from a great Sahara desert
into the calm, warm, sunshiny LAM of the
Gospel. I know about che other land. /
have been there. You can tell me nothing
new about it.. And know all about the
other condition of which you do not know
a~nything-the peace, the comfort, the joy,
the triumph of trusting in God and in Jesus
Christ whom He has sent. So / am not
scofing in regard to it.
It outrages me to see how soon Christian
people give UP the prodigal. I hear Chris
tian people talk as though they thought
the grace of God were a chain Of forty or
fifty links, and when they had run out
Of a mans iniquity. II a man were out
hunting for deer, and got OFF che track
of the deer, he would hunt, amid the
bushes and the brakes longer for the lost
game than he would look for a lost soul.
They say IL a man has had the deiiriuYa
treTnens twice he cannot be cured. They
say it a woman has fallen from integrity
she cannot be redeemed. All OF which Ia an
infinite SANDER on the Gospel Of the Son Of
God. Men who say that know nothing about
practical religion In their own hearts. How
many times will God take back a man
who has fallen? Well, / cannot give you the
exact figures, but I can tell you at what
point He certainly will take him back. Four
hundred and ninety times. Why flo / say
four hundred and ninety times2 Because
the Bible says seventy times seven. Now fig
ure that out, you who do not think q man
can fall four times. eight times, ten times,
twenty times, one hundred times, four hun
dred times, and yet be saved. Four hundred
and ninety timesi Why, there is a great
multitude before the throne OF God who
plunged into all the depths Of iniquity.
There were no sins they did not commit; but
they were washed of body and washed of
mind and washed of soul, and they are be-
fore the throne Of God now forever happy. l
say that to encourage any man who feels
there is no chance for him.
Good Templars will not save you, although
they are grand institutions. Sons of Tenn
perance will not save you, although there is
no better society on earth. Signing the tenn
perance pledge viii not save you, although it
is a grand thing to do. No one but God can
save you. Do not put your confidence in
bromide of potassium or anything that the
apothecary can mix. Put you trust in Godl
After the church has cast you off, and the
bank has cast you off, and social circles have
cast you off, and all good society nave cast
you off, and father has cast you of, and
mother has cast you of, at your first cry for
help God will bend clean down to that ditch
of your iniquity to help you out. Oh, what
q God He isl Long suffering and graciousl
There may be in this house some whose
hand trembles 80 with dissipation they could
hardly hold a hymn book. I say to such il
they are here: "You will preach the Gospel
yet. You will yet, some Of You, carry the
holy communion through the aisles, and you
will be acceptable to everybody because