The free press., 1894-06-28
~ rrri.n ,rrnle In vour palace will fade.

long. must give way before the per-
petual wash of the sea, but the redemption
that Paul offers you will be forever? And
yet and yet and yet you wave him back to
the guardroom, saying go thy way for
this time. When have convenient season,
Twill call for thee
Again. Felix adjourned this subjeot Of re-
ligion and put off Pauls argument because
ne could not give up the honors OF the world.
He was afraid somehow he W ould be COM
promised himself in this matter. Remarks
he made afterward showed him to be In
tenseIy ambitious. Oh, how he hugged the
favor of men
/ never saw the honors OF this world in
their holloyness 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 it always 50? While he lived
how censured Of legislative resolutions how
caricatured of the pictorials {; how charged
with every motive mean and ridiculous !,
how all the urns of scorn and hatred and
billingsgate 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 !"
how he had TO put the ocean between him
and his maligners that he might have a 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!
o, 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
fayu hQ hafora dpnOnnppI the
foe OF republican and democratic institu-
tions? Is that the same man? Ye 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 maltreatmenf
and cariclture.
When see man like that, pursued by
all the hounds of the political kennel so long
as he lives and then buried under great
pile of garlands and amid the lamentations
of whole nation, say to myself What an
unutterably hypocritical thing is all human
applause and all human favor! You took
twenty-five years in trying to pull down his
fame and then take twenty-five years in try
ing to build his monument. My friends, was
there ever better commentary on the hol-
lownrss of all earthly favor? If there are
Young men who read this who are postpon-
ing religion in order that they may have the
of their complete folly. II you are looking
forward to gubernatorial senatorial or pres
idential 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 / will attend to
religion, but not now. Go thy way for this
time. When / have a convenient season,
will call for theer"
And now my subject takes a deeper tone,
and it shows what dangerous thing is this
deferring of religion. When PauPs chain
ratified down the marble stairs Of Felix, that
was Felix's last chance for heaven. Judging
from his character aiterward, he was re-
probate and abar doned. And so was Dru-
silla.
One day in the southern Italy there was
trembling of tho earth, and the air got black
with smoke intershot with liquid rocks, and
Vesuvius rained upon DruSilla and upon her
son a horrible tempest of ashes and fire.
They did not reject religion. They only put
it off. They did not understand that that
day, that that hour when Paul stood before
them, was the pivotal hour upon which every
thing was poised, and that it tipped the
wrong way. Their convenient season came
when Paul and his guardsman entered the
palace. 1t went away when Paul and his
guardsman left. Haveyou never seen men
waiting for a convenient season? There is
such Il great fascination about it that, though
you may have great respect to the truth of
Christ, yet somehow there is in your soul
the thought Not quite yet. It. is
not time for me to become a Christian. 1
say to boy, "Seek Christ" He says, "No.
Wait until get to be a young man." l say
to the young man, "Seek Christ" He says,
"Wait until como to midlife." I meet tho
same person in mldlIfe, and I say, 'Seek
Christ" He says, "Wait until 1 get DID,"
l meet the same person in old age and sayto
him, Seek Christ" He says, "Wait until
am on my dying bed" l am called TO his
dying couch. His last moments have come.
! bend over the couch and listen for his last
words. have partially to guess what they
are by the motion of his lips, he is so feeble,
but rallying himself he whispers until l can
hear him say, "I-am-waitng-
more-convenient-sea and he is gone
l can tell you when your convenient season
will come. l can tell you the year. 1t will
be 1891. can tell you what kind of day
it will be. 1t will be the Sabbath day.
can tell you what hour it will be. 1t will
be between 8 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, 1 know it is your
convenient season because some OF you, ike
Felix, tremble 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 agare 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 rushing to and fro and
u beating against the door of your souls with
a great thunder of emphasis, telling you,
snow, 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 Drusila and put away this great SUBJ
ject. 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 a day. An
Indian and "A 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.
Alter their peace in Christ the white
man said to the Indian "Why was it that
was kept SO long in the darkness and you
Immediately found peace?' The Indian re-
piled Il will tell you. A 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