The Penn's Grove record., 1897-08-27

on tu0 wrong anu start ANEW, OVu VIII
help you. Oil the weakness Of human
helpl Men will sympathize for q while and
then turn you of. II you ask for their par
don, they will give it and say they will try
you again; but, falling away again under
the power Of temptation, they cast you
of forever. But God forgives seventy
times seven; yea, seven hundred times;
yea, though this be the ten thousandth
time. He is more earnest, more sympa-
thetic, more helpful this last time than
when you took your first mistep.
II with all the influences favorable for q
right life men make 30 many mistakes,
how much harder is 1t when, for instance,
appetite thrusts its iron grapple into
the roots Of the tongue and pulls q man
down with hands Of d~estructiona II, under
such circumstances, he breaks away, there
will be no sport in the undertaking, no
holiday enjoyment, but d struggle In which
the wrestlers move from side to side and
bend and twist and watch for an oppor-
tunity to get in a heavier stroke, until with
one final effort, in which the muscles are
distended and the veins stand out and the
blood starts, the swarthy habit falls under
the knee Of the victor-escaped at last as
with the skin Of his teeth"
The ship Emma, bound from Gottenburg
to Harwich, was sailing on when the man
on the lookout saw something that he pro-
nouneed a vessel bottom up. There was
something on It that looked fike i sea gull,
but was afterward found to be a waving
handkerchief. In the small boat the crew
pushed out to the wreck and found that It
was a capsized vessel, u that three men
had been digging their way out through
the bottom OF the ship. When the vessel
capsized, they. had no means OF escape.
The captain took his p~enknife and dug
away through the planks until his knife
broke. Then an old nail was found, with
which they attempted to scrape their way
up out Of the darkness, each one working
until his hand wa we'll nigh paralyzed,
and he sank back faint and sick. After
long and tedious work the light broke
through the bottom Of the ship. A hand
kerchief was hoisted, Help came, They
were taken on board the vessel n
saved. Did ever men come 50 near o watery
grave without dropping into it2 How mar
rowly they escaped-escaped only with
the skin Of their teeth" There are men
who have been capslzed Of evil passions
and capsized midocean, and they are a
thousand miles away from any shore OF
help. They have for years been trying to
dig their way out. They have been digging
away and digging away, but they can never
be delivered unless now they will hoist
some signal OF distress. However weak
and feeble IL may be, Christ will see it and
bear down upon the helpless craft and take
them on board, N 1t will BIO known on
earth and in heaven how narrowly they
ave escaped-"escaped as with the skin OF
their teeth"
There are others who In attempting to
come to God must run between a great
many business perplexities. II a man go
over to business at 10 o'clock In the morn
ing and come away at 8 o'clock In the after
noon no has some time for religion, but
how shall you find time for religious con-
temptation when you are driven from sum
rise to sunset and rave been for i've years
going behind In business and are frequent
" dunned by creditors whom you cannot
pay, and when from Monday morning until
Saturday night you are lodging bills that
you cannot meet2 You walk day by day In
uncertainties that have kept your brain on
fire for the past three years. Some with
less business troubles than you have Como
crazy. The clerk nas heard II noise in the
bach counting room n gone In and found
the chief man of the firm u raylng maniac,
or the wife has heard the bang Of u pistol
In the back parlor S1d gone In, stumbling
over the dead body OF her husbands
suicide. There are men pursued, harassed,
trodden down and scslped Of business per-
plexities, and which way to turn next they
do not know. Now God willnot be hard on
you. He knowstwhat obstacles are in tho
way OF your being u Christian and your
first effort in the right direction He will
crown with success. Do not let satan, with
cotton bales, and kegs, and hogsheads, and
counters, and stocks OF unstable goods,
block up FOUR way to heaven. Gather up
ul your energies. Tighten the girdle about
your loins. Take an agonizlng look into
the face of God, and then say, "Here goes
one grand effort for life eternal" n then
bound away for heaven, escaping "as with
the skin Of your teeth"
In the last day 1t will be found that
Hugh Latimer, and John Knox, n Huss
md Rfd1au r-ara NOT the OraQfaet IN artV ra K
but Christian men who went up incorrupt
from the con~taminations and p~erplexlties
of Pennsylvania avenue, Broad street, State
street and Third street. On earth they
were called brokers or stock jobbers, or ro-
~tailers, or Importers, but in heaven Chris
their feet; no inquisition demanded from
them recantation; no soldier aimed a pike
ut their heart, but they had mental tor
ture compared with which all physical
consuming Is as the breath OF a spring
morning.
/ find in the community o large class OF
men who have been SO cheated, so lied
about. so o~utrageously wronged, that they
have lost their faith in everything. In q
world where everything seems so topsy
turvy they do not see how there can be any
God. They are confounded and frenzied
and misanthropic. Elaborate arguments
to prove to them the truth of Christianity
or the truth OF anything else touch them
nowhere. Hear me, oil such men. / preach
to YOU no rounded periods, no ornamental
discourse, but put my hand on your shout
der and invite you into the peace OF the
gospel. Here Is q rock on which you may
stand firm, though the waves dash against
1t harder than the Atlantic, pitching Its
surf clear above Eddystone lighthouse.
Do not charge upon God all these trouble
OF the world. As long as the world stuck
to God God stuck to the world, but the
earth seeded from His government. and
hence all these outrages n oil these
woes. God Is good. For many hundreds
Of years He has been coaxing the world to
come back to Him, but the more He has
coaxed the more violent have men been In
their resistance, and they have stepped
back and stepped back until they have
dropped into ruin.
Try this God. We who have had the blood
hounds after you, and who have thought
that God had forgotten you. Try Hin and
see IL He will not help. Try Him and SEQ II
He will not pardon. Try Him and see II
He viii not save. The flowers of spring
have no bloom so sweet as the Towering OF
Christ's affections. The sun hath no
warmth compared with the glow Of His
heart. The waters have no refreshment
like the fountain that will slake the thirst
OF thy soul. AT the moment the reindeer
stands with his lip and postrll thrust in the
coOi mOuntutH tOTrdnts tho uuulcE may 10
coming throughthe thicket. Without crack
ling q stick under his foot, He comes close
by the stag, aims his gun, draws the trig-
ger, and the poor thing rears in its death
agony and falls backward, its antlers crash
ing on the rocks. But the painting hart that
drinks from the water brooks of Gods
promise shall never be fatally wounded and
shall never die.
This world Is a poor portion Of your soul.
o business mani An eastern king had
craven on his tombtwo fingers, represented
as sounding Oh each other with a snap, and
under them the motto, "All Is not worth
that" Apicius Ceiius hanged himself be-
cause his steward informed him that he
had only csc. 900 sterling left. All OF this
worlds riches make but u small Inheritance
for a soul. Robespierre attempted to win
the applause of the world, but when he wns
dying q woman came rushing through the
crowd. crying to him, Murderer of my
kindred, descend to hell, covered with the
curses OF every mother in Francei' Many
who have expected the ~plaudits Of the world
died under its anathema maranatha.
Oh. find your peace in Godi Make one
strong pull for heaven. No halfway work
will do 1t. There sometimes comes n time
on shipboard when everything must be
- Ii - - 49, NJ