The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1896-01-03

Stone will never be lifted from your
heart until Christ lifts it. Was it not
the loss of you friends, or the persecu-
ton 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 textp
Make 1t an Urgent Question.
But l remark again, characterize
this question of the agitated Jail keeper
as hasty, urgent and immediate. He put
it on the run. By the light of his torch
as he goes to look for the apostles, be-
hold his face, see the startled look and
see the earnestness. No one can doubt
by that look that the man is in earnest
He must have that question answered be-
fore 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 i'm
mediate? If it is not, it will not be an
swered That is the only kind of ques-
ton that is answered. 1t is the urgent
and immediate question Of the gospel
Christ answers. A great many are ask
ing this question, but they drawl it out,
and there is indifference in their man
ner, 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 today
those who are postponing until the last
hour of living the attending to the
things of the soul? l give it as my
opinion that ninety nine out of the one
hundred deathbed repentances amount
to nothing. Of all the scores of persons
mentioned as dying in the Bible, of how
many do you read that they successfully
repented in the last hour? Of 50P No.
Of 40? No. Of 80? No. OF 90? No. OF
10? No. Of 5pNo. Of /? Only one,
barely one, as if to demonstrate the fact
that there is bare possibility of repent
ing in the last hour. But that is i'm
probable, awfully improbable, terrif-
ically improbable. One hundred to
one against the man. If. my brother,
nv sister, you have ever seen man
!, try to repent in the last hour, you
have seen something very sad. do not
know anything 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, COM
pletely unfavorable, hour for repentance
: as the death hour, the last hour. There
are the doctors standing with the
medicines There is the lawyer stand
ing with the half written will There is
, the family in CONSERVATION as to what
t is to become of them. All the bells of
} eternity ringing the soul out OF the
) body. All the past rising before US and
t all the future. Oh, that man is an lnti-
mite fool who procrastinates to the
deathbed his repentance
: This May Be Your Last Chance.
l NV text does not answer the question.
! 1t only asks it, with deep and lmportu-
r nate earnestness asks it, and recording
+, to the rules of sermoniaing you wonld
say, Adjourn that to some other time,
but l dare not. What are the rules OF
Q sermonizing to me when l am after
!, souls? What other time could l have
r when perhaps this is the only time!
{ This might be my last time for preach
i ing; this might be your last time for
hearing.
r After my friend in Philadelphia died,
l. his children gave his church Bible tC
/ me, and I read it, looked over 1T with
g much interest. saw in the margin,
T a
u said this morning that the most useless
IL thing in Gods universe is that any sin
!, ner should perish" / did not remember
n saying it, but it is true, and L say II
70 now whether said it then or not-the
most useless thing in all Gods universe
u is that any sinner should perish. Twelve
"a gates wide open. Have you not heard
y how Christ bore our sorrows, and how
/ sympathetic he is with all our woes
g. Have you not heard how that with al
as the sorrows of heart and all the agonieE
lie of hell upon him, he cried, Father
10 forgive them, they know not what they
N dor" By his feet blistered of the noun
4 tain way, by his b,.ck whipped until
II the skin came off, by his death couch Of
p four spikes, two for the hands and two
* for the feet; by his sepulcher, in which
s. for the first time for 33 years the cruel
is world let him alone, and by the heavens
W from which he now bends in compass
20 sion, offering pardon and peace and
10 life eternal to all your souls, l beg Of
K you put down your all at his feet.
~ saw one hanging on tree
u In agony and blood,
~ Who fixed his languid eyes on me
of AS near his cross stood.
as Oh, never till my latest breath
le Will forget that look.
re 1t seemed to charge me with his DEATH
Though not a word he spoke.
y, Sir John Cochrane's Escape.
70 In the troubled times of Scotland 81
~ John Cochrane was condemned to dean
or by the king The death warrant was %
ID the way. Sir John Cochrane was BID
10 ding farewell to his daughter GrizelEa
the prison door. He said: Farewell
ut my darling child! I must die. - BIS
m daughter said, ''No, father, you shall
n not die. " "But, -" he said, ''the king j
L.. s,o