Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1901-01-23

/ y
/ the recommendation OF minister of the
gospel, take the recommends ion of
highly respectable laymen.
Gospel of Peace ana Hope.
oh. men. skeptical and struck through
with unrest, | beg y0u come off that
great Sahara desert of doubt into the
/ bright and laxuriant land of gospel hope
and peace, lou do not want your chill
4 dren to come up in that skepticism. II
/ you DO not believe in anything else, you
+ believe in love. fathers love, moth
/ er's love, a wifc's love. Il child's love.
/ Then let me tell you that God loves you
more than all these together The great
heart of Christ aches to have you come
+ in. and he looks into your eyes this mo-
mcnt, saying, Other sheep ! have which
j arc not of this fold"
Again, remark that the heavenly
Shepherd is going /, find great many OF
+ the sheep among those who have beea
/ full of evil habit. They were all cheated
i into sin. The spider does not say TO the
I fly. Come into the web where | kill in
sects." Oh. no. The spider says, Dear
+ est fly. come and take a morning walk
I with me on this suspension bridge of COS
/ amer slittering with diamonds of dew"
makes me sal to see Christian people
/ give up Il prodgal as lost There are
those who talk as though the grace of
! God We're chain Of forty or Fifty links
I and that when they had run out there
was nothing left to touch bad ease. Ii
they We're hunting and got off the track
OF the deer, they would look longer among
+ the brakes and bushes for the lost game
/ than they would look for that lost soul
i People tell US that ii man has de-
/ lirium tremens twice he cannot be re-
/ claimed, that if woman has sacrificed
her integrity She cannot he restored The
+ Bible has distinctly intimated that the
/ Lord Almighty is rea,.y to pardon four
/ hundred and ninety times. Why do |
say four hundred and ninety times? Be
cause the Bible says seventy times
seven Now figure that out You do
/ not think man can fall four times.
| eight times. ten times. twent, times, one
| hundred times. four hundred times and
I yet be saved. Four hundred and ninety
times! There are men before the throne
of God who have wallowed in every kind
of sin, but saved by the grace of Christ
| and washed in his blood they stand there
radiant now. There are those who
| plunged into the very lowest depths of
| the slums aud who have for hundreds
of times been lifted up, and finally, by
the grace OF God, they stand in heaven,
| gloriously rescued by the grace promised
/ to the chief of sinners.
! want Ia tell You that God loves to
| take hold of a very bad case. When the
| church casts you off, and when the club
room casts you off. and when society
| casts you off, and when business associ-
| ates east you off, and when mother casts
/ you off, aud when everybody casts you
| off your first cry for help will bend the
! eternal God clear down into the ditch
/ of your suffering and shame The Good
| Templars cannot save you, although they
| are a grand institution. The Sons of
/ Temperance cannot save you, although
| they are mighty for good. Signing the
| Temperance pledge cannot save you, al
! though | believe in it. Nothing but the
/ grace of the eternal God can save you,
| and that will if you will throw yourself
/ on it,
| There is sn,y one class of persons
| about whom | am disheartened. and they
| are the gospel hardened. They have been
| faithful in attendance at churches for
twenty. thirty ard forty years, yet never
| have surrendered themselves TO God. As
! Christ says, "Publicans and harlots go
! into the kingdom of heaven before Them
/ they have resisted all the Importantly
of divine mercy and have gone through
most powerful earthquakes of religious
! feeling. and they are farther away from
i God than ever. After awhile they will
: lie down sick and some day it will be
/ told that they are dead. No hope.
! But | tdrn to outsiders with an cxpec.
| tation that thrills through me, body and
| soul. Other sheep haze which are not
| Of this fold" You are not gospel harden
Ell. You have not heard many sermons
! during the last few years You fee the
! Holy Ghost this moment in your heart.
| You do not weep but the tear is not far
| off. You sigh. and you have noticed that
| there is always Il sigh in the wind before
| the rain falls. There are those here who
would give anything il they could ind re-
! lief in tears They say: "Oh, my wasted
! life, Oh. the bitter past, Oh, the graves
! over which | have stumbled! Whittier
/ shall | fly? Alas for the futurei Every
! thing is so dark. SO very dark Coo help
/ me, God pity me-" Thank the Lord for
I that last uttcrance. You have begun to
| pray. and when a man begins to petition.
| Sod steps in and beats back the hounds
! OF temptation 10 their kennel and round
/ about the poor wounded soul puts the
! covert OF his pardonng mercy. Iark! |
| hear something fall. What was that? 1t
| Is; the bars of the fence around the sheep.
| fold. The Shepherd lets down the bars.
! and the hunted sheep OF the mountain
/ bound in. some of them their fleece torn
: with bramblcs. some Of them their feet
/ famed with the dogs. but bounding in.
/ Thank God, Other sheep l have which
are not Of this fold.