The Iola register., 1902-04-18

gious circles, but he cheated me out OF
$4,000, and | don't want any of that
religion" Then there are others who
get into skepticism by natural per-
sistence in asking questions, why or
how? How can God be one being in
three persons2 They cannot under
stand it, Neither can l. How can God
be a complete sovereign and yet man
a free agent2 They cannot under
stand it.. Neither can |. They cannot
understand why a holy God lets sin
come into the world. Neither can l.
They say: Here is great mystery;
here is disciple of fashion, frivolous
and goddess all her days; she lives on
to be an octogenarian. Here is Chris
tian mother, training her children for
God and for heaven, self-sacrificing,
Christlike, indispensable seemingly
to that household; she gets a cancer
and dies" The skeptic says: 81 can't
explain that" Neither canI.
can see how men reason themselves
into skepticism. With burning feet l
have trodden that blistering way. l
know what it is to have hundred
nights poured into one hour. There are
men in the arid desert of doubt who
would give their thousands of dollars
If they could get back to the old re-
ligion of their fathers. Such men are
not to be caricatured, but helped, and
not through their heads, but through
their hearts. When these men really
do come into the kingdom of God, they
will be worth far more to the cause
of Christ than those who never exam
ined the evidence of Christianity.
Thomas Chalmers once skeptic;
Christmas Evans, once skeptic; but
when they did lay hold of the Gospel
chariot how they made it speed aheadl
II, therefore, ! address men and wom-
en- who have drifted away into skepti-
cism. throw out no scoff; rather i'm
plead you by the memory of those
good old times when you knelt at your
mothers knee and said your evening
prayer and those other days of sick
ness when she watched all night and
gave you the medicine at just the right
time and turned the pillow when it
was hot, and with hand long ago
turned to dust soothed your pains, and
again unless you join her in the bet
ter country told you never mind, you
would be better by and by. and by that
| dying couch where she talked so slow
! ly, catching her breath between the
words-by all those memories | ask
| you to come and take the same re-
ligion. 1t was good enough for her;
it is good enough for you. Aye, make
a better plea: BY the wounds and the
death throe of the Son of God who ap-
| proaches. you in infinite love with
torn brow and lacerated hands and
whipped back, crying: "Come unto
me, all ye that labor and are heavy
laden. and / will give you rest"
Other persons apologize for not en-
tering the Christian life because of the
incorrigibility of their temperament.
Now, we admit il is harder for some
people to become Christians than for
others, but the grace of God never
came to a mountain that il could not
climb or an abyss that it could not
fathom or to a bondage that it could
not break. The widest horse that ever
trod Arabian sands has been broken to
bit and trace. The maddest torrent
tumbling from mountain shelving has
been harnessed to the mill wheel and
the factory band setting a thousand
shuttles all a-buZz and a-clatter. And
the widest, the haughtiest. the most
ungovernable man ever created by the
grace of God may be subdued and
sent out on ministry of kindness, as
God sends an August thunderstorm TO
water the wild flowers down in the
grass. Peter, with nature tempestu-
| Gus as the sea that he once tried to
walk. at one look from Christ went
| out and wept bitterly. Rich harvests
of grace may grow on the summit of
the jagged steep, and focks of Chris
tian graces may find pasturage in
fields Of bramble and rock, Though
your disposition may be all a-bristle
with fretfulness, though You have a
temper a-gleam with quick lightnings,
though your avarice be like that of the
horse leech, crying: Give" though
! damnable impurities have wrapped
you in all consuming fire, God can
drive that devil out Of your soul, and
over the chaos and the darkness He
can say: Let there be light" Con-
verting grace has lifted the drunkard
from the ditch and snatched the knife
from the hand of the assassin and the
false keys from the burglar and in the
pestiferous lanes of the city met the
daughter of sin under the dim lamp
light and scattered her sorrow and
her guilt with the words: "Thy sins
are forgiven; go, and sin no more.'
For scarlet sin a scarlet atonement.
Other persons apologize for not en-
tering the Christian life because of
the Inconsistencies of those who pro.
fess religion. There are thousands of
poor farmers. They do not know the
nature of soils or the proper rotation
of crops. Their corn is shorter in the
stalk and smaller in the ear. They have
ten less bushels to the acre than their
| neighbOrs. But who declines beinp n