Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1907-06-21

What is II. Pauli Why are this
guilty man and this guilty woman
weeping? Have you been able 70 find
any sympathetic chord of affection
throbbing in their breastsT" ooh.
yes" answers Paul. even Felix and
Drusilla have listened TO the higher
calls of love in their past lives. Even
the most vile OF men and the most
corrupt of women have the germ seeds
OF gospel love in their lives il you can
only find them" Is not Paurs state
ment true? Can we not find the germ
seeds OF pure love even among the
most corrupt of social outcasts?
Aroused to Work.
Because men and women scorn our
pleas and turn deaf ears to our mes
sages is no reason why they can
not be brought 10 Christ If we only
appeal to them in the right way. Rev.
DR.. Justin Evans tells us that some
years ago some workmen were making
an excavation in Victoria park, London.
Suddenly the walls caved in aud the
workmen were imprisoned In the ditch
and threatened with suffocation.
Among the crowds of curiosity seekers
which gathered around there was one
man who stood looking on as listlessly
as most of the men who were standing
about. Suddenly woman called him
by name and cried: MAN, why don't
you get to work? Do YOU not know
your brother is down there in that
ditchT' With that the man threw off
his coat and went frantically to work
to save his brother. Family affection
stirred him. Thus every man and
woman can be drawn to work for
Christ If we only know upon what
chord of love to play, as that man
was reused from lethargic curiosity
into an intense energy by the call of a
brothers name.
1 wonder what appeal of love Paul
made when he was pleading for Jesus
Christ before Felix and Drusilla.
wonder If this beautiful woman ever
had golden haired little girl or boy by
her first husband? l wonder If she had
ever pillowed her darling's head upon
her breast and gently lullabed her to
sleep in the evening hour. l wonder if.
after she had been wooed into the land
Of sin by Felix, she had turned her
back upon her babies and left them be-
hind when she left her first husband?
l wonder if in the midnight hour some
times she heard those babies calling to
her when she awoke with start?
Then l wonder IL Off In the distance
she saw their white baby hands beck
oning and she heard the little voices
calling: Mother, motheri Are you not
coming back to me, mother? am your
baby. VIII you not come back to meY'
Yes, / have sometimes wondered IL
when Paul preached Jesus Christ to
Drusilla he did not turn and say,
Mother, wilt thou not give thy heart
to Jesus for the babies sake?r
But cannot close this sermon with
out asking myself just one more Ques-
ton. wonder IL PauI's martyrdom in
Rome had anything TO do with this re-
fusal of Felix to let Paul go free?
wonder If, when Paul was carried to
Rome, Caesar never examined into his
case ut all? But when the Caesar was
asked, "Shall Paul be beheadedf" he
merely said: "Well, If Governor Felix
would not let him go free he must be
guilty. Let him die" And 1 some
times wonder, if we refuse Christ to-
day, II there will not be some Caesar
living thousands OF miles away from
us who will be led to reject our Christ
merely because we are rejecting him
now.
IL Is an awful thing to think about
what Is going to happen after we are
dead. There Is beautiful story told
py captain Macnamara or the Ninth
Massachusetts, infantry that after the
first days battle OF Gettysburg the SOL
aiers, with empty haversacks, had to
lie down TO sleep with nothing to eat.
While the great army was resting for
the next days carnage one of the boys
OF his company, more hungry than the
rest and unable to sleep, rose and went
out to seek food among the dead he
knelt by the side OF one of his dead
comrades, opened his haversack and
found there four rolls. One by one he
put them into his own haversack and
arose TO seek his own place among the
living. After he had gone a few PAGES
he suddenly stopped. Then he retraced
his steps. He put those rolls back into
the dead mans haversack. He gently
drew the cloak over the dead mans
face and by his actions seemed to say.
II VIII not, 1 cannot, rob the dead"
But, though you and would not want
TO rob the dead, did you ever stop to
think that when we are dead in the
flesh our spiritual influences will still
be living on? Then we shall be infiu-
encing men and women toward Christ
or away from Christ, even as Felix.
the governor OF Judaea, Influenced the
actions or a Caesar In reference to q
Paul far away from Caesarea Pales-
tina after his official throne had been
handed over TO his successor, Govern
or Festus.
think IL was what Paul said of the
Judgment to come that stirred Felix
and made him tremble. Felix was fa-
miliar with the Jewish Scriptures and
knew what that Judgment meant. He
knew the danger he was incurring.
He knew that he must stand before
God and answer for the deeds done In
the body. No wonder he trembled.
But he took refuge, as so many do to-
day, in procrastfnatlon. He meant to
repent at some future time when he
had "a convenient season." NV broth.
er, do not put Off that time as FELIX
did. 1t may never come. Now is the
accepted time; now is the day OF sal
Vation.