Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1893-04-22

who says: MY partner IN Dusihcs'
was volublc in prayer-meeting. and he
was ofiicious in all religious circles, but
he cheated me out of $4,000, and don't
want any of that religion"
There are others who got into skepti
cism by natural persistence in asking
questions. why? or how? How can God
be one Being in three persons? They
cannot understand 1t. Neither can /.
How can God he complete sovereign,
and yet man free agent? They can
not understand it, Neither can /.
They cannot understand why n holy
God let's sin come into the world.
Neither can |. They say: Here is a
great mystery; here is a disciple OF
fashion. frivolous and goddess all her
days-she lives on to he an octogenarian.
Here is Christian mother training her
children for God and for Heaven. self
sacrificing, Christianlilse, indispensable,
seemingly, to that household-she takes
the cancer and dies" The skeptic says:
IL can't explain that" Neither can l.
Oh. can see how men reason them
selves into skepticism. With burning
feet have trod that blistering way. !
know what il is to have hundred
nights poured into one hour. There
are men in this audience who would
give their thousands of dollars If they
could get back to the old religion of
their fathers. Such men are not to be
caricatured but helped
Other persons apologize for not enter
ing the Christian life because of the in
corrigibility of their temper. Now. we
admit it is harder for some people to
become Christians than for others: but
the grace of God never came to u
mountain that it could not climb. or to
an abyss that it could not fathom. or to
Il bondage that it could not break.
Good resolution, rcformatory effort.
will not effect the change. 1t takes n
mighticr arm and mightier hand to
bend evil habits than the hand that
bent the bow of l'ysses, and it takes a
stronger lasso than ever held the buff
falo on the prairie. a man cannot go
forth with any human weapons
and contend successfully against
these 1'itans armed with uptorn
mountain. But you have known men
into whose spirit the influence of the
gospel of Christ came until their dispo-
sition was entirely changed.
oh" says some one. Il have u rough.
Jagged. impetuous nature. and religion
cont do anything for me-" DO You
know that Martin Luther and Robert
Newton and Richard Baxter were i'm
pctuous. all-consuming natures. yet the
grace of God turned them into the
mightiest usefulness:
Peter. with nature tempestuOus as
the sea that he once tried to walk. ut
one look of Christ went out and wept
Rich harvests of grace may
grow on the tip-top of the jagged steep,
and focls of Christian graces may find
pasturage in fields of bramble and rock.
Though your disposition may be all
Artistic with fretfulness, though you
have temper a-gleam of quick light
nings, though your averice he like that
OI INT ntTSt-lthCli' VI y mig 'i'S'
though damnable impurities have
YOU in all-consuming fire
God can drive that devil out of your
soul. and over the chaos and the dark
ness he can say: Let there be light
Converting grace has lifted the drunk
ard from the ditch. and snatched the
knife from the hand of the assassin. and
the false key from the burglar, and in
the pestiferous lanes of the city met the
daughter of sin under the dim lamp
light and scattered her sorrow and her
guilt with the words: '''rhy sins are
forgiven-go and sin no more" For
scarlet sin scarlet atonement.
Other persons apologize for not enter
ing the Christian life because of the in
of those who profess re-
ligion. There are thousands of poor
farmers. They do not know the nature
of soil nor the proper rotation of crops
Their corn is shorter in the stalk and
smaller in the ear. They have ten less
bushels to the acre than their neigh
bors. But who declines being farmer
because there are so many poor farmers?
There are thousands of incompetent
They buy at the wrong
time. They get cheated in the sale OF
their goods Every bale of goods is to
them bale of disaster. They fail after
awhile and go out of business. But
who declines to be merchant because
there are SO many incompetent mer-
chants?
There are thousands of poor lawyers.
They cannot draw declaration that
will stand the test. They cannot re-
cover just damages. They cannot help
a defendant escape from the injustice of
his prosecutors. They are the worst
evidence against any case in which
they are retained. But who declines to
be lawyer because there are so many
lawyers? Yet there are
tens of thousands of people who de-
cline being religious because there are
,.<, ,.,oo, ,,ux,,0,-fhv Christians NOyy /