Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1899-03-30
BE READY.
Have Faith in God and Be Always on
 the Alert.

Have Faith in God and Be Always on
 the Alert.
 tell you that night there shall be two men in one bed. the one shall be taken and the other shall be left; two men shall be in the field, the one shall be taken and the other left. Luke 17th, 24. Two women shall be grinding to- gether; the one shall be taken and the other left.
 The disciples did not ask why? but when? but we deliberately ask the question why?
 Not because God is a respector of persons because His word says He is not. It might be interesting to pick out a few instances where one has been taken and the other left. Take for in- stance Cain and Abel think it may be said Abel was taken and Cain was left. We read in Genesis that in pro- cess of time Cain brought of the fruit, of the ground an offering unto the Lord
 And Abel he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering. But unto Cain and to his offering he had not re- spect. And in Hea i11th and 4th, it is written: By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain by which he obtained witness that he was righteous. God testifying to his gifts and by it being dead yet speak eth. Cain evidently believed in God or he would not have offered the first fruits of his ground.
 AS far as faith in God is concerned his was equal to Abel's. It cannot possibly be said that he did not have faith or he would not have presented an offering which distinctly said "every good and perfect gift comes from God. And do earnestly wish that every thoughtful reader would think of these two young men as hay ing perfect faith in God and in His goodness, and the one was accepted and the other rejected and ponder over the question why? and how it is that Abel being dead yet speaketh and what it is that he says to Us in this day of gospel light.
 Does he not say by offering a lamb for a sacrifice and shedding it's blood which is the life thereof, that his life was forfeited by his fathers sin and he thereby sought mercy and pardon, and thus it was that Abel was taken and Cain who only offered thank of fering was left, and so Jacob was taken and Esau left, and Joseph was taken and his brethren left, and a Pharisee and sinner went ID to the temple to pray and the sinner who cried for mercy was taken and the Pharisee was left. This is the old Methodist doc Urine of being convicted for sin of being brought to realize not only that the wages of sin is death, and that death has passed upon all men in that all have sinned, but that in their case in dividually the verdict is guilty and the sentence is passed unless mercy can be obtained through the shedding of the more precious blood of Christ of which the first lamb was a type, there is no escape from the execution of the sentence and the second or eter- nal death must be the consequence.
 But God having provided for us this better sacrifice will do for the persis- tent sinner what He did for Abel He will have respect unto His offering and being Justified by faith he will have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ-John L. Fisher.