The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1893-12-29
under laundering rail-trains Of eternai

under laundering rail-trains Of eternal
disaster, bring them up into respecta-
bility in this world and into glory for
the world to come. You appreciate
what the engineer did; why can you
not appreciate the grander work done
by every Sabbath-school TEACHER and
by every Christian worker?
| Oh! my friends, / want to impress
upon myself and upon yourselves that
it is not the number of talents we pos
sess, but the use we make of them
One step further: There are a great
many people discouraged about getting
to Heaven. 1 am daily in receipt of
numerous letters from people brought
up in good families, and who had
Christian percentages; but who frankly
tell me that they are astray, thousand
miles from the right track, and fear
their case is hopeless. My brother, it
is to you / want to preach now. Ihave
been looking for you. 1 will tell you
how you got astray. 1t was not mali
ciousness on your part. 1t was per-
haps through the geniality and social
| ity of your nature that you fell into
sin. You wandered away from your
duty, You unconsciously left the house
of God; you admit the gospel to be
tru., and yet you have so grievously
and prolongedly wandered, you say
rescue is impossible.
In former settlement where I
preached. member of my congrega-
ton quit the house of God, quit re-
spectacle circles, went into all styles
of sin, and was slain of his iniquity.
The day for his burial came, and his
body was brought to the house of God
Some of his comrades who had de-
stroyed him were overheard along the
street, on the, way to the burial, say
ing: Come, let us go and hear Talmage
damn this old sinnerl" Oh! 1 had
nothing but tears for the dead. and
had nothing but invitations for the
living. You see could not do other
wise. ''Christ Jesus came to seek and
save that which was lost" Christ in
his dying prayer said, "Father, forgive
them" and that was prayer for you
and a prayer for me.
Oh! start on the road to Heaven to-
day. You are not happy. The thirst
of your soul will never be slaked by the
fountains of sin. You turn everywhere
but to God for help. Right where you
are, call on Him. He knows you, He
knows all about you. He knows all
the odds against which you have been
contending in life. Do not go to Him
with a long rigmarole of prayer. bd.
just look up and say: Help! Helpp
Yet you say: my hand trembles so
from designations, 1 can't even take
hold of hymn book to sing" Do not
worry about that, my brother; will
give out hymn at the close so familiar
you can sing it without book. But
you say: 81 have such terrible habits
on me, 1 can't get rid of them" My
answer is, Almighty grace can break
up that habit and will break it up.
But you say: 1.-THE wrong did was to
one dead and in Heaven now, and
can't correct that wrong" You can
correct it. By the grace of God go into
the presence of that one, and the apol-
ogies you ought to have made on earth
make in Heaven.
"Oh" says some man: ST I should
try to do right. if should turn away
from my evil-doing unto the Lord,
1 would be jostled, would be driven
back; nobody would have any sympathy
for me-" You are mistaken. Here, in
the presence of the church on earth
and in Heaven. give you to-day the
right hand of Christian fellowship. God
sent me here to-day to preach this,
and he sent you here to hear this:
"Let the w cked forsake his way and
the unrighteous man his thought, and
let him return unto the Lord, who will
have mercy, and unto our God, who
will abundantly pardon" Though you
may have been the worst sinner, you
may become the best saint, and in the
great day of judgment it will be found
that where sin abounded. grace does
much more abound" and while the
spoils of an everlasting kingdom are
being awarded for your pursuit, it will
be found that the lame took the prey.
Blessed be God that we are. this Sab
bath, one week nearer the obliteration
of all the inequalities of this life and all
its disquietudes. Years ago, on a boat
on the North river, the pilot gave a
very sharp ring of the bell for the boat
to slow up The engineer attended to
the machinery, and then he came up
with some alarm On deck to see what
was the matter. He saw it was
moonlight night and there was no OBJ
stacle in the way. He went to the
pilot and said: "Why did you ring the
bell in that way? Why do you want
to stop? there's nothing the matter"
And the pilot said to him: There is a
mist gathering on the river;
don't you see that? and there
is night gathering darker and
darker and can't see the way" Then
the engineer looking around and see
ing it was bright moonlight, looked
into the face of the pilot, and saw that
he was dying and then that he was
dead. God grant that when our last
moment comes we may be found at our
post doing our duty; and when the mist
of the river of death gathers on our
eyelids, may the good Pilot take the
wheel from our hands and uide US into
the calm harbor of eternal rest!
Drop the anchor furl the SAIL
lam safe within the vail
WEI .RREn CHI nPEN