The Hazel Green herald. [volume] (Hazel Green, Wolfe County, Ky.) 1885-19??, 1896-01-30

bring back their departed friends from
heaven even IL they had the opportun.
ity, but IL you had the opportunity YOU
would bring back your loved ones, and
soon their feet would be sounding in
the hall, and soon theiv voices would
be heard in the family, and the old
times would come back just as the fes-
tai days Of Christmas and Thanksgiv-
inR-days gone forever oh, it is the
earthquake that startled you to ask
ing this question earthquake of
domestic misfortune Death Is so
I cruel, SO deyouring, 10 relentless, that
! when IL swallows MP our loved
/ ones we must have some one to
1 whom we cln carry our torn and
] bleeding hearts We need a balsam
better than anything that ever exuded
i from earthly tree to heal the pang OF
/ the SOU. IL is pleasant TO have our
! friends gather around us and tell as
how sorry they are and try to break
\ up the loneliness, but nothing but the
hand of Jesus Christ ca3t take the
bruised soul and put IL in his bosom,
hushing 1t with the lullaby of Heaven.
o brotherl @ sisterl The grayestone
will never be lifted from your heart
until Christ lifts it. Was IL 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? ~. r. II
But / remark again, character
ize this question of the agitated jail
keeper as hasty, urgent and immedi.
ate. He put it on the run. BY the
light of his torch rs he goes to look
for the apostles behold his face, see
the startled look and see the earnest.
ness. No one can doubt by that look
that the man is in earnest lie 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 IL on the run? Is it hasty?
is it urgent? Is it immediate? If it is |
not, it will not be answered. That is
the only kind of question that is an.
swercd u is the urgent and immedi- |
ate question of the gospel Christ an |
swers. 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 n minute passes. When a 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 how many do you read that they
successfully repented in the last hour?
OF so? No. OF 40? No OF 30? No. |
OF 20? No. or 10? No. OF 5? No.
Of 1-only /, barely /, as If to dem
onstrate the fact that there is bare
possibility OF repenting in the last
hour. But that is improbable, awful
ly Improbable, terrifically improb-
able. One hundred to one against
the man. II. my brother, my sister,
you have ever seen n 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 70 see man
try to repent on deathbed There is
not from the moment that life begins
to breathe in infancy to the last gasp
SUCH an pnfavorab bic, completely un- j
favorable, hour for repentance rs the
5path bnur thu last hnur r. trbara a % 4 ,
the doctors standing with the medi-
cines, There is the lawyer standing
with the half written will There i
Is the family in CONSERVATION as to j
what Is TO become of them. All the
bells of eternity ringing the soul out
Of the body, All the past rising be-
fore ms and all the future. oh, that
nan is an infinite fool who procrasti-
mates TO the the deathbed his repent
ince! II s 1 e L $.= 81 " 7
My text does not answer the ques- ,
ion. 1t only asks il, with deep and
earnestness asks it, and.
according 70 the rules of sermonizing, Z
iou would say: Adjourn that to I
.ome other time But dare not
What are the rules for Sc rmonizing TO {
ne when am after souls? What other
lime could have, when perhaps this
S the only time? This might be my J
asst time for preaching. This might be ,
,our last time for hearing. o
After my friend in Philadelphia died i
lis children gave his church Bible to 4
ne, and / read it; looked over it with q
much interest. saw in the margin e
~. all r,1 | A