The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-12-11

/ has in the different ages Of the world had
! IN his diScipleship Mozart and Handel
IN music; a Raphael and Reynolds IN
painting; an Angelo and CanOVa IN
sculpture; a Rush and a Harvey in medi-
! cine; a Grotius and a Washington IN
/ craftsmanship; a Blackstone, a Marshall
and Kent in law and the time will come
when the religion of Christ will conquer
| all the ObservatOries and universities, and
, Philosophy viii through her telescope be-
hold the morning star of Jesus, and in
her laboratory see that all things work
/ together for good, and with her geologl-
/ cal hammer discover the Rock of Ages. "
! Oh, instead of covering and shiverlng
| when the skepUic stands before you and
| talks Of religion as though II were pusll-
luminous thing instead of that, take
| your New Testament from your pocket
and show him the picture of the intel
| lectual giant of all the ages Frustrated
on the road to Damascus while his horse
is flying wildly away; then ask your skep-
| tic what IL was that frightened the one
and threw the other, Oh no, it is no
weak gospel 1t is a glorious gospel. 1t
is an all-cOnquering gospel 1t is an ON
| nipotent gospel. 1t is the power of God
and the wisdom of God unto salvation.
Again, learn from the text a man can
not become a Christian until he is I'M
! horsed. The trouble is. we want 10 ride
INTO the kingdom of God, just as the
| knight rode into castle gate on palfrey,
beautifully caparisoned. We want to
come into the kingdom of God in fine
style. No kneeling down at the altar, no
| sitting on anxious seats, no crying over
| sin, no begging at the door of Gods
mercy. Clear the road, and let us come
in all prancing in the pride of our soul.
| No, we will never get into heaven that
| way. We must dismOunt. There is no
knight-errantry in religion, no fringed
trappinRs of repentance, but an utter
| prostration before God, going down in
the dust, with the cry, "Unclean, I'M
clean pa bewailing of the soul, like
| David from the belly of hell-a going
| down in the dust, until Christ shall by
his grace lift us up as he lifted Paul.
| Oh, proud-hearted hearer, you must get
| off that horse May light from the
throne of God brighter than the sun
| throw you! Come down into the dust
and cry for pardon, and life, and heaven.
| Again, learn from this scene of the
text that the grace of God can overcome
| the prosecutor. Christ and Paul were
| boys at the same time in different viii
| lagos, and Paul's antipathy to Christ was
! increasing. He hated everything about
| Christ. He was going down then with
writs in his pockets to have Christ's dis
ciples arrested. He was not going as a
| sheriff goes, to arrest man against
whom he had no spite, but Paul was 60
| ing down to arrest those people because
| he was glad TO arrest them. The Bible
says: He breathed out slaughter" He
wanted them captured and he wanted
| them butchered. l hear the click and
! clash and clatter of the hOofs of the gal
| Looping steeds on the way to Damascus.
| Oh! do you think that proud man on
| horseback can ever become a Christian3
! Yes! there is a voice from heaven like a
! thunder-clap uttering two words, the sec
Ond word the same as the first, but ut
tered with more emphasis, so that the
proud equestrian may have no doubt
as to who is meant, Saul!
Saul!' The man was saved,
and he was prosecutor; and so God can,
by his grace overcome any prosecutor.
| The days of sword and fire for Christians
seem TO have gone by The bayonets of
Napoleon l pried open the ''Inquisition"
and let the rOtting wretches out The
| ancient dungeons around Rome are to-day
mere curiosities for the travellers. The Co
liseum, where wild beasts used TO suck up
the life of the martyrs while the emperor
watched and Lola Paulina sat with emer-
| aid adornments worth sixty million SEES
| teroeS, clapping her hands as the Chris
| tians died under the paw and the tooth
of the lion-that Coliseum is ruin now
| The scene of the Smithtield fires is hay
market. The day of fire and sword for
has the day of persecution ceased2 No.
| Are you not caricatured for your relig-
| ion2 In proportion as you try to
! serve God and be faithful to him,
are you not sometimes maltreatedl
! That woman finds it hard to be
! Christian, as her husband talks and jeerS
while she is trying to say her prayers or
read the Bible. That daughter finds it
| hard to be a Christian with the whole
family arrayed against her-father,
mother, brother and sister making her
the target of ridicule. That young man
| finds it hard to be a Christian in the shop,
or factory, or store, when his comrades
| jeer at him because he will not go to the
! gambling hell or other places of iniquity.
| Oh, no, the days of persecution have not
ceased, and will not until the end of the
| world. But, oh you prosecuted ones, is
1t not time that you began to pray for
your persecutors3 They are no prouder,
] no tiercer, no more set in their way than
was this prosecutor of the text. He fell
They will fall if Christ from the heavens
grandly and gloriously look out on them
| God can, by his grace, make a Renan be-
! lieve in the divinity of Jesus and a
| Tyndall in the worth of prayer
Robert Newton stamped the ships
deck i'll derisive indignation at Christian
ity only little while before he became a
Christian. "Out of my house, " said a
! father TO his daughter, "if you will keep
praying" yet before many month passed,
the father knelt at the same altar with
the child. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
willing to look out from heaven upon that
derisive opponent of the Christian religion,
and address him not in glittering general
tiles, but calling him by name John
George! Henry Saul Saul! why per-
secutest thou me3"
Again, | learn from this subject that
there is hope for the worst offenders 1t
was particularly outrageous that Saul
should have gone to Damascus on that
errand. Jesus Christ had been dead only
three years, and the story of his kindness
and his generosity and his love filed all
the air. 1t was not an old story as it is
now. 1t was new story. Jesus had only
three summers ago been in these
very places, and Saul every day
in Jerusalem must have met people
who knew Christ, people with good eye
sight whom Jesus had cured of blindness.
| people who were dead, and who had been
resurrected by the Savior, and people who
! could tell Paul all the particulars of the
| crucifxion-iust how Jesus looked in the
! last hour-just how the heavens grew
black in the face at the torture. He
heard that recited every day by people
who were acquainted with all the circum-
stances, and yet in the fresh memory of
that scene he goes TO persecute Christ's
disciples, impatient at the time it takes
: IN feed the horses "a the inn NOT Y,1,1ISprr