The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-03-04


quake end in the after rising Of the Tagls
so stirred his sypathies that be threw mp
bis belief in the goodness OF God
Others have gone into scepriri-m from
natural persistence in asking the reason
why. They have been fearlully stabbed
of the interiors; tiou point. There are 80
many Things they can't get explained
They cannot understand the trinity or
how God can be sovereign and yet man
free agent. Neither can ]. They say 'i
don't understand why q good God should
have let sin come into the world Neither
DO D. You say why vas that child
started IN life with such disadvantages
while others have all physical and mental
equipment" ! cannot tell. They 20 out
OF church on Easter morning and say;
That doctrine 90 the resurrection con-
founded me-" SO 30 is q mystery 10 me be-
yond unravelmeuf / understand all the
processes 10y which men get into the dark
/ know them an. I have Travelled with
burning feet that blistered way. The first
word which most children learn 20 utter
Is. Papa " or Mamma" but think the
first word J ever uttered was w hy;' ]
know what 10 is to have hundred mid
nights pour their darkness into one hour.
Such men are not TO be scoffed. but helped.
Turn your back upon drowning man
when you have the rope with which 10 pun
him ashore. and let that woman in the
third story Of a house perish in the flames
when you have a ladder with which TO
help her out and help her down, rather
than turn your back scOfiingly on a sceptic
whose soul Is in more peril than the bodies
OF those other endangered ones possibly
can be. Oh, scepticism is a dark land.
There are men in this house who would
give a thousand worlds il they possessed
them. to get back TO the placid faith OF
their fathers and mothers, and it is our
place to help them, and we may help
therr fhpfr heads bur
always through their hearts.
These skeptics, when brought
10 Jesus. will be nightly effective. far
more so than those who never examined
the evidences OF Christianity. Thomas
Chalmers was once skeptc Robert
Hall q skepuc Robert Newton a skeptic
Christmas Evans skeptic. But when
once with strong hand they took hold OF
the chariot OF the gospel, they rolled II
on with what momentum, III ] address
such men and women to-day, I throw out
no scof. ] implead them 10y the memory
Of the good old days. when a. their moth
ers knee they said. "Now / law me down
10 sleep" and by those days and nights of
scarlet fever i'm which she watched You,
giving you the medicine al just the right
time. and turning your pillow when II
was hot and with hands that many
years ago turned to dust. soothed away
your pain, and with voice that you will
the better country, told you to never
mind. for you would feel better by-and-
by. and by that dying couch where she
looked so pale and talked so slowly, catch
ing her breath between the words, and
you felt an awful loneliness coming over
your soul; by all that l beg YOU TO come
back and take the same religion. 1t was
good enough for her 1t is good enough
for You. Nay I have a better plea than
that. plead by all the wounds. and tears,
and blood. and groans, and agonies, and
death-throes Of the Son of God, who APP
proaches you this moment with torn
brow, and lacerated hand, and whipped
back and saying: Come unto me, all
We who are weary and heavy laden, and
will give you rest
Again, there is a field OF usefulness but
little touched occupied by those who are
astray in their habits. All northern ma
lions. like those of North America, and
England and Scotland, that is, in the
colder climates, are devastated by alcho-
holism. They take the fire to keep up the
warmth In southern countries, like Ara
bia and Spain the blood is so warm they
are not tempted to fiery liquids. The great
Roman armies never idranK anything
stronger than water tinged with vinegar
but under our northern climate the temp
tation to heating stimulants is most
mighty, and millions sucCumb. When
mans habits go wrong the church drops
him. the social circle drops him, good in
fuence drops him. we all drop him. OF
all the men who get off track, but few
ever get on again. Near my summer res
idence there is a life-saving station on
the beach. There are all the ropes and
rockets, the boats. the machinery for
getting people off shipwrecks. One sum-
mer | saw there fifteen or twenty men
who were brealfasting, after having just
escaped with their lives and nothing more.
TTp and down our coasts are built these
useful structures, and the mariners know
it, and they feel that If they are driven
into the breakers, there will be apt from
shore to come a rescue. The churches of
God ought to be so many life-saving sta
tions, not so much to help those who are
in smooth waters, but those who have
been shipwrecked, Come, let us run out
the life-boats, And who will man them:
We do not preach enough to such men;
we have not enough faith in their re-
lease. Alas, if when they come to hear
us, we are laboriously trying to show the
difference between sublapsarianism and
neutrality-suspicious., while they have a
Thousand vipers of remorse and despair
coiling around and biting their immortal
spirits. The church is not chiefly for good
ish sort of men whose prCclivities are all
right and who could get to heaven pray
ing and singing in their own homes 1t
is on the beach TO help the drowning. Those
to take hold of. He can save a big sim
ner as we'll as a small sinner and when
a man calls earnestly to God for help
he viii go out to deliver such one. If
it were necessary. God would come down
from the sky followed by all the artillery
of heaven and a million angels with
drawn swords. Get one hundred such re-
deemed men in each of your churches,
and nothing could stand before them,
for such men are generally warm-hearted
and enthusiastic. No formal prayers then.
No heartless singing then. No cold con-
ventionalisms then.
Furthermore, the destitute children OF
the streets offer field of work compare
lively unoccupied The uncared-for chill
dren are in the majority in most of our
cities. Their condition was well Illus
trated by what a boy in this city said
when he was found under cart gnawing
a bone and some one said TO him. Where
do you live?' and he answered: Don't
live nowhere. SIR Seventy thousand Of
the children of New York city can neither
read or write. When they grow up if I'M
reformed. they viii outvote your chill
dren and they viii govern your children.
The whisky ring will hatch out other