Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1892-07-29

have been destroyed. In this church there
is large company OF young men and young
women consecrated TO christ. Kno" OF
n0-better than they are.
Young convert, I invite you into their
friendship Contact with them will elevate
you All hail, young followers OF Jesus
Christ, my joy and my pride! My heart
thrills at every step or your advancement
talked with you in that hour when you
most tried to break from sin. and now re-
io:ce as see you putting on the armor OF
conflict in which God will give you present
and everlasting victory. Stand of from all
evil associations. A man IS no better tnan
the company he keeps. Go among those
who are better than you are and you will be
made better. Go among those who are worse
than you are and you will be made worse.
My next word OF counsel is that you be
actively employed. l see great many
Christians with doubts and perplexities, and
they seem to be proud Of than. Their entire
Christian life is made up OF gloom, and they
seem to cultivate that spiritual dependency,
whsn will undertake to say that in nine
cases out of ten spiritual dependency is a
judgment OF Col upon idleness. Who are
the happy people in the church to-day? The
busy people Show me the man who processes
the religion of Jesus Christ and is idle, and
will show you an unhappy man. Inc very
first prescription that l give to a man when
l find him full of doubts and fears about hip
eternal interest is to go to Work for God.
Ten thousan voices are lifted up asking for
your help. GO and help.
l have another word of counsel to give
those who have just entered Christian life.
and that is, be faithful III prayer. You
might as well, business men, start out in the
morning without food and expect to be strong
all that day-you might we'll abstain
from food all the week and expect to be
strong physically, as to be strong without
prayer. The only way to get any strength
into the soul is by prayer, and the only
difference between that Christian that IS
worth anything and that who is worth
nothing is the fact that the last does not
pray and the other does.
And the only difference between this
Christian, who is getting along very fast in
the holy life, and this, who is only getting
along tolerably, is that the first prays more
than the last. You can graduate a mans
progress in religion by the amount Of
prayer; not by the number Of hours per.
haps but by the earnest supplication that
he puts up to God. There is no exception to
the rule. Show me a Christian man who
neglects this kind of duty, and will show
you who is inconsistent. Show me
man who prays and his strength and his
power cannot be exaggerated. Why, just
give to man this power of prayer and you
give him almost omnipotence.
This afternoon you will see two Sabbath
school teachers. That one does not gain the
attention of her class. This one does What
is the difference between them, their intel
lecIs being about equal. The first thought
only of her own apparel. The other came
from great prostration before God in earnest
supplication, asking that Gods mercy might
come upon the school and that in the after
noon she might gain the attention Of those
five or six immortals that would be around
her. The one teacher has no control over
her class. The other sits as with the strength
of the Lord God Almighty.
Another word of counsel I have to give
Be careful in Bible research. A great many
Ire ont
not read half of them. At very revolution
of the printing press they are coming. They
cover our parlor tables, and are in our sit
ting rooms and libraries Glorious books
they are. We thank God every day for the
work of the Christian printing press. But {
have thought that perhaps the followers Of
Christ sometimes allow this religious ltera-
ture to take their attention from Gods
Word and that there may not be as much
Bible reading as there ought to be.
How is that with your own experienced
just calculate in your minds how much re-
igious literature you have read during the
year and then how large a portion of the
Word OF God you have read, and then con-
trast the two and answer within your own
soul whether you are giving mora attention
to the books that were written by the hanl
OF man or that written by the hand Of God.
Now, you go to the drug store and you get
the mineral waters, but you have noticed
that the waters are not so fresh or spark
waters at Saratoga and Sharon-yettine
them right where they bubble from the
rock.
And have noticed the same thing in re-
gard to the truth of the Gospel; while thers
is a good deal of refreshment and health Of
the Gospel of God as it comes through GOOD
books find it is better when I come to the
eternal rock of Gods Word and drink forth
that fountain that bubbles up fresh aud
pure to the life and the refreShment and the
health of the soul.
Read the Bible and it brings you into thu
association Of the best people that ever lived.
You stand beside Moses and learn mis- meek
ness, beside JOb and learn his patience be-
side Paul and catch something of his enthus-
iasm, beside Christ and you feel His love-
And yet how strange it is that a great many
men have given their whole lives to the as
saulting Of that book. l cannot understand
it. Tom Paine worked against that book as
though he received large wages and was in
splred by the very power Of darkness, con-
Tossing that all the time he was writing he
did not have the Bible anywhere near him
How many powerful intelects have endeav-
ored to destroy it, Hume, Bolingbroke,
Volta1re have been after it. Ten thousand
men now are warning against the truth of
Gods Word. What do you think of them?
think it is mean and will prove it. l will
prove it is the meaneSt thing that has ever
been done in all the centuries
There is ship at sea and in trouble. The
captain and the crew are at their Wits end.
You are on board. You are an old seaman.
You come up and give some good counsel,
which is kindly taken. That is all right.
But suppose, instead of doing that, in the
midst of all the trouble you pick up the only
compass that is on board and pitch it over
the taffrail? Oh, you say, that is dastardly
! But is it as mean as this? Here is the vessel
of the world going on with sixteen hundred
millions of passengers, tossed and driven in
a W. haln