Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-12-15

SeelnS 10 nave Bouc ny, Dub hdH
the day of persecution ceased? No
Are you not caricatured for your re-
ligion? in proportion as you try to
serve God and be faithful to him, are
you not sometimes maltreated? That
woman finds il hard to be a CHI istian,
as her husband talks and jears while
she is trying TO say her prayers or read
the bible That daughter finds il hard
TO be Christ an with the whole family
arrayed against her-fGther, mother,
brother and sister making her the tar
get of ridicule. That young man finds
it hard TO be Christian in the shop. or
factory or store, when his comrades
ieer at him because he will not go to
the gambling hell or other places of
iniquity. Oh no. the days Of persecuss
ton 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
tiercer, 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 look
ont on them. God can by his grace
make Renan believe in the divinity of
Jesus, and Tyndall in the worth Of
prayer. Robert Newton stamped
the ships deck in derisive indignation
at Christianity only little while be-
fore he became a Christian. "Out Of
my house." said father to his daugh-
ter, IF you will keep praying" yet be-
hn faf
knelt at the same altar with the child.
And the Lord Jesus is willing to look
out from heaven upon that derlsive
| opponent of the Christian religion, and
address him not in glittering general
ties, but calling him by name. John.
George Henry.-Saul Saul! why per-
secutest thou me?"
Again, 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 filled all the air. 1t was n new
/ story. Jesus had only three summers
ago been in these very places, and Saul
/ every day in Jerusalem must have met
people who knew Christ, people with
good eyesight whom Jesus had cured
of blindness, people who were dead,
and who had been resuIrected by the
| Savior, and people who could tell Paul
all the particulars of the cruciiiXion-
/ just how Jesus looked 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 memory of that scene
he goes to prosecute Christ's disciples,
impatient at the time il takes to feed
the horses at the inn, not pulling at
the snafile, 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 muir
derer He stood by when Stephen died,
and helped in the execution of that
good man. When the rabble wanted
to be unimpeded in their work of de-
stroying Stephen, and wanted to take
off their coats, but did not dare to lay
them down lest they be stolen, Paul
said, III 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 mangling of
glorious Stephen. Is it n wonder
that when he fell from the horse he
did not break his necll--that his foot
did not catch somewhere in the trap
pings of the saddle, and he was not
dragged and kicked to death? He de-
served to die miserably, wretchedly, and
forever, notwithstanding all his meta
physics, and his eloquence, and his
logic. He was the chief of sinners.
He said what was true when he said
that. And yet the grace of God saved
him, and so 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, l tell you the story of this man
in the text who was brought TO Jesus
Christ in spite of his sins and opposi-
ton, There may be some here who
arc as stoutly opposed to Christ as Paul
was. There may be some here who are
captive of their sins as much so as the
young man who said in regard TO his
dissipating habits, II will keep on
with them. l know am breaking my
mothers heart, and know | am kill
ing myself, and | know that when
die l 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 prosecutor rode, but Christ
can catch it by the bride, and hurl it
back and hurl it 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 n great while. You say
that the sin you have committed has
been amidst the most aggravating cir
cumstances That was so with Paul's.
NOu shy Won have CxasDer9tod Christ