The Penn's Grove record., 1901-01-25

OF SIN and surrounded by tempest. run
away, my lads! Let US reach them. Alas,
one is washed off and gone. There is one
more to be saved. Let us push out there
for that one. Clutch the rope. Q dying
man. Clutch it as with a death grip.
Steady, now, on the slippery placesl
Steadyi They are saved, saved, just as /
thought, for Christ has declared that there
are some still in the breakers who shall
come ashore. Other sheep L have which
are not of this fold"
Christ says that ministers of the gospel
are to be fishers for men. Now, when /
go fishing | do not want to fish in any.
body else's pond. | do not want to go
along Hohokus Creek, where there are half
a dozen men fishing, and drop my line just
about where they drop their lines. The
lines would get tangled. / should like to
get in a Newfoundland fishing smack and
push out to sea fifty miles beyond the
Goo gains a great deal when you take
sheep from one fold and put them in an.
other fold, and yet you and | have some
times seen pastors fishing in other peo-
pies ponds. They throw a line into one
pond and they jerk out a Methodist, they
throw a line into another pond and they
jerk out a Presbyterian, or there is a reli-
gious row in some neighboring church, and
a whole school of fish swims off from that
pond, and we take them all in with one
sweep off the net. What is gained? Abb
solutely nothing for the cause of Christ.
1t is the lost sheep on the mountains that
you want to bring back-the lost sheep on
the mountains. And they are coming now.
You are this hour in the tide of Christian
influences. Your voice will yet be heard
in public prayer. You will die in peace,
your bed surrounded by Christian sympa-
thies, and you will be carried out by de-
vout men to the burial and over your
grave will be chiseled the words, Precious
in the sight of the Lord is the death of
His saints" and on resurrection day you
will get up with the dear children you
have already buried and with your Chris
tian parents who have already won the
palm. And all that grand and glorious his
tory begins to-day. "Other sheep | have
which are not of this fold"
l remark again the heavenly Shepherd
is going to find a great many of His sheep
among those who are now rejecters of
Christianity. Some of the mightiest advo-
Gates Of the gospel were once skeptics.
Thomas Chalmers once a skeptic, Robert
Hall a skeptic, Christmas Evans a skeptic,
Charles g. Finney a skeptie, laul, the
with strong hand they laid hold of the
gospel chariot they rolled it on with what
momentum! ] do not know how you
came to reject Christianity. 1t may have
been through the infidel talk Of some
young man in the store or shop or factory.
1t may have been through the trickery of
some professed Christian a who dis
gusted you with religion. 1t may be that
thirty years ago you lost all faith by what
happened in an oil company which was
formed amid the petroleum excitement.
The company owned no land, or, if they
did, there was no sign of oil produced.
But the president of the COMPANY was a
Presbyterian elder and the treasurer an
Episcopal vestryman and one director was
a Methodist class leader and the other
officers prominent members of Baptist and
Congregational churches. Circulars were
got out telling what fabulous prospects
opened before this company. The circu.
lar had all the hues of earth and sea and
sky. The letters famed with all the beauty
of gold and jasper and amethyst. limo
cen men and women who had a little
money to invest and that little their all
said, II do not know anything about this
company, but so many good men are at
the head of it that it must be excellent,
and taking stock in it must be almost as
good as joining the church" So they
bought their stock, and perhaps received
one dividend to keep them still. But after
awhile they found that the company had
reorganized and had a different president,
a different treasurer and different direc-
tors. Other engagements or an overcoming
modesty had caused the former officers OF
the company, with many regrets, to resign.
and all the subscribers of that stock had
to show for their investment was a bearei-
fully ornamented certificate. Sometimes
that man, looking over his old papers,
m across that certificate, and it is SO
suggestive that he vows he wants none of
the religion that the president and direc-
tors of that oil company professed,
But / do not stop now to know how you
came into rejection of Christianity. You
frankly tell me that you do reject it.
You do not believe that Christ is a divine
being, although you admit that He was a
very good man. You do not believe that
the Bible was inspired of God, although
you think there are some very fine things
in it. You believe that the Scriptural de-
scription OF eden was only an allegory.
There are fifty things that l believe that
you do not believe, and yet you are an
accommodating man. Everybody that
knows you says that of you.
If | should ask you to do a kindness for
me, or If any one else should ask of you a
kindness, . u would do it. If when you
are i'll | should come to you with a phial
of medicine and say, "This kind of medi-
cine has cured fifty people who were just
as badly off as you are, Take it," and you
replied, II do not want to take it. ! have
no confidence in it." 1 would say, Take it
to oblige me" and you would say. well,
if it will accommodate you l will take it..
Now, you have found that this world is
insufficient, and you are sick OF sin. l
come to you with a gospel medicine. 1t
has cured hundreds and thousands and
millions. Will you take it? No" you
say. 81 have no confidence in it," Take
it, then, to oblige me. l tell you of n ply
stefan who has cured more blind eyes and
bound up more broken hearts and healed
more CHASTITY wounds than all the doctors
since the time of Aesculapius. Be obliging,
and just make the experiment.
II you are not acquainted with the ordi-
nary modes of prayer, say In substance;
"Oh, Lord Jesus, this is a strange thing
formulas of religion. These Christian peo-
pie nave been talking so long about what
Thou canst do for me, am ready. to do
whatever Thou commanded me. Ii there
be any power in religion, as these people
say, let me nave the advantage of it."
viii you not try that experiment?
/ do not now say there is anything in re-
ligion. Do not take my counsel or the
counsel of any clergyman, for you may dis
like clergymen. Perhaps we may talk pro.
fessionally. Perhaps we may be prejudiced
in the matter. Perhaps our advice is not
worth taking. Then take the counsel of
some very respectable layman, as John
Milton, the poet; as William Wherefore,
the emancipator; as Isaac Newton, the as
tronomer; as Robert Boyle, the philoso-
pher; as Locke, the metaphysician; as
Morse, the te~legrapher; as Washington,
the statesman.
They never preached, or pretended to
preach, yet, putting down one his telescope
and another his parlimeDtarian's scroll and
another his electricians wire, came forth
and commended the religion of Christ as
the best thing for the cure of the worlds
woes. If you will not take the reeommen-
dation OF ministers of the gospel, take the
recommendation of highly respectable lay
men.
Oh, men, skeptical and struck through
with unrest, / beg you to come off that
great Sahara desert of doubt into the
bright and ~luxuriant land of gospel hope
and peace. You do not want your children
to come up in that skepticism. If you do
not believe in anything else, you believe in
love-a fathers love, a mothers love, a
wife's love, a child's love.
Then let me tell you that God loves you
more than all these together. The great
heart of Christ aches to nave you come in,