Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1893-04-22

DrOtner, tne inconsistency VI Nhio-
tians, SO far from being an argument
to keep you away from God, ought to
be an argument to drive you to him.
Other persons apologize for not be-
coming Christians because they lack
time. As though religion muddled the
brain of the accountant, or tripped the
pen of the author, or thickened the
tongue of the orator, or weakened the
arm of the mechanic, or scattered the
briefs of the lawyer, or interrupted
the sales of the merchant. They bolt
! their store doors against 1t, and fight it
back with trowels and with yardsticks,
and cry: Away with your religion
from our store, our Office, our factory
They do not understand that religion
in this workaday world will help you
to do anything you ought to do ltcan
lay keel. it can sail a ship. it can buy
Il cargo. it can work pulley, it can
pave 81 street. il can fit n wristband, it
can write constitution, it can marshal
a host 1t is as appropriate to the as
tronomer as his telescope: to the chem
list MS his laboratory: to the mason as
his plumb-line; to the carpenter rs his
plane: to the child as his marbles: to
the grandfather as his staff.
| No time to he religious here. You
have no time not to be religious. You
might as well have no clerks in your
store. no books in your library, no COM
pass on your ship, no rifle in the battle,
on hat for your head. no coat for your
back. no shoes for your feet. Better
travel on toward eternity bareheaded
and barefooted and houseless and home
less and fricndless than to go through
life without religion.
Did religion make Raleigh any less
of statesman. or IIavclock any less Of
soldier. or Grinnell any less of II mer-
chant, or West any less of painter?
Religion is the best security in every
bargain: it is the sweetest note in every
song. it is the brightest gem in every
coronct. No time to be religious. Why,
you will have to take time to be sick,
to he troubled. to die. Our world Is
only the wharf from which we are to
embark for Heaven. No time to secure
the friendship of Christ. One would
think we had time for nothing else.
Other persons apologize for not en-
tering the Christian life because it is
time enough yet. That is very like
those persons who send their regrets
and say: Il will come in perhaps ut II
or IL o'clock: will not be there at the
opening of the banquet, but will be
there ut the close" Not yet. Not yet.
Now. do not give any doleful view
of this life: there is nothing in my ma
ture. nothing in the grace of God. that
tends toward doleful view of human
life. have not much sympathy with
Addison's description of the Vision OF
Mira" where he represents human life
as being bridge of hundred arches
and both ends of the bridge COW
cred with clouds, and the race
coming on, the most of them
falling down through the first span and
all of them falling down through the
last span. 1t is a very dismal picture.
] have not much sympathy with the
Spanish proverb which says: The sky
is good and the earth is good-that
which is bad is between the earth and
the sky"
But while we as Christian people are
bound to take cheerful view of life,
we must also confess that life is great
uncertainty, and that man who says:
Il can't become Christian because
there is time enough yet" is running a
risk infinite. You do not perhaps
realize the fact that this des-
cending grade of sin gets steep
er and sleeper, and that you are
gathering up rush and n velocity
which after awhile may not answer to
the brakes. O. my friends, be not
among those who give their whole life
to the world and then give their corpse
to God. 1t does not seem fair while
our pulses are in full play of health
that we serve ourselves and serve the
world. and then make God at last the
present of coffin. 1t is n great thing
for man on his dying pillow to repent
better that than never at all; but
how much better. how much mo:e gen.
erous. it would have been If he mad re-
pented fifty years before! My friends,
YOU will never get over these procrasti-
nations.
Here is delusion. People think, II
can go on in sin and worldliness, but
after awhile | will repent, and then it
will be as though / had come at the
very start" That is delusion. No
one ever gets fully over procrastination.
If you give your soul to God some other
time than this You will enter Heaven
with only half the capacity for enjoy
ment and knowledge you might have
had. There will be heights of blessedness
YOU might have attained, you will never
reach thrones of glory on which you
might have been seated. but which you
will never climb. We will never
get over procrastination, neither in
e ,.,,. Il, ataruitv We have started