The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1900-04-28

and instead of Newton's saturnlne ana
bilious hymn that l first quoted You
will sing Newton's other hymn:
Amazing grace. how sweet the sound
lat sad a wretch like me!
l once was lost. but now am found
Was blind. but now l see.
What many of you Christians most
need is to get your g~raveclothes off. l
rejoice that you have been brought
from the death of sin to the life OF
the Gospel, but you need to get your
hand loose, and your feet loose, and
your tongue loose. and your soul
loose. There is no sin that the Bible
so %arraigns and p%unctures and fiagel-
lates as the sin of unbelief, and that
is what is the matter with you. "Oh,"
you say, "if you knew what l once was
and how many times l have grievous-
ly strayed you would understand why
l do not come out brighter!" Then l
think you would call yourself the
chief of sinners. 1 am glad you hit
upon that term, for l have a promise
that fits into your case as the cogs OF
one wheel between the cogs of anoth-
err wheel or as the key fits into the
labyrinths of a lock.
A man who was once called Saul,
but afterward Paul, declared: This
is n faithful saying and worthy of all
acceptation that Christ Jesus cam
into the world to save sinners, of
whom 1 am chief" Mark that-"of
whom I am chief" Put down your
overcoats and hats, and l will take
care of them while you kill Stephen"
So Saul said to the stoners of the
first martyr. 81 do not care to ex-
ert myself nuch, but l will guard
your surplus apparel while you do
the MURDER The New Testament ac-
count says: "The witnesses laid down
their clothes at q young mans feet,
whose name was Saul" No wonder
he said: SINNERS, of whom l am the
chief"
Christ is used to climbing. He
climbed to the top of the temple. He
climbed to the top of Mount Olivet.
He climbed to the top of the cliffs
about Nazareth. He climbed to the
top of Golgotha. And to the top of
the hills and the mountains of your
transgression He is ready to climb
with pardon for every one of you.
The groan of Calvary is mightier than
the thunder of Sinai. Full receipt is
offered for all your Indebtedness. If
INT throws n stone at midnight into
a bush where the hedge bird %roosts,
it Immediately begins to sing, and
into the midnight hedges of your
dependency these words L hurl, hop
ing to awaken you to anthem. Drop
the tunes in the minor key and take
the major. Do you think it pleases
the Lord for you to be carrying
around with you the debris and car
casses of old tra~nsgressions? You
make rue think of some ship that has
had a tempestuous time at sea and
now that it proposes another voyage
keeps on it's davits the damaged life
boats and the splinters of a shiv-
cred mast and the broken glass of a
smashed skylight. My advice is:
Clear the decks, overheard with all
the damaged rigging, brighten up the
sailed smokestacks, open a new log
book, haul in the planks, lay out a
new course and set sail for Heaven,
You have had the spiritual dumps
long enough. You. will please the
Lord more by being happy than by
being miserable.
Heaven is 95 per cent. better thar
llis world, a thousand per cent. bet
ter, a million per cent. better. Take
the gladdest, brightest, most jubilan'
days you ever had on earth and com
press them all into one hour, and tina
hour would be n requiem, a fast day
a gloom, a horror, as compared will
the poorest hour they have had il
Heaven since it's first tower was bull
or its first gate swung or it's first sons
caroled. oh" you say, that ma.
be true, but l am so afraid of cross
ing over from this world to the next
and l fear the swapping of the corr
between soul and body" Well, all tn
surgeons and physicians and scientist
declare hat there is no pang at tn
parting of the body and soul, and al
the restlessness at the closing hour O
life is Involuntary, and no distress a
all. And | agree with the doctors, TO
what they say is confirmed by tn
fact that persons who were browne
| or We're submerged until all conscious
ness departed and were afterward re
snscitated declare that the sensatio
OF passing into unconsciousness wa
p1.- surahia rather than distressfu
. The cage of the body has a door o
easy hinges, and when that door c
the physical cage opens the sol
simply puts out its wings and scars.
But" you say, 81 fear to go b
: cause the future is so full of mystery.
Well, 1 will tell you how to treat tn
mysteries. The mysteries have cease
bothering me, for do as the judges {
your courts often do. They hear a
5 the arguments in the case and the
say: Il will take these papers an
give you my decision next week" S
+. | have heard all the arguments in n
. gard to the next world, and SON
S things are uncertain and full of my
terry, and 80 l fold up the papers an
reserve until the next world my d.
I cision about them. l can there stud