The Iola register., 1900-04-27

and instead of Newton's saturnine and
bilious hymn that | first quoted you
will sing Newtons other hymn:
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like mel
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now l sec.
What many of you Christians most
need is to get your graveclothes off.
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 punctures and fiagel-
| lates as the sin of unbelief, and that
is what is the matter with you. "Oh,"
you say, "if you knew what once was
and how many times | have grievous-
| ly strayed you would understand why
| do not come out brighter!" Then |
think you would call yourself the
chief of sinners. l am glad you hit
upon that term, for l have n promise
that fits into your case as the cogs of
one wheel between the cogs of anoth-
er wheel or as the key fits into the
| laDNrlntnS or lock.
A man who was once called Saul,
but afterward Paul, declared: This
is faithful saying and worthy of all
acceptation that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners, of
whom / am chief" Mark that-"of
whom l am chief" "Put down your
overcoats and hats, and l will take
| nn- Of fhat,, t..ht1s. LII Cta,,bn,, ~
So Saul said to the stoners of the
first martyr. "I do not care to ex-
ert myself much, 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 a young mans feet,
whose name was Saul" No wonder
he said: sinners, of whom 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. lie 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
one throws stone ut midnight into
bush where the hedge bird roosts,
it Immediately begins to sing, and
into the midnight hedges of your
dependency these words | 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 transgressions? You
make me think of some ship that has
had a tempestuous time at sea and
now that it proposes another voyage
keeps on its davits the damaged life
boats and the splinters of 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
salted smokestackS open a new log
book, haul in the planlIs, 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 than
this world, thousand per cent. bet
ter, a million per cent. better. Take
the gladdest, brightest, most jubilant
days you ever had on earth and COM
oil s,t ,,1 ha ;
hour would be n requiem, n fast day,
a gloom, horror, as compared with
the poorest hour they have had in
Heaven since its first tower was built
or its first gate swung or its first song
caroled, "Oh," you say, that may
be true, but | am so afraid of cross
ing over from this world TO the next,
and l fear the swapping of the cord
between soul and body" Well, all the
surgeons and physicians and scientists
declare that there is no pang at the
parting of the body and soul, and all
the restlessness at the closing hour of
life is involuntary, and no distress at
all. And l agree with the doctors, for
what they say is confirmed by the
fact that persons who were drowned
or were submerged until all conscious
ness departed and were afterward re-
suscitated declare that the sensation
of passing into Inconsistencies was
pleasurable rather than distressful
The cage of the body has a door on
easy hinges, and when tnat door OF
the physical cage opens the soul
simply puts out its wings and scars
But" you say, 81 fear to go be-
cause the future is so full of mystery
Well, will tell you how to treat the
mysteries. The mysteries have ceased
bothering me, for l do as the judges OF
your courts often do. They hear all
the arguments in the case and they
say: 81 will take these papers and
give you my decision next week" So
| have heard all the arguments in re-
gard to the next world, and some
things are uncertain and full of mVs.