The Monitor-register., 1897-02-26

UOuN, VI DlSCO tlo N1uC do t1iC ottN
spread human arms, and either of them
isa piece of the cross, come in on that
piece Tens of thousands of people are
today kept out of the kingdom of God
because they cannot believe everything.
1 am talking with man thoughtful
about his soul who has lately travelled
through New England and passed the
night at Andover., He says to me, Il
cannot believe that i'll this life the des-
tinv is irrevocably fixed; L think there
will be another opportunity of repent
! ance after death" l say to him: My
brother, what has that to do with you?
| DON'T vou realize that the man who
waits for another chance after death
when he has a good chance before death
is q stark fool? Had not you better take
the plank that is thrown to you now
and head for shore rather than wait for
a plank that may by invisible hands be
thrown to you after you are dead? do
as you please, but as for myself, with
pardon for all my sins offered me now,
and all the joys of time and eternity
offered me now, instantly take them,
rather than run the risk of such other
chance as wise men think they can peel
off or twist out of a Scripture passage
that has for all the Christian centuries
been interpreted another way. You
! say, 81 do not like Princeton theology,
or New Haven theology, or Andover the
ology." do not ask you on board either
of these great men-of-war, their port
holes filled with the great siege guns of
ecclesiastical battle, but I do ask you
to take the one plank of the gospel that
you do believe in and strike out for the
pearl strung beach of heaven.
Says some other man, 81 would at
tend to religion if l was quite sure
about the doctrine Of election and free
agency, but that mikes me all up !"
Those things used to bother me, but 1
have no more perplexity about them,
for I say to myself, ''If I love Christ
and live a good, honest, useful life, /
am elected to be saved. and if do not
love Christ and live bad life / will
be damned, and all the theological SEM
inaries of the universe cannot make it
any different. 1oundered a long while
in the sea OF sin and doubt, and it was
as rough as the Mediterranean on the
fourteenth night, when they threw the
grain overheard, but 1 saw there was
mercy for sinner, and that plank
took, and have been warming myself
by the bright fire on the shore ever
since.
Doubt Oyerruled.
While I am talking to another man
about his soul he tells me, 81 do not be-
come Christian because I do not be-
lieve there is any hell at all. " All,
don't you? Do all the people of all be-
liefs and no belief at all, of good morals
and bad morals, go straight to happy
heaven? Do the holy and the debauched
have the same destination? At mid
night, 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 week after.
Will the burglar be at the gate of heav-
en-, waiting, when the house owner
comes in? Will the debauchee and the
libertine go right in among the families
of heaven? 1 wonder if Herod is playing
on the banks of the river of life with
the children he massacred. I wonder if
Charles Guiteau and John Wilkes Booth
are up there shootiong at mark. do
not now controvert it, although l must
say that for such a miserable heaven /
have no admiration. But the Bible does
not say, 'tBelieye in perdition and be
saved" Because all are saved, accord
ing to your theory, that ought not to
keep you from loving and serving
Christ. Do not refuse to come ashore
because all the others, according to your
theory, are going to get ashore. You
may have different theory about chem
1stry, about astronomy, about the at
mosphere from that which others adopt
but you are not therefore hindered
from action.
Because your theory of light is differ
ent from others do not refuse to open
your eyes. Because your theory of air
is different you do not 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 hinder you from
acting upon what you know? If you
, have not whole ship fastened in the
theological drydocks to bring you to
wharfage, you have at least plank.
"Some on broken pieces of the Ship"
But l don't believe in revivalsl"
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
30 in the shade.
But l do not believe in baptism!"
Come in without it and settle that mat
ter afterward. "But there are so many
inconsistent Christians'' Then come
in and show them by good example
how professors should act "But don't
believe in the Old Testamentr' Then
come in on the New ''But don't like
the book of Romans. Then come in
on Matthew or Luke. Refusing to come
to Christ, whom you admit to be the
Saviour of the lost, because you cannot
admit other things, you are like man
out there in that Mediterranean tempest
and tossed in the Melita breakers, re-
fusing to come ashore until he can mend
the pieces of the broken ship. I hear
him say: 81 WON'T go in on any of these
planks until 1 know in what part of the
ship they belong. When 1 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, l will go ashore I am
an old soldier, and know all about ships
for 40 years, and as soon as I can get
the vessel af1oat in good shape will
come in" A man drifting by on piece
of wood overhears him and says: "You
will drown before you get that ship re-
constructed Better do as I am doing.
know nothing about ships, and never
saw one before l came on board this,
and | cannot swim a stroke, but l am
going ashore on this shivered timber. y
The man i'll the ofing, while trying tc
mend his ship, goes down. The man
who trusted to the plank is saved Oh,
my brother, let your smashed up system
of theology go to the bottom, while you
come in on splintered sparl "Some
on broken pieces of the ship.
The Victorious Banner.
You may get all your difficulties set
tied as Garibaldi, the magnetic Italian,
got his gardens made. When the war
between Austria and Sardinia broke out
he was living at Caprera, very rough
and uncultured island home. But he
went forth with his sword to achieve the
liberation of Naples and Sicily, and
gave 5000, eco people free government
under Victor Emmanuel Garibaldi,
after being absent two years from Ca
|.