The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1892-01-23

tency, whose property has, through
his own carelessness, ~afterward been
divided between the administrators,
the surrogate, the lawyers, and the
sheriffs. I charge you, before many
days have gone, as tar as possible,
have all your worldly matters made
straight, for "this year thou shalt
die"
1 advise also that you be busy in
Christian work. How many Sabbaths
in the year? Fifty-two. If the text be
true of you, it does not say at what
time you may 60, and therefore it is
unsafe to count on all of the So Sun
days. As you r as likely to 60 in the
first half of the year as in the last
half. I think we had better divide the
So into halves, and calculate only
20 Sabbaths. Come Chris
tian men, Christian women,
what can you do in 20
Sabbaths? Divide the 365 days
into two parts; what can you do in
1872 days? What, by the way of saw
ing your family, the church, and the
world?
In view of the probabilities men,
toned, I advise all the men and women
not ready for eternity to get ready. If
the text be true, you have no time to
talk about non-essentials, asking why
God let sin into the world; or whether
the book of Jonah is inspired; or who
Melchisedec was, or what about
the eternal DEGREES. If you are as near
eternity as some of you seem TO be,
there is no time for anything but the
question, "What must l do to be
saved?" The drowning man, when a
plank is thrown him, stops not to ask
what saw-mill made it, or whether it
is oak or cedar, or who threw it. The
moment it is thrown, he clutches it. #
this year you are to die, there is no
time for anything but immediate
LAYING HOLD ON GOD.
It is high time to get out of your
sins. You say II have committed no
great transgressions." But are you
not aware that your life has been sim
full? The snow comes down on the
Alps flake by flake, and it is so light
that you may hold it on the tip OF
your finger without feeling any weight;
but the fakes gather; they compact,
until some day a Travellers foot starts
the slide, and it goes down in an ava
lanche, crushing to death the villagers.
So the sins of your youth, and the
sins of your manhood, and the sins OF
your womanhood may have seemed
only slight inaccuracies or triling di-
vergences from the right-so slight
that they are hardly worth mention
ing, but they have been 2iling up and
piling up, packing together and pack
ing, until they make a mountain OF
sin, and one more step of your foot in
the wrong direction may slide down
upon you an avalanche of ruin and
condemnation.
Let me announce that Christ, the
Lord, stands ready to save any man
who wants to be saved. He waited
for you all last year, and all the year
before and all your life. He has wait
ed for you with blood on his brow,
and tears in his eye, and two. out
stretched, mangled hands of love.
You come home some night and find
the mark of.muddy feet on your front
steps, You hasten in, and find an ex-
cited group around your child. He
fell into a pond, and had it not been
for a bravelad, who plunged in and
brought him out, and carried him
home to"be resuscitated, you would
have been childless. You feel that
you cannot DO enoughfor the rescuer.
You throw your arms around him.
You offer him any compensation. You
say to him, "anything you want shall
be yours. / will never cease to be
grateful" But my Lord Jesus sees
your soul sinking, and attempts to
bring it ashore, and you not only re-
fuse him thanks. but stand on the
beach and say, Drop that soul! If
want it saved, | will save it myself"
l wish you might know what a job
Jesus undertook when he carried your
case to Calvery. They crowded Him
to the wall. They struck Him. They
spat on Him. They kicked Him. They
cuffed Him. They scoffed Him. They
scourged Him. They murdered Him.
Blood! blood! AS He stoops down to
lift you up,
THE CRIMSON DROPS
upon you from His brow, from His
side, from His hands. Do you not
feel the warm current on your face?
Oh, for the hunger, the thirst, the
thornsting, the suffocation, the dark
ness, the groan, the sweat, the strug-
gle, the death!
The great salvation of the Gospel I
now offer to every man, woman and
child. You cannot earn it. A Scotch
writer says that q poor woman, one
cold winters day, looked through the
window of a kings conserva-
tory and saw a bunch of grapes
hanging against the glass. She
said, ooh, il l only had that bunch OF
grapes for my sick child at home!'
At her spinning wheel she earned a few
shillings and went to buy the grapes
The kings gardener thrust her out
very roughly and said he had no grapes
to sell. She went off and sold a blanket
and got some more shilhngs, and came
back and tried to buy the grapes
But the gardener roughly assaulted
her, and told her to be off. The kings
daughter was walking in the garden
at the time, and she heard the excite
ment, and seeing the poor woman
said to her, "My father is not 8
merchant TO sell, but he is a king an6
gives" Then she reached up anc
plucked the grapes and dropped then
into the woman's apron. So Christ il
king, and all
THE FRUITS OF HIS PARDON
He freely gives. They may not b,
bought. Without money and with
out price, take this sweet cluster from
the vineyards of God.
am coming to the close of my ser
mon. Isought fol- a text appropriate