Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1897-02-25

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Chew LEEGE's PLUGS, The Great tobacco AntldO
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man WHO trusted 10 Ine pIanK Is saved.
Oh, my brother, let your smashed up sys-
tenn of theology go to the bottom while
you come in on splintered spar. 'Some
ON broken pieces of the ship"
You may get oil your difficulties settled
as Garibaldi, the magnetic Italian, got his
gardens made When the war between Aus
tria and Sardinia broke out, he was living
at Caprera, a very rough and uncultured
island home But he went forth with his
sword to achieve the liberation of Naples
and Sicily and gave 100000 people free
government under Victor Emmanuel
Garibaldi, after being absent two years
from Caprera, returned, and when he ap-
preached it he found that his home had,
by Victor Emmanuel, as a surprise, been
Edcnized. Trimmed shrubbery had taken
the place Of thorny thickets, gardens the
place of barrenness, and the old rookery in
which he once lived had given way to
pictured mansion. And 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 bat
ties and endure his sacrifices you will find
after awhile that he has changed your
heart from a jungle of thorny skepticism
into a garden all abloom with luxuriant
joy that you have never dreamed of--from
n tangled Caprera of sadness into para
disc of God
do not know how your theological sys-
tenn went to pieces. 1t may be that your
parents started you with only ono plank,
and you believe little or nothing. Or they
may have been too rigid and severe in re-
ligious discipline and cracked you over the
head with psalmbook. 1t may be that
some partner in business who was a mem
ber of an evangelical church played ON you
a trick that disgusted you with religion.
1t may be that you have associates who
have talked against Christianity in your
presence until you are tall at sea- and
you dwell more on things that you do not
believe than on things you do believe. You
are in one respect like Lord Nelson, when
q signal was lifted that he wished to dis
regard, and he put his sea glass to his
blind eye and said, ST really do not see the
signal" Oh, my hearer, put this field
glass of the gospel no longer to your blind
eye and say cannot sec, but put it to
your other eye, the eye of faith, and you
will see Christ, and he is all you need to
see.
If you believe nothing else, you certain
ly believe in Yicarious suffering, for you
see it almost every day in some shape. The
steamship Knickerbocker of the Cromwell
line, running between New Orleans and
New York, was in great storms, and the
captain and crew saw the schooner Mary
D. Cranmer of Philadelphia in distress.
The weather cold, the waves mountain
high, the first officer of the steamship and
four men put out in lifeboat to save the
crew of the schooner and reached the YES
sci and towed it out of danger, the wind
shifting so that the schooner was saved.
But the five men of the steamship coming
back, their boat capsized, yet righted
again and came on, the sailors coated with
ice The boat capsized again, and three
times upset and was righted, and line
was thrown the poor fellows, but their
hands were frozen SO they could not grasp
it, and great wave rolled over them, and
they went down, never to rise again till
the sea gives up its dead. Appreciate that
heroism and self sacrifice of the brave fell
lows all who can, and can we not appre-
ciate the Christ who put out into more
biting cold and into a more overwhelming
surge to bring us out of infinite peril into
everlasting safety? The wave of human
hate rolled over him from one side and the
wave of hellish fury rolled over him ON the
other side Oh, the thickness of the night
and the thunder of the tempest into which
Christ plunged for our rescued
Come in on one narrow beam of the
cross. Let all else go and cling to that.
Put that under you, and with the earnest
ness of swimmer struggling for his life
put out for shore. There is great warm
fire of welcome already built, and already
many who were as far out as you are are
standing in its genial and heavenly glow.
The angels of Gods rescue are wading out
into the surf to clutch your hand, and they
know how exhausted you are, and all the
redeemed prodigals of heaven are on the
beach with new white robes to clothe all
those who come in on broken pieces of the
ship.
My sympathies are for such all the more
because was naturally skeptical, disposed
to question everything about this life and
the next and was in danger of being far
ther out to sea than any of the 276 in the
Mediterranean breakers, and was some
times the annoyance of my theological pro-
fessor because asked so many questions.
But / came in on plank. knew Christ
was the Saviour Of sinners and that Twas
a sinner, and got ashore, and do not
propose to go out on that sen again. / have
NO On inn dicc11cco1 ha anr,tr
verted points of theology in 80 years, and
during the rest Of my life | do not propose
TO discuss them for 80 seconds.
/ would rather in mud scow try to
weather the worst cyclone that ever swept
up from the Caribbean than risk my i'm
mortal soul in useless and perilous discus
sions in which some Of my brethren in the
ministry are indulging. They remind me
Of company of sailors standing on the
Ramsgate pier head, from which the life
boats are usually launched, and coolly dis
cussing the different style Of oarlocks and
how deep boat ought to set in the water,
while hurricane is in full blast and there
are three steamers crowded with passen-
gers going to pieces in the offing. An old
tar, the muscles of his face working with
nervous excitement, cries out: "This is no
time to discuss such things. Man the life
boatl Who will volunteer? Out with her
into the surfl Pull, my lads; pull for the
wreck Ha, ha! Now we have them. Lift
them in and lay them down on the bottom
of the boat. Jack, you try to bring them
to. Put these fiannels around their hands
and feet, and will pull for the shore God
help pme There! Landed! Huzzaf' When
there are so many struggling in the waves
of sin and sorrow and wretchedness, let all
else go but salvation for time and saliva
tion forever
l bethink myself that there are some