The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1896-01-31
TEE MERCY OF GOD.
Rev. T. Dswitt Talnare Calla 11r,,,r,
All Who Have Received It
70 Proclaim It to the World as Freelv :.
Tney Would Had They Been Res
cucd by Man from Some
Great Danger.

In recent sermon to his WASHING
ton congregation Rev. I. Dewitt Tai
mage called upon his hearers to "Sa =
SO" if they had been rescued AM
blessed by the religion of Jesus. He
took for his text:
Let the redeemed of the Lord saw So
Psalms evil, g ~ o.
An overture, an antiphon, doxol.
ogy IS this chapter, and in my text
David calls for an outspoken religion.
and requests all who have been res
cued and blessed, no longer to hide
the splendid facts, but to recite them.
publish them, and as far as possible.
Jet all the world know about it. "Let
the redeemed of the Lord say sou
| There is sinful reticence which has
been almost canonized. The people
are quite as outspolken as they ought
to be on all subjects of politics, and
are fluent and voluble on the Vene-
zuelan question, and bimetalism, and
tariffs, high and low and remodeled i,
and female suffrage, and you have to
skillfully watch your chance if you
want to put into the active con-
versation a modest suggestion of
your own; but on the subject
OF divine goodness, religious expe-
rience, and eternal blessedness they are
not only silent, but boastful of their
reticence. Now, if you have been re-
deemed of the Lord, why do you not
say so? If you have in your heart the
pearl Of great price, worth more than
the Koh-i-noor among Victorian Jew
els, why not let others see it? If you
got off the wreck in the breakers, why
not tell of the crew and the stout life
boat that safely landed you? If from
the fourth story you are rescued
in time of confagration, why not tell
of the fireman and the ladder down
which he carried you? If you have
mansion in Heaven awaiting you, why
not show the deed to those who may
by the same process get an emerald
castle on the same boulevard? By the
last two words of my text David calls
upon all of us who have received any
mercy at the hand of God to stop i'm
personating the asylums for the dumb,
and in the presence of men, women, an
gels, devils, and all worlds, "say so"
In these January days thousands of
ministers and private Christians are
wondering about the best ways of
starting revival of religion. I can
tell you of starting revival, CONT
mental, hemisphere, and worldwide.
You say revival starts in Heaven.
Well, it starts in Heaven just as pros
porous harvest starts in Heaven. The
sun must shine and the rains must de-
scend, but unless you pillow and SOW
and cultivate the earth you will not
raise bushel of wheat or peck of
corn between now and the end of the
world. How, then, shall universal
revival start? By all Christian people
telling the story of their own CONVEX
sion. Let ten men and women get up
next week in your prayer meeting
and, not in conventional or canting |
Or doleful way, but in the same
tone they employ in the family |
DR. place of business, and tell |
how they crossed the line. and the |
revival will begin then and there, if |
The prayer meeting has not been so
hull as to drive out all except those
whom it was foreordained
rom all eternity that they should be
here. There are so many different
ways of being converted that we want
% henr all kinds, so that our own case
nay be helped. 1t always puts me
,ack to hear only one kind of expert
nee, such as man gives when he
els of his Pauline conversion-how
lie was knocked senseless, and then
lad a vision and heard voices, and
lfter certain number of days of hor-
or got up and shouted for joy. All
hat discourages me, for l was never
Knocked senseless, and never had
UGH a sudden burst of religious rap
ure that 1 lost my equilibrium.
But after awhile a Christian man got
10 in some meeting and told us how
e was brought up by devout parent
ge, and had always been thoughtful
bout religious things, and gradually |
he peace of the Gospel came into his
oul like the dawn of the morning-no
erceptible difference between mo-
,ent and moment-but after awhile
Il perturbation settled down into q
ope that had consoled and strength
ned him during all the vicissitudes OF
lifetime. 1 said: ''That is exhila-
ating; that was my experience" and
0 was strengthened. In another
rayer meeting a man got up and told
s how he once hated God, and went
trough all the round of iniquity, until
re were all on nettles lest he should
o too much into the particulars, but I
ne day he was by some religious pow
r hurled fat, and then got up Chris
an, and had ever since been going | |