Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1891-07-18

us; angels OF God were all around
about us; they could not overcome us;
but one day, perhaps ut Methodist
anxious seat, or Presbyterian cate
chetical lecture, or at q burial, or ON
horseback, power seized us and made
us get down and made us tremble and
made us kneel and made us cry for mer-
cy, and we tried to wrench ourselves
awav from the grasp, but we could not.
II flung us fiat, and when we arose we
were as much changed US Gourgis, the
heather, who went into q prayer meet
ing with dagger and gun to disturb
the meeting and destroy it, but the next
day was found crying: 20! my great
sins! o. my great Saviour" and for
eleven years he preached the gospel OF
Christ TO his fellow mountaineers. the
last words Of his dying lips being Free
grace" Oh! it was free grace!
There was u man who was for ten
years was hard drihker. The dread
full appetite had sent down its roots
around the palate and the tongue, and
on down until they were interlinked
, with the vitals of the body, mind and
s0ll: but he has not taken any stimu-
lants for two years. w hat did that:
Not temperance societies Not prohl-
bition laws Not moral suasion. Con-
version did it. Why" said one upon
whom the great change had come, sir,
feel just as though 1 were somebody
else" There is sea captain who swore
all the way from New York to Havana,
and from Havana to San Francisco, and
when he was in port he was worse than
when he was on sea. What power was
il that washed his tongue clean OF pro-
families and made him psalm-singer?
Conversion by the Holy Spirit. There
are thousands Of people here to-day who
are no more what they once were than
water lily is nightshade, or morning
lark is vulture, or day is night.
Now, If | should demand that all
those people here present who have felt
the converting power OF religion should
would spring to their feet with more
alacrity than they ever sprang to the
dance, the tears mingling with their
exhilaration as they cried, I'VE are
witnesses" And il they tried to sing
the old Gospel hymn they would break
down with emotion by the time they got
to the second line:
Ashamed OF Jesus. that dear friend
On Wnom my hopes OF heaven depend?
Nc. When blush. be this my shame:
That no more revere his name,
Come, all We who have been out to
the grave to weep there come all, We
comforted souls get off OF your knees.
Is there no power in this gospel to
soothe the heart? Is there no power in
this religion to quiet the worst par
oxysm OF grief? There comes up an
answer from comforted widowhood and
orphanage, and childlessness, saying,
"Aye, aye, we are witnesses"
Again remark that we are witnesses
OF the fact that religion has power to
give composure in the last moment. |
shall never forget the first time that l
confronted death. We went across the
cornfields III the country. I was lead
by my fathers hand, and we came to
the farmhouse where the bereavement
had come and we saw the crowd OF car
riages and wagons but there was one
carriage that especially attracted my
boyish attention, and it had black
plumes I said: ''What's that? what's
that? Why those black tassels at the
top?" And after it was explained to me
l was lifted up to look upon the bright
face OF an aged Christian woman, who
three days before had departed in
triumph. The whole scene made an i'm
preston | never forgot.
In our sermons and in our lay exhor-
tations we are very apt, when We want
to bring illustrations OF dying triumph,
to go back to some distinguished per-
sonage-to John Knox or a Harriet
Newell. But want you for witnesses.
l want 10 know If you have ever seen
anything 10 make you believe that the
religion OF Christ can give composure
in the final hour. Now, in the courts,
attorney, jury and judge will never adj
nit mere hearsay. They demand that
the witness must have seen with his
own eyes, or heard with his own ears,
so am critical in my examination OF
you now; and l want to know whether
you have seen or heard anything that |
makes you believe that the religion OF |
Christ gives composure in the final
hour. 20, yes." you say, II saw my
father and mother depart. There was
q great difference in their death beds.
by the one we felt more VEN
GRAFTON. BY the other, there was more
Before the one you bowed perhaps in
awe. In the other case you felt as il
vou would like TO go along with her.
How did they feel in that last hour?
How did they seem to act? Were they
very much frightened? Did they take
hold of this world with both hands as
though they did not want to give it up?
20, no." you say: mo; remember as
hough it were yesterday: she had a
lind word for rs all. and there were a
ew mementoes distributed among the
and then she told us how kind
We must be to our father in his loneli-
less, and then she kissed us goodby and
vent TO sleep as child in a cradle" '
What made her so composed? Natural
"No," you say, mother was
cry nervous; when the carriage in