Connecticut western news., 1891-01-14
here is the sword you are to take in
 your right hand and fight his battle

with. Quit yourselves like men"
 There are those here, perhaps, who say, "It is now ten, fifteen years since I was in the habit, the regular habit, ot church going" know all about your case. am going to tell you something that will be startling at the first, and that is that you are going to become the Lords sheep. "Oh," you say, ''that is impossible; you don't know my case; you don't know how far I am from any, thing of that kind" know all about your case. have been up and down the world. know why some of you do not attend upon Christian services.
 go further, and make another an- nouncement in regard to you, and that is, you are not only to become the Lords sheep, but you are going to be. come the Lords sheep this hour. God is going to call you graciously by his spirit; you are going to come into the fold of Christ. This sermon shall not be so much for those who are Chris tians. have preached to them, hun dreds and thousands of times. The sermon that I preach now is going to be chiefly for those who con- slider themselves outsiders, but who may happen to be in the house, and Xhe chief employment of the Christian people here today will be to pray for those who are not accustomed to at tend upon Christian sanctuaries.
 When the steamer Atlantic went to pieces on Mars Rock why did that brave minister of the gospel. of whom we have all read, go out in the lifeboat9 Why did he not stay and look after the passengers that got ashore, wrapping hannels around them. and kindling fires for them, and preparing them food. There was plenty of work to be ready escaped. An! that brave man knew that there were others who would take care of those, and so he said: Man the lifeboatl Pull away, my lads, pull awayl Wonder is a man; there is a woman freezing in the rig ging. Pull away" see the oar blades bend in the strong pull of the oarslnen. Then they come up to the wreck. The woman is frozen. She drops into the wave-alasl- poor wo1n- an-and washes out to sea. But then Mir. Ancient says: 'There is a man yet hanging to the rigging. Pull away. my ladsl pull away!" They come up. and he says: Hold now there Ave minutes and we will save you. Steadyl steady Now give me your hand. Leap Thank God, he is savedl Thank God, he is savedl"
 So there are men now in the break CTS. They have made a shipwreck of life. While we come out to save them, some are swept off-swept off before we can reach them-and there are others still hanging on. Steady there among the slippery placesl Steady Leap into this lifeboat! Now is your chance for heavenl This hour some of you are going to be saved Far away from God, you are going to be brought nigh "Other sheep have which are not~of this fold"
 Christ says that ministers of the gos- pei are to be fishers for men, Now, when l go fishing do not want to fish in anybody else's pond. do not want to go along Hohokus creek, where there are ten or fifteen men fishing, and drop my line just about where they are drop ping their lines. should like to get in a Newfoundland fishing smack and push out to sea fifty miles beyond the breakers. do not think the Church of God gains a great deal when you take sheep from one fold and put them in another fold. It is the lost sheep on the mountains you want to bring back
 the lost sheep on the mountains And they are coming today
 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 usefulness, and your death bed is going to be surrounded by Chris tian sympathizers, and devout men will carry you to your burial when your work is done, and these words will be chiseled for your epitaph
 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints" And all that history is going to begin today. "Other sheep have I which are not of this fold"
 Again 1 remark, the Heavenly Shep herd is going to find many of his sheep among those who are now rejecters of Christianity. do not know how you came to reject Christianity. I do not know whether it was through hearing Theodore Parker preach, or whether it was reading Renan's Life of Jesus,' y or whether it was through some skeptic in the store or factory. Or it may be- probably is the case-that you were disgusted with religion and disgusted with Christianity because some man
 who professed to be a Christian de-
 f-auded you, and he being member of the church, and you taking him as a
 representative of the Christian religion, you said, Well, if that's religion, don't want any of it.
 do not know how you came to re-
 ject Christianity, but you frankly tell
 me you do reject it; you do not think
 t'le Bible is the word of God, although
 there are many things in it you admire you do not think that Christ was a divine being, although you think he
 was very good man. You say, "If
 the Bible be true-the most of the Bible be true-I nevertheless think the earlier part of the Bible is an allegory."
 And there are fifty things that l believe you do not believe. Nevertheless they
 tell me in regard to you that you are
 an accommodating, you are an obliging norSnn If I shnnld coma tn uOl1 and