The Iola register., 1891-01-23

God gains a great deal when you take
sheep from one fold and put them in
another fold. 1t is the lost sheep on
the mountains you want to bring back
the lost sheep on the mountains. And
they are coming to-day.
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 to-day. ''Other sheep have
which are not of this fold
Again remark, the Heavenly Shep-
herd is going to find many of his sheep
among those who are now rejecters of
Christianity. do not know whether it
was through hearing Theodore Parker
preach, or whether it was reading RE
mans Life of Jesus" 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 re-
ligiOn and disgusted with Christianity
because some man who professed to be
Christian defrauded you, and he being
a member of the church. and you TAX
ing him as representative of the Chris
tan religion, you said: "Well, if that's
religion, ] don't want any of it"
do not know how you came to reject
Christianity, but you frankly tell me
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 being, although you think he
was a 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 believe you
do not believe.
Nevertheless they tell me in regard
to you that You are an accommodating,
you are an obliging person. If should
come to you and ask of you a favor you
would grant it if it We're possible. 1t
would be JOY for you to grant me
favor If any of your friends came to
you and wanted an accommodation and
you could accommodate them how glad
you would be! Now / am going to ask
of you favor. | want you to oblige
me. The accommodation will cost you
and will give me great happi-
ness. OF course you will not deny me.
want you as an experiment to try the
Christian religion. If it does not stand
the test, discard it: if it does, receive it.
If you were very sick, and you had
been given up by the doctors. and |
came to you and l took a bottle of
medicine from my pocket and said:
Here is medicine l am sure will help
you: it has cured fifty people" you
would say: 80, haven't any confidence
in it: they tell me all these medicines
will fail me-" We'll" say. will you
not, as a matter of accommodation to
myself, just try it?'' ''Well," you say,
Il have no objection to trying it: if it
will be any satisfaction to You will
try it" You take it Now you are sick
N disquietude. sick in sin. You are not
happy. You laugh sometimes when
Tou are miserable. There come surges
If unhappiness over your soul that
almost swamp you. Iou are unhappy,
struck through with unrest. Now will
you not try this solace, this febrifuge,
this anodyne, this gospel medicine?
%, you say, Il haven't any faith in
L" As matter of accommodation, let
me introduce You to the Lord
Jesus Christ, the great physician.
why" you say, Il haven't any faith in
Him." Well. now, will you not just let
Him come and try His power on your
soul? Just let me introduce him oyou.
do not ask You to take my word for it.
do not ask you to take the advice of
.lergymen. Perhaps the clergymen may
De prejudiced; perhaps we may be
speaking professionally; perhaps we
nay give You wrong advice; perhaps we
Ire morbid on that subject, so l do not
ask You to take the advice of clergymen.
l ask you to take the advice of very
laymen such as William
the dramatist. as William
the statesman, as Isaac
Newton. the astronomer, as Robert
Boyle. the philosopher, as Locke, the
as Moore, the electri-
.ian. These men never preached-they
never pretended to preach-but they
.ame out, and putting down. one his
telescope and another the electricians
wire. and another the parliamentary
'croll-they come out and commend
Ihrist as a comfort to all the people,
Ihrist that the world needs. Now
do not ask you to take the
advice of clergymen. Take the ad-
ice of these laymen. 1t does not
make any difference to me at
his iuncture what you have said against
he Bible; it does not make any diff
erence to me at this juncture how you
nay have caricatured religion. Take
he advice of men who are prominent in
ocular affairs, as these men whom !
lave mentioned, and others who i'm
occur to your mind. You see
do not scoff at skepticism. never
;coffed at sllepticism. / had good
-eason for not scoffing. / have been a
natural skeptic. l do not know what
he first word was that | uttered after
.ntering this world, but think it must
lave been ''why?" There were times
when doubted the existence of God,
when / doubted the divinity of
,hrist, when l doubted the inn
Mortality of the soul. when l
doubted my own existence. when l
doubted every thing. l have been
through the whole curriculum of doubt.
md you can tell me nothing new about
t. have come out from a great
sahara desert into the calm. warm. sum
hinv land of the GoSpel | know ahOut