Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1902-04-24

scoM; [ rather mplead you by the mem
ory OF those good old times when YOU
knels at your mothers knee and said your
evening. PRAYER and those other days of
sickness when she watched all night and
gave yon. the medicines at just the right
time and turned the pillow when it was
not and with hand long ago turned to
dust soothed your pains and with that
voice you vii never hear again unless you
JOIN her IN the better country. told You
where she talked SO slowly, catching her
breath between the words-by all those
memories I ask you to come and. take
the same religion. It was good enough for
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 and
whipped back, crying, Come unto Me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and
I 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 mountain
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
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 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 focks Of
Christian graces may find pasturage IN
fields of bramble and rock.
a-bristle with fretfulness, though you
have temper a-gleam with quick light.
the horse feech, 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 il
a 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 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 anaens
us Who are SO tncoIIJescnt and so 1ncon-
eistent ronaotiraes. Show -..s how. Give
us an example.
Exudations from poisonous trees in our
neighbor's 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 di-
vides this world from the next, and not
the inconsistency of Christians, but the.
rod of faith, will wave back the waters
shod solemnities. Oh, then we will not
stop and say, '"There was "a mean Chris.
tian; there was an impure: Christian" :"
In that day as now, "If thou be wise, thou
shalt be wise for thyself, but if thou
my 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 rifle 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
or West any less of 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-
as %a s WhE y you onbsS w to to de tiee ons
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 splen-
dors or the hand for choral harps or the
ear for everlasting songs or the soul foI
honor. glory and immortality? One would
think we had time for nothing else:
Other persons apologize for not enter
enough yet. That is very like those per,
sons who send regrets and say. II vii!
come in perhaps at II or IL o'clock;
will not be there at the opening of the
banquet, but will BE- there at the close :,
Not yet! Not yet! Now, | do not give
any doleful view Of this lifs There ne ths +
grace Of God, that tends toward dolefu
view of human life.
i I have not. much sympathy With Ad
dison's description of the 'Vision ,.o
Mirza," where he represents human life
as being a bridge of hundred arches ans
both ends of the bridge covered witt
clouds and, the race coming on, the mos
of them falling down through the hrs'
span and all of them falling down through
the last span.
It is very dismal picture. I have not
much sympathy with the Spanish proverl
which says, "The sky is good Snd the eartt
is good; that which is bad is between ths
earth and the sky"
But, while we as Christian men are
. bound to take cheerful view OF life, we
must also confess that life is great un
certainty and that man who says, !
can't become a Christian because there Ii
time enough yet," is running risk In
| finite. .
You do not perhaps realize the fact tina,
this descending grade of sin gets sleeper
and sleeper and that you arc gathering
up a rush and velocity which after awhile
, NAV not answer to the brakes.
Be not among those who give then
. whole life to the world and then give then
corpse to God. It does not seem tar t1a'