The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1895-05-04

como and steal your sword and helmet
and shield, leaving You to the jaclal
and the crow.
But the world and Satan do not do
all their work with the outcast and
abandoned. A respectable impenitent
man comes to die. He Is fiat on his
back. He could not get up IL the house
was on fire. Adroitcst medical skill
and gentlest nursing have been fall
ure. He has come to his last hour.
What does Satan do for such a man?
Why, he fetches up all the innpt, disa-
greeable and narrowing things In his
life. He says: "Do you remember
those chances you had for Heaven, and
missed them? Do you remember all
those lapses in conduct? Do you re-
member all those opprobrious words
and thoughts and actions? Don't re-
member them, ell? I'll make you re-
member them" And then he takes all
the past and empties it on that death
bed, as the mail bags are emptied on
the post-ofIice floor. The man is sick.
He can not get away from them.
Then the man says to Satan: You
have deceived me. You told me that
all would be well. You said there
would be no trouble ut the last. You
told me II / did so and SO, you would
do so and so. Now you corner me, and
hedge me up, and submerge me in
everything evil" .'Ha! ha" says
Satan, 81 was only fooling you. 1t is
mirth for me to see you suffer. / have
been for thirty years plotting to get
you just where you are. 1t is hard for
you now, it will be worse for you after
awhile. 1t pleases me. Lie still, sir.
Don't finch or shudder. 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 the storm.
1t is my business to strip the slain.
A man who had rejected Christianity
and thought it all trash, came to die.
He was in the sweat of n great agony,
and his wife said: 1--WE had better
have some prayer" MARY, not u
breath of that" he said. ''The lightest
word of prayer would roll back on me
like rocks on drowning man. ! have
come to the hour of test. / had n
chance, but forfeited it. l believed
in liar, and he has left me in the
lurch. Mary, bring me Tom Paine,
that book that swore by and lived by,
and pitch it into the fire, and let it
burn and burn as / myself shall soon
burn" And then, with thefoam on his
lips and his hands tossing wildly in
the air, he cried out: "BlaclSness of
darkness! Oh, my God, too later And
the spirits of darkness whistled up from
the depth, and wheeled around and
around him, stripping the slain.
While men are in robust health, and
their digestion is good, and their
nerves are strong, they think their
physical strength will get them safely
through the last exigency. They say
it is only cowardly women who are
afraid at the last, and cry out for God.
''Wait till come to die. / will show
you. You won't hear me pray, nor call
for minister, nor want q chapter read
me from the Bible" But after the
man has been three weeks in sick
room his nerves are not SO steady, and
his worldly companions are not any
where near to cheer him up, and he is
persuaded that he must quit life; his
physical courage is all gone.
He jumps at the fall of teaspoon in
a saucer. He shivcrs at the idea of go
ing away. He says: "Wife, l don't
think my infdelity is going to take
me through. For Gods sake, don't
bring up the children to do as have
done. If you feel like it, l wish you
would read verso or two out of Fan
MES Sabbath-school hymn-book, or
New Testament" But Satan breaks in
and says: You have always thought
religion trash and lie; don't give up
at the last. Besides that, you can not,
in the hour you have to live. get off on
that track. Die as you lived. With
my great black wings / shut out that
light. Die in darkness. rend away
from you that last vestige of hope. 1t
is my business to strip the slain"
Sin is luxury now; it is exhilaration
now; it is victory now. But after
awhile it is collision; it is defeat; it is
determination; it is jackalism; it is
robbing the dead; 1t is stripping the
slain. Give it up to-day-give it up!
Oh, how you have been cheated on, my
brother, from one thing to another!.
All these years you have been under
an evil mastery that you understood
not. What have your companions
done for your health? Nearly ruined
it by carousal. What have they done
for your fortune? Almost scattered it
by spendthrift behavior What have
they done for your reputation? AL
most ruined it with good men. What
have they done for your immortal soul?
Almost insured its overthrow.
You are fastening on toward the
consummation of all that is sad. To
day you stop and think, but it is only
for moment, and then you will tramp
on, and at the close of this service you
will go out, and the question will be:
"How did you like the sermon?" And
one man will say: II liked it very
WE'LL" and another man will say: Il
didn't like it at ALL" but neither of
the answers will touch the tremendous
fact, that If impenitent,, you are GO
ing at thirty knots an hour toward
shipwreck! Yea, you are in battle
where you will fall; and while your
surviving relatives will take your re-