The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-12-10

SOHlc DOOy DeBAt SOMeDOQy efSe anu ne
begat somebody else, instead of open
read for my immortal life: my eternity
is involved in his book"
Gifts From Heaven.
How little we use common sense in
prayer. We say, .-Oh Lord. give me
this" and 20 Lord. give me that" and
we do not expect to get 1t. or getting
it, we We do not know We nave 1t. We
have no anxiety abou it. We do not
watch and wait for its coming. AS a
merchant. you telegraph or you write
to some other city for a bill of goods.
You say, Send me by such express or
by such a steamer or by such a rail-
train" The day arrives. You e
your wagon to the depot or to the
wharf. The goods do not come. You
Immediately telegraph: What is the
matter with those goods? We haven't
received them. Send them right away.
We want them now or we don't want
them at ALL" And you keep writing
and you keep telegraphing and keep
sending your wagon to the depot or to
the express office OF to the wharf until
you get the goods. In matters Of re-
ligion we are not SO wise as that. We
ask certain things to be sent from
heaven. We do not know whether
they come OF not. W. have not any
special anxiety as to whether they
come or not. We may get them and
may not get them. Instead Of at Z
O'Clock in the morning saying, Have
1 got hat blessing?" at II O'Clock.
MONDAY, asking. Have I got that
blessing?" at Z O'Clock in the evening
saying, Have 1 received that bles-
sing?" and not getting it. pleading.
pleading begging, begging asking,
asking until o get it. Now, my
brethren. is not that common sense? If
we ask a thing from God, who has
sworn by his eternal throne that he
will do that which We ask is it not
common sense that we should watch
and wait until we get it?
But 1 remark, again. we want more
common sense in doing good. Oh, how
many people there are who want to do
good n they are dead failures! Why
is it? They do not exercise the same
tact, the anne ingenuity. the same
stratagem, the same common sense in
the work of Christ tina the do in
worldly things. Otherwise they would
succeed in this direction as we'll as
they succeed in the other. There are
nan men who nave an arrogant way
with them, although they nay not feel
arrogant in their soul Or they have
a patroniZing way. They talk to a
man of the world in a which
seems to say: Don't you wish you
were as good as I am? Why, I have
to ook clear down before I ansee you,
you are so far beneath me-" That
manner always disgusts, always driv-
es men away from the kingdom of
Jesus Christ instead of bringing them
in.
Initiate Jesus Christ.
When I was a lad, I was day in
a village store and there was alarge
group of young men there full Of roll
licking and fun, and a Christian man
came in, a very good Christian man,
and without any introduction of the
subject and while they were in great
hilarity said to n Of them, George.
what is the first step of WisdOm?"
George. looked UP and said, Every
man to mind his wv business" Well,
it was a very rough answer, but it was
provoked. Religion had been hurled in
there as though it. were a bOmbshell.
We must be natural in the presenta-
ton Of religion to the world. Do you
suppose that Mary in her conversations
with Christ lost her simplicity, or that
Paul, numbering from Mars hill, took
the pulpit tone? Why is it people can
HUI Tain 40 ohiy LII ~ L1CSI-
ings and on religious subjects a. they
do in worldly circles? For no one
ever succeeds in any kind of Christian
work unless he works naturally. We
want to initiate him who talked with
farmers about the man who went forth
to SOW, and talked with the fishermen
about the drawn net hat brought in
fish of all sorts, and talked with the
vine dresser about the idler in the
vineyard, and talked with those newly
~afianced about the marriage supper,
and talked with the man cramped in
money matters about the two debtors,
and talked with the woman about the
yeast hat leavened the whole lump,
and talked with the shepherd about the
lost sheep.
Oh, we might gather even the stars
of the sky and twist them like forget
menot in the garland of Jesus! We
must bring everything to him-the
wealth of language, the tenderness of
sentiment, the delicacy of morning dew,
the saffron of floating cloud, the
tangled surf of the tossing sea, the
bursting hunder guns of the storms
bombardment. Yes, every star must
point down to him. every heliotrope
must breathe his praise, every drop in
the summer shower must flash his
glory, all the tree branches OIL the
forest must thrum their nus in the
grand march which shall celebrate a
world redeemed.
Blasted by Sir.
Now, all this being so, what Is the
common sense thing for you and for me
to do? What we do I think will depend
Upon three facts-three great facts:
The first fact. that sin has ruined
US. It has blasted body, mind and
soul. We want no Bible to prove that
we are sinners. Any mar who is not
willing to acknowledge himself an m
perfect and a sinful being is simply a
fool and not to be argued with. We
all feel that sin has disorganized our
entire nature. That is one fact
Another fact is that Christ came to
reconstruct, to restore, to revise, to
correct. to redeem. That is a second
fact. The third fact is that the only
time we are sure Christ will pardon us
jc tho nroSant Now what iS the rom