Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1892-02-12

! bed, but not converted until at tho advice
of Paul he believed IN Christ. Are
you convicted but not convertcdi
Again learn from the misfortune of the
king OF Babylon what a terrible thing is
the loss of reason. There is no calamity
that can possibly befall US in this world so
great AS the arrangement of the intellect
Ito have the body of u man and yet TO fall
even below the instinct of brute. In
this world Of sad sights, tho saddest is tho
idiots stare. In this world of awful
sounds, the most awful is the maniac's
laugh. A vessel on the rocks, when hun
dreds go down never to rise, and other
hundreds drag the mangled and shivering
bodies up the wintry beach, is othing
compared 10 the laundering of intellects
full of vast hopes and attain
ments and capacities. Christ's heart
went out TO those who were epleptic,
falling into the fire. or manacs cutting
themselves among the tombs. We are ac-
customed to be more grateful for physical
health than for the proper working of our
mind. We are apt to take IL for granted
that the intellect which has served US so
/ well will always be faithful We forget
| that an engine with such tremendous
| power, when the wheels have such vast
ness of circle and such sw!ftness of
motion and the least impediment might
| put il out Of gear, could only be kept in
proper balance by a Divine hand. No
human power could engineer this train of
! immortal faculties. How strange ii is that
our memory, on whose shoulders all
the successes and misfortunes aud occur
rences of lifetime are placed, should not
ofteuer break down, and that the scales of
! judgment, which have been weighing so
much and so long, on,d not lose their adj
! iustment and that fancy, which holds a
dangerous wand, should not sometimes
malicously wave it, bringing into the
heart forebodiugs and authorizations the
most appalling. Is it not strange that the
expectations OF this intellect should not
| be dashed to pieces on its disappont-
ments' Though so delicateiy attuned, this
instrument of untold harmonies plays on,
though fear shocks it, and vexations rack
it, and sorrow and Joy and loss and gain in
quick succession beat out OF it their dirge,
or draw from it their anthem. At morn
! ing and at night, when in your prayer you
rehearse the objects of your thanks giving,
next to your salvation by Jesus Christ,
praise the Lord for the preservation of
your reason.
How many fine intellects arc being de-
stroyed by anodyncs and anesthetics,
which were given by providence for occa-
sional use in alienation OF pain or ~in-
somnia, but by being employed continu-
| ously after awhile capture aud destroy
Choral, cocaine, bromide of potassium,
opium, and whole shelves OF seductive
| etceteras that help turn Nebuchadnezzar
into im0ecility or madness. Do not trlhe
| with opiates that benumb the brain. If
| you cannot live without the perpetual and
| enslaving use Of them, you had better die.
| Better die sane man than live fool.
! What right have you to kill your brain and
| put IN wild jangle your nervous systeml
! But rum is the cause of more insanity than
! anything else There is nothing like rum
! TO put a man, like Nebuchadnezzar, down
! on all fours.
Take this goodly religion which has done
| so much for me that l can commend it 10
| all. Without it L should have gone the
| whole downward career Stolid and phleg.
| matte natures going astray do not 20 so
far, but natures like mine. sanguine, in
tense, emotional, optimistic, social to tae
| last degree, and echong to all the heights
and depths of mirth, if they get off the
track, they go with one wild leap TO hell
AS 10 the restraining power OF this reiig-
ion upon a mercurial temperament, l tes-
tify. Tais is not abstraction or some
thing gotten from books | speak OF
what / know. Go out and ask
| all who have tried this religion
and ask them how it works Three young
men in factory came out on the Lord
side, but two Of them overcome by the
| jeers of their comrades went back, and
joined the scoffers The one held on to
his Christian hope, and one day when they
pressed him hard, and were telling how
much infidelity had done for the world,
and that Christianity had done nothing,
the prosecuted Christian turned upon
them, and pointing TO Henry and George,
who had for "a little while followed Christ,
and then turned back, he said: "You
have tried your principles on them, and
know what they have done for them.
When they tried to serve Christ, they
were civil, good-tempered, kind hus bands
and fathers. They were cheerful indus
trious and ready 10 oblige What have
you made theml Look and see. They
are cast down and cross their mouths are
full OF cursing and fithiness they are
drunk every week; their children half
clothed, their wives broker hearted their
homes wretched. IA That is what your prin-
ciples have done Now, | have tried
Christ and his religion, aud what
has il done for met You know
we'll what l used 10 be. There was none
Of you that could drink so much. swear so
desperately, and fight so mastery. had
no money. and nobody would tru-: me- My
wife was ill-used, was ill-bumored, hate
full and hating. What has. religion done
for mel Thank God, l am not afraid 10
put ii TO you. Am mot happier man than
! vast Am l not a better workman and u
hinder companion! Would once have put
up with what l now bear from you.
could beat any of you as easily now as
ever. Why don't /! Do you ever hear "A
foul word from my MOUTH Do you
catch me at q public-housel Has anybody
score against met Go and ask my neigh
bors If l am not altered for the better. Go
and ask my wife. Let my house bear wit
ness. God be praised, here is what Chris.
tianty has done for me; there is what
inhdeity has done for Henry and
George" Out OF this audience | could
gather a thousand men and women VINO