The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1894-08-04
brother, and ten me all you know


my brother, and ten me all you know
about Christ and Heaven"
Listen to two or three questions:
Are you as happy as you used to be
when you believed in the truth of the
Christian religion? Would you like to
have your children travel on in the
road in which You are now travelling?
You had n relative who professed to be
a Christian. and was thoroughly con-
sistent. living and diving i'm the faith
of the pospeL Would Won not like to
live the same quiet life. and die the
same peaceful death? All, skepticism
is a dark and doleful land. Let me say
that this Bible is either true or false.
If il be false. we are as well off as Won:
if it be true, then which of us is
safer?
Let me also ask whether your trouble
has not been that YOU have COMPOUNDED
Christianity with the inconsistent char
acter of some who profess it. You are
n LAWYER In vour profession there are
mean and dishonest men. Is that any
thing against the law? You are a doc
tor. There are unslxilIed and con-
temptible men in YOUR profession. Is
that ANYTHING AGAINST medicine? You
are a merchant. There are thieves and
d~efraudcrs i'm your business. Is that
anything against merchandise Be-
hold, then, the unfairness of charging
upon Christianity the wickedness of its
disciples. We admit some of the
charges against those who profess re-
ligion. Some of the most gigantic
swindles of the present day have been
carried on by members of the church.
There are men in the churches who
would not be trusted for s. without
good collateral security. They leave
their business d~ishonesties in the ves-
thule Of the church as they go in and
sit at the communion. Having con
cluded the sacrament. they get up,
wipe the wine from their lips, go out.
and take up their sins where they left
off. To serve the devil is their regular
work; to serve God a sort of play-spell.
With a Sunday sponge they expect to
wipe OF from their business slate all
the past weeks Inconsistencies. 1t Is
time that we drew a line between re-
ligion and the frallties OF those who
profess 1t.
DO you % feel that the Bioie, take
1t all IN all, is o the best book that
III world has ever seen? DO you
know any book that has as much in 1t?
DO you not think upon the whole, that
its influence has been beneficent? l
come to you with both hands extended
toward you. In one hand l have the
Bible, and in the other | have nothing.
This Bible in n hand l Will surrender
forever just as soon as IN my other
hand you can put a book that Is better.
Again: There may be some of you
who, in the attempt after a Christian
life, will have to u against powerful
passions ana appetites. ferhaps IL Is a
disposition to anger that you have to
contend against; and perhaps, while
in a very serious mood, you hear Of
something that makes you feel that
you must swear or die. | know of a
Christian man who was once SO exas-
perated that he said to a mean cus-
toner, 81 cannot swear at YOU myself.
for / am a member of the church; but,
II you will go down stairs my partner
in business will swear at YOU" All
your good resolutions heretofore have
been torn to tatters by explosions of
temper. Now, there is no harm In get
ting mad IL you only get mad at sin.
You need to bride and saddle these
h~ot-breathed passions. and with them
ride down injustice and wrong. There
are a thousand things in the world that
we ought to get mad at. There
is no harm in getting red hot il you
only bring to the forge that which
needs hammering. A man who has no
power of righteous Indignation is an
imbecile. But be sure it is a righteous
Indignation, and not n petulancy that
blurs, and u~nrayels, and depletes the
soul.
There is u large class of persons In
mid-life who have still in them appe-
tites that were aroused in early man.
hood, at n time when they prided
themselves on being a little fast"
high %livers," free and easy" hail
fellows we'll met" They are now pay
ing in compound interest for troubles
they collected twenty years ago. Some
of you are trying to escape, and you
will-yet very narrowly, las with the
skin OF your teeth" God and your own
soul only know what the struggle is,
Omnipotent grace has pulled out
many a soul that was deeper In the
mire than you are. They line the
beach OF Heaven-the multitude
whom God has rescued from the
thrall of suicidal habits. Ii you this
day turn your back on the wrong, n
start anew dod VIII heip o
II. with al the inhuehce favorable
for q right me- men make SO many
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