The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-12-27
Evangelist Talks Vigorously About
BacksliderS.
TRIBUTE TO GEN. k. E. LEE
GIVES CHRISTIAN SOLDIER
HIGH PRAISE.
Tells of Southern Leaders Refusal to
Become Associated With the Loui
siana Lottery Scheme-Big Crowd
Heard Last Nights Sermon
Backsliders Are Denounced.

Another magnificent audience greeted
Evangelist Oliver at the Tiff NJ. E.
church last evening and listened with
interest to his remarks. he told them
in forcible words what he thought of
the backsliders, and he didn't mince
any words in expressing his opinion
"A backslider," said the evangelist, lis
a liar and q perjurer before Almighty
Cod
The evangelist announced as his text
Jeremiah ii, 10: Thine own wickedness
shall correct thee. and thy. backslidings
shall reprove thee; know. therefore, and
see, that it is an evil thing and better
that thou hast fOrsaken the Lord thy
God, and that my fear is not in thee,
saith the Lord Cod Of Hosts
81 always like to talk about back
sliders." said Mr.. Oliver, because L
know that L am going to hit somebody,
and because whatever say will apply
to nine-tenths Of the congregation. Too
many people have forgotten the hid
eousness of backsliding; they have for
gotten just how serious a mater it is.
Picture a ship going down in the
waves with a loved one on board-lt
is 4. sad scene. But how much sadder
is the wreckage Of the immortal soull
That is what baclsliding is.
Al Kinds of Backsliders.
I'VE have got all kinds of baeksliders
in the church. Some come to the re-
vivals, drink in Gods message, and go
out to mingle again with the world and
the devil. They remind me of a ground
hog that comes out to feed on the lus-
cious herbs n the springtime ana then
goes into his hole when winter. comes
TO live from his summers fat. These
Il -TG - ovid 20
feed on the luscious fruits of Christ
Jesus, and when winter comes they go
back to the world again.
Let me tell you, my friends. these
thirty days of revivals are worth more
to you than four years of a college
education You viii learn things about
your spiritual life that you ever knew
before, and 1 don't have to have gray
beard to be able to tell them to you.
/ can learn from child
Blessing In a Plague.
81 have often thought that it would
be a blessing if plague such as. Ash
attic cholera or smallpox could come
along in the midst of some of these re-
vivals and take away some of the peo-
pie 10 glory before they've had a chance
to backslide. It's the only way a great
many of them will get there. for as
soon as they get chance to backslide,
away they go, and away go their
chances Tor glory.
There is another class of backslid-
ers that interests me more than any
others. They are the ones who start
in the work soberly and honestly, but
who DON'T get on the whole armour of
Scripture, who don't take Christ wholly
into their hearts. The first thing that
these people do when they come into
contact with the world is to backslide.
don't want any of you here tonight to
come and say that you will join in the
work unless your, whole heart is in it
."Then there is the girl who has
backslid. She has been going to card
parties and dances and has gradually
forgotten how to pray and how to read
the Bible. Just look at the carpet in
that girls room By the side of the
bed. where the carpet ought to be worn
from kneeling to pray. it is as new as
when it was bought. But over in front
of the looking glass it is worn thread
bare.
The Whisy Backslider.
Another kind is the man who has
signed a whisky bill and who thinks
that he has 10 right in the church. So
he backslideS. And let me tell you that
no man can stand sponsor for the whis-
ky business and be u man. He is a
dirty devil, and he knows it, the puppy.
IF there is any man love to honor
1t Is d true II lAtClC - any NOIldll
] love to do homage to it is a true
woman. I despise anyone whose integ-
rity is weak as d rope of sand. Don't
trust them. Leck your chicken coopS
when they come around, and look out
for your overcoats-
General Robert z. Lee was as true a
man as ever lived. l say this, and 1
was born north of Mason and Dixon's
line. Many people say that / am
Tennesseean and that's the worst thing
1 ever had said about me. But to, re-
turn to General Lee.
Tribute to Lee.
After the war was finished and the
hopes Of those people in the south had
been merged with the. red, white and
blue; when the men who had lost
everything fighting for the confederacy
were in more than Strengthened circum-
stances; in that trying time that infa-
nous octopus of hell, the Louisiana
Lottery. company, came to General Lee
with proposition 10 make him presi-
dent of the company at a salary of
SI0.0oe a year.
- don't understand the business
said the general.
But you don't have to understand
it, they told him. All we want is your
name and influence
THE old general drew his faded gray
coat tightly about him and straighten-
ed up.
Gentlemen he said, my name and
my Influence are all that 1 have left,
and they are not for sale With that
he bowed himself out of the room. He
was my ideal of true man, and I
honor him. But 1 despise yellow dogs.
Backsliders Are Liars
at is no small thing to be a back
slider. A backslider is a liar and
perjurer before Almighty God; he is
a faisifier to God. You didn't think of
II before in that way. did you? But
it's true just the same. A man will
come TO a revival one night and pledge
himself to God. With lots of them it
won't be forty-eight hours before they
will be in a saloon. drinking beer and
telling filthy stories. A girl will get
down on her knees here and in forty
eight hours viii be sliding over ball
room floor with a spider-legged whip
per-snapper squeezing her temporal and
spiritual life out of her. That's back
sliding.
God placed the standard of moral
ity for men and women on the same
level. but man has made a niche far
below where his mother and his sisters
live. Man has made things so that
there is fountain of purity for wo-
men, a mudpuddle for men; the height
of virtue for women; the hog wailow
for men. II makes no difference in the
sight of Ged whether sin wears a plug
hat or a hair pint is sin just the
same.
"I'lls tell you, my girl, the average
considerable young man VIII not marry
a frizzle- headed girl that goes running
out to dances. He can't afford to. keep