Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1893-11-30

| bChdHCC. NOW tudb HidH w
a fool l was to be enchanted by this
world Why, have more satisfaction
in five minutes in the service of God
than l had in all the years of my life
while / was gain getting. like this
evening of my day great deal better
| than / did the morning. In the morn
ing | greedily devoured the prey; but
now it is evening, and am gloriously
! dividing the spoil.
My friends, this world is poor thing
| to hunt 1t IS healthful to go out in
| the woods and hunt. 1t rekindles the
lustre OF the eye. 1t strikes the brown
of the autumnal leaf into the cheek
! 1t gives to the rheumatic limbs the
strength to leap like roe. Christie
pher Norths pet gun, the muckle-
mou'd-Meg, going off in the summer in
the forests, had its echo in the winter
time in the eloquence that rang
through the university halls of Edin-
burgh 1t is healthy to go hunting in
the fields; but tell you that it is be-
lifting and bedwarfing and belaming
for man to hunt this world. The
hammer comes down on the gun-cap,
and the barrel explodes and kills you
instead of that which you are pur-
suing. When you turn out to hunt the
world the world turns out to hunt you;
! and as many sportsman aiming his
gun at pantner's heart has gone down
under the striped claws, 50, while you
have been attempting to devour this
world the world has been devouring
you So it was with Lord Byron. So
it was with Coleridge. So it was with
Catherine of Russia. Henry III. went
out hunting for this world and its
lances struck through his heart.
Francis /. aimed at the world, but the
assassin's dagger put an end to his am
bition and his life with one stroke.
Mary Queen of Scots wrote on the win
dow of her castle:
From the top OF all my trust
Mishap hath laid me in the dust
The queen dowager of Navarro was
offered for her wedding day costly
and beautiful pair of gloves, and she
put them on; but they were poisoned
gloves, and they took her life. Better
a bare hand of cold privation than
warm and poisoned glove of ruinous
success. "Oh!" says some young man
in the audience, Il believe what you are
preaching. | am going to do that
very thing. In the morning of my
! life am going to devour the prey, and
in the evening shall divide the spoils
of Christian character | only want a
| little while to SOW my wild oats, and
then l will be good" Young man, did
you ever take census of all the old peo-
pie? How many old people are there
in your house? One, two, or none?
| How many in vast assemblage like
! this? Only here and there a gray
| head, like the patches of snow here
and there in the fields on late April
! day. The fact is that the tides of the
years are so strong that men go down
under them before they get to be GO,
| before they get to be so, before they
get to be 40, before they get to be 80
and if you, my young brother, resolve
now that you will spend the morning
of your days in devouring the prey,
the probability is that you will never
divide the spoils in the evening houy.
He who postpones until old age the
religion of Jesus Christ, postpones It
forever. Where are the men who,
thirty years ago, resolved to be-
come Christians in old age, put
ting il off certain number of
years? They never got to be old. The
railroad collision, or the steam boat
explosion, or the slip on the ice, or the
falling ladder, or the sudden cold put
an end to their opportunities. They
have never had an opportunity since,
and never will have an opportunity
again. They locked the door of heaven
against their soul, and they threw
away the KEYS. They chased the world,
and they died in the chase. The
wounded tiger turned on them. They
failed to take the game they pursued.
Mounted on swift courser, they
leaped the hedge, but the courser fell
on them and crushed them. Proposing
to barter their soul for the world, they
lost both and got neither.
While this is an encouragement to
old people who are still unpardoned it
is no encouragement to the young who
are putting off the day of grace. This
doctrine that the old may be repentant
is to be taken cautiously. 1t is medi-
cine that kills or cures. The same
medicine, given to different patients,
in one case it saves life, and in the
other it destroys it. This possibility of
repentance at the close of lite may
cure the old man while it kills the
young. BE cautious in taking it.
Again, my subject is descriptive to
those who come to sudden and rad
zeal change You have noticed how
short time it is from morning to
night-only seven or eight hours. You
know that the day has very brief life
It's heart beats twentyfour times and
then it is dead. How quick this transit
ton in the character of these Benia-
mites! I'm the morning they shall de-
your the prey, and at night they
shall divide the spoils. Is it pos
sible that there shall be such trans
formation in any of our characters?
Yes, man may be at o'clock in the
morning an all devouring wording,
and at o'clock at night he may be a
peaceful, distributive Christian. Con
version is instantaneous. A man passes
into the kingdom of God quicker than
down the sky runs zig-zag lightning.
A man may be anxious about his soul
for a great many years; that does not
make him a Christian. A man may
pray great while; that does not make
him Christian. A man may resolve on
the reformation of his character, and
have that resolution going great
while: that does not make him a Chris
tan. But the very instant when he
filings his soul on the mercy of Jesus
Christ, that instant is lustration, eman-
cipation, resurrection. Up to that
point he is going in the wrong
direction: after that point he is going