Milford chronicle., 1893-04-21


heads, but through their hearts. When
these men really do come into the kingdom
Of God, they will be worth far more to the
cause of Christ than those who never ex
amined the evidences of Christianity
Thomas Chalmers, once a skeptic; Robert
| Hall, once a skeptic; Christmas Evans, once
a skeptic-but when they did lay hold OF
the gospel chariot, how they made it speed
aheadl
| If therefore I stand this morning before
men and women who have drifted away
into skeptieism, / throw out no scott;
rather implead you by the memory Of those
good old tiSues when you knelt at youi
mothers knee and said your evening pray
er and those other days Of sickness when
she watched all night and gave you the
medicines at just the right time and turned
the pillow when it was hot, and with hand
| long ago turned to dust soothed your pains
and with that voice you will never heal
again, unless you Join her In the better
country, told you never mind-you would
be better by and by-and by that dying
couch where she talked so slowly, catching
her breath between the words-by all those
memories l ask you to come and take the
same religion. It was good enough for her,
it is good enough for you.
Ave, make better plea; by the wounds
and the death throe Of the Son Of God, who
approaches you this morning with torn
brow and laeerated hands and whipped
back, crying, Come unto me, all ye who
are weary and heavy laden, and 1 will give
you rest"
THE VICE OF ILL TEMPER.
Other persons apologize fornot entertain
ing the Christian life because Of the incor-
rigibility Of their temper. Now, we admit
it is harder for some people to become
Christians than for others, but the grace OF
God never came to a mountain that 1t could
not climb or to an abyss that it could not
fathom or to bondage that it could not
break.
The widest horse that ever trod Arabian
sands has been broken to bit and trace.
The maddest torrent tumbling from noun
tain shelving has been harnessed to the
millwheel and the factory band, setting a
thousand shuttles all a-buzz and a-clatter,
and the widest, the haughtiest, the most
ungovernable man ever created, by the
grace Of God may be subdued and sent out
on ministry Of kindness as God sends an
August thunderstorm to water the wild
flowers down in the grass.
Good resolution, refOrmatOry effort, will
not effect the change. 1t takes mightier
arm and a mightier hand to bend evil hab-
its than the hand that bent the bow Of
Ulysses, and it takes a stronger lasso than
ever held the buffalo on the prairie. A
man cannot 90 forth with any human
weapons and contend successfully against
these Titans armed with uptorn mountain.
But you have known men into whose spirit
the influence of the gospel of Christ came,
~. obs
So it was with two merchants in New
York. They were very antagonistic. They
had done all they could to injure each
other. They were in the same line of bust
ness. One Of the merchants was converted
TO God. Having been converted, he asked
the Lord to teach him how to bear himself
toward that business antagonist, and he
was impressed with the fact that it was his
duty when a customer asked for a certain
kind of goods which he had not, but which
he knew his opponent had, to recommend
him to go to that store.
I suppose that's about the hardest thing
the an could do, but being thoroughly
conV t~ts to God, he resolved to do that
very thlAg, and being asked for certain
kind of goods which he had not, he said,
''You 20 to such and such store, and you
will get it.n After awhile merchant No. 2
found these customers coming, so sent, and
be found also that merchant No. had been
brought to God, and he sought the same
religion. Now they are good friends and
good neighbors, the grace Of God entirely
changing their disposition.
"Oh," says some one, ,saI have rough,
jagged, impetuOus nature, and religion
can't do anything for me-" Do you know
that Martin Luther and Robert Newton
and Richard Baxter were impetuous, all
consuming natures, yet the grace Of God
turned them into the mightiest usefulness?
Oh, how many who have been pugnaciOus
and hard to please, and irascible and more
bothered about the mote in their neighbours
eye than about the beam like ship timber
in their own eye, have been entirely changed
by the grace Of God and have found out
that "godliness is profitable for the life that
now is as well as for the life which is to
come.n
THE DPETUOUs APOSTLE.
Peter, with nature as tempestuOus rs the
sea that he once tried to walk, at one look
of Christ went out and wept bitterly. Rich
harvests of grace may grow on the tiptop
Of the Jagged steep, and flocks Of Christian
graces may find pasturage in fields Of bram-
bic and rock. Though your disposition
may be all a-bristle with fretfulness, though
you have a temper a-gleam with quick
lightnings, though your avarice be like
that of the horse leech, crying, "Give"
though damnable impurities have wrapped
you in all consuming fire, God can drive
that devil out Of your soul, and over the
chaos and the darkness he can say, Let
there be light"
Converting grace has lifted the drunkard
from the ditch, and snatched the knife
from the hand Of the assassin, and the
false keys from the burglar, and in the pes
tiferous lanes of the city met the daughter
of sin under the dim lamplight and scat
tered her sorrow and her guilt with the
words, THY sins are forgiven-go and sin
no more" For scarlet sin a scarlet atone
ment.
Other persons apologize for not entering
the Christian life because Of the incOnsisten-
cies of those who profess religion. There
are thousands of poor farmers. They do
not know the nature Of soil nor the proper
rotation of crops Their corn is shorter in
the stalk and smaller in the ear They
have 10 less bushels to the acre than their
neighbors. But who declines being farm
er because there are so many poor tarmerss
There are Thousands of incompetent mer-
chants. They buya the wrong time. They
get cheated in the sale of their goods Every
bale of goods is to them bale of disaster
They fail after awhile and 90 out Of busi-
ness. But who declines to be a merchant
because there are so many incompetent
merchantsS There are thousands Of poor
lawyers. They cannot draw declaration
that will stand the test. They cannot re-
cover just damages. They cannot help a
escape from the injustice Of bis
They are the worst evidence
any case in which they are eretained. 1
But who declines to be lawyer because
there are so many incompetent lawyers2
Yet there are tens Of thousands Of people /
who decline being religious because there
lre so many unworthy Christians. Now,
5ay it is illogical. Poor lawyers arc Moth
lg against Jurisprudence, poor physicians
ire nothing against medicine, poor farmers
are nothing against agriculture, and mean,
professors Of religion are moth /
ng against our glorious Christianity
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