The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1891-06-25

through them to their associates, keep
out OF the bewildering, belittling. destroy
Ing and angry controversies abroad. The
questions our doctors of divinity are try
ing to settle will not be settled until the
day after the day Of judgment. 1t is
such Door economy of time to spen d
years and years in trying to tathon the
unfathomable, when IN five minutes in
heaven we will know all We want to
know. Wait till we get Our throne.
Walt until the light Of eternity flashes
upon our newly ascended spirits. 1t Is
useless for ants on different sides of q
mole hill to try to discuss the compara-
tive heights OF Mount Blanc and Mount
Washington. Let me say to all Young
men about to enter the ministry that
soon the greatest novelty in the world
will be the unadulterated religion Of
Jesus Christ. Preach that and YOU will
have crowd. The world is sick to re-
gurgitation with the modern quacks In
religion. The world has been swinging
of from the old Gospel. but 1t 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 sickl 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 he
made the Bible as he knows now. lie
mas not learned single thing In six
thousand years. He knew at the start
that the human race would 90 wrong and
what would be the best means of its res
toration and redemption. And the law
which was thundcred on Mount Sinai,
from whose top L had the two tables Of
stone in yonder wall transported, is the
perfect law. And the Gospel which
Christ announced while dying on that
mount from which l brought that stone
in yonder wall, and which Paul preached
on that hill from which 1 brought yon-
der granite, is the Gospel that is going
to save the world. Young man, but on
that Gospel armor! No other sword
will triumph like that. No other shie i'd
will protect like that. No other helmet
will glance Off the battle axes like that.
Our theological seminaucs arc doing
glorious work, but if ever such thcoloei-
cal seminaries shall cease to prepare
young men for this plain GOSPEL adyo.
cacY and shall become mere philosophi-
cal schools for guessing about God and
guessing about the Bible and guessing
about the soul, theywill cease their use.
lulness, and young men, as in olden
time, when they would study for the
Gospel ministry, will put themselves
under the care OF some intelligent and
warm hearted pastor and kncel with
HIM IN family prayer at the parsonage,
and go with him into tbe room Of tho
sick and the dying, and see what VIC
tories the grace Of God can gain when
the couch of the dying saint is the mara
thOn.
VITAL RELIGION IS THE REMEDY.
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
pulplts and our churches and our ecclcs-
iastlcal courts, and over all Christen-
dom! That would be the end of contro-
versy. While such deluge would float
the ark of God higher an higher, it
would put all the bears aud tigers and
reptiles Of raging ecclesiasticism fifteen
cuDits under.
Now, what is the simple fact that YOU
IN the pew and Sabbath school class and
reformatory association and we in the
pulpits have to deal with? 1t is this:
That God has somewhere, and it mat
ters not where, but somewhere. provid
ed a great heaven, great for quietness
Tor those who want quiet; great for vast
assemblage for those who like multi
tudes; great for architecture for those
who like architecture; great for beautiful
landscape for those who like beautiful
landscape; great for music for those who
like music; great for PROFESSIONS for
those who like armies on white horses,
and great for anything that one especi-
ally desires in such rapturous domin-
ion; and through the doings of one who
was born about five miles south OF Jeru-
salem and died about ten minutes walk
from its eastern gate all may enter that
great heaven for the earnest and heart
felt asking. Is that all? That is all.
What, then, is your work and mine?
Our work is to pursuade people to face
that way and start thitherward and fin.
ally 60 in. But has not religion some
thing to do with this world as we'll as
the next? Oh yes; but do you not see
that if the people start for heaven on
their way there they will do all the good
they can? They Will at the very start
o. the journey get so much Of the spirit
of Christ, which is a spirit of kindness
and self sacrifice and generosity and bur-
den bearing and helpfulness, ti..t every
step they take will resound with good
deeds. Oh, get your religion of Of stills!
Get it down out of the high towers! Get
1t on level with the wants and woes of
our poor human race! Get it out Of the
dusty theological books that few people
read, and put it In their hearts and lives.
Good thing Is 1t to profess religion when
you join the church, but every day,
somehow, we ought to profess religion.
a peculiar patchwork quilt was, dur
in" the civil war, made by lad y and
sent to theghospitals at the front. She
had boy in the army, and was natur-
ally interested in the welfare of soldiers.
But what a patchwork quilt she sent!
On every block Of the quilt was pas
sage OF Scripture or verse Of hymn.
The months and years of the war went
by. On that quilt many wounded man
had lain and suffered and died. But one