The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1897-09-03


never come forth again upon the nation.
! Christ is captured, and captured for
, ever. His religion will never make any
, conquest among men,. But after awhile
the "lion Of the tribe of Judah will
rouse himself and come forth to shake
; nightly the nations. What is spider s
web to the aroused lion? Give truth and
error a fair grapple, and truth will come
off victor.
But there are great many good pec-
pie who get affrighted in other respects
They are affrighted in our day about re-
vivals. They say: ooh, this is q strong
religious gale! We are afraid the church
Of God is going to upset, and there are
going to be great many people brought
into the church that are going to be of
no use to it" And they are affrighted
whenever they see revival taking hold
of the churches
Chair and Wheat.
AS though ship captain with 5000
bushels of wheat for cargo should say
some day, coming upon deck, Throw
overheard all the cargo" and the sailors
should say: "Why, captain, what do
you mean? Throw over all the cargo?"
"Oh," says the captain, I'VE have
peck Of chatf that has got into this B, 900
bushels of wheat, and the only way to get
rid of the chatf is to throw all the
wheat overheard. Now, that is a great
deal wiser than the talk of great many
Christians who want to throw overheard
all the thousands and tens of thousands
of souls who have been brought in
through great awakenings. Throw all
overheard because there is a peck of
chaff, quart of chaff, "a pint of chaff!
| say, let them stay until the last day.
The Lord will divide the chaff from the
wheat
Oh, that these gales from heaven
might sweep through all our churches
Oh, for such days as Richard Baxter
saw in England and Robert McCheyne
saw in Dundeel Oh, for such days as
Jonathan Edwards saw in Northamp-
toni l have often heard my father tell
of the fact that i'll the early part of this
century revival broke out in Somer-
vile, N. j., and some people were very
much agitated about it. They said,
"Oh, you are going to bring too many
people into the church at once" and
they sent down to New Brunswick to
get John Livingston to stop the revival.
Well, there was no better soul in all
the world than John Livingston. He
went up; he looked at the revival They
wanted him to stop it. He stood in the
pulpit on the Sabbath and looked over
the solemn auditory, and he said: /
This, brethren, is in reality the work
of God. Beware how you try to stop
it. " AND he was an old man, leaning
heavily on his statf-a very old man. /
And he lifted that staff and took hold .
of the small end of the staff and began .
to let it fall very slowly through be-
tween the finger and the thumb. and he
said, "Oh, thou impenitent, thou art
falling now-falling away from life,
falling away from peace and heaven,
falling as certainly as that cane is fall
ing through my hand-falling certain
ly, though perhaps falling very slowly!7
And the cane kept on falling through
John Livingston's hand. The religious
emotion in the audience was overpow-
erlng, and men saw type of their
doom as the cane kept falling and fall
ing until the knob of the cane struck Mr..
hand, and he clasped it
stoutly and said, but the grace of God
can stop you, as | stopped that cane, and
then there was gladness all through the
house at the fact of pardon and peace
and salvation. "Well, said the people
after the service, Il guess you had bet
ter send Livingston home. He is max
ing the revival worse - Oh, for the
gales from heaven, and Christ on board
the ship! The danger of the church of
Sod is not in revivals.
Again, my subject impresses me with
the fact that Jesus was God and man in
5he same being. Here he is in the back
part of the boat. Oh, how tired he
Look at his countenance. He must be
linking of the cross to come Look at
him., He is man-bone of our bone,
1esh of our flesh Tired, he falls asleep;
le is man. But then | find Christ at
he prov of the boat. l hear him say,
Peace, be still!' And see the storm
,neeling at his feet and the tempests
Gliding their wings i'll his presence He
s God
If have sorrow and trouble and want
ympathy, go and kneel down at the
Jack part of the boat and say, 80
thirst, weary one of Gennesaret. sym
athize with all my sorrows, man of
Nazareth, man of the cross. - A man, a
nan. But if l want to conquer my spir-
tual foes, if l want to get the victory
yer sin, death and hell, l come to the
ront of the boat and kneel down, and
say, 80 Lord Jesus Christ, thou who =
ost hush the tempest, hush all my
REF, hush all my temptation, hush all I
~ SIM" A man, a man, a God, God. l
The Tempest flushed.
| learn once more from this subject
nat Christ can hush a tempest. 1t did
Gem as if everything must go to ruin. :
he disciples had given up the idea of :.
managing the ship. The crew were en- +
rely demoralized, yet Christ rises, and :
g puts his foot on the storm, and it .
touches at his feet Oh, yes, Christ 3
an hush the tempestl
" L n