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


down among us who are so incompetent
and so incoslStent sometimes.
Other persons apologize for not becoming
Christians, because they lack time. As
though religion muddled the brain Of the
accountant or tripped the pen of the
author, or thickened the tongue of the
orator, or weakened the arm Of the me-
tchanlc, or scattered the briefs Of the
lawyer. or interrupted the sales of the
merchant. They bolt their store doors
against it, ana light it back with trowels
and with yardsticks, and cry, Away Win
your religion from our store, our Office
our factory
They do not understand that religion in
this Workaday world will help you to 90
anything you ought to do. 1T can lay
keel, 1t can sail ship, it can buy cargo
1t can work Il pulley, it can pave street,
IL can ut a wristband it en- write CON
sttutlon, it can marshal a host. 1t is as
appropriate to the astronoSler a. bis tel
Escape; 10 the chemist as This laboratory;
to The mason as his plult b-line; to the
carpenter rs his plane; to aue child as his
marbles; to the grandfather as his staff.
No time to be religious. re! You have
well have no clerks in syoup tore, no books
III your library, no compasJ on your ship,
no rifle in the battle, no hat for your head,
no coat for your back, no shoes for your
Ieet Better travel on toward eternity
bareheaded and barefooted and houseless
g,
through life without religion
Did religion make Raleigh any less of a
Statesman, or Hayel0ck any less of Il sol
der; or Grinnell any less of Il merchant,
or west any less of a painter? Religion
Is the best security in every bargain it
is the sweetest note in every song, it is
the brightest gem in every coronet No
time to be religious. Why. you will have
to take time to be sick, to be troubled to
die Our world is only the wharf from
h. l. y
time to secure the friendship of Christ. No
time to buy lamp and trim it for that
walk through the darkness which other
wise will be illumined only by the white
ness of the tombstones No time to edu-
cate the eye for heavenly splendors, or
the hand for choral harps, or the ear for
everlasting songs, or the soul for honor,
glory and Immortality. One would think
we had time for nothing else.
Other persons apologize for not entering
the Christian life because it is time enough
yet This is very like those persons who
send their regrets and say, Il will come in
perhaps ut II or - O'Clock; [ will not
be there at the opening of the banquet,
but | will be there at the close" Not yet!
Not yet!
Now. l do not give any doeful view of
this life; there is nothing in my nature
nothing in the grace of God, that tends
toward doleful view of human life. /
have not much sympathy with Addison's
description of the Vision of Mira
where he represents human life as being
81 bridge of hundred arches, and both
ends of the bridge covered with clouds
and the race coming on. the most of them
falling down through the first span, aud
all Of them falling down through the last
span It Is Il very dismal picture. | have
not much sympathy with the Spanish PROV
CRIB which says, "I'he sky is good and the
earth is good-that which is bad is be
tween the earth and the sky"
But while we, as Christian people. are
bound to take Il cheerful view of life. we
tHiuty, and that man who says. u can't be-
come Christian because there is time
enough yet. is running risk infinite. You
do not perhaps realize the fact that this
descending grade of sin gets sleeper and
sleeper, and that YOU are gathering up a
rush and velocity which after while may
not answer 10 the brakes .. my friend. be
not among those who give their whole life
70 The world and then give their corpse to
God II does not seem fair while our pulses
ar" IN full play of health, that We serve
ourselves and serve the world. and then
make God at last the present of a coffin. 1t
does not seem right that we run our ship
from coast to coast carrying cargoes for our
selves, and then when the ship is crusbea On
the rocks give to GrA the siireret. tii6Iers
II il = great thing f. Il man Oh his dying
pillow to. repent be, ,er THAI than never at
all; but b0W much better LOW much more
generous il would have been if hc had r,-
pointed fifty years before. Ny friends. you
viii never get over these procrastiuatonS
Here is 4 dclusion. People think. II can
go on in sin and worIdiineSs. bet after Il
while | will repent and then it will be as
though ! had come at the very start" That
Is Il d"usion. No one ever gets fully over pro
crastination. II you give your s)ul to God
some other time than this, YOU will enter
heaven with only half the capacity for en-
joym"nt and knowledge you might have had.
There will be heights of blessedness you
might have attained you will never reach
thrones of glory Cd which You might have
been seated but which you will never climb
We will never get over procrastnalion,
neither IN time nor in eternity We have
started on march from which there is no
retreat. The shadows of eternity gather on
on: pathway. How insignificant is time com
pared with the vast eternity ! was thinking
OF this while coming down over the Ale
&heny mountains at noon. by that wonderful
place which You have all heard Described as
the horseShOe--a depression III the side of
the mountain whore the train almost turnps
back again upon itself. and you see how ap-
pr0pl1ate IS tn" description of the Horse
shoe and thinking on this very theme.
and preparing this very sermon. it seemed
to me as If the great cOurSer of eternity
speeding along had just struck the mountain
with ono ho0f and gone ON into ilmitable
space SO short IS time. insignificant is
earth compared with the vast eternity.
This morning voices roll down the sky,
and all the worlds Of light are ready to re-
joce AT your dSeDthralment Rush not into
the presence of the king ragged with sin.
whom YOU may have this robe of righteous
ness. Dash not your foot To pieces against
the throu" Of crucifcd Christ Throw not
your crown Of life off the battlements All
the scribes of God are this moment ready
with volumes of living light to record the
news OF your soul emancipated.