The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-05-13

The Jones-Stuart meeting yesterday
morning was largely attended The
meeting opened with the singing Of that
beautiful hymn, Come thou fount of
every blessing" by tho choir, led by Mr..
Excel. Mr.. Jones then offered very
touching prayer, in which he said, %
God take, possession of our hearts and
make us what we ought to be; Lord
Jesus Christ, come upon us in this hour
and settle and fix our wavering souls
with all thy weight OF love and make
this meeting an earnest and profitable
one" Hymn No. { was then sung as
solo by MIR. Excel in his sweet, rich
voice, while collection was being
taken up. After tho collection had
been taken up Mr.. Jones arose and
said:
You may forget the things | have
told you. You may forget what | may
say in the future, but what say to you
to-day want you to carry away deeply
buried in ytu hearts. You people amt
doing right. You ought to do better.
You ought not only to do better but you
ought to do best. There is no telling
how good some of you people are. 1
don't believe you know yourselves. The
greatest preac her is not he who draws
the greatest crowd, who speaks and ut
tiers his thoughts in the most flowing
language. but it is he who saves the
most souls. The central idea of a
watch is not tho case, nor the hands.
nor tho crystal, for the watch will run
just as we'll without any OF these us
with them. 1t is the spring.
Now. what is the central idca of
Christianity? 1t is not taking commu-
MON. 1t is not joining the church. l.
is not paying your preacher. 1t is to
have the heart right and the soul pure.
II it was just joining the church wouldn't
it be little thing? And what nation
Of orphans we would be. lam not preach
ing the second blessing now, SO don't
misunderstood me. If one sin drove
Adam out of Eden and locked the gates
forever behind him, how will you people
ever get back to God who have sinned
SO often? There is but one way, and
that is by means of the key If holiness.
II am going to preach TO- day on con-
secraton and take my text from tho LIST,
End and 3rd verses Of the 18th chapter
of Romans. Il beseech you, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that ye present
your bodies a living sacrifice. holy, &C
ceptable before God. which is your rea-
sonable service. 'And be not conformed
to this world, but be transformed by the
renewing Of your mind, that We may
prove what is that good, and acceptable,
and perfect will of God. For I give
through the grace unto me to any man
that is among you, not to think of him
self moro highly than he ought to think:
but to think soberly, according as God
has dealt to every man the measure of
faith
Now you see take these verses be-
cause l think there is so much good to
be derived from them. The Il rSt thing
| will dwell on will be the giving of the
soul to God. Mr.. Jones then told
short story concerning 4 locomotive and
drew q comparison between it and a
preacher.
What like to sec is every person
como to good undorst Standing with him
self, and go towards Christ and Heaven.
Not 60 like the negro's mule, which
stopped in the road. The negro got
some hay, but that would not cntice
him to move. then he got some leaves
and hay and built fire under the mule
AS soon as the mule felt the heat he
moved up little and pulled the wagon
up oFcl Iuc liro dru leU III Uurn up. l
have not met twenty thoroughly conse-
Grated preachers in Ros noke. and have
not met in all my life 100 consecrated
laymen. have met hundreds of good
and religious preachers and laymen,
but few thoroughly consecrated ones.
Where preachers and Christians break
down is in power; they have all the
other qualifications. but they lack
power.
Il was walking with Mr.. Edison on
one occasion through his laboratory and
he said: Don't touch that wire and
didn't, for Mr.. Edison is authority on
electricity. Yet you people are told il
you don't quit your SHINING and turn
from the paths of sin you will be
damned by your preachers and the
Bible, which is authority on this subject,
and still you keep on SHINING. Geo
Whitfield, Of Londen, did more towards
saving souls before breakfast in the
morning than all the preachers in Lon
don did in q year.
You can take Abe Miller, OF Texas,
as ignorant as negro. Yet that man
saved more souls in Texas in eighteen
months than ali the ministers in Texas
did in years. Suppose a preacher had
to make shoes in order to get to heaven,