The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-08-31

SoSpeI. would you not like to live the
same quiet life and die the same peace
ful death? I hold In my hand q letter,
sent me by one who has rejected the
Christian religion. It says: 81 Am told
enough to know that the joys and
pleasures OF life are evanescent and to
realize the fact that It must be COM
Portable in old 6 to believe in some
thing relative to the future and to have
a faith In some system hat propose to
saw I am free to confess that that I
would be happier IL I could exercise
the simple and beautiful faith hat is
possessed by many whom ! know. I
am not willingly out of the church or
out OF the faith. My state Of uncer-
tainty Is one Of unrest. Sometimes I
doubt my Immortality and look upon
the deathbed as the closing scene, after
which there Is nothing. What shall I
do that I have not done?" All, skepti-
cism Is a dark and doleful land! Let
me say that this Bible is either true or
false. II it be false, we Are as well OF
as you: If it be true, then which of us
is safer?
Let me also ask whether your trouble
has not been that you c~onfoundsd
Christianity with the inconsistent
character OF some who profess it? You
are a lawyer. In you profession there
are mean and dishonest men. Is that
anything against the law? You are a
doctor. There are unskilled and con-
temptible men in your profession. Is
that any thing against medicine? You
are a merchant. There are thieves and
defrauders in you business. Is that
anything against merchandise? Behold
then, the unfairness of charging upon
Christianity the wickedness of it's dis
ciples. We admit some of the charges
against those who profess religion.
Some OF the most gigantic swindles of
the present day have been carried on
by members Of the church.
There are men standing in the front
rank in the churches who would not be
trusted for IS without good collateral
security. They leave their business
d~ishonesties in the vestibule OF the
church as they go in and sit at the
communion. Having concluded the
sacrament, they get up, wipe the wine
from their lips, go out and take up
their sins where they left off. To serve
the devil is their regular work, to serve
God a sort of play spell. With a Sun
day sponge they expect to wipe off from
their business slate all the past weeks
inconsistencies. You have no more
right to take such a mans life as a
specimen of religion han you have to
take the twisted rons and split timbers
that lie on the beach at Coney Island
as a specimen of an American ship. It
is time that we draw a line between
religion and the frailties of those who
profess it.
Do you not fell that the Bible, take
1t all in all, is about the best book that
the world has ever seen? Do you know
any boo that has as much in it? Do
you not think, upon the whole, that it's
influence has been beneficent? I come
fn Won with both hondc ovfon6od u
var you. In one hand I have the
Bible and in the other hand I have
nothing. This Bible in one hand I will
surrender forever just as soon as in my
other hand you can put a book that is
better.
I invite you back into the good old
fashioned religion Of your fathers, to
the God whom they worshiped, to the
Bible they read. to the promises on
which they leaned to the cross on
which they hung their eternal expecta-
lions. You have not been happy a day
since you swung off. You will not be
happy a minute until you swing back.
GREAT HINDRANCEs.
Again, there may be some who in
the attempt after a Christian life will
have to run against powerful passions
and appetites. Perhaps it is a DISPOSE
ton to anger that you a to contend
against, and perhaps while in a very
serious mood, you hear Of something
hat makes you fell that you must
swear or die. I know a Christian man
who was once so exasperated that he
said to a mean customer, II cannot
swear at you myself, for T am a men,
Der Of the church, but if you will go
down stairs my partner in business will
swear at you" ALL your good resO1u-
tons heretofore have been torn to tat
tiers by explosions of temper.
Now, there is no harm in getting mad
if you only get mad at sin. You need
to bride and saddle those hot breathed
passions n with them ride down in
justice and wrong. There are a thou
sand things in the world we ought to
be mad at. There is no harm in get
ting redhot if you only bring to the
forge that which needs hammerfng. A
man who has no power of righteous in
dignation is an imbecile. But be sure
1t is a righteous indignation and not
a petulancy that blurs and unravels
and depletes the soul.
There is a large class of persons in
midlife who have still in them appe-
titles that we're aroused in early man
hood, at a time when they prided them
selves on being a little fast" thigh
~livers," free and easy" hail fellows
we'll met" They are o paying in
compound interest for troubles they
collected tVFsnty years ago. Some of
you are trying to escape, and you will,
yet very narrowly, "as with the skin of
your teeth" God and your own soul
only know what the struggle is. Om-
nipotent grace has pulled out many-a
SOU that was deeper in the mire han
you are. They line the beach Of heaven
the multitude whom God has rescued
from the thrall of suicidal habits. II
you this day turn back on the wrong
and start anew, God will help you. Oh,
the weakness of human help! Men will
sympathize for awhile n turn you off.
If you ask for their pardon, they will
give it and say they will try you again;
but, falling away again under the
power Of temptation , they cast you off
forever. But God forgives seventy
times seven; yea, seven hundred times:
yea, though this be the ten t~housandth
time he is more earnest. more svmDa-