Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1893-04-22

why holy God lets sin come into the
world. Neither can !. They say: Here is
great mystery. Here is "A disciple of fash
ion. frivolous and goddess all her days-shc
4 lives ON to be an octogcnarian. Here is a
Christian mother training her children for
God and for heaven. self sacrificing, Christ
/ like, Indispensable, seemingly, to that
household takes the cancer and dies. :"
The skeptic says, II can't explain that. :"
Neither can |.
| oh. can see how men reason themselves
into skepticism. With burning feet have
trod that blistering way. know what 1t
is to have 100 nights poured into one hour.
There are men i'm 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 he carica-
tured. but helped, and not through their
heads. but through their hearts. When
these men really do come into the kingdom
of God. they will be worth far more to the
cause of Christ than those who never ex-
amined the evidences of Christianity
Thomas Chalmers. once II skeptic; Robert
Hall, once skeptic: Christmas Evans. once
skcptic-but when they did lay hold Of
the gospel chariot, how they made it speed
ahead.
If therefore stand this morning before
men and women who have drifted away
into skepticism, throw out no scoff: /
rather implead you by the memory of those
good old times when you knelt at your
mothers knee and said your evening pray
er and those other days of sickness when
she watched all night and gave you the
medicines at just the right time and turned
the pillow when il was hot. and with hand
long ago turned 10 dust soothesl your pains,
and with that voice you will never hear
again, unless you join her in the better
country, told you never mind-you would
be- better by and by-and 10y that dying
1 couch where she talked so slowly, catching
her breath between the words-by all those
memories | ask you to come and take the
same religion. 1t was good enough for her.
it is good enough for you.
Aye. make u better plea; by the wounds
and the death throe of the Son of God. who
approaches you this morning with torn
brow and lacerated hands and whipped
back. crying, Come unto me. all ye who
are weary and heavy laden. and will give
YOU rest"
THE VICE OF ILL TEMPER.
Other persons apologize for not entertain
ing the Christian life because of the incor-
rigiblity of their temper. Now, we admit
/ il is harder for some people to become
Christians than for others. hut the grace Of
God never came toa mountain that it Could
not climb or 10 an abyss that it could not
fathom or to Il bondage that it couli not
brcak.
The widest horse that ever trod Arabian
sands has been broken to bit and trace.
The maddcst torrent tumbling from NOUN
tam shelving has been harnessesi To the
millwheel and the factory band, setting n
thousand shuttles all a-blzz and a-clatter.
and the widest. the haughtiest. the most
ungovernable man ever created. by the
grace OF God may he subducd and sent out
on ministry of kindness as God sends ar
August thunderstorm 10 water the wild
flowers down in the grass
Good resolution, reformatory effort, will
not effect the change. Ii takes II mightier
arm and a mightier hand To bend evil hab-
its than the hand that bent the bow Of
Ulysses, and it takes stronger lasso than
ever held the buffalo on the prairie. \
man cannot go forth with any human
weapons and contend successfully against
these Titans armed with uptorn mountain.
But you have known men into whose spirit
the influence OF the gospel of Christ came,
until their disposition was entirely changed.
30 il was with two merchants in New
York They were very antagoni>iic. They
had done all they could to iniure each
other They were in the same limo of busi-
ness One of the merchants was converted
To God Having been converted, he asked
the ord to teach him how tn bear himself
toward that business antagonist, and he
was impressed with the fact that il was his
duty when customer asked for a certain
kind Of goods which he had not. but which
he knew his opponent had, to recommend
him To go to that store.
suppose that is about the hardest thing
the man could do. but being thoroughly
converted to God, he resolved to do that
very thing, and being asked for II certain
Kind of goods which he had not. he said.
"You 20 to such and such "A store, and YOU
will get it," After awhile merchant No. :
found these customers coming, So sent. and
he found also that merchant No. had been
brought To God. and he sought the same
religion. Now they are good friends and
good neighbors, the grace of God entirely
changing their disposition.
oh" says some one. Il have "A rolgh,
Jagged, impetuous nature, and religion
can't do anything for me-" DO you know
that Martin Luther and Robert Newton
and Richard Baxter were impetuous, all
consuming natures. yet the grace of God
turned them into the mightiest usefulness:
oh, how many who have been pugnacious
and hard 10 please. and irascibe and NOR,
bothered about the mote in their neighbor's
eye than about the beam like ship timber
in their own eye. have been entirely changed
by the grace of God and have found out
that .'godlincss is profitable for the life tina,
now is as well as for the life which is u
come.
THE IMPETrouS APOSTLE
Peter, with nature as tempcstuous rs the
sea that he once tried to walk. at one look
of Christ went out and wcpt bitterly. Ricl
harvests of grace may grow on the tiptoi
Of the Jagged steep. and flocks of Christian
graces may find p;,sturage in fields of BRAN
BILE and rock Though your disposition
may be all n-bristle with fretfulncss, though
YOU have IL temper a-i;leam with quick
lightning>. though your avarice be lik,
that of the horse lcech. CRYING, Give"
though damnable impurities have wrapped
YOU i'm all consuming fire, God can drive
that devil out of your soul, and over the
chaos and the darkness he can say. Let
there be light.
Converting grace has lifted the drunkard
from the ditch. and snatched the knife
from the hand of the assassin, and III,
false keys from the burglar and in the pes
tifcrous lanes of the city met the daughter
of sin under the dim lampli;;ht and seat.
tered her sorrow and her guilt with the
words, Thy sins are forgiven-go and sin
no more" For scarlet sin "A scarlet atone
ment.
Other persons apologize for not entering
the Christian life because of the inconsisten
cics of those who profess religion. Their,
are thousands Of poor farmers. They dt
not know the natur. of soil nor the proper
rotation Of crops. Their corn is shorter il
the stalk and smaller in the ear. They
have 10 less bushels to the acre than their
neighbors But who declines being farm
er because there are 81 many poor farmers.
There ara thousands of incompetent mcr
chants They buy at hewr"ng time. They
get cheated in the sale nf their goods. Ever!
bale nf goods is to Them bale of disaster
They fail after awhile and 20 ont of bust