Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1893-04-20

out tOWAfu the RED hca winch divides this
world from the next, and not the inoonsist-
ency Of Christians, but the rod Of faith
will wave back the waters as a commander
wheels his host. The judgment will come,
with its thundershod solemnities, attended
by bursting mountains and the deep laugh
Of earthquakes, and suns viii hy before the
feet Of God like sparks from the anvil, and
tenthousand burning worlds shall blaze like
banners in the track Of God omnipotsat.
Oh, then we will not stop and say, There
was mean Christian; there was cowardly
Christian; there was a lying Christian;
there was an impure Christian In that
day, as now, ''If thou be wise, thou shalt
be wise for thyself, but II thou soonest
thou alone shall bear it."
Why, my brother, the inconsistency Of
Christians, so far from being an argument
to keep you away from God, ought to be an
argument to drive you TO him. The best
Slace for a skillful doctor is in a neighbor-
hood where they are all poor doctors; the
best place for an enterprising merchant to
open his store is In place where the bar
gain makers do not understand their bust
ness, and the best place for you who want
to become the illustrioQs and complete
Christian, the best place Tor you is to come
right down among us who are so incompe-
tent and SO inconsistent sometimes.
Other persons apologize for not becom-
ing 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 or
ator, or weakened the arm of the mechanic,
Or scattered the briefs of the lawyer, or in
~. - a. ntt--
bolt their store doors against it and fight it
back with trowels and yardsticks and cry,
Away with your religion from our store,
our office, our factoryW
They do not understand that religion in
this workaday world will help you to do
anything you ought to do. 1t can lay a
keel; it can sail ship; it can buy cargo:
it can work pulley; it can pave street;
it can fit wristband; it can write consti-
tuition, it can marshal host. 1t is as ap-
propriate to the astronomer as his telescope;
to the chemist as his laboratory; to the ma
son as his plumbline; to the carpenter as
his plane; to the child as his marbles; to the
grandfather as his staff.
RELIGION ADDS TO ONES ENERGIES.
No time to be religious here You have
no time not to be religious You might as
well have no clerks in your store, no books
in your library, no compass on your ship,
no rifle in the battle, no hat for your head,
no coat for your back, no shoes for your
feet Better travel on toward eternity bare
headed and barefooted and houseless and
homeless and friendless than to go through
life without religion.
Did religion make Raleigh any less of d
statesman, or Havelock any less Of sol
! dieF, or Grinnell any less of merchant, or
West any less Of painter? Religion is the
best security in every bargain. 1t is the
sweetest note In every song; it is the bright
est gem in every coronet. No time to be reli-
gious? Why, you will have to take time to
be SICK to be troubled, to die. Our world
is only the wharf from which we are to en-
bark for heaven. No time to secure the
friendship of Christi No time to buy a
| lamp and trim it for that walk through the
darkness which otherwise will be illumined
only by the whiteness of the tombstones?
No time to educate 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. That is very like those persons who
send their regrets and say: II will come in
| perhaps at IL or - o'clock. will not be
there at the opening Of the banquet, but
will be there at the close" Not yeti Not
| yeti
| Now, do not give any doleful view OF
| this life. There is nothing in my nature,
nothing in the grace Of God, that tends to
ward doleful view of human life have
not much sympathy with Addison's de
scription of the Vision of Mirza," where
he represents human life as being 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 and all Of them fall
| ing down through the last span. 1t is a
very dismal picture. / have not much sym.
.pathy with the Spanish proverb which says
N'The sky is good. and the earth is good
| that which is bad is between the earth and
| the sky"
But while we as Christian people are
bound to take a cheerful view of life we
must also confess that life is great uncer
tainty, and that man who says, Il can't
become a Christian because there is time
enough yet, - is running risk infinite. You
do not perhaps realize the fact that this de
scending grade of sin gets sleeper and steep
er, and that you are gathering up rush
and velocity which after awhile may moi
answer to the brakes. Oh, my friends, bt
not among those who give their whole life
| to the world and then give their corpse tC
| God.
| It does not seem fair while our pulses are
! in full play of health that we serve our
| selves and serve the world and then make
| God at last the present of 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 crushed
on the rocks give to God the shivered tim
bers 1t is great thing for man on his
| dying pillow to repent-better that thar
never at all. but how much better, how
much more generous, it would have been il
he had repented SO years before! My
friends, you'will never get over these pro
| crastinations
NOW IS THE PROPER TINE.
| Here is delusion. People think, II car
| go on in sin and worldliness, but aftel
| awhile will repent, and then it will be a:
though I had come at the very start" THAI
| ~ ueluSitu. NO Ono ever BctS 1ully ONol
procrastination. If you give your soul t.
God some other time than this, you will en-
ter heaven with only half the capacity fol
| enjoyment and knowledge you might have
had. There will be heights of blessedness
you might have attained you will nevel
reach; thrones of glory on which you NIGH
have been seated, but which you will nevel
climb.
We will never get over procrastination
neither in time nor in eternity. We hav'
started on a march from which there is nj
retreat. The shadows Of eternity gather OF
our pathway. How Insignificant is tim,
compared with the vast eternityi wa
thinking of this while coming down owe
the Allegheny mountains at noon by tina
wonderful place which you have all heart
described as the Horseshoe, a depression il