Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1893-04-22
REV. DR.. 7ALNAGH.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun
day Sermon.
Subject. "Apologies for NIT catering tire
Christian Lifes'

Subject. "Apologies for NIT catering tire
Christian Life.s
TExr: And they az NTH one consent
began to make ercase."-Luke xiv., rs.
After the invitations to a leves are sent ont
the regrets come in. Oas man apologies
Tor nonattendancs on one ground, another
On another ground. The most OF the regrets
are foun led on prior engagemeats. So in
my text great BANQUET was spread, the ia.
vitations were circulated, AMI row the re-
erets Come in. The che gives an Agricultu-
raj reason. the other stock Dealers reason,
the other domestic reason-ail poor rea-
sons. The agricultural reason being that
sne Inah had bought farm and wanted to
SEQ III Could he not see it the next days
Tbs stock dealers reason being that he had
bought i've yoke Of oxen, and 10 wanted TO
60 and prove them. He had no business to
buy them until he knew what they were.
Besides that man who can own Ave yoke
OF oxen can command his own time Be-
sides that he might have yoled two Of then
together and driven them on the way I'd
the banquet for loeomotion was not
a. rapit then as now. The man who
gave the domestic reason said he
had got married. He ought to have
taken his wife with BIN. The fact was they
consent began to make excuse" So now
GOD sprea Is a great banquet; it is the gospel
ieast, and the table reaches across the hem.
ispheres, and the invitations 90 out ami null
titudes come and sit down and drink out of
the chalices of Gods love, while other mui-
titudes decline conling-the one giving this
apology and the otner giving that apology.
And they all With one consent began to
make excise" l propose this morning, SO
FAR as GOD may help me. to examine the
apologies which mer make for not entering
the Christian life.
Apology the first; l am not sure there is
anything valuable in the Christian re-
iigion. 1t is pleaded that there are so many
lmpositions in this day so many things
that seem to be real are sham. A gilded
outside may have hollow inside. There is
SO much qu1ckery in physics, id ethics Id
politics, that men come 10 the habit Of Ia:
credality, and after awhile they allow that
increduiity to collide With our holy re-
ligion,
But my friends think religion has made
pretty good fecori in the world. How
MANY wounds It has salvei: how many pill
lars OF fire it has lifted in tho midnight
wilderness: how many simeon struck 81.
hnras it hath turned into the gardens of the
Lord: how 1t hath stile ths chopped sea!
What rosy light 1t hath ssnt streaming
| through the rift OF ths storm cloui wrack;
what pools Of cool water It hath gathered
Tor thirsty Hagar and ishmael; what mama
whittier than coriander seed it hath dropped
ell arotnd the camp Of hardly bcstead pill
grims; what promises it hath sent out like
molly watchers to keep tbs lamps burning
around death bedsi Through the darkness
that lowers into the sepulchre, what flashes
ofresurrection morn.
| Besides that. this religion has mlde 30
many heroes. 1t brought Summeraeld, the
methodist, across the Atlantic Ocean with
his silver trumpet to blow the acceptable
| year OF the Lord, until it seensl as il all
our American cities would take the king
dom of heaven by violence. 1t sent Je-
hudi Ashnan into Africa alone. in q conti-
nent OF make | barbarians to lift the STAN
dard Of civilization and Christianity. 1t
made John Milton aucng poets, Raphael
among painters, Christopher Wren among
architects, Thorwaldsen among scnlptors,
handel among musicians Dupont among
military commanders, and to give new
wings TO the imagination. and better ball
ance to the Judgment, and more deteruiiua-
ton to the will, and greater Usefulness
% the life, and srandef nobility ID the soul,
there Is nothing il all the earth like our
Christian religion.
Nothing in religioni Why, them, all
those Christians were deceived when id thor
dying moment they thought they saw the
castles OF the blessed; and your child, that
with unutterable agony you put away into
the grave-you will never see him again,
nor hear his sweet voice, nor feel the throb
OF his young heart? There is nothing in re.
hglonl Sickness will come upon you. Roll
and turn on your pillow. No relief. The
medicine may be bitter. the night may be
dafk, the pain may be sharp. No relief.
Chrlst never comes to the sick room. Let
the pain stab. Let the fever burn. Curse
| # an 1 die. There is not ling in religion!
! After awhile death will come. You will
hear the paving OF the pale horse on the
threshold. The spirit will be brea sing away
from the body, and it will take flight
WHITTIER. whitherS There is no Cos, no
heaven. no home. Nothing in religioni
Oh, You are not willing to adopt
such dis raj theory. And yet
the world is full of skeptics. And let me
say there is no class of people for
whom nave warmer sympathy than for
skeptics, We do not know how to treat
them. We Ceride them, we caricaturs
them. We, instead of taking them by the
soft hand of Christian love, clutch them
with the iron piucers of ecciesiastieisn. Oa,
| II you knew how those men had fallen away
from Christianity and becoms skeptics you
would not be SO rough en- them. Some
were brought ~ in homes whers religion
| was Overcome The most wretched day IN
the week was Sunday. Religion was driven
|
sdrteit OF prayer meetings. They were
! stuned and choged with catechis MS. They
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 "Pilgrim's Progress" They never
heard their parents talk OF religion tut with
the corners OF their mouths drawn down
and the eyes role iup.
| :, others went into skepticisn through mall
treatment on the part of some who pro-
tessed religion. There is man wno says,
MY partner in business was voiuble in
prayer meeting, and he was officious in all
religious circles. but he cheated me out of
xoooo, AMI don't want any Of that re-.
| igion."
| There are others who got into skept' cism
by natural persistence in asking questions
why or how. How can God be one being
IN three persons? They cannot understand
1t. Neither can |. How can God be a com.
glete sovereign AMI yet nun fres agsntf
They csnnot understand it. Neither can |.
They cannot understand why holy Col
lets sin come into the world Neither can |.
! They say; Here is great mystery. Here
IS disciple OF fashion, frivolous and goi-
less all her days-shs lives on to be an octo-
| genarian. Here is a Christian mother train.
ing her children for God AMI for heaven,
seit-sacriticing, Chris.iike, indispensable
seemingly to that hou.ehold-she takes the
! tshCei uuu ulesi L ne saeptic Sayst Cdh
explain that" Neither can L.
| Oh. can Sc, how men reason them5 .lves
| into slsepticism. With burning feet have
| trod that blisteriug way. | snow wat 1t is
to have q hundred nights poured into one
hour. There are men ia this au iiencs who
| would give their thou sands OF dollars ii they
could get back to the old religion of their
| fathers. Such men ara not to be carica-
tured, but hslped, and not through their
| heads, but throu III 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 en-
| amined the evidences Of Christianity.
| Thomas Chalmers once q skeptic, Robert
| Han once a skeptic; Christmas Evans once
| skeptie, but when they did lay hold Of the
gospel clariot, how they made 1t speed
ahead
| II therefore stand this morning before
| men AMI omen who have drifted away
| into skeptcis n | throw out no scott. /
rather impiead you by the memory OF those
| goo1 oil timss when you knelt at your
mothers knee and said your evening prayer,
and those other DAYS OF sickness when she
watched all light AMI gave you the medi.
cines at just the right time and turnei the
pillow when it was hot, and with hand lou Z
! ago trrne1 to dust soothed your pains, aud
with that voice you will never hear again
unless you join her in the better country
told ytu never miud-you would bs better
| by and by, and by that dying couc b, waera
she talked so slowly. catching hsr breath
between the words-oy all those memories
| ask you to come and take ths saus relir.
| enough for YOU.
/ Ave ruaka a haitian 40,