Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-06-22

| their hOlloWness and hypocrisy so much as
| in the life and death OF that wonderful man,
| Charles Sumner As he went toward the
| place of burial, even Independence Hall, In
| Philadelphia, asked that his remains stop
| there on their way to Boston. The flags were
! at half mast, and the minute guns on Boston
| Common throbbed after his heart had ceased
to beat. Was ii always so? While he lived
| how censured of Legislative resolutions 4: how
| caricatured of the pictorias how charged
with every motive mean and ridiculous
| how all the urnS of scorn and hatred and
| biIlings2ate emptied upon his head how,
| when struck down in Senate chamber, there
| were hundreds of thousands Of people who
| said, Good for him; serves him right y
! how he had 10 put the ocean between him
| and his maligners that he might have lit
| tie peace, and how, when he went off sick,
! they said he was broken hearted because he
| could not get to be President or Secretary of
State
0, Commonwealth of Massachusetts,, who
! is that man that sleeps in your public hall
| covered with garlands and wrapped in the
| stars and stripes? Is that the man who, only
| a few months before, you denounced as tho
! foe OF republican and democratic institu-
| tiOns? Is that the same man? Yc American
! people, ye could not by one week of funeral
| eulogium and newspaper leaders, which the
| dead senator could neither read nor hear,
atone for twenty-five years Of maltreatment
and caricature.
When see a man like that, pursued by
al the hounds of the political kennel 50 long
as he lives and then buried under Il great
pile of garlands and amid tho lamentations
OF n whole nation, I say to myself What an
unutterably bypocritical thing is all human
applause and all human favor: You tooA
twenty-five years in trying TO pull down hi:
fame and then take twenty-five years in try
ing to buili his monument. My friends, waE
| there ever better commentary on the ho!
lOWness of all earthly favor? If there are
who rp1N this who
ing religion in order that they may have the
favors of this world. let me persuade them
of their complete folly. If you are looking
forward to gubernatorial, senatorial or pres
identfal chair, let me show you your great
mistake.
Can it be that there is now any young
man saying: ''Let me have political office,
let me have sOme of the high positions OF
trust and power. and then I will attend to
religion. but notnow. Go thy way for this
time When have q convenient season, I
will call for thee!"
And now my subject takes a deeper tone,
and it shows what a dangerous thing is this
deferring Of religion. When PauFs chain
rattlCl down the marble stairs of Felix, that
was Felix's last chance for heaven. Judging
from his character aterWard, he was re-
probate and abandoned. Aud SO was Dru-
Silla.
One day in the southern Italy there was
trembling of the earth, and the air got black
with smoke intershOt with liquid rocks, and
NeSuViuS rained upon DruSilla and upon her
son horrible tempest OF ashes and fire.
They did not reject religion. They only put
it Off They did not understand that that
dHv. that that hOUr when Paul stood before
them, was the pivotal hour upOawhich every
thing was poised. and that it tipped the
wrong way. Their convenient season came
when Paul and his guardsman entered tho
palace. 1t went away when Paul and his
Cuardsman left. Have you never seen men
waiting for convenient season? There is
such great fascination about it that, though
you may have great respect TO the truth of
Christ yet somehow thero is in your soul
the thought Not quite yet 1t is
not time for me to become Il Christian 1
| say to a boy, "Seck Christ lie says, 'No.
Wait until [ get to be young man." l say
to the Young man. ''Seel Christ" He says,
''Wait until / come to midlife." l meet the
same person in mldl1fe, and I say, ''Seek
Christ" He says, ''Wait until / get Old. !"
/ meet the sane person in old age and sayto
him. 'Seek Christ" He says, 'Wait until [
! dying couch. His last moments have como.
l bend over the couch and listen for his last
words. I have partially to guess what they
are by the motion of his lips, he is so feeble,
Tut rGllyinS himself he whispers until [ can
hear him say, "l-am-waitinS-
OnVenent-seasOn, and he is gone
1 can tell you when your convenient season
will come. I can tell you the year. 1t will
be 1894. 1 can tell you what kind of a day
it will be. 1t will be the Sabbath day
| can tell you what hour it will be. 1t will
be between and 10 o clock In other words,
it is now. DO you ask me how l know this
is your convenient season? [ know it be-
cause you are here, and because the elect
sons and daughters of God are praying for
your redemption. All, [ know it is your
convenient season because some OF you, like
| Felix, tremblC as all your past life comes
upon you with its sin, and all the future life
| comes upon you with its terror. This night
air is agIarc with torches to show You up or
! to show you down. 1t is ruStling with wings
to lift you into light or smite yol into de-
spair. and there is a rushing to and fro, and
Il beating against the door of your souls with
a great thunder of emphasis, telling you,
''NOw, now is the best time, as it may be the
only time"
May God Almighty forbid that any of you,
my brethren or sisters, act the part of Felix
and Druslla and put away this great sub
| iect. II you are going to be saved ever
why not begin tonight? Throw down your
sins and take the Lords pardon. Christ has
| been tramping after you many day. An
| Indian and IL white man became Christians.
| The Indian, almost as soon as he heard the
! gospel, believed AMI was saved, but the
white man struggled on in darkness for a
long while before he found light.
After their peace in Christ the whito
man said to the Indian, "Why was it that
Immediately found peace?" The Indian re-
piled: Il will tell you. prince comes
along. and he offers you coat. You look
at your coat, and You say, My coat is
good enough and you refuse his
offer, but the prince comes along,
and he offers me the coat, and
look at my old blanket, and 1 throw that
away and take his offer. You, sir" contin-
ued the Indian, ''are clinging to your own
righteousness; you think you are good
enough, and you keep your own righteous
ness; but l have nothing, nothing, and so
when Jesus offers me pardon and peace
simply take it,"
My reader. why not now throw away tho
wornout blanket of your sin and take tho
robe of a Saviour's Righteousness robe so
white, so fair, so Iustrous, that no fuller on
earth can Whiten it? o Shepherd, tonight
bring home the lost sheep! o Father, to-
night give welcoming kiss to the wan
prodigal! friend of Lazarus, tonight
break down the door of the sepulcher and
say to all these dead souls as by Irresistible
| fiat al i've T,iva ~