The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-04-20

kindness. as God sends an August thuu. in the grass Peter, with nature temp estuous 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
 graces may find pasturage in fields of bramble and rock, Though your dispo- sition may be all a-bristle with fretful- ss Wiss ouici ShtninSs sGa thouae yodr av.
 arice be like that of the horse leech. crying, 'Give!" though damnable impuri- ties have wrapped you in all consuming fire. God can drive that devil out of your ness He can say. Let there be light" Converting grace has lifted the drunkard from the ditch and snatched the knife from the hand of the assassin and the pestiferous lanes of the city met the
 daughter of sin under the dim lamplight and scattered her sorrow and her guilt
 with a5a the words s4s ars scarlet atonement.
 Other persons apologize for not enter ing the Christian life because of the in- cousistencies of those who profess re- mers. 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
 
 But who declines being g farmer because
 there are so many poor farmers? There are thousands of incompetent merchants. They buy at the wrong time. They get cheated in the sale of their goods. Ev- cry bale of goods is to them a bale of disaster. They fail after awhile and so out of business. But who declines to be a merchant because there are so many ands of poor lawyers. They cannot draw declaration that will stand the test. They cannot recover just damages. They he1P e'eaDs Ssx from the worst impediments against any case in which they are retained. But who de- clines to be . lawyer because there are n Yet ss cline being religious because there are so many unworthy Christians. Now, I say it is illogical. Poor lawyers are noth- ing against jurisprudence:- poor physi- farmers are nothing against agriculture. and mean. contemptible professors of re- Iigion are nothing against our glorious Christianity.
 False Lights to Be Avoided.
 Sometimes you have been riding along on a summer night by a swamp and you have seen lights that kindled over decayed vegetation-lights which are called Jack-olanterns or o'-the-wisp. These lights are merely poisonous mias- mata. My friends. on your way to Heav- en you will want a better light than the
 will-o' '-the-wisps which dance on the rot ten character of moribund Christians.
 Exudations from poisonous trees in our neighbor's garden will make a very poor balm for our wounds.
 Sickness will come. and we will be |'pushed out toward the Red Sea; which
 divides this world from the next, and not the inconsistency of Christians, but the rod of faith, will wave back the waters as a commander wheels his host. The judgment will come with it's thun- der-shod solemnities. Oh. then we will not stop and say, There was a mean Christian; there was cowardly Chris tian; there was an impure Christian. !" In that day. as now, If thou be wise.
 thou shalt be wise for myself, but if thou soonest thou alone shall bear it." Why. my brother, the inconsistency of Christians, so far from being an argu- ment to keep you away from God, ought l to drive you to Him. The best place for where there are all poor doctors. the best place for an enterprising merchant to open his store is in place where the bargain makers do not understand their business, and the best place for you who want to become the illustrious and com plete Christian. the best place for you | is to come right down among us who are | so incompetent and so inconsistent some- l times. Show us how. Give us an ex- ample.
 Other persons apologize for not becom- 1 ing Christians because they lack time, as
 though religion muddled the brain of the
 accountant or tripped the pen of the au-
 thor or thickened the tongue of the or l ator or weakened the arm of the me- 1 chanic, or scattered the briefs of the | lawyer or interrupted the sales of the against it and fight 1t back with troweis and with yardsticks and cry. Away with your religion from our store. our office, our factory!' They do not understand reItcfnn in xxytIi help you to do anything you ought to do It can lay keel: 1t can sail a ship; 1t can buy cargo; 1t can work a pulley; 1t can pave a street; 1t can fit wrist band; it can write a constitution; it can marshal host. It is as appropriate to the astronomer as his telescope, to the chemist as his laboratory. to the mason | as his plumb line, to the carpenter as his | the grandfather as his stan.
 Time to be Religious
 | No time to be religious hereI You have
 no time not to be religious. You might
 as well have no clerks in your store no
 your ship, no rifle in the battle, no hat | for your head, no coat for your back, nd
 shoes for your feet. Better travel on
 toward eternity bareheaded and barefoot
 ed and houseless and homeless and
 friendless than to go through life with out religion. Did religion make Raleigh
 any less of a statesman or Havelock any
 less of soldier. or G1mmeli less of merchant or West any less of a | painter? Why. my friends. religion is the
 best\ security in every bargain; it is the
 sweetest note in every song; 1t Is the | brightest gem in every coronet. No time | to be religious? Why. you will have to | take time to be sick. to be troubled. to | die. Our world Is only the wharf from l which we are to embark for Heaven. No | time to secure the friendship of Christ | No time to buy lamp and trim 1t for | that walk through the darkness which ness of the tombstones? No timo to ed-
 ucate the eye for heavenly splendors or
 the hand for choral harps or the ear for everlasting songs or the soul for honor. | glory and immortality. One would think
 We had time for nothing else.
 Other persons apologize for not enter | ing the Christian life because it is time | enough yet. That is very like those per-
 sons who send regrets and say, T will
 not be there at the opening of the ban- quet; but I will be there at the close Not yet! Not yet! Now. I do not give
 any doleful view of this life. There Is 1 nothing in my nature, nothing In the | grace of God, that tends toward a dole | ful view of human life. I have not much
 sympathy with Addison's description of | the "Vision of Mirza." where he repre-
 sents human life as being a bridge of a bridge covered with clouds, and. the race
 coming on. the most of them falling down through the first span and all of 1 them falling down through the last span. 1 It Is a very dismal picture. I have not much sympathy with the Spanish prov | erb which says, The sky is good and the
 earth is good: that which is bad is be-