Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1908-02-20

NllN " anu vi IL llttlC OLu 1uut
workman today Is one Of the LEADING
merchants In one Of our western cities.
Does it pay7 Does It pay to be good?
Does 1t pay to do right? And, my
friends, II It does pay to do right, how
great must be the remorse that comes
when a man realizes that by his own
sins. his own %follies, his own evil
deeds. he has brought poverty and
misery upon himself and those he
loves1
You are not like a man who has been
brought up in an irreliglous home. You
know what the beauties and Joys Of the
gospel life mean. You have seen this
happiness revealed in your fathers and
mothers lives. You have felt the Joy
of the gospel in your W life. II I
mistake not, some years ago you Joined
the church. You have been a worker in
the Masters vineyard. Tell me, are
you going to put all that past Joy
away? Are you going to turn your
back upon the only life which you
know is worth living? Are you going
today to grip hands with sin and then
endure the evil results of the sin you
have brought upon yourself and your
dear ones? Remember that the condi-
ton of the man who has once known
the Christian hope and has departed
from 1t IL infinitely worse than that OF
the man who has never known It at all,
for then the specter Of remorse points
her finger at you and says, You have
brought this misery upon yourself, and
you alone are responsible And Jesus
fndeth him in the temple and said
unto him: Behold. thou art made whole.
Sin no more lest a worse thing come
upon thee
But when the backslider relapses into
evil he does more than clasp hands with
sin. He not only seeks sin. but he
turns his back upon God and the good
people with whom he used to associate.
AS the pendulum swinging in one di-
rcction gathers momentum and swings
Just as far in the othe direction, so the
backslider when he goes astray is apt
to go further astray because he has
once been good. AS remorse gnaws at
his heart. SO ingratitude makes him go
just rs far AWAY from good associates
as he possibly can go.
A Protese's lneratitudc.
Here, for instance, is n young fellow
whom you have made your protege.
You felt you had the means and ought
10 help some one In life. SO this boy
appealed to your sylnpathies, md you
took him to your heart. You educated
him and started him in business. You
pushed him rapidly forward. You
gave him an interest in the firm. You
loved him as a son. Time passed on.
Suddenly you awoke to an awful fact.
You found that this young man whom
you had loved had desecrnted your
home. You found that he had broken
every law Of justice and honor and
truth. The meancst human cur that
ever crawled in slime could not be
more untrue to YOU than he has been.
What do you do? Do you upbraid him
and make him suffer the penalty Of
the law? No. Like n loving father.
your heart is broken. You would like
to forgive him. You would even like
to give him another start. But he will
not let you love him. He will fee
away from you He will get just as
old. all hat he will do is to associate
with your enemies. And all that you
can do is to go weeping to you bed
chamber as You cry, "Oll, my son Alb
SALON., my son. my son Absalom!
Would God I had died for thee" Now,
my brother. is that the kind OF ingrati-
tude you mean to show to God? Are
you about to drift into sin? Are you
going to turn our back upon Christ?
Are you ready to separate yourself
from those sweet Christian associa.
tions which contribute TO our spiritual
life? Remember this: No Christian
man ever flung himself into sin but
he proved himself an Migrate and his
shame led him to get Just as far away
from God and from his people ms he
could 20.
There is another fact which the
Christian must bear well in mind.
Though the gospel life grows sweeter
and purer and more triumphant the
longer a man lives it. yet the Old scars
Of sin remain indelible. And when a
Christian bacl;slides it Is like the re.
lapse Of an attack Of typhoid fever or
pneumonia. The relapse is always more
dangerous than the first attack. Then
the physical organism Is weakened.
Then the disease car the more easily
attack the vital parts. You and l had
better beware. We ought never to let
those old wounds Of sin reopen. II
they are once allowed to bleed again
there will be a hemorrhage which will
sap away our lives.
Struck In Sam. Place.
You know there is an old proverl,
among the soldiers that In time of war
no two bullets ever struck twice in the
same place. But that is not always
true. Or. Ryan in his book entitled
Under the Red Crescent gives n
vivid account of the siege of Ka!afat.
The bullets were falling in a perfect
hurricane. Suddenly there came tum.
bling over the wall n monster shell.
and it crashed into the ground and
burst, tearing a great hole out of the
earth rs large rs n house. A poor
frightened mother gathered her three
children about her and ran to this hole
for protection, But hardly had she set
tied herself there than there was heard
the singing of another shell flying from
a gun two miles away. and it flung it.
self into that hole and tore those foul