The Brookhaven leader., 1891-07-23

we arose we were so much changed as
Gourgis, the heather, who went into a
prayer-meeting with a dagger and a
gun to disturb the meeting and destroy
it, but the next day was found crying:
'Oh! my great sins! Oh! my great Saw
iour!' and for eleven years preached
the Gospel of Christ to his fellow-moun-
taineers, the last words ON his dying
lips being Free gracew Oh, it was free
grace!
There is a man who was for ten years
a hard drinkcr. The dreadful appetite
had sent down its roots around the pal.
ate and the tongue, and on down until
they were interlinked with the vitals
of body, mind and soul; but he has not
taken any stimulants for two years.
What did that? Not temperance socie-
ties. Not prohibition laws. Not NOR
al suasion. Conversion did it. why"
said one upon whom the great change
had come, ''sir, feel just as though
were somebody else" There is a sea
captain who swore all the way from
| New York to Havana, and from Ha-
vana to San Francisco, and when he
was in port he was worse than when he
was on the sea. What power was it
that washed his tongue clean of pro-
families and made him psalm-singer?
Conversion by the Holy Spirit. There
are thousands of people here to-day
who are no more what they once were
than a water lily is nightshade, or a
morning lark is vulture, or day is
night.
| Now, if | should demand that all
those people here present who have felt
the converting power of religion should
rise, so far from being ashamed, they
would spring to their feet with more
alacrity than they ever sprang to the
dance, the tears mingling with their ex-
hlaration as they cried: 1--WE are wit
nesses" And if they tried to sing the
old Gospel hymn, they would break
down with emotion by the time they got
to the second line:
| Ashamed of Jesus, that dear friend
| On whom my hopes of Heaven dep@nd?
| No! When blush be this my shame:
That no more revere His name.
| Again, | remark that 1--WE are wit
nesses" of the Gospels power to com
fort. When a man has trouble the
world comes in and says: "Now get
your mind off this; go out and breathe
the fresh air; plunge deeper into busi-
ness" What poor advice! Get your
mind off it. when everything is up
| turned with the bereavement, and
everything reminds You of what you
have lost. Get your mind off it! They
might as well advise you to stop think
ing, and you can not stop thinking in that
direction. Take walk in the fresh air!
| Why, along that very street, or that
very road, she once accompanied you
Out of that grass-plot she plucked flow
ers, or into that show-window she
looked fascinated, saying: Come see
the pictures" Go deeper into busi-
ness! Why, she was associated with
| all your business ambition, and
since she has gone you have no ambi-
ton left. Oh, this is a clumsy world
when it tries to comfort a 1broken
heart! l can build Corliss engine, l
can paint Raphael's Madonna"
can play Beethoven's symphony" as
| easily as this world can comfort a
broken heart. And yet you have been
comforted. How was it done? Did
| Christ 10 come to you and say: Get
your mind off this; go out and breathe
the fresh air; plunge deeper into bust
ness" No. There was a minute when
lie came to you-perhaps in the watches
of the night, perhaps in your place of
business, perhaps along the street
| and He breathed something into your
soul that gave peace, rest, infinite quiet,
so that you could take out the photo
oh Of tho do ~ al nd lnnlr inf ~
the eyes and the face of the dear one
and say: at is all right; she is better
off; would not call her back. Lord,
| thank Thee that Thou hast comforted
my poor heart"
There are Christian parents here who
are willing to testify to the power of
| the Gospel to comfort Your son had
| Just graduated from school or college
and was going into business, and the
Lord took him. Or your daughter had
just graduated from the young ladies'
seminary, and you thought she was 60
ing to be a useful woman, and of long
life; but the Lord took her. and you
were tempted to say: 'Ali the culture
of twenty years for nothing!" Or the
little child came home from school with
the hot fever that stopped not for the
agonized prayer or for the skillful
physician, and the little child was
taken. Or the babe was lifted out of
your arms by some quick epidemic, and
you stood wondering why God ever
gave you that child at all, if so soon He
was to take it away. And yet you are
repining, you are not fretful, you are
not fighting against God. What ena-
bled you to stand all the trial? oh
you say, II took the medicine that
God gave my sick soul. In my
distress l threw myself at the
feet of a sympathizing God; and when
/ was too weak to pray, or to
look up, He breathed into me a peace
that / think must be the foretaste of
that Heaven where there is neither a
tear nor a farewell nor a grave" Come,
all We who have been out to the grave
to weep there-come all ye comforted
souls, get up on your knees. Is there
no power in the Gospel to soothe the
heart? Is there no power in this re-
ligion to quiet the worst paroxysm of
grief2 There comes up an answer from
comforted widowhood, and orphanage,
and childlessness, saying: SAY, ay, we
are witnessesr'
Again.r remark that we are witnesses
of the fact that religion has power to
givecomposure in the last moment. /
shall never forget the time confronted