The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1896-01-10

Once you said: 'sOh, If / could only
hare It quiet little. whiler' 1t Is too
quiet.
Some people say that they would not
bring back their departed friends from
Heaven even if they had the opportun-
ity, but II you had the opportunity you
would bring back your loved ones, and
soon their feet would be sounding in
the hall, and soon their voices would
be heard in the family, and the old
times would come back just as the fes-
tai days of Christmas and Thanksgiv-
ing-days gone forever. Oh. it is the
earthquake that startled you to ask
ing this questionable earthquake of
domestic misfortune. Death is so
cruel, so devouring, SO relentless, that
when it swallows up our loved
ones we must have some one to
whom we can carry our torn and
bleeding hearts. We need balsam
better than anything that ever exuded
from earthly tree to heal the pang of
the soul. It is pleasant to have our
friends gather around us and tell us
how sorry they are and try to break
up the loneliness, but nothing but the
hand OF Jesus Christ can take the
bruised soul and put it in his bosom,
hushing it with the lullaby of Heaven.
@ brother! 0 sister! The gravestone
will never be lifted from your heart
until Christ lifts it Was it not the
loss Of your friends, or the persecution
of your enemies, or the overthrow of
your worldly estate-was it not an
earthquake that started you out to
ask this stupendous question of my
text?
But remark again, I character
ize this question of the agitated jail
keeper as hasty, urgent and immedi-
ate. He put it on tho run. BY the
light Of his torch as he goes to look
for the apostles behold his face, SEQ
the startled look and see the earnest
ness. No one can doubt by that look
that the man is in earnest He must
have that question answered before
the earth stops rocking, or perhaps
he will never have it answered at
all. Is that the way, my brother,
my sister. you are putting this
question? Is it on the run? Is it hasty?
Is it urgent? Is it immediate? fit is
not, it will not be answered That is
the only kind of question that is an
swered 1t is the urgent and immedi-
ate question of the gospel Christ an
swers. A great many are asking this
question, but they drawl it out, and
there is Indifference in their manner
as If they do not mean it. Make it an
urgent question and then you will
have it answered before an hour passes,
before minute passes When man
with all the earnestness OF his soul
cries out for God, he finds Him, and
finds him right away.
Oh, are there not in this house to-
day those who are postponing until
the last hour of living the attending to
the things of the soul? give it as my
opinion that ninety-nine out Of the
hundred deathbed repentances amount
to nothing. OF all the scores of per-
sons mentioned as dying in the Bible,
of now many do you read that they
repented in the last hour?
OF so? No. OF 40? No OF 80? No.
OF 90? No. OF 10? No. OF s? No.
OF 1-only 1, barely 1, as if to DEM
onstrate the fact that there is bare
of repenting in the last
hour. But that is improbable, awful
ly improbable, terrifically improb-
able. One hundred to one against
the man. If, my brother, my sister.
you have ever seen man try to repent
In the last hour, you have seen some
thing very sad. do not know any
thing on earth so sad as to see man
try to repent on a deathbed. There is
not from the moment that life begins
TO breathe In infancy to the last gasp
such an unfavorable, completely un-
hour for repentance as the
Heath hour, the last hour. There are
the doctors standing with the medi-
zines. There is the lawyer standing
with the half written will There
Is the family in consternation as to
what is to become of them. All the
BELLS of eternity ringing the soul out
If the body. ALI the past rising be-
lore us and all the future. Oh, that
nan is an infinite fool who procrasti-
hates to the the deathbed his repent
lnce.
My text does not answer the ques-
ion. 1t only asks it, with deep and
earnestness asks it, and,
to the rules of sermonizing,
rou would say: Adjourn that to
ome other time" But dare not.
What are the rules for sermonizing to
ne when am after souls? What other
lime could have, when perhaps this
5 the only time? This might be my |
asst time for preaching. This might be |
our last time for hearing.
After my friend in Philadelphia died
lis children gave his church Bible to |
a.. l1~lr.1 IL xrt<1 /