The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-05-16

scof Z rather implead you By the mem.
DRY of those good old times when you
knolt at your mothers knee and said your
evening prayer and those other days of
sickness when she watched al night and
gave you the medicines at just the right
time and turned the pillow when it was
hot and with hand long ago turned 20
dust soothcd your pains aud with that
voice you viii never hear again unless you
join her IN the better country. told YOU
never mind. and by that dying couch
where she talked so slowly, catching her
breath between the w0rd8-by at those
memories j ask you TO come and take
the same religion. 1t was good enough lot
herr it is good enough for you. Aye, l
make a better plea: by the WOUNDS ana
the death throe of the Son OF God, VINO
approaches you in infinite love with
torn brow and lacerated hands and
whipped back, crying Come unto Me-
all We that labor and are heavy laden, ana
/ viii give you rest!
Other persons apologize for not enter
ing the Christian life because OF the IN
CorriWbility of their temperament NOW,
we admit it is harder for some people 70
become Christians than for others, but the
grace of God never came TO a mountain
that it could not climb or to an abyss that
it could not fathom or 10 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-clat-
] ter. And the widest, the haughtiest, the
most ungovernable man ever created by
! the grace of God may be subdCcd 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 tempestuous as the sea that he
once tried to walk at one look from
/ Christ went out and wept bitterly. Rich
| harvests Of grace may be grown on the
summit of the jagged steep, and tlocks OF
/ Christian graces may ind 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 light
nings, 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"
The best place for sllillful doctor is in
a neighborhood where there are all poor
doctors, the best Place for an enterprlsng
merchant to open his store Is IN place
where the bargain makers do not under
stand their business, and the best place
for you who want to become the illus
trious and complete Christian, the best
place for you is to come right down among
us who are so incompetent and so incon-
sistent sometimes. Show US how. Give
US an example.
Exudations from poisonous trees il our
nelghbOrs garden will make very poor
Lain for our wounds.
Sickness win come, and we will be
pushed out toward the Red Sea which di-
vides this world from the next, and not
the inconsistency of Christians, but the
rod of faith, viii wave back the waters
as a commander wheels his host. The
judgment will come, with its thunder
shod solemnities. Oh, then we will not
stop and say, There was mean Chris
tian; there was an impure Christian"
In that day as now, IF thou be wise, thoL
shalt be wise for myself but ii thou
lcornest thou alone shall bear it." Why,
my brother, the inconsistency Of Chris
tians, so far from being an argument to
keep you away from Cod, ought to be an
argument to drive you to Him.
No time to be religious here! -ou
have no time not to be religious. GU
might as well have no clerks IN your
store, no books in your library, no com
pass on your ship, no rifle in the battle
back, no shoes for your feet.
Better travel on toward eternity bare
headed and barefooted and houseless and
homeless and friendess than to 60 through
life without religion.
Did religion make Raleigh any less of a
statesman or Havelocll any less of a
soldier or Grinnell any less Of merchant
] OF West any less Of painter?
Why, my friends, religion is the best
1g-, Icv os,,. - h Of
est note IN every song; 1t Is the brightest
!. gem in very coronet. No time to be re-
, Iigiouy? Why, you will have to take time
to be sick, to be troubled, to die. Our
world is only the wharf from which we
are to embark for heaven
No time to secure the friendship Of
Christ? No time TO buy lamp and trim
i it for that walk through the darkness
= which otherwise will be illumined only
/ by the whiteness of the tombstones? Nc
time to educate the eye for heavenly splen
/ doris or the hand for choral harps or the
ear for everlasting songs or the soul fol
honor, glory and immortality? One would
r think we had tino for nothing else.
Other persons apologize for not enter
r ing the Christian life because it is time
l enough yet. That is very like those Fer
, sons who send regrets and say, II Wi.
5 conc in perhaps at ii or II O'clock;
viii not be there at the opening OF the
5 banquet, but will be there at the close. ;
5 lot yet! Not yeti Now, l DO not give
! any dolcful view Of this life. There il
3 nothing In my nature, nothing IN tht
/ grace Of God, that tends toward doefu
8 view of human life.
2 have not much sympathy with Ad
t disons description OF the Vision O.
t Mira" where he represents human life
e as being a bridge Of a hundred arches anC
. both ends of the bridge covered will
/, clouds and, the race coming on, the mos
: Of them falling down through the frs
| span and all Of them falling down through
4 the last span.
e 1t is a very dismal picture. I have 10
/. much sympathy with the Spanish proverl
| which says, The sky is good and the eartl