The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1893-12-05
ABSOLUTELY PURE

MS character n nave unaJ resolution go
OH q great while; that does not max
a Christian. But the very instant
when he filings his soul on the mercy of Je
sus Christ, that instant is lustration,
emancipation, resurrection. Up to that
point he is going in the wrong direction,
after that point he is going in the right di-
~rection. Before that moment he is n child
of sin; after that moment he is a child OF
God. Before that moment ~devouring the
prey; after that moment dividing the
spoil. Five minutes is as good rs five
years.
My nearer, you know very we'll that the
best things you have done you have done
in a flash. You mad up your mind in an
instant to buy, or to sell, or to invest, or to
stop, or to start. If you had missed that
one chance, you would have missed 1t for.
ever. Now, just as precipitate and quick
and spontaneous will be the ransom of your
soul Some morning you were making a
calculation. You got OH the track of some
financial or social game. With your pen o.
pencil you were pursuing it. That very
morning you were ~devouring the prey, but
that very night you were in II different
mood. You found that all heaven was of.
fered you. You wondered how you could
get it for yourself and for your family.
You wondered what III 1T would
give you now and hereafter. You are di-
viding peace and comfort and satisfaction
and Christian reward in your soul. You
are dividing the spoil.
RELIGION MAKES MAN MASTER.
One Sabbath night at the close Of the
service l said to some persons, when did
you first become serious about your soulf"
And they told me, Tonight" And said
to others, when did you give ynur heart
- H-l GIL A-l N1A.y .nt1 ~ AEIv
I said to still others, "Whcn did you re-
solve to serve the Lord all the days of your
life2" And they said, Tonight" / saw
by the gayety of their apparel that when
the grace of God struck them they were dc
vourinR the prey, but l saw also in tho
food of joyful tears, and in the kindling
raptures on their brow, and in their exhila-
rant and transporting ~utterances, that they
were dividing the spoil.
If you have been in this building when
the lights are struck at night, you know
that with one touch Of electricity they are
all blazed. Oh l would to God that tho
rkn OF your souls might be broken up,
and that by one quick, overwhelming, in
Simultaneous flash OF illumination you
might be brought into the light and the
liberty of the sons of Godl
You see hat religion is a different thing
from what some of you people supposed.
You thought it was a decadence. You
thought religion was maceration. You
thought it was highway robbery; that it
struck one down and left him half dead;
that it plucked out the eyes; that it plucked
out the plumes of the soul; hat it broke
the wing and crushed the beak as it came
clawing with its black talons through tho
air. No, that is not religion.
What is reliRionf 1t is dividing the
enoil II ia talipo m 6afnpco1oc, corl o,,1
%panoplying it for eternal conquest. 1t is tho
distribution of prizes by the kings hand,
every medal stamped with a coronation. 1t
Is an exhilaration, expansion. 1t Is impara-
disation. 1t Is ~enthronement. Religion
makes a man master Of earth. Of death and
hell. 1t goes forth to gather the medals OF
victory won by Prince Emanuel, and the
diadems of heaven, and the glory Of realms
terrestrial and celestial, and then, after
ranging all worlds for everything that Is
Respondent, it divides the spells.
What was it that James Turner, the fa-
nous English evangelist, was doing when in
his dying moments he said: Christ is I
Christ is ALP Why, he was entering into
light. He was rounding the Cape of Good
Hope. He was dividing the spoil. What
was the aged Christian Quakeress doing
when at 50 years Of age she arose in the
meeting one day and said: "The time Of
my departure is come. My grave clothes
are falling OFF," She was dividing the
spoil.
sho longed with wings to fly away
And mix with that eternal day.
What Is Daniel now doing, the lion tam
er, and Elijah, who was drawn by the fam
ing coursers, and Paul, the rattling Of
whose chains made kings quake, and all
the other victims Of flood and fire and
wreck and guillotine-where are they2 d.
vidipg the spoil.
Ten thousand times ten thousand,
In sparkling raiment bright,
The armies of the ransomcd saints
Throng up the sleeps OF light.
TITS finished, all is finished,
Their fight with death and sin.
Lift high your golden gates
And let tho victors in.
Oh, what a grand thing it is to be n Chris
tiani We begin now to divide tho spoil,
but the distribution will not be completed
to all eternity. There is u poverty struck
soul, there is a business dcspoiled soul,
there is a sin struck soul, there is a be-
reaved soul-why do you not come and get
che spOils Of Christian character, tho COM
fort, the joy, the peace, the salvation that |
am sent to offer you II my Masters namL.
Though your knees knock together in
weakness, though your hand tremble in
fear, though your eyes rain tears of uncon-
trollable w~ee2ing-come and get the spoil.
Rest for all the weary. Pardon for all tho
guilty. Rescue for all the bestormed. Life
for all the dead. verify believe that there
are some who have come in here downcast
because the world Is against them, and be
cause they feel God is against them, who
will 20 away saying:
came 20 Jesus as | was,
Weary and worn and sad.
found In him q resting place,
And no has made mo glad.
Though you came in children of the world,