The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-01-21

be not stay and look after the passengers
/ that got ashore. wrapping fiannels around
them and kindlinR fires for them and pre-
pairing them food? There was plenty of
work to be done on the shore for those
who had already escaped All ! that brave
man knew that there were others who
would take care of those, and so he said,
"Man the lifeboatl Pull away, my
lads, pull away! Yonder is a man;
there is woman freezing in
the rigging Pull away!' see
the oar-blades bend in the strong
pull of the oarsmen. Then they
come up to the wreck. The woman is
frozen. She drops into the wayes-alas!
poor woman-and washes out to sea. But
then Mr.. Ancient says: There is a man
yet hanging to the rigging. Pull away,
my lads pull awayw They come up.
and he says, "Hold now there five min
utes, and we will save you. Steady,
Steady Now give me your hand. Leap!
Thank God he is saved Thank God he
is saved!'
So there are men now in the breakers.
They have made shipwreck of life.
While we come out TO save them, some
are swept of-swept of before we can
reach them-and there are others still
hanging on. Steady there among the
slippery places! Steady! Leap into the
lifeboat! Now is your chance for heaven
This hour some of you are going to
be saved. Far away from God, you are
going to be brought nigh. "Other sheep
have which are not of this fold"
Christ says that the ministers of the
gospel are TO be fishers for men. Now,
when ! 90 fishing / do not want to fish in
anybody else's pond. do not want to go
along HohOkus crrek, where there are ten
or fifteen men fishing, and drop my line
just about where they are dropping their
lines. | should like to get in a Newfound-
land fishing smack and push out to sea
fifty miles beyond the breakers. l do not
think the church of 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 noun
tains. 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 a life of USE
fitness and your death-bed Is going to be
surrounded by Christian 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 told"
Again remark, the Heavenly Shepherd
is going to find many OF his sheep among
those who are now rejecters of Christian
ity. do not know how you came to re-
lect Christianity. | do not know whether
it.was through hearing Theodore Parker
preach, or whether it was reading "Ren-
ans Life OF Jesus" or whether it was
through some skeptic in the store or fac
tory. Or it may be-probably in the case
that you were Disguised with religion
and disguised with Christianity because
some man who protested to be Christian
deirauded you, and he being a member of
the church, and you taking him as a rep
resentative of the Christian religion, you
said: We'll, if that's religion, l 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, eff 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 l believe
YOU do not believe. Nevertheless they
tell me in regard to you that you are an
accommodating. you are an obliging per-
son. If | should come to you and ask of
you favor you would grant it if it were
possible. 1t would be JOY for you to
grant me favor. If any Of your friends
came to you and wanted an accommoda-
ton, and YOU could accommodate them,
how glad you would be.
Now am going to ask of you favor.
want you 10 Oblige me. The accOmmoda-
ton will cost you nothing, and will give
me great happiness. OF course you will
not deny me. / want you as an expert
ment to try the Christian religion. If il
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 l came to
YOU and 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, "0h, | haven't
any confidence in it; they tell me all
these medicines will fail me-" "Well,
say, Twill YOU not as a matter of accom-
mediation to myself, just try it?" "Well,"
you say, Il have no objection TO trying il I;
if it wi / be any satisfaction to you 1 will
try it." You take it. Now you are sick
in disquietude. sick in sin. 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 unhap-
py, struck through with unrest. Now Will
you not try this solace, this febrifuge, this
anodyne, this Gospel medicine? "Oh,"
you say, 81 haven't any faith in it," AS a
matter of accommodation, let me intro
duce you to the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Great Physician. "Why," you say, II
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 in
troduce him to you. do not ask you to
take the advice of clergymen. Perhaps
the clergymen may be prejudiced: per-
haps we may give you wrong advice; per-
haps We are morbid on that subject; so
do not ask you to take the advice of
clergymen. / ask you to take the advice
OF every respectable layman. such as Will
liam Shakespeare, the dramatist; as Will
liam Wilberforce, the statesman as Isaac
Newton, the astronomer; as Robert
Royle, the philosopher; as Locke the met
aphysician; as Morse, the electrician.
These men never preached-they never
pretended TO preach-but they come out,
and nnftinO down his falaSrona and