Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1891-01-17

You are not happy. You laugh sometimes
when you are miserable. There come surges
of unhappiness over your soul that almost
swamp you. You are unhappy, struck
this soiace, this febrifuge, tits anodyne, this
Gospel medicinee
''Oh," you say, At haven't any faith in it y
As matter OF accommodation, let me in
troduce you to the lord Jesus Christ, tina
Great Physician. why" you say. ~
haven't any faith in Him. Wen, now, will
you not JUS, let him come and try His power
on your scI.? Just let me introduce Him TO
you. do not ask you to take my word for
it. l do not ask you take the advice Of cler-
gymen. Perhaps the clergy zen may be
prejudicei; perhaps we may be speaking
professionally; perhaps we may give you
wrong advice; perhaps we are morbid on
that subject; so do not ask you to take the
advice OF clergymen. ask you to take the
advice of very respectable laymen, such as
William Shakespeare, the dramatist; as
William Wilberforce, the statesman; as Isaac
Newton, the astronomer; as Robert Boyle,
the philosopher; as Locke the metaphysi-
clan: as Morse, the electrician.
These men never preached-they never
pretended to preach-but they come out, and
putting down, one his telescope, and another
the electricians wire, and another the par
liamentary scroll-they come out, and they
commend Christ as comfort to all the peo-
pie a Christ that the world needs. Now I
do not ask you to take the advice of clergy
men. Take the advice of thess laymen. 1t
does not make any difference to me at this
juncture what you have said against the
Bible; it does not make any difference to me
at this juncture how you may have carica-
tured religion. Take the advice of men WAC
are prominent in secular affairs, as these
men whom have mentioned and others who
tYx1ty ,,ds fal -
do not SCOT at skeDticism. / never scoffed
at skepticisn. Ihare been natural skeptic.
do lot know what the first word was tnat
| uttered after entering the world, but I
think it must have been why
There were times when doubted the exist
ence of God, when / doubted the divinity of
Christ when | doubted the immortality of
the soul, when doubted my own existence,
when | doubted everything. have been
through the whole curriculum Of doubt, and
you can tell me nothing new about it
have come out from great Sahara desert
into the calm, warm sinsniny land of the
Gospel. / know about the other land /
have been there. You can tell me nothing
new about it. Aud know all about the
other condition of which you do not know
anything-the peace, the comfort the joy,
TIE triumph OF trusting in God and in Jesus
Christ whom He has sent. So | am not
soothing i'll regard to it,
1t outrages me to see HOY soon Christian
people give up the prodigal. | hear Chris
tan people talk as though they thought
the grace of God were chain of forty or
fifty links, and when they had run out
then there was nothing to touch the depth
OF a mans iniquity If man vera out
hunting for deef, and got off the track
OF the deer, he would hunt, amid the
bushes and the brakes longer for the lost
game than he would look for a lost soul
They say if man has had the delrium
trenens twics he cannot be cured. Tney
say 1t woman has fallen from integrity
she cannot be redeemed. All of which is an
infinite SANDER on the Gospel of the Son of
God. Men VINO say that know nothing about
practical religion in their own hearts. How
many times will God take back a man
who has fallen? We'll, l cannot give You the
exact figures, but l can tell you at what
point He certainly will tate him back. -Four
hundred and ninety times. Why do l say
four hundred and ninety times? Because
the Bible says seventy times seven. Now fig
uro that cut. you vino do not think a maa
can fall four times. eight times ten times,
twenty times, ons hundred times, four hun
dred times, and yet be saved. Four hundred
AMI ninety timssi Why, there is a great
multitude be- ore the tnrone OF God who
plunged into all the depths of iniquity
There were no sins they did not commit; but
they were washed of body and washed of
mind and washed of soul, and they are be-
fore the throne of God now forever happy.
say that to encourage any man who feels
there is no chance fer him.
Good Templars will not save you, although
they are grand institutions. Sons of Tenn
perance will not ssve you, although there is
no better society on earth. Signing the tenn
perance pledge will not save you, although it
is grand thing to do. No one but God can
nA r1,Ntv III -,
bromide of potassium or any thing that the
apothecary caa mix. Put you trust i'll Godl
After the church has cast you off, and tae
bank has cast you OF, and social circles have
cast you off, and all good society have cast
you off, and father has cast you Of and
mother has cast you off, at your first cry for
help God will bend clean down to that ditch
of your iniquity to help you out. Oh. what
God He is! Long suffering and graciousI
There may be in this house some whose
hand tremeles so with dissipation they could
hardly hold hymn boo5. l say to suca if
they are here: You will preach the Gospel
yet. You will yet, some of YOU, Gerry the
hoiy communion through the aises, and YOU
VIII be acce 2table to everybody because
everyoody VIII know you are saved ard
purified by the grace of God, Gnia coEss-
Grated pe /, wholly consecrated. Your 0usi-
ness HIS got to coma up, your physical
health IS to be rebuilt, your family is to be
resGo' ed, the Church of God on earth and
IN b aaven is to rejoice over your coming.
20 Jher sheep have I which are not OF this
fcid." 1t this is not the Gospe | do not
t-now what the Gospel is. 1t can scale any
height, 1t can fathom any DEPTH il can COM
pass any infnity. l think one reason why
There are not more people saved is we do
not swing the door wide enough open.
NOW there is only one class of persons in
this house about whom | have any despond.
ency, and that is those who have been hear
ing the Gospel for perhaps twenty, thirty,
forty years. Their outward life is neral,
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 effect upon them than the shining
OF the moon on the city pavement The
publlcans and the harlots go into the king
dom of God before they. They went through,
some of them, tie revival of 1857, when 500
COO souls were brought to God. SomeSof them
went through great revivals in individual
churches. Still unpardone unblessed, I'M
saved. They were merely spectators GOSPEL
hardened! After awhile we will hear that
they are sick, and then that they are dead,
and then that they died without any hope.
Gospel hardened.
But | turn away from all such with thrill
of hope to those who are not Gospel hard
cuoas oOllt VI YOU nave uOb hGdTU, peTUADs,
five sermons in five years. This whole ssb-
lect has been novelty to you for some time
You are not Gospel hardened; you know you
are not Gospel hardened. The whole subject
comes freshly to your mind. hear some soul
saying: "Oh, my wasted lifel Oh, the bitter
past! Oh the graves l stumbled over!
Whittier shall fys The future is so dark, 50
dark, so very DARK! Gcd help mer'
Oh, am so glad for that last utterancei
That was a prayer and as soon as you be-
gin to pray that turns all heaven this way,
and God STEPS in, and He beats hack the
hounds of temptation to their kennels, and
He throws all around the pursued soul the
covert of HIS pardonins mercy. | heard
something fall What was it? 1t was the
bars around the sheepfold, the bars of the
fence around the sheepfoid. 4 he Heavenly
Shepherd let them fall, and the hunted sheep
of the mountain come bounding in, some
with fleece torn of the branlbles, and others
with feet lame from the dogs but bounding
in. Thank Godl ''Other sheephave which
are not of this fold"
God forbid that any of you should have the
lamentation Of the dying nobieman wko had
every opportunity of salvation, but rejected
all, and who wrote or dictated these words:
Before you receive this my final state will
be determined. am throwing my last stake
for eternity, and tremble and studder for
the important issue. Oh, my friend, with
what horror do Irecall the hours of vanity
we have wasted together; but have SPLEEN
did passage to the grave. die in state. and
languish under a gilded canopy am ex-
piring on soft and downy pillows, and am
respectfully attended by my servants and
physicians My dependents sigh, NV sisters
weep, my father bends beneath a load of
years and grief. But oh. which of these
will answer my summons at the high tri-
bunals And which of these will bail me from
the arrest of dsath9 While some fiattering
panegyric is pronounced at my interment, i
may be hearing my just condemnation at
su- RENE tribunal. AdieuT'