The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1891-01-28

c0uSc VeryDOuy Will know you are
saved and purified by the grace of God,
and a consecrated man, wholly c,mse-
Grated. 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 and in Heaven
is to rejoice over your coming. "Other
sheep have / which are not of
this fold" If this is not the Cos
pei, lido not know what the gospel is.
1t can scale any height, it can fathom
any depth, it can compass any infinity.
l think one reason why there are not
more people saved is we do not swing
the doors 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 hear
ing the gospel for perhaps, 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 gospel
hardened The gospel has no more eff
feet upon them than the shining of the
moon on the city pavements. The pub
llcans and the harlots go into the king
dom 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
revivals in individual churches. Still
unpardoned, unblessed, unsaved. They
were merely spectators. Gospel-hard-
ened! After awhile we will hear that
they are sick, and then that they are
dead, and then that they died without
any hope. But turn away from all
such with thrill of hope to those who
are not gospel-hardened. Some of you
have not heard, perhaps, five sermons
in five years. This whole subject has
been a novelty to you for some time.
You are not gospel-hardered; you know
you are not gospel-hardened. The
whole subject comes freshly to your
mind l hear some soul saying: 20
my wasted life! o the bitter past!
the graves l stumbled over! Whittier
shall l fly? The future is so dark, SC
dark, SO very dark. God help me!'
0, am so glad for that last utterance
That was a prayer, and as soon as YOU
begin to pray, that turns all HEAVIER
this way. and God steps in, and He beats
back the hounds of temptation to theil
kennels, and He throws all around the
pursued soul the covert of His pardon
ing mercy. I heard something fall
What was it? It was the bars AROUND
the sheepfold, the bars of the fenc,
around the sheepfold. The Heavenl,
Shepherd let them fall, and the hunted
sheep of the mountain come bounding
in, some with fleece torn of the BRAN
bles and others with feet lame from
the dogs, but bounding in. Thank God
"Other sheep have which are not o
this fold"
God forbid that any of you shoul
have the lamentation of the dyin
nobleman who had had every oppol
tunity of salvation but rejected all, an
who wrote or dictated these words
"Before you receive this, my final stat
will be determined. am throwing m
last stake for eternity and tremble an
! shudder for the important issue. o, m
,, friend; with what horror do recall tn
: hours of vanity we have wasted tt
gether; but l have splendid passag
to the grave, l die in state, and languis
under gilded canopy. 1 am expirin
on soft and downy pillows, and am n
, specially attended by my servants an
. physicians, My dependents sigh, m
sisters weep, my father bends beneat
a load of years and grief; but oh, whic
of these will answer my summons q
the high tribunal? And which of thes
will bail me from the arrest of death
While some fattering panegyric is PR
nounced at my interment, may +
, hearing my just condemnation at
supreme tribunal. Adieu!''
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