The Opelousas courier., 1900-08-11

aItSr you horned and huSkea ana. hOOfed
to gore. and. trample you; and what are
serve Christ must suffer persecution. 1t is
the worst sign in the world for you to be
be able I'd; say, Il have not an enemy in
the world" A woe is pronounced in the
Bible against the one of whom everybody
speaks well. If you are at peace with all
the world and everybody likes you and
approves your work, it is because you are
an idler in the Lords, vineyard and. are
not doing your duty. All those WHO have
served Christ; however eminent all have
been tnaltreated at some stage of their .ex-
perlenee: You know, it was so in the time
Of George Whitefeld when he stood and
invited men into the kingdom of God.
What did the learned DIR. johnson say of
him? He pronounced him a miserable
mountebank. How was it when Robert
Hall stood and spoke as scarcely any unin-
of heaven? And as he stood Sabbath af-
ter Sabbath preaching on these themes
his face kindled with the glory. 5ohn
Foster, a. Christian, man, said of this man,
Robert Hall is only acting, and the smile
on his face is a reflection of his own van
ity." John Wesley turned all England
upside down with Christian reform, and
yet the Pq1nsters were after him, and the
meanest jokes in England were perpetrated
about John Wesley. What is true of the
pulpit is true Of the pew; it is true of the
street; it is true Of the shop and the store.
All who live godly in Christ Jesus must
suffer persecution.
And ! set it down as the very worst sign
in all your Christian experience if you are
any of you at peace with all the world.
The religion of Christ is war. It is a
challenge to, sthe world, the flesh and the
DEVIL and II you will. buckle on the whole
armor of God you will find a great host
disputing your path between this and
heaven.
Again, I commend the behavior of the
disciples to all the bereaved. How many.
in garb of mourning! How many emblems
of sorrow you behold everywhere! God
lily. We must get out of the way for COM.
ing generations. We must get off the
stage that others nay come on, and for
this reason there is a long procession reach.
ing down all the time into the valley of
shadows. This emigration from time into
eternity is SO vast an enterprise thai we
cannot understand it. Every hour we hear
the clang, of the sepulchral gate. The
sod must be broken. The ground mustbe
must be peopled. The dust must press our
eyelids. ut. is appointed unto all men
once to die" This emigration from time
into eternity keeps three-fourths of the
families of the earth in desolation. The
air is rent with farewells, and the black
tasseled vehicles of death rumble through
every street. The body of the child that
is put away in the cold am the darkness.
The laughter freezes to the girls lip, and
the rose scatters. The boy in the harvest
field of Shunem says. "My head, my
head!" and they carry him home to die on
the lap of his mother. Widowhood stands
with tragedies of woe struck into the pal
lor of the check. Orphanage cries in vain
for father and mother. Oh: the grave. is
cruel! With teeth of stone it clutches for
its prey. Between TIE closing gates of the
sepulcher our hearts are mangled and
crushed
But Christ is always near-before you,
behind you, within you. No mother ever
threw her arms around her child with such
warmth and ecstacy of affection as Christ
has shown toward you.
Close at hand, nearer than the staff upor
which you lean, nearer than the cup you
put to your lip, nearer than the handker-
| preach Him an ever present, all sympa-
thizing, compassionate Jesus. How can
you stay away one moment from Him with
your griefs? Go now. Go and tell Jesus.
1t is often that friends have nc power
to relieve us. They would very much like
to do it, but they cannot di~sentangle our
finances, they cannot cure our sickness
that He to whom the disciples went has all
power in heaven and on earth, and at our
call He will balk our calamities and at
just the right time, in the presence of an
applaucing earth ana d resoundingt heaven,
will raise our dead. He is miglE1er than
Herod. He is swifter tnan the torn. He
is grander than the sea. He vas. sr than
eternity. And every swHh Of CD ON,
impotence will leap from lv~dE tbard and
the resources of infinity be exhausted rath-
er than that Gods child shall not be de-
livered when he cries to Him for rescU..
Suppose your child was in trouble. How
much would you endure to get him out?
You would say, 81 don't care what it will
cost. I must get him out of that trouble"
Do you think God is not 50 good a father
as you? Seeing you are in trouble and
His arm and deliver you? He will. He is
mighty to save. He can level the mount
ain and divide the sea, and can extinguish
the fire and save the soul. Not dim OF
eye, not weak of arm, not feeble OF re-
sources. but with all eternity and the uni
verse at His feet. Go and tell Jesus. VIII
you?
We whose cheeks are wet with the night
dew of the grave, We who cannot look up,
ye whose hearts are dried with the breath
of ~sirocco, in the name of the reilglon OF
Jesus Christ, which lifts every burden. and
wipes away every tear and delivers every
captive and lightens every darkness, | inn
plore you now &C and tell Jesus.
A little child went with her father, a
sea captain. to sea, and when the first
storm came the little child was very much
frightened, and in the night rushed out OF
the cabin and said Where IS father,
- = fo4L,,21 TFhon fhoy told hof
Father is on deck guiding the vessel and
watching the storEaSs The little child inn
mediatefy returned :. Ger berth and said,
tits all right, for fathers on deck"
o We who are tossed and driven in this
world, up by the mountains and down by
the valleys and at your wits, ends, L want
YOU to know the Lord God is guiding the
ship. Your Father is on deck. He Will
bring you through the darkness into the
harhor. Trust in the Lord. Go and tell
Jesus.
If YOU 90 to Him for pardon and sym
pathy, all is well. Everything will bright.
en- u and Joy will come to the heart, and
sorrow will depart, your sins will be for
given. and Four foot will touch the up
ward path, and the shining messengers
that report above what is done here will
tell it until the great arches OF eRd re
sound with the glad tidings il now with
contrition and full trustfulness of souEsrou
will only GO and tell Jesus. =
But I am oppressed as I think Of those
who may not take this counsel and may
remain unblessed. ] cannot help asking
what viii be the destiny of these people,
Xerxes looked off on his army. There were
1000, 900, perhaps the finest army ever mar
shaled. Xerxes rode along the. lines, re.
viewed them, came back, and stood on
some high point, looked off upon the 1000.
900 men and burst into tears. At that mo.
ment, when every n supposed ne would
be in the greatest exultation, ne broke
down il grief. They, asked HIM why ne