The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1900-06-23

- N"' P"SSNN' OH, lHub some oil
u.s. instead of calculating our DAYS
and nights and years by any earthly
tlmepiece, might calculate them by
the numbers of opportunities and mer-
cies which are burning down and
burning out, never to be relighted, lest
at last we be amid the foolish virgins
who cried: sour lamps have gone
out!"
Again l commend the behavior of
the disciples to all who are tempted.
l have heard men in midlife say they
had never been led into temptation.
II you have not felt temptation, it is
because you have not tried to do
right. A man hoppled and handcuffed,
as long as he lies quietly, does not test
the power of the chain, but when he
rises up and with determination re-
solves to snap the handouts or break
the hopple, then he finds the power of
the iron. And there are men who have
been for ten and twenty and thirty
years bound hand and foot by evil
habits who have never felt the power
OF the chain because they have never
tried to break it. 1t is very easy to
go on down with the stream and with
the wind lying on your oars, but just
turn around and try to go against the
wind and the tide, and you will find it
is different matter. AS long as we
go down the current of our evil habit
we seem to get along quite smoothly,
but if after awhile we turn around
and head the other way, toward Christ
and pardon and Heaven, oh, then how
we have to lay to the oars! You will
have your temptation. You have one
kind, you another, you another, not
one person escaping.
1t is all folly for you to say to some
one: II could not be tempted as you
are" The lion thinks it is so strange
that the fish should be caught with
a hook. The fish thinks it is so
strange that the lion should be caught
with trap. You see some man with
a cold, phlegmatic temperament, and
you say: 81 suppose that man has not
any temptation" Yes, as much as you
have. In his phlegmatic nature he
has temptation to Incidence and
consciousness and overeating and
temptation to ignore the
great work of life, temptation to lay
down an obstacle in the way of all
good enterprises. The temperament
decides the styles of temptation, but
or Emphatic, you will have
temptation. Satan has graphing
hook just fitted for your soul, A man
never lives beyond the reach of temp
tation. You say when a man gets to
be 70 or so years of age he is safe
much mistaken. A man at IS years
of age has as many temptations as
man of rs. They are only different
styles of temptation. Ask the aged
Christian whether he is never assault
ed of the powers of darkness. If you
think you have conquered the power
of temptation, you are very much mis-
taken.
No man gets through life without
having a pommeling. Some SANDER
comes after you, horned and husked
and hoofed, to gore and trample you.
And what are you to do? | tell you
plainly that all who serve Christ must
suffer persecution. 1t is the worst
sign in the world for you to be able
to say: 81 have not an enemy in the
world" A woe is pronounced in the
Bible against the one of whom every
body speaks well. If you are at peace
with all the world and everybody likes
you and approves your work, it is be-
cause you are an idler in the Lords
and are not doing your duty.
All those who have served Christ,
however eminent, all have been mall
treated at some stage of their eXpe-
,ience. You know it was SO in the
time of George Whitefield, when he
stood and invited men into the king
ION of God. What did the learned
DR.. Johnson say of him? He pro-
bounced him a miserable mountebank.
How was it when Robert Hall stood
md spoke as scarcely any unin-
,pired man ever did speak of the
ylories of Heaven? And as he stood
Sabbath after Sabbath preaching on
hese themes his face kindled with
,lory. John Foster, a Christian man,
aid of this man: Robert Hall is
,nly acting, and the smile on his face
s a reflection of his own vanity"
John Wesley turned all England up
ide down with Christian reform, and
ret the punsters were after him, and
he meanest jokes in England were
about John Wesley.
What is true of the pulpit is true of
he pew; it is true of the street; it
S true of the shop and the store. All
Who will live godly in Christ Jesus
must suffer persecution. And l set it
Iown ass the very worst sign in all
our Christian experience if you are,
my of you, at peace with all the
world. The religion of Christ is war.
t is challenge to "the world, the
esh and the devil" and if you will
uckle on the whole armor of God you
will find a great host disputing your
ath between this and Heaven.
But what are you to do when you
re assaulted and slandered and
bused, as 1 suppose nearly all of you
ave been in your life? Go out and
unit up the slanderer? Oh, no, silly
IAN! While you are explaining away
falsehood in one place so people will
nst have heard of it in other places.
counsel you to another course.
While you are not to omit any oppor-
unity of setting yourselves right,
yant to tell you of one who had the
ardest things said about him, whose