The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-01-28

IS,
| skeptic in the store or factory. Or it may be
probably is the case-that you were dis
gusted with religion and disgusted with
| Christianity because some man who pro-
| fessed to be Christian defrauded you, and
| he being q member of the church, and you
taking him as representative of the Chris
| tian religion, you said, "Well, II that's re-
ligion, don't want any Of it."
donot know how you came to reject
| 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 divine being, although you
think He was a very good man. You say,
s"If the Bible be true-the most Of the Bible
be true-I nevertheless think the earlier part
Of the Bible is an allegory." And there are
fifty things that believe you do not be-
lieve. Nevertheless they tell me In regard to
you that you are an accommodating, you
are an obliging person. II should come to
you and ask Of you favor you would grant
It If it were possible. It would be 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 favor. I
want you to oblige me. The accommoda-
tion will cost you nothing, and you will give
me great happiness OF course you will not
deny me. Iwant you as an experiment to
try the Christian religion. IF it does not
stand the test, discard 1t; II it does receive
it.
If you were very sick, and you had been
given up Of the doctors, and l came to you,
and I took bottle Of medicine from my
pocket and said, "Here is medicine I am
sure will help you; It has cured fifty people" "
VIII viii fail me-" ne 's %sWel" Vel " say M win you not
as matter of accommodation to myself,
just try itf" "Well," you say, II have no
objection to trying it; If it will be any sat-
isfaction to you will try it." You take it.
Now you are sick in disquietude, sick in sin.
You are not happy. You laugh sometimes
when you arc miserable. There come surges
of unhappiness over your soul that almost
swamp you. You are unhappy. struck
this solace, this febrifuge, this anodyne, this
Gospel medicine?
"Oh," you say, 81 haven't any faith in it,"
As matter of accommodation, let me in
troduce you to the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Great Physician. why you say II
haven't any faith in Him." Well, now, will
you not just let him come and try His power
on your soul9 Just let me introduce Him to
you. do not ask you to take my word for
it. do not ask you take the advice of cler-
gymen. Perhaps the clergymen may be
prejudiced; perhaps we may bs speaking
professionally; perhaps We may give you
that subject; so 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 dramatist; as
William Wilberforce, 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 preach-but they come out, and
putting down, one his telescope. and another
the electricians wire, and another the par
liamentary scroll-they come out, and they
commend Christ as q comfort to all the peo-
pie, Christ that the world needs. Now
DO not ask you to take the advice Of clergy
men. Take the advice Of these laymen. 1t
does not make any difference to me at this
juncture what you have said against the
Bible; it does not make any difference to ma
at this juncture 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 VINO
Immediately occur to my mind. You see
do not scoR at skepticism. I never scoRed
at skepticism. Ihave been q natural skeptic.
do not know what the first word was that
I uttered after entering the world, but
think it must have been ''whyF
There were times when doubted the exist
encs Of God, when doubted the divinity Of
Christ, when doubted the Immortality Of
the soul, when I doubted my own existence
when doubted everything. I have been
through the whole curriculum Of doubt, and
you can tell me nothing new about it. !
| have come out from great Sahara desert
| into the calm, warm, sunshiny land OF the
Gospel. know about the other land.
have been there, You can tell me nothing
| new about 1t. And know all about the
other condition of which you do not know
anything-the peace, the comfort, the joy,
the triumph Of trusting In God aud in Jesus
| Christ whom He has sent. So I am not
scoff1ng in regard to it.
It outrages me to see how soon Christian
people give up the prodigal. l heor Chris
tian psople talk as though they thought
the grace of God were chain Of forty or
| dfty links, and when they had run out
then there was nothing to touch the depth
Of mans iniquity. II man were out
| of the deer he would hunt, amid the
bushes and the brakes longer for the lost
game than he would look for lost soul.
They say if a man has had the delirium
| tremens twice he cannot be cured. They
| say If O woman has fallen from integrity
| she cannot be redeemed. All of which is an
| infinite slander 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 fallen9 Well, cannot give you the
exact figures, but can tell you at what
| point He certainly will take him back. Four
| hundred and ninety times. Why do I sar
| tour nunureu ana ninety tlmes3 Because
| the Bible says seventy times seven. Now fig
can fall four times, eight times ten times,
twenty times, one hundred times, four hun
dred times, and yet be saved. Four hun 1red
and ninety times! Why, there is great
| multitude before thu 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. 1
! 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 will not save you, although it
is q 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 have cast
you off, and father has cast you OF, and
mother has cast you off, 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 gracious!
There may be in this house some whose
hand trembles so with dissipation they could
hardly hold hymn boot. I say to such il
! they are here: "You will preach the Gospel