lib Shot
l£XJT. eriuood
W. H. SHERWOOD, D.D.
Sherwood's Solid Shot:
21 £m of ll)£ Sermons
OF THE
NEGRO EVANGELIST
AS PREACHED BY HIM IN REVIVAL MEETINGS, NORTH, SOUTH, EAST AND WEST,
AND REPORTED BY
george f. thompson,
Captain of Sherwood's Youth Missionary Band;
to which is added a collection of the heavy hits
■"vhich he deals upon the heads of his
congregations at times, styled
DEAD SHOTS.
BOSTON:
Mcdonald, gill & co., printers,
36 Bromfield Street.
COPYRIGHTED BY
W. H. SHERWOOD.
1891.
PRESS OF THE "CHRISTIAN WITNESS," BOSTON, MASS.
. DEDICATION
O Rt. Rev. H. M. Turner, D.D., LL.D., whose assistance
and encouragement have greatly strengthened me in my
weakest hour; Rt. Rev. B. W. Arnett, D.D., who appointed me
to the missionary department; Rev. W B. Derrick, D.D., who
appointed me agent of his department, making me thereby what I
am proudest of — an evangelist; Rev. A. J. Miller, A.M., at
whose happy home I am now being blessed; Misses Maggie
Arrington, Mamie Stewart, Claka Hilliard, Saphronia
Ellis, Ella A. Hubble, Prof. J. C. Crumpt, who have so
kindly aided me; and last but not least, to my affectionate and
devoted wife, these pages, as a faint expression of my obligation
and love, are dedicated by the
AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
In answer to the very urgent demand on the part
of those who have heard these discourses as well as
those who could not reach the meetings where God
through the instrumentality of them has blessed
thousands of souls, my reporter, a little boy, has
prepared a small portion of them for print. With
no disposition to gain high rank in the galaxy of the
Christian ministry, now so widely and so wisely read
for their wisdom and witty works, I send this little
volume forth, hoping that God who blessed them
when preached, will follow them to the fireside and
charge home on the hearts of those who peruse
them the solemn truths they contain. Should this
end be reached, even though they possess no literary
merit, they shall be far more exceeding in eternal
weight of glory.
Yours for salvation,
W. H. SHERWOOD.
5
INTRODUCTION.
In the introduction of these select sermons I ask
permission to say, that when I was asked to write
this introductory I thought that this was one chan¬
nel through which I might preach to the people as
far as this book is circulated. Preach ? Yes, preach !
for I am confident that whoever thoughtfully and
prayerfully reads these sermons must acknowledge
that he has been preached to.
I have listened to these sermons delivered when
the earnest manner, oratorical force, powerful style
and eloquent hight of the author were all organ¬
ized and operative, compelling reluctant sinners of
all grades, ranks, ages and conditions, to accept and
trust Jesus Christ, and live righteous and holy lives.
They are (by every sane person) declared to be purely
evangelical. I persuade all persons, especially the
young men of the African Methodist Episcopal
Church, to purchase a copy of these sermons. They
7
8
INTROD UCTION.
comprise the gospel plainly and lucidly taught and
illustrated. They equal any evangelical works I
have read in sound orthodoxy, real apostolical man¬
ner and Christian ethics. They are pre-eminently
powerful and the argument irresistible.
Dr. Sherwood's sermons are full of alliance and
faithfulness to truth. I am not alone in the high
recommendations of these sermons and the power
and quality of the author.
Dr. W. B. Derrick, Corresponding Secretary of
the Parent Home and Foreign Missionary Depart¬
ment of the African Methodist Episcopal Church,
says: —
" Glory to God in the highest! I have the honor of having given
to the Church and the race in the person of Rev. Dr. Sherwood an
efficient and full answer to the long-felt need and urgent demand for
an evangelist capable of his work and equal to the demand, devoted
to the evangelical work.
" Recognizing his powers and devotions a year ago in the Florida
Annual Conference, I ask for him for my department to travel as its
agent, all for the purpose of giving to the world what I saw in him,
a man mentally and morally as well as divinely prepared for this
especial line of Christian labor. And what has been the result
of one year's work? Two thousand souls and upward have
been added to our Church alone through his instrumentality,
besides the missionary work has been given new impetus wherever
he has gone. All races and all denominations are loud in his
praise.
" I repeat that I feel proud of the honor which gives the Church
and race as great an evangelist as ever graced a pulpit in Christen¬
dom. Let all hear him."
INTROD UCTION.
9
Dr. W. T. Anderson, Pastor of Bethel A. M. E.
Church, Vicksburg, Miss.: —
"To the Christian Fraternity: We, the members of Bethel
a. M. E. Church, Vicksburg, Miss., hereby certify that Rev. Dr.
Sherwood, the negro evangelist, has rendered most valuable
services to this city and surrounding community in the two weeks'
meeting which he has conducted here. Two hundred and seventy
souls have been happily converted to God, and added to our Church
in this short time, and the whole church seems regenerated since his
meeting here. The pastor preaches With more ease, the officers find
less trouble with their work, financial work goes easier and all the
wheels seem lubricated with oil of the Holy Ghost. We cheerfully
commend him to the Christian Fraternity everywhere."
Prof. H. T. Johnson, Pastor Visitor Chapel, Hot
Springs, Ark.: —
"A most singular need, from which colored churches and com¬
munities have been suffering for some time, is now being happily
supplied through the consecrated and able services of Dr. W. H.
Sherwood. I regard him not as the greatest negro evangelist, for
of this class we have had too few to mention. Having been with
him and knowing of the great fruits he has borne through the Spirit's
influence, I hesitate not in the least to accord him high rank among
the eminent evangelists of the day. I admire him because, as a
skilled and fearless handler of the Divine Word, he reaches his
hearers' hearts through their intellect. Let all pastors and churches
seek to secure him who would impress the minds and morals as well
as save the souls of our people."
Rev. J. C. Jones, Presiding Elder Fort Smith
District: —
" The greatest negro evangelist on the American Continent is in
the person of Rev. Sherwood, D.D. I first made his acquaintance
in Indianapolis; but I have met him since in this place, Fort Smith,
IO
INTROD UCTION.
in a revival and to say the least about him, as a gospel minister
of the present age, he has effected more good at this place than
has ever been known in such a short time. May God bless his
labor wherever he may go."
Rev. J. G. Grimes, Pastor Allen Chapel A. M. E.
Church, Pensacola, Fla. : —
"To whom it may come : I can safely say Rev. W. H. Sherwood,
D.d., is a great factor as an evangelist. lie has for three weeks
done the best work ever done by any in this city. Yes, the race
should be more than proud of Dr. Sherwood, for we have in him
a Sam Jones. I heartily commend him to any church in this
country."
Rev. R. Clopton : —
"Rev. W. H. Sherwood, D.D., is in my judgment a heaven-
ordained evangelist. The race has not his equal in this line of
Christian labor."
Rev. C. M. Johns, Pastor Butler Chapel, A. M. E.
Zion Church, Greenville, Ala. : —
" Rev. Dr. Sherwood is without doubt the greatest evangelist that
has ever visited this city. One hundred and twenty-six conversions,
the result of two weeks' preaching in our church."
Rev. Frank Ward, Pastor Sandy Ridge Circuit,
East Ala. —
" Rev. Dr. Sherwood strikes this city like a cyclone and carries
everything before the power of his preaching. Let every church
give him a hearing.1'
INTRO D UCTION.
II
Rev. W. Garrison Strong, P. E. Montgomery
District: —
"Rev. "W. H. Sherwood, D.D., the distinguished evangelist, an
honorable and faithful member of the Alabama Conference, A. M.
E. connection, is an able expounder of the Word of Truth.
" I cheerfully commend him to all lovers of good preaching and
bid him God speed."
Rev. E. W. Picikett, Pastor of First Baptist
Church, Greenville, Ala.: —
"I call public attention to the negro evangelist, Dr. W. H.
Sherwood, who is qualified spiritually and intellectually for the
work. He is a thunderbolt to a sleeping world. He is not only a
cyclone, but a cloud with abundance of rain, and cannot be excelled
as an evangelist."
Prof. J. T. Gregory, Principle of Public School,
Greenville, Ala. : —
"This is to certify that the Rev. Dr. W. H. Sherwood, the
wonderful negro evangelist, has been in our city for the past two
weeks, and I can truthfully say that his success has been great for
the cause of Christ. /He has also instilled new zeal and life among
some of our most inactive members. I cheerfully commend him to
the Christian cause wherever his lot may be cast."
Rev. G. W. Wetherspoon, P. E. Pensacola Dis¬
trict, Pensacola, Fla., Ecambia Co: —
" To all whom it may concern: This is to certify that Dr. Sher¬
wood is in every way worthy of your highest appreciation and
unswerving confidence, which conviction I have reached in com-
12
INTRO D UCTION.
mon with a host of others, after giving him a thorough hearing.
I have listened to his sermons and advice to the satisfaction of
many, and I take great pleasure in recommending him to all."
Prof. E. H. Kelly, Superintendent A. M. E.
Sabbath School: —
" Rev. W. H. Sherwood, D.D., is a blessing and an ornament
to the negro race as an evangelist. lie is not only an evangelist
but a moralist, and a theologian of the first magnitude. As an
expounder of the gospel he cannot be excelled.
Rev. F. A. Clinton, Pastor A. M. E. Zion
Church, Pensacola, Fla. : —
" Rev. Dr. W. H. Sherwood has beer, carrying on a series of meet¬
ings in our city with remarkable success. His meetings at Zion
Church were a success, to say the least. His sermons are just
grand. His special commendable trait is the zeal and earnestness
with which he goes about his work. We cheerfully commend him
to all churches with whom he may come in contact."
Pensacola Commercial styles his sermons, " Sher¬
wood's solid shot," and pronounces him "the
ablest colored divine."
Mobile Register; Mobile, Ala., Sep. 19, 1890, says:—
" Rev. Dr. Sherwood, the negro evangelist who has won such
fame as to be commonly called the Sam Jones of his race, is a
powerful preacher. His services Sunday night attracted a large
crowd of white people, who pronounced his sermon of the Prodigal
Son a "great sermon." It was logical, homely, pointed and
stirring from beginning to end."
The same paper said, two days later : —
" The negro evangelist, who is conducting a series of meetings
at Immanuel A. M. E. Church, was greeted with another immensely
INTROD UCTION.
13
large congregation of white and black last night, to listen to his
sermon on The Crisis in a Man's Life. It is spoken of to-day in
every circle as being a masterly effort. All say it was the most
powerful sermon ever heard by them. Will the negro evangelist
consent to preach for the white people where they may hear
him with comfort ?"
Brunswick Daily Times, Brunswick, Ga., Jan.
10, 1890, says: —
" Sherwood, commonly called the black Jones, is far from being
a crank. Headed by a band of small boys Saturday, playing a sacred
air, he marched down Main Street, stopping at the corner of Main and
First Streets, a man about 30 years old, took the stump, and to the
surprise of all he poured forth a most powerful and eloquent sermon
upon the heads of the curious by-standers. His subject was "Sin
and its Damaging Influence." The business men will do well to hear
him. We are informed that he will conduct meetings at the colored
Methodist Church."
Vicksburg Republican : —
"-On Thursday night the last of the revival services at Bethel A. M.
E. Church, by Rev. W. H. Sherwood, was held. During the evan¬
gelist's stay in the city he has attracted audiences of such dimen¬
sions as are rarely seen within houses of worship. His- simple
eloquence has touched many hearts, and will doubtless exercise a
lasting influence. The opportunity to hear his farewell sermon was
taken advantage of by Bethel's immensely large congregation.
It is stated that between 2,500 and 3,000 people listened to him."
Southern Christian Recorder: —
"' Behold the man!' Rev. Dr. Sherwood of the missionary depart¬
ment is said to be the preacher of the race. He is making the repu¬
tation of being the ablest and most successful evangelist of this age.
Such speaks well for the A. M. E. Church. Long has the negro
race called for an evangelist equal to Moody, Jones and Talmage
to the race and the world. We gladly say ' Behold the man.'"
14
INTRO D UCTION.
The Freeman: —
"The A. M. E. Church has produced a black Jones indeed. The
only difference is in point of eloquence and scholarship and power.
The black Jones is said to excel the white, and this is said by the
white papers."
Savannah Morning News: —
" The negro evangelist is doing a powerful work in reforming
the New Street Lane. God speed."
The Times Democrat: —
"We present our many readers this week the portrait of Rev. W.
H. Sherwood, the great negro evangelist; the Sam Jones of the
negro race! 'fwelve boys accompany him and furnish unsurpassed
instrumental music. The reverend gentleman is the wonder of the
age in bringing souls to Christ. More conversions are reported
under him than under any other evangelist. He begins his minis¬
trations in this city at Bethel A. M. E. Church (to-morrow), Sunday,
at n o'clock a.m., and continues during the day. The meeting
will be conducted two weeks. The pastor of Bethel Church
invites all to these meetings, especially pastors, of any denomination
whatsoever."
The L iving Way : —
" Rev. W. H. Sherwood, the " Black Sam Jones," accompanied
by twelve boys who furnish the music, is now assaulting the devil's
work in Vicksburg. He is said to be a powerful preacher and
makes the old sinners of the Hill City tremble."
Weekly Echo, Pine Bluff, Ark.:—
" The revival service by the negro evangelist.
" There has been quite a religious tidal wave sweeping over this
city for the last two or three weeks. The revival services going
on at St. John's A. M. E. Church have been the means of a large
number of persons making a profession of faith in Christ. One
INTRO D UCTION.
15
special and gratifying feature connected with a class of converts is,
that they are mostly from among the more prominent class of our
colored citizens."
Evening Call, Ft. Smith, Ark. : —
" Rev. Dr. Sherwood, the negro evangelist who has won
such fame as the Sam Jones of his race, is pronounced the ablest
negro preacher of this age. Upward of 2,000 conversions are
reported from his meetings last year. He begins his meeting here
Sunday at the A. M. E. Church. White and black are invited to
come and hear him."
The Christian Record: —
" Perhaps it is not generally known that there is such a thing
as a really successful evangelist of the race, and if any man ever
was, it is Rev. Dr. Sherwood, of the missionary department of the
A. M. E. Church. • This brother has received in our own Church,
since January 12, one thousand souls. He is spoken of by
the secular papers, even those published by the whites, as being the
noblest negro preacher the age has produced. These papers plead
with the people to hear him. He is not only an able and eloquent
divine, but he is the most earnest advocate to which an audience
can listen. The race has at last produced a man in the evangelical
work equal in power and success, as well as in ability, to any Jones,
Moody, Marshall, or any evangelist of the age. Thank God for
such a man. He is now in Mobile, stirring that city to her very
heart. Crowds which cannot be seated are in attendance upon every
one of his services. The widest introduction which your paper can
give will not equal his power. He ought to be known of and heard
everywhere, for certainly no living preacher is doing more for the
conversion of the world and the purification of the Church than Mr.
Sherwood. He goes into his sermons as if it was his last, and few
men of Satan can stand before him. The specially commendable
trait is his zeal and the earnestness with which he presents the
claim of religion."
^ introduction.
16
With this host of just, impartial and varied
recommendations and commendations, I hazard no
risk in introducing these sermons to all mankind
for their actual worth in the domain of literature,
for simplicity of composition, orthodoxy of claims,
comprehension of gospel truths and power to save
from hell those who hear or read. My prayer to
God is, that when I am sleeping in the grave, waiting
the arrival of the great day, that these sermons will
be as powerful to those who read them as they are
to those who now hear and live.
Yours for the advancement of Christian religion to
a glorious consummation of all antagonisms to it.
A. J. MILLER, A.M.,
Pastor o/Quinn Chapel, A. M. E. Church, Ft. Smith, Ark.
CONTENTS
SERMON I. page
The Young People called into Christian Activity 19
SERMON II.
Procrastination — Its Sinfulness, its Folly, its Dangers and
its Doom • 31
SERMON III.
A Call to Decision 46
SERMON IV.
The Seven Certain Sinking Steps of Sin; or, Seven Doleful
" D's " 59
SERMON V.
The Crisis 74
SERMON VI.
Deathbed Repentance a Farce 89
APPENDIX.
Dead Shots 109
17
SERMON /.
THE YOUNG PEOPLE CALLED INTO
CHRISTIAN ACTIVITY.
" The Lord hath need of him." — Mark i i : 3.
This discourse will be delivered to the Church,
commissioning it to go forth into the world and to
bring- to Christ the young men and women who are
standing out upon the fields of idleness and sin, and
who are drifting down the broad stream to ruin.
The passage of which the text is a part is the
narrative of Christ's triumphant ride into Jerusalem.
He sent His disciples out in search of an animal on
which to ride up to that grand seat of human wealth
and power. Knowing the trouble they would en¬
counter, He told them just what to do and say on
this occasion. They were to go into the city
and unto a certain place. They were to find
two, but unloose only one animal, and bring him to
19
20 SOLID SHOT.
the Master. But somebody is going to meddle:
"Why, and by what authority do you untie that
colt ? " Should they question your course, say unto
them : "The Lord has need of him." Tell them
this and they will let you alone. This answer is
sufficient. It carries with it force and authority,'
" The cattle on a thousand hills are His." He can
send for one when He pleases. They belong to
Him.
We wish to notice a few of the most prominent
features of this text in its connections, as it is anal¬
ogous with our high commission, and from them
draw a few brief deductions, and apply them.
i. The Situation of the Animal. He was stand¬
ing out beside an old animal. The young one,
which the Master would prefer to ride, is tethered
out by an older animal. Is it not alarmingly thus
with the young people of this generation ? How
many bright hearts which God would gladly employ
are this day standing tied out under the wicked in¬
fluence of some old sinner ? Many *dear, bright
youths whom the Master calls into the vineyard to
labor, are now fettered at home by parental influ¬
ences ; fastened to bad habits by domestic obliga¬
tion. Parents, beware that your children do not
SOLID SHOT.
21
cast their sins in your teeth. How many poor
children, who would be only too glad to join in the
sweet melodies that roll up from the Sunday
school, are held away to serve their thoughtless,
heartless and ungodly parents and guardians ? How
many poor wretches would exchange their lives to.
day for a life of virtue and right, but are tied;
chained to a life which their very souls abhor.
They were tempted and dragged down by the same
scoundrels who keep them there. What a pity!
And if it is her whom the Lord desires most to en¬
gage— the most beautiful, the most amiable and
the most talented, who is fastened outside by an old
sinful human fiend, who won't be a Christian him¬
self, neither will he let her be. God help us to un¬
loose her during this meeting. I am told there is
a woman living a filthy life in this city, toho said to
one of the pastors, " Elder, I wish I could seek God
and join the church : but he won't let me go to
church, especially to revivals. He is afraid I will
join the church and change my life." O, my
God ! that poor woman is fastened! Shfe is being
tortured under the poisonous fangs of that human
hydra, and that fiend is a white man ! A woman
said to me in Montgomery, Ala., and she was one of
22
SOLID SHOT.
the finest looking women of my race ; she was a fine
talker, too, probably the most excellent conversa¬
tionalist I ever heard: " Doctor, I am so tired of living
the life I am, that I am sometimes of a great mind
to kill myself." " Well," said I, " why don't you quit
living that sort of a life?" "Oh," said she, "I
would, but I cannot. I see no way to get loose from
this man-." "Well," said I, "how did you come to
be thus tangled up with the man ?" " My mother is
the cause of my being where I am. He lived with
my mother all her life, and she made me consent
to be his before she died, and the two years she was
sick in this house she made me take her place,
though I was no more than fourteen years old."
Great God! what a hellish monstrosity some
mothers are ! Tied outside by some older animal!
- Again: The animal was at the forks of the road.
The evangelist describes it as being a place where
" two ways met " ; that is to say, at the forks of the
road. The colt had not fully chosen his direction.
He had not decided on which course to pursue.
He had neither selected the wild prairies nor the
fenced clover ; neither the variegated landscape nor
the verdant lawn ; but was at the point where,
when he moves once more, his whole future life
SOLID SHOT. 23
will tend in that direction. Christ knew this.
That was the proper place to arrest him. Had the
Master waited until the young animal had set his
head in the wrong direction; it is likely he never
would have been turned. Oh, how important to
check the downward tendency of youths before they
are beyond hope of recovery. Stop the boy while
he is at the forks of life's mysterious and difficult
road. There stands the boy : on his right hand are
paths of virtue and on his left are paths of vice.
Along them are the graves of the mighty mul¬
titudes who have gone over them before him.
Voices arise on every side calling him hither. By
the one he is advised to seek after wealth ; by the
other told to run after fame. On the one hand lie
is instructed to follow after Jesus ; by another he
is tempted to a life of folly and sinful pleasure.
Run there, oh Christian, and bring him to Jesus.
Yonder stands the fair girl. She is just entering so-,
ciety. She has reached the gateway which* leads
down from the fireside and out of the confines of
the front yard. She stops a moment as if pensive,
in quest of a guide to lead her. On either side of
her are the paths of life, both worn smooth by the
footprints of those who have preceded her. On one
24 SOLID SHOT.
hand a voice of music and mirth rings in her anx¬
ious ears, the wild shouts of the gleeful and the
giddy, the attractive charms of sensual life, are all
portentious in their solicitations to direct her inno¬
cent steps in their deluded ways. There is the de¬
luded female, the victim of some mean man's vice>
holding out examples and inducements — for mean¬
ness wants company. There, creeping upon her is
the same vile serpent that ruined Eve of old —
in his hand the decoying article which her fancy
and fondness both envy and approve, and which she
can neither refuse with modesty nor resist with in¬
dignation and scorn, nor yet yield with impunity.
Run there and bring her to Christ! She is at her
crisis — her weal or woe. But again the animal was
young. It was a colt that had never been ridden,
on whom man had never sat; his mouth, therefore,
was tender, and he could easily be trained to the
•bit; his temper, young and innocent, could easily
be curbed and restrained to the will of the Master.
Christ wants the young while they are young and
. innocent of many of the grosser vices that are
damning the world of mankind. Christ wants them
before their necks are tough and callous. He wants
them that He may grow them up to His yoke; then
SOLID SHOT.
25
they will never depart from it. He did not send for
the old animal. She was too old and cunning for
the Master to trust on such an occasion. The
Master chose the young animal because his mouth
was tender; not hardened by jerks and abuse, but
soft and tender. Oh, for more tender mouths in the
Church! Christ wants a mouth that you can bridle,
a mouth that can be silenced by the fall of the gavel
on the table, a mouth that rolls out smooth in¬
stead of rough words in the heat of debate, a mouth
that is free from slander and in which " there is no
guile." Christ wants the young before their wills
are too stubborn to be governed by the law of the
Church. The young can be bent to the discipline,
the old cannot. The colt could have been ridden
anywhere, the old animal could not; she would have
kicked first. So with man : if you wait till he is old
before you get him into the Church, he will give
you trouble. Christ wants them before their habits
are fixed and formed, for fixed habits are rarely ever
changed; even after conversion old habits of sin
bear heavily upon their victim. Christ wants the
young before their characters are blotted by dissipa¬
tion and pernicious practices. Christ wants you
while you have a pure, virtuous character. Then
26
SOLID SHOT.
you can be of some interest; He may use you
then as an instrument in His hands for the sal¬
vation of the world. Now is the time to arrest the
young man. Another summer spent in sin may
disqualify him for life to be of any comparative
value in the army of the Lord. Now he may be
utilized for God's glory.
2. They were to bring the young animal, even
though an objection be raised.
Men will question your right to untie the colt and
take him to the Lord; but you must reply, " The
Lord has need of him." My dear brothers and
sisters, we must bring these young people to Christ,
though in doing so many will bitterly oppose us.
We must untie their precious intellects from the ig¬
norant and effete notions of superstition and fogy-
ism ; we must disabuse their minds of the great sen¬
sational darkness that hangs like a pall of death over
two-thirds of our race. We must lift up the Son of
God to dispel the dark cloud of folly that now
covers the face of our intellectual firmament and
obscures the pure truth as it is in Christ the Lord.
We must bring them to the "Light" and "Life"
and "Love" of Jesus, whatever be the hindrance;
the- harvest is ripe and must be gathered. We
SOLID SHOT.
27
must lay aside our scruples and our timidity.
These precious jewels must be collected. " Go out
into the highways and hedges, and compel them to
come." The world is Christ's and must be sub¬
dued. The sheep are His; though astray, they
must be brought in.
3. Let us attempt an improvement on the senti¬
ment contained in the text; first: —
" The Lord hath need of him." Yes, God has need
of these young people, and prefers their conversion
because, in the first place, they are strong to do
battle for the Lord. The contest between the
Church of God and this old world is very close and
intensel/ fierce. Satan has strongly fortified him¬
self, and it requires great physical strength to
storm his fort. We must sometimes meet on
common ground and fight the enemy face to face.
He has intrenched himself within our natures, and
it requires tremendous physical force to dislodge
and drive him out. Strong for long marches. Oh,
there is" a great demand for young, strong-armed
men to carry heavy field pieces; strong young
men to quickly wheel the guns into line ! It re¬
quires strong, brawny muscle to manage the heav¬
enly artillery and to pour death and confusion into
28
SOLID SHOT.
the rank and file of the devil. Strong in valor.
The need of the age is a valiant ministry that will
not cater to the whims of the deluded multitude, a
fearless, dauntless, manly ministry, who will raise
their guns against sin of every kind, and pour it
into Satan till he hauls down his flag; a ministry
that will preach against sin of every name and
nature, and every class of sinners.
Second, God needs the young people, because they
are mentally strong. Their minds are bright and
vigorous ; not burdened with the many cares of life,
nor distracted by the torturing reels of aged palsy,
but are young, sound and ready to imbibe his pre¬
cepts. Their spirits are bright and gay, and in the
best condition to receive the impress of the cross.
Their intellects are brilliant and amply cultured and
well prepared for the reception of His holy senti-
timents and the adoption of His virtuous princi¬
ples. There are many spurious books being dis¬
tributed among the people, for the purpose of sup¬
planting the true gospel. We want strong men in
the ministry and in the Sunday schools, men whose
minds are richly stored with knowledge and who
will " contend for the faith that was once delivered
to the saints."
SOLID SHOT.
29
Third, God wants the young people, because they
are injluentially strong. Who can estimate the
power of the influence of yonder amiable young
lady? What an influence she has over the young
men who admire her! How they hang entranced
upon the very move of her lips! What a gloom
one frown from her sweet face would cast over the
features of that young man who thinks she is the
sweetest thing in the world, and yet what sunlight,
what transparency her smiles send forth upon the
pathway of the one whose greatest happiness
depends upon what she thinks of him! There is a
power in your hands, O lady ! How grand if you
would just utilize that beauty and that influence for
Christ! Christ gave you that endowment of beauty
to bless Him with, and why will you use it to build
up the kingdom of the wicked one? God help us
to bring them in ! O sweet girl ! say with David
of old, "All that I have shall praise the Lord." If
you have influence, exert it for the Lord. If you
have beauty, bring it as an offering to lay on God's
altar. Make everything subservient to the will of
the Master. Christ wants you because you are mor¬
ally strong. Oh how blessed it is to join the church
while One has an untarnished reputation ! before you
30 SOLID SHOT.
lose your influence. Now, while you may adorn
the church like beautiful flowers, is the time to'
come. We, the church, can boast of our honorable
children. Wait not till Satan knocks a thousand
holes in your character, and has thus paralyzed your
energies forever. Oh hurry, brother, and get the
young man before he has lost his equilibrium.; rescue
him now, and bring him to Christ, "for the Lord has
need of him."' Make haste, sister, and bring in
yonder young lady; she is reeling now ; a few more
shells from the enemy of her soul, and down she
will go into the quagmire of eternal degradation.
" Forth to the harvest field to-day,
Gather your handfuls while you may,
All day long in the field abide,
Lingering close by the Master's side.
Hark! the voice of Jesus crying,
' Who will go and work to-day ?'"
Who will go and bring in the young ? As many
as will go, please arise. Thank you. God bless
you all.
SERMON IT.
PROCRASTINATION —ITS SINFULNESS, ITS
FOLLY, ITS DANGERS AND ITS DOOM.
" Felix trembled and answered, Go thy way for this time: when I
have a convenient season I will call for thee."—Acts 24 : 25.
"Tomorrow shall be as this day and much more
abundant," was the saying of a drunkard of old.
But the expectation expressed in these words was
not confined to the days of the prophet.
Such has always been the fond calculation of
every sinful, foolish, and self-deluding man.
Each morning he awakes, he sees the same sun
which he yesterday beheld rising to gild the
heavens; he beholds the same world around him;
the same sky above him ; and, as one day passes
another, the continued recurrence of the same scene
deludes his practical judgment, making him feel that
these familiar objects are to remain forever; as
31
32 SOLID SHOT.
though his state were fixed and changeless on the
earth, and oh, it is in vain that reason remonstrates
and protests against this delusion ! In vain he is told
that millions before him have passed through the
same scenes and are now gone from them forever. (
In vain, too, wisdom tells him that soon a morrow
will come which his eyes shall not behold ; that soon
the worms of the dust will prey upon his body.
In vain the warning voice of his God speaks to
him and urges him to work while it is day, and
assuring him that " a night cometh when no man
can work."
He still lives on, a victim of voluntary delusions,
and is found foolishly expecting great opportunities
and long years of earthly enjoyment when even
treading upon the very verge of the tomb; oh, my
friends, how foolish and yet how frequent!
Not only is to-morrow to be as this day, but much
more abundant.
He expects the future to be better than the past.
In the dimness of futurity he discovers nothing
but the objects of his hope.
He sees no hindrance to their attainment.
He does not see the new difficulties, the numerous
perplexities and disappointments that await him.
SOLID SHOT.
33
Poor, misguided creature; he submits himself to the
pleasing dreams that at some future time all his
projects will be accomplished and all his desires
gratified.
Such are the delusions under which many to-day-
are naturally disposed to put off till some future
day the work of securing their eternal salvation.
May I persuade you this night not to surrender
yourself to any such a dangerous course as Felix
pursued, when he said to Paul, " Go thy way for this
time: when I have a convenient season I will call
for thee."
He had listened to the minister of the gospel as
" he reasoned of righteousness, temperance and
judgment to come," until he was made to tremble
in view of his ruined condition.
His judgment was convinced, his conscience
aroused, and his soul was alarmed. He thought
that the concerns of eternity were too awful to be
despised.
He thought that his soul was too important to be
neglected, so he resolved that he would give this
matter his attention.
But his occupations were then numerous, and his
temptations to go astray were strong, all things
34 SOLID SHOT.
combined to make that occasion appear peculiarly
unfit and unsuitable for the commencement of a
religious life.
He hoped that some future season would be more
convenient, and that more convenient season he
resolved to embrace. Thus he quieted the remon¬
strances of his conscience by a promise of future
amendment.
But this promise he never fulfilled. His impres¬
sions speedily wore away. He soon silenced by
sinfulness and dissipation the loud cry of an awak¬
ened conscience.
Instead of finding a more convenient season, each
successive season became more inconvenient. «■In¬
stead of becoming better he became worse. In¬
stead of repentance becoming easier it continued
to become harder.
He learned by his experience (what thousands
since him have learned by theirs) that in order to
insure our damnation nothing is more needed than
to defer our salvation.
Felix, too, my friends, had in all probability
greater and stronger reasons for his procrastination
than any of you can assign for the course which you
are pursuing.
SOLID SHOT.
35
He was the governor of a large province, and
accountable for its administration to a most strict
and cruel master. He, therefore, had a great
business pressure. He had stronger temptations to
pleasure. His great wealth offered ampler means
of gratifying his appetites and passions.
If, then, the guilt and consequences of procras¬
tination were not mitigated in the case of Felix by
any of those circumstances which he might have
pleaded in extenuation of his guilt, how can you hope
that similar but weaker excuses will avail you any¬
thing when guilty of the same offense?
1. The service of God is every man's highest
employment; his paramount duty.
It is his only source of permanent profit and
honor, and it is his only preservation from ever¬
lasting destruction.
This work, then, ought to begin at the very ear¬
liest opportunity.
The very first moment we learn that God accepts
and commands our service, we ought to enter upon
it with all the energy of our souls, fully assured
that the least delay in the commencement may be
ruinous and must be criminal.
2. It is a sin and a folly for any one to resolve to
36 SOLID SHOT.
do at some future time that which is as much his
duty now as it can be then.
The service of your Creator you feel to be your
duty, and acknowledge that you do when you prom¬
ise at some future time you will undertake its dis¬
charge. But all the reasons that prove it to be a
duty at all, prove it to be a duty now, and that there
is just as much obligation to perform it now as
there can be ten or twenty years from now.
" Now is the accepted time, now is the day of sal¬
vation " is the language in which God addresses us.
Again, "To-day if you hear my voice, harden not
your hearts."
He "now commandeth all men everywhere to
repent."
It is asserted or implied in every appeal God
addresses to the sinner that the moment he hears
His voice he is bound to obey it.
On what principle, my dear friend, can you
justify your conduct in withholding from God that
which is now His due ?
For a rational creature, guarded by God's care
and enriched by His bounty, to withhold from Him
his affections and service, is robbing God.
How, my dear thinkers, can such a course be pal¬
liated or defended ? Look at it further, dear friend,
SOLID SHOT. 37
and you must see that this conduct is as deeply
marked with ingratitude as it is with dishonesty.
God appeals to us as our Friend and our Father,
and as the Author and Sustainer of our lives.
He appeals to us as the Giver of all our blessings,
love and mercies, and asks us for our love and service
now, not to-morrow, not next week, or next year,
or twenty years, or when we get through serving
Satan, but now. But alas! His appeals and re¬
monstrances are alike in vain.
We acknowledge the debt, but refuse to make
any returns.
When a man, therefore, determines to postpone
the service of his God — as some of you are now do¬
ing, and have been doing a long time — to some fu¬
ture period, let him remember that it is a refusal
before the Searcher of all hearts to be governed in
his conduct toward God by those principles of
justice and gratitude which regulate his intercourse
even with his fellow-men.
Let him remember that it is a refusal to regard
in his conduct toward his God those ordinary prin¬
ciples of morality, the disregard of which in his
actions toward his fellow-men would not only bring
down upon him the indignation and scorn of the
38 SOLID SHOT.
virtuous, but would thrust him within the walls of
the prison, or drive him as an outcast from civil
society.
I leave it to your own common sense and your
consciences to estimate what must be the shameful-
ness and sinfulness of such a course in the eyes of
Him who seeth all things in their true colors, and
judges all things rightly.
I leave it to your own • consciences to conceive
the feeling with which God must regard such con¬
duct and the punishment with which He will visit
it. For the life of me I cannot think of anything
more deserving of the wrath of God than this.
The postponement of God's service is the post¬
ponement of ybur own enjoyment. If you will per¬
mit yourself to reflect calmly and seriously, you can¬
not fail to perceive that a life of faith and depend¬
ence upon Christ, a life of obedience and devoted-
ness to God, must yield, even in this present world,
far more happiness than a life of worldliness.
A religious life is one that is accordant with the
highest principles of our nature and promotive of
its perfection.
Our Almighty Creator has, as a wise and kind
father, framed all His laws with a view to the wel¬
fare of His children.
SOLID SHOT.
39
He has not debarred us from a single pleasure
that could be enjoyed without injury, nor has He
imposed upon us a single hardship that is not, in
some way or other, the means of increasing our
felicity.
That holiness from which men often shrink as
something irksome, unnatural and unendurable,
consists only in an entire abstinence from that
which is degrading and noxious, and the steady
pursuit of what is ennobling and delightful.
That God from whose presence men would often
hide themselves, and the very thoughts of whom
fill them with apprehension, is the light and joy of
the universe, is the One of whom we are assured,
" His love is life, and His loving-kindness is far
better than life."
Look at the pleasures which religion affords to
you even here, and mark how every moment you
remain away from her paths you are depriving your¬
selves of the best enjoyment of which your nature
is capable. Reflect upon the pleasure that might
be received from communion with the Father of our
spirits. •
" I will dwell with you and I will be your God and
ye shall be my people; ye shall be my sons and
daughters, saith the Lord."
4o SOLID SHOT.
Observe the permanent pleasure that springs
from confidence in God, and a sense of security amid
all the changing scenes and threatening evils of life;
to feel that " the arrow that flieth by day and the
pestilence that walketh in darkness " are alike con¬
trolled by One who delights in protecting us, and
will permit no real ill to befall us; to feel "per¬
suaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor hight, nor depth, nor any
other creature, shall be able to separate us from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord;" to
feel that under all circumstances " God is our ref¬
uge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
"Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be
removed, and though the mountains be carried into
the midst of the sea."
To feel thus must certainly insure a degree and
kind of enjoyment, for the absence of which no
amount of worldly good can ever furnish an equiv¬
alent. The pleasure of an approving conscience,
too, are found in the paths of obedience. Our sins
do not rise before us like ghastly apparitions, to
terrify us and threaten us with the vengeance of
an offended God. We can look back with tranquil
SOLID SHOT.
41
satisfaction on days spent in the service of God and
the nights in which our meditation on Him was
sweet.
We can realize the blessedness of that man
whose " sin is pardoned and whose iniquity is cov¬
ered."
The hope of an inheritance that is incorrupti¬
ble, undefiled and fadeth not away, is a source of
additional blessedness to those who are walking
in the paths of obedience.
" Most glorious things are spoken of the city of
God."
To this, as their final resting-place, the thoughts
of such as trust that they are redeemed by the
blood of Christ are often naturally and necessarily
turned.
No clouds of adversity can ever shut out from
their souls the light of an anticipated heaven; its
brightness can illuminate the darkest dungeon and
its glories are most clearly seen when the eye is
dimmed with tears.
Is it wise to postpone the commencement of a
course of life which God recommends as a course of
happiness and which the concurrent testimony of
the good and wise of all ages declares to be pleas¬
ant in its progress and glorious in its termination ?
42 SOLID SHOT.
You are now living on from day to day, sen¬
sible of your inability to guard against the ten
thousand accidents, any one of which may be fatal
to you, yet without any higher being to confide in
as your Protector and Friend; conscious of the
guilt of many sins, yet with no security against the
dread retribution which an awakened conscience
may exact; assured that you are to exist forever,
yet with no hope beyond the grave; aware that
you are a pensioner on God's bounty, yet a rebel
against His government, and that while living in
His world you are living under His frown.
Is it not folly and madness to continue even for a
day in such a condition ? As long as you decline
to break off your sins, you are busy in laying up ma¬
terial for your own punishment—you are provid¬
ing a store of pains and penalties that must be un-
lured in the subsequent part of this present life. ,
Many of the consequences of our sins remain,
even after their pardon has been obtained.
God may and does pardon upon repentance and
remit the punishment annexed by His moral law to
our sins.
Sins repented of will not meet us in the future
judgment, but the punishment which follows them
SOLID SHOT.
43
from the natural laws — those painful consequences
of our sins that by our constitution and circum¬
stances we are made to suffer — these He usually
permits to remain.
Thus a broken constitution is not repaired by a
tardy repentance.
God will not give back your property squandered
in sin.
God will not refund your money lost in riotous
living, nor opportunities misused. Your evil habits
and your depraved appetites formed by indul¬
gences which His law forbids will not be eradi¬
cated by a sudden resolution.
Those internal foes which you are nourishing
to your own hurt will cost you many a sigh, many
a groan and many a struggle to overcome; and
their complete conquest, if ever effected, will per¬
haps be effected only by a dissolution of your body,
j How many dark hours are so often spent, by
one who has trifled away the better years of his
life, in looking back on the past ?
How often he sees deeds done that he would
freely give the world if he could only undo !
He sees, perhaps, around him the ruin which he
has wrought and which he strives in vain to re-
44 SOLID SHOT.
pair. He sees fast drifting toward the cataract of
ruin, those whom his example had drawn, or his
hand had compelled into the stream.
Regardless of his entreaties and cries, they hurry v
on to destruction, and he feels that though he was
once mighty to do evil, he is now powerless to do
good.
Why should a man object to coming to God when
in each moment of his delay he is busy sowing the
path of his life with briers and thorns to pierce
his soul in the days' that are to come ? The
worldly poet was right when he said, "God makes
scourges of men's pleasant sins to whip them with."
You are plaiting now those scorpion lashes by
which your heart is to be lacerated.
Will you delay the glorious service of your
Master to continue in this work ?
Will not repentance for the sins already com¬
mitted be hard enough for you without bringing
down on your poor, guilty, ruined soul, the crime
unpardonable, "the sin against the Holy Ghost"?
How much lower down the hill of dissipation do
you want to go, before you undertake that reforma¬
tion which it will take all of your remaining days
to secure ?
SOLID SHOT. 45
You have committed already sin enough to damn
a hundred characters like yours.
May God awake you to a sense of your danger,
folly and sinfulness this night while His mercy may
be sought and found !
Don't criminally sink your soul to hell, my friends,
by the suicidal apology that at some future day you
will be unencumbered and can pray better.
This is the best day you ever will have in which
to come to God.
SERMON III
A CALL TO DECISION.
" How long halt ye between two opinions ? " — i Kings 18: 21.
The prophet had long desired the opportunity
which this occasion furnishes him. He had labored
long and faithfully to destroy idolatry and establish
belief in the one only true God, but there had been
no really effective way of disputing the doctrine of
idolatry; but now the prophets of Baal consent to
a fair test of their power.
He comes to all the prophets of Baal and ad¬
dresses them with this important interrogation,
" How long halt ye between two opinions ? "
I do not wish to be unreasonable with you, I
don't ask you to serve a God who cannot prove by
His own works that He is God. Thank God our
religion is rational. We can give a rational cause
for the hope that is within us, and thank God our
religion is testable.
46
SOLID SHOT.
4 7
Let us try our God and prove Him. This is an
important interrogation. The answer demands
decision. No one can act without it; decision is
necessary. How long will you stumble along with¬
out it ? Why sit here grieving over the matter of
religion ?
There is but one God and but one thing to do —
receive or reject Him.
Now which will you do ?
If you want light on the subject I will give it.
Will you receive? Yes, said the people. All
right; let us serve the God who answers by fire.
We notice three particular features in this text: —
1. An important interrogation.
2. A test of the powers of sin, in contrast with
those of righteousness.
3. A glorious success of the latter, but a miser¬
able failure of the former.
These men who halted between two opinions had
an opportunity to test the power of the god of this
world, in contrast with that of Elijah's God which
they accepted and proved.
They had a fair test; and if difference in the test
is found at all, it is all in favor of Baal, and yet our
God triumphs.
48 SOLID SHOT.
They call for three hours at the tops of their
voices. Four hundred and fifty men at once
unite their cries and call on the god of this world,
from the very depths of their souls; listen as they
cry : —
" O Baal, hear us !" " O Baal, hear us ! " But
Baal hears them not.
He cannot send the fire down.
They cry until they become exhausted, and yet
no answer, no reply; no fire — not even a spark
came, though they shed their blood before his
altar. They call his attention to the fact that
he is on test, and yet he is utterly unable to move
his sodded lips even in his own defense. They
cut themselves and fly upon the altar and tear it
asunder; to their utter despair they find that
Baal does not nor cannot answer them, nor send
even as much as one spark of fire.
How many times, O sinner, have you witnessed
the power of God, shown to the miraculous over¬
throw of the powers of this world? How often has
He proved to you that all power is His and besides
Him there is none that can do anything ? Yet you
halt between two opinions as to serving Him. You
are worse than those Baalimites with whom Elijah
SOLID SHOT. 49
came in contact on Mount Carmel, for when they
had been fairly convinced they repented, turned
and slew the prophets of Baal, and acknowledged
the God of heaven.
But, in the face of all the established truths of
the gospel, you still halt; in the face of all the
workings of Providence, all the wonders of the
universe, and the frightening signs of the times.
Although your god (the devil) has failed in every
instance to help you one particle, and when you
call on him cannot send one comforting spark of
joy, nevertheless you stand halting as to whether
you will forsake him.
Elijah had not more than begun to call on his
God before a mighty voice .was heard in the skies.
They look up, and to their astonishment they see
the fire rolling from the skies. God has sent it
there in answer to His servant's prayers, and in
proof of His power.
Sin cannot measure arms with righteousness, nor
can the sinner stand in the congregation of the
righteous.
These people were convinced.
Why can't you be? They decided then and
there. Why can't you ?
SOLID SHOT. 51
works of God, vanish away like an April snow
%
before the noon-day sun. They place their hope in
the gods of this world and fancy themselves safe,
but alas 1 when the trying hour comes, they find
they are sold by the rock in which they trusted.
"They lean upon their house, but it shall not
stand; they hold it fast but it does not endure."
"It is like a spider's web." The sinner takes
refuge under the shelter of the wings of the gods
of this world, but finds them miserable failures.
Satan cannot help the troubled sinner though he
cries to him with all his heart. He, like Baal,
cannot help, but proves a miserable failure.
How many men and women, troubled to death,
have gone to the devil for ease and succor, and
when he could not give it "have cut their throats or
hanged themselves? Hence their god has proved
a miserable failure.
I He has abandoned them at the hour when they
most needed him: How long then will you halt
between two opinions — whether the Lord is God
or Baal ?
But the Lord proves a glorious success.
As soon as He is importuned He sends the fire.
He pours down a stream of proof, licks up the
sacrifice, and manifests Himself to His servant.
^ 2 SOLID SHOT.
He refutes anything that may have been said
against Him and His omnipotent power and His
tender regard for His people. What a glorious
success! What a powerful triumph over infidelity
and idolatry!
What a mighty manifestation of His wondrous
love for His prophets !
Let us examine some of the grounds for your
halting. Have you any reason for halting between
two opinions ? Do you doubt the existence of a
God? Do you live within sight of His throne and
yet deny His existence ? Have you gone the world
over and can find nowhere a trace of His footsteps ?
Have you traveled the circuit of the earth and can
find no tracks of the Deity ? no marks of His
handiwork ? Can you prove that all these moun¬
tains spring into existence by chance ? Can you
show that these mighty wonders of the vast creation
came of themselves, and that the marvelous wonders
of the solar system are the works of some finite
being ? Have you gone to the uttermost parts of
the earth in search of proof for'God's existence, and
found none ? Can you account for your own living
if there be no God ? Tell me now, sinner, have you
examined the great volume of nature and found no
marks of God's finger?
SOLID SHOT. 53
Have you listened to the howling winds and
heard not His voice there ? Have you witnessed
the perilous travel of the cyclone without seeing
His mighty hand ? If you have done these things,
then you have some grounds for halting. But again,
sinner, have you examined the Bible and found it
false ? Have you examined the New Testament and
found there no trace of the blood of the Redeemer ?
Have you visited Calvary and seen no marks of His
death and suffering ?
If you are prepared to prove that all this is a fable,
and that what is recorded in the Scripture respecting
the ignominious death is false, then you have grounds
for your indecision.
But alas ! my dear sinner, this you cannot prove;
many skilled heads and hearts have tried to refute
this and have perished without the accomplishment.
Greater men than you have spent fortunes in
vain attempts to nullify these plain proofs, but, like
Baal, have proved sad and miserable failures.
Then' how long will you halt between two opin¬
ions ? Let me call you to a decision.
I see no grounds for halting. I see no need of
sitting here pensive and undecided about Christ and
your soul. If there be a God whose wrath we can-
54 SOLID SHOT.
not bear, why should we halt as to whether we
will serve Him or not?
If there be a hell, — where the worm dieth not, and
the fire is never quenched, where I am lost to
peace, lost to happiness, lost to home and its sweet
influences, lost to family comforts, lost to friends
and their dear associations, lost to everything that is
dear to me, lost in prison where the chains will bind,
where the fire will burn to my very inmost vitals,
where the worm will gnaw at my heart, where
memory will live and conscience speak, where the
winds will howl to winds, thunder mutter to thunder,
lightning flash to lightning, storm rage against
storm, where the fiery waves of God's vindictive
wrath will dash against the rocks of dark damnation,
— why should I halt between two opinions as to
whether I would better escape it or not ? Oh, if
there is a place where God pours his vengeance in
one eternal storm, where the wrath of God abideth
forever, and rages, and beats upon naked souls
without intermission ; a place of blackness and ever¬
lasting contempt prepared for the devil .and his
followers, where there is not one cheering beam of
hope or spark of glimmering day, but all is blackness
and eternal gloom; where everything around me
SOLID SHOT. 55
is changed for worse than language can express;
where the only music I hear is the awful
screaming and howling of the damned spirits
like myself; where there is wailing and gnash¬
ing of teeth; where every associate i& covered
with blackness, gloom and everlasting ignominy;
where they wring their hands and gnash their teeth,
tormented to death in the flames offiery indignation ;
where the troubled soul will desire to die but
cannot, will seek for death but find it not; where
there is no God to regard your bitter cries, or
Savior to call you to the skies. O sinner, if there is
such a hell, if there be such a torment, why do you
halt as to whether you had better shun it or not ?
Do you think that you can endure it ? Say, "Can
you in endless torment, dwell shut up in black
despair ?" Do you think for a moment, sinner, that
you can endure the fiery gulf of perdition where the
soul is banished from its God, the only source of
peace and happiness ? Can you be happy there,
where God's awful frown is ever falling, and His
angry thunder-bolts are continually flying ? Oh
think of the souls being banished from heaven,
banished from friends, banished from society, driven
away in fury and everlasting disgrace, driven from
56 SOLID SHOT.
the presence of Jehovah to take up its abode with
murderers, with harlots, drunkards and gamblers,
and with devils; where the very terrors of hell
itself shall play upon your soul; where the hungry
soul will be fed, if fed at all, upon His wrath, the
wormwood and the gall. Can a sinner think of this
and yet be undecided ?
Can he doubt the fact that hell with all its
sorrows and torments is too intolerable to be borne,
and yet should we draw horrible pictures for two
hours more, we could not tell the anguish and untold
miseries that the soul experiences ir. hell within less
than one hour. Then what must it be to remain in
that awful situation for eternity, to stay there with¬
out the hope of a moment's rest from plowing the
fiery waves and drinking the bitter gall of God's
displeasure ? Oh how can a man under the sound of
my voice halt for one moment, whether he had
better run for life and escape that hell or not ?
Then, on the other hand, if there be a heaven
where God and His angels are, where on His right
hand are peace and joy forevermore, where the
wicked cease from troubling and the weary soul will
be eternally at rest, where the saints of the Lord
will wear a starry crown, sit upon the throne, sing
SOLID SHOT, 57
the everlasting song of Moses and the Lamb, where
angels and archangels continually cast their glitter¬
ing crowns before His throne and cry, " Holy, holy,
holy, Lord God of Sabaoth, heaven and earth are
full of thy glory." Then why do you halt as to
whether you will go to enjoy it ?
If there be a "land of pure delight where saints
immortal reign, where infinite day excludes the
night and pleasures banish pain, where everlasting
spring abides and? never withering flowers, and if
death, like a narrow sea, divides this heavenly land
from ours, how can a sinner halt as to going
there and being forever at rest ? Oh, if there is a
a home beyond the skies so beautiful and fair, can
the sinner hesitate to go there ? If there is a
heaven where sickness, sorrows, pains and death
are felt and feared, no more, can a sinner halt?
A place of happiness and eternal bliss, where every
desire will be satisfied, where nature will cease to
distract us and every prospect pleases, where hope
will realize her brightest vision, and from the rivers
of his grace drink endless pleasures in. Yes, if
there is a heaven, "On the other side of Jordan,
in the sweet fields of Eden," by the clear crystal
stream, where the soul may eat of the tree of life
58 SOLID SHOT.
and drink of the well of salvation, why should a man
halt between two opinions as to whether he would
rather go there than drink of the stagnated pools of
misery ? O sinner, how long before you will decide
this question ? Which of these gods will you serve
and which of these situations will you accept ?
You must take one or the other. Very soon, this
day, God will record your vote and your decision.
I call heaven and earth to record against you this
day. I have set before you life and death, blessing
and cursing, right and wrong, heaven and hell.
Oh will you decide to-day, this very hour ? How
long will you halt between life and death ? If you
would be saved, why not now ? How long will you
hear God's warning voice beseeching you to come ?.
How long will you stand starving, like the prodigal,
in the field of Egypt's darkness and in the devil's
old swine yard before you will arise and come to
your Father's house? for it abounds with bread.
May God help you to decide it now, before He
decides by death. Amen.
SERMON IV.
THE SEVEN CERTAIN SINKING STEPS OF SIN.
" Be sure your sin will find you out." — Num. 32 : 23.
We wish to be heard prayerfully to-night, as we
shall attempt, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, to show
the seven downward steps to which sin will bring
the sinner.
That we may better .see what a dangerous thing
sin is, we have laid out these few features, The seven
doleful D's.
1. Sin will Deceive the sinner.
2. Sin will Degrade the sinner.
3. Sin will Disgrace the sinner.
4. Sin will Down the sinner.
5. Sin will Deaden the sinner.
6. Sin will Doom the sinner.
7. Sin will Damn the sinner.
The great law-giver never said a truer thing than
when he declared to the erring Israelites, that
" sin will find you out."
59
6o
SOLID SHOT.
All history is the corroboration of this position.
Every sinner, whether living or dead, every being
who has existed since Satan fell, reiterates the
declaration of this text to-night. Ask the human
race from Adam to Moses, and they all with one
accord to-night will say, if there is one true thing
in the very nature of things, it is true that sin will
tell on the sinner. Crime will overtake the criminal.
Let me say to you who are in hope, that some of
your dark and criminal life will never come to light,
that crime hunts down its own criminal and becomes
the surest detective to find you out. Every sin is
a great index finger pointing out the sinner, and
like a blood-thirsty animal sin will chase the sinner
through all the haunts of wickedness and discover
him to all. Don't give sin out, my friend, to the
committers of crime; let me say to-night that crime
will overtake the perpetrator, your sin will track
you all along the meandering path of your life and
tree you at death, if no sooner. There is no escap¬
ing the trial. It will follow as legitimately as day¬
light follows darkness. There is no dodging it.
Sins once committed pursues its perpetrator till it
punishes fully and completely its own offense. It
is an awful thing to sin. There is no sin with
SOLID SHOT.
61
impunity. Sin is a dangerous thing to touch. All
the sorrows and regrets and calamities that heaven
or earth ever experience were the work of sin.
Take it into your life if you want to cherish and
nourish it, if you will do it, my poor heedless friend;
but for every moment you cherish it, you will regret
it. Wherever and into whomsoever sin has entered,
it has had the same tendency to destroy, deaden
and to plunge the sinner into gloom. Be the former
state of that sinner what it may, whether an angel
of light or a monarch of the earth: once the least
tincture of sin enters his life the seed is sown for
death. Sin is prolific and it will grow in every soil
and the seed flourish in any climate. Behold that
happy heaven. Listen to those melodious harps.
How loudly they ring out the sonnet of joy and
praise. Behold the moving multitudes of bright-
winged seraphim, like the floods of golden sunlight,
bending in unison with every note of that heavenly
music, each captivating strain of which fills every
soul with unmingled ecstasy. Not a crumbled rose
to disturb the symmetrical scene, not a dissenting
voice in all that arena of richest joys and greatest
glories. But hush ! Hark! all at once the scene is
suddenly changed; anxiety gathers on every face;
62
SOLID SHOT.
with abated breath and dismayed look, each one
inquires whence that discord. The next zephyr
that comes sweeping over them brings the melan¬
choly news that a rebellion has begun. Rebellion !
Rebellion! what is that ? Sin has entered heaven
and war has ensued. Every harp is hung upon the
willow; every note is hushed; every joy dies;
every angel waves a sword instead of a harp
until Satan and all sin and sinners are expelled.
Sin will down the sinner, not only will sin down
you and me, brother, but sin will down the angel.
Look at Eden, bathed in sunlight and blooming
in primitive innocence and bliss, refreshed by the
dews of beneficent heaven, and gladdened by the
placent wave of a sparkling brook upon whose banks
trees perpetually grow. And birds of every plumage,
song and note pour music and melody over the
variegated landscapes, to the rebounding echo of
the verdant lawn.
See that happy pair, how like the studied lumin¬
ary of the constellate host they move in harmony
and obedience with the God who first threw this
little terrestrial ball wheeling into the immensity
of space. Not a wave of trouble rolls across their
peaceful breast. Not a grate of muttering thunder is
SOLID SHOT. 63
heard on a distant hill. All is quiet! All is calm!
All is serene ! Sin enters. Down goes the monarch.
The sleeping thunderboldts dash forth from vaulted
clouds — peal answer peal. The balmy air is
lashed into fury, and darkness like a pall of death
settles down on all that man admires or angels envy.
Covered with ignominy, shame and despair, the once
wise and worthy image of God is driven as an out¬
cast to die without the gates. If sin is thus
destructive, if angels moving in the immediate
presence of God through the shock which sin inflicts
go reaking down to hell and if man in all his
primitive strength is blasted by its blow, what will
these wretches, these sinners do ? I repeat it!
I repeat it! sin will down the sinner. If sin ruins
the angels, my dear children, sin will ruin you. If
sin downed them, sin will down you. Mothers, if
sin ruins the fairest family that ever existed, griev¬
ing the Father, bursting up its peace and pleasure
and finally murdering His Son upon a tree, don't
you know that sin will ruin your home, scatter your
children, disgrace your daughters, degrade your
sons, and finally hang your skies tin gloom?
Mother, drive sin out of your homes, drive it out,
drive it out, drive it out, or it will drive your joy
64 SOLID SHOT.
out, drive your peace out, drive your comfort out,
drive your hopes out, and 'finally, mother, it will
drive you out, yes out, out, out, and down to hell.
Be sure your sin will find you out. He reads
history to no purpose who fails to see all along the
annals of time unmistakable proof of this assertion.
Sweep back through the ages into the remote depth
of antiquity and across the great flood, and behold
the gigantic arts, and the gigantic sciences and the
magnificent advancement of the antedeluviarf world.
Sin touches the escutcheon of that once happy,
prosperous and haughty people. The whole world
knows the result. The wheels of progress all
tremble and stop. The God who made and blessed
them as never He has blessed man since, beholding
the disgraceful conduct and degraded character
of the man whom He had made in His own image, so
abhors him, so abominable in His sight is that victim
of sin that He in disgust would sweep him from the
face of the earth and make humanity begin anew.
This is what sin will do for a people. Sin will
reduce the sinners to such a state of degradation as
to make theijp hateful in the sight even of the God
who made them. Little as you may think it, the
sins to which you are submitting your life will jsink
SOLID SHOT. 65
your name and debase you with a debasement from
which you can never rise. Sin will down the sinner.
How true, how true, how true. Look at Pharaoh,
the proud and haughty monarch of Egypt, who sat
upon the richest and most powerful throne that the
world ever knew and wielded a scepter over a people
whose civilization, art, science and literature was the
•0
insignia of the world. But who, because of the
course of sia which he pursued, brought down upon
himself and upon his people for all time to come
not only the withering and blasting curse of heaven,
but the most disgraceful and reproachful record
that ever blackened the history of a nation. He
sinned and sinned and sinned until his conscience
was sinned away, and he had sunk to a degree
of brutality that he could tyrannize over and
torture the humblest and most innocent people
that ever made a brick or gathered a straw. On he
goes: one sin aggravating another until his once
fertile and fruitful land is a waste of desolation and
his once prosperous and happy people are reduced
to wretchedness and want. Pursuing a course
of sin with a corrupted heart and pernicious practice,
he not only impoverishes his people and degrades his
kingdom, but his sin has put his palace on a level
66
SOLID SHOT.
with a carrion pile. Sin is a filthy thing ; his conduct
drives away the lark that sang in his groves in the
mornings of his better days and the wild screeches
of the vile reptiles are heard in their places, and
the sins that promised him happiness have now
brought him horrors. Frogs,—vile, filthy frogs
swarm his plantation and his palace, filling his ears
with their hidious wails and filling his nostrils with
the horrifying stench of their dying carcases. Great
God! what a scene. A gaudy hall, a decorated
palace, sin enters and it is a carrion pile. Frogs,
frogs, filthy frogs. A king entertained by frogs.
It is enough, my friends, to be tormented by the
presence and the cries of live things in our homes,
the fruits of our sins which we hate to see or hear,
much more is it to smell their carcasses when they
die.
Pharaoh had no idea that sin would bring him
there. Neither do you think that the sin to which
you are submitting yourselves will ever bring you
that low; but it will do it as sure as God is in
heaven. Sin put live things in Pharaoh's home,
things which he did not want to see nor hear, and
which he tried hard to remove without exposure,
but he could not. Sin found him out, sin exposed
SOLID SHOT. 67
him, and I tell you here in my place to-night, and I
tell you mothers, if you let the devil run your
homes he will put live things in that home, hateful
things, things that you will want to get rid of and
things which you cannot get rid of without expo¬
sure.
I mean a great deal along there. Ah, my God,
sin exposes the sinner! How true, how true.
Mothers ! mothers ! mothers ! I want to say a word
before I go a step further. If you don't drive the
devil out of you^ parlors, he will put something
there that you can't get rid of. Oh, my God, how
much, how much of this ! Drive him out, drive him
out, drive him out. I can recall a dozen homes once
garnished and gladdened by the song of some sweet
daughter who, like a nightingale, sang to the joy of
her mother's soul, that sin has ravaged of its fairest
gems, its purest flowers, and its brightest hopes, and
hurled them down-stairs of society to the quagmires
of disgrace, and the homes now standing are
nothing but the empty recollections of the joys that
have fled.
Not only does sin reduce the palace to a carrion
pile, but it carries him farther, farther down, farther
down, farther down, till he strikes a station farther
68
SOLID SHOT.
down the hill of disgrace than any king before him
ever reached. He is the only king that ever mon¬
keyed with the devil until he got lousy. The idea!
the king lousy! Doesn't he shine, sitting upon a
throne with a louse in his collar ? Nice king he is.
This is what sin has done for him.
Boys, this is instruction for you. Sin will dis¬
grace the sinner. You have no idea you will ever
get that low, do you ? Well you have been running
with the devil's hogs a long time and if you are not
lousy now, I don't know what is the reason. If you
don't want to get lousy you must change your com¬
pany. If you go among contagion you will catch
the disease. That is scientific, isn't it ?
Pharaoh was as great a dude as any New Orleans
dude. But sin turned his silk derby to a louse cap.
And little as you may think it if you keep running
around to that slum of filth and dissipation, you will
come back some of these times covered with all the
villainy and infamy imaginable. The sins of your
dissipated life will tell on you and are telling on you,
secretly as you think it is kept. That lady sitting
beside you, who you think believes you to be a
model young man, whose industry and frugality is
laying up a fortune, knows that you spend one-third
SOLID SHOT. 69
you earn on bad whiskey, the other third on bad
women, and of course you take the other and buy a
second-hand suit of clothes.
Your sins are telling where you are. Those red
eyes and that bad breath tell whether you are
sober or not; you think that she believes that you
have got money, but she knows that your pocket is
as empty as a last year's bird nest. Every time you
boast of your manhood, honesty and gentleman-
ship, your sins are saying, "You are a liar, you
are a liar, you are a liar." Sin makes its
own mark. Cain declared that he knew nothing
about his brother, but the blood of Abel cried from
the earth and said, "You are a liar." My friends,
don't be deceived, sin will expose the sinner. That
dissipated life is telling on you, telling on you.
Fathers, your children know more about you than
you think they do, and when you get old and they
get grown, they will let you know that they do.
They know whether you are a true father to them
and whether you are true to their mother. They
are not asleep every time you quarrel with and abuse
their mothers. And another thing, other people
know it. We judge a tree by the fruit it bears:
every tree bringeth forth fruit after its kind, an "evil
fo SOLID SHOT.
life will produce evil results. Live godless, live
corrupted, live dissipated in your family, cruel to your
children, and mean to your wife, and think that no
one knows it, but it will be known. Her withered
form and her wasted features are loud heralds
proclaiming her treatment. Your neglected and
ill-clad children tell what kind of a father you are.
Hide your course, father, however deeply, if that
course is a course of sin it will expose you to the
scorn of the community, which you are deceiving.
"Sin will find you out." The fox by artful dash
and cunning dodge through meadows, jungles and
marshes, may baffle hounds and hunters and finally
roam on uncaptured, but sin never loses the trail of
a sinner. He may plunge into the whirlpool of
pleasure and earnestly endeavor to revel away the
marks of his sin, but they will follow him even
there, and torment him in the court of conscience.
The murderer may wash from his hands the blood
of his victim, and fancy that in the darkness of the
night the foul deed was as far from the sight of
human eyes as midnight is from the orb of day.
And for some time the bloody deed may be
wrapped in gloom and shrouded in mystery. He
cannot see how it will ever be known, yet he is
SOL/I? SHOT. 71
suspicioned : he cannot see the reason why. He is
arrested and link after link in the chain of that
tragedy is slowly but surely drawn out which leads
to his conviction. To him, that detection is a pro¬
found mystery. No conformity of circumstances
will solve the problem of the disclosure of that
secret deed which none knew but himself. It admits
of but one solution and that is this, that murder is a
sin, and " Sin will expose a sinner." The crime itself
tells on a criminal. Guilty consciences need no accus¬
ers. Sin emblazons its guilt upon the brow of a sin
ner! Sin sets a mark upon the face of a sinner! The
murder of Abel marked the brow of Cain, and so
heavy was that mark that Cain could neither bear it
nor move it. None but his God could move it.
I am frank to tell you to-night that sin has
marked every one of you. And you are held in the
estimation of others in point of honesty, gentility
and purity of life at far less value than you think
for. You have no idea how much your sins have
told your neighbors about you. And if you were
put up to be sold to-night, those who pretend
to admire you, would not lose a hair on your hide.
You see they know you, your sins nave made you
known. I want to tell you, you cannot successfully
practice a fraud upon this world.
72 SOLID SHOT.
"Your sins will find you out." In the Desert of
Arabia there lives a great bird that can drag two
dead men at once and is fleeter of foot than the
Arabian steed, and yet a sparrow is harder to
capture than he. The weakest boy can catch him.
When he hears a sound of the huntsman's horn, he
runs and sticks his head in the sand and fancies that
because he can see nobody that nobody sees him.
He is captured at once: so the sinner, who does his
work in the dark, and, because he can see nobody,
feels that he will never be overtaken; but sin will
overtake the sinner, sin will hunt the sinner, sin
will find the sinner, sin will down the sinner.
Yes, it will. It is the legitimate work of sin to
down the sinner. Are you conscious to-night of any
grave of secrecy where lays buried any sins you
have committed ? The punishment of which you
have not yet suffered or the pardon of which
you have not secured ? Did you ever hear this ?
Sin will tell on the sinner. Sin will find the sinner,
sin will expose the sinner. Some day, from their
long entombment, every secret sin will spring up
into ghastly resurrection. God help you to get rid
of every sin to-night. There is but one hiding-place
for sin from which they will never rise against us.
SOLID SHOT. 73
" There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from
Immanuel's veins," if sinners plunge beneath that
flood they will lose all their guilty stain. Seek this
fountain to-night. Confess your sins to God to-night,
and let Him blot them out. He will cover them all,
and save you from them forever.
SERMON K
THE CRISIS.
"And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept
over it,
" Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy
day, the things which belong unto thy peace!"—Luke 19: 41, 42.
This is an awful day for Jerusalem. The Savior
is within it for the last time. Jerusalem has
rejected Him many, many a time, but if He is
rejected to-day it will be a rejection fatal and final.
Many, many a time has He gone to that city, many
a time has He beheld it before. But now the very
sight of the bloody, doomed Jerusalem bursts His
great heart into tears. "The Son of God in tears!
The wondering angels see. Be thou astonished, O
my soul! He shed those tears for me." Ah, Jeru¬
salem ! this is your last opportunity.
1. There is a time in the history of every man's
life that might well be styled the crisis, and upon
74
SOLID SHOT. 75
his action on this particular occasion depends all of
his after history. On the fatal morning when
Julius Caesar was assassinated, an old man, who had
overheard the conspirators and had procured a copy
of the whole plan of the assassination with the
names of the conspirators, ran and met Caesar on
his way to the Senate Chamber and placed this
letter in his hands. If Caesar had taken time to
read that letter, it would have saved his own life,
and have cost the conspirators their lives. But
he handed it to one of his secretaries and walked
surrounded by a crowd of flatterers and false friends ;
but a few steps further and the dagger is pierced to
his heart. Upon his action that very moment de¬
pended all of his after history.
That was Caesar's crisis! The turning-point in
his history. He died an untimely death simply
because he was too proud to take warning. Do not
jbe too proud to read the sign-board which God has
placed along your pathway, to warn you of the
dangers that lay before you. And remember, too,
that this may be your crisis. This short note, which
I have read to you, is a brief dispatch from the God
of heaven, whose all-seeing eye scanning your
pathway beholding its snares, its traps, its disasters,
76 SOLID SHOT.
and its awful pitfalls, has sent to you, urging you
to consider the things that belong to your peace.
Caesar had received many pleasing communications
and perhaps many letters of congratulations, and
certainly many certificates of governmental appoint¬
ment, but this little note handed him by that old
gray-bearded pedestrian, unknown to fame or for¬
tune, and which he pronounced insignificant, deserv¬
ing at most but a passing notice, meant more for
Caesar than all the letters he ever received, read or
refused. It was not only a warning letter, but his
last letter. Scorning this last one, he passes on to
his doom. Little as you may think it, this occasion
to you, unimportant and insignificant, "may be the
crisis; and upon your action this very night may
depend your salvation or your damnation.
When Napoleon Bonaparte, with his French army,
was engaged in the battle of Waterloo, they had no
dream that that battle would have decided their
fate. Had they had the slightest idea of the
importance of that occasion, it is likely that they
would have acted differently; but whether they
knew it or not the day was lost, and from that day
Napoleon's great name began to sink, and the his¬
tory of France took its despairing change. Napo-
SOLID SHOT. 77
leon died a prisoner on St. Helena, all because he
did not know the things " which belonged to his
peace."
Coming nearer home. When the bloody struggle
between the North and South was in progress, its
tefminus might have been read from the battle of
Gettysburg. If General Lee had beaten General
Meade on this occasion, the Confederate army
would have had complete control of the North. Thou¬
sands of brave souls went down on either side, but
the day was won by the Union troops, and from
that very hour the Southern nerve was weakened.
Gettysburg was the crisis of southern chivalry.
We may not note the event, but there is a time in
the history of all our lives that may justly be called
the " Crisis." It may be a trivial thing that fur¬
nishes the occasion but this does not alter the im¬
portance of the moment. All this should inspire us
to seize every opportunity. For we do not know
when nor where we receive our last or best
opportunity.
Dear sinner, this may be your last opportunity of
salvation ; warned of your danger now, you may never
hear again the sympathetic voice of your never-
failing Savior. Oh, could we but turn one page
yg SOLID SHOT.
of the future we might or we might not have cause
for alarm ! But alas ! this we cannot do. Futurity-
is a sealed book: not a leaf unfolded to us. We
live this hour and hear warnings, the next we may
be cold in death. Oh ! where will to-morrow find
us ? who, who, can tell ? Will it find us nearer
heaven or nearer to hell ?
When Paul reasoned with Felix of righteous¬
ness, temperance and judgment to come, Felix
trembled and said, " Go thy way for this time."
Felix was convinced and convicted then. He was
then deeply aroused. His very soul had been
touched by the power of truth. He was then in
proper mood for repentance, perhaps for the first,
and certainly for his last time. Oh, if he had
seized the opportunity! But he said, " Not yet."
This was his crisis. The decision of that moment was
the exponent of his after life. He often heard
Paul after that but never to such effect.
My beloved congregation, there is some one here
to-night to whom this very hour will prove a crisis.
When some of you who, scorning this opportunity,
but half yielding your lives, shall be plowing the
furious flames of dark damnation you will look
back to this night with regret, saying, " that night .
SOLID SHOT. 79
decided my course." "That night was my greatest
and last opportunity." Should you go out of this
meeting without giving yourself to God, and pass
on down the valley to the Jordan, the most bitter
reflections that would distract your soul, would be
the mistake of refusing salvation this night and in
this most powerful and soul-touching meeting.
What, my friend, will you do about it ? Young man,
of all Sabbaths you have ever misspent this may
be the last and fatal one. Young lady, of all the
sermons you have' carelessly heard, this may be the
final doxology. Upon your acceptation or rejection
of salvation this night may depend your eternal fe¬
licity or your endless misery. It may be the order
of your opportunities that this night's conduct shall
settle your hope of heaven or seal your soul for hell.
When Christ was before Pilate, Pilate had his
best opportunity. He had in his court the greatest
case that ever entered an earthly court-room. Pilate
wants to gain notoriety ; now is his time. There is
a great opportunity. There is the creature called
on to pass upon the life of his Creator. No man
ever had such a case, no man ever had such oppor¬
tunity to become famous. Christ was the Savior
of the world, and if Pilate had saved him from the
80 SOLID SHOT.
violence of that enraged mob, which clamored for
his blood, he would have had the honor of being
called the savior of the Savior. He knew that
Christ was innocent, and therefore he had an oppor¬
tunity to show the world his manhood and his wis¬
dom as a governor. Angels had come all the way
from heaven to attend that trial, and if Pilate had
played the part of a manly judge angels would have
sung his praise in a thousand undying songs. But
poor, fickle, foolish Pilate yielded his power to the
tide of popular sentiments and thereby lost his
opportunity. This was Pilate's crisis; upon his
action that day hung all his after history. It was
but a short time afterwards, that the very multi¬
tude for whom he gave up his last and best opportu¬
nity in a vain attempt to please, hauled him down
and stoned him to death.
In some one of your cases, and perhaps in a great
many of your cases, it may be true that this night
is your crisis. To what use then, my dear hearer,
are you going to put this opportunity ? This very mo¬
ment while I am talking, death is marking some brow
in this congregation that may never appear in com¬
pany here again.
Only a few months ago, while my meeting was
going on in Waycross, Ga., a young man seemingly
SOLID SHOT.
81
well and with as much promise of long life as any
of your faces present to-night, becoming disgusted at
the demonstation and the high spiritual excitement
which prevailed in that wonderful revival, got up
and, taking his wife, went home, saying to her, (who
only reluctantly went) "enough of a thing is enough."
He laid down, he awoke with a slight headache,
which became worse and worse till, taking his bed,
a physician was called. Three days rolled away, the
meeting still going on. Finally he sends for me. I
could not go ; the pastor went. As soon as the pastor
entered his room, the dying man said to him, "Elder,
I have scorned my last preacher. I have con¬
temned God my last time."
Poor, foolish young man! When he walked out that
night without giving himself to God he walked away
from his last opportunity. Oh, had he known that
night the thing which belonged to his peace ! But he
thought that he had done that so many times that
he was safe in doing so that night.
Yes, sinner, it may be that with this night ends
your career of folly and sensuality. Yes, sinner,
that laugh and that grin upon your impious face may
be succeeded by the surges of a scorching fever. Yes,
my young friend, those who to-night look into those
82 SOLID SHOT.
eyes of yours and call them beautiful may to-morrow
look in your cold face and, with abated breath, say,
"she is dead." Oh, "this is the day of grace ! " to¬
morrow may be too late, forever too late. When
He saw the city He "wept over it, saying, If thou
hadst known in this thy day the things which belong
to thy peace!" These poor ancient sinners de-
•spised the day of their salvation just as you are now
doing, sinner. They had rebuked the Master many
a time, but now they do it for their last time. Al¬
though they were ignorant of it, this was Christ's
farewell visit to that city.
They had driven him away so many times that
now they feel safe in rebuking their Savior's call,
but this is the day when they rebuke to rebuke no
more. Weeps! yes, weeps. The Son of God in
tears! weeps! Was it without cause ? No. He
sees them as they laugh at their last opportunity.
Weeps because ignorance has blinded their eyes.
He knows that ere their fun is over their fury will
begin. Weeps! well might he weep over a city so
deaf to every good call or godly word, and doomed
to destruction. Their ignorant rejection at that
awful crisis seemed to be. the burden of His grief.
Ruin lieth at thy door, O Jerusalem! but
SOLID SHOT. 83
thou dost not know it. Your best Friend departs
from you this day to return no more, but you do not
know it. Oh, " If thou hadst known, even thou, at
least in this thy day, the things which belong to thy
peace!" Sin had made them blind. This is the legit¬
imate work of sin : to blind the eye, to brutalize the
passions, to sear the conscience, and thus to fully
and completely down the soul of the sinner. It is
an awful thing to proceed too far in the way to hell.
My friends, it is the hight of folly to slight an
opportunity of salvation which in all probability will
never, never be an opportunity again. If this was
a matter which you could slight with impunity, I
promise you I would not to-night in my weakness
disturb you; but oh! alas! how soon these proud
heads will be bowed low ! Strong as you appear to
be to-night, how soon the worms may prey upon
your body, and then that soul which is undone must
be hurried into the judgment. Is it wise, my friend,
to live in absolute unreadiness, when you have no
security against a sudden and untimely fall into the
arms of death ? Will you not bef persuaded to renew
your lives ? Will you not come to this anxious seat
and get a security on your soul ?
I knew two young ladies who, on being urged to
seek Christ, silenced the entreaty by saying to the
34 SOLID SHOT.
minister, " Parson we know we ought to go and find
Christ during this meeting, but we are sisters, and
are to be married on the same day next week;
when this is over, the very next steps we will take
will be to get religion." This went on: one day
before these girls of good intention were to be
married, one of them dropping a little oil on her
apron caught on fire, the other trying to put it out
was herself inflamed; they burned to death. A
great crowd had been invited there that day; the
crowd came, but it was a funeral instead of a wed¬
ding. They were nice girls, and it seemed such a
hard fate that they should be thus cut off, but such
is life. Come, my friend, while you feel the impulse,
come while your better judgment urges you, come
in now before your course of sin is protracted till
the crisis is past and your soul is advanced beyond
the hope of recovery.
See those Johnstown victims ! The water of the
Conemaugh is rising, the highest water mark is
already passed, the walls of the dam of yon fatal
lake are giving way. Mounted upon his steed, a
young man rides at full speed down that doomed
valley. Hark! his keen voice sweeps over the valley
and the city: "To the mountains ! to the hills! to
SOLID SHOT. 85
the hills ! fly ! fly! to the hills! The floods are upon
you!" And behind him still many more messengers
of life or death crying, " Escape to the hills !" but the
inhabitants are not to be warned. They said, " No,
no, we are not to be excited, we have heard that too
much; the dams are safe." On goes this messen¬
ger. List! as his awful voice dies away on the air
of the valley, a moment later and the floods are
upon them sweeping before them houses and their
inmates, forest and fields, — death, doom, desolation
and destruction that never can be described follow
fast upon the heels of the messengers. Thousands
upon thousands went down beneath the waves of
that awful lake, all because they " did not know the
things which belonged to their peace."
Who knows how this night begun in sin may end,
my friend ? It may be with you as it was with one
poor girl of my acquaintance, who began the night
with dances and ended it with death. She left the
merry revels of a marriage scene, for her home across
the mountains, the stars go out and the storms come
on. Bewildered by the howling tempest and the
blinding drift and the black night, she loses her wayr~
Long the struggle lasted; at length worn out and
benumbed, she stretches her fragile form on that
86 SOLID SHOT.
fatal bed, and amid dreams, perhaps, of dances and
songs of merriment, she sank into the sleep that
knows no waking. She met her fate near a friendly
door, and perished in the darkness within a step of
. safety. Yet not half so near it as many of you are
to salvation to-night, who are sinking down to hell
within sight of heaven. Oh, my dear children,
hearken to-night to the calls of mercy! I grant that
you feel that your case is peculiar and hard, but if
you have any feelings left you to-night, essay to find
salvation. There is help in God. Sin never riv¬
eted, in hottest hell-fires the devil never forged,
a chain which the Spirit of God, wielding the hammer
of the Word, cannot strike from fettered limbs. Light
out, like the prodigal boy from Egypt's pigpen, fully
resolved to reach your Father's house across the
plains of sorrow, fully trusting that He will come
and meet you with sweet kisses and fond embraces.
" Hasten, sinner, to be wise,.
Stay not for the morrow's sun;
Wisdom, if you still despise,
Harder is it to be won."
Oh! but perhaps you say, wait till to-morrow; but
that to-morrow may not be yours. Hasten, sinner,
hasten mercy to implore! Stay not for the morrow's
SOLID SHOT. 87
sun, lest the season should be over, ere this even
ing's stage be run. Don't spend another night,
another hour in sin. It may set you irremovably
in the course of destruction. This I assure you is
an opportunity. Break off that awful stupor, that
horrible deathspell that has settled down upon your
soul, making you blind to everything that belongs
to your peace. A thousand stings within your
breast deprive your soul of ease, and, like the
rough sea, you cannot rest. Why will you thus live
devoid of peace ? Salvation, my friends, is the
thing that belongs to your peace. That is what
you need. You can't see why everything goes
awry with you, you cannot understand why
disappointment comes to your best concerted
schemes. Despite of all your effort for peace you are
still disturbed. Ah, my friend! I will tell you what
it is. It is sin that is disturbing your peace. It is
sin that is drinking up your life, and banishing your
joy; yes, you may toil on in vain yet many more
days without peace. Christian religion is the thing
that belongs to your peace. Oh, that you knew it
to-night! My business friends, toiling against the,
tide of a disturbed commercial sea, let me advise
you to-night to look to Jesus, the great Consolor,
88 SOLID SHOT.
and He will give the rest you need. He will clear
away the clouds of apprehensions that hang over
your skies. Seek God and peace of conscience.
This is the only real peace a man in this old world
can really and permanently have. Will you have it
to-night ? or, refusing it now, you may never be
spared another chance. Oh, for God's sake ! oh,
for your dear sake and for the sake of those who
love you and are praying for you ! come to Christ
to-night and get that peace that flows like a river.
SERMON VI.
DEATHBED REPENTANCE A FARCE.
"Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer." — Prov.
i: 28.
My dear congregation, I have come to speak to
you on a most awful ^.nd most critical subject, and I
shall no doubt enunciate a sentiment and promul¬
gate a doctrine which but few of you will be
disposed to accept.
I do not take a delight in parading unpleasant
truths, but when the salvation of the souls of men
requires it, I feel divinely impelled from on high to
cry them out aloud. It is becoming a popular
doctrine, gladly received by all classes, that there is
never a time when God will not hear and answer
the prayers of a repenting sinner; and ministers of
the gospel are adopting a regular custom of holding
out to the dying sinner the hope of a Savior, whom
that sinner in his lifetime had wilfully and wantonly
89
go SOLID SHOT.
rejected. Such ministers do violence to the gospel
economy they pretend to uphold.
I assert here in my place to-night that there is
not in all the Bible a single passage which can be
construed into a promise to save on a deathbed a
sinner who had all his lifetime wickedly and repeat¬
edly denied Christ as his Savior, and I challenge
the ministry who are supporting that doctrine to
point even to. a faint hint in the Word of God where
it makes deathbed repentance safe, especially when
the sinner has been a wanton rejecter of God in his
lifetime. But I can point to places where almost in
the very words deathbed repentance is declared
hopeless. Here is my context: —
"Because I have called, and ye refused; I have
stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
" But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and
would none of my reproof:
" I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock
when your fear cometh ;
"When your fear cometh as a desolation, and
your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when
distresses and anguish cometh upon you.
" Then shall they call upon me, but I will not
answer ; they shall seek me early, but shall not find
me:
SOLID SHOT. 91
"For that they hated knowledge, and did not
choose the fear of the Lord" (Prov. 1 : 24—29).
Also in Jeremiah, where God speaking of a people
who had wickedly refused His council, He says: —
"Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will
bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able
to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I
will not hearken unto them" (Jer. n : n).
If the cries of a whole people overtaken in sin
may come to the ears of God too late, surely an
individual dying, and covered with a wicked and a
worthless record, cannot expect from God even a
notice of his prayers.
But we turn to notice a similar declaration in the
vision of the prophet Ezekiel who, speaking of
another stubborn and indignant generation, says: —
" Therefore will I also deal in fury : mine eye
shall not spare, neither will I have pity : and though
they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I
not hear them" (Ezek. 8 : 18).
Is it not clearly seen 4iere, that there is a time
when even a whole people, after many repeated
refusals to hearken to the voice of the Most High,
may call upon Him with all their hearts, but call
only to be refused, and cry only -never to be heard,
92 SOLID SHOT.
cry they ever so loudly. And if the guilty course of
a whole generation, dying upon a bed of despair,
cannot be mitigated or pitied, what can an individ¬
ual, dying sinner, expect to get under similar but
worse circumstances ?
A hundred other instances might be cited from
this sacred record, reading substantially as these.
For instance: Job 27: 9; 35: 12; Isa. 1: 15;
Zech. 7: 13. We will notice one other and let
these suffice as a fair specimen of the whole.
"Thus saith the Lord unto this people, Thus
have they loved to wander, they have not refrained
their feet, therefore the Lord doth not accept them;
he will now rerpember their iniquity, and visit their
sins.
" Then said the Lord unto me, Pray not for this
people for their good.
"When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and
when they offer burnt-offering and an oblation, I
will not accept thefri: but I will consume them by
the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.
" Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold the
prophets say unto them, Ye shall not see the swdrd,
neither shall ye have famine; but I will give you
assured peace in this place.
SOLID SHOT. 93
"Then the Lord said unto me, The prophets
prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither
have I commanded them, neither spake unto them :
they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination,
and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their
heart.
"Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the
prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent
them not, yet they shall say, Swcrd and famine
shall not be in this land ; By sword and famine
shall those prophets be consumed.
"And the people to whom they prophesy shall be
cast out in the streets of Jerusalem, because of the
famine and the sword ; and they shall have none to
bury them, them, their wives, nor their sons, nor
their daughters; for I will pour their wickedness
upon them" (Jer. 14: 10-16).
Can language be more sweeping than this ? He
is blind who cannot see the utter fallaciousness
of the attitude of these modern-day, jack-legged
preachers, who argue that there is never a time in
the life of a man when God will not hear his
prayers.
Nothing can be more unscriptural or more
nonsensical than the fallacy of deathbed repentance,
94 SOLID SHOT.
which they are parading. A doctrine which has no
foundation in Revelation. Insulting to God, mis¬
leading in its tendency, dangerous in the extreme,
and revolting to every dictate of reason and com¬
mon sense. And if God has not changed greatly
since these good men prophesied, He will make it
hot for these gospel rebukers, who are afraid to
tackle a sinner while he is well and hearty ; waits
till he gets down on a deathbed, and then he creeps
up behind him, like a coward seeking terms, and'
whispers in his ear, "Jesus sent me here to tell you
to make friends." Lying coward! Jesus sent him
nowhere. What does he think Christ wants with
an old, broken-down, weather-beaten, storm-swept,
thunder-stricken sinner, whom the devil has worked
to death and turned out to die ? God would not be
thus compromised. Is God so poor that he must
take the devil's leavings ? Are the golden streets
of heaven to be lined with the devil's discardings ?
The very thought is branded with absurdity. It
would make God beholden to the devil, and heaven
hell's carrion pile. The prophet has it right, " God
sent them not." The gospel minister is a recruit¬
ing officer, sent forth to the world to summon
volunteers into the army of the Lord.
SOLID SHOT. 95
The hospital is not the place to hunt for soldiers.
" What time is it that God will not hear a sinner
pray ?" asked a man of me one time. He made sure
that I would say "no time," but to his great
surprise I replied, " When you get down on your
deathbed, sir, after having heedlessly heard the oft
repeated calls of your God, that is when." Then
I quoted this text to him : "Because I have called
and ye refused, . . . but ye have set at naught all
my council, now when ye call I will not answer.
. . . Ye shall seek me early but shall not find
me." And on your deathbed (your calamity) I
will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when
your fear (of the judgment) cometh upon you.
This is what God will do for a deathbed sinner. It
matters not what my mother, or grandmother said.
This is what God said He will do for a sinner on his
deathbead.
"Oh, but," they say "as long as the lamp holds
out to burn the vilest sinner may return ! "
They say! yes; but what did God say ? and be¬
sides he don't say any such thing; it is not the
Bible, but simply what the poet said.
God would not be heard saying one-fifth of what
some of these half-witted poets say. And this is
96 SOLID SHOT.
erroneously quoted. The song does not read that
way. Dr. Watts wrote that song many years ago.
It starts out by saying : —
" Life is the time to serve the Lord;
The time to insure the great reward,
And while the lamp holds out to burn,
The vilest sinner may return."
Now you see that the bqttom is out of that
phantom. Neither the Bible nor the poet says
what you claim, not as long as the lamp holds out
to burn; but while the lamp holds out. Yes, thank
God, while the lamp is burning you may come back
to God, but if you wait until it flickers down to
your deathbed you will never, never get back.
That same sweet song goes on : —
" Life is the hour which God has given,
To escape from hell and fly to heaven;
The day of grace, and mortals may
Secure the blessing of the day."
If you will come to God while He is is calling,
He will save; but if you wait till he sends the
sheriff after you, His mercy in your case is practi¬
cally at an end.
"Well," they say, "He saved the thief on the
cross, and that was equivalent to a deathbed." Yes,
but do you know who that thief was ? He had not
SOLID SHOT. gy
been what you are, a rejecter of Christ. He had
never heard Christ preach ; perhaps he had been a
prisoner ever since Christ had been preaching. All
he had ever heard of Christ had been against him :
but when he beheld Christ freely dying on the
cross, and saw his miracles, he at once believed on
Him as the Savior of sinners, and accordingly
implored Christ' to remember him when He should
come into His kingdom. His case then was far
different to that of the sinner who had rebuked
the calls of mercy for many, many long years and
days, and when he comes down to die repents and
trusts Christ when he can't help himself.
Salvation, while it is as broad as the world, is
nevertheless conditional. It has its season: if the
sinner embraces that season he is saved, if he
refuses, it is withdrawn and retribution sets in.
There is a time when, if a sinner calls, God will
answer. There is another time when the sinner
may call and God will not answer, as my text
plainly says. Now what time is this ?
Many, many a time have I heard men down
praying, asking God, " didn't He say in his written
Word that He would never hear a poor sinner cry
and suffer him to die." If God should answer
9S SOLID SHOT.
such a prayer He would just say, " I did n t say it.
Where in the written Word did He say it? If a
man comes to God He will in no wise cast him
out. But if a man waits till death brings him to
God, no mercy will ever reach his case. We are
admonished to " Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found, call ye upon him while he is near"
(Isa. 55 : 6). This implies that there is a time
when Christ may be sought and not found, and
called upon when He is too far to hearken.
Again we are told to " Remember now thy Crea¬
tor in the days of thy youth, while the evil days
come not" (Eccl. 12: 1).
All this is conclusive evidence that salvation
has a season that is available, and a season that is
not. Man is admonished to work while it is day,
and he is assured that "The night cometh, when
no man can work " (John 9: 4).
Yet when the night of death settles down on the
souls of unregenerated vmen nowadays, some erro¬
neous preacher will tell him to look to Christ and
He will save him. Thus encouraging one of the
most dangerous errors which any man can adopt.
It has been argued again that the parable of the
laborers in the vineyard is a hint to the security of
SOLID SHOT. 99
deathbed repentance. Let us reproduce the par¬
able verbatim, for the purpose of examining it.
When the Master was teaching, He said: "The
kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an
householder, which went out early in the morning
to hire laborers into his vineyard. And when he
had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he
sent them into his vineyard. And he went out
about the third hour, and saw others standing idle
in the market place. And said unto them : Go ye
also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I
will give you. And they went their way. Again
he went out about the sixth and ninth hour,
and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he
went out, and found others standing idle, and saith
unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle?
They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us.
IJe saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard;
and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. So
when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith
unto his steward, Call the laborers, and give them
their hire, beginning from the last unto the first.
And when they came that were hired about the
eleventh hour, they received every man a penny.
But when the first came, they supposed that they
IOO SOLID SHOT.
should have received more \ and they likewise
received every man a penny. And when they had
received it, they murmured against the goodman
of the house, saying, These last have wrought but
one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto
us, which have borne the burden and heat of the
day" (Matt. 20: 1—13).
Now here is where they blunder. They say
the lord of the vineyard thought just as highly of
those late enterers and paid them just as much as
he did those who went in early and toiled all the day,
and as such the pinner who repents on his death¬
bed is a similar case. How erroneous! First the'
cases are not parallel. The men who were ordered
into the vineyard at the eleventh hour were not
guilty of refusing to labor in the morning. For
they were not among tho^e whom the lord found'
there when he went out the third hour, neither
were they there the sixth and ninth hour, and
when they were found there at the eleventh hour,
on being asked why they were idle, they gave a
justified answer, and said, "Because no man has
hired us." That is, no man has told us that we
could go in that field and labor. You can see at
once that they were willing to work but had not
SOLID SHOT.
been ordered. Now can any sinner dying, after
hearing many, many sermons and entreaties, assign
such a reason for having not served the Lord ?
Suppose these men had been there in the
morning, and had refused to work until just an
hour before night, do you suppose they would have
been paid for a whole day, or allowed to enter that
field? No! no! a thousand times no ! They were
entitled to their pay because they went in as soon
as they were told. They obeyed the first com¬
mand. It was not their fault that they were out.
It was the neglect of the minister. It was in
keeping with the same old economy. " If ye shall
sound the trumpet and warn the people, arid they
die in their sins, their blood shall be on their own
head: but if ye sound not the trumpet and warn
not the people, and they die in their sins, their
blood will I require as the watchman's hand."
Don't forget our first position: that if a man refuses
God in his lifetime, he cannot find Him on his
deathbed. I say now frankly; if a man never had
heard the gospel and should repent the first time
he did hear it; even upon a deathbed, God would
save him. But my text plainly says to such as
will not obey now, that " When you call I will not
answer."
102 SOLID SHOT.
And again: these last laborers worked some.
They did some work. They are not to be com¬
pared with an old, lazy, stubborn sinner who won't
strike a lick for the Lord while he has time and
health and strength; but when he is enfeebled and
sick unto death, not fit for anything, will cry out:
" Lord, you are so good, I know you will save poor
me." You never were so wrong! What could you
do if he should pardon you ? Nothing but die and
to stink. You could not even bury youfself.
" Because when I called ye would not hearken;
now when you call I will not answer."
Of the three thousand two hundred prom¬
ises in God's Word there is not one that God
will save a sinner who has rejected Him until his
deathbed spell. " Oh, but," they say, " His mercy
has no bounds." Yes, but he has set His Word as
an eternal line beyond which His mercy will never,
never come. "True repentance is never too late,
but late repentance is seldom true."
Finally the deathbed is a place where true
repentance cannot be rendered. True repentance
consists in a godly sorrow for sins committed and
an essential turning away from them. Such is not
the nature of deathbed repentance.
The culprit beholding the walls of the prison
SOLID SHOT. 103
open before him repents. Not that he committed
the crime, but that he has been apprehended. He
feels not the guilt of the crime committed, but he
dreads the penalty annexed.
So is deathbed repentance. The sinner seeing
himself hemmed in on all sides, cries unto God to
deliver him, not from his sins, but from the punish¬
ment of them. Not so sorry for the past as he is
uneasy for the future. This is not the nature of
true repentance and God does not accept it as such.
Others may preach what they please, I preach
to-day as the "day of Salvation," and I believe that
when God's calls give out, His wrath begins.
"Then shall they call upon me, but I will not
answer."
When! when! when! oh, my God, shall a poor
unfortunate man, poor helpless man, call and not
have an answer ? When ,he has sinned away his
opportunities, that is when. When he has rejected
Me till he is stumbling on the verge of the grave,
that is when. When he has laughed to scorn all
My persuasions, that is when. When the sun is
gone down to rise no more, that is when. When
procrastination is protracted till the crisis is past,
and the Divine council has decided to cut the
!04 solid shot.
fruitless tree down, then he may call, but God will
not answer.
And again, " I will laugh at your calamity."
I will laugh at your cries for mercy, at your groans
on a dying night. Who, Lord ? whose calamity ?
Yours, you deathbed penitent, who scorned Me
when you were well. I will also contemn you now.
If you can contemn a God, I am sure a God can
contemn a poor, helpless sinner. Still he cries, "O
Lord, help me. If thou wilt, I will —" do what ?
There is nothing you can promise. You are
dying now. What can you promise the Savior to do
if He will save ? The Master has said: " He
that cometh after me must (i) deny himself;
(2) he must take up the cross; and (3) follow
Me." No dying man can do that. He may deny
himself, but he cannot take up the cross. Why?
Because he is dying. He cannot follow Christ.
Why ? Because he has not the time.
A man may, when he is old, desire ever so much
to run a race, which he should have run when he
was a boy; but he cannot. Why ? Because he is
too old. He has gone too far. Hie strength is
now gone from him, and he is nothing but the
empty recollection of the things that have been.
SOLID SHOT. 105
"Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are
these: it might have been." " Yesterday he might
have stood against the world; to-day he is so poor
that the meanest does not fear to do him dishonor,"
was said of Caesar.
There is a time when God will pity and a time
when he will laugh at the dying sinner. Yes, there
is a time when God calls a sinner and there is
a time when God drives the sinner.
Again, "I will mock when your fear cometh."
God mocking me. You all know what it is to be
mocked; but who ever had God to mock them.
Awful thing to have God, while I am under my
severest calamity looking up in His face, to mock
me and to make faces at me. My desolation wild
;as the wave sweeping over me. God will not
answer, but laugh at me.
'My friends, don't wait for the deathbed. It is
dangerous, dangerous. A young man dying in my
own native state, one day was advised to seek God,
and in reply he said: " It is impossible now. I can¬
not make my peace, calling, and election sure."
Said he further: "All the past comes up before me
now, and all the concerns of eternity crowd into the
few moments I have to live with such confusion that
I06 SOLID SHOT.
I cannot attend to anything." Such is invariably
the case with every deathbed seeker. The fast
ebbing tide of his receding blood, the heavy surges
of the billows of death as they roll over the sinking
soul, then the astonishing sight of the judgment
seat of Christ, all rising and raging around a dying
bed, the affrighted sinner cannot settle the affairs of
the soul.
I was recently called to the bedside of a young
lady whom I had repeatedly urged to seek God, but
who had as often refused. And pressing my
familiar hand to her scorching forehead, calling her
by name and insisting that she would trust the
Savior, she said: "Too late now, too late now.
Once He would have saved me, but now He wont
notice me." " Now when ye call I will not answer."
"I will laugh at your calamity and mock when
your fears shall come upon you."
What a scene! What horrifying scenes! The
sinner, who once was too proud to call upon God,
now calls only to be mocked and laughed at by Him
who was mighty to save, did once so love him as to
give His life a ransom for him. A deathbed
repentance will have no more power to hold up a
sinking soul, than the fogs of the morning have to
hold up the falling millstone.
SOLID SHOT. 10;
Sinner, the voice of God regard,
'Tis Mercy speaks to-day,
He calls you by His sacred Word,
From sin's destructive way,
Stop I sinner, stop !
Why will you in the crooked ways
Of sin and folly go?
In vain you travel all your days,
To reap eternal woe,
Sinner, sinner, think!
Can you in endless torment dwell,
Shut up in black despair?
Your way is dark and leads to hell,
Why will you persevere?
What are you going to do, sinner?
What are you going to do ?
Something you must do, or
Something will be done to you.
Now God invites, how blessed the day,
How sweet the gospel charming sound
Come, sinner, hark! oh haste away,
While yet a pardoning God is found!
My dear friends, there is a gate that stands ajar,
but soon, ah, soon, approaching night will blot out
every hope of heaven !
Will you accept salvation now or wait till too late
— forever too late ?
I know you intend to be saved. Many who are
in hell intended the same. Hell is full of good
intentions to-night.
io8
SoliJd shot.
"Hasten, sinner, to be wise,
Stay not for to-morrow's sun,
Wisdom if you still despise,
Harder is it to be won."
Sinner, whatever may be your obligations,
nothing can be so important as your soul.
Will you settle that matter before you leave
this house ?
What security have you that you will not die
this night before the hands of the clock which
you are watching shall stand out twelve? Who
knows but that the sable wings of the dark
angel — Death — may shake in your face this night ?
Who knows but that God has decided that this
is the last night that this old earth shall stand
to disobey Him? And should the archangels
trump be heard from on high, —
"What would the wretch, the sinner, do
Who once defied his God.
Oh, he would dread the Thunderer now,
And sink beneath His word!"
God help you now to prepare for that awful
day.
DEAD SHOTS.
The Prodigal would n't steal. Boys, don't steal.
God has ordained that the negro who steals
shall be caught.
Pharaoh is the only king who monkeyed with
the devil till he got lousy. You don't think
you will ever get that low, do you ? Wei], you
have been running with the devil's hog a long
time, if you are not lousy now I don't know
why.
If you go among contagions you will catch the
complaint. If you want to be decent you must
change your company.
You are better known than yeu think for. That
girl sitting by you now, whom you think believes
109
no
DEAD SHOTS.
you to be a model young man, whose industry
and frugality is saving up a fortune, knows that
you spend one-third of your earnings for bad
liquor, one-third on bad women, and the other
third you take to buy second-handed clothes. You
think; but she knows who you are, secret as it is
kept. If she were to tell you her real of>inion of
you, you would never call there again.
Fathers, your children are not asleep every time
you quarrel with their mother, and they know
every time when you black her eye.
A deathbed repentance will have no more power
to hold up a sinking soul than the baseless air has
to hold up a falling millstone.
Why do you think God will save you on yoilr
deathbed when you have cursed Him all your
life? What good would you be if he should save
you ? You would be fit for nothing but to stink,
I am sure none but the devil could stand the scent.
You have served the devil now until many of
you stftik, arid I don't see who could stand yoUJE
carcass when you die.
DEAD SHOTS.
ill
Pharaoh was as great a dude as any of you
New Orleans dudes, but sin turned his silk derby
into a louse-cap.
Christ wants you before your character is ruined.
He don't want you to stay out there till the devil
has knocked a thousand holes in your character
and then have you join the church. People will
say you simply joined the church to raise your
"rep."
Nothing can be more unscriptural, more non¬
sensical, than the fallacy of deathbed repentance
which these modern-day jack-leg preachers are
parading. A doctrine which has no foundation
in Scripture or Revelation, insulting to God, mis¬
leading in its tendency, dangerous in the extreme,
and revolting to every dictate of reason and com¬
mon sense.
If God has not changed since the prophet wrote,
He will make it hot for these pigmies who are
afraid to name Christ to a sinner while he is well
and hearty; then, when the sinner gets down on
his deathbed, come creeping up behind him and
II2 DEAD SHOTS.
whisper in his ear: "Jesus sent me here to tell
you to make friends." Lying coward ! Jesus sent
him nowhere. But He will send you somewhere
if you don't be man enough to preach the truth.
What does he think Christ wants with an old
broken-down, weather-beaten, storm-swept, thunder-
stricken sinner, whom the devil has worked to
death and turned out to die? God would not be
thus compromised. Is God so poor that he must
take the devil's leavings ? Are the golden streets
of heaven to be lined with the devil's discardings ?
That would make God beholden to the devil, and
heaven hell's carrion-pile.
SOOTHING SONGS.
A COLLECTION OF SONGS.
Original and selected, as used by
REV. DR. SHERWOOB,
the negro evangelist, in his gospel meetings, adapted to
SUNDAY SCHOOL AND GOSPEL SERVICES.
^Qe-elicetlior)
[O Miss Maggie Arrington, whose faithful labor can n,ever
be forgotten; to sister Chaney Arrington, whose
kindness has shed many comforts on my pathway; to Rev.
Dr. W. G. Alexander, whose sweet voice will ring forth these
songs, gladdening many hearts; and last but not least, to my
sweet wife, this book is dedicated by the Author.
Price 35c. by mail. $25.00 per 1OO. $3.60 per doz.
$oli<i $l\ot $efie$.
SHERWOOD'S SOLID SHOT.
A collection of cutting sayings used by the negro
evangelist in his sermons, the wonderful effect
of which the world knows. Neatly bound for 25
cents.
SOLID SHOT SERMONS.
Six Select Sermons of the famous negro evan¬
gelist. Neatly bound in cloth, price $1.00;
paper, 60 cents. By mail, 65 cents.
SOOTHING SONGS.
A handsomely arranged collection of hymns and
choice music, almost entirely original, having never
appeared before in any form. By W. H. Sherwood,
the negro evangelist, and used by him in his evan¬
gelical meetings. Adapted to Sunday school, prayer
meeting, and devotional worship. Price 35 cents;
words only, 20 cents.
"These are charming songs. No Sunday school book can excel it. Every
piece is especially soul-touching. Let every Sunday school- and church choir get
them." M. COLLINS, Pastor Bethel A. M. E. Church, Leavenworth, K.ans.
"No book in the world contains more wholesome songs or sweeter music
than Dr. Sherwood's ' Soothing Songs.' They are the cream of his deeply musi¬
cal heart. Wherever they are heard, they will be appreciated and will move the
soul of the dullest man." Rev. J. B. WIMBLY, Ft. Smith, Ark.
Send Registered Letters or Postoffice Orders to
Rev. W. H. Sherwood, D.D., Monday Street,
Mobile, Ala.