The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-05-05
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Jou tuiS Jay Wnom you Will
serve, but as for me and nv house we
VIII serve the Lord
we have before us an exhortation
and declaration. Christianity is a
| mater or choice. | speak reyerentlv
but truthfully. God is powerless to
make man 4 Christian unless he
chooses to be one. l want to make a
farmer of my boy. He is 81. buy him
q tine farm, stock it and make him a
farmer, but he wont go on it. He STAYS
Iii town drinking whiskey and PLAYING
billiards. Everything is ready but he
wont go. Suppose l want to make q
lawyer OF him and pursue the same
course? but the boy prefers to hunt and
fish Suppose l want to make Christian
OF him, build him church and give
him bible?
IF that made Christians. everybody
in Roanoke would be Christian. There
are Bibles and preachers and churches
enough. But suppose my boy decides
to be farmer. If he does there is no
need to buy him n farm. lie will be-
come farmer soon enough. If he wants
to be lawyer he will find an opportu-
nifty. He will lose tho color from his
cheeks with hard study, but he will be-
come lawyer. Let us have more com.
mon sense. Half this crowd is waiting
for us to do something for them. The
biggest fool in Roanoke is tho one who
sits down and says: IF l am to be
| Chrlstlan L Will be one, and if am not
| will not
III we want to become Christians, wo
can do so if there isn't a Bible or a
church within thousand miles of US.
Choose TINS moment whether you will
be Christian. If you will all perdition
cannot stop you. A man can always
choose whether he will be a Christian,
lie can be first rate or tenth rate
| Christian.
Now, what sort of Christian arc
you, brother? can tell you--tho kind
you choose to be. You are just as good
as you want to be.
who said Brethren, the water Of life am
free but dc pitcher costs something and
Use de pitcher Now mere | want YOU
to SEQ tho point that am driving
at. God himself cannot make us a
Christian until wo chose to become one.
now let's run back over our life little.
| want TO see this thing in is truc bear
lug tonight. Let mo say this TO YOU,
brethren, Christianity that does not
make you stand fiat footed and look
this world in tho face and say, i have
deliberately chosen to be a Christian
and first class one is not worth a
snap of my finger to you.
III you want to DO Il Christian be
one, and IL you don't want to be one, in
the name of God don't cumber the
church with any great trash and drift
wood. How many frst-class members,
brethren, do you believe you have in
your thurch? If you were going to take
all or your firSt-class menb ers out rid
ing would you take train or Just take
4 sulky?
''You know when they irst made loco
motive engines they first had two
drivers, and their schedule was three
miles an hour, and they were always on
time generally, and you could see one
coming three hours. Tho people got
tired of this slow time, and finally told
the railroad fellows. If you don't do bet
ter We will go in a wheel barrow We
can beat your old engines.
They have put more wheels on their
engines and they mako mile minute.
You can take 4 little tenth rate Christ
ian, and the driver will give him ten
miles start and catch him before break
fast.
"Ihorc are 60 saloons in this town, and
100000 capital invested for the dam
nation OF your young men. Three hun
dred thousand dollars in liquid damna-
ton, and you cannot put up little
building to help save tho boys. Don't
you see how the devils got the town?
Choose to tie q Christian and then
choose to be one at any cost and choose
TO be ono at every cost, that is the only.
| principle you can run on.
But as for me and nv house we'll
serve God. Now he is talking sense.
Did you ever read this book of Joshua.
head 1T some time at your leisure.
When first read that book | 90. mad
just read line after line and page after
page, how God was lust emptvinp
heaven on Joshua. | said to myself
was the Lord ever as good to any man
III the world as he is to Joshua and
| soon began to say, Joshua, you are
going to let the Lord empty heaven on
you and not say one grateful word and
said Joshua, you are the most nm
grateful wretch that ever lived.
God is pouring Heaven on you. and
you won't say word. But in the last
chapter | found these words: But M
ior me and my house, we will serve God
III there ever WAS man, living or dsad.
VINO ought To have said that Joshua was
the man, and nine years ago when I
WOKE up az my fathers dying couch and
saw how good God had been 20 nv
father, and how precious he had been to
MY mother, and how good ne was 10 nv
sweet little child. and how kind he had
been to me. | said, sam Jones, ii there
Is any fellow in the world who ought to
say what Joshua said, you are the man.
said 1t nineteen years ago, and thank
God have boon sticking to it ever
since.
What are you going TO do? Now
listen to me minute. | want YOU
fathers and mothers to hear me. The
drlest old preacher in the United States
gets up to preach, and if he will just
say children about every half hour T