The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-01-21

/ believe and you believe You believe in
love-a fathers love, a mothers love.
wifes love, a child's love. Now, let me tell
you. God loves you more than all ofthem
together, and you must come in, you will
come in. Christ looks in all tenderness,
with the infinite tenderness of the gospel
into your soul and he says: ''This is your
time for heaven" and then he waves his
hand to the.people of God and he SAYS:
"Other sheep have l which are not of this
fold"
Again l remark, the Heavenly Shep-
herd is going to get many of his sheep
among those who have been flung away
because of evil habits
1t outraGes meto see how soon Christian
people give up the prodigal. Ihear Chris
tian people talk as though they thought
the grace of God were q chain of forty or
fifty links, and when they had run out
then there was nothing to touch the depth
of a mans iniquity. III a man were out
hunting for deer, and got off the trail of
the deer. he would hunt amid the bushes
and brakes longer for the lost game than
he will look for a lost soul.
They saw il a man has had the delirium
tremens twice he cannot be cured. They
say If a woman has fallen from integrity
she can not be redeemed. All of which is
OF God. Men who saw that know nothing
about practical religion in their hearts. How
many times will God take a man who has
fallen? Well, | cannot give you the exact
figures, but can tell you at what point
He will certainly take him back. Four
hundred and ninety-nne times. Why do
/ say four hundred and ninety-nine times?
Because the bible saws seventy times
seven. Now figure thie out, you who do
not think man can fall four times, eight
times, ten times, twenty times, one hun
dred times, four hundred times, and yet
be saved. Four hundred and ninety nine
times! Why, there is 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
before the throne of God now forever
happy. | say that to encourage any Liam
who feels there is no chance for him.
Good templars will not save you, al
though they are grand institution. Sons
OF temperance will not save you, although
there is no better society on earth Sign
ing the temperance pledge will not save
you, although it is grand thing to do.
No one but God can save you. Do not
put your confidence in bromide OF potas-
sium, or anything that the apOthecary can
mix. Put your trust in God After the
church has cast YOU off. and the bank has
cast YOU off, and social circles have cast
you of, and all good society has cast you
Off and father has cast you off, 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 God he Is! Long suffering
and gracious
There may be in this house some whose
hand trembles so with dissipation they
could hardly hold hymn-book. ] say to
such, if they are here, "You will preach
the gospel yet; you will vet, some of you,
carry the holy communion through the
a.sles, and you will be acceptable TO every
body, because everybody will know you
are saved and purified by the grace OF
God, and consecrated man, wholly con-
secrated. Your business has got to come
up, your physical health is to be rebuilt,
your family is to be restored, the church
of God on earth ana in heaven is to rejoice
over your coming. "0ther sheep have |
which are not of this fold" If this is
not the gospel, l do not know what
the gospel is 1t can scale any
height, it can fathom any depth, it
can compass any infinity. | think one
saved is we do not swing the door wide
enough open. Now there is only one class
of persons in this house about whom I
have any dependency, and that is those
who have been hearing the gospel for per-
haps twenty, thirty, forty years. Their
outward life moral, but they tell you
frankly they do not love the Lord Jesus
Christ, have not trusted him. have not
been born again by the Spirit of God.
They are gospe.-hardened. The gospel
has no more effect upon them than the
shiuing of the moon on the city pavement.
The pubicans and the harlots 90 into the
kingdom of God before they. They went
through, some of them, the revival of
1857. when 100000 souls were brought to
God. Some of them went through great re-
vivals in individual churches. Still unpar-
doned, nnblessed. unsaved. They were
merely spectators. Gospel hardenedl
After awhile we will hear that they are
dead, and then that they died without
any hope, gospel-hardened. But / turn
away from all such with thrill of hope
to those who are not gospel-hardeEed.
Some of you have not heard, perhaps,
five sermons in five years. This whole
subject has been novelty TO you for
come time. You are not gospel-hardened;
you know you are not gospel hardened.
The whole subject comes freshly to your
mind. Ihear some soul saving: 80, my
wasted lifel o, the bitter past O, the
graves stumbled overl Whittier shall l
fly? The future is so dark, so dark, so
very dark. God help me-"
Oh, am so glad for that last utterance
That was prayer, and as soon as you be-
gin to pray, that turns all heaven this way,
and God steps in, and he beats back the
hounds of temptation to their kennels, and
he throws all around the pursued soul the
covert of his pardoning mercy. / heard
something fall. What was it? 1t was the
bars around the sheepfold The Heavenly
Shepherd let them fall, and the hunted
sheep OF the mountain came bounding in,
some with fleece torn of the bramb,es,
and others with feet lame from the dogs,
but bounding in. Thank God! "Other
sheep have | which are not Of this fold"
God forbid that any of you should have
the lamentation of the dying nobleman
who had had every opportunity of saliva
ton but rejected all, and who wrote or
dictated these words: "Before you receive
this my final state will be determined. l
i am throwing my last stake for eternity,
and tremble and shudder for the import
ant issue. Oh, myfriend. with what horror
do i recall the hours of vanity we have
wasted together; but have a splendid
passage TO the grave. die in state and
+ Il