Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-07-29


we go down into the depths of Gods
mercy and bring up "pearls of great
price" There is an instance where
prayer made the waves of Gennesaret
solid as granite pavement. o how
many wonderful things prayer has ac-
complished! Have you ever tried it.?
In the days when the Scotch Cove
nanters were prosecuted, and the enc
mics were after them, one of the head
men among the Covenanters prayed:
o Lord, we be as dead men uxless thou
shalt help us. o Lord, throw the lap
of thy cloak over these poor things"
And instantly Scotch mist enveloped
and hid tho prosecuted from their per-
secutors-thc promise literally fulfilled:
while they are yet speaking, l viii
hear"
o that you might have an altar in
the parlor, in the kitchen, in the store,
in the barn, for Christ will be willing
to come again TO the manger to hear
prayer. He would come in your place
of business as he confronted Matthew,
the tax commissioner. If measure
should come before Congress that you
thought would ruin the nation,
how you would send ID petitions and
circumstances. And yet there
has been enough sin in your heart to
ruin it forever and you have never re-
monstrnted or petitioned againstit. If
your physical health a,led, and you
had the means, you would go and spend
,the summer in Germany, and the win
ter in Italy, and you woIld think it a
very cheap outlay if you had to go all
around the earth To get back your ply
steal health. Have you made any ef,
fort, any expenditure, any eXertion for
your immortal and spiritual health?
No, you have not taken one step.
- . that you might now begin to seek
after God with earnest PRAYER. Some
of you have been working for years and
years for the support of your families.
Have yon given one half day TO the
working out of your salvation with fear
and treInbiDg? You came here this
morning. with an earnest purpose, /
lake it. as | have come hither with an
earnest purpose, and we meet face to
face, and l tell.you, first of all, ii you
want to fndthe Lord, you must pray,
and pray and pray.
There are many people to whom the
Bible does not amount TO much. #
they merely look at the outside beauty,
why it will no more lead them to Christ
than Washington's farewell address or
the Koran of Mahomet or the Shaster
of the Hindoos. 1t is she inward light
of Gods Word you must get or die.
went up to the Church of the Madeleine
in Paris, and looked at the doors which
were the most wonderfully con-
structed | ever saw, and l could
have stayed there for a whole
week; but had only a little time, so,
having glanced at the wonderful carv-
ing on the doors, passed in and looked
at the radiant affairs, and the sculp-
tured dome. Alas, that so many stop
at the outside door of Gods Holy
Word, looking at the rhetorical beau
ties, instead of going in and looking
at the affairs of sacrifice and the dome
of Gods mercy and salvation that
hovers over every penitent and believ-
ing sole!
o my friends, if you merely want to
study the laws of language, do not go
to the Bible. 1t was not made for
that. Take Howe's Elements Of Criti-
cism. 1t would be better than the BIZ
BILE for that. If you want to study
metaphysics, better than the Bible will
be the writings of William Hamilton.
But if you want to know how to have
sin pardoned, and at last TO gain the
blessedness of heaven, search the
Scriptures, 'for in them ye have eter-
nal life"
When people are ANXIOUS about their
souls and there are some such here
to-day-there are some of those who
recommend good books. That is all
right But / want To tell you that the
Bible is the best book under such cir
stances. Baxter wrote, A Call to the
Unconverted, but the Bible is the best
call to the unconverted. Philip bod
bridge wrote, The Rise and Progress of
Religion in the Soul, but the Bible is
the best rise and progress. John
@AhFNAA "AObNi huNiII W biO
Anxious Inquirer, but the Bible is the
best advice TO the anxious inquirer.
O,the Bible is the very book you need,
anxious and inquiring soull A dying
soldier SAID to his mate: "Comrade,
give me dropr' The comrade shook
up the canteen and said: There isn't
a drop of water in the cantecn." co."
said the dying soldier, that's not what
/ want; feel in my lSnapsack for my
Bible" and his comrade found the BIZ
BILE and read him few of the gracious
promises, and the dying soldier said:
"Ah, that's what l want. There isn't
anything like the Bible for a dying SOL
der, is there, my comrade?" o, blessed
book while we live. Blessed book
when we die.
But want you TO take the hint CT
the text that have no time to dwell
on-the hint that there is time when
he cannot be found. There is man in
this city, 80 years of age, who said TO
clergymen who came in, do you think
that man at so years of age can get
pardoned?' "oh, yes" said the clergy
man. The old man said: II can't;
when / was 20 years of npe-I am now