Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1891-01-30

rigging. run away, my Id1S! pun away
They come up. and he says: Hold now
there five minutes and we viii save you.
Steady steady! Now give me your hand
Leap! Thank God, he is saved Thank God,
he is saved!"
So there are men now in the breakers.
They have made shipwreck OF life. While
we come out to save them, some are swept off
swept off before we can reach thenl-and
there are others still hanging on. Steady
there among the slippery places! Steady!
Leap into this hfeboat! Now is your chance
for heaven! This hour some Of you are go
ing to be saved. Far away from God, you
are going to be brought nigh. Other sheep
have I which are not Of this fold"
You are now this hour in the tide OF
Christian influences. You are going TO be
swept in; your voice is going to be heard in
prayer; you are going TO be consecrated TO
God: YOU are going to live life Of useful
ness and your deathbed is going to be sur
rounded by Christian syHlpathizers. and de-
vout men will carry you TO your burial when
vour work is done, and these words will be
chisoled for your epitaph Precious in the
sight of the Lord is the death of His saints"
And all that history is going to begin to-
day. "Other sheep have which are not OF
this fold"
Again I remark, the Heavenly Shepherd
is going to find many of His sheep among
those who are now rejecter5 of Christianity.
do not know how you came to reject Chris
tianity | do not know whether it was
through hearing Theodore Parker preach, OF
whether it was reading Remains Life OF
Jesus " or whether it was through soIns
skeptic in the store or factory. Or 1t may be
-proba bly is the casa-that you were dIs-
pusted with religion aud disguised with
Christianity because some man VINO pro
fessed to be a Christian defrauded you, and
he being. a member of the church, ana you
taking hina as a representative OF the Chris
tian religion, you said, ''Wel, il that's re-
igion. I don't want any Of 1t"
do not know how you came to reject
Christianity but you frankly tell Ine 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 beirg, although you
think He was a very good man. You say,
eff the Bible be true-the most Of tie Bible
be true-l 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 All obliging person. If should come to
you and asl, of you favor you would grant
it if it were possible. It would be JOY Tor
you to grant me favor. Ii any OF your
friends came to you and wanted an accom-
mediation and you could accommodate them,
how glad you would be!
Now am going to ask OF you favor. l
want you to oblige me. The accOmmoda-
ton will cost you nothing, and you will give
me great happiness OF course you will not
deny me. want you as an experiment to
try the Christian religion. II it does not
stand the test, discard it; if it does, receive
it.
If you were very SICK and you had been
given up Of the doctors, and 1 came to You,
and took a bottle OF medicine from my
pocket and said, "Hero is medicine I am
sure will help you; it has cured fifty people, .
you would say, ''Oh, haven't any conf
dence in it; they tell me all these medicines
will fail me-" well" say, "will you not,
just try it@' Swell" you say, 81 have no
objection to trying it; if it win be any sat
isfaction to you l will try it," You take it.
Now you are sick in disquietude, sick in sin.
You are not happy. You laugh sometimes
of unhappiness over your soul that almost
swamp you. You are unhappy, struck
through with unrest. Now, will you not try
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, ''Whv." YOU say. 81
haven't any faith III Him." Wei, now, VIII
you not lust let him come and try His power
on your soul? just let me introduce Him to
you. DO not ask you to take my word for
it. do not as,l you take the advice of cler-
gyn1en. Perhaps the clergynen may be
prejudiced; perhaps we may be speaking
professionally; perhaps we may give you
wrong advice; perhaps we are morbid on
that subject; so do not ask you to take the
advice Of clergynen. | ask you to take the
advice of very respectable laymen, such as
William Shakespeare, the dramatist; as
William WilberfOIce, 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
= electricians wire, and another the par
4amentary scroll--they come out, and they
commend Christ as a 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 Iaymen. 1t
does not make any difference to me at this
Juncture what you nave said against the
Bible; 1t does not make any difference to me
at this juncture how you may have carica-
tured religion. Take the advice Of men VINO
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 sneDticiSnl. [ never scoffed
at skepticisGn. Ihave been a natural skeptic
do not know what the first word was that
l uttered after entering thu world, but l
thmk it must have been WHY"
There were times when doubted the exist
enoa Of God, when I doubted the divinity of
Christ, when | doubted the imnOr taiity of
the soul, when | doubted my own existence
when l doubted everything. [ have been
through the whole curriculum Of doubt and
You can tell me nothing new about it. I
have come out from a great Sahara desert
into the calm, warm, sllnshiny land OF the
Gospel. | know about the other land. I
have been there. You can tell me- nothing
new about it, And [ know all about the