Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1893-04-17


told by their parents that they were the
worst children that ever lived because
they liked TO ride down hill better than
TO read "Pilgrim's Progress" They
never heard their parents talk OF religion
but with the corners Of their mouths
drawn down and the eyes rolled mp.
THE UNFAfTHFUL fs A STUMBLING BLOCK.
Others went into skepticism through
maltreatment on the part Of some who
professed religion. There is man who
says, my partner in business was vol
uble In prayer meeting, and ho was of.
6cious in all religious circles, but he
cheated me out of $4,000, and don't
want any Of that religion"
There are others who got into skepti-
cism by natural persistence in asking
questions-why or how. How can God
be one being in three persons2 They can
not understand it. Neither can I. How
can God be a complete sovereign and yet
man free agent? They cannot under
stand It. Neither can 1. They cannot
understand why holy God let's sin come
into the world. Neither can l. They say {:
"Here is a great mystery. Here is disci-
pie Of fashion, frivolous and goddess all
her days-she lives on to be an octogena-
rian. Here is Christian mother train
ing her children for God and for heaven,
self sacrificing, Christlize, indispensable
seemingly to that household-she takes
the cancer and dies" The skeptic says,
~ can't explain that" Neither can I.
Oh, can see how men reason them
selves into skepticism. With burning feet
l have trod that blistering way. know
what it is to have hundred nights
poured into one hour. There are men in
this audience who would give their thou
sands Of dollars if they could get back to
the old religion Of their fathers. Such
men are not to be caricatured, but helped,
and not through their 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 examined the evil
dences of Christianity. Thomas Chalmers
once skeptic; Robert Hall once skep-
tic; Christmas Evans once skeptic, but
when they did lay hold of the gospel
chariot, how they made it speed ahead!
If therefore stand this morning be-
fore men and women who have drifted
away into skepticism I throw out no
scoff. rather implead you by the mem
ory of those good old times when you
knelt at your mothers knee and said
your evening prayer 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 dyst soothed your pains, and
with that voice you will never hear again
unless you join her in the better coun-
try told you never mind-you would be
better by and by, and by that dying
couch, where she talked so slowly, catch
ing her breath between the words-by
all those memories l ask you to come
and take the same religion. 1t was good
enough for her--it is good enough for
you.
Aye, l make better plea by the
wounds and the death throe of the Son
of God, who approaches you this morn
ing with torn brow and lacerated hands
and whipped back crying, Come unto
me all ye who are weary and heavy lad
en-, and will give you rest"
CHRIsT'S REMEDY FOR BAD TEMPER.
Other persons apologize for not enter
ing the Christian life because of the in
corrigibility of their temper. Now, we
admit 1t Is harder for some people to be-
come Christians than for others, but the
grace Of God never came to mountain
that it 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 mad
est torrent tumbling from mountain
shelving has been harnessed to the mill
wheel and the factory band, setting a
thousand shuttles all a-buzz and a-clat-
ter, 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. It takes q
mightier arm and mightier hand to
bend evil habits than the hand that bent
the bow of Ulysses, and it takes strong
or lasso than ever held the buffalo on the
prairie. A man cannot go forth with
any human weapons and contend sue
cessfully against these Titans armed with
uptorn mountain. But you have known
men into whose spirit the influence of
the gospel of Christ came until their dis
position was entirely changed. 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 business.
One of the merchants was converted to
God. Having been converted, he asked
the Lord to teach him how to bear him
self toward that business antagonist, and
he was impressed with the fact that 1t
was his duty when customer asked for
q certain kind Of goods which he had
not, but which he knew his opponent
had, to recommend him to go to that
store. suppose that is about the hard
est thing the man could do. but being
thoroughly converted to God he re-
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