The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-12-29
Sinners Urged to Flee From Wrath
to Come.
DIVERS STRONG PICTURE
WARNS EvIL-DoERs TO CHANGE
COURSE.
Uses Text Which Promises Sudden
Death to Those Who Refuse to
Believe-Mentions Increase in
Number of Fatalities and Declares
Victims Are Mostly Unhe levers.

Evangelist French Earl Oliver, who
has been nightly holding revival meet
ings at the Tiff NJ. E. church, last
night changed his tactics. Heretofore
tie young preacher has been coaxing
erring sinners from their crooked
paths into the straight and narrow
way that leads to salvation Last
night he presented the other side of
the picture and gave the chronic back
sliders a glimpse of the wrath to come
if they persistently held aloof from
the fold.
The church was comfortably filled
when the evangelist arose and an
nounced Proverbs xxx, /, as his text:
He that, being often reproved, hard
ereth his neck, shall suddenly be des-
troyed, and that without remedy"
Sounds Sinners Knell.
Every announcement of that text"
said the speaker, sounds the knell in
the ears of sinners. Even the most
pious man, down in his heart, has a
-deEire to live. We all have TO meet
the issue, but this text speaks of a
different kind of death, the death in
store for the man who hardeneth his
ilSSk utSc NUrOS are VI SGIAOuS iili-
port to everyone of us fOI'S they are
not the words of a mere man but of
God Almighty. and hen he speaks
you wanr to listen
Have you ever paused to think, in
the course of your busy life, how the
rate of sudden deaths grows more
startling year by year, A steamer
goes down, a train strikes a broken
rail, a landslide in Rome, disasters
w ,fg-c n nd Ia
it all mean? You say oh it is just
an accident 1 tell you my friends it is
more than an accident. The power of
God holds good today as when he
spake those words; it doesn't make
any difference how it is done, but God
does it and it will come sooner or
later. You are preached to all your
lives and if you perSistently continue
to harden your necks and you aren't
careful it will surely come to YOU
Continuing, the preacher affirmed
that in nine. cases out of ten, the incl
dents of sudden death chronicled in
the daily papers, came TO men who
had heard the word and refused it.
God comes to some of his children as
gently as the breath on a lovers
cheek but again he acts towards others
like a surgeon"
No Patience with Infidels.
Then the preacher turned his atten-
ton to the so-called infidel. II have
no patience he said, with the man
who rails at Gods methods. and per-
chance says God is an unjust God
who takes away my little girl, and l
can't believe in such Godi' / tell
you my friends our Almighty Father
does it for love; He takes her so that
you may look up and follow, just as
the shepherd takes the lamb into the
fold so that the sheep, hearing its
voice, may follow.
Robert 1ngersoil's questions come
before me at this time At the men,
ton of the freethinker's name the
Rev. Joel A. Smith fervently said:
May God have mercy on his SOUL"
whereupon the evangelist replied, 1T
is too late to pray Brother Smith, he
has gone.
"On the cars, some time ago, a man
cams to me and said so Ingersou is
dead; he died of heart disease
Heart disease / echoed, you are
right sir, he has had that disease for
many years, belching out the stuff he
has, all over the country
Friends l never saw sudh a. sermon
for belief as Mrs. Ingersoll and
daughter. preached to humanity as
they knelt weeping by the bedside of
that dead man. Why We're they weep
ing becduSS, l. tell you, they We're
weeping for the future state of Inger-
SOIL"
The preacher then scored Ingersoll's
advocacy of suicide in scathing Ian
guage and designated the crime as
the last act of detestable coward"
"Ingersoll also said, who are the
friends of humanity aoday?' and gave
the answer the children of the stage
The friend of humanity today said
Rev. Oliver, lis not the individual
who misrepresents things, who will
have you believe there are no rocks in
your course, but the man who cries
pilot, Change the course of your
ship, we are steering Straight for a
hidden reef. Friends if the devil is
steering. change your course and have
Jesus for the pilot
At this juncture, the speaker spoke
at length upon episodes surrounding
the deathbeds of unrepentant sinners.
and concluded with the admonition
that Praise God, there is something
better than the wages of sin; fol. the
gift of God is eternal life"