Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-08-10

ala
have no more right to take such man me
nc n specimen of religion than you nave 10
totre the twisted irons and split tlmbers that
lie on the beach at Ccney Island as specl-
men of An American ship. 1t is tune that VIZ
drew line between religion anu INC az
ties of those who profess II.
Again, there NAV be some OF you who, In
the attempt after a Christian lie, VIII naVo
to run against powerful passions ani ar
petites Perhaps it is a dispositiIcI 10 anger
that you have to co1ten(t. against, and per-
haps, while in :. very serious mood, you
hear Of Ilnething that makes you teel tlae
U",i must swear or die. know OF ChtiS-
tian man who was once 80 eXtt5perate tHhL
he said to Il mean customer. Il canno! s"9Hh ~ 9Sa
church, but if you will go down stars my
partner IN business will swear at YOU All
your good resolutions heretofore nave peen
torn to tatters by explosions OF temper.
Now there is no harm In getting nau IL you
only get mad at sin. You meet TO Drldle
and saddle these hot breathed passions, ana
with them ride down INJUSTICE ana wrong;
There are O thousand things IN the Worlo
that we ought to be mad at. There is no
harm in getting re1hot if you only bring 10
the forge that which needs hlmmerin?'
man who has no power of righteous mug
nation is an imbecile. But be sure IL Is Il
righteous indignation and not petuiancy
that blurs and unravels and depletes tue
soul. ,,.e
There is a large class of persons in midlife
who have still in them appetites that were
aroused in early manhood, at a time Wh9h
they prided themselves on being ''l!ltle
fast, =" "high lfvers," "free ant easy, "hall
fellows well met" They are now paying IN
compound interest for troubles they coliect-
ed twenty years ago. Some of you are try
ing to escape. and you will, yet vefy mar,
roWy, "as with the skin Of your teeth.
God and your own soul only know what !, the
struggle is. Omnipotent grace has Pulteu
out many a soul that was deeper IN tue
miro than YOU are. They line the beach OF
heaven the multitude whom God has res
cued from the thrall Of suicidal habits. Ii
YOU this day turn your back on the wrong
and start anew, God will help you. On, the
weakness of human help! Men VIII syn a.
Dathize for q while and then turn you OIL.
If YOU ask tor their pardon, they will give
it and say they will try you again but, till-
ing away again under the power OF tempta-
ton, they cast you off forever. But Goa
forgives seventy times seven-Yea, seven
hundred times-yea, though this be tho ten
thousandth time He is more earnest, more
sympathetic, more helpful this laet time than
when you took your first r1Isstep..
If, with all the influences favorable for q
right life men make SO many mistakes, now
much harder 1t is when, for instance, some
aDDetite thrusts its iron grapple into the
roots of the tongue and pulls man down
with hands of destruction! IT under such
circumstances he break away, there Will De
no sport in the undertaking, no holiday en-
ioyment, but a struggle in which the Wres-
tiers move from side to side and benz ana
twist and watch for an opportunity to get IN
q heavier stroke until, with one finat effort,
in which the muscles are distended, and the
veins start out, and the bOO1 starts, Inc
swarthy habit falls under the knee OF the
victor-escaped at last as with the skin OF MS
teeth.
In the last day it will be found that Hugh
IatiUer and John Knox and HusS and Rid
ley were not tho greatest martyrs, but Chris
tam men who went up incorrupt from the
COMMUNICATIONS and perplexitles OF WalI
street. Water street, Pearl street, Broad
street State street, Third street, Lombard
street and the bourse On earth they were
called brokers or stock kiobbers or retailers or
importers, but in heaven Christian heroes.
| No faCots were heaped about their feet, no
| induistion demanded from them recanta-
ton, no soldier aimed a spike at their heart.
but they had mental tOrtureS, compared
with which all physical consuming is as the
| breath Of a spring morning.
find in the community q large class OF
| men who have been so cheated, so lied about,
| so outrageOusly Wronged that they nave lost
faith in everything. Ina world where every
thing seems so topsy turvy they do not see
| how there can be any God. They are con-
| founded and frenzied and misanthroplc.
Elaborate argument to prove TO tnem tue
| truth of Christianity or thetrutn OF anything
| else touches them nowhere. Hear me, all
| such men. 1 preach to you no rounded
periods no ornamental discourse, but put
| my hand on your shoulder and invite you
! into the peace of the gospel. Here is rock
on which you may stand firm, though the
waves dash against it harder than the!At-
| Iantic, pitching its surf clear above Eddy
| stone lighthouse. Do not charge upon God
| all these troubles of the world. AS long as
! the world stuck to God, God stuck to the
| world, but the earth seeded from His gov
! eminent, and hence all these OutraSes and
all these woes. God is good. For many
| hundreds of wears He has been cOaxing the
world to co he back to Him, but the moro He
has coaXed the more violent have men been
| in their resistance, and they have stepped
back and stepped back until they have
| dropped into ruin.
| Try this God, ye who have bad the blood
hounds after you, and who have thought
that God had forgotten you. Try Him and
see if He will not help. Try Him and see if
will not save. The flowers of spring have
no bloom so sweet as the Towering of Christ's
affections. The sun hath no warmth com
| pared with the glow of His heart. The
waters have no refreshment like the foun-
! tain that will slake the thirst of thy soul. At
| the moment the reindeer stands with his lip
and nostril thrust into the cool mountain tor
rent the hunter may be coming through the
thicket. Without cracking a stick under
| his foot he comes close by the stag, aims his
| gun, draws the trigger, and the poor thing
| rears in its death agony AMI falls backward,
its antlers crashing on the rocks, bit the
| painting heart that drinks from the water
brooks of Gods promise shall never be IA
j