The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1898-01-07

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and say: swell, II am to be saved, !
will be saved; and il | am to be lost,
will be lost, and there is nothing to do
about it,"
Why, my brother, do you not do that
way in business matters? Why do you
not tomorrow go to your store and sit
down and fold your arms and say: III
these goods are to be sold, they will be
sold; and II they are not to be sold,
they will not be sold; there is nothing
for me to do about it?' No; you dis
patch your agents; you print your ad-
vertisetnents; you adorn your show
windows; You push those goods; you
use the instrumentality Oh, that men
were as wise in the matter OF the soul
as they are wise in the matter Of dol.
lars and cents!
This doctrine Of Gods sovereignty,
how it is misquoted and spoken OF as
though it were an iron chain which
bound US hand and foot for time and
for eternity, when, so far from that, in
every fiber Of your body, in every
faculty of your mind, in every passion
of your soul, you are free mana
free man--and it will no more to-mor-
row be matter Of choice whether you
shall go to business through Pennsyl-
yania avenue Or some other street; 1T
will be no more matter Of choice with
you tomorrow whether you shall go
to Philadelphia or New York, Or stay
ut home, than it is this hour matter
OF free choice whether you will accept
Christ or reject him.
In all the army OF banners there is
not one conscript. Men are not to be
dragooned into heaven. Among all the
tens of thousands of the Lords sol
diery there is not one man but will
tell you, IL chose Christ: | wanted
him; desire to be in his service; am
not conscript--I am a volunteer.
Oh, that men had the same common
sense inS the matters OF religion that
they h. vein the matters csisthe world
the same concentrations the same
push, the same enthusiasm! In the
one case, secular enthusiasm; in the
other, u consecrated enthusiasm.
Again, l remark; We want more
common sense in the building up and
charging of our Christian character.
There are men who have for 40 years
been running the Christian race, and
they have not run quarter OF Il mile!
No business man would be willing to
have his Investments unaccumulatlve.
If you invest Il dollar you expect that
dollar to come home, bringing another
dollar on its back. What would
you think of man who should
invest $4,000 in monetary III
stitution, then go off for hve
years, make no inquiry in regard to
the nvestment. then came back, step
up to the cashier of the institution and
say: Have you kept that $40, 900 safely
that ! lett with you9' but aslstn.gs,-cr. .
question about interest or dividend.
Why, you say: That is not common
sense" Neither is it; but that is the
way we act in matters of the
soul. We make far more important
investment than $4,000. We invest
our soul. Is it accumulatiye? Are we
growing in grace? Are we getting
better? Are we getting worse? God
declares many dividends, but we do not
collect them; we do not ask about
them; we do not want them. Oh, that
in this matter of accumulation we
were as wise in the matters of the
soul as we are in the matters OF the
world
How little common sense in the read
ing of the Scriptures! We get any
other book, and we open it, and we
say: SHOW what does this book mean
to teach me? 1t is a book on astron-
omy; it will teach Inc astronomy. 1t
is IL book on political economy, it will
teach me political economy" Taking
up this Bible, do we ask ourselves
what it means to teach? 1t means to
do just one thing-get the world con
yerted and get us all to Heaven.
That is what it proposes to do.
But instead of that we go into the BIZ
BILE az botanists to pick flowers, or we
go us pugilists to get something to
fight other Christians with, or we go
as logicians trying to sharpen our men
tai faculties for Il better argument,
and we do not like this about the
Bible, and we do not like that, and we
do not like the other thing. What
would you think Of a man lost on the
mountains; night has come down;
he can not find his way
home and he sees u light
in a mountain cabin; lie goes to it, he
knocks at the door; the mountaineel
comes out and finds the traveller, and
says: We'll here have d lantern
YOU can take it, and it will guide you
on the way holne;" and suppose that
Traveller should say, II don't like that
lantern; | don't like the handle of 1T
there are 10 or 10 things about it
don't like; if you can't give me better
lantern than that won't have any,"
Now, God says this Bible is to be 6
lamp to our feet and u lantern to oul
path, to guide us through the midnight
of this world to the gates Of the celes
tial city. We stop and say we do moi
like this about it. and we do not like
that, and we do not like the Other
thing. Oh, how much wiser we woult
be if by its holy light we fount
our way to our everlasting home
Then, we do not read the Bible II.
we read other books. We read i
perhaps for four or five minutes JUS
before we retire at night. We ar.
weary and sleepy--so somnolent w
hardly know which end of the book i!
up. We drop our eye perhaps on thu
story OF Samson and the foxes, o.
upon some genealogical table, impor
tant in its place, but stirring nt
more religious emotion than the an
nouncement that somebody bega
some body else, and he begat somebod.
else, instead of opening the book ant
savinp. NOW must read for my i'm