Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1893-04-17

THEY WE'RE VERY ANTAGoNIsTIc.
They bad 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 con-
verted, he asked the Lord to teach him
I how TO bear himself toward that busi-
ness antagonist, and he was impressed
with the fact that il was his duty when
q customer asked for certain kind OF
/ goods which be had not, but which be
| knew his opponent had, to recommend
/ him TO go to that store. l suppose that
/ is about the hardest thing the man
4 could do; but being thoroughly convert
ed 20 God, be resolved to do that very
/ thing, and being asked for q certain
/ kind Of goods which he had not, he said:
"YOu go 70 such and such store and
| You will get il. After awhile merchant
number two found these customers
| coming, so sent, and be found also that
| merchant number one had been brought
/ TO God, and no sought the same relig-
/ ion. Now they are good friends and
good neighbOrS, the grace OF God en-
/ tlrely changing their disposition.
] cor saws some one. II have rough.
/ Jagged, impetuous nature, and religion
/ can't Go anything for me-" Do you
\ know that Martin Luther and Robert
Newton and Richard Baxter were i'm
petous, all-consuming natures, yet the
/ grace Of God turned them into the
mightiest usefulness?
Other persons apologize for not enter
| ing the Christian life because OF the in
consistencies of those who profess reli-
\ gion. There are thousands OF poor
farmers. They do not know the nature
Of soil nor the proper rotation of crops.
| Their corn is shorter In the stalk and
/ smaller in the ear. They have ten less
! bushels 10 the acre than their neigh
bors. But who defines 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 70 them q bale OF disaster.
| They fail after awhile and go out Of
business. But who declines TO be a
merchant because there are so many in
competent merchants? There are thous-
ands Of poor lawyers. They cannot
draw a declaration that will stand the
test. They cannot recover just DANA
geS. They cannot help defendant
escape from the injustice Of his perse-
cutors. They are the worst evidence
I against any case in which they are re-
tanned. But who declines TO be law
yer because there are so many incompe-
! tent lawyers? Yet there are tens OF
thousands Of people who decline being
religious because there are so many I'M
l worthy Christians. Now l say It Is IL
logical. Poor lawyers are nothing
against jurisprudence, poor physicians
are nothing against medicine, poor
farmers are nothing against agricul-
ture, and mean, contemplate professors
OF religion are nothing against our glo-
rious Christianity.
Sometimes you have been riding along
on a summer night by swamp, aud
you have seen lights that kindled over
decayed observation-disclosures which are
/ called Jack-O'lantern or Will-o'-the-
wiSp. These lights are merely poison
Gus miasmata. My friends, on your
way to heaven you will want better
light than the Will-o'-the-wisps which
L
Christians. ExudatiOns from poisonous
trees in our neighbor's garden will make
a very poor balm for our wounds.
| Other persons apologize for no becom-
ing Christians because they lack time.
As though religion mudded the brain Of
the accountant. or tripped the pen Of
the author, or thickened the 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 Ii back with towels and with
yard-sticks, and cry, Away with your
religion from our store, our office, our
factory"
Did religion make Raleigh any less Of
a statesman, OF Havelock any less Of a
soldier, or Grinnel any less of q mer-
chant, or West any less Of painter?
Religion Is the best security In every
bargain, it is the sweetest note in every
song, 10 is the highest gem in every
coronet. No time to be religious! Why,
you will have to take time to be sick, to
be troubled, 10 die. Our world is only
the wharf from which we are 70 embark
for heaven. No time to secure the
friendship Of Christ. No time TO buy a
lamp and trim ii for that walk through
the darkness which otherwise will be IL
lumined only by the whiteneSS of the
| tOmbstOnes. No time TO educate the eye
for heavenly splendors, or tho hand for
choral harpS, or the ear for everlasting
songs, or the soul for honor, glory aud
immortality. One would think we had
time for nothing else.
| Other persons apologize FOR not en-
tering the Christian life because it is
time enough yet. That is very like
those persons who send their regrets
and say, Il will coms in perhaps at
eleven or twelve O'Clock; l will not be
there at the opening OF the banquet, but
I will be there at the close" Not yet!
Not yet!
Now, I do not give any doleiul view
OF this life; there is nothing 10 my ma
ture, nothing in the grace OF God. that
tends toward a doleful view OF human
life. / have not much sympathy with
/ AddiSOn's description OF the Vision OF
Mira, where be represents human life
as being a bridge OF q hundred arches,
aud both ends Of the bridge covered
with clouds, aud the race coming on,
the most Of them falling down through
the first span, and all Of them falling
down through the last span.
IT'S A VERY DISMAL PICTURE.
I have not much sympathy with the
Spanish prOver6 which says, The sky
is good aud the earth is goOd-that
which is bad is between the earth and
the sky"