Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1893-04-27
There arr others Who eot into skep.

There are others who got into skep-
ticism by a natural persistence In ask
! ing questions, whys or how How can
| God be one being in three persons:
They cannot understand it. Neither
can l. How can God be a complete
sovereign, and yet man a free agent?
| They cannot understand it, Neither
can I. They cannot understand why
holy God lets sin come into the world.
Neither can I. They say. Here Is
great mystery; here is disciple Of
| fashion. frivolous and goddess all her
days-She lives on to be an octogen-
! arian. Here is a Christian mother
training her children for God and for
heaven, self-sacrificins. Christianlike,
Indispensable seemingly. to that house
hold-She takes the cancer and dies
The skeptic says, Il can't explain that"
Neither can l.
selves into skepticism. With burning
feet I have trod that blistering way.
l know what it is to have Il hundred
nights poured into one hour. There
are men in this audience who would
give their thousands 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 evidences of Christianity Thomas
Chalmers once skeptic. Robert Hall
once a skeptic. Christmas Evans once Il
skeptic, but when they did lay hold Of
the gospel chariot, how they made it
speed ahead!
If, therefore. 1 stand this morning
before men and women who have drift
ed away into skepticism, throw out
no scott; rather implead you by the
memory of those good old times when
you knelt at your mothers knee and
said your evening prayers, 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 hear 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 I ask you to come and
take the same religion. 1t was good
enough for her-it is good enough for
you.
Aye. 1 make a better plea; by the
wounds and the death hroe Of the son
Of God, who approaches you this morn
ing with torn brow and lacerated hands
and whipped back. crying: Come unto
me, I'LL We who are weary and heavy
laden and will give you rest"
Other persons apologize for not enter
ing the Christian life because Of the in
corrigibility 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 it could not climb, or to
an abyss that it could not fathom, or to
a 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
mountain shelving has been harnessed
to the mill-wheel 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 thun-
der storm to water the wild flowers
down in the grass.
Good resolution, reformatory effort,
will not effect the change 1t takes
mightier arm and q mightier hand to
bend evil habits 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
60 forth with any human weapons and
contend successfully against the Titans
armed with uptorn mountain. But you
have known men into whose spirit the
influence of the gospel Of Christ came
until their disposition was entirely
changed. So it was with two mer-
chants in New York. They We're very
antagonistic. They had done all they
could do 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
himself toward that business antag-
onist, and he was impressed with the
fact that it was his duty when a GUS
toner asked for certain kind Of goods
WHICH llc HUI lOl, DuL WHICH lie knew
that his opponent had, to recommend
him to go to that store. 1 suppose that
is about the hardest thing the man
could do; but, being thoroughly con-
verified to God, he resolved to do that
very thing, and, being asked for GER
tain kind Of goods which he had not,
he said: You go to such and such a
store and you will get it, After a
while Merchant No. 9 found these GUS
toners coming. so sent. and he found
also that Merchant No. had been con-
verified to God, and he sought the same
religion. Now they are good friends
and good neighbors, the grace of God
entirely changing their disposition
Converting grace has lifted the drunk
ard from the ditch, and snatched the
knife from the hand of the assassin,
and the false key from the burglar,
and in the pestiferous lanes of the
city met the daughter of sin under the
dim lamplight, and scattered her sor-
row and her guilt with the words:
Thy sins are forgiven-go, and sin no
more" For scarlet sin scarlet atone
| ment
Other persons apologize for not enter
ing the Christian life because of the