The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-02-17

''i'NN
light from the throne Of God brighter than
the sun throw you'll Come down into the
dust and cry for pardon and life and heaven.
THE PROSECUTOR REDEEMED.
Again, learn from this scene Of the text
that the grace of God can overcome the per
secutor Christ and Paul were boys at the .
same time in different villages and Paups .
antipathy to Christ was increasing. He
hated everything about Christ. He was
going down then with writs in his pockets
to have Christ's disciples arrested lie was
not going as a sheriff goes, to arrest man
against whom he had no spite, but Paul
was going down to arrest those people be
cause he was glad to arrest them. The
Bible says, He breathed' out slaughter
He wanted them captured, and he wanted
them butchercd. | hear the click and
clash and clatter Of the hoofs of the gal
Looping steeds on the way to Damascus.
Oh, do you think that proud man on
horseback can ever become Christfan'
Yes! There is voice from heaven like
thunderclap utteriug two words, the second
word the same rs the first but uttered with
more emphasis, so that the proud eques
trian may have no doubt as to who is
/ meant: Saul Saulp' That man was saved,
| and he was prosecutor. And SO God can
/ by his grace overcome any prosecutor The
days of sword and fire for Christians seem
to have gone by. The bayonets of Napoleon
| pried open the "inquisition" and let the
rotting wretches out. The ancient dun
geons around Rome are today mere curiosi-
ties for the travellers.
The Coliseum, where wild beasts used to
suck up the life of the martyrs while the
emperor watched and Lola Paulina sat
with emerald adOrnments worth 0JOO0O0O
ala. Hit.ta
tians died under the paw and the tooth of
the lion-that Coliseum is a ruin now. The
scene of the Smithiield fires is hay mar
ket. The day of fire and sword for Chris
tians seems to have gone by, but has the
day of persecution ceased2 No. Are you
not caricatured for your religion? In pro
portion as you try to serve God and be
faithful to him are you not sometimes NAL
treated?
That woman finds it hard to be a Chris
tian, as her husband talks and jeers while
she is trying to say her prayers or read the
Bible. That daughter finds it hard to be
Christian with the whole family arrayed
against her-father mother, brother and
sister making her the target of ridicule
That young man finds it hard to be a Chris
tian in the shop or factory or store when
his comrades jeer at him because he will
not go to the gambling hell or other places
of iniquity. oh, no, the days of persecution
have not ceased. and will not until the end
of the world. But OH you prosecuted ones,
is it not time that you began TO pray for
your persecutorsi They are no prouder,
no fiercer no more set in their way than
was this prosecutor of the text He fell.
They will fall if Christ from the heavens
grandly and gloriously look out on them.
God can by his grace make a Renan be,
| lieve in the divinity of Jesus and Tyndall
in the worth of prayer. Robert Newton
stamped the ships deck in derisve indigna-
ton at Christianity only a little while be
fore he became a Christian. out of my
house" said father to his daughter, ''if
you will keep praying" Yet before many
months passed the father knelt at the same
altar with the child, and the Lord Jesus
Christ is willing to look out from heaven
upon that derisive opponent of the Christian
religion and address him not in glittering
generalities, but, calling him by name:
John! Georgel Henry-Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou2"
THE CHIEF OF SINNERS.
Again, l learn from this subject that
there is hope for the worst offenders, 1t
was particularly outrageous that Saul
should have gone to Damascus on that err
rand Jesus Christ had been dead only
three years, aud the story of his kindness,
and his generosity, and his love filled all the
air. 1t was not an old story as 1t is now.
| 1t was new story. Jesus had only three
summers ago been in these very places, and
| Saul every day in Jerusalem must have met
| people who knew Christ, people with good
| eyesght whom Jesus had cured of blind
ness, people who were dead and who had
been resurrected by the Saviour, and PEG
! pie who could tell Paul all the particulars
of the crucifixion-just how Jesus look ed
In the last -Four, just how the heavens
grew black in the face at the torture.
He heard tn At recited every day by people
who were ACC TAINTED with all the circum-
stances, and y ct in the fresh memory of that
scene he goes to prosecute Christ's disciples,
impatient at the time it takes to feed the
horses at the inn, not pulling at the snafiie,
but riding vii h loose rein faster and faster.
Oh, he was O chief of sinnersl No out
break of modesty when he said that. lie
was murderer. lie stood by when Stephen
died and hel ped in the execution of that
good man. When the rabble wanted TO be
| unimpeded i'll their work of destroying
| Stephen and wanted TO take off their coats
but did not dt re to lay them down lest they
be stolen, Pa Il said, I'm take care of the
coats" and they put them down at the feet
Of Paul, and he watched the coats, and he
watched the horrid mangling of glorious
Stephen.
Is it a wonder that when he fell from the
horse he did not break his neck-that his
foot did not cltch somewhere in the trap
pings of the tddle and he YVES not dragged
or kicked to DEATH He deserved to die
miserably, wretchedly and forever, not
! wlthstandlng all his metaphysics, and his
| eloquence, and his logic He was the chief
of sinners. lie said what was true when he
said that A I'D yet the grace of God saved
| him, and so Il will you. If there is any
man in this ouse who thinks he is too bad
to be saved and says, IL have wandered
very grievously from God; | do not believe
there is any h )pe for me-" tell you the
story of this man in the text who was
brought to Jesus Christ in spite of his sins
and opposition.
There may he some here who are as stout
| ly opposed TO Christ as Paul was. There
may be some mere who are captive of their
sins as much so as the young man who said
In regard to lis dissipating habits: II will
keep on with them. know am breaking
my mothers heart and know / am kill
ing myself, and l know that when die
shall go to he'll, but it is now too late to
stop"
AN EN- CoURAGING EXAMPLE.
The steed on which you ride may be
swifter and stronger and higher mettled
than that on which the Cilician prosecutor
rode, but Chr st can catch it by the bride
and hurl it back and hurl it down There
is mercy for You who say you are too bad
to be saved. You say you have put of the
matter 30 lolg; Paul had neglected q