Democratic messenger., 1893-11-25

rNii Nfs anu uff IVuN
ers that mothers make for their children,
and all have failed. She is coming to-
ward the vivid and venturesome and ter
rifle prayer of my text. She is going TO
lift her own eternity and set it upon that
one iii" by which she expects to decide
whether you will go up with her or she
down with you. She may be this mo-
inent looking heavenwarl and saying.
go Lord. reclaim him by thy grace" and
then adding that heart rending If of
my text. "lf not. blot me. pray thee.
out of thy hook"
After three years of absence son
wrote his mother i'll one of the New Eng
land whaling villages that he was COM
ing home in "A certain ship. Motherlike,
she stood watching. and the ship was in
the offing, hut fearful storm struck it
and dashed the ship on the rocks that
night. All that night the mother prayed
for the safety Of the son, and just at
dawn there was n knock at the cottage
door, and the son entered. CRYING ont,
Mother. ] knew yOu would pray me
home!" IL would ask all those in this
uccEhiOiuE' VIM haNt DtNH dy ri hOuic
to God by pious mothers to stand up,
there would I've scores that would stand,
and if l should ask them to give testi-
mony IL would bc the testimony Of that
New England son coming ashore from
the split timbers of the whaling ship
MY mother prayed me homer
THE IFS OF lNCREpULITY
Another nilla s.if" ic tho s.if.' NJ in
credulity. Satan used il when Christ,
vitality was depressed by 40 days absti-
nence from food and the tempter point
ed to some stones. in color and shape
like loaves Of bread. and SAID, IF thou
be the Son Of God. command that these
stones be made bread" That was ap-
propriate. for Satan is the father OF
that if of increlulity Peter used that
same IF when. standing on the wet
and slippery deck Of fishing smack on
Lake Galilee. he saw Christ walking on
the sea rs though il were as solid as n
pavement IF basalt from the adjoining
volcanic hills, and Peter cried out. IF
| ID be thou. let me come to thee on the
water"
What prcposterous 'ifv' What hu-
man foot was ever SO constructed as to
walk on water? In what part of the
earth did law of gravitation make excep-
tion to the rule that man will sink to
the elbows when he touches a wave of
river or lake. and will sink still farther
unless he can swim? But here Peter looks
out upon the form in the shape Of a man
defying the mightiest law Of the uni
verse-the law of fgravitation-ands stand
ing erect on the top of the liquid. Yet
the incredulous Peter cries out to the
Lord. "If it be thou" Alas. for that in
credulous ''if!' 1t is working as power
fully IN the latter part of this nineteenth
Christian century as it did in the early
part of the first Christian century.
Though small conjunction, it is the
biggest block today in the way of the
gospel chariot. If" "lfr We have
theological seminaries which spend most
of their time and employ their learning
and their genius in the manufacturing
of 'ifs" With that weaponry are as
sailed the Pentateuch. and the miracles,
and the divinity Of Jesus Christ. AL
most everybody is chewing on an ''if. !"
When many man bows for prayer. he
puts his knee ON an ''if." The door
through which people pass into infidielity
and atheism and all immoralities has
two doorposts. and the one is made up of
the letter - and the other of the let
ter IL"
There are only four steps between
strong faith and complete unbelief: First,
surrender the idea of the verbal inspira-
tion of the Scriptures and adopt the idea
that they were all generally supervised
by the Lord. Second. surrender the idea
that they were all generally supervised
by the Lord and adopt the theory that
they were not all. but partly. supervised
by the Lord Third. believe that they are
the gradual evolution of the age, and
men wrote according to the wisdom Of
believe that the Bible is a bad book and
not only unworthy Of eredence. but per-
nicious and debasing and cruel
Only four steps from the stout faith In
which the martyrs died to the blatant
caricature of Christianity as the great
est sham of the centuries. But the door
to all that precipitation and horror is
made out Of an .if" The mother of
unrests i'm the minds of Christian people
and in those who regard sacred things
is the ''if" of incredulity. In 1879. in
Scotland, l saw a letter which had been
written many years ago by Thomas Car
lyle to Thomas Chalmers. Carlyle, at
the time Of writing the letter. was a
| young man. The letter was not to be
published until after the death of Car
lyle. His death having taken place. the
letter ought to be published.
1t was a letter in which Thomas Car
lyle expresses the tortures of his own
mind while relaxing his faith in Chris
tianity, while ut the same time he ex-
presses his admiration for DIR. Chalmers,
and in which Carlyle wishes that he had
the same faith that the great Scotch min
lister evidently exercised. Nothing that
Thomas Carlyle ever wrote in ''Sartor
Resartus," or the French Revolution,
or his Life Of Cromwell" or his i'm
mortal Essays" had in it more won
drous power than that letter which be-
walled his own doubts and extolled the
strong faith Of another.
made an exact copy Of that letter.
with the understanding that it should not
be published until after the death Of
Thomas Carlyle; bnt. returning to my no.
tel in Edinburgh. felt uneasy lest some
how that letter should get ont of my pos
session and be published before its time.
So took it back To the person by whose
permission had copied it. All reasons
for its privacy having vanished. ! wish
it might bc published.
An INCIDENT.
Perhaps this sermon. finding its way
into a Scottish home. may suggest its
printing, for that letter shows more
nightly than anything have ever read
the difference between the IL know" of
Paul. and the Il know" of Job. and the
81 know" Of Thomas Chalmers. and the
Il know" of all those who hold with a