The Iola register., 1891-01-23

4 among those who have been flung OF
evil habit. 1t outrages me to see how
soon Christian people give up the prodi-
gal. / hear Christian people talk as
though they thought the grace of God
were a chain of forty or fifty links and
when they had run out then there was
nothing to touch the depth of a m ans
| iniquity. If man were out hunting
! for deer, and got off the track of the
deer, he would hunt amid the bushes
and the brakes longer for the lost game
than he will look for a lost soul.
They say if man has had the deliri-
um tremens twice he can not be cured.
They say that if a woman has fallen
| from integrity she can not be redeemed.
All of which is an infinite slander on
| the Gospel of the Son of God. Men
who say that know nothing about
| practical religion in their own hearts.
How many times viii God take back a
man who has fallen? Well, l can not
| give you the exact figures, but can
| tell you at what point He certainly will
| take him back. Four hundred and
ninety times. Why do say 400 times?
Because the Bible says seventy times
seven. Now, figure that out. you who
do not think a man can fall four time s,
eight times, ten times. twenty times,
one hundred times, four hundred times,
and yet be saved. Four hundred and
ninety times! Why, there is a great
multitude before the Throne of God
who plunged into all the depths of in
-. IL 4
not commit, but they were washed of
,Ody, and washed of mind, and washed
of soul, and they are before the Throne
of God now forevever happy. l say that
to encourage any man who feels that
there is no chance for him.
Good Templars will not save You, al
though they are grand institution. Sons
of Temperance will not save you, al
though there is no better society on
earth. Signing the temperance pledge
will not save you, although it is grand
thing to do. No one but God can save
you. Do not put your confidence in
bromide of potassium, or any thing that
the apothecary can mix. Put your trust
in God! After the church has cast you
off, and the bank has cast you off, and
social circles have cast YOU off and all
good society has cast you off, and father
has cast you off, 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 o, what
God He is? Long suffering and gra-
cious!
There may be in this house some
whose hand trembles so with dissipa-
ton they could hardly hold hymn
book. say to such. if they are here,
"You will preach the gospel yet: you
will yet, some of you, carry the holy
communion through the aisles. and you
will be acceptable TO everybody, be-
cause everybody will know you are
saved and purified by the grace of God.
and consecrated man. wholly conse-
Grated. Your business has got to come
Up. your physical health is to be re-
built, your family is to be restored, the
church of God on earth and in Heaven
is to rejoice over your coming. ''Other
sheep have | which are not of this fold"
what the gospel is. 1t can scale any
height, it can fathom any depth. it can
compass 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 per-
sons in this house about whom have
any dependency, and that is those who
have been hearing the gospel for per-
har 1tt- if-fx hni~
outward life moral. 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 went through. some of them, the
revival of 1857, when 500, 900 souls were
brought to God. Some of them went
through great revivals in individual
churches. Still unpardoned. unblessed,
unsaved. They were merely spectators.
Gospel-hartened! 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 a thrill
of hope to those who are not gospel
hardened. Some of you have not heard,
perhaps, five sermons in five years.
They are gospel-hardened. The gospel
has no more effect upon them than the
shining of the moon on the city pave
ment. The publicans and the harlots
go into the kingdom of God before they.
This whole subject has been a novelty
to you for some time. You are not Cos
pel-hardened: You know you are not
gospel-hardened The whole subject
comes freshly to your mind. l hear
some soul saying: 20 my wasted life!
o the bitter past! o the graves
stumbled over! Whittier shall 1 fly?
The future is dark. so dark, So very
dark. God help me,''
Oh, am so glad for that last utter
ance! That was prayer, and as soon
as You begin to pray, that turns all
Heaven this way. and God steps in. and
he beats back the hounds of temptation
to their kennels, and he throws all
around the pursued the covert of his
pardoning mercy. l heard something
fall What was it? 1t was the bars
around the sheepfold, the bars of the
fence around the sheepfold. The
Heavenly shepherd let them fall, and
the hunted sheep of the mountain come
bounding in. some. with fleece torn of
the brambles, and others with feet lame
from the dogs, but all bounding in.
Thank God! "Other sheep have which
are not of this fold"
God forbid that any of you should
have the lamentation of the dying
nobleman who had had every oppor-
tunity 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