The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-04-19

1CCb VI OOQ Inc lIOIl tDt dlNll, anu
ten Thousand burning worlds shall blaze like
banners in the track of God omnipotent.
Oh, then we will not stop and say, There
was a mean Christian; there was cowardly
Christian; there was a lying Christian;
there was an impure Christian" In that
day, as now, ''H thou be wise, thou shalt
De wise for myself, but if thou soonest
thou alone shall bear it,"
Why, my brother, the inconsistency of
Christians, so far from being an argument
70 keep you away from God, ought to be an
argument to drive you to him. The best
place for 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 illustrious and complete
Christian, the best place for 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
terrupted the sales of the merchant. They
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 factOryp'
They do not understand that religion in
this workaday world will help you to do
anything you ought to do. 1t can lay
keel; it can sail ship; it can buy cargo;
it can work pulley; it can pave a street;
1t can fit a wristband; it can write a consti-
tuition, IL can marshal host. Ii is as APP
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 a
statesman, or Havelock any less of a sol
der, or Grinnell any less of a merchant, or
West any less of a painteri 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-
giouss 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 wilderness of the tombstonesY
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 II or Il o'clock / will not be
there at the opening of the banquet, but l
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 a doleful view of human life l have
not much sympathy with Addisons de-
scription of the Vision of Mira" 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 far
ing down through the last span. 1t is
very disIpal picture. / have not much sy /
pathy with the Spanish proverb which saws,
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 a great uncer-
tainty, and that man who says, II 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 not
answer to the brakes Oh, my friends, be
not among those who give their whole life
70 the world and then give their corpse to
God.
1t 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 than
never at all, but how much better, how
much more generous, it would have been if
he had repeated 80 years beforel Ny
friends, you will never get over these pro-
crastinations.
NOW is THE PROPER TINE.
Here is delusiOn. People think, 81 can
go on in sin and worldliness, but after
awhile will repent, and then it will be as
though l had come at the very start" That
Is a delusion. No one ever gets fully over
procrastinatiOn. If you give your soul 10
God some other time than this. YOU will en-
ter heaven with only half the capacity for
enjoyment and knowledge you might have
had There will be heights of blessedGess
you might have attained you will never
reach; thrones Of glory on which you might
have been seated, but which you will never
climb.
We will never get over procrastination,
neither in time nor in eternity. We have
started on a march from which there is no
retreat. The shadows of eternity gather on
our pathway. How insignificant is time
compared with the vast eternity! | was
thinking Of this while coming down over
the Allegheny mountains at noon by that
wonderful place which you have all heard
described as the Horseshoe, depression in
the side of the mountain where the train
almost turns back again upon itself, and
you see how appropriate is the description
of the Horseshoe. and thinking on this
very theme and preparing this very ser