Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-04-21

suming 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 .Iurg lar,
and in the pestiferous lanes Of the city
met the daughter of sin under the dim
amplight, and scattered 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 en-
| tering the Christian life because of the
! Inconsistencies of those WHO profess re-
! lgion. There are thousands OF poor
| farmers. They do not know the nature
| of soil nor the proper rot ton OF crops.
| There corn is shorter in stalk and small
err in the ear. They have ten less
bushels to the acre than their neigh
bors. But who declines being farmer
because there are SO many poor farm
ers?
There are thousands of incompetent
merchants They buy at 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 go out of business.
But who declines to be "A merchant be-
cause there are so many incompetent
merchants? There are thousands of
poor lawyers. They cannot draw n
declaration that will stand the test
They cannot recover just damages
They cannot help a defendant es ape
4 r4S.,.a
/ They are the worst evidence against
any case in which taey are retained.
But who declines to be a lawyer be-
cause there are so many incompetent
lawyers? Yet there are tens of thou
sands of people who decline b ing reli-
gious because there are SO MANY un-
worthy Christi ms. Now say it is il
logical. Poor lawyers are nothing
against iuris prudence, poor physicians
are nothing against medicine, poor
farmers are nothing against agricult-
ure, and mean, contempt bic profess
sors of religion are nothing against
our glorious Christianity.
Sometimes you have been riding
along on summer night by swamp,
and you have seen Ii hts that Iindlud
over decayed vegetation-lights which
are called Jack-o'llnt I'm or Will-o'-
thew So. These lights are merely
poisonous miasmata. My friends, on
your way to heaven You Will want
better CHIT than the Will-o -the-wisps
which dance on the rotten chara tter of
dead Christians. EXudat.ons from
poisonous trees in our neighbor gar
den will make a very poor balm for
our wounds.
Sickness will come, and we will be
pushed out toward the Red Sea which
divides this world from The next, and
not the inconsistency of ChristianS, but
the rod of faith will wave back the
waters as "A commander wheels his
host. The Judgment will come, with
its thunder-shod solemnities, attended
by bursting mountains and the deep
/ laugh of earthquakes, and suns viii
fly before the feet of God like sparks
from the anvil. and ten thousand burn
ing worlds shall blaze like banners in
the track of God omnipotent. Oh! then
we will not stop and say, There was
mean Christian; there was cow
ardly Christian; there was alying
Christian; there was an impure Chris
tian." N that day as now. eff thou
be wise, thou shalt be wtse for thyseif;
but if thou soonest, thou alone shall
bear it,. Why, my brother, the incon.
sistency of Christians, SO far from be-
ing an argument to keep you away
from God, ought 10 be an argument
To drive you TO him. The best
place for u skilful doctor is in
"a neighborhOod where they are all
poor doctors; the best place for an en-
terprisiug merchant TO open his store
is in place where the bargain-makers
do not understand their business; and
the best place for you who want to be-
come the illustrious and complete
Christian-thc best place for you is to
come ri Int down among US who are so
Incompetent and SO inconsistent some
times
Other persons apologize for not be-
coming Christians because they lack
time. As though religion muddled
the brain of the accountant, or trIpped
the pen of the author, or thickened me
tongue OF the orator, or weakened the
arm of the mechanic, or scattered the
briefs of the lawyer, or interrupted the
sales of the merchant. They bolt
their store doors against it, and fight
it back with trowels and with yard
sticks, and cry, Away with your re-
ligion from our store, our office, our
factory"
They do not understand that religion
in this worlSaday world will help you
to do anything you ought to do. 1t
can lay keel, it can sail ship, it can
buy cargo, it can work pulley, it
can pave n street, it can fit wrist
band, it can write constitution, it
can marshal host. IL is as appropri-
ate to the astronomer as his telescope;
to the chemist as his laboratory; to the
mason as his plumb-line, to the carpen-
ter as his plane; to the child as his
marble; to the grandfather as his staff.
No time to be religious here! You
have no time not TO be religious You
might as well have no clel ks in your
store, no books in your library, no
compass on your ship, no rifle in the
battle, no hat for your head, no coat
for your back, no shoes for your feet.
Better travel on toward eternity bare
headed and barefooted and houseless
and homeless and friendless, than to
GO through life without religion.
Did religion make Raleigh any less of
statesman, or HaveloclS any less of
soldier, or Grinnell any less of mer-
chant, or West any less of painter?
Relipion is the best security in every