The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1893-06-10

the eyes rolled up.
Others went into slkepticism through
rAaltreatment on the part of some who
professed religion. There is man
who says: my partner III 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 l don't want any Of that re-
ligion.''
There are Others who got into skep-
ticism BY natural persistence in ask
ing questions, why? or how? How can
God be one being in three persons?
They can not understand ia Neithef
can l. How can tod be complete
sovereign, and yet man free agent?
They can not understand it. Neither
can /. They can not hrsderstand why
holy tod lets sin come into the world.
Neither can I. They say: Here is a
great mystery; here is a disciple OF
fashion. frivolous and goddess all her
days--shc lives on to te an octogena-
fian. Here is Christian mother train
ing her children for God and for Heaven,
self-sacrifcing, Christaihlike, indispen-
sable, seemingly, to that household
she takes the cancer and dies" The
skeptic says: 81 can't explain that"
Neither can l.
Oh, can see how then reason them
selves into skepticism. With burning
feet l have trod that blistering way. !
know what it is to have a hundred
nights poured into one hbuf. There
are men in this audience who would
give their thousands of dollars if they
could get back to the old religion OF
their fathers. Such men are not to be
aricatnred, but helped; and not
through their heads. but through their
hearts When these i1eh 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 evidences of Christianity. Thomas
Chalmers once q skeptic, Robert Hall
once skeptic, Christmas Evans once
a skeptic; but when they did lay hold
of the Gospel chariot, how they made
it speed ahead.
If. therefore, stand this morning be-
fore men and women who hare dfffted
away ,nto skepticism, throw out no
scott; 1 rather implcad you by the
memory of those good old times when
you knelt at your mothers knee and
said your evening prayers, and those
other days of sickness when she
watched all night and gave you the
medicines at just the fight time. and
turned ths pillow when it was hot,
and, with hand long ago turned todust.
soothed your pains, and with that voice
you will never hear again unless you
| join her in the better country, told YOU
never mind-=ycu would be better by
and by; and by that dying couch where
she talked so slowly, catching her
breath between the words-by all those
memories I ask you to come and take
the same religion. 1t WAS good enough
for her-it Is good enough for you.
Aye. / make better plea; by the
wounds and the death-throe of the SOU
of God, who approaches you this morn
ing with torn brow and lacerated
hands and whipped back, crying:
Come unto rue. all We who are weary
and heavy laden. and 1 will give you
rest"
Other persons apologize for not en-
tering Christian life because OF the in
corrigibility of their temper Now, we
admit it is harder for some people te
become Christians than for others; but
| the grace OF God never came to noun
tain that it could not climb, or to ar
abyss that it could not fathom, or to
1 . "A II
widest horse that ever trod Arabian
sands has been broken to bit and trace
The maddest torrent tumbling from
mountain shelving has been harnesset
to the mill-wheel and the factory band
l-setting a Thousand shuttles all a-buz;
and a-clatter; and the widest, thu
most ungovernable man ever created
by the grace of God may be subduet
and sent out on ministry of kindness
| MS God sends an August thunderstorm
to water the wild flowers down in thu
grass.
Good resolution. reformatory effort
will not effect the change. 1t takes
mightier arm and mightier ham
to bend evil habits than tn
hand that bent the bow of Ulysses
and it takes stronger lasso than eve
held the buffalo on the prairie A ma
can not go forth with any human wear
ous and contend successfully agains
these Titans armed with uptorn noun
tain. But you have known men int
4 whose spirit the influence of the 'Gospe
of Christ came until their disposition
was entirely changed. So it was wit
s two merchants in New York. The
4 were very antagonistic. They ha
done all they could do to injure eac
other. They were in the same line c
business. One of the merchants wa
, converted to God. Having bee
, converted, he asked the Lor
) to teach him how to bear hin
self toward that business antagonis
and he was impressed with the fat
+ that it was his duty when a custome
: asked for certain kind of goods whic
3 he had not, but which he knew this
, his opponent had, to recommend hi
|, | to go to that store. / suppose that
> about the hardest thing the man coul
do; but, being thoroughly converted
: God, he resolved to do that very thing
) and, being asked for certain kind {
{ goods which he had not. he said: "Yo
1 20 to such and such store and you wi
r get it" After awhile merchant No.
! found these customers coming, so sen