The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1891-01-15
THE LONDONDERRY SITTER,

"You viii preach the gospel yet. YOU
will yet, some of you, carry the holy
communion through the aisles, and 20,
will be acceptable to everybody be
cause everybody will know you an
saved and purified by tho grace of God
and a consecrated man, wholly conse
Grated. Your business has got to COM
up, your physical health is to be ~
built, your family is to be restored, tie
Church of God on earth and in heaven
is to rejoice over your coming. Other
sheep have | which are not of this
fold" If this is not the gospel | dc
not know what the gospel is 1t can
scale any height, il can fathom any
depth, it can compass any iniinity. |
think one reason why there are not
more people saved is we do not swing
the door wide enough open.
Now there is only one class of persons
In this house about whom have any
dependency, and that is those who
have been hearing the gospel for per
haps twenty, thirty, forty years, Their
outward life is moGal, 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 gospel hardened. The gospel
has no more effect upon them than the
shining of the uoon on the city pave
ment, The publicans and the harlots
go into the kingdom of God before
they They went through, some of
them, the revival of 1857, when 500, 900
souls We're brought to God Some of
them went through great rcvivals in
individual churches, Still unpardoncd,
unblessed, unsaved. They were merely
spectators. Gospel hardened After
awhile we will hear that they are sick,
and then that they are dead, and th.n
that they died without any hope. Cos
pei hardened
But | turn away from all such with
a thrill of hope to those who are not
gospel hardened Some of you have
not heard, perhaps, five sermons in five
yeaT, This whole subject has been a
novelty to you for some time. You are
not gospel hardened; you know you
are not gospel hardened The whole
subject comes freshly to your mind. |
hear some soul saying: ooh, my wasted
life Oh, the bitter past Oh, the
graves l stumbled over! Whittier shall
| fy2 The future is so dark, so dark,
so very dark! God help mel
Oh, | am SO glad for that last utter
ance! That was a prayer, and as soon
as you begin to pray that turns heaven
this way, and God steps in, and he
beats back the hounds of temptation
to their kennels, and ne throws all
around the pursued soul the covert of
his pardoning mercy. heard some
thing fall What was it2 1t was the
bars around the sheepfold, the bars of
the fence around the sheepfold. The
Heavenly Shepherd let them fall, and
the hunted sheep of the mountain come
bounding in, some with fleece torn of
the brambles, 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 oppor-
tunity of salvation, but rejected all,
and who wrote or dictated these words:
Before you receive this my final state
will be determined. am throwing my
last stake for eternity, and tremble and
shudder for the important issue Oh,
my friend, with what horror do l recall
the hours of vanity we have wasted to-
gether; but have splendid passage
to the grave die in state, and Ian
guish under gilded canopy. | am ex-
piring on soft and downy pillows, and
am respectfully attended by my SER
wants and physicians. My dependents
sigh my sisters weep, my father bends
beneath a load of years and grief. But
OH which of these will answer my sum-
mons at the high tribunal! And which
of these will bail me from the arrest of
death2 While some flattering pane
gyric is pronounced at my internent, /
may be hearing my just condemnation
at a supreme tribunal. Adieu!'