The Twin Falls times. [volume] (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1905-1916, 1913-09-02


and confess it, kept sending him
books to read. BY and bye as | was
passing through that city he came up
to my room and l said, I'VE are all
wrong, and | am the worse Of the two
because | ought to have known better.
You are never going to get over your
doubts in this way Get down upon
your knees and let's pray" And we
got down and prayed, 20 God, clear up
this doubt. Show Thyself to be divine
to this Thy servant When we got up
| there was a new light in his face. He
did not say anything except Good
bye" Before | left on the train the
next day he came to me and said 1t is
alright, the doubts are all gone, every
one" Where have they gomez? Il
don't know" he said, God has taken
them away" He answers prayer. When
you have these doubts, no matter what
they are, doubts concerning yourself,
your salvation, doubts concerning the
great foundation principles of the
creed; doubts concerning the death OF
Christ upon the cross for your sins,
go right to God with them and say, Il
have these doubts. / will not doubt
Thee, but o God, take away these
QOuDtS, ana tne LORD Will,
Persistency.
One other thing l must mention, and
that is persistency. | tell you we need
persistency in order to prove our de-
votion to Him, to let the world know
we are devoted to Jesus Christ. The
difficulty is we want to be, we are
for earnest church work, earnest
Christian endeavor and earnest Sun
day school this year-next year where
will we be? One of the sad things in
this organization, the church-the
Christian Endeavor and Sunday school,
to me is that l do not see the same
faces year after year as / go from
place to place. don't mean there is a
universal change, but a great many
fall out. We want the persistency that
will keep at it. / remember the pro-
prietor of an ice cream saloon who
put up this sign:
HE bought this ice cream for his
darling,
And she ate, and she ate, and she ate,
Until she gave her heart to him,
To make room for another plate"
We need that in our lives. We need
an absolute devotion and love to Jesus
Christ. Love never fails. Everything
else fails but love never fails, it grows
bigger all the while. Devotion to
Jesus wants to grow bigger How it it
with you? Do you love Christ more
than you did year ago? Do you love
his service more than you did year
ago? Do you love his church more
than you did year ago? More than
you did week ago? Is your love in
creasing for Him? If not, alas, alas.
| am afraid your devotion has lots its
constancy Oh, to be loyal with
magnificent and ever increasing zeal
even unto the nd, not merely to hold
fast to the cross, but to hold fast with
such ever increasing faith that the
cross and ourselves will seem to lie
bound up as one.
The Forty Wrestlers.
In closing let me tell of that won
drous story of the Forty Wrestlers
representing the fidelity of Christians
to the Master. 1t was in the days
when it cost something to be Chris
t1an. In the city of Rome forty wrest-
lers appeared in the arena They were
found to be Christians. The emperor
sent them word to deny Christ or die
oh, Caesar, we have found this Christ
worthy of worship and we will not
give him up for you or thy false gods"
They were taken up into the north
eastern part of Italy to die. The GER.
turion and soldiers took them; they
reached the mountains and lakes at
midnight of cold winter night. They
stripped their bodies and sent them
out upon the deep to die That was
the decree. And when the centurion
thought they would cry out for help,
they cried out in glory:
Forty wrestlers, wrestling for Thee,
O Christ,
Claim from Thee the victory,
And ask of Thee the CROWN"
The Centurion was astonished. New
err had he heard of such thing. While
he wondered still through the mid
night darkness came back that cry so
Forty wrestlers, wrestling for Thee.
0 Christ,
Claim fro mThee the victory,
And ask of Thee the crown!"
The centurion wondered but still
fainter and fainter through the dark
ness, as death siezed one after the
other, but SO clear. as if angels from
Heaven were singing with them, came
back the wonderful cry:
Forty wrestlers, wrestling for Thee.
0 Christ,
Claim from Thee the victory,
And ask of Thee the CROWN"
1t was wonderful, and while he Won
1ered and pondered, the centurion
still listening, and by the light of the
camp fire he saw a figure creeping
over the ice, one of the forty wrest-
ers, saying, "Oh, save me, will sac
rifice to the Gods of Rome if my life
s spared" The centurion leaned to
lis feet. "a host dared to die for a
Master who could give such power!
Then, by the gods, 1 will take thy
place!" and flinging off his armor
re too went forth upon the lake to try
o take up once more that glorious re-
rain:
Forty wrestlers, wrestling for Thee.
Christ!
claim from Thee the victory.
And ask of Thee the crown!'
hat