The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1912-04-18

so WEaEaWE
backsliding, suddenly stopped in the
middle of his sermon and said:
How many Of you are backslid-
ers?'
Forty or fifty arose and in that
mute, ashamed faced way acknowledge
ed it. They sat down and he said:
81 wish you would tell me what
caused you to back-slide, why you left
the gospel train and didn't get back
on
Twelve or fifteen arose ard made
a specific announcement as to the rea-
son.
"A young lady arose and said:
Why, a young lady friend of mine
gave a card party and ! thought I
had to play the plan Of reciprocity and
give one too, and among those to whom
/ issued an invitation was a young
man who didn't play cards. / didn't
know that, and when he learned OF
the cause for which I had sent the i'm
~vitation he picked up his coat and hat
and walked out. I made up my mind
that as long as / did such things /
wasn't worthy to be a member of the
church.
"A good sensible eason
zone man arose and said:
81 think I back-slid when / kept
my store open for a little while on
Sunday to accommodate a few strag-
Cling customers
zone young lady arose and said:
"T think / back-slid by and through
the Dance
Sure. She said:
"A person could be a member of the
church and dancer
YES, and a burglar could be a
member of the church. Or a thief
could be a member of the church and
be a thief. Or a burglar or a hoodoo,
anything.
1T is one thing to be a member Of
the church and another thing to be a
member of the body of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Hits Unworthy Church Members.
There are a lot of people looking
into my face tonight who belong to
the church and if they were to die to-
night they would be in hell before the
whistle could blow tomorrow morning.
This girl said:
why, a person can dawnce and be
a member of the church. / attended a
dance and found my desire for praying
diminishing. 1 went to another dance
and my desire to read the Bible was
entirely eliminated
WIN is it so great a sin for man,
if he finds himself failing in the chris
tan life to quit; why so great a sin2'
81 will tell you. Christianity is not
-. 49, 49, E1. ,,-,1, - En~ ~INo-
ure; it is for God first, last and all the
time-a step to be carefully consider
ed before you take it, and eve devil
ate a hairs breadth from what God
lays down for you to live.
NOW, I have tabooed but two
towns / ever preached in. One is in
Iowa and the other is in Minnesota.
1 preached in a little good for nothing
town in Iowa at one time. They had
1900 people in the town when /
preached there eighteen years ago,
and they had 300 charter members in
an infidel club led by a fellow named
Dixon, who used to be a class leader
in the Methodist church. He ran a
one horse grocery store about as big
as a box car and / have counted as
Ihdly DIS lOILy -lWO liGl lOdAlAtS dIONAlu
there at one time, and whenever a new
preacher would come to town he
would give the members of the infidel
club permission to go and hear him.
One old brush rat used to come and
hear me preach. His old whiskers
were long and had a yellow streak
down the middle where the tobacco
juice had run for sixty years. That
old fellow could spit thirty feet and hit
a fly. He just squirted it through his
teeth like a hose. His old hair and
whiskers were knotted and twisted
and looked like a cows tail full of
cookie burrs. He never wore a coat, nor
a vest, nor galluses, just had a rope
tied around his waist and he would
come into the meeting with one pant
leg in his boot and the other leg hang
ing down.
"He looked as though ne never had
but one bath in his life and that was
the day he was born. He would sit
and cuss everybody for being a chris
tian, and yet here was a fellow who
used to acknowledge the Lord.
There is no good reaso why a a
should remain in a backslidden state.
In business life there are crises and
hard times. He may be able to over
draw his account in the bank or he
may not. The banker may know him
too well.
But / don't ARE who you are, il you
will call on God He will hear your
prayer and grant your petition.
God Will Hear Your Prayers.
"You may be impure in YOU life, or
be a booze fighter, but If you will cry
to God with an honest heart, he will
hear your prayers. There is no rea-
son a man should live in that condi-
ton.
AT the beginning Of the war Gen.
Robert e. Lee said to Gen. Winfield
Scott:
ct am a union man at heart, and
the thoughts of the possibility of the
dissolution Of the union fill me with
chagrin, but / consider it my duty to
cast my lot with my mother state. ]
must bid you, Sir General Scott and
the union, farewell and Gen. Robert
e. Lee followed that cause which at
last became a lost cause, and he
watched the glad Utopia which he had
pictured, that government for the es-
adjustment OF which and the princi-
pl 5 for the propagating of which,
through government affairs, he had
lost and suffered p~rivation, and he
stood at last, saw that broken, dis
mantled. overturned. ir~retrievable ruin
at his feet, and in that hour Of severe
| trial that Internal. contemplate octo-
pus Of hell, that used to disgrace our