Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1895-04-22


pounded viii ~ i:.s fails Of sin and draR
ged through all The sewers Of pollution az
last have risen to positive dominion of
moral power
hou do not tell him that, do you! No.
You say to him: loan you money? No.
You arc down. You will have to 60 to
the uogs. Lend you dollarS 1 would not
ienu you cents to keep you from the gall
lows You arc debauohed. Get out of
my sight now Down. You will have
to stay down" And thus those bruised
and battered men arc sometimes accostod
by those who ought to lift them up. Thus
tho last ycstige OF hope Is taken from
them. Thus those who ought to 20 and
lit and sayo them arc guilty of stripping
tho slain.
Tho point want to make is this: Sin
Is hard, cruel and meruiless. Instead Of
helping a man up it helps him down, and
when, like Saul and his comrades, you Lie
on the field, 1T will como and steal your
sword and helmet and shield, leaving you
TO the jackhl and crow.
satan's Work.
But the world and satan do not do all
their work with tho outcast and abandon
cd. A respectable impenitont man comes
TO die. He is flAt on his back. He could
not get up II the house was on fro. Adroit-
est medical skin and geftlest nursing
have been a failure, Hc has come to his
last hour. What does satan do for such
mani Why, he fetches up all the inapt,
disagreeable and narrowing things In his
life. He says; "Do you remember those
chances you had for heaven and missed
theinf Do You remember all those lapses
In conduct. Do you remember all those
NtF.Ntas a -.
tionsf Don't remember them, ehS III
mako you remember them" And then
he takes all the past and empties 1t on
that deathbcd, as the mailbags arc emp
tied on hepostoillce floor. Tho man is sick
He cannot got away from them.
Then tho man says to satan; "You
have deceived me, You told me that all
would DO well. You said there would be
no trouble at the last You told mo IL 1
did so and so you would do so and so.
Now you corner me- and hedge me up,
and submergo mo in everything evil"
"Ha haP says satan. ~ wasonly fooling
you. 1t is mirth for mo to SEQ you suffer.
have been for80 years plotting to got you
just where you are 1t Is hard for YOU now.
. 1t will DO worse for you aftor awhile. 1t
pleasos me. Lie still sir. Don't finch or
Bhudder. Come, now, will tear off from
you the last rag of expectation. will
rend away from your soul the last hope
will leave you bare for the beating of tho
storm. 1t is my business TO strip tho slain"
While men arc in robust health, and
their digestion is good, and their nerves
nro strong, they think their physical
strength will got them safely through tho
last exigency. They say It Is only coward
ly women who nro afraid at tho Inst and
q. q Il 49, 4 Y
! will show you. You won't hear mo pray
nor call for minister, nor want chapter
read mo from the Bible" But after tho
man has been three weeks In a sicllroom
his nerves are not so steady, and his world
ly companions are not anywhere near to
cheer him up, and he Is persuaded That he
must quit lifo. His physical courage Is
all gone.
Too Late.
He jumps at tho fall of teaspoon in
saucer. He shiyers at the idea Of going
away. He says; "Wifc, don't think my
infdellty is going to take mo through. For
Gods sake, don't bring up tho children
to do MS / have done. II you feel like it,
wish you would read n verse or two out
of Fannie's Sabbath school hymnbook or
New Testament" But satan breaks in
md says; "You have always thought re.
ligion trash and lie. Don't give up at
the last, Besides that you cannot, In the
hour you have to live, get of on that
track. Die us you lived. With my great
black wings 1 shut out that light. Die in
darkness / rend away from you that last
vcstige Of hope, 1t is my business to strip
the slain"
A man who had rejected Christianity
and thought It all trash came to die. Ho
was In tho sweat Of Il great agony, and his
wife said, "Wo had better have some
prayer" "AIary, not breath of that,
ho said. "Tho lightest word Of prayer
would roll back on mo like rocks on a
drowning man. have come to the hour
Of test, had chance, but forfeited IT,
] believed in liar, and he has left me in
the lurch. Mary bring mo Tom Paine
that book that 1 sworo by and lived by
and pitch il into tho fire, and let II burn
and burn as l myself shall soon burn"
And then, with tho foam on his lip and
his hands tossing wildly in the air, he
cried out: "BlAckness Of darlsnessi Oh,
my God, too lntep And tho spirits OF
darkness whistlcd up from the depth and
wheeled around and round him, stripping
the slain.
Sin Is a luxury now. 1t Is oxhilaration
now. II is victory now. But after awhile
It is collision. 1t is defeat. 1t is cxter-
mlnation. II is jacknlism. 1t Is robbing
the dead. 1t is stripping the slain. Give
1t up today--giye 1t up. Oh, how you have
been cheated on, my brother, from one
thing TO Anotherl All these years you
have been under an evil mastery that you
understood not What have your compan-
Ions done for your What have they done
for your hcalthS Nearly ruined it by ca
rnusaL What have thoy done for your for
tuner Almost scattered it by spendthrift
behavior. What have they done for your
roputation1 Almost ruined 1t with good
mon. What have they done for your inn
mortal soulY Almost insured Its over
throw.
On to shipwreck.
You are fastening ON toward the CON
summation Of all that Is sad, Today you
stop and think, but it is only for mo-
ment, and then you will tramp on, and at
the close OF this service you will go out,
and tho question will be, Glow did you
like the sermonT And ono man will
say, 81 liked it very well, and another
man will shy, ~ didn't Ike 1t nt all, but
neither of the answers win touch the ire
mendous fact that, II impenitent, you arc
M L. LII,