The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1894-10-25

| throw you one oar now WITH WHICH oeioF'
you can bring him into harbor. 1t Is the
glorious promise, II will be God to thee
and to thy seed after thee" Oh, broken
hearted father and mother, you have tree
| everything else now make an appeal for
the help and omnlpotence Of the covenant
, keeping God, and perhaps ut your next
| family MISUNDERSTANDING on Thanks giving
| Day, perhaps next Christi mas Dly-the
prodigal may be home, and II you crowd
on his plate moro luxuries than on any
| other plato at the table am SURE the
brothers WILL nok be jealous. put they
| will wake up all the music In the house,
"because the dead is alive again an because
| the lost Is found" Perhaps your prayers
have been answered already. The vessel
| NAV be coming homeward, and by the light
| OF this nights stars that absent son may be
| pacing the deck of the ship, anxious for the
time to come when he can throw his arm
around your neck and ask for forgiveness
for that he has been wringing your old heart
30 long. Glorious reunion, that will be too
sacred for Outsiders to look upon, but l
would just like to look through the window
when you have all got together ag lin and
are seated at the banquet.
Though parents may In covenant be
Aud have their heaven In view,
They are not happy till they see
This chill ron happy too
Again. remark that tho unlvailng effort
OF the Mediterranean oar5mon has coun-
terpart in the effort which we are making to
bring this world back to Go !, His prrdon
AMI safety. If this world could have been
saved by human effort. It would have been
done long ago. John Howard took hold OF
one oar, and Carey took hold of another oar.
and Adoniram Judson took hold OF another
oar, and Luther took hold Of another oar,
and John Knox took hold of another oar and
they pulled until they fell back dead from
the exhaustion. Some dropped In the ashes
Of martyrdom, some on the scalping
knives Of savages and some into the
plague struck room OF the aziretto,
and still the chains are not broken,
and still the despotisms are not demolished,
and still the world is unsavel. What then?
Put down the oars and make no efortI L
do not advise that. But want you, Chris
tan brethren, to understand that the church,
and the school and the college, and the mis-
sionnry society are only the Instrumental
ties, and III this work Is ever done at all God
must do 1t, and He will do 1t in answer to
our prayer "They rowed hard to bring 1t to
the land, but they could not, wherefore they
cried unto the Lord
Again, the unavailing effort o?thosc Medi-
terranean oarsmen has counterpart In
every man that Is trying to row his own soul
into safety. When the eternal spirit flashes
upon us our condition, we try to sav3 our
selves. We say, "Glve me stout oar COZ my
right hand, give me a stout orr for nay left
hand and will pull myself into safety No
wave OF sin comes and dashes you one way,
and wave of temptation comes and dashes
you in another way, and thore are plenty OF
rocks on which to founder, but seemingly no
harbor into whichto SAIL Sin must be thrown
overheard, or we must perish. There
are men who have tried for years to become
Christians. They believe all say In regard
Il Ill. AlaA
ligion Is the first, the last, the infinite ne
cessity. They do everything but trust IN
Christ. They make sixty strokes IN min
ute. They bend forward with all earnest
ness, and they lie back until the muscles are
distended, and vet they hava not made one
inch in ten years toward heaven. What is
the reason2 That is not the way to go to
work. You might as we'll take frail
skiff and put 1t down at the foot of Nj
agara and then head 1t up toward the
churning thunderbolt of waters and ex-
poet to work your way up through the
lightning OF the foam into calm Lake Erie
rs for you to try to pull yourself through
the surf OF your sin into the hope AMI pardon
nd plactdity of tho gospel. You cannot do
t Ia that way. Sin is n rough sea, and
iongboat, yawl, pinnace and gondola go
down unless the Lori deliver, but If you
will cry to Christ and lay hold of divine
mercy you are as safe from eternal con-
domination as though you had boon twenty
years IN heaven.
But glory be to God that Jesus Christ is
able to take us up out Of our shipwrecked
and dying condition and put US on eshoul-
der Of His strength, and by the omnipotence
of His gospel bear us on through all the
Journey of this life and at last through the
opening gates Of heaven! He is mighty to
save. Though Jour sin be long ana black
and inexcusable and outrageous, the very
moment you believe will proclaim par Ion
quick, full, grand, unconditional, uncom-
promising. illimitible, infinite. Oh, the grace
OF God l am overwhelmed when / come to
think of it. Give me thousand ladders, lash
ed fast to each other, that I may scale the
height. Let the line rue out with the an
Choir until all the cables OF the earth are ex-
hausted, that we may touch the depth. Let
the archangel fly In circuit Of eternal ages in
trying to sweep around this theme. Oh, the
grace Of God 1t is 80 high. 1t is so broad
1t Is so deep. Glory be to my God, that
where mans oar gives out Gods arm begins
Why will ye carry your sins and your sor-
rows any longer when Christ offers TO take
them? Why will you wrestle down your
fears when this moment you might give up
and be saved2 Do you not know that every
thing Is ready?
Plenty of room at the feast. Jesus has the
ring of His love all ready to put upon your
ones, at the banquet. Ye who are In rags
OF sin, take the robe OF Christ. Ye who are
swamped by the breakers aroun | you. cry
to Christ to pilot you into smooth, still
waters. On account of the peculiar phase
Of the subject have drawn my present
illustrations, you 500, chiefly from the
water. l remember that a vessel went to
pieces on the Bermudas u great many years
ago. 1t had vast treasure on board.
But, the vessel being sunk. no effort was
made to raise it. After many years had
passed a company of adventurous went
out from England, AMI after IL long voy-
age they reached the place whore the vessel
was said to have sunk. They got into n
small boat and hovere over the place. Then
the divers went down, AMI they broke
through what looked like IA limestone cover
ing, and the treasures rollel out-what was
;ound afterwarl to be, In American money,
worth 81 SOC. 900, and the foundation of u
reat business house. At that time the
mole world rejoiced over what was called
y luck of these Adventures. o, yo who
,vo been rowing toward the shore
a have not been able to reacl
4, want to tell you tonight that your boat
| hovers over inhnite treasure! All the riches
| o. God are at your feet-treasures that
never fail and crowns that never grow dim.