The Penn's Grove record., 1896-03-06
IE1. DR.. TMuaGE.
the Eminent Divine's Sunday
Sermon.
Subject, eau Men Are A.tray.,'

Subject. eau Men Are A.tray..
TEXT: "Al we, like sheep, have gon,
astray. We have turned every one to BIZ.
oWn way. and the Lord hath laid on Him til,
lniquity OF US all."-Isaiah I'LL, 6.
Once more l ring the old gospel bell. The
nrst han OF my next text Is an indictment.
All We like sheep. have gone astray. Some
one says; Cant you drop that first world
Inat ls too general; that sweeps too great q
oircle. Some man risns in the audience,
anu No looks over on the opposite side ofthe
mouse and says; "There Is q blasphemer,
anu Understand how he has gone astray.
AND there in another part of the house is a
defaulter, and he flas gone astray. And there
- an impure person, and he has gone astray.r
BIT down. my brother, and look at home Nv
text takes us all in. 1t starts behind the
pulpit, sweeps the circuit Of the room. and
m back to the point whers it started,
astray.
l can very easily understand why Martin
Luther threw up his hands after he had
FOUND the Bible and cried out, stOh. my sins.
my sins!' and why the publican, according
TO the custom to this day in the East, when
tney have any great grief, began to beat
bAA ollf 10 10 SluOtt upon MS DreASI.
"God De merciful to me, q sinner" l was,
ike many of you, brought up in the country,
and l know some of the habits of sheep, and
now they get astray Int what my text meant
when 1t says, san we, like Sheep have gone
astray." Sheep get astray In two ways
either by trying to get into other pasture, OF
from being scared by dogs. In the former
way some OF us got astray. We thought the
religion OF Jesus Christ put US on short com.
! mons. We thought there was better pastur.
age somewhere else. We thought II we could
only lie down on the banks OF a distant
stream, or under great oaks on the other
side OF some hill, we might be better fed. We
wanted other pasturage than that which
God, through Jesus Christ. gave our soul, and
we wandered on n we wandered on and
we were lost. We wanted bread, and We
found garbage. The farther we wandered,
instead Of finding rich pasturage, we found
blasted heath and sharper rocks and more
singing nettles. No pasture. How was Il
In the club house when you lost your chiidf
Did they CONF around and help you very
much? Did your worldly associates console
you very muchp Did not the plain Christian
man who came into your house and sat up
With your darling child give you more conf
fort than all worldly associates2 Did all the
convivial songs you ever heard comfort you
In that day of bereavement so much as the
song they sang to youY-perhaps the very
song that was sung by your little child the
last Sabbath afternoon of her life:
There is a happy land
Far, far away,
Where saints immortal reign
Bright, bright as day.
Did your business associates in that day
of darkness n trouble give you any especial
coincidence? Business exasperated you,
business wore you out, business left you
limp as a rag, business made you mad. You
get dollars, but you gotno peace. God have
mercy on the man who has nothing but
business to comfort himl rhe world afforded
you no luxuriaht pasturage. Afamous Eng
ltsh actor stood on the stage impersonating,
and thunders of applause came down from
the galleries, and many thought 1t was the
proudest moment Of all his life, but there
wac a man asleep Just in front OF him, and
the fact that that maj was indifferent and
somnolent spoiled all the occasion for him,
and he cried, .'Wake up, wake upl" So one
little annoyance in life has been more per-
vading to your mind than all the brilliant
congratulations and success. Poor pastur-
6 for your soul you find in this word.
belied you, the world has misinterpreted
you, the world has prosecuted you. 1t
never comforted you. Oh. this world Is o
good rack from which a horse may pick
his food. 1t is q good trough from which
! the swine nay crunch their mess, but
1t gives but little food to q soul blood
bought and immortal. What is a soua It
Is a hope high as the throne of God. What
Is a man? You say, 'sIt is only a man. 1t
Is only Il a gone overheard in sin. 1t IA
| only a man gone overheard In business life.
What is a manp The battle-ground of three
worlds, with his hands taking hold OF des-
TIMES OF light or darkness. A mani No line
can measure him. No,imit can bound him.
The archangel before the throne canno out
live him. The stars shall die, but he will
| watch their extinguishment. The world will
burn, but he will gaze at the conf1agration.
| Endless ages will march on. Hs will watch
the procession. A mani The masterpiece
Of God Almighty. Yet you say, 1T is only
| q man." Can a nature like that be fed on
husks Of the wilderness?
Substantial comforts will not grow
On natures barren soil; D
Ali we can boast till Christ We know
Is vanity and toll
Some OF you got astray by looking for bet
ter pasturage; others by being scared by the
dogs. The hound gets over into the pasture
field. The poor things fly in every direc-
tion. In a few moments they are torn Of the
hedges and they are splashed OF the ditch,
n the lost sheep never gets home unlesi
the farmer goes after it. There IL nothing
so thoroughly lost as a lost sheep. It may
have been In 1857, during the financial
\ panic. or during the financial stress In tho
| fall of 1878 when you got astray. You almost
became an atheist. You said, "Whereis God
that honest men go down and thieves pros.
PERI" You were logged Of creditors, you
were logged OF the banks, you were logged
| of worldly disaster, and some of you went
into misanthropy and some Of you took "a
strong drink and others Of you fed out OIL
Christian association, and you got astray.
oh, man, that was the last time when you
ought to have forsaken God. Standing
amid the laundering OF your early failures,
how could you get along without a God to
comfort you and a God to deliver you and q
God to help you and a God to save youi
You tell me you have been through
enough business trouble al most to kill
you. I know It. / cannot understan I |
how the boat could live one hour In thai
chopped sea. But / do not know by what
process you got astrayi some in one way and
come In another, and IL you could really see
the position som OF you occupy before God
your soul would burst into an agony OF tears
and you would pelt the heavens with the cry,
ssdod have mercy!' Sinai's batteries have
been unlinhered above your soul, and at
times you have heard 1t thunder, 1.-THE
wages of sin is DEATH "All have sinned
and come short OF the glory of God" "By
one man sin entered into the world, and
death by sin, and SO death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned." ''The soul
that sinneth, 1t shall die" When Sevastopol
was being bOmbarded, two Russian fr1gatea
burned all night in the harJor, throwing a
glare upon the trembling fortress, and some
Of you, from what you have told me your |
selves, some of you are standing in the night
OF your souls trouble, the cannonade, and
the conaagration, and the multiplication,
and the multitude Of your sorrows and
troublesI think must make the wings OF
Gods towering angles shiver to the tip.
But the last part OF my text opens a door
wide enough to let US all out and TO .et all
heaven in. Sound it on the organ with all
the stops ous. Thrum it on the harp with all
the strings atune. With all the melody pos
sible let the heavens sound II TO the earth
and let the earth tell ii to the heavens. ,eThe
Lord hath laid on Him the iDiquity Of US all"
I am glad that the prophet did not stop to
explain whom he meant by Him" Him OF
the manager, Him OF the bloody sweat. Him
OF the resurrection throne. Him Of the eruei-
fixion agony. ION Him the Lor hath laid
the iniquity OF us air." .sohs' says some
man, ifhst isn't generous; that isn't fair.
Let every man carry bis own burden and rsy
is own debts.a That sounds reasonable. II
have an obligation, and / have the meana
o meet 1t, and CONF to you and ask you to
ettle thar obligation, you rightly say, NPay
-FOUR own debts." II Won ard walking