Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1891-01-16

Inoul, now Bldu you WOulu DC!
Now l am going TO ask of you favor,
want you TO oblige me. The accommo-
dation will cost you nothing, and will give
me great happiness. OF course you VIII
not deny me. / want you as an experi-
ment to try the Christian religion. II 1t
does not stand the test, discard il; If IL
does, receive it.
Again l remark, the Heavenly Shep-
herd is going to get many of his sheep
among those who have been flung of evil
habit.
II outrages me to see how soon Christian
people give up the prodigal l hear Christian
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
iniquHy. If a man were out hunting for
deer and got Off tho 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 delirium
tremens twice he cannot be cured. They
say if a 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 who say that know
nothing about practical religion in their
own hearts. How many times will God
take back a man who has fallen? Well,
l cannot give you the exact figures, but
can tell you at what point he certainly
will take MIN back. -Four hundred and
ninety times. Why do / say four
hundred and ninety times? Because the
Bible says seventy times seven. Now,
figure that out, you who do not think a
man can fall four times, eight
times. ten times, twenty times,
ono hundred times, four hundred times,
ana yet be saved. Four hundred and nine
ty times Why, there is great multitude
before tho throne 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 before the
throne of God now forever happy. / say
that to encourage any man who feels there
is no chance for him.
Good Templars win not save you, al
though they are grand institution. Sons
of Temperance will not save you, although
there is no better society on earth. Sign-
ing the temperance pledge will not save
you, although it is a grand thing TO do. No
one but God can save you. Do not put
your confidence in bromide of potassium,
or anything that the apothecaIy can mix.
Put your trust in God! After the Church
has cast you off, and social circles have
cast you off, ana the bank has cast
you Off, and all good society has 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 in
EQUITY TO help you out. oh, what God he
is! Long suffering and gracious!
There may be in this house some whose
hand trembles so with dissipation that they
could hardly hold hymn-b book. l 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 every
body, because everybody will know you
are saved and purified by the grace of God
and a consecrated man, wholly consecrated.
| Your business has got TO come up, your
| physical health is 10 be rebuilt, your family
to DO restored, the Church of God on
earth and in heaven is to rojoice over your
| coming ''Other sheep have / which ARE
not of this fold" If this is not the Gospel
/ do not know what the Gospel is. 1t can
scale any height, il can fathom any depth,
it can compass any infnty. l think ono
|
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 perhaps twen-
| ty, thirty, forty years. Their 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 Col. They arc Gospel
hardened. The Gospel has no more eject
upon them than the shining of the moon on
the pavement. The publicars and tho bar
lots go into the kingdom OF God before they.
They went through, some Of them. the re-
vival Of 1857. when 500, 600 souls were
brought 10 God. Some of them went
through big revivals in individual churches.
Still unpardoned unblessed, unsavel. 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 a thrill of hope to those who are not
Gospel-hardened. Some Of you have not
heard, perhaps, five sermons in five years.
This whole subject has been q novelty TO
you for some time. You are not Gospel
hardened; you know you are not Gospel
hardened The whole subject comes frosh-
ly to your mind. / hear some soul saying,
20 my wasted life o the bitter past!
o the graves / stumbled over! Whittier
shall fly? The future is 30 dark, 50 dark
so very dark. God help mel"
Oh, am 80 glad for that last utterance!
That was a prayer, 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 10 their kennels, and he
throws all around the pursued soul the
covert of his pardoning mercy. l heard
something fall. What was il? n was the
bars around the sheepfold, the bars OF the
fence around the sheepfold. The Heavenly
Shepherd Let them fan, 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
bounding in. Thank Godl "Other sheep
have which are not of this fosl."
God forbid that any of you should have
tho lamentation of the dying nobleman
who had had every opportunity OF saliva
ton but rejected all, and who wrote or
dictated these words: Before you re-
ceivc this, my fnal state will be deter
mined. l am throwing my last stake FOL
eternity, and tremble and shudder for the
important issue. oh, my friend, with