The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-11-29

with morocco or calfskin if they were
shod with the preparation of the gospel.
Now you see peace on their countenance.
Now that man says: What a fool
was to be enchanted with this world.
Why, 1 have more satisfaction in five
minutes in the service of God than
had in all the first years of my life
while l was gaingettng. | ike this
evening OF my day great deal better
than / did the morning. In the morn
ing 1 greedily devoured the prey, but
now II is evening, and L am gloriously
dividing the spoil"
My friends. this world is a poor thing
to hunt. 1t is healthful TO go out in the
woods and hunt. 1t rekindles the luster
of the eye. 1t strikes the brown of the
autumnal leaf into the cheek. 1t gives
to the rheumatic limbs the strength to
leap like a roe. Christopher North's pet
gun, the mucl<le-mou'd Meg, going off in
the summer in the forests had it's echo
in the winter time in the eloquence that
rang through the university halls of
Edinburgh. IL is healthy to go hunting
i'm the fields. but I tell you that ii is be-
littling and bedwarfing and belaming for
man to hunt this world. The hammer
comes down on the guncap, and the bar
rel explodes and kills you instead of
that which you are pursuing.
When you turn out to hunt the world,
the world turns out to hunt you, and as
many sportsman aiming his gun at
the striped claws, so while you have
been attempting to devour this world
the world has been devouring you. So
il was with Lord Byron. So it was with
Catherine of Russia. Henry III went out
hunting for this world, and its lances
struck through his heart. Francis L
aimed at the world, but he assassin's
dagger put an end to his ambition and
his life at one stroke. Mary Queen of
Scots wrote on the window of her castle:
From the top of all my trust
Mishap has laid me in the dust.
Salvation Postponed Forever.
The queen dowager of Navarro was Of
fered for her wedding day a costly and
beautiful pair of gloves and she put
them on, but they were poisoned gloves,
and they took her life. Better bare
hand of cold privation than a warm and
poisoned glove of ruinous success. "Oh,"
says some young man in the audience,
Il believe what you are preaching. l
am going to do that very thing In
the morning of my life 1 am going to
devour the prey and i'm the evening 1
shall divide the spells of Christian char
acter. l only want a little while TO sow
my wild oats. and then l will be good"
Young man. did you ever take the
census Of all the old people2 How
many old people are there IN your
house? One, two or none? How many
in a vast assemblage like this? Only
here and there a gray head like the
patches of snow here and there in the
fields on a late April day. The fact is
that the tides of the years are so strong
that men go down under them before
they get to be sixty, before they get TO
be fifty, before they get to be forty be-
fore they get 10 be thirty; and if you,
my young brother. resolve now that YOU
will spend the morning of your days i'm
devouring the prey the probability is
that you will never divide the spoils in
the evening hour. He who postpones
until old age the religion Of Jesus Christ
postpones 1T forever.
Where are the men who, thirty years
ago, resolved to become Christians i'm
old age. putting it off "a certain number
of years? They never got to be old The
railroad collision, or the steamboat eX-
plosion, or the slip on the ice. or the
falling ladder, or the sudden cold put an
end TO their opportunities They have
never had an opportunity since. and
never will have an opportunity again.
They locked the door of heaven against
their soul, and they threw away the
keys. They chased the world. and they
died i'm the chase. The wounded tiger
turned on them. They failed to take
the game they pursued. Mounted on a
swift courser, they leaped the hedge
but the courser fell on them and crushed
them. Proposing to barter their soul for
the world, they lost both and got
neither.
Lies Brief Day.
While this is an encourag ement to old
people who are still unpardoned, it is
no encouragement to the young who are
putting off the day Of grace This
doctrine that the old may be repentant
is to be talked cautiously. 1t is medi-
cine that kills or cures. The same medi-
cine given to different patients, in one
case it saves life and in the other it
destroys 1t. This possibility of repent
ance at the close of life may cure the
old man while it kills the young. BE
cautious in taking it.
Again, my subject is descriptive of
those who come to a sudden and radi-
cal change. You have noticed how short
a time II is from morning to night
only seven eight hours. You know
that the day has a very brief life. It's
heart beats twenty-four times. and then
1t is dead. How quick this transition I'm
the character Of these Beniaminitesl
I'm the morning they shall devour the
prey, and at night they shall divide the
/ spoils." Is 1t possible that there shall
be such a transformation in any of our
/ characters? Yes, a man may be at Z
O'Clock in the morning an all-devouring
wording, and at o'clock at night he
may be a peaceful, distributiva Chris
| tan.
Conversion is instantaneous. A man
| passes into the kingdom of God quicker
| than down the sky runs Zigzag lightning
/ A man may be anxious about his soul
| for n great many years; that does not
| make him a Christian. A man may
| pray a great while; that does not make
| him a Christian. a man may resolve on
| the reformation of his character and
have that resolution going on great
| while; that does not make him a Chris
| tian. But the very instant when he
filings his soul on the mercy of Jesus
| Christ, that instant is lustratiOn, eman-
| cipation, 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 a
! child of sin; after that moment he is a
| child of God. Before that moment de-
| vouring the prey; after that moment
| dividing the spells. Five minutes is as
/ good as five years.
| Ny nearer, you know very we'll that
/ the best things you have done you have
/ done in a fash. You made 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
i have missed IL forever. Now, Just rs
\ precipitate and quick and spontaneous
Il mill Ees he