Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1902-04-18
. man SANDS mas been broker

most ung0vernaDie man - sonJ
the grace of God may be suDdue9 anu .s Sois
out on ministry of kindness, as oo ~ SID LID
an August thunderstorm to wafer tne VII, WIZ
aowers down in the grass. Peter, WIZ
nature tempestuous as the sea that ne
once tried to walk, at one look from
Christ went out and wept bitterly. klcn
harvests of grace may be grown on the
summit of the Jagged steep, and focks OF
Christian graces may find pasturase III
fields of bramble and rock. III
Though your disposition may De an
a-bristle with fretfulness, though you
have a temper a-geam with 9uick ilght
nings, though your avarice be NE t th q,
the horse leech, crying, give! .no ',
damnable impurities have wrappeu yo that
all consuming fire, God can drive t tnas
devil ont of YOUR soul, and over the chaos
and the darkness He can say, Let there
be light"
The best place for a skillful doctor is IN
neiohborhood where there are all poor
doctors. the best place for an enterprislne
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 80 1ncon
SlStent sometimes. OHOW uS hO"'
us an example.
Exudations from poisonous trees IN ou1
neighbours garden will make very poor
balm for our wounds. III :,
Sickness will come, and we Will De
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, will 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 a mean Chris :;
tan; there was an impure Christian.
In that day as now, eff thou be wise, thou
shalt be wise for thyself, but II thou
soonest thou alone shall bear It,. Mhy'
nv brother, the inconsistency OF Chris
tians, so far from being an argument to
keep YOU away from God, ought to be an
argument to drive you to Him.
No time to be religious here! You
have no time not to be religious. You
might as well have no clerks in your
store, no books in your library, no com
pass on your ship, no rife in the battle,
no hat on your head, no coat for your
back, no Shoes for your feet.
Better travel on toward eternity bare,
headed and barefooted and houseless and
homeless and friendless than to go through
life without religion.
Did religion make Raleigh any less Of a
statesman or Havelock any less OF a
soldier or Grinnell any less of merchant
or West any less of a painter?
Why. my friends, religion is the best
security in every bargain; it is the sweet.
est note in every song; it is the brightest
gem in very coronet. No time to be re-
figious? 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
it for that walk through the darkness
which otherwise will be illumined only
by the whiteness of the tombstones! NO
time to educate the eye for heavenly SPLEEN
doris or the hand for choral harps or the
ear for everlasting songs or the soul tor
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, II will
come in perhaps at IL or II o'clock; L
will not be there at the opening of the
banquet, but l will be there at the close"
Not yet! Not yeti Now, | do not give
any doleful view of this life, There IS
nothing in my nature, nothing In the
grace Of God, that tends toward doleful
view Of human life.
/ have not much sympathy with Ad::
dison's description of the Vision OF
Mirza," where he represents human life
as being bridge of hundred arches and
both ends of the bridge covered with
of them falling down through the first
span and all of them falling down through
the last span.
1t is very dismal picture. l have not
much sympathy with the Spanish proverb
which says, "The sky is good and the earth
is good; that which is bad is between the
earth and the sky"
But, while we as Christian men are
bound to take a cheerful view of life, we
must also confess that life is a great un-
certainty and that man who says, Il
can't become a Christian because there is
time enough yet" is running risk in
finite.
You do not perhaps realize the fact that
this descending grade Of sin gets sleeper
and sleeper and that you are gathering
up a rush and velocity which after awhile
may not answer to the brakes.
Be not among those who give their
whole life to the world and then give their
corpse to God. 1t does not seem fair that
while our pulses are in full play of health
we serve ourselves and serve the world
and then make God at last the present of
a coffin. 1t does not seem right that We
run our ship from coast to coast carrying
cargoes for ourselves and then, when the
ship is crushed in the rocks, give to God
the shivered timbers. 1t is a great thing
for man on his dying pillow to repent
better that than never at all; but how
much better, how much more generous, it
would have been if he had repented fifty
years before My friends, you will never
get over these procrastinations.
We have started on march from which
there is no retreat. The shadows of
eternity gather ON our pathway. How
insignificant is time compared with the
vast eternity! As was thinking of this
one day while coming down over the Ale
ghany Mountains at noon, by that won
derful pass which you all have heard de-
scribed as the Horseshoe-a depression in
the side of the mountain where the train
almost turns back again upon itself, and
you see how appropriate is the name of
the Horseshoe-and thinking on this very
theme and preparing this very sermon, it
seemed to me as If the great courser OF
eternity speeding along had just struck
the mountain, with one hoof and gone on
into illimitable space. So short is time,
SO lnSlgnllCdnC rs Sdlth, cohpaieu Will
the vast eternity! This moment voices roll
down the sky and all the worlds of light
are ready to rejoice at your disenthrall-
ment Rush not into the presence of the
King ragged with sin when you may have
this robe of righteousness. Dash not your
foot pieces against the throne of cruel
fed Christ. Throw not your crown of life
off the battlements. All the scribes of
God are at this hour ready with volumes
of living light to record the news of your