Sharp County record., 1891-07-02


such a poor economy of time to
spend years and years in trying
to fathom the unfathomable, when IN
five minutes in Heaven we will know
all we want to know. Wait till we get
our throne. Wait until the light Of etcr-
nitv flashes upon our newl y-ascended
spirits. II is useless for ants on differ
ent sides of moIe-hill to try to discuss
the comparative heights of Mount Blanc
and Mount Washington. Let me say
to all young men about to enter the
ministry that soon the greatest nov
elty in the world will be the unadulter-
atedreligion Of Jesus Christ. Preach that
and you will have a crowd. The worldS
sick to regurgitation with the modern
auacks in religion. The world has been
swinging off from the old Gospel but
it will swing back, and by the time you
young men 90 into the pulpits the cry
will be coming up from all the millions
of mankind: Give us the bread Of
life; no sweetened bread, no bread
with sickly raisins stuck here and there
into it, but old fashioned bread as God,
our mother, mixed it and baked it,
You see God knew as much when lie
made the Bible as He knows now. lie
has not learned single thing in SIX
thousand years. He knew az the start
that the human race would go wrong
and what would be the best means Of
it's restoration and redemption. And
the law which was thundered OnMount
Sinai, from whose top l had the two
tables of stone in yonder wall trans
ported, is the perfect law And the
Gospel which Christ announced while
dying on that n cunt from which
brought that stone in yonder wall,
and which Paul preached on that hill
from which l bought yonder granite, is
the Gospel that is going to save the
world. Young man, put on that Gospel
armor! No other sword will triumph
like that No other shield will protect
like that. No other helmet will glance
off the battle-axes like that. Our theo-
logical seminaries are doing glorious
work, but if ever such theological semi
naries shall cease to prepare young men
for this plain Gospel advocacy, and
shall become mere philosophical schools
for guessing about God, and guessing
about the Bible, and guessing about the
soul they will cease their usefulness
and young men, as in olden time, when
they would study for the Gospel min
istry, will put themselves under the
care of some intelligent and warm
hearted pastor, and kneel with him in
family prayer at the parsonage, and 60
with him into the room of the sick and
the dying and see what victories the
grace of God can gain when the couch
of the dying saint is the Marathon.
That is the way the mighty ministers
Of the Gospel were made in olden times
Oh, for a great wave of revival to roll
over our theological seminaries, and
our pulpits, and our churches, and our
ecclesiastical courts and over all Christ
endom. That would be the end OF con-
troversy. While such a deluGe would
float the ark Of God higher and higher,
it would put all the bears and tigers
and reptiles of raging ecclesiasticism
fifteen cubits under.
A peculiar patchwork quilt vas, dur
ing the civil war, made by lady and
sent to the hospitals at the front. She
had boy in the army, and was natur-
ally interested in the welfare of sol
diers. But what patchwork quilt she
sent! On every block of the quilt was
a passage Of Scripture or verse of
hymn. The months and the years OF
the war went by. On that quilt many
wounded man had lain and suffered
and died But one morning the hos
pital nurse saw a patient under the
blanket kissing the figure of leaf
in the quilt and the nurse supposed he
was only wandering in his mind. But
no, he was the son of the mother who
had made the quilt, and recognized
that figure of leaf as part of a gown
his mother used to wear and it re-
minded him of home. "Do you know
where this quilt came from?" he asked.
The nurse answered: "t can find out,
for there was a card pinned fast to it,
and | will find that. Sure enough, it
confirmed what he thought. Then the
nurse pointed to a passage of scrip.
ture in the block Of the quilt, the pas.
sage which says: when he was yet
great way off his father saw him and
ran and fell on his neck and kissed him
Yes" said the dying soldier 81 was a
great way off, but God has met me, and
had compassion on me-" "Shall | write
to your mother and tell her that the
lost one is found, and the dead is alive
again?" lie answered, "G wish you
would, If it would not be too
much trouble" Do you suppose
that woman who made that quilt
and filed it with Scripture passages had
any trouble about who Melchisedeli
was, or how the doctrine OF Gods SOW
ersignty can be harrnonized with mans
free agency, or who wrote the Penta
teuch, or the Inconsistencies Of the
Nicene creed? No, no; go to work for
God and suffering humanity, and all
your doubts, and fears. and mysteries,
and unbeliefs put together will not be
henvv enough TO stir the chemists
scales, which Is accustomed 20 weighing