The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1899-07-08

the employees are familiar. So far as
our engagement to meet is concerned,
it makes no difference if we only get
there. Now, any one of the innumera-
BILE evangelical denominations, if you
practice its teaching, although some OF
their trains run on broad gauge and
some on narrow gauge, will bring you
out at the city of New Jerusalem.
1t being evident that you will be safe
in any of the evangelical denomina
tons, proceed TO remark. first, if one
of the married couple be a Christian
and the other not, the one II Christian
is bound to go anywhere to church
where the unconverted companion is
willing to go, if he or she will 60 to
no other. You of the connubial part
nership are Christian. You are safe
for the skies. Then it is your first
duty to secure the eternal safety OF
your lifetime associate. Is not the ever
lasting welfare of your wife impenitent
or your husband impenitent of more
Importance than your church relation
ship? Is not the condition of your
companion for the next quadrillion OF
years mightier consideration to you
than the qualification of your ecclesi-
astical taste for 40 or so years? A man
or woman who would stop half a min
ute to weigh preferences as to whether
he or she had better go with the uncon-
verified companion to this or that church
or denomination has no religion at all,
and never has had, and fear never will
have. You are loaded up with what
you suppose to be religion, but you are
like Capt. Frobisher, who brought back
from his voyage of discovery ship
load of what he supposed valuable min
erals, yet, instead of being silver and
| gold, were nothing but common stones
of the field, to be hurled out as finally
useless.
Mighty God, in all Thy realm is there
one man or woman protesting religion,
yet so stolid, so untitled, 80 far gone
unto death that there would be any
hesitancy in surrendering all prefer
snces before such an opportunity of
salvation and heavenly reunion? If
you, Christian wife. are an attend
ant upon any church and your uncon-
verified husband does not 60 there be-
cause he does not like its preacher, or
it's music, or its architecture, or its I'M
comfortable crowding, and goes not to
any house of worship, but would go if
you would accompany him somewhere
else, change your church relations.
Take your hymn book home with you
to-day. Say good-by to your friends IN
the neighboring pews and go with him
to any one of hundred churches till
his soul is saved and he joins you in the
march to Heaven. More important
than that ring on the third finger OF
your left hand it is that your Heaven
ly Father command the angel OF mercy
concerning your husband at his con-
version, as in the parable of old: Put
a ring on his hand"
No letter of more Importance evcI
came to the great city of Corinth. stu
ated on what was called the Bridge OF
the Sea-" and glistening with sculpture
and gated with style of brass the mag
! nificence of which the following ages
have not been able to successfully imi
tate, and overshadowed by the Aero
Corinthus, fortress of rock 1000 feet
hight say no letter ever came to thai
great city of more Importance than thai
letter in which Paul puts the two
startling questions: What knowes'
thou, o wife, whether thou shalt save
thy husband? Or how knowest thou
0 man, whether thou shalt save thy
wife?" The dearest sacrifice on thu
part of the one is cheap if it rescue thu
other. Better go to the smallest, weak
} est, most insignificant church on eartf
and be copartners in eternal bliss thar
!, pass your earthly membership in mos
gorgeously attractive church while
your companion stays outside of evan
gelcal privilege. Better have TIT
, drowning saved by scow or slooI
, than let him or her go down while yo,
! sail by in the gilded cabins of Majestic
or Campania.
Second remark: If both of the mar
ried couple be Christians, but one is 81
: naturally constructed that it is impos
: sible to enjoy the services of n particu
lar denomination and the other is no
so sectarian or punctilious, let the ont
less particular go with the other, whit
is very particular. AS for myself, fee
as much at home in one denomination
of evangelical Christians as another
and think must have been born yer.
near the line. like the solemn roll o
the Episcopal liturgy, and l like tn
spontaneity of the Methodists, and
D like the Importance given to the ordi
t nance of baptism by the Baptists, ant
like the freedom of the Congrega
e tionalists, and | like the government
| and the sublime doctrine of the Presby
terians, and ! like many of the other
: just as much as any have mentioned
r and could happily live and preach an,
S die and be buried from any of then
: But others are born with liking S
] stout. so unbending, so memorable TO
S some denomination that it is positiv
e necessity they have the advantage O
j that one. What they were intended t
be in ecelesiasticism was written in tn
: sides of their cradle. If the father an