The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1893-04-18

! OF their fatncrS. Ducu Ileu are uOl " DC
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 evidences of Christian
ity. Thomas Chalmers once scepac,
| Robert Hail. once a sceptic, christmas
| Evans once a sceptic: but when they did
lay hold of the gospel chariot, how they
made it speed ahead.
If, therefore, | stand this morning peloie
| men and women who have drltteu ava!
| into scepticism, / throw out no scoI;
rather implead you by the memory OF those
good old times when you kneit at your
mother knee and said your evening prayer
and those other days OF sickness When sue
watched all night and gave you the medi-
cines at lust the right time. and turned
the pillow when it was hot, and, with
! hands long ago turned to dust, sootheu
| your pains, and with that voice you VIII
never hear again unless you JON hef III the
| better country. told you never Inlnd-you
| would be better by and by; and by that
| diving couch where she talked so slowly,
catching her breath between tie words
! by all those memories ! ask you to come
| and take the same religion. 1t was good
enough for her--it is good enough for
| you.
Ave, | make a better plea; by the wounds
! and the death-throe of the Son of God,
who approaches you this morning with
ped back, crying Come unto me, all ye
who are weary and heavy laden, and l
will give you rest.
Other persons apologize for not entering
the Christian life because of the incorrig.
biIity of their temper Now, we admit
that it is harder for some people to be
come Christians than for others: but the
grace of God never came to a mountain that
1t could not Climb, or TO an abyss that it
could not fathonl, or to bondage that it
could not break. The widest horse that
ever trod Arabian sands has been broken
TO bit and trace The maddest torrent tum-
bling from mountain shelving has been
harneSsed TO the mill wheel and factory
band. setting thousand shuttles all a-buZz
ana a-clatter; and the widest, the haughu-
est. the most ungoyernabe man ever ere
ated, by the grace of God may be subdued
and sent out on Il 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. 1t takes Il mighticr
arm and a mghtier hand TO bend evil hab-
It's than the hand that bent the bow of
Ulysses. and it takes a stronger lasso than
ever held the buffalo on the prairie A man
cannot go forth with any human weapons
and contend successfully against these III
tans 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 it was with two merchants in New
York. They were very antagonistic.
They had done all they could to niure
each other. They were in the same line of
business. One OF the merchants was CON
verified to 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
it was his duty when customer asked
for Il certain kind of goods which he had
not, but which he knew his opponent
had. to recommend him to go to that
store | suppose that was about the hardest
thing the man could do; but being thoroughly
converted to God he resolved 10 do that very
thing, and being asked for Il certain kind Of
goods which he had not, he said; You 90
to such and such 4 store and You Will get
II. After q while merchant number TWO
found these customers coming 50 sent. and
he found also that merchant number one had
been brought to God. and he sought the
same religion. Now they are good friends
and good neighbors the grace OF God en-
tirely changing their dispositions.
co. says some one. Il have Il rough
Jagged, impctuOus nature. and religion can't
do anything for me- DO you know that
Martin Luther and Robert Newton and
Richard Baxter were impctuouS all-conSlm-
ing uatures yet the grace Of God turned
them into N" mlGutiest usefulness. o! how
many VINO have benr puGnac.ous and hard
to please, and irascIblc. and more bothered
about the mote in their ngighhurs eve than
eye. have been entirely changed by the grace
Of God. and have found out that "godliness
is profitable for the life that now is as well
as for the life which is to come"
Peter, with nature tempeStuouS rs the
sea that he once tried to walk, at one look
OF Christ went out and wept bitterly. Rich
haryeStS of grace may grow Oh the tiptop
OF the jagged steep, and fiocks of Christian
graces may ind pasturage in fields of braun
BILE and rock. Though your disposition may
be all a-bristle with fretfuness, though you
have temper a-gleam with quick light
mnSS. though your ayarlCe be like that of
the horse leech, crying: Give though
damnabe impurities have wrapped Won in
all-consuming flre-t}od can drive that devil
out of your Soul. and over the chaos aud the
darkness be can say: Let there be light"
Converting grace has lifted the drunkard
from the ditch, and Snatched the knife from
the hand OF the assassin, and the false keys
from the burglar, and in the peStiferous
lanes of the city met the daughter Of sin ull-
der the dim lamplight. and scattered her
sorrow and her guilt with the words Thy
SINS are for@lvcn-go and sin no more" For
scarlet SIN scarlet atOnement.
Other persons apologize for not entering
the Christian life because Of the inconss-
tcnCeS Of those who profess religion. There
are thousands of poor farmers. They DO not
know the nature OF soil nor The proper rOta-
ton of crops Their corn is shorter in the
stalk ana smaller i'll the ear. They have ten
loss bushels 10 the acre than their -eignbors.
Iut VINO declines beng n farmer because
there are so many poor formers?
There are thousands of incompetent mer-
chants. They buy at the wrong time.
They get cheated in the sale of their goods.
livery bale Of goods is To them IA bale Of
disaster. They fail after awhile and 20 out
Of business. But who declines TO be Il mer-
cnant because there are SO many incompe-
tent merchants? There are thousands of
poor lawyers. They cannot draw Il declar-
alton that will stand the test. They can
not recover just damages They cannot
help defendant escape from the injustice
of his prosecutors. They are the worst
evidence against any case in which they
retained. But who declines To be Il
lawyer because there are so many incompe-
tent lawyer? Yet there are tens of thou
sands of people who decline being religious
because there are SO many unworthy Chris
tians. Now, ] say it is illogical Poor law
yers are nothing against jurisprudence,
poor physicians are nothing against medi-
cine, poor farmers are nothing against agfi-
culture and mean, cOntenptble professors
of religion are nothing against our glorious
Christianity.
Sometimes you have been riding along
on summer night by Il swamp and you
have seen lights that kndled over decslyed
Observation-Disclosures which are called Jack
olantern or VIII o the Wisp. These lights