Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1897-08-27

usi0A anu A-o A4Atiee VI Ancec Nlo pro-
fess Il.
Do you not feel that the Bible. take Il all
IN all, Is about the best book that the world
has ever seeng Do you know any book that
has as much In III Do you not think. upon
the whole, that its influence has been bene-
heentf i come to you with both hands tx
tended toward YOU. In one hand I have
the Bible and In the other hand I have moth
ing. This Bible In one hand will surren-
der forever just as soon as in my other hand
you can put a book that Is better.
invite you back into the good old fash
Toned religion OF your fathers, to the God
whom they worshiped. TO the Bible they
read, 10 the promises on which they leaned,
TO the cross on which they hung their eter-
nal expectations. You have not been happy
day since you swung OF. You will not be
happy a minute until you swing back.
Again, there may be some who In the at
tempt after Christian life will have to run
against powerful passions and appetkes.
Perhaps il Is a disposition 20 anger that
you have TO contend against, and perhaps,
while In a very serious mood, you hear OF
something that makes you feel that you
must swear or die. | know a Christian
man who was once so exasperated that he
said to a mean customer, II cannot swear
at you myself for I am a member OF the
church, but IL you will go downstairs nv
your good resolutions heretofore have been
torn to tatters by explosion of temper.
Now, there is no harm in getting mad II
you only get mad at sin. You need to
bride and saddle those hot breathed pas
sions and with them ride down Injustice
and wrong. There are thousand things
In the world We ought TO be mad at. There
is no harm in getting redhot II you only
bring to the forge that which needs ham,
mpFiQN A Nrhn Inns Of
righteous indignation is an imbeclle. But
be sure IL is righteous indignation and
not petulancy that blurs and unrayels
and depletes the soul.
There is large class OF persons in mid
die life who have still in them appetites
that were aroused in early manhood, at a
time when they prided themselves on be-
ing little fast, =" "high livers, free and
easy, hail fellows well met" They are
now paying in compound interest for
troubles they collected twenty years ago.
Some OF you are trying to escape, and you
will, yet very narrowly, "as with the skin
OF your teeth" God and your own soul
only know what the struggle is. Omnlpo-
tent grace has pulled out many soul that
was deeper In the mire than you are They
line the beach Of heaven-the multitude
whom God has rescued from the thrall of
suicidal habits. II you this day turn back
Vh Nut NIOub anu start HutN, bOu Will
help you. Oh! the weakness of human
helpl Men will sympathize for while and
then turn you off. 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.
l,nI,. f,Vl T.
when you took your first mistep.
II with all the influences favorable for
right life men make so many mistakes,
how much harder is il when. for instance.
some appetite thrusts its iron grapple into
the roots of the tongue and pulls man
down with hands Of destruction? II. under
such circumstances, he breaks away, there
will be no sport in the undertaking, no
holiday enjoyment, but a struggle in which
rfrNs' grestlers move from side to side and
bend and twist and watch for an oppor-
tunity to get in heavier stroke. until with
one final effort, in which the muscles arc
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-
hOufdtu u NCSStl DOLlOU up. lDere was
something on 1t that looked like a sea gull
but was afterward found to be waving
handkerchief. In the small boat the crew
pushed out to the wreck and found that it
was capsized vessel, aud 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 penknife and dug
away through the planks until his knife
hrnlg llaY, r,ll
which they attempted to scrape their way
up out of the darkness, each one working
until his hand was well 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 and
saved. Did ever men come so near waterv
grave without dropping into it? How mar.
rowly they escaped-escaped only with
the skin of their teeth" There are men
who have been capsized 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 it may be, Christ will see il and
them on board, and it will be known ON
earth and in heaven how narrowly thew
have escaped-"escaped as with the skin OF
their teeth"
There are Others who in attempting to
come to God must run between n great
many business perpleXitieS. II a man go
over to business at 10 O'Clock in the morn
ing and come away at O'Clock in the after
noon, he has some time for religion, but
now shall you find time for religious con-
when you are driven from sun
rise to sunset and have been for five wears
going behind in business and are freauent
ly dunned by creditors whom Won cannot
pay, and when from Monday morning until
night you are lodging bills that
Won cannot meet? You walk day by dav In |
that have kept your brain on |
Gre for IT, past three years. Some with |
'e.s husint - troubles than you have gone
trazy ''de clerk has heard noise in the |
back counting room and gone in and found |
the chief man OF the firm raving maniac.
or the wife has heard the bang of a pistoj |
in the back parlor and gone in, stumbling |
over the dead body Of her husbands |
suicide. There are men pursued, harassed |
trodden down and scalped of business per |
pleXities, and which way to turn next thew |
do not know. Now God willnot be hard on |
you. He knows what obstacles are in the
way OF your being 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 your way to heaven. Gather up |
all your energies Tighten the girdle about |
your loins. Take an agonizing look into
the face of God, and then say, Here goes
one grand effort for life eternal - and then
bound away for heaven, escaping las with
the skin of your teeth
In the last day it will be found that
Hugh Latimer, and John Knox, and Huss
and Ridley were not the greatest martyrs,
but Christian men who went up incorrupt
from the combinations and perplexities
of Pennsylvania avenue, Broad street, State
street and Third street. On earth they
Iuere nallnd Lrnknra or stnnlE inhhnrr Or 70