The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1895-09-22

| etep, tlo lesumony ana the Jury con-
| vict him.
Some Of you know what it is to see
yourselves sinner, and yet the sight
OF the fact bri lgs with It no smart-no
sting; 1t does not cut deep into your
very soul. On the other hand, some
of you may know what it is to see your
sins all armed like an armed man 10
| pierce you through ard through with
osggers. Then you cry out rs here-O,
| wretched man that am. Who shalt
| deliver ma from the body of this death?
You feel piercing sting IS IL your
soul were filled with poison-with dark,
ranking venom diifusing through the
depths OF your soul the very agonies OF
hell! This is what | mean by being
convicted, IS state of mind beyond
being merely convinced. The shafts
and the shifting of sin seem really like
the piercing of an arrow, as IL arrows
from the Almighty did really drink
up the spirit When you experience
this, then you can understand what the
good news Of the Gospel Is. A remedy
for such pangs must be good news be-
yond all contradiction. Then to know
that the blood OF Christ can save, is in
deed cordial of life to the fainting
soul.
Place man in this state of cutting,
III
feel that there Is actually no remedy,
and he sinks under the iron shafts OF
despair. See his agony. Tell him there
can never be any remedy for his guilty
soul. You must lie there in your wall.
ing and despair forever Can any state
Of mind be more awful?
l remember case that occurred in
Reading, Pa, many years ago. There
was man OF hard heart and iron frame
"a strong, burly man, who had stood
Up against the revival IS il he could
shake off all the arrows Of the AL
mighty, even as the massodon, of which
the traditions of the red men say he
shook off all the arrows of the warriors
from mis- brow and felt no harm. So he
stood. But he had prayirg wife and
praying sister, and they gathered their
souls in the might OF prayer close about
him, as party OF men would hem in a
wild bull In net, Soon 1t WAS appsr-
ent that an arrow from the culver of the
Almighty had pierced between the
joints Of his harness and had taken hold
Ut his innermost heart. o, was not he
in agony then. twas night-dark and
intensely cold. IL seemed that abso-
lutelY he could not live. They sent for
me to come and see him. I went. While
yet sixty rods from his house l heard
his screams and wailings of woe. 1t
made me feel awtully solemn-so like
the echoes from the pit OF hell.
reached the house: there he lay on the
floor rolling in his agony and wailing,
such as ia rarely heard this side of the
pit OF despair. Cold as the weather was
he sweat like rain, every part OF his
frame being in an intense Precipitation
Oh, his groans. and 10 see him gnaw his
very tongue for Plaintiffs could DOT
but give one some idea of the doom OF
the damned. O. said If this be only
conviction, what is hell? But he could
not bear to hear anything about sin;
his conscience was already full of it,
and had brought ont the awful things OF
Gods law, 30 as to leave nothing to be
done in that direction. | could only put
Christ before him, and just hold his
mind to the view of Christ alone. This
nothing else to say but this-"Mr. B.,
there Is no help for your case You can
vail on and wall on; no being in the
universe can help you ?" Need you say
to him hell has no fire? Oh, ne has
fire enough In his burning soul already.
IL seems to him that no hell of fire can
possibly be worse than this.
How perfectly chilling and horrible
for persons to oppose the idea of expect
ing deliverance from ain and yet
talk calmly OF going on in his sin all
the rest Of their earthly days. AS an
elder whom l knew rose in meeting and
told the Lord he had been living in sin
thus far, and expected TO go on in sin
as long as he lived; ne had sinned to-day
and should doubtless sin tomorrow and
so on-and yet he talked as calmly
about it all as If 1t were foolish to
make any ado, as we'll as impossible to
ate mpt any change for the better. Talk
OF ali this calmly-think OF that! Quite
calmly Of living along in ain all the rest
OF his days How horrible Suppose
wife should gay to her husband. 81
love you some, but you know l love
many other men too, ano that | find it
pleasant to indulge myself with them
You certainly must he aware that all
women are frail creatures. and liable
to fall continually, and indeed you know
that expecs 10 fall more or less. as 1t
may happen, every day live, so that
| you certainly will not expest from me
anything 80 lmprac tics BILE and fanatical
| as unidentified virtue You know we
| have none of us any idea of being per-
| fe ct in the present life-We don't believe
in any such thing !"
| Now let me ask you to look at this
woman and hear what she has to say.
Can you hear her talk so, without hAv-
ing your soul filled with horror What!
is this woman wife, and does she think
and talk in this way about conjugal
fidelity?
| And yet this is'not to be compared in
shocking guilt and treason with the
case OF the Christian who says. 81 ex-
pect to sin every day l live," and says
this with unmoved carelessness. You
expect to be traitor to Jesus each day
of your life; to cruelty Him afresh each