Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1893-11-23


and defames your best deeds, when bank
ruptcy takes the place Of large dividends,
when you fold for the last sleep the still
hands over the still heart Of your old father,
who has been planning for your welfare all
these years, OF you close the eyes Of your
mother, who has lived In your life ever
since before you were born, removing her
spectaeles because she will have clear vi
sion in the home 10 which she has gone, or
you give the last kiss to the child reclining
amid the flowers that pile the casket and
looking as natural and lifeliks as she ever
did reclining in the cradle, then the only re-
ligion worth anything is the old fashioned
religion Of the gospel Of Jesus Christ.
would give more in such a crisis for one
Of the promises expressed in half verse Of
the old book than for whole library con-
tanning all the productions Of all the other
religions of all the ages. The other religions
are a sort Of cocaine to benumb and deaden
the soul while bereavement and misfortune
do their work, but our religion is inspira-
tion, illumination, imparadisation. It Is a
mixture of sunlight and hallelujah. Do
not adulterate it with one drop Of the tinc-
ture Of incredulity.
Another Bible ''if' Is the "if' of eternal
significance. Solomon gives us that 'if'
twice in one sentence when he says, "If
thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thy
self, but IL thou soonest thou alone shalt
bear it." Christ gives us that ''if" when
he says, 'If thou hadst known in this thy
day the things which belong unto thy
peace, but now they are hidden from thine
eyes" Paul gives us that ''if' when he
says, "If they shall enter into my rest"
All those ''ifs" and a score more that /
might recall put the whole responsibility Of
our salvation on ourselves. Christ's will
ingness to pardon-no "if'' about that.
Realms Of glory awaiting the righteous
no ''if' about that.
The only "if' in all the case worth a mo-
ment's consideration is the 'if'' that at
taches itself to the question as to whether
we will accept, whether we will repent,
whether we will believe, whether we will
rise forever. Is it not time that we take
our eternal future off that swivel2 Is it
not time that we extirpate that 'if," that
miserable 'if," that hazardous "ifH" We
would not allow this uncertain 'if' to stay
long in anything else Of Importance. Let
some one say in regard to O railroad bridge,
II have reasons for asking il that bridge is
safe," and you would not cross it. Let
some one say, II have reasons to ask il that
steamer is Trustworthy" and you would
not take passage on it.
Let some one suggest in regard to prop
erty that you nre about to purchase, ~
have reason to ask If they can give o good
title" and you would not pay a dollar
down until you had some skillful real es-
tate lawyer examine the title. But l al
lowed for years of my lifetime, and some
of you have allowed for years of your life
time, an 'if' to stand tossing up and down
questions Of eternal destiny. Oh. decide!
Perhaps your arrival here today may de-
eide. Stranger things than that have put
to flight forever the ''if' of uncertainty.
THE MINERS MOVING STORY.
A few Sabbath nights ago in this church
u man passing at the foot of the pulpit
said to me, II am miner from England"
and then he pushed back his coat sleeve
and said, "Doyou see that scar on my armp"
said, ''Yes; you must have had an awful
wound there some time" He said: YES;
it nearly cost me my life. was in a mine
in England 600 feet underground and three
miles from the shaft of the mine, and rock
fell on me, and my fellow laborer pried off
the rock, and was bleeding to death, and
he took newspaper from around his lunch
con and bound it around my wound and
then helped me over the three miles under
ground to the shaft, where was lifted to
the top, and when the newspaper was taken
off my wound / read on it something that
saved my soul, and it was one of your SER
mons Good night" he said as he passed
on, leaving me transixed with grateful
emotion :
And whoknow but the words now speak,
blessed of God, may reach some wounded
soul deep down in the black mine Of sin,
and that these words may be blessed to the
stanching of the wound and the eternal
life of the soul9 Settle this matter instant
ly, positively and forever. Slay the last
'if." Bury deep the last 'if." How to do
it2 Fling body, mind and soul in prayer
as earnest as that of Moses in the text. Can
you doubt the earnestness Of this prayer Of
the texts 1t is so heavy with emotion that
it breaks down in the middle. 1t was so
earnest that the translators in the modern
copies of the Bible were obliged to put a
mark, straight line, dash, for an omis-
sion that will never be filled up. Such an
abrupt pause, such a sudden swapping off
Of the sentenced
You cannot parse my text. It is an Of
fense to grammatical construction. But
that dash put in by the typesetters is
nightly suggestive. "If thou wilt forgive
their sin (then comes the dash land il
not, blot me, 1 pray thee, out OF thy book" :"
Some of the most earnest prayers ever ut
tered could not be parsed and were poor
specimens of language They halted, they
broke down, they passed into sobs or groans
or silences. God cares nothing for the syn
tax of prayers, nothing for the rhetoric
of prayers. Oh, the wordless prayers II
they were piled up, they would reach to
the rainbow that archcs the throne of God
A deep sigh may meas-more than a whole
liturgy. Out of the 10000 words of the
English language there may not be word
enough expressive for the soul.
The most effective prayers have heard
have been prayers that broke down with
emotion-the young man for the first time
rising in prayer meeting and saying, "Oh
Lord Jesusr' and then sitting down, bury
ing the face in the handkerchief; the peni
tent in the inquiry room kneeling and say
ing, God help me-" and getting no further
the broken prayer that started great re
vival in my church in Philadelphia. A
prayer may have in style the gracefulnes.
Of an Addison, and the sublimity of Mil
ton. and the epigrammatic force of an EN-
erson, and yet be failure, having a hori
zontal power, but no perpendicular power
horizontal power reaching the ear of man
but no perpendicular power reaching thu
ear of God.
| A GREAT EXPLORERS PRAYER ANSWERED.
Between the first and the last sentence:
of my text there was paroxysm of earnest
ness too mighty for words. 1t will taxi
half of an eternity to tell of all the answers
of earnest and faithful prayer. In his las
journal David Livingstone, in Africa, re
cords the prayer so soon to be answered
"19 March-birthday My Jesus, my God
my life, my all, I again dedicate my who'll
self to thee. Accept me, and grant, o gra