Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1893-12-11

secution ceased? No. Are you not Carl
catured for your religion? In proportion
asyou try to serve God and be faithful
20 him, are you not sometimes NAL
treated?
That woman finds it hard to be Chris
tan as her husband talks and Jeers
while she is trying to say her prayers or
read the Bible. That daughter finds 1T
hard to be Christian with the whole
family arrayed against her - father,
mother, brother and sister making her
the target Of ridicule. That young man
finds it hard to be o Christian in the
shop or factory or store when his COM
rades ieer at him because he will not go
to the gambling hell or other places of
iniquity.
Oh, no, the days Of persecution have
not ceased and will not until the end
of the world. But oh, You prosecuted
ones, is it not time that You began to
pray for your prosecutors? They are no
prouder, no fiercer, no more set in their
way than was this prosecutor of the text.
He fell. They will fall if Christ from
the heavens grandly and gloriously looks
out on them. God can by his grace
make Renan believe in the divinity Of
Jesus and a Tyndall in the worth of
prayer.
Robert Newton stamped the ships
deck in derisive indignation at Chris
tianity only little while before he be-
came Christian. ''Out Of my house"
said a father to his daughter, ''if you will
keep praying" Yet before many months
passed the father lznelt at the same altar
with the child. And the Lord Jesus
| Christ is willing to look out from heaven
upon that derisive opponent of the Chris
tan religion and address him, not in
glittering generalities, bnt calling him
! by name: 'sJohni Georgel Henry!-
! Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou lne?''
HOPE FOR THE WORST.
Again. I learn from this subject that
there is hope for the worst offenders. 1t
was particularly outrageous that Saul
should have gone to Damascus on that
errand. Jesus Christ had been dead only
three years, and the story Of his kindness,
and his generosity, and his love filed all
the air. It was not an old story, as it IS
now. It was a new story. Jesus had
only three summers ago been in these
very places, and Saul every day in Jeru-
salem must have met people who knew
Christ, people with good eyesight whom
Jesus had cured of blindness, people
who had been dead and who had been
resurrected by the Saviour, and people
who could tell Paul all the particulars OF
the crucifxion-just how Jesuslooked in
the last hour, just how the heavens grew
black in the face at the torture
He heard that recited every day by
people who were acquainted with all the
circumstances. and yet in the fresh MEM
DRY Of that scene he goes to.persecute
Christs disciples, impatient at the time
it takes to feed the horses at the inn, not
pulling at the snaffie, but riding with
loose rein faster and faster. Oh, he was
the chief of sinners! No outbreak Of
modesty when he said that. He was a
murderer. He stood by when Stephen
died and helped il the execution of that
good man.
When the rabble wanted to. be unim-
peded in their work of dest11gyAS Steph-
en- and wanted to take off their coats,
but did not dare to lay them down lest
they be stolen, Paul said, I'll take care
of the coats" and they put them down
at the feet of Paul, and he watched the
coats. and he watched the horrid man
Cling of glorious Stephen. Is it a wonder
that when he fell from the horse he did
not break his neck-that his foot did not
catch somewhere IL the trappings of the
saddle, and he was not dragged and kicked
to death? He deserved TO die miserably,
wretchedly and forever, Notwithstanding
| all his metaphysics, and his eloquence
and his logic.
THE CHIEF OF SINNERS.
He was the chief OF sinners. He said
what was true when he said that And
vet the grace Of God saved him, and sc
it will you. IF there is any man in this
house who thinks he is too bad to be
saved and says, Il have wandered very
grievously from God; | do not believe
there is any hope for me-" 1 tell you the
story of this man in the text who was
brought to Jesus Christ in spite of his
sins and opposition. There may be some
here who are as stoutly opposed to Christ
as Paul was There may be some here
who are captive of their sins as much sc
as the young man who said in regard tC
his dissipating habits: 4 will keep on
with them know | am breaking my
mothers heart, and | know I am killing
myself. and | know that when I die
shall go to hell, but it is now too late to
stop"
The steed on which you ride may be
swifter and stronger and higher mettled
than that on which the Cilician perse
cutor rode, but Christ can catch it BY
the bride and hurl it back and hurl i
down. There is mercy for you who say
YOU are too bad to be saved You say
you have put off the matter so long
Paul had neglected it a great while
You say that the Sill you have commit
ted has been among the most aggravat
!, ing circumstances; that was so with
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