Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1897-02-25

for l say to myself: IF l love Christ
and live a good, honest, useful life,
I am elected to be saved; and if l do
not love Christ, and live a bad life, I
will be damned, and all the the theo-
logical seminaTies of the universe can
not make it any different" 1 founder
ed along while in the sea of sin and
doubt, and it was as rough as the Medi-
%terranean on the fourteenth night,
when they threw the grain overheard,
but l saw there was mercy for a sim
ner, and that plank I took. and l have
been warming myself by the bright fire
on the shore ever since.
While l am talking to another man
about his sou, he tells me: 81 do not
become a Christian because l do not
believe there is any hell at ALL" All!
don't You? Do all the people Of all
beliefs and no belief at all, of good
morals and bad morals go straight to
a happy heaven? Do the holy and the
debauched have the same destination?
At midnight, in a hallway, the owner
of a house and a burglar meet; they
both fire, and both are wounded, but
the burglar dies in five minutes and
the owner OF the house lives a week
after; will the burglar be at the gate
of heaven, waiting, when the house.
owner zones in? Will the debauchee
and the libertine go right in among
the families Of heaven? / wonder If
Herod is playing on the banks of the
river of life with the children he mas
sacred: I wonder if Charles Guiteau
and John Wilkes Booth are up there
shooting at a mark. I do not now con-
trovert it, although l must say that for
such a miserable heaven l nave no ad-
miration. But the Bible does not say:
Believe in perdition and be saved"
Because all are saved, according to your
theory, that ought not to keep you from
loving and serving Christ. Do not re-
fuse to come ashore because all the
others, according to your theory, are
going to get ashore. You may have a
different theory about chemistry, about
astronomy, about the atmosphere
from that which others adopt, but you
are not. therefore, hindered from ac-
ton. Because your theory of light is
different from others. do not refuse to
open your eyes. Because your theory
OF air is different you Do rot refuse
to breathe. because your theory about
the stellar system is different, you do
not refuse to acknowledge the north
star. Why should the fact that your
theological theories are different him
der you from acting upon what you
l knnU1 TT WIN havn MT = x,I-1. 49,
fastened in the theological drydocks
to bring you to wharfage, you have
at least a plank. Some on broken
pieces of the ship"
But 1 don't believe in r~eviyals!'
Then go to your room. and all alone,
with your door locked, give your heart
to God, and join some church where the
thermometer never gets higher than
fifty in the shade.
But / do not believe in bapt1sm!'
Come in without 1t and settle that mat
ter afterward. But there are 50
many inconsistent Christians!" Then
come in and show them by a good eX-
ample how professors should act. but
1 don't believe in the Old TESTAMENT
Then come in on the New. But
don't like the Book of Romans" Then
come in on Matthew or Luke. Refus-
ing to come to Christ, whom you admit
to be the Savior of the lost, because
you cannot admit other things, you are
like a man out there in hat Mediter-
ranean tempest, and tossed in the Me-
lita breakers, refusing TO come ashore
until he can mend the pieces of the
broken ship. hear him say: 81 won't
go in on any of these planks until
know in what part of the ship they
belong. When I can get the windlass
in the right place, and the sails set,
and that keel-piece where it belongs,
and that floor-timber right, and these
ropes untangled, I will go ashore. I am
an old sailor, and know all about ships
for forty years. and as soon as l can get
the vessel afloat in good shape I will
come in" A man drifting by on a
piece of wood overhears him and says:
You will drown before you get that
ship reconstructed. Better do as I am
doing. / know nothing about ships,
and never saw one before l came on
board this, and l cannot swim a stroke,
but l am going ashore on this shivered
timber" The mar in the of1ing, while
trying to mend his ship goes down.
The man who trusted to the plank is
saved. o my brother, let your smash
ed up system of theology go to the bot
tom, while you come In on a splintered
spar! Some on broken pieces of the
ship"
You may get ill your difficulties set
tied as Garibaldi, the magnetic Italian,
got his gardens made. When the wal
between Austria and Sardinia broke
out he was living at Caprera, a very
rough and u%ncultivated island home.
But he went forth with his sword to
achieve the liberation of Naples and
Sicily, and gave nine million people
free government, under Victor EN-
manuel. Garibaldi, after being alb
sent two years from Caprera, returned,
and, when he approached it, he found
that his home had, by Victor EN-
manuel, as a surprise, been Edenized.
Trimmed shrubbery had taken the
place Of thorny thickets. gardens the
place of b~arrenness. and the old rock
cry in which he once lived had given
way to a pictured mansion. And I tell
you If you will come and enlist under
the banner of our Victor Emmanuel,
and follow him through thick and thin,
and fight his battles, and endure his
I m -~y 49, ~ a..