The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-07-02
little the Bible with their joc7larity.
Quote to them the four lines Of Whittier:

little the Bible with their ioc1larity.
Quote to them the four ines Of Whittier:
And weary seekers Of the best
We come back laden with cur quest
To find thE all the sages 1id
Is In the book our mothers read.
Help For the UnbelIever.
Have a lightning in your eye and a
flush in your cheek and a frown on your
brow for a dastardy that would blot out
the sun and moon and stars of Chris
tianity Inc leave all things in an arctic
night, the cold equal 10 the darkness.
You do well to be angry, but how about
those who have been flung of scepticism.
and that is more millions than Won will
ever know of until the judgment day re-
veals everything. All, here comes your
opportunity for gentleness, kindness and
sympathy. The probability is that il VOC
had been piled with the same influences
as this unbeliever there would not be a
Bible in all your house from cellar to
attic. Perhaps he was in some importaut
transaction swindled by a member of the
church whose taking Of the sacrament
was a sacrilege. Perhaps he read agnos-
tic books and heard agnostic lectures
and mingled in agnostic circles until he
has been befogged and needs your Chris
tian help more than any one that you
know of. Do not get into any labored
argument about the truth Of Christianity.
He may beat you at that. He has a
whole artillery of weapons ready to open
fire.
Remember that no one was ever re-
formed for this life or saved for the life
to come by an argument. but in humblest
n g~entlest way, your voice subdued, ask
hin a fnru nrncftnna ArIy Ill.,, "a l. -
a Christian ~parentage, and if he says yes
ask him whether the old folks died happy.
Ask him if he has ever heard Of any one
going out of this life in raptures of inf
deity and agnosticism. Ask him if it is
not a somewhat remarkable fact that the
Bible, after so many years, sticks to-
gether and that there are more copies of
it in existence than ever before. Ask him
if be knows Of any better civilization
than Christian civilization and whether
he thinks the teachings of Confucius or
Christ are preferable. Ask him if he
thinks it would be a fair thing in the
Creator Of all things to put in this world
the human race and give them no direct
communication for their guidance and,
if they did wrong. tell them of no way of
recovery. / think if a famous infdel of
our time, instead of being taken away in
simultaneously. had died in his bed after
weeks and months of illness he would
have revoked his teachings and left for
his beloved family consultations which
they could not find in o%bsequies at which
not one word of Holy Scripture was read,
or at Fresh Pond crematory, where no
Christian benediction was pronounced. l
do not positively say that in a prolonged
illness there would have been a retrac-
ton, but l think there would.
The renowned infdel, Mr.. Barker, aft
er spending his long life in lecturing
against Christianity in all our cities and
in publishing large and elaborate books
in depreciation of the Scriptures, in the
closing years of his life wrote to me that
he had changed and that he would like
to stand in my pulpit and undo the evil
that he had wrought for the most of his
lifetime. I wrote him in congratulation
for his souls sake that he had turned
back from infdelity. but that 1 thought
he could not undo the work Of a lifetime
and that he had talked so long on the
wrong side / did not think he could do
anything by talking on the right side.
The mercy Of God is SO great that many
of the mightiest antagonists of our reli-
gion have in their last days been brought
to repentance and eternal life. Let the
thunder Of your wholesome indignation
be followed by the kindly rain of pity
and love. BE We angry and sin not"
But let me confess at this crisis of my
sermon that there is not an Injunction in
the Bible more difficult to obey than the
words of the text. While it applauds q
wholesome indignation. it warns against
sinful anger. And there is in all the
realm Of passion nothing more destruc-
tive than indiscriminate hate. First Of
all, it frenzies the nervous ganglia. Those
people who easily fare up on little provo
cation go into high dudgeon, take UNI
bragg without reason, snap you up quick.
AVE ruined their nerves, and there is
only one thing worse to ruin, and that is
the brain, and we say Of one hat is Civ
en- to frequent ebullitions of temper that
he is m unbalanced man. A business
man Of our acquaintance said: 81 can
not afford to get mad. It hurts me So"
And il sinful anger damages the body
how much more it rives the disposition.
There are thousands Of men clerks in
stores who would have been members of
great business firms, and Intermediates
who would have been boss carpenters,
and attorneys who would have been lead
ing advocates, and preachers to congre-
SatlOnS WHO are StdTVluS tnem 10 Uedtu
who might have had appreciative sur
roundings, who have been kept back and
kept down by ungovernable tempers.
The outbreak lasted only a little while.
but it impeded a lifetime.
The Work of an Instant.
A man thoroughly mad can say enough
in two minutes to damage him for 20
years. 1t took only five minutes for the
earthquake to destroy Caracas. One un-
fortunate sentence uttered in %affront in a
speech in the United States senate shut
forever the door of the White House
against one Of the most brilliant men Of
the last century. You can never trust a
horse that has once run away, and you
do not feel like trusting q man who has
Just once lost his equilibrium. You need
to drive your temper as a man drives q
fractions span amid the explosions Of a
Fourth Of July morning or the pyrotech-
MICS Of a Fourth of July night. with
curbed bit, taut rein, commanding voice