The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1902-04-24


her; it is good enough for you. Aye,
make better plea: By the wounds and
the death throe of the Son of God, who
approaches you IN infinite love WITH
torn brow and lacerated hands ana
whipped back, crying, Come unto NE
all We that labor and are heavy laden' ana
L will give you rest!
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 a noun tilI
that it could not climb or to an abyss that
it could not fathom or to 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 haughtlest, 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 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 flocks OF
Christian 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 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 skillful doctor is in
q neighborhood where there are all poor
doctors, the best place for an enterprising
merchant to open his store Is in a place
where the bargain makers co 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 NEON
sistent sometimes. Show us how. Give
us an example.
Exudations from poisonous trees in our
neighbor's garden viii make very poor
balm for our wounds.
Sickness vii come, and we VII bG
pushed out toward the Red Sea which oil
vides this world from the next, and not
the inconsisJe ncy Of Christians, but the
rod of faith Will wave back the waters
as a commander wheels his host The
Judgment viii come, with its thundei
shod solemnties. Oh then we will no:
stop and say, There was 4 mean Chris
tan; there was an impure Christian"
In that day as now, ''If thou be wise, thou
shalt be wise for thyself, but if thou
soonest thou alone shall bear 1t. Why,
my brother, the inconsistency OF CHRIS
tians. so far from being an argument to
keep you away from God, ought to be al
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 II 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 Tor your
back. no shoes Tor your feet.
Better travel on toward eternity bare
headed and barefooted and houseless and
homeless and friend!ess than to 90 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 a 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; 1t IS the brightest
gem in very coronet. No time to be re-
leious? Why, you will have to take time
to be sick, 10 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 VIII be lllumlned only
bv the whiteuess OF the tombstones? No
time to educate the eye for heavenly splen-
doris or the hand Tor choral harpJ or the
car Jor everlasting songs or tAe soul LOT
honor, glory and immortality! One would
think we had time for nothing else.
Other persons apologize Tor not enter
inc the Christian life because it is time
enough yet. That is very like those per-
sons who send regrets and say, Il Will
come in perhaps at IL or II O'Clock; L
viii not be there; at t4e openl4g OF the 5e;
banquet, but 1 will be there at the close"
Not yet! Not yet! 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 doletul
view of human life.
/ have not much sympathy with Ad..
dison's description OF the Vision OF
AIrZa," where he represents human HE
as being bridge Of a hundred arches and
both ends OF the bridge covered with
clouds and. the race coming on, the most
of them falling down through the hrst
span and all OF them falling down through
the last span.
1t is a very dismal picture. 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 lie, 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 a 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. It 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 10 repent
better that than never at all; but how
much better, how much more generous. 1t
would have been If he had repented fifty
years beforel My friends. you will never
get over these REPRESENTATIONS,
We have started on a march from which