The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1893-04-19

were told by their parents that they
were the worst children that ever lived,
because they liked to ride down hill
better than to read Pilgrims Prog
ress." They never heard their parents
talk of religion but with the corners of
their mouths drawn down and the eyes
rolled up.
Others went into skepticism through
maltreatment on the part of some who
professed religion. There is man who
says; "My partner in business was
voluble in prayer meeting; and he was
officious in all religious circles; but he
cheated me out of three thousand dol
lars, and don't want any of that re-
ligion."
There are others who got into skep-
tlcism by natural persistence in ask
ing questions, why? or how2 How can
God be one being in three personsP
They cannot understand it. Neither
can /. How can God be complete
sovereign, and yet man free agent?
They cannot understand it. Neither
can l. They cannot understand why
holy God let's sin come into the world.
Neither can I. They say, "Here is
great mystery; here is disciple of
fashion, frivolous and goddess all her
days-she lives on to be an octogena-
rian. Here is Christian mother train
ing her children for God and for Heaven,
sef-sacrifcing, Christian-like, indispen-
sable, seemingly, to that household
she takes the cancer and dies" The
skeptic says, II can't explain that"
Neither canI.
Oh! l can see how men reason them
selves into skepticism. With burning
feet have trod that blistering way.
i know what II is to have hundred
nights poured into one hour. There
are men in this audience who would
give their thousands of dollars II they
could go back to the old religion of
their fathers. Such men are not TO be
caricatured, 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 examined
the evidence Of Christianity. Thomas
Chalmers once a skeptic, Robert Hall
once skeptic, Christian Evans once
skeptic; but when they did lay hold
of the gospel chariot, how they made
1t speed aheadI
II, therefore, stand this morning
before men and men who have drifted
away into skepticism, l throw out no
scoff; 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 when she
watched all night and gave you the
medicines ut just the right time, and
turned the pillow when it was hot, and
with hand long ago turned TO dust,
soothed your pains, and with that voice
you will never hear again unless you
join her in the better country, told you
never mind-you would be better by
and by; and by that dying couch where
she talked so slowly, catching her
breath between the words-by all these
memories ask you to come and take
the same religion. 1t was good enough
for her-it is good enough for you.
Aye, make a better plea; by the
wounds and the death throe of the Son
of God, who approaches you this morn
ing with torn brow and lacerated
hands and whipped back, crying:
Come unto me, all we who are weary
and heavy laden, and will give you
rest"
Other persons apologize for not enter
ing the Christian life because OF the in
corrigibility Of their temper. Now, we
admit that IL is harder for some per-
sons to become Christians than for
others; but the grace Of God never
came to mountain II could not climb,
or to an abyss that it could not fathom,
or TO a bondage that it could not break.
The widest horse that ever trod Ara
bian sands has been broken to bit and
trace. The maddest torrent tumbling
from mountain shelving has been har-
messed to the mill wheel and the fac
tory band, setting thousand shuttles
all a-buzzing and a-clatter; and the
widest, the haughtiest, the most un.
governable man ever created, by the
grace of God may be subdued and sent
out on ministry OF kindness, as God
sends an August thunderstorm TO water
the wild flowers down in the grass.
Good resolution, reformatory effort,
will not effect the change. II takes
mightier arm and a mightier hand to
bend evil habits than the hand that
bent the bow Of Ulysses, and It takes
q stronger lasso than ever held the
buffalo on the prairie. A man cannot
go forth with any human weapons and
contend successfully against these
Titans armed with uptorn mountain.
But you have known men into whose
spirit the influence Of the Gospel OF
Christ came, until their disposition was
entirely changed So IL was with two
merchants in New York. They were
very antagonistic. They had done all
they could to injure each other They
were in the same line Of business. One
Of the merchants was converted 10 God.
Having been converted he asked the
Lord TO teach him how to bear himself
toward that business antagonist, and
he was impressed with the fact that II
was his duty when customer asked
for certain kind Of goods which he
had not, but which he knew his oppo-
nent had, to recommend him 10 go 10
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 yery thing. and he