Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1902-04-19

plete sovereign and yet man free agent!
They cannot understand it. Neither can
/. They cannot understand why a holy
God lets sin come into the world. Meth
er 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 Christian mother, training her chill
dren for God and for heaven, self-sac
rifcing, Christlike, indispensable seem
mgly to that household; she gets can
GER and dies" The skeptie says, II
can't explain that" Neither can l.
| can see how men reason themselves
into skepticiSm. With burning feet |
have trodden that blistering way.
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 il they
could get back to the old religion of their
fathers. Such men are not to be carl
catured, but helped. aud not through
their heads, but through their hearts,
When these men really DO come into the
kingdom OF God. they viii be worth far
more to the cause of Christ than those
who never examined the evidences of
Christianity.
Another Apology.
Other persons apologize for not enter
ing the Christian life because Of the in
corrigibility of their temperament. Now
we admit it is harder for some people to
become Christians than for others, but
the grace of God never came to moun-
tain that it could not climb or TO an abyss
that it could not fathom or 10 a bondage
that il could not break. The widest
horse that ever trod Arabian sands has
been broken to bit and trace. The mad
dest torrent tumbhng from mountain
shelving has been harnessed to the mill
wheel and the factory band, setting a
thousand shuttleS all a-buaz and a-clat-
ter. And the widest, the haughtest, the
most ungovernable man ever created by
the grace OF God may he suhdued 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 grow ON the sum
nit of the Jagged steep, and focks of
Christian graces may find pasturage in
fields of bramble and rock. Though your
disposition may be all a-bristle with fret
fulness. though you have temper
a.gleam with quick lghtnings. though
your ayarice be like that OF the horse
leech, crying, "Giver though damnable
impurities have wrapped YOU in ali CON
Stunning FIRE, God can drive that devil out
| OF your soul. and over the chaos and the
darkness he can say, Let there be light.
Converting grace has lifted the drunkarl
from the ditch and snatehed 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 lampiight
and scattered her sorrow and her guilt
with the words. THY sins are forgiven;
GO and sin no more" For scarlet sin
scarlet atonement.
Other persons apologize for not enter
ing the Christian life because Of the in
consistencies of those who brofess re-
ligion. There are thousands of poor farm
crs. 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 being 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. Every
bale of goods is 10 them a bale of dis
aster. They fail after awhile and 20 out
of business. But who declines 20 be a
merchant because there are so many in
competent merchants? There are thou
sands Of poor lawyers. They cannot
draw declaration that viii stand the
test. They cannot recover just damages.
They cannot help a defendant escape
from the injustice OF his prosecutors.
They are the worst impediments against
any case in which they are retained But
who declines 10 be lawyer because
there are 30 many incompetent lawyers
Yet there are tens of thousands Of peo-
pie who decline being religious because
there are so many unworthy Christians.
Now, / say it is illogical. Poor lawyers
are nothing against Jurisprudence; poor
physicians are nothing against medicine:
poor farmers are nothing against agri-
culture, and mean, contemplate profess
sors of religion are nothing against our
glorious Christianity.
False Lights TO BE Avoided.
Sometimes you have been riding along
on a summer night by swamp, and you
have seen lights that kiDdled over de-
cayed egetation-lights which are called
jack lantern or will-o'-the-w isp. These
lights are merely poisonous miasmsta.
My friends, on your way to heaven you
viii want better light than the will-o'-
the-wisps which dance on the rotten char
acter of moribund Christians Exuda-
lions from poisonous trees in our neigh
boris garden will make a very poor balm
for our wounds.
Sickness will come and we will be
pushed out toward the Red eea which d.
yides this world from the Dext, 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 thunder
sbod solemnities. Oh, then we viii not
stop and say, There was mean Chris
tan; there was a cowardly Christian;
there was an impure Christian" In that
day as now, III thou be wise, thou shalt