The Progress., 1897-08-28

|
rrom their business slate all the past week 9
You have no more right
tn take such a mans life as II specimen OF
religion than you have to take the twlsteo
irons and split timbers that lie on the
beach at Coney Island as specimen OF an
American ship. 1t is time that we draw u
line between religion ana the lFail'fe7 20
those who profess 1t. IL
Do you not feel that the Bible, take IL
all in all, is about the best book that the
world has ever seen? Do you know any
book that has as much in 1t? DO you not
think upon the whole that its influence mas
been beneficent? l come to you with both
hands extended toward you. IN one 1N"n
I have the Bible and in the other hand !
have nothing. This Bible In one hand
will surrender forever just as soon as I'D |
INV other hand you can put a book that IL |
hotter.
Invite you back into the good old fash.
toned religion of your fathers-to the 1oo
whom they worshiped, to the Bible they
read. to the promises on when they 1enheu
To the cross on which they hung their
eternal expectations. You have not been
happy q day since you swung or You
viii not be happy minute until you
swing back.
Again, there may be some who In the
attempt after Christian life will have to
run against powerful passions and appe-
! that YOU have to contend against, ana per
| hans. while in a very serious MOOD, you
hear Of something that makes you feel that
| Won must swear or die. I know Chris
| tian man who was once SO exasperateo
that he said to a mean customer, i can
not swear at you myself, for am mem
Der of the church, but II you will go down
stairs my partner In business Will swear
at you." All your good resolutions here
tofore have been torn to tatters by explo-
sion of temper. Now there is no harm IN
getting mad il you only get mad at SIN:
; You need to bride and saddle those hot
breathed passions and with them ride
down injustice and wrong. There are a
thousand things in the world we ought &c
. be mad at. There Is no harm In getting
redhot If you only bring to the forge that
which needs hammering. A man who mai
no power of righteous indignation Is al
j i'm beetle, but be sure 1t Is q righteous In
Q diRDation and not q petulancy that oiur
g and unravels and depletes the soul.
There is a large class Of persons In mfd
It life who have still In them appetites tina
9 we're aroused in early manhood at tim
q when they prided themselves on being
d "little fast" "high Nvers," free an
d easy" "hail fellows we'll met" They Or
now paying in compound interest for trou
se bles they collected 20 years ago. Some
Ia you are trying to escape, and you Will, ye
m teeth" God and your own soul only kno7
what the struggle is. Omnipotent grae
be has pulled out many a soul that was deel
10 er in the mire than you are. They liz
ny tho beach Of heaven, the multitude whol
OF God has rescued from the thrall Of suicide
OF habits. II you this day turn back on tt
es wrong and start anew, God will help YOU
on Oh, the weakness of human help! Nc
'er will sympathize for awhile and then tut
DO you of II you ask for their pardon, th'
10 will give it and say they will try "
'as again; but, falling away again under Il
bo power Of temptation, they cast you of &c
be ever. But God forgives seventy times Sc
en-; yea, seven hundred times; yea, thoui
Die this be the ten thousandth time, he
rs moro earnest, more sympathetic, mo
OF helpful this last time than when you to-
,s your FIRST misstep
us us If with oil the influences favorable
.no n right life men make SO many mistak
III how much harder is 1t when, for instan