The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1893-12-13

ter making her the target Of ridicule.
That young man finds 1t hard 10 be
Christian in the shop, or factory, or
store, when his comrades jeer at him
because he will not 20 to the gambling
he'll or other places OF iniquity. o,
40, 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 prosecutors? They are
no pronder no fcrcer, no more set In
their way than was this prosecutor Of
the text He fell They will fall II
! Christ from the Heavens grandly and
! Rloriously look out on them. God can,
by His grace. make Roman believe in
the divinity of Jesus, and Tyndall in
the worth of PRAYER, Robert Newton
stamped the ships deck in derisive in
dignat!on at Christianity only little
while before he became Christian.
"0ut of my house." said father to, his
daughter, "if you will keep praying;"
yet before many months passed, the
father knelt ut the same altar with
the child. And the Lord Jesus Christ
z Is willing TO look out from Heaven
upon that derisive opponent of the
Christian religion and address him not
in glittering generalities but calling
him by name. John! George! Henry!
| Saul! Saul! why persecutest thou
Me?"
Again, learn from this subject that
there is hope for the worst offenders.
IL was particularly outrageous that
Saul should have gone to Damascus on
that errand. Jusus Christ had been
dead only three years, and the story of
His Kindness and His generosity and
an old story as it is now. II 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 eyesight whom Jesus had
cured of blindness, people who were
dead and who had been resurrected by
the Saviour, and people who could tell
Paul all the particulars of the cruci-
fxion-just how Jesus looked in the
last hour-just how the heavens grew
black in the face OF the torture. He
heard that recited every day by people
/ who were acquainted with all the cir
cumstances, and yet in the fresh MEM
ory OF that scene he goes to persecute
Christ's disciples, impatient at the time
IL takes to feed the horses at the inn,
not pulling at the snaffie, but riding
with loose rein faster and faster. o,
he was the chief Of sinners. No out
break of modesty when he said that
He was murderer. He stood by when
Stephen died, and helped in the execu-
tion of that good man. When the
rabble wanted to be unimpeded in their
work of destroying Stephen, and
wanted to take off their coats but did
not dare TO lay them down lest they be
stolen, Paul said: 'Tll take care OF
/ the coats" and they put them down at
| the feet of Paul, and he watched the
| coats and he watched the horrid mang-
ling OF glorious Stephen. Is II a won.
der that when he fell from the horse
he did not break his neck-that his foot
| did not catch somewhere in the trap
pings OF the saddle. and he was not
dragged and kicked to death? He de.
/
and forever, Notwithstanding all his
metaphysics and his eloqqence and bis
logic He was the chief OF sinners He
said what was true when he said that.
! And yet the grace of God saved him,
| and so it will you. II there is any man
| In this house who thinks he is too bad
/ to be saved and says: 81 have wandered
very grievously from God, do not be-
lieve there is any hope for me" | tell
you the story OF this man in the text
! who was brought TO Jesus Christ in
: spite OF his sins and opposition. There
may be some here who are as stoutly
opposed to Christ as Paul was. There
NAV be some here who are captive OF
| their sins as much as the young man
who said in regard to his dissipating
habits: ~ will keep on with them. |
know | am breakinq my mothers heart,
and know am killing myself, and |
know that when die shall go TO hell,
/ but It is now too late TO stop"
The steed on which you ride may be
swifter, and stronger, and higher met
tied than that on which .he Cilician
prosecutor rode, but Christ can catch
II by the bride, and hurl IL back and
hurl IL down. There Is mercy for you
who say YOU are too bad TO be saved.
You say you have put the matter OH so
long. Paul had neglected IL great
while. You say that the sin you have
committed has been. amidst the most
aggravating circumstances. That was
so with Pants. You say you have eX.
aspcrated Christ and coaXed your own
run. So did Paul. And yet to-day he
sits on one of the highest of the
heavenly thrones; and there is mercy
for YOU. and gladness for you, II you
will ONLY take the same Christ which
first threw him down and then raised
him up. II seems to me as II ] can see
Paul to-day rising up from the high
way TO Damascus and brushing off the
dust from his cloak and wiplng the
sweat of excitement from his brow, as
he turns TO us and all the ages, saying,
This Is a faithful saying, and worthy
of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus
came into the world TO save sinners, OF
whom am chief"
Once more: learn from this subject
that there is tremendous reality In
religion. IL IL had been a mere optical
delusion on the road 10 Damascus, was
not Paul Just the man TO find IL out? II
IL had been sham and pretense, would.
he not have pricked the bubble? He
was a man of facts and arguments, OF
the most gigantic intellectual nature,
and not man Of hallucinations. And
when see him fall from the saddle,
blinded and overwhelmed, ! say there
must have been something In IT, And,
my dear brother, you will find there Is
something In religion somewhere. The
only question Is, where?
There was man who rode from