The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-04-17

hour. There are men IN this audience " ho
would give thousands Of dollars if they
could get back 10 the old religion OF their
fathers. Such men are not to be carica-
tured, but helped and not through their
heads, but through their hearts. When
these men really do come into the kingdom
Of God, they will be worth far more to the
cause of Christ than those who never ex-
Rmiued the evidences Of Christianity.
Thomas Chalmers once q skeptlc, Robert
Hall. once a skeptic, Christmas Evans once
. skeptic, but when they did lay hold OF
the gospel chariot, how they made 1t speed
ahead.
II. therefore, stand this morning before
men and women who have drltted away
into skepucism, throw out no scoii.
rather implead you by the memory OF those
good old times when you knelt at your
mothers knee and said your evening
prayer, and those other days Of sickness
whea she watched all night and gave You
the medicines at JUS the right time, ana
turned the pillow when IL was hot and,
with hand long ago turned TO dust, sooth5d
your palms. aud with that voice you VIII
never hear again unless you Join her in the
better country, told you never mind-vOu
would be better by and by; and by that
DYING couch where she talked 50 slowly,
catching her breath between the worts-hy
all those memories l ask you 10 come and
take the same religion. 1t was good enough
for her-it is good enough for you.
Aye, I make better pleaAby the wounds
and the deOth-throe Of the Son Of God, who
approaches you this morning with torn
brow and lacerated hands and whipped
back, crying: Come unto me all ye who
are weary and heavy laden, and will give
you restn
Other persons apologize for not entering
the Christine life because Of the incorrigi-
bility OF their temper. Now, we admit 1t Is
harder for some people to become Christians
than for others; but the grace Of God never
came TO a mountain that it could not climb,
OF to su abyss that it could not fathom, or
60 a bondage that it could not break. The
widest horse that ever trod Arabian sands
has been broken TO the bit and trace. The
maddest torrent tumbling from mountain
shelving has been harnsssed to the mill
wheel and the factory band, setting thou
sand shuttles all a-buzZ and a-olattter; and
the widest, the haughtiest, the most ungov-
ernable man ever created, by the grace of
God may be subdued ana sent out on min
Istry Of kindness, as God sends an August
thunder storm to water the wild flowers
down in the grass.
Good resolution, reformatory effort, will
not effect the change. It takes a mightier
arm and a mightier hand to bend evil habits
than the hand that bent the bow of Ulysses,
and it takes a stronger lasso than ever held
the buffalo on the prairie. A man cannot
go forth with any human weapons and
contend successfully against these Ittans
armed with uptorn mountain. But you
have known men into whose spirit the in
fluence OF the gospel Of Christ came, until
their disposition was entirely changed. So
It was with two merchants in New York.
They were very antagonisJic- They had
done all they could to iujure each other.
They were in the same line OF business.
One Of the merchants was converted to
God. Having been converted, he asked
the Lord to teach HIM how to bear him
self toward that business antagonist, and
he was impressed with the fact that it was
his duty when q customer asked for "a GER
tain kind Of goods which LIE had not, but
which he knew his opponent had, to recon-
mend him TO 20 to that store. l suppose
that is about the hardest thing the man
could do; but being thoroughly converted
TO God he resolved TO do that very thing,
and being asked for a certain kiud of goods
which he had not he said: " Y on 60 to such
and such store and you will get it.' after
a while merchant number two found these
customers coming so sent, and he found
also that merchant number one had been
brought to God and he sought the same re-
ligiou. Now they are good friends and good
neighbors, the grace of God entirely chang
ing their disposition.
90" says some one, II have a rough,
jagged, impetuous nature, and religion
can't do anything for me- Do you know
that Martin Luther and Robert Newton and
Richard Baxter were impetuOus, all con-
sulnIng natures, yet the grace Of God turned
them into the mighuest usefulness! o! how
many who have been puguaoious, and hard
to pIeasa. and irascible, aud more bothered
about the mote IN their neighbours eye than
about the beam like ship timber in their
own eye. have been entirely changed by the
grace of God, and have found out that
Goodness is profitable for the life that
fg "a we'll ag ia m
come"
Peter, with nature tempestuous as the seq
that be once tried to walk, at one look of
Christ went out and Wept bitterly. Rich
harvests of grace may grow on the tiptop
of the jagged steep, and tiocks OF Christian
Rraces may find pasturage in fields Of bram-
Bile and rock. Though your DISPOSITION NAV
be all a-bristle with fretfulness, though you
have temper a-gleam with quick light
Mugs, though your avarice he like that of
the horse leech, crying, "Given though
damnable Impurities have wrapped you in
all-consuming 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, aud the false keys
from the burglar and in the pestiferous
lanes of the city met the daughter OF sin
under the dim lamplight and scattered her
sorrow ana ner quit Win the WOTuBs my
sins are forgiven-go, and sin no more" For
scarlet sin a scarlet atonement.
Other persons apologize for not entering
the Christian life because Of the inoonsist-
encles of those who profess religion. 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 aud smaller in the ear. They have
ten less bushels to the acre than their neigh
bors. But who declines being farmer be-
cau3e there are 50 many poor farmerss
There are thousands OF incompetent mer-
chants. 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 bus
mess. But who declines to be merchant
because there are SO many Incompetent mer-
chants? There are thousands of poor law
yers They caunot draw a declaration that
will stand the test. They cannot recover
Just damages. They cannot help defend
ant escape from the injustice Of his perse-
cutors. They are the worst evidence against
any case in which they are retained But
who declines to be lawyer because there
are so many Incompetent lawyers9 Yet
there are tens OF thousands of people who
decline being religious because there are so
many unworthy Christians. Now l say it is
illogical Poor lawyers are nothing against
Jurisprudence. poor physicians are nothing